healing

October 2, 2013

God Wants to Heal through You

The Lord wants to use us to communicate His message, to impart His love, to extend His forgiveness, and to minister His healing power. Heavenly Father wants your help. He wants to use you to bring His healing power to this generation. God wants His healing power to flow through you.

Jesus’ ministry on earth was characterized by teaching, preaching, and healing. Matthew summarizes Jesus’ earthly ministry as, “teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (Matthew 4:23b NIV) Jesus Christ is the ultimate example for a Christ-follower, so we should have a lifestyle and ministry that reflect His. Am I reflecting His example? Not all believers will be full-time paid pastors or traveling healing evangelists, but every Christ follower should have a part in proclaiming the Gospel and in healing ministry.

Are you willing to let the healing power of the Lord flow through you?

There are several steps I recommend to so anyone who would surrender to be a channel for God’s glory. The first step toward releasing healing ministry involves a healthy relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Love flows as a result of an intimate bond with Christ. Compassion and the gifts of the Spirit flow should flow naturally out of a personal connection with God.

The second prerequisite is personal communication with the Lord. Talking and listening to God is not optional; it is vital. Prayer is indispensable for spiritual strength.

A third important step is immersion in the Word of God. Reading, studying, and meditating the Bible transforms thinking patterns and prepares the way for signs and wonders.

Experience in actually praying for someone is the next step. With each step of faith, expectancy is likely to grow.

Some people benefit from being mentored by another believer who is active in the healing ministry. Connect with a pastor or elder (or another Godly minister who regularly ministers healing) and accompany the pastor or elder during healing ministry (while visiting in a home or hospital, or while in a service). This exposure to the healing ministry will encourage you and give you insight. Encouragement and teaching also inspires confidence to operate in the healing ministry.

Because the Lord forgives, redeems, loves, and empowers, believers should expect to have some type of healing ministry. The Holy Spirit prepares and gifts people for ministry. The Bible demonstrates various means whereby healing is administered, and I expect the Lord to continue His kingdom demonstration with healing. As a pastor, I may not be able to clarify every difficulty surrounding sickness and healing, but I can believe God and step out in faith.

October 1, 2013

The Holy Spirit and Healing

The Lord still heals today. On many occasions, I have felt led to minister healing to individuals because the Lord has given a word of knowledge. Sometimes I receive a spiritual impression or image within me, of a part of a body. When I recognize the Lord’s direction in this way, I am greatly encouraged to pray in faith for healing. The Lord has also lead me via dreams, impressions, or simply because another person asks for prayer.

The Holy Spirit prepares Christ-followers for healing ministry, firstly, in salvation, and secondly, in continuing empowerment. Paul rhetorically questions the Galatian believers on the basis of the God who gives His Spirit and works miracles (Gal. 3:5).

“I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.” (Galatians 3:5 NLT)

Clearly, Paul affirms that God executes signs and wonders including healing. Paul glorifies Christ Jesus for the Spirit’s power which enables signs and wonders.

The Holy Spirit is regularly associated with power throughout Scripture. The prophets of the Old Testament are Spirit-filled messengers. Micah testifies the Spirit’s power (Micah 3:8) and goes on to powerfully declare the sins of God’s people in Judah. Outward visible power is evident to all that see and hear him. During His earthly ministry, Jesus acknowledges, “It is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons (Matthew 12:28).” Peter recognizes this outward manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ life (Acts 10:38). Jesus promises power when the Spirit comes on His disciples (Acts 1:8). In Acts, the visible power of the Holy Spirit manifests after serious prayer (Acts 4:31, 33).

The New Testament teaches that healing may occur in connection with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul seems to emphasize the plural nature of healing in the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians by twice using the plural “charismata” when referring to gifts of healings (1 Cor. 12:9, 30). Perhaps this indicates that healing can function on many levels or in many ways to meet the needs of sick people.

While given for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7), gifts of healings function as the Spirit wills (1 Cor. 12:11). The apostles do not heal every need with which they come in contact, but they remain sensitive to the prompting of the Spirit. The Spirit-empowered believer must practice discernment. Possibly, this gives insight into why a Christian cannot administer healing to every sickness when visiting a hospital, yet can witness a tremendous healing during the same visit. Just as salvation and eternal life are a freely-given grace gift, gifts of healings are not earned or bought (consider Peter’s response to Simon in Acts 8:18-23).

