TOS072 The Lord Healed Them All (Part 1) – Introduction For audio PPN
The Lord Healed Them All – Introduction. When I recorded the podcast “Healing and Gifts of the Spirit” I promised to teach in depth about healing at a later time. Over the years through ministry, conferences, research and prayer, the Lord has helped me find various ways to bring His healing to others. What He has given to me, I share with you as a follow-up to “Sharing the Abundant Life”. As I shared in my personal testimony, “A Witness of Life in the Spirit”, the Lord poured out a charism for healing into my life to minister His healing. “The Lord Healed Them All” was originally prepared in a book form to use to present the ministry of healing to the deacons of my area to help them in their parish ministries. Healing ministers stir up hope, and then the Lord shall stir the faith in his people as signs and wonders manifest. I now offer this series to help you along your way as He calls you to healing, too.
Blog: The Lord Healed Them All – Introduction
It is easier to pray for people to accept their infirmity with grace as ‘God’s will’ than to risk our self-esteem by asking God to heal. Somehow we think it is totally up to us whether the person is healed or not, that in some way we are the healer. Jesus says we have not because we ask not. When we finally understand that seeking healing is actually seeking the presence of God we will see the truth we have been given. As we share the truth, the Good News, people will experience the presence of God and his healing.
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit. This is an introduction to a new series The Lord Healed Them All. I’m Patti Brunner. This series will cover various ways that the Lord heals and uses his people to bring his healing to all.
The best starting place for understanding our call to minister and receive healing is to study Jesus. What did Jesus think about healing? It is quite obvious when we read the Gospel of Matthew that a major part of Jesus’ time was given to healing. Whether he healed because of his great compassion and love, to witness the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, or to draw people to hear the truth there is no doubt that Jesus provided temporal and spiritual healing during his ministry years. Through his death and resurrection he then provided the ultimate healing of everlasting life. What many forget is that he also trained his followers to heal and challenged believers to continue to provide healing. We are like the men who lowered the man through the roof to Jesus. Healing ministry involves bringing people into the healing presence of Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
It is easier to pray for people to accept their infirmity with grace as ‘God’s will’ than to risk our self-esteem by asking God to heal. Somehow we think it is totally up to us whether the person is healed or not, that in some way we are the healer. Jesus says we have not because we ask not. The Church repeats this teaching in James 4 saying, “You do not have, because you do not ask.”(James 4:2) “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” (John 16:24) The only time Jesus was limited in his own healing ministry was in his hometown. In Matthew 13 we read the story that since the townspeople recognized Jesus as the carpenter’s son, they didn’t expect much so that’s what they got. Like us, they were very impressed with Jesus when he spoke but the Good News did not travel from their ears to their hearts.
Matthew 13:54-58 “He came to his home town and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?’ And they took offence at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour except in their own country and in their own house.’ And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.” NRSV
Together we will look at how Jesus did things then explore how the Church he formed is to follow in his footsteps. His greatest gift to us, the gift of the Holy Spirit, makes it possible for Jesus to dwell within us. His Presence heals. When we finally understand that seeking healing is actually seeking the presence of God we will see the truth we have been given. As we share the truth, the Good News, people will experience the presence of God. When we ask with understanding and faith we shall also see the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
Asking God for something is called petition prayer. Why do we pray? We pray because we have faith in God and we know that God listens to the desires of our hearts. We know that God grants prayers and gives goodness to his children. We pray because we have deep needs that are beyond us and so we surrender our needs to the Lord. A model for the prayer for healing we can follow is faith, hope, and love.
We pray because we have faith that the God who created the universe can do all things. We pray in faith because we read the Holy Scriptures and we see a God of healing. We know that Jesus heals. He can heal all. He does heal all on several occasions in scripture. We believe Jesus is still able to perform these healings.
We turn to prayer in hope. We know that there are barriers in receiving healing. In hope we turn to the Lord to overcome these barriers. We turn to the Lord in hope that our will is aligned with the will of God. We pray his will be done when we surrender our own will to his. Healing ministers stir up hope, and then the Lord shall stir the faith in his people as signs and wonders manifest. Whenever the issue of healing arises, confidence in the Lord our God also arises especially after you have tested the Word of the Lord and found it true. So, continue to hope in the Lord for those issues for which you pray. Certainly God hears your prayers. When you obey the will of the Father you shall see the benefit extend not just towards your own family but an outreaching effect upon others.
