Seek the healer, NOT the healing!

Lord, because you open up, being us, Father, the dust of the earth. But we love you Lord and we feel your love. Lord, we feel your caresses, we feel your care, we feel your love, we feel your smile, we feel your presence.

Father, be the reason that brought us here, above all we love this: to be close to You, to know that Your eye rests on us, on our hearts to feel Your hand, Lord, on our lives and there is nothing that compares, Master.

Delight yourself in this moment, Master, that it be a delight for You, that it pleases You, that Your Father's heart is pleased, Lord.

"We love you Jesus, because you've allowed us to love you; because you've let us love you, because you've let the Lord know that we love you." Thank you, Father, for allowing us the privilege of loving you, of loving you Lord, of loving you Master.

My brethren, in this same spirit I ask that you please open your Bibles in this same reverence. That is almost entirely consistent with even what we just sang: Psalm 63.

My brothers, every day more and more I marvel at the way in which the Holy Spirit directs this Church and directs these moments; in particular on Wednesdays, and by the way is there anybody in the house with Spanish challenge tonight?, that's all right or so am I, so I'm in good company but I'm gonna try to be merciful and I'll play bilingual for you. We're reading at Psalm 63.

And my brothers, as I find myself explaining so many times, brothers, I promise Pastor Omar and I do not mix. We didn't talk about what he was going to share, I didn't know what the Lord had given him like, well I'm sure he didn't even know what the Lord gave him as a topic of intersection, or the signs that the Lord gave him. But this last chorus that we just sang, the lyrics are found here in Psalm 63. Psalm 63. Amen.

We are reading at Psalm 63 and the lyrics, actually, even, of the song we just had appeared in the Psalm and in a minute we'll see why. O Jesus! We just love to linger in your presence. Now, Master, more than ever. I invite you Spirit of God to hover and just sweep in for a dive. Spirit of God penetrate my heart and soul isolating target, our deepest needs and your grace and your mercy reach it and change us Master into what you have for us, in Jesus name.

Master, Spirit of God like never again in this service, above all we want Your Spirit, Lord, now to penetrate our minds, our hearts, breathe on this word, enliven it, find the target within our soul that most needs Your presence to be registered and there touch us

There transform us, there heal us, we ask you in the name of Jesus. Amen. And declare this Psalm God, my God is You. Oh god! You're my God. Earnestly I seek you at dawn I will look for you…

In fact if you're reading in English, could you just follow from verse 1 to verse 8 and I'll be reading that in Spanish. Amen. Tell me if this is you tonight. Tell me if this is You tonight. God.

“My God, it is You, at dawn I will look for you -everyone say: I will look, at dawn, I will look for you.

My soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You, in dry and arid land where there is no water to see your power and your glory just as I have looked at you in the sanctuary. Because your mercy is better than life. My lips will praise you, so I will bless you in my life. In your name I will lift up my hands, my soul will be satisfied with fatness and fatness, and my mouth will praise you with jubilant lips. When I remember You in my bed, when I meditate on You in the vigils of the night.

Because you have been my help and so in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice. My soul is attached to You. Your right hand upholds me."

In the name of Jesus. Doesn't it that song just suck the wind out of your lungs? What does the Lord tell you? Isn't that a mirror to your soul tonight? And the key to all this, brothers, the key to this Psalm is that precise word and I will concentrate on that word tonight. "Buscar" 'To seek'.

A few weeks ago the Pastor, at the conclusion of Ron Kenoly's ministry, the Pastor announced that we were going to have what I still understood was perhaps a concert with Sister LaDonna Taylor. Ron Kenoly ministered here on September 20th, Sunday before last and as blessed as that was and has marveled us as the Lord blessed us and ministered to us, through his ministry I'm not even going there.

That evening the Pastor did something incredible and after ten hours of worship and praise training and the Pastor and I worshiped till 11 pm the night before and then two services of Ron Kenoly, the Pastor did something unthinkable. He said '730 tonight we're gonna have Sister Latana Taylor this classical violinist play for us, tonight'. I thought: 'I'm coming because you say so. Hey man! But I won't have Pastor. Oh yeah!’

