DIVINE HEALING

[Bob B]

DIVINE HEALING

When ever we see a divine healing take place in a friend or family member, it is a glimpse of Heaven when we will all get new bodies that will never get sick again and will be healed forever.
I personally have seen many people healed over the years, and have had healing take place in my own body.

Up front I want to say that I do not believe that God heals everyone all the time. I have been battling chronic pain in my body for over 3 years due to a neuromuscular problem.. I will always allow other to pray for me, and believe God for my total healing. Even though God has not chosen to heal me at this time, I still am experiencing the next best thing, “GRACE”.

Grace is awesome and I have been walking in for quite a while. God gives me a task, and then he gives me strength to do it. There are some things God has ask me to do that in my own strength, I would be a failure. But His grace is enough to get me by, and even more.

I think there is a reason that not everyone gets healed physically instantly.

The scripture says, Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much ( James 5:!4-16 )

Healing and health in a person life takes time. We are in it for the long Haul in many cases. Being born again, planted in a church family, reading and trusting in the Word of God, receiving prayer from the elders, and from one other; All these things bring healing and restoration into peoples lives. God restores us from the inside out spirit, to soul, to body.

What good is it if someone is healed of a liver disorder, but is still and alcoholic? What good is it for some one is healed of sexually transmitted disease, if the person is still sleeping around?

Psalm 107:17-18 says, “ fools become sick because of their sin.” so we need to focus on getting people healed and free in their spirits by the new birth, then dealing with things like forgiveness and getting rid bitterness which can cause physical problems, also help them to walk away from sin. The fact is, that love always hope, and always believe for healing for others, because that is what the God kind of love does.

We must be very careful about putting burdens on others by saying things like, “ you must have weak faith, and that is why your not healed, or you must be doing something wrong in your life and that is why your not healed.

Remember Job's friends made this mistake and they were very wrong.

We are encouraged through the process of healing, it is then that we discovered that we have a wonderful Christian family who loves us, and will stand by us through the healing process.
This is the taring off the roof kind of Christianity, and bringing one another to Jesus that we see in the Gospel. We will stand by each other until they are totally healed here, or in the Kingdom.

We also have to realize that we will all get sick and die some day unless Jesus comes back first. This is the ultimate healing for us, So continue to pray and believe God for divine intervention and healing for our friends and families.

[Bob B]

Amen marry Ann, I remember a few years back I was listening to Focus On The family, they had a clip from a Sunday School class where a Pastor was healed while he was speaking with this mike that enabled him to be heard. Even while he was saying healing wasn't for today.

He had lost his pastorite because of this viral infectin against his vocal chords. It was so powerful, He was shocked and you could hear the shock of the group there in the class. So we never know what God is going to do. We just must keep believing and trusting in Him.

[MaryAnn]

Last night in our Wednesday night gathering at church, we listened to one of John Wimber’s video-teachings on Signs, Wonders & Church Growth. The teaching was on World View. It was revelational to me how our ‘world view’ inhibits and controls much of our thinking and how we observe things and our also our actions. John teaches how our view is heavily coloured with materialism and rationalism, where non-westerners view is experiential.

In the story from Mark 8:22-25 when Jesus commanded healing, I thought ‘all’ of His healings were instantaneous, but in this story of Jesus healing the blind man, where he spit on the man’s eyes, at first the man saw people like trees walking around. Then Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes again and his eyes were opened. Sometimes healing is progressive, and sometimes instantaneous. We are conditioned to see things a certain way by many things, upbringing, culture and the media certainly help to frame our view. In John 6:14-15, the story of where Jesus feeds the multitude of 5,000, perhaps their viewpoint in those times was, that because they were looking for the Messiah, and because Jesus performed great deeds, they said, ‘Surely He is the Prophet we have been expecting, and they were going to try and force Him to be their King’. They assumed, because of their ‘world view’ that Jesus was going to establish His Kingdom right then and there, and they were going to help him do it. We never know how and when God will reveal Himself. I love that about God. HE is unpredictable!

Your sis in Christ!
MaryAnn

[Bob B]

Charles you can as you say ramble all you want to because your ramblings are from the heart of God. If you were saying this in a church service, I would be on my feet shouting Amen!!!!!!!!!

