Faith For Miracles
"Fear is useless, what is needed is trust" Mk 5:36
Jesus was always exhorting his disciples and everybody he met to have faith and trust in him. Faith needed to be present in order for Jesus to heal and for miracles to occur. Some of the exhortations he made to those he met include:
Centurion’s servant (Mt 8:10)
"I assure you I never found this much faith in Israel"
Paralytic at Capernaum (Mt 9:15)
"When Jesus saw their faith he said, your sins are forgiven"
Woman with hemorrhage. (Mt 9:22)
"Courage daughter, your faith has restored you to health"
Two blind men (Mt 9:29)
"Because of your faith, it shall be done to you"
Canaanite woman whose daughter had a demon (Mt 15:21)
"Woman you have great faith, your wish will come to pass"
Possessed boy (Mt 17:14)
"If you had faith the size of mustard seed..."
Fig tree (Mt 21:22)
"You will receive all that you pray for provide you have faith"
Storm on sea (Mk 4:35)
"Why are you so terrified, why are you lacking in faith"
Daughter of Jairus (Mk 5:21)
"Fear is useless, what is needed is trust"
Leper who returned (Lk 17:19)
"Your faith has been your salvation"
Lazarus (Jn 11:40)
"Did I not assure you that if you believed you would see the glory of God displayed"
Jesus is also exhorting us today to have faith and trust in him so that his healing graces may flow in our lives. We may believe all the healing scriptures, believe that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever and give mental assent to it all. However that might just be our belief from the neck up, our "head theology" We live in a culture in the USA that mocks belief in the bible and in the supernatural power of Jesus Christ to heal us. We are the frogs in the pot of unbelief and that unbelief has permeated our souls. We have been taught not to believe in supernatural healing. We haven’t seen supernatural healing. We have been "parboiled" in unbelief. When it comes time to pray for healing, the unbelief in our hearts and our own personal experiences overrules our "head theology."
IT IS TIME TO DOUBT OUR DOUBTS
Some of the doubts that we need to deal with include:
That it may not be the Father’s will.
"In times past God spoke in fragmentary and varied ways... In this the final age He has spoken to us through His son. This Son is the reflection of the Father’s glory, the exact representation of the Father’s being." (He 1:1-3)
Jesus is the final, total, complete revelation of the Father. He is God in the flesh. When we see and hear Jesus, we see and hear the Father. There is no further revelation to come. What Jesus said and did concerning healing reveals that the Father’s will for us. Jesus demonstrated that the Father’s complete and final word on healing for us is divine health in spirit, soul and body.
"When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, thereby fulfilling what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: "It was our infirmities he bore, our sufferings he endured" (Mt 8:16)
That the will of God is different for different people.
"Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever." (He 13:8)
We may think that he may have healed you, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to heal me! However Jesus healed all! - good people, bad people, real sick, not so sick - ALL! All they had to do was just get near Him and touch His garment!
That God has a purpose in this sickness.
Some may say that God is teaching me something through this sickness. He’s building my character. He’s testing me, etc. Jesus never did or said that! Jesus never treated sickness as a blessing. Sickness was an enemy to Him. God does work something good out of all things, for those who love him and are called according to his purposes (Ro 8:28). However God doesn’t send us sickness to teach us something. Would you do that to your child?
"A woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, "Woman, you are set free of your infirmity." (Lk 13:10)
Many of Jesus’ healings were deliverances. "Offering it up" could attribute to God what the devil is doing.
Jesus never even asked about the cause of sickness. He never said you brought this upon yourself. Will God heal a chain smoker of lung cancer with a pack of camels in his shirt pocket? You bet he will! He might say after He healed him, you better give up those butts before something worse gets you.
That if God allows sickness, he must want it for some reason.
That is really a jump of logic. There is lots of sin in world. Does that mean God wants sin in the world? We are living in a battle zone. There is a cosmic battle taking place between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. We humans have free will. We can choose to cooperate with the devil and his angels and commit abominable evils. Butchering 4400 babies a day for the last 30 years on the altar of the God of Self, is an example of the depravity we are capable of reaching. The AIDS epidemic is another example of sickness brought on at times due to sinful activity. God doesn’t want sickness in the world!
That Paul’s thorn in the flesh was a physical sickness.
"I know someone in Christ who, fourteen years ago ... was caught up to the third heaven. And I know that this person ... was caught up into Paradise and heard ineffable things, which no one may utter ... Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated." (2 Cor 12:2,3,7)
This was demonic activity, an angel of satan not a physical sickness. The St. Jerome commentary says this was most likely demonically inspired persecution. Unless we’ve been to the third heaven, we can pluck the thorn out of our flesh -:)
That it may not be God’s time to heal.
"In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Cor 6:2)
Jesus always healed NOW. He never put anyone off to some other time. The Kingdom of God is now. Would Jesus ever say I don’t want to forgive your sins today? I don’t want to cast out your demon today, come back tomorrow?
The overpowering works and ministry of Jesus reveals that the Father wants divine health for us in spirit, soul and body. It’s a package deal that Jesus provided through his bloody cross. We should receive healing as easily as we do salvation.
Salvation is all mine. Deliverance is all mine. Healing is all mine. It’s ALL mine! Even though I might not have received it all yet. It belongs to me! Faith in our Father is what’s needed to release God’s healing power in our lives!
It’s time to doubt our doubts!
Right now, whatever your needs are, turn to Jesus and entrust your entire life to Him who loves you immensely. Repent of any sins that come to mind and ask Him to heal you of whatever you need healing for. Say out loud:
"By your stripes Jesus I receive healing for _______________" Thank you Jesus for healing me. I will love you and follow you all the days of my life, not by my power or my strength but by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen
***** JESUS IS LORD *****