I come Pastor, but Amen in the name of Jesus, I expected a concert, but almost from the first minute that she arrived very early at night, this turned into this: that the power of God ministered to us in a phenomenal way , she is a prophetic instrument literally, not her violin, her, in many ways. She is a prophetic dazzle in many ways. Eccentric, that's for sure.

It's unique. But there are so many profits. But of all of the things that happened that evening the Lord just moved us in such and I have to be honest, in my life in God's presence I've never seen anything quite like that. It was odd and beautiful and prophetic and holy. And the only thing that I remember that she said that stuck with me…

The only thing I remember that she said that stayed with me was this phrase, at that moment I told myself, that's a good word and I'm going to meditate on it.

But look, that word came to life, look, a little phrase that she said, shared and that kept working for me, and it kept working for me. And I said: 'The next time the Lord gives me the opportunity to share in this Wednesday context, I will share what this servant of God shared.'

A very simple phrase, while she ministered…of all of the things that she said the only thing that I actually remember and did, the only phrase I actually remember is this one little phrase, the moment I thought ‘That’s a good word’. The Lord just spoke through her and I left it there but I cannot get rid of it. It worked in my head and continued to work in my head still.

And it is this word: "Seek the Healer and not the healing."

She said this: ‘The people who are up seeking healing specifically -she dared to say to them- seek the Healer and not the healing.

Brothers, preparing this message I translated what she said, as if I softened it a bit automatically, I translated it like this: Seek the healer before the healing, or look for the healer before the healing. And the Holy Spirit confronted me and said, "Don't you dare. That's not what she said. Say what you heard."

'Say what she said I was very tempted -even in English to be off translating- to soften it and that's a dangerous place for any prophetic vessel and right now I'm standing in God's presence and I have to offer him account. It's His word not mine. And he says while I'm…I was about to translate this: 'Seek the Healer before the healing' and the Spirit of God said: 'That's not what I said. I said: Seek the Healer and not the healing.

For more and brothers, I admit, that, she said the first thing that is even stronger, more violent, more indigestible. That's an indigestible thing to almost say to people. We're in the house of God seeking healing. Indigestible to a people who are here precisely and legitimately looking for healing.

How dare I share that? But look, the Lord worked me more and more and more.

Seek the healer and not the healing.

Seek the Healer and NOT and not the healing. And no matter how hard the Lord worked for me, the Lord clarified to me: “Samuel, this is not a point, it is 'THE' point. The Lord more and more saying 'Sam, this isn't just a point, it is THE point'. It is making the difference between the way the gospel is being preached with authority and the way the gospel is being preached in some other places.

It is the difference between the Gospel that your soul craves, genuine with authority. Ironically the Gospel that has the authority to heal you has to be expressed like this. It is the challenge that the Lord gives you tonight. It is the challenge that the Lord gives me, beginning with me; because for something the Lord worked this for me. Why is this so important?

Brothers, what happens when we seek healing and not the healer? Or even when we seek healing before the healer. Or we seek healing through the healer. Translate it however you translate it, we're going to end up in the same place.

Translate this however you want to translate it because it doesn't get any softer in English. What happens when you seek healing before the healer? What happens when you seek the healing through the healer? What happens when you seek the healing through -and am just going to repeat myself- what happens? Do you know what happens? At least three things.

Three things happen I guarantee you. First of all, God is just one more option to reach your true goal. God is a means to an end and not the end; that is one of the results. He becomes one more option, just one more option in order for you to get what he really wants.

My brothers, an obvious expression for me, in our Latin countries we have centuries of experience in this, in our Latin countries even today, even in today's modernity, in many places if our people in this village do not find what that they need through the gospel, through the Church; they look for him in the santeria. They look for it in Voodoo, they look for it in humanism, they look for it wherever they want.

What I need is this, this answer, this result, this liberation, this situation. What I am looking for is this and I will continue looking and we are capable. Haven't you seen it in many of our countries? This is just an example.

It's just one example but in many of our nations we come from a land where syncretism is the norm, where focus show up to mass on Sunday morning and though ask their priest for a blessing. But that night if the lady with the white outfit who smokes cigars can give… if I can give my way this way I'm going to get my way this way and if I can't get it this way, I'm going to get it this other way. But I'm going to have my way and if the Shaddai can help me awesome! But if anybody else can help me that's good for me too. If Shaddai can bless me, I will worship Shaddai. But the idea is to find my goal.

