Sick? Only Jesus Heals, But With Your Cooperation! Capt. Kelly Durant
Matthew 9:12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
2. When you serve on disasters as we do in the Salvation Army you see all kinds of situations with people after a tragic event. One situation is this, a person comes to you to do volunteer work and you think, great, more help. But then as they fill out the form you notice they have not had a shower in several days and that their eyes are red from a lack of sleep, and they are repeating the same phrases like, “I’ve been helping all this time, I just want to help, I just want to help”.
What is you assessment of this person? It becomes apparent that they are in shock and in denial of how they need a rest! In their mind they are there to do good because the tragedy is severe; there to serve and alleviate the suffering, but if they themselves need attention and are not perceiving it, then you and I have to convince them to just stop! They may refuse to hear that they should come back after a few days, that they first should attend to their selves, but otherwise they are in no sane condition to be of a help to anyone and you cannot work with them.
I am using this example as a parallel to what happens in the church. There are many people who come to serve, but they have not perceived how they are not ready to serve correctly due to living in denial of the sins they have, due to not being aware of their lack of being properly trained for the job, and due to a lack of not getting their own healing taken care of first so they serve while healthy.
3. When a Christian shares their faith, what is one of the first steps they must get another person to do? They must help them to see their sin and be aware of their condition so they repent of it. You and I must help others see that they are a train wreck disaster, that they have messed up and sinned and offended God and others, and that they are not able to fix it on their own. Can you still see your sins? Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Name me your past sins right now? Can you? If a person thinks that they are alright, that they don’t need your Christian opinion or God’s word to try and find fault with their life to correct anything, then they are rejecting salvation and they will remain as lost and will keep on damaging others and their own selves! The law is you reap what you sew, so no one escapes. Closeness to God means awareness of what is not right, not by your own definition, but by God’s word.
Proverbs 5:22-23(NIV) 22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast. 23 For lack of discipline they will die, led astray by their own great folly.
4. So here is another analogy. You were sick, you got afflicted, let’s say you got a broken ankle; you were not walking with God but rather you were walking in places that were dangerous and risky and you had a fall and a wake up call. A common event that happens with most all of us as humans, right? Then what happened next? You went to the emergency room, got a cast, had some time out laying flat looking into the sky that God made, and then you were better but you were not totally well, so what did the doctor recommend? Therapy!
Have you ever thought of church and your time with God as your therapy? You have been healed for the most part of your broken spirit but you must have God’s word, and fellowship with other Christians to keep maintaining your health, like a medicine. Time with God is needed for all of us or we will not heal in the right way. If you do not heal an ankle in the right way it will hurt horribly and make you walk crooked until you die! But if you do God’s therapy you see positive results!
Fellowship with God’s people brings us joy and happiness and makes our hearts glad! Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. God’s word brings wisdom and healing spiritually and even physically! Proverbs 3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. 8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
5. So why am I bringing this up? Because I am concerned that some people are more healed up in your broken-ness than others! Christian growth is a process and some of you are cooperating more with God applying your needed medicine and therapy than others!
In general many Christians (and think about how you do it) wake up and pray every day, they take time to read or study God’s word every day, so weekly they are getting 6 days or 6 hours of healing and then another 3 or 4 hours on Sunday so they are making good progress.
But there are others that wait until Sunday, and then they only come one or two Sundays a month, so how do they think that 4 hours a month is going to help? That’s only 1/10th compared to the progress of others! This is why a person becomes weak, become prey to the enemy, and are not used by God as God would like. God has his will for us, but too often people let their will in the way!
6. Jesus always wanted people to do their part, like when He resurrected Lazarus, he told those near him to roll away the stone. Another example of those doing their part was when Jesus told the lepers to go show their selves to the priest. He did not heal them instantly as with others in the recent past, these lepers had to walk for some time to get to the temple and do what lepers never did, go into the temple!
Luke 17: 12 ‘And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: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.’ It was forbidden for a leper to go anywhere near a priest so those that obeyed and went despite knowing that fact were healed! And all 10 went and were healed but only 1 came back to give thanks!
There are many people who get sick and then beg God to heal them but then soon afterwards they forget about the miracle. Consider this, the Lord puts the maintenance of our healing salvation on each us and He wants it to continue. Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
7. What the word makes clear here is that you no one is answering for your obedience to God’s word, not me, and not Paul of Tarsus. Only you are directly responsible for your own salvation and maintenance of living free from not committing further sins and progressing and growing into a spiritually healthy holy saint of God. The doctrines of the Salvation Army confirm what is stated here in the Word as well. Let’s review 7 and 9.
*7. That repentance toward God / faith in our Lord Jesus Christ / and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation. 9. That continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.
So how are we going to keep well and on the right path? We have to have the desire, passion, and will to do the work to make it happen! But there is one thing here in Doctrine 7 that we must take a closer look at.
8. It is the regeneration by the Holy Spirit! That is our medicine and power that keeps us healed, walking firm and strong, not letting us fall down as we use to so easily as before. Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
What brings us success is our connection to the Holy Spirit with our regenerated heart that has lost its desire to sin. We know there are gifts of the Spirit and there are the fruits of the Spirit. Let’s review some of both.
I Cor. 12 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues 11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
9. So how do we know if a Christian is healthy and healing, or not? Matthew 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. In the Holy Scripture also we can compare if a person is acting out of their own flesh, or matured and governed by the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
10. Everyone is at a different maturity healing level in their walk with Jesus. Some have not fully assessed what made them fall in the first place and recognized how much they need assistance to heal, or how important it is that they should invest a whole lot more into their spiritual well-being.
So many people who come so infrequently, who communicate so little, who may have too much pride, think they can do their own therapy with little council or guidance, but we observe it is not creating the needed healing. Our Church/ Corps fellowships are comparable to like having a classroom that accommodates toddlers, middle schoolers, and college students all in the same building, and it is a difficult situation but God has an individual plan for each person He loves.
The factor is we must be tolerant of each other, and accepting of each person’s level. Years in the Corps, or age does not necessarily equate into maturity. Maturity is a personal ongoing endeavor and others are here to guide, teach, and support but it is each individual that advances or regresses by their daily choice.
11. God loves everyone and the college student should not resent the High Schooler and no one should be a critic of who is where in their spiritual life, that is between them and God. At one point we all started out with the (symbolic) broken ankle. What you are doing to heal as an individual is what matters.
I recall when I was in a room with 5 other people who had broken their hip as my mother had at this time about 5 years ago and everyone was doing therapy. Some refused the therapy and preferred to stay in a wheelchair. Others did their best to get up and endure the pain and strengthen their walk and get back to normal. And others were told they were doing too little exercise on their own and that they needed to improve their self, allowing help, if they wanted to walk correctly and heal appropriately. This image describes the Christian walk and the dedication of people to heal and grow, does it not?
This is the situation here in this piece of God’s Kingdom, in the Hialeah Corps. No one is to blame for where you are at spiritually except yourself! The Captains and Pastors are not to blame for the immaturity of some as some would like to think. Jesus taught Peter and Judas the same things and one turned out to be a powerhouse for winning souls while the other turned out to be a traitor!
Where you are with God, mature or immature, with your fruits and gifts, has been the product of your own work! This church family has offered, and keeps offering plenty of training, sermons, Bible classes, and council but since the truth hurts as a therapy, many don’t want very much of it. Let’s pray that each of us will take conviction and take more imitative to mature and heal correctly so God can use you and me to the maximun for His glory in winning others to Jesus.
