Jesus the Healer
In these passages we read of a boy who was possessed by an unclean spirit which was causing him to be dumb.
Jesus commanded the dumb and deaf spirit to leave the boy and it left him.
When Jesus cast demons out it was by a word of command. When He healed the sick He would often touch them.
There is a difference between someone possessed and someone sick.
In
In this verse Jesus distinguishes between healing those who are possessed and those who are sick.
It is of course possible that the sickness may be due to an unclean spirit.
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Sickness and disease came after Adam had sinned and death was the result. Satan had the power of death, and sickness and disease represent his works in our bodies to help bring us closer to death.
Smith Wigglesworth, a twentieth century evangelist who had remarkable results in healing the sick by the laying on of hands, would often rebuke the devil because the sickness represented the work of the devil, however he distinguished between demon possession and sickness.
Satan, who is the devil, is not omnipresent but his work is carried out by demons and diseases etc.
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Is it God’s will to heal the sick? We
know that Jesus came to do the Fathers will and He healed all that were under
the power of the devil (Acts 10 v 38). In
So yes it is God’s will that we are healed. Sometimes after prayer, people remain sick and we cannot explain why.
Smith Wigglesworth suffered for three years with gall stones. Some say he was more mellow and gentle after those three years. His daughter suffered from deafness in later life and although many deaf people were healed under Smith Wigglesworth his daughter remained deaf.
Stephen Jeffreys, an evangelist used by God in healing many sick people, suffered in his later years from chronic arthritis. His brother George was also used by God mightily in the healing of thousands yet he suffered from ill health in his later years.
Harry Greenwood says that faith comes by hearing the word of God but it grows by opposition.
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Peter was saying it wasn’t his power or godliness.
When God made Adam it is believed he had a lot more power than we have now.
Man is a being comprised of body, soul and spirit. When God made man from the dust of the ground, He breathed into him the spirit of life and man became a living soul.
Man’s spirit is the part of him that communes with God who is spirit.
Man’s body is in touch with the earth through his senses.
His soul is the mediator between spirit and body and is the expression of his life.
Man's soul expresses the type of person he is.
Originally man’s spirit was dominant, the soul was submissive to the spirit and the body was submissive to the soul. Everything was in harmony.
Then man sinned!!!
The curse of sin is death. Death entered mans body and over nearly 1000years man aged and finally died (a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day with God).
Man is more than his body and the day he sinned he also died spiritually. In other words his natural communion with God was cut off. His spirit was not terminated just his communion and fellowship with the Lord (he hid from God in the garden).
However his spirit did lose its
dominance and became bound up with the soul. The soul now was the dominant
factor. The spirit may still influence the soul such as someone having a
contrite spirit (Psalm 34 v 18,
Man now became more and more dependent
on his bodily senses until in
Adams original powers, before the fall, had to be many times greater than what they are today. He named all the different animals, I wonder how many different species there were? His job was to subdue the earth and have dominion over every living thing, how can one man do this unless he had greater powers than now, how could he get around to the different parts of the earth. His main job was to take care of the Garden of Eden, unfortunately he messed that one up.
When Adam fell, the soul lost a lot of its abilities. His powers became latent in his soul, however there has always been those who have managed to tap into these latent powers and display what we would now see as supernatural powers. A friend of mine could read peoples thoughts. The eastern religions encourage the destruction of the flesh by different practices and the development of the soul powers by asceticism. Excessive fasting, prayer and transcendental meditation are some of the methods used. Taking drugs to encourage a trance like state in order to contact spirits is sometimes undertaken.
People can use the power of the soul to do healings and many mighty works, counterfeiting the genuine divine healings (Matthew 7 v 21-23).
Now if we go back to
Peter did not tap into the latent power within him but became a vessel for God’s power to minister. God does not want us to use the power of the soul but to be dependent on Him for everything. Today there are those who encourage folk to use the latent power of the soul for God’s ministry, no wonder God says to them, “I never knew you”.
When Jesus died on the cross He redeemed man, body, soul, and spirit.
By His stripes (the bruising and mutilation of His body), He gives us healing for our bodies.
By His blood being poured out He saved our souls (the life or soul is in the blood).
When He cried, “My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me”, He lost fellowship with the Father (who cannot look upon sin), so that our spiritual fellowship with God might be restored.
All this was achieved while He hung on the cross.
When we become Christians, God’s Spirit quickens our spirit and our spiritual relationship is restored.
When we take communion the bread represents His body which was given for our healing. The cup represents His blood which was shed for our sins. This is why we must take them in reverence to God and not haphazardly.
There are two kinds of truth, one is the body saying it is sick and the other is the word of God saying that you are healed.
Once you believe what the word says you can then command the sickness to leave and also act on it.
It is Jesus who died on the cross for our salvation and healing. We need to get our eyes off ourselves and fix them on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
When we forget about ourselves and concentrate on Him, take our eyes and mind off our sickness and look to Him, then that which He has done for us will become a reality in our lives.
For further study please see my articles, The Healing Debate and Andrew Wommack False Teaching or New Revelation
By Mark Greenwood