My dear bro. Joe,

Thanks for writing and telling me of your sorrow. I hurt for you. The healing you speak of as an impossibility is only in the realm of the temporal, for soon all of us will pass out of these temporary confines. Know this: Satan has NOT won a victory over any child of God! Your wife is no exception! Do not believe what your eyes may have told you because the healing of Christ is true and does not end! The exterior may fall apart and be extinguished but the real person of the heart does not pass away in Christ.

Love, Jim Minker

I differ with you about Satan versus the saints. He is kicking our butts Jim , our church people are experiencing all the same problems as the unsaved. Statistics show we are nearly equal. But where you and I differ is --in many places in scripture there are warnings-to the saints---to watch out---be sober minded Joe

Hello Joe, my friend, I mean what I write for your good, not as an argument.

The statistics you speak of are merely measurements of man. There is no doubt they will indicate problems and failure. The fact that we base our understanding of Satan's power by such a measuring stick is the very reason our church people experience these same problems! The FACT that the Bible DOES contain these WARNINGS should cause us to pay attention to what it is they are referring to. "Sober-minded" is an excellent piece of advice because it refers to the ONE and ONLY sane wisdom in the whole universe: the mind of Christ! Why would the apostles have wanted the believers to be sober-minded? Because the prince of the power of the air wants us to view ourselves according to our circumstances and our failures - simply stated, according to the flesh! To understand the freedom of Christ is to become sober-minded because it is then that we stop trusting in our performance or our abilities when all the world around us - including, or especially, the religious world - is telling us to see ourselves according to what we THINK we are, instead of what we REALLY are because of the finished work of Christ!

For I determined to know NOTHING among you EXCEPT Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2

That is what it is to be "sober-minded" and to be "on guard". These are Paul's words to the Corinthians, the church that received the longest of his letters (two of them) where he brought up MANY of the failures that had been taking place among them. And yet he opened the first letter telling them that he had already made the determination to know NOTHING BUT CHRIST among them! And he told them to "Be like ME!"

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

Once again, in the middle of the 2nd letter, Paul brings these messed up, whacked out believers to the reality of Christ as being THE ONLY TRUE & SANE VIEWPOINT. To know NO MAN AFTER THE FLESH! Forget the statistics that insist to you that Christ has NOT changed EVERYTHING! He HAS. Convince your church of the power of the resurrected life and you will see a miraculous reality that will begin to emerge out of the seeming defeat. Be sober-minded, don't let the decay and weakness of the physical body cause you to question the very righteousness of God that has been put within you through the Spirit of Christ! Don't let what SEEMS TO BE tell you what you ARE in Christ.

Love, Jim Minker