Brothers, your goal may be, brother, I'm not attacking your goal, there are serious needs here. Needs for wisdom, needs for deliverance, needs for physical healing, needs for marriages that are about to fall apart.

There are some serious needs and I'm not knocking the needs, God is not knocking the needs. There are marriages that God needs to heal and bodies that God needs to restore and heal. There's confusion that God needs to clear up, there's oppression that God needs to clear. There are needs. God's challenged you to seek the healer, even before you've been there asking for those needs.

Do you know why? I said there were at least three reasons. The second reason is this, it is more likely to compromise; that you compromise your relationship with God if you are only looking for the healing and not the healer because God is not your goal. You are only using God.

Another reason why you want to seek the healer and not the healing, another reason that's bad is that you're more likely if you're going to compromise your relationship with God, you're more likely to do it if you're just seeking something other, getting something other; you're just using him.

Brother, one doesn't need to be a spiritual genius to know how this feels. Imagine yourself in the place of God. Don't you know? When your fourteen or fifteen, sixteen year old son just got his driver's license, at the moment you see him washing the dishes and mowing the grass and behaving better than ever, how sad that the first instinct of many parents is that , "what is this boy up to?"

Is it not something your 16-year-old who just got his driving permit, right? All of the sudden he doesn't move a muscle at home but, Lord! One day the dishes are washed, he's mowing the lawn and he's offering to paint the shed! And unfortunately, the first thing that comes to your mind is, 'what does this kid want?' You know he's after something. Well look, if that's you, don't you think God knows the difference too?

Don't you think God sees that? Don't you think God notices when one asks: 'How much, Pastor, can I...? It is that one does not dare to ask that, that would be sincerity, how much can I sin and still reach my goal?

Just how much sin can I get away with and still see, you know, the pearly gates? How much can I get away with? You know? And that brings us to the state of the gospel itself.

And that brings us to the state of the gospel itself. And I think that's one of the things that God regrets the most about this.

What happens when we seek the healer and not the healing? The Gospel itself, the preaching of the Gospel becomes a product. A product that is sold in a market of social ideas, one more product, that is. There are people who have written their doctorates about the state of the postmodern world and one of the things that qualifies the postmodern world is that, you know, if the Gospel of Jesus Christ can convince you, if I can say to you: Yes, God is a God who meets your needs. He is a healing God, he is a powerful God, treat us.

Try it. Come on, share this and we know that we are competing with other truths and supposedly equally legitimate. You end up in a situation where you preach in the gospel and you're selling an item: the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes a product that is for sale on an open market of ideas and because you're concerned about your customers, meaning you , we are very cautious about the gospel that we preach.

There's certain chapters scripture that are not read in the churches... in some... even evangelical churches of this city would not preach out of certain books out of the Bible. Would not preach certain truths. They warn you, just you know? Pastor you will bring the word here not all? They're seekers. Seekers. My question is this: who are you seeking? What are you seeking? What's being sought? Are you seeking the healing? Or you're seeking the healer? Are you a seeker?

Are you a seeker? What are you looking for? The healer or the healing?

Now that sounds strong, but do you know why I say it like that, so strong? And, my brothers, first the Lord had to challenge me. Before sharing this word the Lord, I don't know how many times since I heard that word until tonight the Lord asked me, What are you doing today Samuel? What is your goal today, the Healer or the healing?

Believe me, the Lord has confronted me. What is your goal Sam: the healer or the healing? And you know why? Do you know why it is so important?

Brothers, and maybe this is not going to make you more comfortable. This I do tell you if you seek the healer rather than seek healing, you will get what you need, you will get more than what you need. If you seek the healer rather than the healing the Lord is going to lead you to what you need, though it is not what you are looking for, even if it is not the result that you have asked the Lord for.

The Lord is going to lead you to what you need even if it's not what you want, even if it's not what you asked for, even if it's not what you expected. And there's a one good reason for this because the healer is life itself and you seek him and you've found him. You've just found life and maybe for the first time in your entire existence you will actually be alive! Just as I intended.

