Healing (& Spiritual Gifts)

This week at Ellerslie we had a session called “Healing 101”. I have notes upon notes, but I will try my best to condense the main points. I’ve also been doing a side study in my free time on spiritual gifts, which goes along with healing, so I’ll toss some of my revelations from that into this also. Spiritual gifts can be a touchy subject for some people, and studying healing can raise more questions than answer questions, but it is my prayer that we would stay first and foremost fixed upon Jesus and Him crucified, and that out of that steadfast center point we would grapple with the other things that the Lord leads us to study. He has been teaching me and transforming me through opening up my eyes to the things unseen in the natural realm. May He give the church the gifts needed to make up the body and effectively function.

The divine purpose of healing: Healing is only a means in which to bring an end (which is bringing people to life in Christ, not just making the body better).

·      To raise up followers/disciples, selfless servants (Matt. 4:23-24, 9:18-19, 23-26, 30-31, Mark 1:28)

·      To point men to the cross (Matt. 8:16-17, 9:2-7)

·      That men might glorify God (Matt. 15:30-31, Mark 2:12)

·      To leave men awe-struck (Matt. 9:32-33, 12:22-23, Mark 1:23-27, 5:42, 7:35-37, Luke 9:42-43)

·      To draw men to believe in Christ (John 11:45, Acts 9:32-35, 40-42)

·      To create a stage for the gospel proclamation (Acts 3:2-19)

Healing is a rather controversial topic in the church today, depending on denominational background. Some people believe in the myth of Cessationism (cessation: a stop, pause, interruption, especially a permanent discontinuation), where doctrine is based on experience, not the Word of God. Cessationists believe that once the canon of scripture was completed, and the Bible was completed, then the spiritual gifts ended. The fact is, according to the nature of God and His Word - He does still heal. The gifts are for today. Wisdom didn’t cease with the completion of the Bible and neither did knowledge, discernment, or faith - where would we be if we lacked these! Also gifts of healing, tongues, prophesy, and miraculous powers are still accessible through the anointing and enabling of the Holy Spirit. God opened my eyes to the supernatural last year, and my faith has never been the same since. I had put limits on what God could do. I mean, I’d always believed that God could do anything, but I never realized that He actually does do miraculous things through the church today. I now know that my God is limitless. There is nothing my God cannot do. He is great and mighty. There is no one like Him. There is so much more that He wants to release in our lives if we are open. He wants to equip us and enable us to walk as Jesus walked, to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, to perform signs and wonders. Jesus has given us the authority to drive out evil spirits, to heal every disease and sickness, to raise the dead. We are to walk in the authority of Jesus, and do even greater things than Jesus (John 14:12). We have the same spirit in us that rose Christ Jesus from the grave! He will give us the keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatever we bind of earth will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. If we are in our position, in Christ Jesus, dead to self and alive in Him, in alignment with the Word of God, walking in His holiness, filled with His Spirit, surrendered to His will, then we can literally bring heaven to earth. We can pray in the name of Jesus and release the kingdom.

Spiritual gifts are to be approached with a spirit of humility and meekness. We need to keep Jesus and Him crucified as our focal point. What Jesus can give us is not to be our focus. Love is the greatest gift. We have such a tendency to be seeking the things of God, the power of God, or the authority of God, rather than the person of God. We need to first know our God before we can know how to properly wield what He gives us. We use our gifts for edification, to point to Jesus and Him glorified, not to attract attention to our self and how spiritual we are. He gives us gifts to build up the church, to open the hearts of the lost, to display His glory. If we are walking in pride and are not fully yielded to the Spirit of God, and are yet putting spiritual gifts into practice, it can be dangerous and harmful to the church. We need to be led by the Holy Spirit, fully surrendered, so He can live through us. We are His hands and feet, and we must consecrate our bodies unto Him and allow Him to do His work through us. Jesus is our highest pursuit, and if He chooses to give us a gift to accomplish His calling on our life and fulfill His purposes, then we need to be open. But He will not move His Spirit upon us and manifest Himself in us unless we are willing. Many are called, but few are chosen for grand exploits. The way to be chosen is to say “yes” and dare to ask for more. There is no need to be afraid of spiritual gifts, but we need to approach them with a holy trembling and fear of the Lord. There are people who are apprehensive because of seeing the misuse of the gifts – when they saw people who operated out of the flesh and not out of the Spirit. Spiritual gifts must be born of the Spirit; otherwise they will degrade the church. We are commanded to “eagerly desire the greater gifts” (1 Cor. 12:31), “now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant” (1 Cor. 12:1), “follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophesy” (1 Cor. 14:1), “be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (1 Cor. 14:39), “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophesies with contempt; test everything and hold on to the good and avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thess. 5:19-22). Jesus is my aim, He is my center, and I pursue love about all the gifts, but I hunger for more. I long for a release of the supernatural in this generation; that the full, raw power and glory of God may be poured out across the nations, unleashing an unstoppable revival.

Jesus is Jehovah Rapha: the God who heals. At Pentecost, Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit upon believers, filling believers with the fullness of Jehovah Rapha. The Healer lives in us, and He can heal through us. God is still working on this earth, though we don’t see things everyday like the parting of the Red Sea, He still performs signs and wonders and miracles. For those with the faith to move mountains, who are surrendered to Him, and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, it is possible to open blind eyes and to see people get up out of hospital beds. Romans 8 says that creation itself will be brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. On the cross, when the wrath of God was satisfied, Jesus Christ established for us sonship in heaven. We are now divine beings, heirs to the throne of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, under the authority of Father God, and the leading of His Holy Spirit, I declare that my generation will exercise authority over creation - over cancer, over AIDS, over natural disaster, and over death itself. We will stand firm in who we are as children of the Most High God. And we operate under an ancient authority to the end of injustice. I believe we could turn this world upside down if we operated in complete surrender before the throne of God.

The origin of sickness and disease comes from the effect of man’s rebellion, the fall – it’s the effect of sin. There can be sickness stemming from the spirit, soul, or body, or a combination of these. The divine purpose of the cross is that it nullifies the effects of sin. Atonement: defeat of sin and sickness that those who believe might be set free (Is. 53:3-7, Matt. 8:16-17). Jesus is the bearer of sin and sickness (Is. 53:12,4). Jesus bore our sickness so we don’t have to bear it. He bore our sin so we don’t have to live in it. The cross gave us both forgiveness of sins and healing of sickness. It gives us the grace, the enabling power, to overcome sin and the effects of sin. Jesus died to give us victory. We are bearers of His name, and His name says He is Healer, so we stand on His promises and ask Him to show His glory.

I have never raised a dead person, or healed a person in a wheelchair (other than in dreams), but I fully believe that the Lord is growing me in faith, and all it takes is the faith of a mustard seed. I will not stop pursuing the deeper things; I want to live as the believers of old, as in the ancient days. I want to be like David and take down a giant, like Joshua and boldly march into the Promised Land and claim my inheritance, like Moses who spoke face to face with God, like Isaiah who saw the heavens opened. I hunger for upper room experiences and divine encounters. But I long most for intimacy with Jesus. To sit at His feet, to know His nature, to seek His face, to dwell in His presence, to please Him, to know Him and make Him known. But I want to allow His Spirit to posses me - to allow Him to showcase Himself through me to an unbelieving world that their eyes may behold Him and their knee bow before Him and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. I openly receive any gifts He desires to release on me so I can glorify Him. Shekinah glory come and show us the wonder of Your great love. Release the fullness of Your Spirit. Let us walk as Jesus did, let us be Paul’s in this generation and courageously live out what we behold in the book of Acts.

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:14-18).