Today across our group of churches is Healing and Wholeness Sunday.
We are a Pentecostal Church and we believe that God can and does Heal people every day.
So why do we have a specific day dedicated to Healing and Wholeness?
In many ways today is no different from any other day but often we need to be reminded that God is God and God is able to heal.
In whatever circumstance or situation we find ourselves we can trust our God to care and bless.
When we read in the bible the amazing accounts of miraculous healing we are often amazed by the change that God can bring into a persons life.
And maybe, we wrongly assume that was then and this is now.
It is so easy for us to ignore the truth that our God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Our God can bring healing and wholeness today.
Our God can change your circumstance today.
Perhaps some of us, like the idea of God healing, read about it, prayed about it, but we have not experienced healing in our own lives.
Because of our experiences, we can be sceptical when it comes to healing services or healing prayer.
If someone is healed, if someone is changed - rather than praise God - we may even try to rationalise or explain it away.
When we trust God, we allow Him to move and work in our lives.
When we allow the Holy Spirit to minister to us, when we allow Him to do what He can do, then we can experience His touch on our lives, then we can experience a fresh fire in our lives as we allow Him to work in us and through us.
Today can be a day that can impact each and every one of us.
My prayer is that all of us will allow ourselves to be healed, inspired, moved and changed by the Holy Spirit - not just today but every day of our lives.
Friends, this morning it is God's desire that you experience healing and wholeness in your life.
Whatever circumstance or situation you are in today you can trust your God to care and bless.
But you need to allow the Spirit to work in your life. Do not quench the power of the Spirit in your own life,
Allow the Spirit to change you and shape you and heal you today.
Allow the Holy Spirit to make you the person God has called you to be today.
Today allow the Holy Spirit space to take control!
Would a fresh touch from the Holy Spirit make a difference in your life today?
Do you want a fresh fire in your life today?
Fresh fire, a fresh supply, fresh anointing, fresh power, a burning love for God, a burning love to know Him and to serve Him.
Does your heart and mind and life need to be touched and changed by the Power of God today?
Do you need Him to Heal you and make you whole today?
In this world, so many lives are broken, so many relationships are damaged, so many are in despair, so many prodigals seem to be wandering in the wilderness.
Perhaps in your own life this morning it feels like the situation is impossible.
In your own strength, it probably is.
But in God's strength, in His might, in His love, in His Grace, all things are possible. He is the God of the impossible.
The miracles that occurred in Bible times, can and do still occur today.
Our God is the same God that spoke this universe into existence.
Our God is the God that hung the stars in space.
Our God is the God that formed you in your mother's womb.
Our God is the God that knows you better than you know yourself.
Our God is the God who loves you and cares for you and has promised never to leave or forsake you.
Our God is the God of miracles.
Let me be clear God can heal today.
Whatever situation, circumstance, trial, problem, illness, relationship issue, or problem you have, or another member of your family has, or a friend has; God can make a difference today.
He can heal and restore; He can make the broken whole, the sick well, God can still heal today.
This morning, you need to hear God's voice, to feel Him ministering to your need, to know the wholeness and restoration that only He can bring to your life.
God can bring change to your life today.
Maybe you are one of those people who is always looking for a way to improve or change your own life for the better.
Maybe you watch the commercials on the shopping channels for the latest diet or exercise products.
Perhaps you watch the news or read the papers and right now you are one of the many people who are trying the latest fad diet - the No Food & No Drink diet.
It is a diet that is guaranteed to change you. If you eat nothing and drink nothing every day you are guaranteed to lose weight.
You are also guaranteed to lose health as quickly as you lose weight because our bodies require nourishment.
Just as our bodies require nourishment, so do our spiritual lives.
All of us can try and change our outward appearance for the better.
Some rub in an anti-wrinkle cream, others get so many botox injections that there face is harder than stone.
But it is only the Holy Spirit that can change us on the inside.
It is only God that can bring healing and wholeness.
People are always looking to improve, to change for the better.
People go to school, conferences, seminars, counsellors and psychologists looking for ways that they can be changed for the better.
It is only the Holy Spirit that can bring real change
What about you? What is it about yourself that you would like to change?
If you could change one thing about yourself,
what would it be?
Is it the way you look?
Something to do with your health?
Something to do with your level of expertise on a certain subject?
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
God is interested in change.
He is interested in changing you.
There are certain things about you that God wants to change.
God wants us to experience the power & purpose that we as Pentecostal People can experience.
God wants to bring healing and wholeness to our lives as He changes us into the people He wants us to be.
The first disciples believed in Jesus as their Saviour, but they were still confused about many things.
They did not fully understand the mission of Jesus, they did not fully grasp why he had come to earth.
They were confused, they were timid.
They were not confident about sharing the Gospel with others.
How could they, if they did not fully understand it?
Then at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit Changed them.
The disciples were together when the sound of a blowing wind came down from heaven. What seemed to be tongues of fire settled on their heads.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and a crowd gathered, people from all over the world, and that crowd listened as the disciples preached the Gospel.