Seek, brother, the Healer and not the Healing even if it denies you what you are looking for. And I am not saying that He will do it, but He is capable of doing it, precisely because He is interested in giving you what you need most, because the healer is himself, he incorporates. He is the life, He is the resurrection. You look for Him and you turn out, you will leave his presence more alive than in your entire existence.

The Lord is glorified, look brother, if you have felt like this, 'Pastor Samuel, I have asked the Lord and he has denied me and once again I asked him and he has denied it, could it be that he does not love me? who does not listen to me?, what do I do to move the hand of God in this sense?

You know, there are many heroes of the word that can accompany you including the apostle Paul who was where you are.

The Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians tells him: “Do you know? I understand you, I asked the Lord for something three times. I asked the Lord three times to take away this sting, which makes my life impossible. He told me 'no' three times and the last time he told me: 'Sufficient in my grace because my power... what? Does he perfect himself through his victories? No, my power is perfected through your weakness.

Do you feel like that sometimes? ‘Pastor Sam, I don’t know what is going to take to make God to move his hand? I ask him over and over again. He knows that this is a good thing. He knows that it's a desire of my heart. He knows that this will be a victory. He knows that this will glorify the Lord. Why does he keep saying 'no'?

And the Apostle Paul said: 'I've been there. I asked God three times for a specific need. This guy who has seen the hand of God move in indescribable ways and the Lord says 'Be at peace, my brother. Just take hope in my grace, my strength is made perfect in your weaknesses.'

Brothers, my dad, for going there, this is an example of this, my dad since I was nine years old, I think the event that most marked my dad's relationship with my family was one night one February years ago, in which he went blind overnight at thirty-five years of age.

It was not even something gradual like glaucoma, we are talking about the fact that he saw perfectly well at nine at night and by seven in the morning due to this attack that almost killed him he woke up blind, and he has remained blind for almost forty years. And be careful that we pray for him, and be careful that many have prayed for him, and be careful that he has asked the Lord for his sight.

The only thing I know is this, from that moment daddy pastored three churches, all of them he planted, all of them are going well with their Pastors. Since he became blind, two of the Pastors who followed him in different Ministries are now superintendents of different districts of the Assembly of God.

They pastor hundreds of Churches. Papi did what he never did watching. Papi had a radio ministry, Papi traveled to Mexico and all over the United States. God used and I don't want to imagine, what would have happened to him? From your ministry? From our home? Frankly, from your marriage? Of my relationship with him? I don't know. What I know is that God has glorified himself in him.

He's alive and ignited. My father-it's been almost 37 years since overnight he lost his sight to bring him to an aneurism.

A man of God. He's asked God over and over again 'I would love my sight back'. Since then the man has planted 4 churches, the man has had an apostolic calling raising up. The people who'd followed him in ministry ended up being superintendents of different districts of the Assemblies of God. The man started a radio ministry. I don't know where his life, our lives, his marriage, his ministry, where would that be? If God had given him the healing rather than giving him himself.

And that's the other point, brother. When we have the healer and we worry about the healer before the healing… Are you guys still with me? When we worry about the healer rather than the healing…

Brother, you care more about the relationship than the results. You care much more about the relationship than about the results. You will live the Christian life, stop sinning, or serve in a ministry, forgive an offense or... Because you want, not because you want Santa Claus to have mercy on you and give you the toy that you have been looking for the most and to appear under the tree. But because you love God and you want to please him and you don't want to offend him.

Reprogram your whole way of seeing God. Every program, when you see the healer rather than the healing, everything you do in the kingdom whether it's you know, your decision to sin or not to sin, your decision to serve in any capacity. I don't care if it's handing somebody a glass of water. Don't you think God knows why you did that? What was in your heart? What was the goal? What were you after? What did you want? He sees that and in your heart you care much more about the relationship than about the results.

Do you know why that is important, my brothers? Believe more, worry more about the relationship and not about the results, because and that's because the Lord emphasized to me and said: 'Samuel this is THE point. That is the root of all sin and all temptation'

This is the root of every temptation and of every sin.