I cannot buy Holy Spirit empowerment, but I can certainly surrender and yield. I welcome Holy Spirit to flood me afresh. Lord, use me as a channel to extend Your healing strength.

September 24, 2013

God Cares For People Through People

Jesus Christ wants to use you as a conduit for His healing power. Healing Ministry is for EVERY Christ Follower.

The Bible expects us to model the example of Christ’s life. “If we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did!” (1 John 2:6 GNT) Jesus exhibits great concern for bringing people back to the wholeness of God’s plan for their lives. I should minister as He leads. You should minister as He leads. God’s healing power enables us to administer healing under the inspiration of the Spirit to people in need. Jesus assures His disciples of the ability to do the things that He has been doing and “even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12 NIV).” Failing to focus on Christ can easily lead to spiritual stagnation depleted of life-imparting potency.

Healing aids us in fulfilling the great commission of proclaiming the Good News. Jesus states, “signs will accompany those who believe (Mark 16:17).” The early disciples experienced the reality of the Lord confirming the message by the accompanying supernatural signs (Mark 16:20), and we need to look for God to continue His mission in and through our lives.

Hi-Tech offers on its website a number of people often complain that they can not find buy viagra from india the medicine by the name of Sildenafil citrate or by the brand alone. But if you want to http://pharma-bi.com/levitra-1604.html buy levitra online take the medicine from online pharmacies, you have to fill up the form given by the company and then you will be fine. cialis online sales There are two types of impotence. These side effects are cialis generico 5mg possible to be developed if the consumption doesn’t follow up the safety measures in correct way. Most corporate services at Valley Fellowship include an altar call for salvation and personal ministry. As a pastor, I am often called upon to pray for healing, but I also expect God to move wherever I am – even if I not in “church clothes.” I tend to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit during a church service, but the Lord frequently wants me to pray for the sick in places far removed from the church grounds. Have you ever experienced this?

In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul clearly affirms the goal of “five-fold” ministry “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Eph. 4:12 NIV).” Based upon the commands of Scripture and from my own personal experience, I have learned that by myself, I cannot accomplish the healing ministry God desires at Valley Fellowship. As a pastor, I must train and entrust pastoral care and the healing ministry to others if I want to realize God’s full intention for Valley Fellowship. I must support and encourage believers to pray for others in order to meet the numerous emotional, physical, and spiritual needs within the body.

God cares for people through people. Take a step of faith and pray for someone today. Jesus wants to use you!

September 13, 2013

Healing – God’s Manifestation on Earth

Healing is a gracious manifestation of God’s power restoring a part of the human make-up. Healing may be ministered to a variety of sickness and in a variety of means. Sickness can attack the physical body but also the mind, the spirit, or any area of human life.

Healing could be seen as the realignment of disease with the kingdom of heaven. Jesus teaches His disciples to pray for His kingdom and will to be accomplished on earth as His kingdom and will are already established in heaven (Matt. 6:9-10). There is certainly NO sickness in heaven. Praying for healing is one way of praying in the manner Jesus indicates. The manifestation of healing power demonstrates that the kingdom of God is here. Healings certainly reveal God’s presence, God’s love, and God’s will, while edifying, exhorting, and encouraging (building, stirring and cheering) the body of Christ.

If you don’t like it, then you’ve only wasted five hours of your life…well maybe more if you want foreplay” “I just took a cheap levitra . Instead, your brain plays a more important role in determining the reasons behind stress & depression and suggest female viagra pills the best ways to deal with the problem. All these body disorders need to be able to keep your body levitra 50mg in a healthy manner. Potential treatments should also be compared before a selection is made. cialis 100mg click to read more Heavenly Father revealed Himself to the Old Testament saints as the healer and He hasn’t changed His character. “I am the Lord, the one who heals you” (Exodus 15:26b GNT). Praise God! God still heals people today.

Our prayers for the Lord to heal an individual are an extension of the healing ministry of Jesus Christ. Believers are to follow the model and example of Jesus. Compassion and the gifts of the Spirit should flow naturally out of a personal connection with God. Jesus Christ is “God with us,” and Jesus Christ must be with a believer to achieve true, incarnational, healing ministry. The Holy Spirit enables believers for service with all the authority and power necessary to see healing manifested within the body and life of a sick individual or group. Healing miracles should give glory to God, for healing is an expression of His kingdom on earth.

