The LORD's Day, May 31,2009

Healing by the LORD

Matthew 8.1-27

I approach this subject with great care and caution and with fear and trembling. More damage has been done to sincere and suffering Christians by the mishandling of this subject than any other in the Bible I believe.

We see Jesus healing people in this portion of Matthew’s Gospel that follows the Sermon on the Mount. In fact it is what took place immediately after Jesus finished that great message. He had taught hearts now He was going to heal bodies.

Much has been written on this subject- Divine Healing. The Word of God is sole authority. Some books are very good and help us but there nothing like the Word of God.

Healing is a gift from the LORD. We don’t buy it or pay for it rather He paid for it as Isaiah is quoted here in verse 17. It is part of His death on the cross for our sins- the healing of bodies from sickness and disease.

It happens...


1. If God Is Willing v.1-4

God is able, more than able. Why He is not always willing to heal is beyond me for the most part. I do not understand.

Sometimes I can understand a little:

Fanny Crosby

Joni Erickson Tada

That scripture in Isaiah 57.1
The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. This is a comfort when someone we love who loves the LORD and pray for to be healed dies.

We cannot take authority over heaven. God’s will must be that the person is healed and if it is not they will not be. I wish I didn’t have to say that It is hard to hear that, harder still when we are in that situation of praying for a loved one and we are told that. I don’t think telling that to a person who has a loved one suffering is wise. It is better to pray to the LORD and listen. They don’t need your insight or comments. They need your prayers and love.


It is amazing the spiritual perception of this leper. He knew Jesus’ power. He believed Jesus could. He approached Jesus on the basis of His will not His ability. He was further along in his faith and understanding than many Christians today

This leper broke protocol (Leviticus 13-14)- many people who are healed do
Nana

The man who was lowered down from the roof by his friends.
The woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of Jes Mark 2.1-12 us’ garment. Mt 9.20
The Syro Phonecian woman Mark 7.24-30


Healing occurs if it is God’s will and...

2. If We Have Faith

The scripture in James 5.14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

We have seen that work. We are witnesses.

If we have faith then we will be healed is not always correct. But faith is such a powerful force that we are told that the prayer offered in faith will have profound effects and while it is the LORD Who raises the sick person up it is the prayer offered in faith that makes it possible.

Obviously we can have faith and not be healed however.

Paul did. II Corinthians 12. 7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Paul left Trophimus sick in Miletus II Timothy 4.20

While Jesus healed many while He was on earth, His ministry was confined to Israel and some of the borders. So many people died while Jesus ministered and healed. Luke 5.15-16 tells us that not everyone who was sick even when Jesus was near was healed. There were times when He was in the mountains in Galilee and in a Garden in Jerusalem.


I remember as young pastor listening to an older minister at a table in a restaurant one day, tell us we better get down what we believe about healing and make sure it lines up with the Bible. He went on to tell of his wife’s illness, which she had for a number of years.

Not long after we had an older couple come to Christ. Shortly after Bernie was diagnosed with a horrible heart problem. There were multiple blockages. On the way home from the cardiologist, she and Pat her husband stopped a the church. They were besides themselves. I said, “Let’s anoint you with oil on Sunday and pray that God will heal you. They came back into my office shortly after. The tests showed no blockage. The doctor was amazed. He said it was like you have a new heart. She told him what happened.

We have been praying for the LORD to heal Alyssa. She also has a new heart in a different way than Bernie got hers. Sometimes He heals through medicine.

3. A Lesson From the Storm

He doesn’t stop every storm.
Life’s storms come (Matthew 7) He had just spoken these words prior to healing bodies.

It is whether we have built our lives on God’s Word or not that determines afterward if we are standing.

If it is not His will to heal then we many times this is a storm that can blow a person apart. Lives come crashing down. People have turned away from the LORD when tragedy comes. Remember Job’s wife

Luke records that the man was covered with leprosy from his head to his toe. Luke, the doctor. Luke was a traveling companion of Paul the apostle. They were ship wrecked on the Island of Malta- sometimes God doesn’t stop the storm. He uses it to get us where He wants so He can work through us. They both worked- Paul’s gift of healing/ Luke’s skill of medicine. Acts 28.9 The Healing Service became a Medical Mission.

Some storms are stopped, others are not.

Yet He did stop this storm And He does miracles. People are healed today.