The Healing Game: Physical Healing
One of the most beautiful things we see in the first four books of the New Testament is Jesus' desire to not only heal people spiritually, emotionally, and mentally, but physically. We see twenty-six different examples of Jesus healing people from things like blindness, leprosy, paralysis, deafness, a blood disorder, and epilepsy. What moved Jesus to heal? Deep compassion and love for people was His motivation. So if we see that God can heal and has a willingness to heal, how can we appropriately posture ourselves to be in line with God's will? I believe scripture consistently shows us three important principles that Pastor Tato brilliantly shared with us yesterday:
1. In almost every case FAITH is present, either on the part of the person being healed or someone who is standing in the gap for them. They BELIEVED that God could heal them. This shouldn't surprise us as Hebrews 11:6 tells us, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." We also see these examples in scripture:
And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. Acts 3:16
Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly. Matthew 15:28
When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”Matthew 9:28-29
2. They understood that healing was not because of a FORMULA, but because of a PERSON. It is interesting to notice that Jesus almost never healed people the same way twice. Most likely because we would begin to trust in a process rather than the person of Jesus himself. We see this in scripture when Jesus' disciples were unable to heal one particular person. What did they do? They pulled Jesus aside to ask him why and get fresh wisdom and perspective.
"Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” Matthew 17:19
3. Many times those who received breakthroughs had PERSEVERANCE in their prayer and efforts. They didn't just stop after one ask or one attempt as we see in the story of Elijah in I Kings 17 and 18. He had to pray seven times for his miracle to manifest. Heck, even Jesus had to pray for a person twice for him to receive his full healing in Mark 8:22-25,
"They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly."
So how do we posture ourselves for healing in our lives?
WE COME TO JESUS AND STAY CONNECTED TO HIM.
WE TRUST AND BELIEVE THAT HE HAS THE POWER TO HEAL AND RESTORE US IN ALL WAYS.
AND WE GRAB A HOLD OF HIM AND HIS PROMISES AND WE DON'T LET GO.
This is what scripture teaches us. We love you guys and what God is doing at Renovate. We hope you have a great week!
Sincerely,
Dave Jamerson
Lead Pastor
