The Healing

It's so good to be back in Elk River and with our church family at River of Life! Ann and I had a wonderful time at the Evangelical Free National Conference in Columbus Ohio last week (June 14-17). It's wonderful serving such a great congregation!

Now... about The Blindside: Tackled by the Holy Spirit sermon series...here we are, already ont he third week of this crucial four-week series. Today we will be centering on the healing ministry of the Holy Spirit. In this short bulletin article I desire to share, what I believe to be Jesus' "MO" for healing.

After surveying a number if healings in the Gospels, it seems Jesus heals out of compassion and mercy. A typical incident is recorded in Matthew 14:13-14.

When Jesus heard what has happened, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed Him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crown, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Compassion motivated Jesus to heal lepers (Mark 1:41-42), the demonized youth (Mark 9:22), the blind (Matt. 20:34), and even to raise the dead (Luke 7:11-17. In Matthew the feeding of the four thousand is motivated not by a desire on Jesus' part to demonstrate that he is the bread of life, but rather by his compassion for the multitude (Matt 15:32) Likewise, Jesus healed the blind (Matt. 9:27-31;20:29-34), the demonized (Matt. 15:22-28) and lepers (Luke 17:13-14) in response to their cries for mercy. Even the healing of the most severely demon-possessed person in the New Testament is attributed ultimately to God's mercy (Mark 5:19)

The sheer number of the texts above, and a host of others, demonstrates that God's compassion and mercy were major factors in the healings of the NT. As Jesus walked the dusty roads of Palestine, He was touched by the pains and sicknesses of people all around Him. Jesus actually put his hands on infected bodies and healed them rather than shrinking back and avoiding bodies filled with leprosy.

Such truth has significant ramifications; I frequently meet people who are enthusiastic about praying for the sick. They devote a significant amount of their time each week to praying for hurting people but some of them see very little healing taking place. After listening to them it is not difficult to see why they have so little success. It appears that their primary motivation in praying for the sick is to see something exciting and supernatural that can prove to their theological opponents that God does heal after all! But this is not NT motivations for healing! God is not in the business of gratifying our desires for excitement nor in helping some of His children win arguments over others. He is in the compassion business! I honestly believe that the degree you can enter into His compassion for the sick and for the hurting, you can be a vessel through whom the healing power of Jesus can flow. If you really want to be used in the healing ministry, ask you Heavenly Father to let you feel His compassion for the hurting.

On the Victory Side,

Dave