THE GOODNESS OF GOD
By Todd Bentley

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Part 1

 

"He is the picture of health!" Just about everyone has heard that expression. Well, let this truth ring in your heart: God is the picture of goodness! He can't be anything else but good, and His goodness is directly connected to His mercy and love. Friends, once we have a revelation of the mercy and love of God we'll really begin to picture His goodness, and when we do we'll be the picture of health, ourselves, because we'll be reflecting His goodness!

GOD'S GOODNESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS

If there is one thing I know about my Father in heaven it's that He gives good gifts to His children. Not only good gifts, but abundantly above what we can ask or think (Eph. 3:20). God delights in mercy. He delights in releasing what I call "big stuff." He has always asked the body of Christ to dream big, because the destiny of God has always been above what we can ask or think. That's what the Bible declares-those who know their God shall carry out great exploits (Dan. 11:32). That's the kind of God He is-great exploits! What's more, He releases not only what we have need of, but He does it in abundance-12 baskets left over, 7 baskets left over (John 6:13; Mark 8:8).

In God it's always abundance! So let that truth resonate within you as we get into this teaching series. My hope and prayer is that as you go through The Goodness of God you will freely receive everything that Abba Father wants to give you through His Holy Spirit. I believe that God is going to set some of you free and bring you into the Father's love. You're going to experience freedom from rejection and that all-too-familiar feeling of being distant from God. What's more, some of you are going to receive your healing freely because you will know that God delights in mercy for you.

You see, we are talking about God's mercy and loving kindness all the days of our lives. It's about how He satisfies the mouth of the righteous with good things. And He always does this abundantly above what you can ask or even think. He is so willing and so eager; yearning to be good to you and to release His kindness in every need in your life, especially in the area of healing. See the willingness of Jesus, and know that just as he said "I am willing" to the leper, He is saying "I am willing" to you (see Matt. 8:2, 3).

SONSHIP MEANS RELATIONSHIP

Many people struggle with the idea of having enough faith or trying to find more principles of healing, or they just simply accept an attitude that says, "I'd like to be healed, but whatever! I know you are God and I'm not, so I'll settle for this (not being healed)." So often we seem to have that: I'll settle for this mentality.

Some even feel guilty because their sickness isn't as bad as Sue's over there; they feel guilty about even wanting the healing that they need. "How can You even want to bless and heal me when Sue is over there struggling with cancer? Lord, forgive me! I'm okay with whatever You have for me. God, You are sovereign; if You wanted me healed I'd be healed by now anyway. I'd like to be healed, but I'll settle for this." That's like having a "crumb mentality." "I'll take the crumbs from the table."

Listen! You and I are children of God-sons and daughters! We need to relate to God as His beloved! And I call that way of relating, that kind of relationship with God: sonship-"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' .." (Rom 8:15, RSV).


THE FATHER'S LOVE SETS US FREE

Friends, I want to emphasize "Abba Father" and the Father's love. We need to be able to relate to God as Daddy. The most intimate term. It's the most intimate word you can find for God in the Bible -Abba Father-Daddy. I remember that I began to get a revelation of this when I realized that I could come boldly before the throne of grace based on the intimate love of my Father in heaven. His love began to set me free. I began to see that what kept the prodigal son and his older brother from receiving the goodness and the treasure of the kingdom of heaven was their lack of a revelation of their father's love.

Here's an illustration of His love and goodness. When He sees you pressing into Him with all your might He's going to show Himself strong on your behalf (2 Chron. 16:9). It's because of His goodness! His goodness causes Him to look for someone, anyone who loves Him, so that He can bless them. That someone might as well be you! His eyes are running to and fro throughout the whole earth looking! Talk about the eagerness of God! Right now, He is looking over the "balcony of heaven" saying, "I want to bless somebody! I want to give somebody mercy! I want to be moved to compassion! I want to begin to release My love right now! I want to release the Father's love!"


JESUS CHRIST-MERCY AND COMPASSION PERSONIFIED

Is your heart completely and utterly His? I sure hope so because He delights in mercy, He delights in blessing you, He is eager, yearning, filled with kindness above what you can ask or think. You're His child and He gives good gifts to His children. He is merciful. The Father sent us His Son, Jesus Christ and because of His mercy, He forgives our sin. And His mercy is about His compassion for us. In Strong's Exhaustive Concordance [#1653 and #1656] the word mercy, it is translated from Greek as compassion. Mercy and compassion are interchangeable.

He is always moved by mercy and compassion to heal. In Bible days, the sick people knew this. Some of them would come to Jesus, asking for mercy in terms of their healing. When two blind men came to Him, they cried out: "Son of David have mercy on us! (Matt. 9:27). And, being moved by mercy and compassion He healed them, saying: "According to your faith let it be to you" (V. 29).

What's more, when Jesus saw their faith, He also saw their hearts acknowledging Him not only as the Son of David, the One who forgives their sins, but also as the One who is mercy and compassion personified, always willing to release healing. Ponder that, because so often Christians only think of Jesus in terms of forgiveness of sins. As born-again believers we know our sins are forgiven, but so often many of us have difficulty understanding Him as the Healer.

The fact is, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8) and just as He was willing to heal in Bible days, He is willing today. I've said this before, but it is well worth repeating: "The Lord is willing!" All we have to do is look at the story in Matthew Chapter 8 about the leper- "And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' Immediately his leprosy was cleansed" (vv. 2, 3).


THE FATHER LOVES YOU AS HE HAS LOVED JESUS

Listen! You're a beloved child of a loving heavenly Father. Did you know that the Father loves you with the exact same love that He loved Jesus?-"I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:23, emphasis mine).

On top of that, He made you a joint heir (Rom. 8:17). Joint, equal. And He made you to sit in heavenly places with Him (Eph. 1:3, 20; 2:6). Think about that as a son or a daughter. Do you think there was ever a time when our heavenly Father didn't listen to Jesus? Think about that too, when you pray. Is your heavenly Father going to turn a deaf ear to you? No! So we need to behave like sons and daughters.

Before Part One comes to a close I want you to begin to ask, seek and knock. The Father in heaven loves you and He wants to do abundantly above anything you can ask or think. He wants to satisfy your mouth with good things; and so just say to Him: "God you delight in mercy." Begin to receive it-"God, I begin to receive your love; I begin to receive your mercy and your goodness."

Just allow this truth-the Father loves you as He loves Jesus-to bring rest to your soul. Look at how David postured himself before the Lord and, like David, place all your hope in the Lord:

"LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forever" (Ps. 131:2, 3).

For you are never forgotten by the Lord. He has a picture of you in full view all the time, and He knows where you live!-". . . I will not forget you. Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me" (Is. 49:15b, 16).

Let the revelation of how special you are to the Lord join with truth about the goodness of God as you prepare your heart for Part Two. Next week, we're going to look at a few more aspects of God's goodness and how Jesus wants to extend Himself through you so that His goodness reaches those who need it most.

Todd Bentley