James 5:14-16 – “…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.  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.  Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective…”

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Matthew 8:14-15 - “When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.” 

Jesus wants more than to come into your heart.  He wants to come into your home, to your family, to touch the people closest to you and save them.  When we really put our faith into practice, our family life centers on the Lord, and our family members and loved ones receive His blessings as a result.  Many evangelistic messages today center around the verse in Revelation 3 where Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock…”  We are encouraged to open the door and let him in.  Yet this is not just the “door to your heart.”  Too many people treat their faith as a private matter between them and their Lord.  There is certainly a private dimension to our relationship with Christ, but there is also a public component – our integration into the Body, and our application of our faith within our home. continue

“To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit…” - 1 Corinthians 12:8-9

Healing is not a ministry.  It is one of the nine spiritual gifts.  There is no biblical basis for “healing ministries,” despite how fashionable these are today.  Some who claim to have a “healing ministry” are actually operating a faith-healing business, where people give money in exchange for a healing.  The Holy Spirit may indeed use certain people in the spiritual gift of healing more than He uses others.  Even so, there is no “ministry” of healing.  The only “ministries” in the New Testament are the five listed in Ephesians 4:11 – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.       continue

Psalm 103:3 - “…who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…”

Galatians 2:12-14 -  “I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you.  You have done me no wrong.  As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn.”  

We believe strongly in healing, and we have many wonderful healings happen in our midst.  At the same time, we freely admit that not everyone is healed, and we do not always know why.  We know there are several factors that affect whether we receive a healing.  Many talk about “faith” – and there is a place in the Scriptures where it says Jesus could not operate many miracles in Nazareth, because of their unbelief. (Matthew 13:58; James 1:6-7 also addresses this).  Sometimes we ask for the wrong motives, and this also prevents our prayers from being answered (James 4:3).   continue

“…they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.” - Matthew 4:24 (NASB)

Matthew describes the five types of infirmities of people Jesus healed during his ministry on the earth.  These different healings give a deeper understanding of the five-fold ministry in God’s project.  Because Jesus – as our great High Priest – had all five ministries, it is interesting to see how He used each of them in healing people.  The five ministries are listed in Ephesians 4:11.  The Lord appoints apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and the doctrine of the ministry is provided in other teachings.  For the sake of understanding the infirmities Jesus healed, it is only necessary to understand the general focus and purpose of each of the five ministries.  

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John 4:46-54 - Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.  When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”  The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.”  The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.  When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”  Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.”  So he and all his household believed.  This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.

This man was a person with a high social position and political power. He was surely more wealthy than most of the common people. But he had a need – his son was dying. No matter what benefits we have in this world, we all have needs and problems that bring us to the Lord – problems for which this world has no solution.

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On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.  But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.  Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”  He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. - Luke 6:6-10 

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Mark 7:32-35 - ”There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.   After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue.  He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!” ).  At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly…”

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John 9:1-11 - As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.  As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.  ”Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing…

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Luke 5:24-26 - But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”  Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God...

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