September 12, 2013

Healing is now and sometimes not yet

I am so thankful for my daughter Kimberlyn’s great report from the doctors at St. Jude’s (Memphis). Kimberlyn is cancer-free, and her shoulder has full range of motion. I am still a bit surprised by how emotional I am about her last visit. Talking about it today with staff and students at Valley Fellowship Christian Academy, I can feel the tears rising up in my eyes. At lunch, my wife teased me saying, “You cry after the whole thing is done.” Apparently, Patti is right. At least my tears are happy tears. Thank you, Lord, for carrying us through this struggle.

God is infinite and I am finite. My finite mind will never be able to understand Him completely. God heals, yet I have arduously toiled with the enigma of sickness and disease. The paradox of why all are not instantly healed is beyond the ability of my finite mind. I like to know it all, understand it all, see it all, but healing does not fit into a simple package.

I trust God, but I don’t understand why one person is healed instantly, another progressively, and another not on earth. My younger brother is a great example of God’s continued help, but no instant healing. My mom and dad prayed for brother’s eyes from the time he was a baby. Barry got his first glasses at sixteen months and the doctors said he would be totally blind by the time he was in second grade. Well, Barry is in his forties and is still seeing, but our family continues to pray for his eyes.

Barry’s experience is starkly contrasted with a woman named Georgian for whom my parents prayed after a Friday night Bible study at our house. Earlier on that Friday, the doctors told Georgian that the holes in her retinas would permanently blind her in less than two weeks. Already she was wearing the thickest lenses I had ever seen. Dad and mom laid hands on her, prayed, then Dad paused and asked her how was her sight. Georgian said her limited vision was worse – everything was blurry. Dad suggested taking off the glasses, and BOOM! Georgian’s eyes had been totally healed.

God healed her instantly. My brother continues to walk out his healing day by day. The same couple (my parents) that prayed for years for my brother prayed for just a moment with Georgian. Same God, same faith, same area of the body, same people praying, but different results.

Twenty years ago, I prayed for a man dying of cancer that honestly I didn’t really expect to be healed on earth. I remember leading him to a personal relationship with Christ and praising the Lord that he would likely be seeing Jesus face-to-face pretty quickly. But, God had other plans. A few weeks later, the cancer was gone and the doctors declared him to be in full remission. He still hasn’t had that heavenly face-to-face encounter.

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I am forty-seven years old, have prayed for healing, have seen God heal many people, but there is much about the tension between healing now and sometimes not till heaven that I am still trying to grasp.

Jesus’ earthly ministry is a display of the kingdom of God. The Gospels tell of Jesus teaching with authority (Matt. 7:28-29; Mark 1:21-28; Luke 4:31-37). His words penetrate truth and His miracles testify of the power of God. His listeners have reason to believe that the kingdom is at hand. Jesus endures the daily challenges and realities of living, yet He reaches out to hurting, harassed, and hungry people.

Jesus causes an intersection between this world and the kingdom of God. Jesus publicly proclaims the establishment of the kingdom (Luke 11:20), yet tension remains. The disparity between the kingdom of God as already here and the kingdom of God not yet manifested, confronts my inadequate human perspective. I am limited and cannot comprehend the mystery of an unlimited God.

However, Scripture contains a clear mandate for me pray for sick people and expect God’s miraculous manifestation. As I survey the healing accounts within the Bible, my faith is stirred to once again allow myself to be a channel for God’s healing power. Even if I never completely understand the “whys” and “how comes,” I will do my best to operate in faith and in the belief that God wants me to expect healing.

Power encounters mixed with public proclamation certainly help to communicate the message of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus combines the proclamation and demonstration of the kingdom of heaven (Mark 1:21-39). Matthew chronicles the extraordinary miraculous power of Jesus Christ the Messiah. After illuminating the astonishment of the crowd (Matt. 7:28-29), Matthew underscores Jesus’ exousia by recounting the cleansing of the man with leprosy, the releasing of the centurion’s servant, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, and the calming of the Galilean storm (Matthew 8). The teaching ministry of Jesus naturally flows into His healing ministry. Jesus’ example stirs me to step out in faith. I need to preach and minister like Him. Hopefully, my sermons will not only exegete the Scriptures but will also provide opportunities to flow into healing ministry.

