(A continuation from Gifts of Spirit Part 5)
1. The Gifts of Healings
NOT FOR SHOW BUT FOR SERVICE!!!
Dr. John R. W. Stott quoted:
"Our motive must be concern for the glory of God, not the glory of the church or our own glory.
Our message must be the gospel of God as given by Christ and his apostles, not the traditions of men or our own opinions.
Our manpower must be the whole church of God, every member of it, not a privileged few who want to retain evangelism as their prerogative.
Our dynamic must be the Spirit of God, not the power of human personality, organization, or eloquence.
Without these priorities we shall be silent when we ought to be vocal."
The Gifts of Healings
1. Definition-the ability to be used as an instrument in a supernatural way in restoring health, not only physically but in other ways as well.
Why is it called GIFTS of healings? Plural?
Robert Jamieson said: "healings"; referring to different kinds of disease which need different kinds of healing
Why do you believe Gifts is plural?
Well, I believe this is the gift of being able to restore to health, and it is in the plural because there are three levels of life where we need to be restored –
1. physically,
2. socially or psychologically,
3. and spiritually,
and this gift can be given at any of those levels.
Most of the NT healings were physically.
Luke 5 story of man with palsy…4 friends took him to Jesus, tore up the roof:
20 And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
23 Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?
24 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
25 And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.
Here is Physical and Spiritual healing.
John 5 Lame man at pool of Bethesda:
8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.
In Ch. 7… the Jews were really stirred up over Jesus healing the man on the Sabbath.
Joh 7:23 If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?
Another example:
Luke 17: 10 lepers…
13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
So yet another example of being healed physically and spiritually.
Let’s move on:
Why is the gifts of healing so needed?
1Co 6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?
1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Ro 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.
Our bodies are important!
Therefore God has designed “Healing” to keep our bodies in working order.
Meriam Webster dictionary: HEALING:
1 a : to make sound or whole
2 a : to cause (an undesirable condition) to be overcome : b : to patch up (a breach or division)
3 : to restore to original purity or integrity
intransitive verb : to return to a sound state
So there is Natural healing:
Medical healing
But we’re talking about supernatural healing that comes from God.
Jas 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
NOTE: the elders are called, but in vs.16 we see that any Christian can pray for someone to be healed.
Jas 5:16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
So we know God sends healing:
What does that have to do with the GIFTS of healing?
These Gifts are bestowed upon an individual that has that special faith to believe God for the impossible.
NOW I know this gift has been greatly abused.
Illust: a good preacher friend of mine told me personally this story.
One day while visiting the nursing home, he came across a lady who was very discouraged. In fact, she wanted to die. He made it a point to visit her every time he went, and one day she finally opened up to him and told this very sad story.
She had been a Christian ever since she was a young girl. All her life, she had lived for God, been active in ministry and won many people to the Lord. She had a stroke one day and finally ended up in this nursing home. She continued to witness for Christ and maintained a wonderful testimony.
One day a group from a Church came to visit her and through several visits convinced her that God was going to heal her. In fact, in one of the visits, it was prophesied that God was going to heal her on New Years Eve at midnight. She was greatly encouraged about this and began to plan for this great day to come. Word went around the nursing home and everyone was excited for her. On that night, many gathered to see her healing including a local television station who had heard about it. Shortly before midnight, this church group began to pray, and as midnight rolled around, nothing happened. Then another prophecy came forth stating that it would happen at 1 am. Again, nothing. Finally at 1:30 am, the tv crew left as did many others. At 2:00 am, another prophecy came forth stating that God would not heal her because of her lack of faith. The church group left and went home leaving a very hurt and defected lady who’s faith had been crushed by a group of church people who had highly abused this Gift of Healing. Eventually my preacher friend won her back to the Lord and helped to build up her faith again, and to this day, she is continuing to tell others about Jesus.
Listen church: this is a much needed gift today, but be careful that you never abuse this gift. Because if you do, you may hurt someone enough that they might lose their soul over it.
(The Gift of Miracles will be studied in Gifts of the Spirit Part 7)
