Our First Healing Service (Pt. 1)

11/6/22

After many years of studying and months of asking the pastor to do a healing service, it finally happened! Although I have never preached a sermon, I have spent most of my life teaching and coaching others and have prayed for many people to receive healing. I led my first healing service on November 6, 2022. This was an incredible evening of worship and healing. All praise, honor, and glory should be given to Jesus!

In this post, I am focusing on sharing the truths that I shared on that night. The following post (Our First Healing Service Pt. 2) will be on the miracles that we witnessed together.

Are you expecting God to heal you? I want you to imagine a world in which sickness and disease does not and cannot impact the believer, what would that do to our witness in this world? My main motivation to study healing was to try and win some of the people I am surrounded with every day. These people are never going to believe in God unless they see something. It can't just be all talk, philosophy, and mind games, we all truly want to experience God's power and majesty. Let's take a look at John 4:48. As I was getting ready to share, this is where I was led. "Then Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe." This brought me great comfort. Jesus, Himself was immersed in the same type of society I was, the same society you probably are as well. Jesus used signs and wonders (specifically healing) as a way to draw people to him.

The awesome thing about our Lord is that He wants you to be healthy! Truly, Jesus desires for you to be healthy. I have heard so many people say, "well... God is using this sickness to teach me some things". If that is true, why would you want to be healed? If God is using it specifically to teach you something, then why not just embrace the sickness? The truth is, God can teach us things through sickness but that wasn't His plan A. God desires you to be healthy.

Isaiah 53:4-6 says "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

If God wanted you sick, why did he take stripes for our healing?

Psalm 103:2-5 "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."

Psalm 107:20 "He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions."

But that is all old testament, it is different now...

Matthew 8:16 "When evening had come, they brought to Him (Jesus) many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.

Jesus healed all 17 times in the Bible. 41 times Jesus healed 1 or 2 people. And 0 times did Jesus say, I'm using this sickness to teach you something.

Jesus even called Himself the healer in Exodus 15:26. "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."

So let's get this straight, healing was God's idea, He said it, and He paid for it, so why aren't I healed? Because we have a part to play! Faith is about partnership. Faith says that I trust you, I see that You are for me. Faith is a choice we have that can either release healing in our lives or sow disbelief. So what is our part? We are told to speak to our mountain (Mark 11:22), we are told to pray (James 5:13), and we are also told that faith without works is dead (James 2:26). A "work" is about putting the money where the mouth is. So many times people in the Bible had to go to Jesus, with the risk of embarrassment or being discredited, but it was by faith they were all healed. The Bible also says in Luke 9:1 that we were given power and authority over all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Why would Jesus give that kind of power and authority to us? Because He is in us, and His Spirit has made His home in our hearts. He desires to partner with us. Jesus paid for our healing, but it is up to us to partner with Him, pray, act in faith, speak, and believe. In my experience, if we do those things, we see healing manifest in our lives so much easier.

If this has blessed you, I would encourage you to go deeper with your faith. Start praying for all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Healing is not only availble for the "super saint", God healed all. God healed the believer, the doubter, the alive, the dead, the old and the young. God wants you to be healthy and He wants you to know His heart. Trust in Him.

-Randy