[Charles Burwell]

Dear BobB

There is much truth in what you have said. I have heard many pastors almost accuse people of having no faith , or at best weak faith, when they are not instantly healed. We so often forget that we are here to bring glory and honor to Jesus and not ourselves or some preacher. Some of them just don't seemed to understand that sometimes God has a purpose in allowing illness. A scriptural example is the apostle Paul's 'thorn in the flesh'. People only speculate what the 'thorn' was and I have my opinion but that's all it is. I don't think that there are many who would accuse the apostle Paul of not having faith or having weak faith. Yet, as far as we know, God never removed this affliction from him because God had a purpose for it. To keep Paul from becoming arrogant because of the revelation God had given to him.
I had a very dear sister in the Lord many years ago who refused treatment for cancer because the church we attended believed that if your faith was strong enough you would be healed. She suffered about a year before she passed away. I guess you could say that she received the ' ultimate' healing'. I don't believe for one minute that she didn't have the faith to be healed.
I'm just one who believes that human faith cannot override ' divine providence', as Lincoln refered to it. The ultimate choice is what brings the greatest glory to God. Did she have 'weak faith' so she wasn't healed. I don't believe that for a minute. For some reason God chose not to and one day I may understand what it was. I do know that she is now in His presence so she probably couldn't care less why.
One other thing I'd like to share on the matter before I go rambling on. When I ived in DC I attended a small church in the SW section. Most Sundays after church some of us would go visit an elderly woman over in the projects. Our intention was to cheer her up and have a small informal church service for her. She was suffering from a form of arthiritis that caused her arms and legs to draw up where she couldn't walk or take care of herself. She had to totally depend on the generosity of family and friends. She loved to hear singing and reading of the word of God. To make a long story short, we never left her presence not being infinitely more blessed by her than we ever blessed her. We were all in unanimous agreement on that. She had spent every day for many years , in that bed never able to get up on her own. Hadn't walked in years. Couldn't hold a bible up to read it even if her sight was good enough to read. Yet when we came into her room she was always smiling ear to ear and greeted us in the name of the Lord. She had a joy that , and did , put us to shame. When I'd whine and complain about my aches and pains I would think of her and have to ask God to forgive me.
She loved the Lord, loved to hear His word read. She didn't want me to read a few verses , she wanted chapters read. She would sing with us as best she could. She didn't have much lung strength from being in bed all the time , but she sang with all she had and was constantly testifying to the ' goodness of God'. I've mentioned before about treasures God has allowed me in the form of people in my life that I meet. She is definitly one of the real treasures. I saw a crippled woman with not an ounce of self pity , who considered herself' blessed' simply because she was a child of God and was loved by Him. Her surroundings miserable, she had to depend on others for even her most basic needs but never seemed to be discouraged or fail to have a kind word for all who came to see her. And even for those who didn't come to see her who she would love to have seen.
I didn't get to go over to her place the Sunday that sshe went to be with the Lord but a couple of ladies that did told us she was almost glowing. They said that she sang loudly and clearly like they had never heard her sing before. Then a couple hours after they left , according to her daughter her face lit up with a big smile and she just closer her eyes and went to be with the one she most dearly loved.
I will never forget that precious saint for a lot of reasons. Some times I think of her lying in a bed on this earth then picture her walking, or possibly dancing, down the streets of gold with her savior. I don't know what heaven is going to be like or exactly what we'll be doing but I just like to picture that precious woman like that.

Well, I said I wouldn't ramble but I did. My point in this is that she blessed so many people in such a powerful way by proving that God's grace is indeed sufficient and His strenght is made manifest in our weakness. Before you get the wrong idea and think I don't believe that God can instantly heal , I absolutely believe that He can do anything, anytime for anyone. I'm just saying He will respond in the way that brings the most glory to His precious name. I'm just saying, as in the case of the 2 I mentioned, God got more glory in allowing us to see His grace demonstrated in a way books could never relate. I was tremendously blessed to see grace in action. This lady didn't just talk about she lived it and I am blessed beyond measure for having been allowed to know her and see God in action through her.
Sometimes He heals to bring glory to His name and sometimes He doesn't heal and brings even more glory to His name. When people ask me to pray for their healing I pray for God to give them the grace to deal with whatever HIS choice is concerning that. After all it is all about HIM, not us. AMEN

God bless you my brother and again I apologize for making this so long. I have a bad habit of rambling.

In His service

[Bob B]

Glad you were blessed brother.

[felixpadua]

thank you for this blog. i am enlightened.