A merry heart doeth good LIKE A MEDICINE...Prov 17:22
So medicine is good! It's not wrong to use medicine!
Sickness is reality, but don't allow religious folk to tell you the sickness is because you've sinned, or aren't walking in faith. Keep in mind the scripture, where Jesus was asked whether it was the man or his parents that had sinned, and he replied "neither". Jn9:1 That single account doesn't negate the truth of heredity, nor prevent fornicators from acquiring Aids or venereal disease. Diet and culture play a part, too.
When the Apostle Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake, Acts28:3, the people thought GOD had afflicted him, and they expected him to die, but he shook it off and carried on as usual, and the outcome testified to God's deliverance!
Don't think GOD has afflicted you (nor let other people tell you so) -- it's the little-god, 2Cor4:4, who's to blame!
Yes, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, Psalm 139, with "built-in" healing that takes place even while we're sleeping, and not forgetting that God INHABITS our praises, Psalm 22:3.
From birth defects to amputees, from ear-aches to athletes foot, nobody has escaped being a casualty, and it's especially hurtful when it happens to someone we love and know for sure they haven't done anything to deserve such affliction.
Those with a limited knowledge of the Bible will ask "How could a loving-God create a world filled with sickness, birth-defects, and terrible pain?" They hadn't noticed the Bible teaches Two(2) Gods, and that earth is the Devil's Domain.
The Book of Job, 2:6, has Satan in heaven and God telling him that Job was in his hand, and we already knew about the serpent (Satan) in the Garden of Eden. The "three(3) temptations of Satan" (Luke4:6, Matt4:8), nails down the truth -- that this earth is Satan's Domain, which is EXACTLY why we need a saviour and a healer.
One of God's names is "Jehovah Rapha", Ex15:26,which means "the God that heals". Other verses endorse this claim: Psalm 103:3 records that God "heals all thy diseases", and Psalm 107:20 records that God "sent his Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions".
Scriptural methods or catalysts of healing: REALLY!
Laying on of hands - Mk6:5, Lk13:11 Speaking faith - Mt8:6, Lk17:12 Touching - Mk 1:30, Mt 9:27 Power of Attorney - Mt 10:1, Lk9:1 Prayer - Mt 17:15 Fasting - Mk 9:18 Spitting - Mk7:32, John 9:1 Anointing with oil - Mk6:13, Jas5:14 Shadow - Acts 5:15 Handkerchief - Acts 19:12 Troubling the water - John5:5 Spiritual "gift" - 1Cor12:9 In the Old Testament it was a poultice of figs which cured King Hezekiah, and dipping seven times in the Jordan which healed Naaman of leprosy.
Caduceus, symbol of the Medical Profession.2K18:4
Hippocrates, "father" of the Hippocratic Oath.Modern medical schools vary the ancient oath.
Thank God for doctors! We'd really be in a mess w/o the dedicated members of the medical profession! And isn't it fortunate that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made", Ps139:14, so that we have built-in healing!
Seek ye first the kingdom of God! Mt6:33We know that 'Sons do what they see their fathers do' and Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil! Acts10:38.
My testimony. I was overseas on an aircraft carrier when notified our daughter was in a car wreck and not expected to live. She was in her first year of college near Spokane WA. I was able to get emergency leave, but by the time I arrived at her side, she was in a coma and never revived. We TRIED to pray (did our best), and my wife had more faith than I, but neither of us knew exactly how to go about it. No doubt this was at the root of why we later enrolled in Bible college.
Matthew's Gospel records these 12 specific accounts of healing and deliverance, plus 5 which speak of general* healing...
(Matt 8:16, 10:1, 14:14, 15:30, 19:2)Notice the two accounts of "two blind men", 9:27 and 20:30. These are NOT repeated in the other gospels.
Mt 8:6 - A centurion appealed to Jesus on behalf of his servant who was home sick of the palsy and spoke out that Jesus needn't come in person, but speak healing only. So the one who was healed wasn't even in the presence of Jesus. No touching involved--only faith that was spoken.
Mt 8:14 - Mark 1:30 - Peter was married (not celibate!) and his wife's mother was sick with a fever. After Jesus touched her the fever left and she arose and ministered unto them. Jokesters like to say the reason Peter denied Jesus, is in retaliation for the healing of his mother-in-law.
* Mt 8:16 - Many of the sick were healed, and many possessed by devils were delivered -- "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet: "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses". Thus the healing and deliverance were linked to Isa53:4.
Mt 9:2 - Jesus tells the man lying sick with palsy: "Arise, take up your bed and go into your house", and the man obeys. No touching, but we're told Jesus SAW their faith, and then makes an analogy comparing healing to the forgiveness of sins.
Mt 9:20 - Jesus gets interrupted on his way to raise Jairus' daughter from the dead. The classic
story of the woman with the issue of blood (she heard, she said, she did, she told) is told in more
detail in Mark 5.
Mt 9:27 - Jesus heals TWO BLIND MEN by touching their eyes, after asking if they believed.
