Celebrating Jesus the Healer

Celebrating Jesus

INTRO: 

Starting Sunday 1st September: Carryduff Elim and Crown Jesus Ministries are running a joint project, over 4 months, focusing on Jesus the Healer, Saviour, Baptiser and King.

For more info on services and events visit:

Celebrating Jesus

or:
 http://www.crownjesus.org
 http://www.carryduffelim.com

Does God heal?

Firstly let me make my position clear:

I am not an expert on healing. I don't have all the answers, I am just a follower of Jesus who believes the bible and tries his best to live it out. I am typing this with three discs out of place in my back, tinnitus ringing in my ears and my father in law in hospital since February. My parents both died as a result of cancer and I see sickness around my everyday. I don't live in Cuckooland. It's not just bad people who get sick either...  in fact it can seem a great injustice that some of the finest people I have ever met are either suffering with sickness or have died as a result of sickness. Sickness seems to be evident in all kinds of people: babies, kids, youth, adults, elderly, tall, small, rich, poor, black, white, Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostals and even Presbyterians!! :-)  Sickness can come to everyone... even the best of us.

Secondly I do not believe that all people remain sick because they lack faith. The Pastor who would dare tell a mother that her child continues to suffer with leukemia because she does not have enough faith for their healing needs a... (I will leave that to your imagination). Of course a prayer of faith can rise up the sick (James 5:15) but to blame a person’s lack of faith is ignorant and very cruel. God’s ways are higher than ours... there is a mystery in it all.

Thirdly I believe that what the bible says supersedes my experience. This is very important.  As I Christian I cannot allow what I see to determine what I believe. If I see no one healed does that mean God does not heal? If I lead no one into faith in Christ does that mean Jesus does not save? If I have never seen a shark do they not exist?
Faith in God required me to move beyond what I can physically see and touch.

When my mother died of cancer a well meaning individual said "Has that shaken you faith in healing?" Of course not! God is bigger than my experience, he is the God of the bible and he does not change. I believe God to be loving, just, merciful, gracious, jealous and patient. I believe God to be Creator... and if that be the case he is also the best person to go to when something is broken. There is logic in this. The one who makes things is also the best one to go to for a repair? I believe God to be a healing God... irrespective of my experience.  (To that point may I add I have prayed for and witnessed first hand some amazing miracles.)

Fourthly I believe God can heal in many ways. Through the hand of a surgeon, medicine and also as a supernatural act of power. When I pray for the sick I pray my best prayer and always in Jesus name and for His glory. With the persons permission I will at times lay on hands or use oil.

Fifthly, not everyone who is prayed for is healed... Why? I have no idea... but I trust God, my Father in heaven, to make the right choices whenever I don't understand the reasons. If you have been prayed for in the past and you have yet to receive your healing here is my advice; don't quit! Keep praying for a YES until God gives you a NO. I have been prayed for 100's of times for healing and it hasn't happened...yet!
Ultimately, and this is of utmost importance: Everyone who believes in their heart and confesses with their lips that Jesus Christ is Lord will be healed; this may not come until we reach heaven but rest assured your healing is coming!

Finally, God's ability or willingness to perform the miraculous is not confined to a certain time frame of Church History. God's Holy Spirit has power to heal today just as He had power to heal at any other time. God does not change.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT HEALING?

Over the coming months I will assemble into this little blog a list of some references to healing in the bible and brief thoughts on the passage.



I have put together this collection of Scriptures so that you can know the truth about God and healing; and the truth that you know will set you free. Fill your life with God's promises and take Him at his word. Trust Him today for your healing and apply these scriptures to your life.
I pray as you read these you will trust in Jesus as your Saviour, Lord and Healer.

The first reference in the bible which deals with healing is found in Genesis 20:17.

So Abraham prayer unto God; and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants, and they bare Children.

This first physical healing recorded in scripture as a result of answered prayer.

In Exodus 15:26 the bible says:

If thou wilt diligently harken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statues, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which i have brought upon the Egyptians: For i am the Lord that healeth thee.

This scripture has two parts to it; the conditions and the promise. Additionally God declares that he is the Healer. Jehovah-Ropheka. God your Physician.

Exodus 23:25
 And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless thy bread and thy water and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

Leviticus 16:21
And aaron shall lay both his hands upon the goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away...

In the same way as the goat carried the sins and sickness of the people and was put out of their midst to die, so too was Christ put out of the city walls carrying the sins and sicknesses of the people.

Numbers 21:8
And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it shall live.

The serpent upon the pole is symbolic of Jesus Christ becoming sin for us on the cross (John 3:14)

Deuteronomy 34:7
Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural forces abated.'

Joshua 14:10

And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, these 45 years, ever since the Lord spoke this to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now, here i am this day, 83 years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me, just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war...

Both Moses and Joshua experienced God blessing of long life and health.

The Bible is a dusty old fashioned book loaded with rules, contradictions, half truths, manipulative stories and legends.

“The Bible is a dusty old-fashioned book loaded with rules, contradictions, half truths, manipulative stories and legend. It is at best irrelevant and at worst a dangerous book which has divided people, broken families and caused militants to rise up and kill the innocent. It is a crutch for week people, a hiding place for the weird and a platform for religious nuts to shout and force their opinions into others. Should such a book even be kept in the house let alone read?”

That may be your opinion but I dare you to read it. I dare you to lay aside your preconceived ideas and prejudice to give it a go. If you have been ‘Bible Bashed’ before or people have tried to manipulate or intimidate you with its words then on behalf of all right thinking believers I apologise. The Bible is described as a sword and there have been many, including myself, who have in their enthusiasm and lack of skill flashed it’s blade like a toddler with a light-sabre. 

