Gift's of Healing and Miracles
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
What is it about the supernatural that both fascinates the human mind and also makes us utterly uncomfortable?
Our world is filled with books and stories of wizards, magic, dragons, spirits and the like. Some of the best selling books and films of all time are fantasy stories of these same things…
The world can’t get enough of the stuff. But the strangest thing is that as soon as someone suggests that all this may actually be real and that we can interact and be involved in a spiritual reality that is hidden by the natural world… people get incredibly uncomfortable, maybe scared (for good reason), or con-descending. Anything spiritual, anything that is supernatural in nature whether it be horror or fantasy we’re engrossed with it as a society. We either in fear try to subdue it, and persecute anyone who thinks it’s real or we become champions of the spiritual realm investigating and diving headlong into a world of mystery.
Why is this? Why can’t we just stick to the tangible reality of the physical world? I would suggest that the reason we can’t do that is because when we were created, we were created in the image of spiritual beings.
Genesis 1:26 begins with the line, “Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...”
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit decided that we should be created in their image… If we were created in the image of Spiritual beings then it would follow, that we are in fact spiritual beings meant for a different reality than the physical one that we live in and that we are merely inhabiting a way-station on a journey to that spiritual realm and home that we were created to be inhabitants of.
Why do I talk about this? Because the subject of miraculous healings is one of great controversy even in evangelical circles… Why do healings happen and why don’t they? How does it happen? How does one pray so that it will happen and what if we can never know how to do so?
These are all questions that all of us have probably asked at one point. I can’t claim to know the answers to these questions, but our goal today is to discover a small amount of clarity regarding healing miracles as well as what the Gift of Miracles and the Gift’s of Healing are.
Gifts of Healing
Gifts of Healing
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
In the bible, there are various instances where we see healings take place. Many of them are performed by Jesus but we also see his disciples performing healing miracles.
I’ve seen a couple miraculous healings before. The one that I remember the most though was when I saw someone who had one leg that was shorter than the other by almost 2 inches. Someone prayed for this person and I watch the leg grow before my eyes. It was an incredible thing to watch. But why doesn’t this just happen all the time, we know that they can happen…
I’m sure we’ve all wondered about healings and why sometimes when we pray for healings they happen and other times they don’t… Honestly, I don’t have a decisive answer for you… I’ve heard arguments that it is dependent on the faith of the person being healed and the one praying, and also arguments that the healing is based solely on the faith of the person praying.
The bible doesn’t speak very much to this specifically. But here are some examples related to healing miracles in the bible that can inspire us...
1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking.
Paul saw that he had faith to be made well… We’ll talk about what just happened a little later but remember this… Paul saw, and he discerned that the man had faith…
John 14:12-14 says
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
This passage can be confusing because we don’t always get what we ask God for.. but something helpful that we can discern from it is that belief is needed before any works can happen. It does say ask for anything… but what happens if God has a greater plan for the person who is sick than just to heal them? What if He want’s to reach others through this person? We need to believe that God has a plan and that it’s greater than ours.
Austin story
Discerning where God is headed is the most important aspect of praying for anything. When we pray in alignment with what God is working towards, glorious things will happen. But when we pray out of alignment with that plan, most likely we won’t get what we ask for. The only way we can begin to live in this kind of discernment is to spend time with God.
But this is just us asking God to heal someone through prayer… what does it look like for someone to have the gifts of healing? The gift of healing is a healing touch that a person is blessed with. This comes with a given level of discernment of whom God wants to be healed so that His power and love can be revealed. Remember, the spiritual gifts are all for the edification of others. The given discernment is key because like I said before, when we pray out of alignment from God’s plan, things don’t go as we hoped they would.
When we first started this series we mentioned that this gift was different from the others in that it is plural. “Gifts of healing”.
The plural use of the word gift is most likely referring to the healing of different kinds of diseases or afflictions. When someone has the gifts of healing, it is not only a gift for them to use, but a gift to give gifts of healing. Each time someone is healed they have been given a gift.
In our culture, regardless of your beliefs or values, upon hearing the term healing most people would think of a physical healing. But the Greek word used for healing is “iama.” Iama can be used to refer to both physical healing and spiritual restoration. It’s basic meaning in English would refer to someone’s restoration of health, well-being, or reconciliation to God.