Mt 9:32 - No details of healing the dumb man possessed with a devil, but afterwards we're told that: "Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, AND HEALING EVERY SICKNESS AND EVERY DISEASE among the people".
* Mt 10:1 - Jesus gave power to his disciples--to cast out unclean spirits and to heal all manner of sickness and disease.
Mt 12:10 - 
Jesus, on the sabbath day, restores the man with the withered hand by simply telling
him to stretch forth that hand.
Mt 12:22 - No details, but Jesus heals a man that was blind and dumb, so that he spoke and saw.
* Mt 14:14 - Jesus had compassion on a multitude of people, and he healed their sick.
Mt 15:22 - Luke 7 also - The Syrophenician woman (a gentile) beseeches Jesus on behalf of her daughter who is vexed with a devil. He acts as though he won't help, but when the mother persists concerning the dogs getting the crumbs, he praises her faith and heals her daughter.
* Mt 15:30 - Many lame, blind, dumb, maimed, etc. were healed by Jesus. "Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and THEY GLORIFIED THE GOD OF ISRAEL.
Mt 17:15 - Mk 9:18 - A father appeals to Jesus on behalf of his lunatic (epileptic?) son, claiming
the disciples were unable to cure him. Jesus rebuked the devil and declared how "this kind goeth
not out but by prayer and fasting". 
* Mt 19:2 - No specifics--just speaks of healing great multitudes.
Mt 20:30 - Jesus touches the eyes of TWO BLIND MEN who had cried out to him despite being shushed by the crowd. But first he had asked them what they wanted, and they said "Lord, that our eyes may be opened".
Mark's Gospel adds the following 14 healing accounts. Two of
them are of the general* nature, and three of them (The withered
hand, the Syrophenician Woman and the Epileptic Son) appear to
be the same as in Matthew.Mk 1:40 - Jesus heals the leper, saying it was his will to do so, like in Matt 8:2.
Mk 2:3 - Lk 5 - This is where four men lowered one who was sick of the palsy through the roof in order to be healed. (They "raised the roof"). As in Matt 9:5 this is another account where Jesus makes the comparison of healing with the forgiveness of sins.
Mk 3:1 - Mt 12:10 - On the sabbath day, Jesus tells the man with the withered hand to stretch
forth his hand. This follows the place where he says "The sabbath was made for man, and not
man for the sabbath".
Mk 5:1 - The possessed man from Gadarene tells Jesus his name is Legion, and his unclean spirit enters into a herd of about 2,000 swine, who drown themselves immediately.
Mk 5:22 - 
The raising of Jairus' daughter and the woman with the issue of blood who touched
the hem of Jesus' garment is told here in more detail than in Matthew.
* Mk 6:5 - Jesus "laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
Mk 6:13 - Jesus sent out the twelve, two by two, and "they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them." First the 12 -- then the 70 -- to do the same works that Jesus did!
* Mk 6:56 - They laid the sick in the streets, and besought Jesus that "they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.
Mk 7:26 - Mt15:22 - The Syrophenician woman speaks of the dogs getting the crumbs. Probably didn't know about Jesus being the Living Bread.
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So a Bone-of-Contention's been thrown.. Religious factions all over the world are claiming it now for their own. The Gentiles are fighting over the bone, and from place to place it gets carried, but they haven't got all the meat off this bone, and it's a bone that won't stay buried! |
Mk 7:32 - Jesus heals a deaf man with a speech impediment by putting his fingers into his ears, then spitting and touching his tongue. Then Jesus said "Ephphatha", Be Opened, and the man's tongue was loosed and he spoke plain.
Mk 8:22 - In this "2nd Try" account Jesus spit on the eyes of a blind man who then see's men "as trees, walking", so Jesus again touches his eyes and then the man's vision was clear.
Mk 9:18 - Mt 17:15 - This is where the epileptic son is healed by Jesus after the father of the boy pleaded: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief". Jesus says "this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting".
Mk 10:46 - Lk18:35 - Blind Bartimaeus calls for Jesus to heal him. When told that Jesus was calling him, he threw away his garment and went to Jesus. [Did the garment tell people it belonged to a blind man?] Jesus said it was the man's faith which made him whole.
| "These signs shall follow them that believe...IN MY NAME...they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
Mark 16:17-18.
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Luke's Gospel adds these 15 accounts, of which three are general*
in nature and illustrate a "Power of Attorney" principle.Lk 5:12 - Mt 8 - Mk 1:40 - A leper says to Jesus "If you wilt, you canst make
me clean". Jesus touched him and said "I will: be thou clean". 
Lk 5:18 - Mk 2:3 - Where the four let down the man with palsy, through the roof.
Lk 6:6 - The story of the man with the withered hand, as in Mk 3:1 and Matt
12:10.
Lk 7:2 - A centurion appeals to Jesus to heal his servant who was sick and ready to die. The servant is healed without even meeting Jesus. No touching, no cloths, and from a distance.
Lk 7:12 - Jesus raises a young man, son of a widow, from the dead.
