Healing
HEALING-DOES GOD CARE ABOUT ALL OF ME?
6/9/2001 AND 6/10/2001
-Last week when I was in service I sensed the Lord leading me to preach about healing this week.
-When we think about healing we think exclusively about the physical body.
-Biblical healing certainly includes that but there is much more.
Mark 5
1 ¶ They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.
2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him.
3 This man lived in the tombs, and no-one could bind him any more, not even with a chain.
4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No-one was strong enough to subdue him.
5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.
7 He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!"
8 For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"
9 Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many."
10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside.
12 The demons begged Jesus, "Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them."
13 He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened.
15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.
16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man--and told about the pigs as well.
17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.
19 Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."
20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.
-The title of this passage should be “WHO IS CRAZY NOW?” (The people who saw Jesus heal a crazy man wanted to throw Him out of town!)
-We see a man who had severe problems physically, mentally, and physically.
-If Jesus would have clothed him and cared for his cuts, he still wouldn’t have fixed the problem.
-Adrian Rogers said that if we work on humanitarian problems without addressing the spiritual and eternal, we just make the world a better place to go to hell from.
-We need to address the whole man as a church and as pastor.
-The King James uses a phrase about healing in the New Testament: MADE WHOLE.
Joh 5:6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
Joh 5:9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
1Th 5:23 ¶ May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(NIV)
1. HEALING THE HUMAN SPIRIT
-Your spirit is the innermost part of you.
-It is the part of you that can relate to God.
-God told Adam and Eve that they would die when they ate from the forbidden tree.
-They were cut off from God and the part of them that contacted God was estranged.
-Spiritual death is to be separated from God, the author of life.
-Jesus told religious people that they were like whitewashed tombs. (Somebody was dead inside.)
Genesis 2
7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
John 20
20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
-The word for Spirit in Hebrew and Greek is the word BREATH.
John 3
1 ¶ Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.
2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no-one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
7 You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.'
8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
-If any man is in Christ-he is a new creation.
-Spiritual healing comes from hooking your hose to the hydrant of LIFE.
Proverbs 4
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
-A lot of things are fixed when you get this part right.
-It is amazing to see life spring up when water hits it!
2. HEALING FOR YOUR SOUL
-The word for soul in Greek is “psuche”.
-Of course we get our word psychology from this word, the study of our soul.
-It literally means: life/mind/heart/person. It is the seat of the emotions, will, and understanding.
-It is the inward part of the human personality.
-It is the bridge between the spirit and body.
1 Peter 2
19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.
20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22 "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
(NIV)
-Literally we have returned to the Sheperd and Overseers of our psuches/souls.
-Jesus wants us to have a sound mind with emotions that are dependant upon Him.
-We addressed this last week with the subject of forgiveness and confronting inward contamination and bitterness.
-This has to do with:
RIGHTEOUSNESS
PEACE
JOY
ATTITUDES
EMOTIONS
Isaiah 61
1 ¶ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
-Jesus heals broken hearts.
Pr 14:30 ¶ A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
(NIV)
-There is an incredible connection between the inner man and outer man.
-My doctor told me once that most of what he dealt with was psychological issues and counseling.
-The book of Proverbs connects attitudes with sickness.
-Disease is broken ease.
-A broken heart can cause a broken body.
-In order to have health we need to focus on God’s ability to fix the whole man.
2 Timothy 1
7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
Proverbs 17
22 ¶ A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
-God gives us the ability to not have our mind get away from us.
-Attitudes are a big part of your overall health.
-De-tox and keep a clear conscious.
3. HEALING FOR YOUR BODY
Isaiah 53
4 ¶ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Matthew 8
14 ¶ When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.
15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.
17 This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases."
-The gospel includes physical healing.
-He is Jehovah Rapha – the Lord our healer.
-He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Mark 5
25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.
26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.
27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
28 because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed."
29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realised that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
31 "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, `Who touched me?'"
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.
33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.
34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
-She touched Jesus with faith and he touched her with healing.
-Believe with your heart and you can be healed.
PRAYER FOR THE SICK