To Heal or Not to Heal...

GCT:  This week we will be looking more closely at several specific people in Luke 5, and how they were involved in healing and non-healing.  Yes, Jesus healed the leper and the paralytic but He also didn’t heal many other people who were present.  First and foremost we much rejoice in the fact that Jesus heals!  Jesus wants you to know that He has compassion on the diseased, the hungry, the sick and the oppressed.  In His compassion he chooses to heal sometimes while we are still in our earthly bodies.  And sometimes Jesus choses not to heal us while we are still in our earthly bodies.  The great promise that we are reminded of when we see a healing today is that healing is a reminder of God’s promise that He will heal everything when He returns and makes everything new.  At Jesus’ return we as believers will be healed of everything!  We who are perishable and mortal will put on the imperishable and the immortal at Jesus’ return (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).  Jesus has come to usher in His kingdom that makes all things new.  Jesus has come to restore the natural order of His creation.  The Bible tells us that God did not originally make this place where we live a place with hunger, disease and death.  Jesus has come to redeem all of this hurt, pain, suffering and sin.  Sometimes Jesus chooses to heal us physically while we are still on this earth but more importantly Jesus wants us to be healed spiritually.  He wants us to be healed spiritually through His gift of faith which atones for our sins and makes us spiritually healed.  He wants that more than physical healing.  Healing physically is His decision as a sovereign God to heal or not to heal while we are still on this earth.  Everyone who received physical healing in the New Testament from Jesus eventually died physically.  That is why Jesus cared more about their eternal spiritual healing than their temporal physical healing.  

So, the healing of our bodies before Jesus returns and heals us of everything is dependent upon two things.  First, it is dependent upon our faith as seen throughout the New testament. (Matthew 8:1-3, 13:53-58, Mark 6:5-6).  Second, healing is dependent upon the purpose of our heavenly Father who has the power of healing.  This means that it is ultimately our Father’s decision to heal in heaven and not ours.  This means that just because you have faith that God will heal does not mean that is His will to heal.  And absolutely this means that our lack of physical healing in our earthly bodies does not mean that we simply have a lack of faith nor does it prove that an increase in great faith guarantees healing.  Healing is dependent upon our faith and the purpose of our heavenly Father.

So, what do we do when we are sick or when others are sick?
1- Have great faith and pray to our compassionate God to heal.
2- Trust in God’s sovereign purpose and will to heal or not to heal.
3- Worship God through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit in good health and as we are dying.
4- Trust in the promise that Jesus will heal His children of every sickness, disease, and sin.
5- Be delivered from the fear of death knowing that Jesus has destroyed the one who has the power of death.

Church, we have a great God who has promised absolute spiritual healing today.  Let us rejoice in that spiritual healing while also praying for physical healing, knowing that spiritual healing is far greater than any physical healing as evidenced in Jesus' response to the paralytic before He healed Him physically, “Man your sins are forgiven.”

I look forward to worshipping with you Sunday, Rejoicing in eternal healing - Steve