No one is exempt from God’s rule. There isn’t a god for Christians and then a Muslim god and a Hindu god. Only one God rules over all. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11). There is no other way to God (John 14:6 and Acts 4:12).
The message that Jesus brought was, “You don’t have to look forward anymore. The kingdom is here now.” This is what John preached, and it is what set both John’s and Jesus’ teaching apart from the Pharisees and scribes. They were saying “Now is the time,” and Jesus demonstrated it in a way that no one ever had before. Today the religious system is always talking about some great move of God in the past or one that is coming, but they aren’t living in any power now. Those who will be bold enough to preach this message that Jesus commanded about the kingdom being now, will see supernatural manifestations of God’s power and be much more effective in their Gospel presentation.
Real salvation is not merely forgiveness of sins or the mere cleansing of the heart from sin's power or the nominal baptism of life in the Holy Spirit. Christ's salvation is intended to bring again into the nature of man that was lost through sin, that once again through the Divine operation of the Spirit of God ministered to our hearts by Jesus Christ his overcoming son the Divine Spirit and Holy Dominion that rules in the soul of Jesus should rule in the nature of man. Thus Once More by the grace of God man takes his place before God in the state and status in which God created him in the beginning..
God had delegated the power over the earth to mankind in the beginning (Genesis 1:26-28; Psalms 8:4-8, and 115:16). When man disobeyed God (Genesis 3:1-6), that power was delivered to Satan (Luke 4:6). Therefore, the Lord did not have absolute control over the earth and its affairs. When Jesus died, He descended into hell (Psalms 16:10 with Acts 2:31, and Ephesians 4:8-10) and stripped Satan of all his power (Revelation 1:18). Now, God once again has all power in heaven and earth.
The reason we can go into all the world and share the Gospel is because Jesus now has all power in heaven and earth. As His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), we have that power too.
Notice that teaching was mentioned twice in this commission. We have not been commanded to proclaim only, but we are also supposed to explain and provide training. This is the cornerstone of Jesus’ plan of evangelization.
As I mentioned in my note at Matthew 28:19, discipleship is what Jesus instructed us to do. This verse amplifies that by saying we are to instruct people to observe all the things Jesus commanded. Most people who receive salvation through evangelistic crusades remain basically ignorant of the truths of God’s Word. This is a huge task that none of us can fulfill on our own. So, the Lord assures us He will be with us always. Praise God! The Lord supernaturally enables us to make disciples. Notice that we have to be taught. Christian maturity doesn’t come automatically or as we just do our own thing. What would happen if our education was just left up to each individual? That would produce about the same situation we see in the body of Christ today, where a few excel and the majority are ignorant. Discipleship is the missing ingredient in most Christians’ lives.
This verse makes it very clear that healing people is doing good. Therefore, leaving them sick would be doing evil, especially if we had been given the power to heal. Notice also that these sick people were oppressed of the devil, not of God. Religion teaches today that God puts sickness on people to work some positive result in their lives. That’s not what the Bible teaches. All sickness has its root in Satan and his influence. But some sickness is simply a result of living in a fallen world, while other sickness is a direct demonic influence. There are 10 times in the Gospels where Jesus cast demons out of people to heal them.
In the same command that Jesus told His disciples to preach the Gospel, He also commanded them to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils. It’s amazing how the religious church has chosen to preach the Gospel but has neglected these other commands.
The truth is that they haven’t even preached the true Gospel, or there would have been miraculous healings and deliverances too. In Acts 4:29-30, the disciples prayed and asked the Lord to speak the Gospel through them by stretching forth His hand to heal through them. God will always confirm the true preaching of the Gospel through signs and miracles (Mark 16:20).
Everything in the word of God that was ever possible to the Lord Jesus Christ is likewise possible to You the Christian. God never meant to establish Christians on one plane and Christ on another. He purposed by God's grace and by the Holy Spirit to come into our heart to lift us up, to develop us and bring us up into God Until We Stand Together on Christ's plain. Not Christ coming down to our debased state but our debased condition giving way to the Divine operation of the Holy Spirit in our life until we stand exalted in the Lord Jesus Christ as Christ conquerors and Christ revealers.
Before Jesus performed miracles, He preached the Word, telling people to repent and believe. When Jesus said “The kingdom of God is at hand,” He was saying that the kingdom of God is now. The wait is over. They didn’t need to pray for God’s kingdom to come anymore. It is here, now. They could reach out and touch it or grab it in their hands.
The Message translates this as “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” This was a radical message. The Jews had been seeking and waiting on God’s kingdom to come for centuries. Likewise, the church today is always seeking for a new outpouring of God’s power. The radical truth is it’s already here.
Jesus released His power to the church on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), and He’s never taken it back. The kingdom is already within us (Luke 17:20-21). The kingdom is at hand; i.e., it’s now. We already have it. It’s not a matter of begging God for more, but a recognition of what we already have and learning how to release it. Hallelujah!
There is a human faith that is limited to believing only what we can perceive through our five senses, but the supernatural, God-kind of faith goes beyond what we can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. God’s kind of faith calls those things that be not as though they already were (Romans 4:17, see note 16 at Romans 12:3).
God has dealt to every person “the” measure of faith, not “a” measure of faith. There are not different measures with God. The Lord doesn’t give one person great faith while another person is given small faith. We were all given an equal amount of faith at salvation. The problem is not that we don’t have faith, but rather we don’t know how to use our faith, because of a lack of renewing our minds. Peter said we had “like precious faith” with him (2 Peter 1:1). The same faith that he used to raise Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-42) is in us too. The same faith that Peter used is the same faith that we have.