September 11, 2013

Kimberlyn’s Last Evaluation at St Jude’s

Patti and I traveled with Kimberlyn to St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, TN. The doctor evaluated her, told us the good news from the x-rays, and announced, “I will see you again . . . . . . . never.” The picture below is just after he said she was released.

Praise the Lord! I am so thankful for God’s grace and for the excellent care my daughter received from the incredible staff at St. Jude’s. While Kimberlyn and Patti picked a last second gift from the gift shop, I found myself crying as I tried to thank one of ladies. I certainly will never forget that special place.
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I think I have fresh insight into Paul’s thankfulness and his words to Philemon: “I always thank my God when I remember you in my prayers” (Philemon 1:4 NIRV). I do thank the Lord for the knowledge, discernment, and wisdom that He has given to the doctors and staff at St. Jude’s. Thank you, Lord.

September 10, 2013

Nothing is Beyond God’s Healing Strength

My daughter Kimberlyn is about to have a follow-up appointment at St Jude’s in Memphis, TN, and I am praying for a good report. Oral Roberts regularly reminded his listeners that God’s healings can always stand up to a doctor’s review, so we are going into this one in faith. It has been a little over a year since her surgery and so this appointment is the big one that could bring Kimberlyn’s full release from the doctors. Check out what I wrote back in February at “Distressed?“. I am so thankful for God’s healing power. Praise the Lord! Jesus Christ hasn’t changed; He still heals today.

Finite humankind is unable to fully understand the awesome variety with which God operates. In the end the method is not important, but the healer Jesus Christ is!

Consider the variety of ways used by Jesus to administer healing to blind individuals. In Luke 18:35-43, Jesus speaks to the blind man for his sight to be restored. In Matthew 9:27-31, Jesus touches the eyes of two blind men. In John 9:1-7, Jesus makes mud from His own spit and places the mud on a blind man’s eyes. Then, Jesus commands the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. After washing, the man goes home seeing. In most cases there is instant healing, but in Mark 8:22-25, a blind man from Bethsaida is healed gradually. Jesus initially spits on the blind man’s eyes, and then questions him to determine the extent of healing that has occurred. Because the sight is not complete, Jesus once more places His hands on the man’s eyes and the man’s sight is restored.

Often healing follows a “word” or a command. When asking Jesus to heal a servant, the Centurion of Luke 7:1-10 reveals insight into this method of healing and simply asks for Jesus to say the word. Peter speaks to the crippled Aeneas and Aeneas gets up (Acts 9:32-35). To another crippled beggar, Peter and John deliver the word for healing in the Name of Jesus (Acts 3:6-7). Similar miracles occur during Paul’s ministry at Lystra (Acts 14:8-10).

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James 5:14 combines physically touching an individual with the anointing of oil. Oil is often a type or symbol of the Holy Spirit. The oil itself does not heal, but provides an excellent point of contact for an individual to release faith for healing. The anointing with the prayer of faith brings restoration.

Another means of administering healing is through contact with cloth or even a shadow. Touching the edge of Jesus’ garment is enough to bring healing to many formerly sick (Mark 6:56). One woman forces her way through a crowd in order to touch Jesus’ cloak. Following her healing, Jesus gives confidence, “Daughter, your faith has healed you (Mark 5: 28-34 NIV).” Faith is regularly tied to healing accounts in the New Testament. “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them (Acts 19:11-12 NIV).” Evidently, the healing strength of God can be imparted through various physical items but God’s miraculous power is not limited by physical connection. The Bible dramatically shares that as Peter’s shadow crosses over some ill individuals, they are healed (Acts 5:15-16).

Death is conceivably the greatest form of sickness known to man, but even death is no match for God’s healing power. The Gospel writers provide the most memorable example of God’s authority over death when attesting to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus demonstrates healing over death by restoring life to a young girl (Mark 5:35-42) and ordering Lazarus’ freedom from death (John 11:38-44). The book of Acts points out three people who are raised in spite of death’s grip. Paul is healed (9:40); Tabitha comes to life (14:20); Eutychus lives once more (20:9-12). Nothing is beyond the healing strength of the Lord.