All posts tagged: healing

He will Hold me Fast: A Post Election Day Prayer for our Nation.

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From the beginning of the election season, I’ve watched with eager enthusiasm. Along the way, I made my feelings abundantly clear to my family where I stood on the issues. I also made a comment or two to close friends but never made a public comment either on social media, this Blog or from my pulpit. Wait, maybe one time, as I shut down a guy who shouted, “build the wall,” as I made a sermon illustration on an unrelated topic about China’s Great Wall. I believe everyone is entitled to their own political beliefs, but when we gather for worship the focus should be Christ-centered. So, I led  the church I pastor in prayer on a regular basis for our dear and beloved country. Something I hope to continue moving forward. As you have rightly suspected, this nation is deeply divided, but it is important for us to heal this great divide by calling on the Lord. We are at a critical point right now. We cannot miss this moment. If we will ever reach a …

He daily bears my burdens

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There is a phrase I love to use every moment I get the chance. It is not just a slogan or a catchy phrase for me – it’s a deeply theological truth that I believe with all my heart. ‘God is Good’ The bible says, “You are good and do good.” ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭119:68‬ ‭ESV‬‬ I believe this with every bone within me. God is Good! It is from this vintage point that I try to convince people who struggle with pain and suffering in this life. Too often we blame God for our misfortune, and accuse him of cruel indifference. But scripture is clear: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:15‬ ‭ESV‬‬ I am so glad that God suffers with me in my confusion of pain and suffering. I am so glad that God suffers with me in my struggle against sin. I am so glad that God suffers with me …

Divine Healing Is an Integral Part of the Gospel

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The ministry of both Jesus and the apostles gives evidence that divine healing was integral to the proclamation of the gospel message. It was an important witness to Jesus as the revelation of the Father, the promised Messiah, and the Savior from sin (see John 10:37,38). The Bible shows a close connection between the healing ministry of Jesus and His saving, forgiving ministry. His power to heal was actually a witness to His authority to forgive sins (Mark 2:5–12). Frequently the gospel writers testify that His healing miracles parallel His preaching of the gospel, both being the purpose of His ministry (Matthew 4:23; 9:35,36). People came from all directions both to hear Him and to be healed (Luke 5:15; 6:17,18). He never turned any away but healed all varieties of sicknesses, diseases, deformities, defects, and injuries (Matthew 15:30,31; 21:14). He also delivered people from demons and the problems they caused (Matthew 4:24). Jesus recognized that sickness is ultimately the result of the fall of humans into sin, and in some instances may be linked to specific sin (John 5:14) or to the activity of Satan (Luke 13:16). …

Divine Healing Is a Gift of God’s Grace for All

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Just as salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), so all God’s blessings and gifts are ours by His grace, or unmerited favor. They cannot be earned or deserved. It should be noted that instead of demanding healing from Jesus, the New Testament records that people came asking for His compassionate ministry. They did not look on healing as their right, but as a gracious privilege extended to them. That we cannot earn God’s blessings, including divine healing, should make us realize the importance of cultivating our life in the Spirit, for the Spirit will “give life to your mortal bodies,” and that is our real hope (Romans 8:11). In fact, even though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). It is this inner renewal that makes us best able to have the faith to receive the gift of divine healing. To the woman healed of her twelve-year-long bleeding, Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you” (Mark 5:34). Paul at Lystra, when he saw that …

Divine Healing Will Be Fully Realized When Jesus Returns

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We are living at present between the first and second appearances of Jesus Christ. At His first coming He provided, through His life, death, and resurrection, atonement for sin and its consequences. In this era divine healing, a gift of God’s grace, is seen as a proleptic expression of the complete redemption of the human body. At His second coming what was begun will be brought to completion—salvation from sin and all its effects will be realized. In this period of the “already and not yet” some are healed instantly, some gradually, and others are not healed. The Bible indicates that until Jesus comes we groan because we have not yet received the full redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23). Only when the dead in Christ rise and we are changed do we receive the new bodies which are like His glorious body (1 Corinthians 15:42–44,51–54). Even followers of Christ groan and travail in pain like the rest of creation, waiting patiently for the fulfillment of our hope (Romans 8:21–25). In that the human body …

Divine Healing Is Provided in the Atonement

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The ministry of the priests under the Law foreshadowed the ministry of the great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses (astheneia, weakness, sickness, disease, timidity, infirmity)” (Hebrews 4:14,15). The Old Testament priests, through the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices, made atonement for the sins of the people. An examination of the concept of atonement in the Bible shows that in most cases it refers to a ransom price paid for redemption and restoration, which points to the redemption through Christ accomplished by the shedding of His blood in our behalf. The apostle Paul described it this way: “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:25). The phrase, “sacrifice of atonement,” translates the Greek hilastērion, which can be also translated expiation, propitiation, atonement, or mercy seat. Leviticus 16 records God’s expectations for Israel’s Day of Atonement and the ministry of the high priest sprinkling the blood of a sin offering on the atonement cover (the solid gold lid on top of …

Rivers in the desert: Feel it rushing to and through you…

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Enjoy a few powerful seconds from last night’s meeting at church. His presence was truly in the house. This is what I crave every time we meet. Revelation 22:1, 2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Prophetic Prayer: May his river of life, healing, and joy flow in and through you today. May his river of gladness fill up every dry and barren place in your life. May all the fruits of the Spirit be birthed in you, and may you be productive in every good work as you yield to His ever flowing stream. May it be that through you healing and blessings might come to those all around you. That He may restore unto you the years …

Praying Scripture over Oklahoma

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Isaiah 48:8 In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances Isaiah 58:12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called repairers of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. Isaiah 61:4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations Thank you! May God Bless these families!

Two Steps to a Miracle

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The Lame Beggar Healed/ ACTS 3:1-9 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.  But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.  And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.  And all the people saw him walking and …

Name above every name

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Three years after my native land (Liberia) was engulfed in a brutal civil war, I found myself in a foreign land trying to pick up the pieces of tragic loss. My father was dead, rebel soldiers were living in our home and the rest of the family lived in La Côte d’Ivoire among a people of strange tongue. Fortunately for me and my family, Jesus Christ had become not only a Savior but also a very close friend and we were enjoying a time of revival through the ministry of my spiritual father (Forrest Beiser) who was an American missionary to La Côte d’Ivoire. One evening as I walk home from church, I lived about a mile from church in the Riviera, residential area, I noticed a man walking toward me. The stench of liquor and rotten flesh went before him. I was kind of afraid at first, but when I realized he was limping I grew confident that I could him on if attacked. Just as he passed me by, he stopped and said …