* - Lk 7:19 - John Baptist sends two of his own disciples to ask Jesus who he was -- Jesus told them: "Go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,the dead are raised, and to the poor the gospel is preached".
Lk 8:26 - The account of the so-called mad-man of Gadera, as in Mark 5:1.
Lk 8:41 - Mk5:22 - Mt 9:20 - The account of Jairus' daughter and the woman with the issue of
blood.
* Lk 9:1 - Jesus calls his twelve disciples and gives them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
Lk 9:38 - This seems to be the same incident regarding the epileptic son: Mk9:18, Mt 17:15.
* Lk 10:1 - Jesus sends out the seventy, two by two, with order to "heal the sick", 10:9. An illustration of the Power of Attorney.
Lk 13:11 - Jesus calls to the woman which had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years. And he LAID HIS HANDS on her: and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. Jesus said that it was Satan who had bound her.
Lk 14:2 - A brief account of Jesus healing a man with dropsy, The lawyers and Pharisees didn't answer him about whether it was lawful to heal on the sabbath day.
Lk 17:12 - Ten lepers appeal to Jesus for healing and are cleansed. It isn't clear whether they obeyed Jesus in showing themselves to the priests, but only one of them returned to give thanks. Jesus told him "Your faith has made you whole", and the implication is that the other nine were not.
Lk 18:35 - Mk10:46 - The blind beggar by the wayside near Jericho is probably Bartimaeus. Many people today are wearing a garment of unbelief!
Maybe John's Gospel should've been first instead of fourth. It stands out in
several peculiar ways: First, the Book of Acts should perhaps follow Luke's Gospel because
of the progression by the same author and, second, the notable difference between the three synoptic
gospels and John's may not be noticed in casual readings. None of the four healings
in John's Gospel are found in the synoptic gospels and none of the healings there
are found in John.
John 4:46 - The 2nd miracle by Jesus. A father appeals to Jesus to heal his sick son and Jesus
says to him: "Go thy way, thy son liveth" and the story brings out that the healing took effect at
the same hour as Jesus spoke. No direct contact, which is why we say there's no distance in the spirit when we're praying for someone who's not present.
John 5:5 - The troubling of the water at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus came to the man with the 38 yr.
infirmity, on the sabbath day, and told him "Rise, take up thy bed and walk". Apparently none of
the others present received healing, but this case reminds us that we should 'trouble the water' (read the Bible) when we're looking for healing.
John 9:1 - The man born blind has his eyes anointed with the clay made of Jesus' spit, and is told
to go wash in the Pool of Siloam. He obeyed and was healed. The disciples wanted to know whether it was this man or his
parents to blame for his blindness. Jesus wouldn't play the blame-game, but substantiated how healing was of God.
John 11:44 - Lazarus is raised from the dead when Jesus cries: "Lazarus, come forth".Now we're looking for that cloudy day when the trumpet sounds and Jesus cries again "Lazarus, come forth!"
Quick Study of Old Testament SicknessJob, King Asa, King Uzziah, King Hezekiah, and the Prophet Elisha -- these five(5) were all afflicted, and there seems to be no common cause or pattern. Remembering that "God is the God that healeth thee", compels the question: "Why not these?" Is there a reason? 1. Job suffered from boils as well as calamity, but his story lets us know that Earth is Satan's territory. Also, when he said "the thing I greatly feared", Job3:25, it reminds us that "we've not been given the spirit of fear", 2Tim1:7. 2. The account in 1K15:23 only says he was "diseased in his feet", but the follow-up in 2Chr16:12 adds that he "sought NOT to the Lord, but to the physicians". We're told that "Asa did what was right in the eye's of the Lord", and that "his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days". So why do bad things happen to good people? "My people perish for lack of knowledge", Hos4:6 3. King Uzziah became a leper after he had usurped the duties of the Priest. He was a powerful king who invented the catapult and had a super-long reign of 52yrs. and perhaps was prideful and arrogant. 2Chr26:15. His story emphasizes the difference between Kings and Priests under the Old Covenant. Now we can be BOTH in the New Covenant. 4. The Prophet Isaiah informed the great and worthy Hezekiah of his imminent death, and followed up with providing a poultice of figs for his healing, and extended life for 15yrs. We learn of the miraculous birth of Hezekiah's son, plus clues to the spiritual qualities of the fig and olive tree. 2K18, 2Chr29, Isa36. 5. I asked myself how the godly Prophet Elisha could die sick!! 2K13:14. Then buried in a shallow grave, apparently, because when a dead man was tossed into that same grave and touched Elisha's bones, he came back to life! Jesus told us how John the Baptist was like Elijah, and this story shows us how Jesus was like Elisha. "Himself took our sicknesses", Matt8:17, and because of His Resurrection we are now made ALIVE! |
3 KNOWINGWord of Knowledge Discerning of Spirits |
Speaking in tongues |
3 POWER !Special Faith Gifts of HEALING |
Death & Life are in the Power of the Tongue! Prov18:21!Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones". Prov3:8 "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings |
