Forgetting God's Healing Power: A Modern Day Plague

"Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you! Get up, and roll up your sleeping mat!” And he was healed instantly." Acts 9:34

 There's a modern plague going around and it seems to be contagious. It's not always visible to the naked eye. It doesn't show itself with boils on our skin or a fever. It has one symptom: a high wall of doubt that we have built around us. What is it?

 We've lost sight of the fact that Jesus heals.  He heals today, in 2013 and he healed a few thousand years ago. His healing ministry has never ceased. It has continued from His ministry on earth until now and it will always continue. There is no scripture in the Bible that says "when modern medicine advances enough, God's healing shall no longer be needed." In fact the Bible tells us the opposite.

"But the crowds found out where he was going, and they followed him. He welcomed them and taught them about the Kingdom of God, and he healed those who were sick." Luke 9:11

When large crowds came to hear Jesus speak, they instinctively saw Jesus as a healer. Their faith made them already believe they were healed. So much of this instinct that Jesus heals seems to have been lost in today's modern world. The pure faith that Jesus will heal us should never be lost. We should not limit His miracles.  Often we trust in man's healing, but not in God's. We have doubt. Our mind is plagued by the question "will God really heal me?" We are suffocating with doubt!  Mans healing can be wonderful and no doubt many medical advances are put in mans minds by God and many doctors are used by God as an instrument of His healing. But let us not forget who is also a Great Physician.

We believe as Christian's that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Do we also believe that He heals? Can we find the faith to believe that He heals? It is impossible to separate Jesus from His healing ministry. So much of Jesus' short ministry on earth was defined by healing.

"A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”  Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?"
But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.  Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Look at the pure faith of the bleeding woman!  "If I just touch His clothes, I will be healed." She did not doubt. Jesus said to her "daughter your FAITH has healed you." Her pure faith in Jesus healed her. She did not ask twenty doubtful questions in her mind and heart if He was capable of healing her. She did not dilly dally with idleness in her trust. She simply reached out, touched Jesus' clothes with the pure belief she was already healed.

Her faith and God's power healed her. But our lack of faith can also hold us back from healing. Our spiritual disease of doubt can prevent us from being healed from our physical diseases.

 When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.” And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. Matthew 13:53-58

They asked a lot of questions didn't they? They made up every reason to block the instinct that Jesus heals. They smothered their own healing with their excessive questions, instead of trusting in God's power. They did not have a natural instinct that Jesus would heal them, so Jesus did not do many miracles there!

Jesus showed God's power through many miracles that seemed impossible to man. Diseases that were not curable in men's minds were easily cured by Jesus. 
 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.  So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Luke 7:21-22

The healing power of Jesus also goes beyond physical diseases. It touches spiritual, mental, and emotional diseases. When He heals one, healing of the others tends to follow. Because when we are healed physically, our faith grows, so we are healed spiritually. Our spirit is renewed and we are healed mentally. Our mental state is improved and we feel better emotionally. Jesus is an all encompassing, complete healer. He was not a trained physician and He did not go to medical school. The power of God alone brought forth these miracles. And the power of God alone brings forth miracles today.

We should always pray with a pure faith for God's healing and see where He guides us. We should not trust in man first, but in God first. God is our first and greatest physician. The God who knit us together in our mother's womb knows our bodies enough to heal us! He knows every cell, every organ, everything that is going haywire in our bodies. He has the great and complete knowledge and power to heal us.

Let us be like the woman who knew even before she touched Jesus' garments that she would be healed. 
  
 God's healing power is unrivaled by any man.  HE HEALS.


"Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me." Psalm 30:2

"A large crowd followed him, and he healed ALL who were ill." Matthew 12:15

Prayer: "God, you know my diseases. You know the plague of doubt in my heart. Give me a pure faith in your healing. Remove the doubts from my heart and mind and heal me God. I KNOW you can and I KNOW you will. Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts and your ways are higher than mine. I don't have to understand how you will heal me, I just have to believe that you will."