Jesus As Healer: Recommended by God

May 11, 2013 at 3:36 pm (Uncategorized)
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Luke 9:28, 34-35

About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.

…a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

Eight days before, Jesus had told his disciples that some of them would see the kingdom of God before they tasted death. And now, they were. They had just seen incredible things, and were now hearing the audible voice of God.

And God was giving the highest possible endorsement anyone could ever receive. God was saying, “I have chosen Jesus. Listen to him.”

Relationship: confirmed. Trust: implicit. Recommendation: total.

God, I love your clear endorsement of Jesus. Help me wholeheartedly accept and follow it.

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Jesus As Healer: Welcomed & Needed Healing

April 13, 2013 at 2:26 pm (Uncategorized)
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Luke 9:2-3,5

… and [Jesus] sent [the Twelve] out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them:

“…If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.”

There are some people who don’t want to hear the kingdom of God preached, and—as bizarre as this seems—who don’t want their sickness healed. Jesus gave his 12 disciples instructions for the right response to those people: a procedure for leaving them peacefully.

Whom would they heal? Those who welcomed them.

Luke 9:11

“[Jesus] welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.”

Whom did Jesus heal? Those who needed healing.

Maybe people who don’t welcome healing are those who don’t realize they need it. Or maybe they have embraced the brokenness of their bodies as unchangeable and are unwilling or afraid to let go of that reality to grasp another reality in which they are healed. Maybe they simply don’t believe the power exists to heal them.

God, give me the wisdom to understand how to apply your teaching to my own life. Speak to me about the kingdom of God and heal me.

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Jesus As Healer: A Twofold Cure

April 5, 2013 at 12:07 pm (Uncategorized)
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Luke 9:1-2, 6

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.

Together, these 2 things set people free: the kingdom of God, and healing of the physical body. This is what Jesus spent his power on. What he used his authority to do.

He didn’t prioritize one over the other. His was always—and remains—a twofold mission: creating wholeness of a man’s spirit and his body.

Jesus modeled this dual approach first, during all the healing and teaching he had done up to this point. And then he equipped his 12 disciples to do the same.

Being God, Jesus had unique, omniscient, insight into the brokenness of men. He saw that our bodies are broken from before birth and that our spirits and souls are in need of rescuing.

Only his power and authority can repair and restore what the broken world has taken away, not just for this life, but also for the eternity. And he used it for that. And still does.

God, I want that. And I want to help others have it. Give me your healing power and authority, like that you shared with your disciples.

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Jesus As Healer: Stand, Eat, and Keep Quiet

March 19, 2013 at 1:08 am (Uncategorized)
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Luke 8:52, 54-56

Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”

…he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

There are so many layers of truth in this story. I love to look at the whole thing and imagine it from the perspectives of each of the different participants.

However, when the time came time for the final resolution, the situation simplified very quickly: Jesus took her hand. He commanded her. Her spirit returned. She stood up. He said to feed her. He said to keep quiet. The end.

When Jesus had arrived at the house, this girl had been about as undone as someone could probably be and still be alive. Her spirit and body had separated. Yet his command put them back together. I like that, I like it very much.

And then he wrapped things up with what else the family needed, instructions on how to get on with life: Feed your daughter, and don’t make a fuss.

God, you made this healing look so easy. Because for you, it was. Thank you for being that powerful.

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Jesus As Healer: Faith Heals a 12-Year Case

March 13, 2013 at 1:05 am (Uncategorized)
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Luke 8:43-48

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

In twelve years, no one had been able to heal her. But today she was instantly healed. And Jesus said it was her faith that had healed her.

How many years had it taken for her to build a faith that could heal her in an instant?

After a dozen years of not being healed, this woman’s faith wasn’t smaller. It was ready. It was strong enough to serve as the conduit of power from the living God.

God, give me that kind of faith.

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Jesus As Healer: They Laughed at Him

March 6, 2013 at 2:46 am (Uncategorized)
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Luke 8:52-53

Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”

They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.

These people were listening to the wrong voices, and they were responding to the wrong reality. In the reality they saw, the girl was dead, and they could not imagine any other way.

The girl’s father had requested that Jesus, the healer, come to his house because his 12-year-old daughter was dying. But while Jairus and Jesus were on the way to the house, someone came to say that the girl was dead.

And now that they had arrived outside the house, Jesus was telling the people gathered there that the girl had been misdiagnosed. That she wasn’t dead.

But they laughed at him. Because these mocking mourners knew he was wrong.

Jesus responded by healing the girl. He simply got on with it. Classy. Very classy. State the facts, heal the girl, move on.

God, let me listen to only what you say is reality.

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Jesus As Healer: Nearly Crushed by the Crowd

March 2, 2013 at 12:43 am (Uncategorized)
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Luke 8:42b

… As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.

This is the first time Luke records anyone touching Jesus in connection with a healing. In Luke’s accounts of the prior healings Jesus had performed, there is no record of the healer touching or being touched by either the healee or spectators before this day.

So we know Jesus didn’t have to touch someone to heal him or her: There is plenty of prior evidence of that.

If I stopped reading before the eighth chapter of Luke, I might conclude that the greatest healer who ever lived embraced only healing methods that didn’t involve physical touch. And I’d be wrong.

On this day, the crowd was so excited to see what Jesus would do next, that people were crowding him and almost crushing him. And it’s on this day that we see new styles of healing from Jesus: two healings that employ touch, in different ways.

God, I am excited about the complete lack of limits on your healing power. I can’t wait to see what you are going to do next, and how you do it. In this story, and in the present day.

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Jesus As Healer: The Storm Before the Calm

February 12, 2013 at 11:38 am (Uncategorized)
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Luke 8:22-24, 26-27, 35

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

… and the people went out to see what had happened. when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind….

How many times have I heard this story about Jesus sleeping through a life-threatening storm. About how the wind and the waves obeyed him and were calm.

But I had never realized that the whole thing happened while he was on his way to heal this one demon-possessed man. This man who was waiting for him on the shore when he arrived at the other side of the lake. It was a trip with a purpose.

And I imagine this life-threatening storm could represent just one more obstacle in the way of this demon-possessed man’s healing. But the wait was over. Jesus was on the way to deliver this man’s healing. It was Calm Time. No more wind and waves. No more demons and no more chains that couldn’t hold demonic outbursts. It was the last storm before the calm.

God, thank you for setting out to heal this man. Thank you for showing me that even you faced obstacles. But that in the face of them, you can take a nap, because they are no match for you. Your great power gives me hope. When you speak the word, healing comes.

See Related Post

Jesus As Healer: Going to See a Man About Some Demons

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Jesus As Healer: Going to See a Man About Some Demons

February 4, 2013 at 1:44 am (Uncategorized)
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Luke 8: 26-27, 29, 35-39

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

… Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

… and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.

The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

This man met Jesus at the shore of Gerasenes on Jesus’ arrival, and was the last man Jesus talked to before he left. The entire trip had been about this one man and his healing.

When Jesus departed that place, he left a healed man as a witness of his power, and a group of witnesses to attest to the reality of the healing.

God, thank you for showing up with the kind of powerful healing that creates opportunities to tell how much you have done.

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Jesus As Healer: Healing That Creates a New Lifestyle

January 26, 2013 at 12:33 pm (Uncategorized)
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Luke 8:1-3

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

These women had been cured of “evil spirits and diseases” and now their lives were different. They spent their time and their resources differently than before.

God, thank you for the example of these women who used their healed lives to help heal others. Show me how to spend my time and resources in ways that fully reflect your healing power in my life.

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