In the ancient world, obvious spiritual activity was very common. Most diseases and infirmities were attributed to some kind of demonic possession or oppression. This was before the world became de-spiritualized or enlightened to the ways of science. Back then, we couldn’t understand how a lot of things worked, things that were unexplained were magical. Because the technology to figure things out hadn’t been invented yet, people were perfectly content to attribute sickness to demonic activity because that was something that they knew was real and it made sense.
Today we have all manor of technological advances that give us insight into how the human body functions, what happens when we’re sick, and how we die and live on a microscopic level. There’s nothing left to wonder at… as a result, the idea that any sort of disease or sickness could be a result of spiritual attack is mostly a crazy idea that many wouldn’t even entertain unless you have experienced the spiritual realm in some way. But even then, those of us who have, we are sometimes afraid to talk about it because it is such a foreign concept to the world around us… at least in North America.
Because of this de-spiritualization, when we hear the term healing miracle, most of us just hear physical healing not to mention we immediately doubt the validity of the healing. The reality of the gifts of healing or the gifts of Iama if we use the greek, is that it is both physical and spiritual. Many times spiritual oppression may manifest itself as a physical illness and as such, the gift of a healing miracle would be as much a spiritual healing as it would be a physical one.
The Working of Miracles
The Working of Miracles
Today we’re also going to talk a little about the spiritual gift of working miracles. The word for “Miracles” in the Greek is dynameon. This greek word stresses an element of power. Potentially this gift would be specifically given to someone who is called to do spiritual warfare and display the power of God. But what’s the difference between this gift and the gifts of healing?” Healing is a miracle, so the kind of miracle that this gift is referring to must refer to miracles of a special and extraordinary power as we might deduce from the meaning of the Greek word dynameon that we just discussed.
to confirm this, in… it is said
5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
no mighty work except to lay hands on a few people to heal them…
I would imagine that these mighty works or miracles of extraordinary power would be something like raising the dead or an exorcism. Now I’ve never seen an exorcism happen, but I was told a story by one of my prof’s at summit about what it’s like...
There was a woman in their church who would have very sudden and loud outbursts whenever Jesus was mentioned… Eventually the pastor decided that this woman needed to be talked to because she was starting to be very disruptive but he also had a feeling that she was possessed by a demon.
One sunday after the service the pastor asked if he and his pastoral team could pray for her and she said yes.
So they took her to a back room and began to pray against the demon inside of her. This is when it get’s crazy. She started to writhe on the ground and make all manner of noises.
If I remember correctly this took a total of three days praying for I think around an hour each time before the woman was freed from the spiritual oppression she was suffering. After each time the woman was left exhausted.
That, is a power encounter with the forces of satan which would only be conquered by an incredible divine intervention..
This is what the gift of miracles would be for. It’s for something more than a miracle. It’s for battle. Spiritual warfare on another level.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Don’t let this stuff scare you… Don’t let the spiritual reality of the physical world we live in make you uncomfortable… Face it with a wariness, knowing that the spiritual realm is real and that there is evil in it… but also face it with a confidence that God is standing at your back and has called many of us to fight a spiritual battle on others behalf's. Not only has he called us to do spiritual battle but he has also equipped us with His spirit and the the gifts of the spirit to be able to do battle effectively.
Healing miracles are wondrous things… If you have the gifts of healing, don’t hesitate to use it. If you have the gift of miracles, don’t hesitate to use it. And if you have no idea whether that’s you or not, Don’t shy away from opportunities to pray for someone to be healed or to pray against spiritual darkness when you feel stirred to do so.
Nothing bad ever comes of praying for others whether for healing or freedom from darkness and nothing bad ever comes from doing spiritual battle against the enemy.
In doing so, you may meet trials of many kinds from those around you. But in James 1:2 the bible tells us to “count it all joy… when you meet trials of various kinds.”
Trials against you means that you are doing something good for God or at the very least making inroads to that thing that He has called you to do. So be joyful when you meet those trials because that is how you know you’re on the right track.
Pray for those doing battle around you because we all are, face down your struggles in life with a confidence that says I know who has gone before me and I’m not afraid because I know who I am in Christ. Be warriors for God and the spiritual kingdom that we all are residents of. If war came to our front door, would you not do everything you could do to fight the oppression of your home? We must do the same for our spiritual home, the one we were created for… as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:30, earnestly desire the higher gifts… Pray that you might receive the gifts of the spirit because in them we can be that much more effective in bringing the love of Christ to those who need it most.
You are the hands and feet of Christ, Go be blessed, and bless others this week