HEALING THE SICK IS NORMAL CHRISTIANITY - by Bill Dew

As one who struggles at times with being so right-brained, always wanting all my ducks in a row, trying to understand this "call into Healing Ministry" has been a challenge ... so this is how I have reconciled it in my heart.   ACTS 10:38 — “God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”   That scripture should be a mandate for all of us — God, do it again!  The works Jesus did are to be carried on by us — as HIS designated agents here on earth. God anointed Jesus to heal the sick and set the captives free. He doesn’t have to if Jesus is operating as God, but he’s operating out of His humanity.   “He emptied himself of what it meant to be God” (Philippians 2:6).  That's really good news for us because if Jesus did everything as God—it’s impressive—but we can't do that. But as a human yielded to God, I can follow his example.   One of my favorite verses is 2 Cor 4:7—“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” That word "excellence" means to "throw beyond." In other words -- you can be so full of the presence of God that it spills out of you and can change the atmosphere and the unhealed condition!   Before I got touched by God in 1992, I didn’t believe in healing. I had never seen it and it wasn’t talked about in my church, but when God touched me and the first person I prayed for got healed, it made a huge impression on me and I had to pursue it. It summoned me and provoked me because I don’t logically understand it. Jesus said “I only do and say what the Father says and does.” (John 5:20).  How did he know? The Spirit of God was on him.   Now, this is what I find interesting ... and scary. I only see four times Jesus healed in the temple. Everything else is outside of the synagogue or building. 1) Matt 4:23 (Teaching in synagogues — many were healed) 2) Mark 1:21-26 (Demoniac man w/ unclean spirit healed) 3) Mark 3:1–5 (Withered hand healed) 4) Luke 13:10–13 (Woman bent over with a spirit of infirmity healed).   Everything else is out in the marketplace: Jairus' daughter; the woman with the issue of blood; the blind man "I see men like trees walking; the man born blind; the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda -- and many others. Jesus didn’t teach on unanswered prayers because He didn’t have any, but he invites us into a lifestyle where we do what He did.   In Matthew 10:7-8 we see our commission for the healing ministry. "Heal the sick."  He didn’t say “pray” for the sick. This is the place where God makes us uncomfortable.  If you want to see miracles in your life, it will be “IN” and “UN” — inconvenient and uncomfortable.  He gives us commands that make us uncomfortable — so we need the Comforter! God will put us into a situation that we can’t do on our own. You can only succeed through that tender, intimate relationship with God. We pray for the sick because we want Jesus to get what He paid for!  It’s all about relationship and doing with Jesus what we cannot do — so I don’t take the credit or the blame.  If someone gave me a check to deliver to you, you wouldn’t thank me for it because I didn’t write the check — I just delivered it!  When you pray for the sick, you’re delivering a check someone else wrote (Jesus). Faith is important but Jesus didn’t withhold the miracle because of the smallness of faith — He provided the miracle so faith would accelerate.  Faith is when I participate in how God thinks about an impossible situation.  Faith grows through surrender, not striving.  It always comes back to His PRESENCE.  We’re given the privilege of confronting things that are impossible, knowing that’s our assignment. This should be    NORMAL CHRISTIANITY for every Christian --"going about, doing good, healing all who are sick and oppressed by the devil, for God is with you.”