A Taste Of Heaven - Healing.

(Note: I’m sure some of this material is gleaned from Willow Creek - I remembered some of the illustrations from decades ago - before I was a full time pastor.)

A taste of heaven - healing - what you always wanted to know, but were too afraid to ask!

You’ve heard it said, and you know it to be true: It takes FAITH to be healed by God.

I want to suggest, that it takes greater faith in God, to still belive in Him, even though He has NOT healed you, and for you to die from that illness.

I know this - because I have personally prayed for manypeople to be healed, many of them my friends. Some have recovered for a time. Some have died.

I want to share some of their expereinces with you, share their faith with you, allow you to travel the journey of life with me this morning.

Stay with me this morning, God has something very important and life changing to say to you!

One of the greatest lessons I have learned, is this:

Sometimes it takes greater faith to die, than it does to be healed!

Today I am going to share with you about the awesome power of God to heal - deliver and set us free from the bondages and pain in our life.

Each of us will be eager to receive this, to be encouraged and strengthened in our own lives and faith.

What I am also going to share with you, are the times that God seems NOT to have interveined - even though I cried out to Him from the depths of my heart!

Not only does God have the power to heal and deliver - He has the power to support you, to strengthen you and carry you through the trials you are facing today.

He might not heal you of your illenss, but I promise you this, He will strengthen and support you through it.

The same can be said of any trial, situation or tragedy you are facing this morning.

Regardless of how God is working in your life.

LEt’s open His holy Word and be encouraged and strengthened this morning!

Let’s turn in our Bibles to Psalm 140, reading from verse 1.

This is a Psalm about God’s power and promise to protect us from harm, and keep us from violence.

Power Point # 2 to 8

1 For the director of music. A psalm of David.

Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men; protect me from these men of violence,

2 from these men who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war and violence every day.

3 They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.

4 Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from men of violence who plan to trip my feet.

5 Proud men have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path.

6 O LORD, I say to you, "You are my God." Hear, O LORD, my cry for mercy.

7 O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle—

8 do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD; do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud.

9 Let the heads of those who surround me be covered with the trouble their lips have caused.

10 Let burning coals fall upon them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise.

11 Let slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down men of violence.

12 I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.

13 Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright will live before you.

David’s prayer was one of trust in a God who has the power and the strength to protect His loved ones from pain and suffering.

Indeed, in my own life, I recall one morning over 14 years ago, when I was prompted by the Lord to fast and pray about an illegal ‘half way house’ that had been established in a neighboring property.

The residents of this house were a real threat to the safety of my wife and my family.

We had a neighborhood meeting where myself and other residents even considered selling our homes to escape the real threat of danger and violence.

And in an attempt to protect ourselves, Debbie and I bought a rather large guard dog and even installed a security system within our family home that backed onto the halfway house.

Members of this halfway house constantly played with knives within their section, urinated where ever they chose, used binoculars to look into the windows of neighboring houses and even stole over $10,000 of items from a neighboring house, simply carrying them from our neighbors house into the boarding house.