25 May 2008

The Willingness of God to Heal.
Matthew 8 : 1-4. Jesus said - I Am Willing.
We need faith in more than the power of God to heal. We also need to know that he is willing to heal. Here we see a clear statement from Jesus for us to rest our faith on - “I am willing.”

Evidence of God’s willingness to heal.
1. Creation. Our bodies have self healing qualities built into them. We respond well to rest, sleep, good diet and exercise. We are designed to be well and to recover from sickness.
We can also see this ability to recover in nature. Man pollutes and exploits the earth but there is a God-given ability to recover.

2. The character of God. See Psalm 103, verses 2-3, 8, 13-14.

3. The covenant names of God. Exodus 15 : 26. Jehovah Rophe – I am the Lord who heals you. Being in right relationship with God brings protection and a covering of his blessing. God intents that his people enjoy his “shalom” – wellbeing, peace and prosperity in every sense.

4. Jesus always healed those who asked him for healing. See Matt 8 : 5-7, 16-17 and 4 : 23-24.

5. Experience. We have recently seen God heal in our meetings. However, in our experience there are many who are not healed. Our theology must not be shaped by our experience but by the word of God. There is a sovereign aspect to this – God is sovereign and we need to recognize that. He has purposes beyond what we can see and understand. The disappointment of seeing people go away not healed was never experienced by Jesus. However, it was the experience of those with great healing ministries like Kathryn Kuhlman, John G Lake and John Wimber. They often grieved over those who came but were not healed. This is a reality that we have to live with, but if 10 are prayer for and one or two healed I think we should go for it.

Matthew 8 : 1-4.

1. Leprosy. This was a physical and social disease. You became an outcast – unclean and untouchable. Lepers became the living dead. It could take up to 9 years for the disease to take it’s course. It was a disease of separation.

2. Faith. The leper has real faith in Jesus. You CAN make me clean.

3. Conditional faith. His faith was shaped by his condition. He asked like a leper. He had leper mentality. His doubting “if” came from his unacceptable, unclean condition.

4. A healing touch. Jesus reached out his hand and touched him - a touch of acceptance. Jesus was healing much more than the disease. It was an act of physical and internal healing. Jesus was able to touch the unclean and remain clean. Rather the unclean became clean at his touch.

5. Leper mentality. This make people feel unclean / unworthy / untouchable / unacceptable. We all start out as lepers. Now we are clean “In Christ” we need to leave all leper mentality behind. We can be like this leper approaching Jesus with faith but full of “ifs”, not confident in his blessing. Leper mentality can come from sin, not knowing the truth about who we are, wrong attitudes and lies. It needs to be corrected by truth.

6. Healing from leper mentality. God wants to bring us into the full blessings of covenant sonship. See Matthew 10 : 1, 5-8. We see the disciples moving in authority, confidence and obedience. If we are unclean, or think we are unclean, we cannot step out in God’s authority. It creates a doubt in us and robs us of our confidence so we hold back.

When we are “clean” we know that we are accepted by God which brings great confidence.
The only answer to uncleanness is to come to Jesus and say “please make me clean.”

Leviticus 14. The ceremony for making atonement for lepers.
Following various washings , sacrifices and the shaving of hair the priest would touch the right earlobe, the right thumb and the right big toe of the ex-leper with blood from a sacrificed lamb and with oil. His head was anointed with oil. Today, for us, the same applies. The blood of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit declare us to be clean. We are accepted sons with dignity and authority.

Robert Duncan, 25/05/2008