Love is the basis of all prayer. Love brings us to the Lord to ask. Love helps us to recognize that sometimes suffering draws us closer to God. The Kingdom was not earned by Jesus so that we could suffer – “the Kingdom was earned through suffering but was not earned for suffering. Its purpose is for joy and peace which are based and found in love.” Our love for others causes us to be intercessors to bring their needs before the Lord and to cause a communication of love between hearts that allows the presence of God to ‘break through’ the barriers caused by sin and pain, and by lethargy and denial, to break through barriers caused by ignorance and by selfishness or unforgiveness. These barriers are difficult but not impossible to be broken. When the people pray together in one heart and one mind then the mind of Christ also enters in as we are one with him. God’s love for us is without limitation—on his part. Through the gift of freewill we can accept, reject, or limit his love.
Something we as Christians have to understand to step into our role of healing ministers is that miracles are easy—it is getting the people to believe and receive them that is difficult. And we ourselves are the first ones we have to convince. Jesus tells us we have not because we ask not. So we turn to Jesus and our first prayer is teach us how to ask, how to receive!
There it is! “How to receive”! God pours out his blessings upon the people. Indeed He pours out healing, prosperity, love, and joy. The people turn inward instead of towards him. They are their own god. To receive we must empty out self and empty out all prior judgments about condition. Become a clean slate upon which God writes healing and then healing shall be accepted. In the name of Jesus we shall do mighty deeds. Jesus calls us to use his name to release the people from the name of infirmity. Release the people from hatred. Release the people from each barrier, including lack of faith and trust.
People seem to place more trust in doctors than they do in Jesus. They trust their own regimen and habits more than God. They turn to God for the ‘hopeless’ conditions. Does hopelessness sound Godly? Indeed not. In his compassion God welcomes those who have given up hope in self and in medicines and doctors and the like. But the Lord calls a ‘hope-filled’ people to come to him for healing! Who do you think gave the ability to heal to the doctors in the first place?
The Church community is commissioned by Jesus to provide healing ministry among themselves and to others to witness his compassion, mercy, power and love. In my own church community of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Rogers, Arkansas, we have held healing ministry services since 2002. We did this because through his gift of healing, Jesus comforts those who mourn and those who yearn for changes in their lives to bring them happiness. Jesus heals the sick from their infirmities; He offers hope to the disillusioned and helps those tormented by the evil one. Several people joined with us as we came before Jesus and asked for healing. The Lord honored our requests and healed the people. We offered translators to our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters and from these connections we began to hold bi-lingual healing masses twice a year. The Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith, is also the source of healing. Later on, after the parish grew and we built a new sanctuary, we moved the healing teams to the fourth week-end of the month after each of the week-end masses.
The idea of the Lord taking care of us and healing us is not new. In the Old Testament the Lord is identified as El-Shaddai: The God Who is Sufficient for the Needs of His People. He is Jehovah Jireh, God the provider. He is also named the God who heals: Jehovah Rapha (Rophi). God has not changed. He is who he says he is.
Exodus 15:26 “He said, ‘If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.’”
Psalm 103:2-5 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Psalm 147:3 “He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds.”
Ezekiel 34:15-16a “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak”
A lot of the heartaches of life are tied to fear and death: physical death; death of relationships, death to promises and hopes. Some 365 times the Lord tells us to “fear not” in his scriptures. Fear has intensified the body’s reaction to outside sources of irritation. If you fear life you will die. It is that simple. Fear strangles the flow of the Spirit. Perfect love cast out all fear. (1 John 4:18) When illness or infirmity invades the body it can be an opportunity to trust God, to petition God for healing and relief or to offer to God the suffering as recompense. Each of these responses brings life. Should illness turn one to despair and deny hope in any good then it chokes the flow of the Spirit and death of the soul begins. Fear covers faith like dew covers clothes on a clothes line; through healing his peace shall soon be upon us like a gentle breeze that dries up fear. Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” He is the God of Joy, of Hope, of Love. He is the comfort of our soul. He is the extender of mercies. He is God, Jehovah Rapha, healer, He is Jehovah Jireh, provider. He is our God and we are his people. He will provide for our needs, bind our wounds and nourish our bodies. He keeps his promises. His word is true. Fear not. When you seek you shall find. When you knock the door shall be answered, and you shall be healed.
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You’ve been listening to “Truth of the Spirit”. I’m Patti Brunner. In the next episode we’ll talk about the truth of the Spirit that Jesus, indeed, healed them all. I invite you to subscribe, it’s free, so that it will be easy to come back for more; with the Holy Spirit there’s always more! Amen.
