Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

Daily Encouragement for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek

20 February 2025

Reading From Mark 2

“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

 –Mark 2:1-5

     For the paralyzed man, the need most obvious to any of his neighbors was for physical healing.  But the primary concern of Jesus was his spiritual healing, the salvation of his soul.  This spiritual healing begins by grace through faith in Christ at the very core of our being and radiates out into every area of our lives.  It is a gradual process that starts with the new birth experience when a person decides to put their faith and trust in Jesus, forsaking their old life of sin.  Jesus saw the faith in action of the paralytic man and his friends.  Salvation is by grace through faith and those who have genuine faith will put it into action.

     That inner spiritual baptism is the same experience for all of us, though how each of us comes to know Christ is unique and our emotional reactions to it are our own.  Similarly, every believer sets out on a journey to become more like Jesus, deepening their understanding of the Word of God and growing in love and holiness.  This journey looks different for all of us as the same God unites us with His Spirit and works in our unique, individual lives.  There’s never been another person exactly like you and God meets you wherever you’re at in your life and takes you forward in faith from that point of divine contact.

     For the paralytic man in Mark 2, Jesus healed him spiritually and then healed him physically.  Spiritual and physical healing will happen for ever single believer, it is just a matter of when and how the Lord sovereignly chooses to do it.  Just as our experiences with spiritual healing differ in how it works out into every area of our lives, physically healing happens differently for each of us too. 

Some are instantaneously healed with a miraculous touch from the Lord in answer to believing prayer.  There are also natural healing processes that our Creator built into all living creatures.  He also enables our bodies to react to medicines and treatments and blesses medical scientists, surgeons, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals with knowledge and wisdom.  My prayer is that they use the knowledge and wisdom God gives them ethically and in ways that honor Him.

     What our journeys with our Divine Healer have in common with every born again believer throughout all time and space is that the culmination of spiritual and physical healing will be the resurrection of our physical bodies, their reunification with our spirits on the Last Day and our exaltation to be with Heavenly Father in our glorified bodies.  There we will enjoy perfect health and be with the Lord forever.  Faith, hope and love will carry us into our forever home in the eternal family of God.

“God, I am so grateful for the healing that You bring to our lives.  One day You will restore me to the perfect version of myself, completely liberated from the corrosive effects of sin.  Thank You for bringing me along in the process of sanctification from being born again to when I meet You face to face.  Enlighten my understanding of the spiritual blessings You have given me in the heavenly realms and how they can be enjoyed here and now.  In the wonderful Name of Jesus Christ I pray these things.  Amen.”

“Truly, today you will be with me in paradise.” –Luke 23:43

“To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” –II Corinthians 5:8

“Your dead will live, Lord…their bodies will rise.” –Isaiah 26:19

“He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.” –Romans 8:11

“So it will be with the resurrection of the dead.  The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.  If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body…Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”

–I Corinthians 15:42-44, 51-53

“But our citizenship is in Heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”

 –Philippians 3:20-21

“For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”—Matthew 23:12

“Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” –II Peter 1:4