"Do You Have The Dunamis Power To Heal”

Banner of Praises Ministries

Rev. Dr. Levi Howard Wright, Pastor & Founder

“DO YOU HAVE THE DUNAMIS POWER TO HEAL”

Acts 10:37-38: "You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached-- how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power [dunamis], and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."

INTRODUCTION

How Did Jesus Heal People?

The Bible says that Jesus came to earth as a man (He was both God and man) and that He received the Holy Spirit in order to be empowered for His earthly ministry. This can be demonstrated by following the sequence of events as Luke described them:

Luke 3:21-22: "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove."

Luke 3:23: "Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry."

Luke 4:1-2: "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil."

Luke 4:13-14: "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power [dunamis] of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside."

Notice the sequence of events:

First, Jesus was baptized in water and then He received the Holy Spirit.

Next we are told that He began His ministry after receiving the Holy Spirit.

We are then told that He allowed Himself to be led by the Spirit rather than deciding on His own what He wished to do, just as we are to be led by the Holy Spirit rather than following our own wishes and desires.

Next we see Jesus returning to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit after resisting the devil in the desert.

Finally we are told that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power.

The Greek word for "power" in these verses is dunamis, which means "force" or "miraculous power," according to Strong’s Greek Dictionary.

Jesus was born without sin and He lived His life without sin, yet the passages above tell us that He needed to receive dunamis (the miracle-working power of the Holy Spirit) in order to be empowered for His earthly ministry.

Jesus is the perfect human and our perfect role model, and we will see in this handout that after we become saved we need to follow His example by receiving the dunamis power of the Holy Spirit in order to fully carry out our roles in the supernatural body of Christ.

It’s the Dunamis Power of the Holy Spirit that Heals People.

Before Jesus came to earth, He emptied Himself of His own power and made Himself "nothing" so that He could become human (Philippians 2:5-8).

As we saw in the previous section, before Jesus did any miracles He received dunamis (the miracle-working power of the Holy Spirit) in order to be empowered for His earthly ministry.

As the perfect example of a human, Jesus did not heal people by His own divine power, He healed people by the power of the Holy Spirit, just as you will do!

Now, have you ever wondered why Jesus and the apostles and early Christians healed the sick by laying hands on them?

For example, Luke 4:40 says, "When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them."

It probably took a long time for Jesus to go to each person in the crowd and lay hands on them!

Why didn’t He do what we do by waiting until a more convenient time and then praying privately for God to heal those people?

There’s something about praying for a person when you’re standing right next to him that makes it more effective than praying for someone at a distance.

God certainly can answer prayers for someone at a distance, yet in the Bible we see Jesus touching blind people’s eyes, putting His fingers in deaf people’s ears, and so on (see Mark 7:33 and 8:25, for example).

When people came to Jesus to ask Him to go and pray for a sick person, He didn’t say, "I’ll pray for that person during my prayer time tonight" like we would do.

Instead, He immediately headed off to where the sick person was (as in Matthew 9:18, Luke 7:14) or asked that the sick person be brought to Him (as in Mark 9:19, Luke 13:12).

Jesus did not make it a practice to heal people at a distance.