You know why? As long as you are focused, concerned about the healing, the goal, your true goal and not the Healer... the enemy one of these days is going to tell you -while you are frustratingly looking for what is yours, the enemy is going to say: 'But why are you killing yourself so much, boy? I have a shortcut for you here. Isn't this what you're looking for? And God, this God who loves you and whom you serve, has he answered you?' 'How's that going?' How are you doing?

Like a bumper sticker I read today: ‘How does that hope can change working out for you?’

The enemy is going to ask you, how is your hope in God working out for you? Boy, if there is, there is a shortcut, here is a shortcut, don't kill yourself so much. I only ask you, I give you all this if you will only kneel down and adore me. Just I'll give you everything...

If he dares to tell him that, see if Satan dares to make that offer to Jesus, the Messiah, you are not excepted, brother.

If Satan can get in Jesus, his face, and give Jesus –this is Jesus, the baptized Jesus: ‘This is my beloved son and who am I pleased”. That Jesus, Satan got in his face and said: 'I can do it. I'll give you a shortcut. All you need to do is just take a second and just between us and don't mean a thing. I will give you anything you need. No cross involved, no humiliation involved. Not without involved. Sin is a nasty thing, isn't it Jesus? Not without.

Knows? And this brings us back to Latana, over and over again Ron Kenoly declared, The Father, Jesus declared: 'The Father seeks worshipers, seek him, worship him in spirit and in truth.'

I want to tell you something brothers: He is not the only one looking for worshipers.

He's not the only one. The Father seeks worshippers that worship him in spirit and truth. Let me tell you something. The Father is not the only one seeking worshipers. Someone is after your heart. Someone is after your heart. My brothers, you give your heart to the Healer and everything else will come to you in addition. His mercy is better than life, yes my brother.

Let's stand up.

Tonight under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, without any combination with me, Pastor Omar directed by the Holy Spirit did something that is rarely done here, there was no intersection. Not because we spoke to each other, this was the Holy Spirit working on me, working on him and working on their lives. If it were for that nothing else, brothers I urge you, receive this word.

I urge you, receive this word.

Knowing that for many, if we think about it, this is a difficult word, because in their hearts they desperately need something from the Lord. And the Lord promises you: 'I give you more than what you ask of me. I give you the keys to the Kingdom, I give you more than you can imagine. But look for me.

I know that you have needs, this is a hard word, this is a hard word, this is a hard word because you're here because there are things that you definitely need desperately. But the Lord is telling you: 'Listen, I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I am the Resurrection, I am the life. I am your creator, I know what you need. Seek me and live. Seek me and live.'

Lower your face, look for it.

Lord, in a mysterious way, now Lord, we allow this invisible transaction, especially in hearts that come with the most desperate need, we want something from you.

We came because we want something from you, we came because you are the only one who can give it to us, we came because only you have the word of life. Now Lord we leave our need as an offering here at the altar and we choose you. We dethrone even our need and put YOU on the throne of our hearts.

You will be our God.

God, my God is You.

I will look for you, I will look for you

You are my God not my need.

You are my God, you are my God.

I thirst for you.

My body longs for you, my soul longs for you.

My reason for existence lies in you.

My past has no meaning, I have no future unless it is through you and if I find you I have all that I need.

Father, that is our prayer, that is our declaration. Lord, tonight Satan loses authority and Father we declare in our hearts: You and only You will be ours, our goal, our search, our love, our longing, our agenda. You and only you.

"Christ only Christ, I will adore,

Christ only Christ, I will exalt,

Christ only Christ, I will adore,

Christ only Christ, I will exalt.

Because it has given me victory,

Because it has given me the power,

Because it has given me victory,

He is my king.

I have proclaimed Christ King

Because He has given me eternal life,

because it has given me the power

Because He has given me victory,

He is my king

I have proclaimed Christ King

I have proclaimed Christ King

We adore you King.

We worship you King.”

We give you all our adoration, we give you all our adoration. We promise to seek you, it is your right hand that sustains us, Lord, it is your right hand that sustains us. You are our help Lord.

You are King, Master. And now Father, take us Lord in peace to our homes, homes that You, Lord, have provided for our lives. I ask that You, Lord, fill each one of those spaces, with Your Spirit, with Your protection and with Your power.

In the name of Jesus. Amen. Glory to God!