Then Peter stood up and addressed the crowd – he delivered a sermon that God the Holy Spirit inspired him to preach, a sermon that God used to convert 3000 people in one day.
Do you see the changes that took place as the Holy Spirit worked in their lives?
The disciples confusion had gone.
They understood.
They were bold.
They were confident.
They were changed.
Fire is the symbol of transformation! Fire changes whatever it touches.
The Holy Spirit took fisherman, former prostitutes, ex-religious leaders, tax collectors, and various family members of Jesus and the other disciples and formed them into a united group we call the church.
It was the fire of God's Spirit that changed them, are you willing to be changed by the fire of the Spirit today?
Are you willing to experience healing and wholeness today?
Our world needs change.
Our world needs healing.
Our community needs change.
Our community needs healing.
Our families need change.
Our families need healing.
We need change.
We need healing.
We need a fresh touch from God on our lives.
We need to be transformed by the Holy Spirit.
We need the power of God to energise us.
We need the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us.
Everywhere we look in the world today there is hurt, suffering, and tragedy.
Sometimes it may be physical affliction, mental turmoil or spiritual barrenness, but it is all around.
And God has called us, God has called this Church with Pentecostal Power to make a difference!
How many people do we pass every day that are crippled by situations, they do not know what to do with their children; their marriage is falling apart or their job is hanging by a thread or they struggle with low self-esteem,
guilt or depression?
Behind every door, there is a human need. Every person has a story to tell.
We have all been hurt, we have all been used, we have all failed, and we all need healing.
We need Jesus and that is the biggest need that anyone has.
Many people today they hurt, they hurt in silence, and the church is the last place they want to go.
Many of them view the church as self-righteous.
Even if they have a good view of the church, they lack the motivation to get out of bed on a Sunday morning to come to Church.
They need the healing and wholeness that only a relationship with Jesus can bring.
The early Church was birthed in the power of the Holy Spirit, the community around us, our families, our friends will not be transformed until we as a Church are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are the church of Jesus Christ,
we are a Pentecostal Church.
We were born of the Spirit,
we identify with the Spirit
and we are to seek after the fullness of the Spirit.
As witnesses, we cannot afford to stop seeking to be filled with His power.
As the church, we cannot afford to remain the same, we need to be transformed.
As His Children, we cannot afford to ignore His immediate presence.
We as a church need to experience Pentecostal power once again!
We need the power of the Holy Spirit to change us, to heal us, to empower us.
When it comes to our outward appearance - the superficial stuff - the stuff that people see when they look at us - we want to change.
When it comes to the inside - the spiritual - the person we are when we think nobody is looking.
The bit on the inside is often what we try to convince ourselves that does not need changing.
We do not think we need to change inside.
We do not think we need healing.
I am alright the way I am we say to ourselves. What do I need to change about myself?
The answer is a lot. Yes, we may be Christians, but we are not perfect.
We still have sinful habits that we do not want to get rid of - because we enjoy them.
We still have moments when we are selfish.
We still have moments when we completely misunderstand what God is telling us in the Bible.
We still have moments when we fail to share our faith because we are too timid.
We are Christians, we are going to heaven, but we still need to change.
We need to become more and more the people that God wants us to be.
How do we change?
Not by trying to be a better person.
That is like saying that there is something wrong with my car, but I can fix it by being a better driver.
You need God to work on your engine, your soul. Your soul is too complicated for you to fix yourself.
You need to allow the Holy Spirit to fix it for you. But how?
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came directly to the disciples. He can do that to you.
He could come with the sound of a wind, or with tongues of fire, or through the preaching of the Word or during worship.
The Spirit can come in the spectacular or in the simple.
On the inside, all kinds of change can happen.
The Holy Spirit changes us daily.
Do you want to be more confident?
Do you want to be at peace with God and yourself?
Do you want to be less confused about the Bible?
Do you want to understand God more?
Do you want to be able to share your faith more naturally, more confidently?
Do you want to be able to live the way God tells you to live in the Bible?
Do you want to change?
Do you want to change?
Then let the Holy Spirit do what He does best!
Let Him do the miraculous!
Allow Him to fill you afresh.
Allow Him to change you.
Allow Him to turn you into the person God has called you to be.
In a moment we will pray for individuals - if you want prayer there will be an opportunity for you to come forward.
But right now where you are I want everybody to stand.
Sometimes we are too proud to come forward, sometimes we are too worried about what will happen - sometimes in our pride we do not want anyone to know we are hurting.
Is everybody standing...
Ok now if there is nothing wrong in your life right now, nothing wrong in the life of someone dear to you,
nothing wrong in the life of a neighbour, friend or family. Nothing that needs one touch from the king
If there is nothing that needs healing in your life,
if there is nothing that needs to be changed,
if there is nothing that can be made whole
if there is nothing you want Jesus to do you can sit.
Thought so, every one of us needs to be healed from something
every one of us wants Jesus to make something whole
every one of us needs the touch of the king on our lives