Why read it?

The Bible is a book like no other; it has not only shaped our country but the world. It has moulded politics, culture, human rights, equality laws and democracy the world over.  Three Bibles are distributed free of charge every second and it remains the world’s No1 best seller.  It has inspired kings, leaders, artists, poets, sports stars the world over as well as billions of others as they go about their daily lives.

This book has something to say to everyone. It teaches us about honesty, hard work, leadership, integrity, charity, compassion, humility, self-sacrifice, putting others first and above all love. It brings hope to the hopeless, comforts those who mourn and shows us than in our brokenness God has made away for wholeness.

I desperately want to make this book ‘trendy again.’ There was time when carrying your Bible under your arm was just as cool as walking today with a set of ‘Monster Beats’  over your ears while plugged into your Ipad. 

Here is just one of many stories that offers great lessons for everyone.  

It’s the 20^th year of Artaxerxes, King of Persia about 450BC and the walls of Jerusalem have been a broken messy rubble for 120 years. They were torn down by the Chaldeans and then allowed to sit unrepaired for now more than a century. Now a city wall in ruins was a bad thing in those days. Not only did it leave the city open for attack, but it prompted ridicule from neighbouring powers. Literally tens of thousands of Jerusalem’s people had seen the broken walls and done nothing. What the people needed was someone to rally them, plan a course of action and take them through the building process. They needed a leader and they got one in a cup-bearer to the King called Nehemiah.

His story is one of the most remarkable stories of leadership ever recorded. He made plans, envisioned the people and worked with them to rebuild the walls. In the end, what lay a mess for 120 years was repaired inside just 52 days.

Are you a leader? There is much you can learn from this guy and you can find his full story inside the Bible in a book that bears his name: Nehemiah

Whey not find that old book and give the story a read... alternatively you can download it here 

Here are some leadership lessons from Nehemiah that we would do well to follow:

• He identified the problem that no-one else could see
• He approached and shared the challenge with key influencers 
• He measured up the task
• He cast the vision before the people
• He encouraged them with stories of past success
• He received ‘buy-in’ from the people
• He organised them
• He worked with them and not just from a desk

The walls were built because Nehemiah had a burden, showed ability to work in a team and led them with clear direction.

A dust irrelevant book? I dare you... blow the dust of the Bible and read it!

The Bible: A book of failures for failures

 

The Bible is a book of failures for failures

 

Tom Watson, Sr., founder of IBM, was being interviewed by a young man who asked the following question: “Mr Watson, how can I be great like you?”  Without hesitation Mr Watson responded, “Double your failures.”

Albert Einstein’s teacher described him as mentally slow, unsociable and adrift in foolish dreams.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas.

Winston Churchill failed in sixth grade and did not become Prime Minister until he was a senior citizen and eligible for a bus pass (62)!

And what about this guys climb to success!

Failed in business – bankruptcy, 1831

Defeated for legislature, 1832

Failed in business – bankruptcy, 1833

Sweetheart dies, 1835

Nervous breakdown, 1836

Defeated in election, 1838

Defeated in U.S. Congress, 1843

Defeated in U.S. Congress, 1846

Defeated in U.S. Congress, 1848

Defeated for U.S. Senate, 1854

Defeated for U.S. Vice President, 1856

Defeated for U.S. Senate, 1858

Elected President of the U.S. 1860

 

His name: Abraham Lincoln

 

I guess the point I am making is this; if you have failed a few times you are in good company. The greatest business people are often those who have also failed most. Every ‘no’ can take us closer to a ‘yes’; it’s how we respond it that really matters. Are we teachable? Can we learn from our mistakes? 

Remember: Failure is only temporary but quitting lasts forever.

 

The Bible is a great book to guide us through failure and into success. It is littered with stories of people who are remembered ‘to put it mildly’ for being less than consistent due to failure:

King David, Solomon, Moses, Joseph, Abraham, Jacob, Peter, Paul to name a few. Each one has a story of failure. All of these people where called by God to do great service and had the Bible been a book of fiction you would only have read about consistent and exemplary lives. You would not expect major blunders. Yet, what do we find in their lives: weak parents, jealous leaders, lies, arrogance, corruption and deceit. We see real people who took their eye of God and failed. Go and read them for yourself...these are stories we can relate to and learn from and in our weakness we can draw strength from their experience and see how gracious and merciful God is in spite of our failures.

Have you a failed business plan? Have you messed up with your family? Maybe you didn’t get the grades you hoped for in this year’s exams. The challenge is not to remain in the failure. Learn from it, lift your head and overcome. The people who rarely fail are usually the people who rarely try. Success is not how fast you reach the top, but how fast you bounce back when you hit the bottom.  Seeing yourself as a failure will not make you feel better and even more importantly will not help you do any better. Find new ways to work, focus on your strengths, admit your failures and plan to bounce back.

The worst thing we can do is worry about past failures for this will just compound yet more failure in the future. The Apostle Paul gave this great advice: ‘This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead’ Philippians Chapter 3 verse 13. This was Paul’s secret of success. It can be ours too - forget about past mistakes and think about how we can do better in the future.The Bible is a book for wobbly weak-kneed people who are big enough to admit they sometimes fail and need help.

 

 

 

Here is little prayer we can all pray: God, thanks for not giving up on me, thank you that you did not create me to become a failure. Help me to understand that in all my mistakes, disappointments, hurt and failures you waste nothing and you can turn it around for good.  Amen.

The lesson we need to remember is: we all fail but only failures stay down. Keep on trying and looking to help others when they fail too.

 

Make today a day when you give your very best.