God Still Heals Today.

 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Jn 15:7 NRSV

If you remain in close fellowship with Jesus, you can ask for wisdom, and God will make His way clear to you.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. Jas 1:5 NIV

We often have problems when we seek wisdom everywhere, but not first from God's Word and not always with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Imagine you are sick, but you are still functioning somewhat normally. You are not paralysed by pain and it is not a matter of life and death. You go to the doctor and take medication for weeks, but your symptoms remain a problem.

Some time ago I was praying. I heard a thought in my mind from the Holy Spirit.
How long are you going to put up with this problem?

God has promised in the Bible to heal all my diseases. I have experienced God's miraculous healings several times. Why shouldn't I pray and expect God's healing this time?

(He) forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, Ps 103:3 NIV

Are you a Christian? Then you believe that God forgives all your sins. If not, you would be condemned. If God only forgives some sins and not all, then we would all go to hell.

If God promises to forgive all your sins, then you must know that the same God in the same Bible has also promised to heal all your diseases, all of them.

In my dictionary, I find two very different words, ALL and MANY.

When God promises to heal all sicknesses, He doesn't mean some sicknesses.

So should we never go to the doctor, never take medicine and never need an operation? God never said that. Even good doctors are God's servants, whether they believe in God or not.

The Way out of Nomansland

Are you in no man's land?

Do you need healing? You have prayed. You have believed. The symptoms are diminishing, but your recovery is obviously not complete.

Hold fast to God's promises!

Before the last world war, penicillin had not yet been invented. An English preacher had tuberculosis and prayed for healing.

He did not get an instant cure, but he sought the guidance of the Holy Spirit. God told him to pray two hours a day and he would recover.
 
He was obedient and he gradually became completely well.

Many sick Christians pray for healing, but they are disappointed. When Jesus healed before the cross, he never failed. He healed everyone who prayed for healing, without exception.

What can we learn from Jesus? He had different methods. For example, he often healed by laying his hand on someone.

Jesus also gave instructions to his disciples.

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;

they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mk 16:17–18 NIV

It is curious that Jesus first emphasises deliverance from demons. When Jesus healed the sick before the cross, he often cast out demons, because sickness is often associated with demonic activity.

And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:38 NLT

Jesus was the anointed one par excellence. He was always full of the Holy Spirit and ministered with unlimited power, but we need more help from the Holy Spirit.

An important and very powerful tool is the gift of tongues.

Some think that this gift was only for the first Christians, but in Mark 16:17-18 Jesus speaks of the signs that are to follow those who believe.

And these signs will accompany those who believe: …. they will speak in new tongues;

This statement is not limited in time.

To release God's miraculous power, we need to cultivate a deep relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. Rom 8:26–27 NIV

How can we enter into this deep realm? Paul gives us an important indication of how he cultivated his close relationship with God.

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 1 Cor 14:18 NIV

Paul explained that he did not want to speak in languages in meetings because he wanted to help people through prophecy or Bible teaching.

So when did Paul speak so much in languages? In his personal prayers.

When we cultivate our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit, we learn to perceive the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We can learn to receive God's specific instructions, like this English preacher who was told to pray two hours a day to receive God's healing.

Concentrate on God and Expect His Help

What is dominating your thinking? Your illness or God's healing?
Where do you direct your thoughts? Your fears, or God's saving love?

A scientist in the USA studied HIV AIDS patients for four years.
Patients who believed in God's love recovered significantly better.
Patients who believed that God loved them personally recovered much better.

When you are in distress, you will experience a battle in your mind.
On one side is faith, hope and the love of God.
On the other side, fears and doubts keep popping up.

That is normal.

But God has given you free will. Where will you focus your attention?

We can fail or overcome in all areas of life. Life is just like that.

A sports psychologist was invited to help professional footballers. He wanted to teach and strongly emphasise the principle of concentration. In football, as in all areas of life, concentration is essential for success. Distraction is the enemy.

The psychologist placed a large football trophy on a table in front of the team. He said they had to keep their eyes on the cup for seven minutes.

They started looking at the trophy and the psychologist reminded them not to give in to distractions, not to look at their friends, not to look at the laptop on the table, etc.

The only professional footballer who looked at the trophy for seven minutes straight was the superstar of the team.

The other footballers glanced here and there, at their friends, at the laptop, etc.

What did the football champion do differently from his team-mates?

He looked at the inscription on the trophy. He read the inscription over and over again and systematically stored the words in his memory.

Do you need healing from cancer or depression? Perhaps liberation from porn?
Where do you direct your gaze on the screen of your mind?

When Joshua was to lead the Hebrews into the Promised Land, he received these instructions from God.

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Jos 1:8 NIV

And what did Joshua say to the Hebrews?

“Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you after he said, ‘The LORD your God will give you rest by giving you this land.’ Jos 1:13 NIV

Your thoughts determine the direction of your life.

How can you control your thoughts?

You must realise that your thoughts and feelings do not control you. You can direct and control your thoughts.

God's promises and instructions are like the inscription on the victory trophy that God has set before you.

What is your victory trophy? Healing? Deliverance? Reconciliation with friends or family? A good job?

You can be like the football striker who focuses only on the goal and doesn't get distracted.

He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases. Ps 103:3 CSB

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jer 29:11 NKJV

That's all well and good, but you and I are just weak people.

But we don't just have God's word. If Jesus is the most important person in your life, you can rely on his help. He will never let you down.

… And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Mt 28:20 NRSV

Remember, think about it. He is with you all the time.

Hope and Faith in Trouble

You do your best as a mother or father, but your child goes wrong.

If you lose your job, if you get sick, if life stabs you in the back, you have problems.

What does the Bible say about problems in life?

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy,
because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; Jas 1:2–3 NRSV

When you park in a shopping centre and come back to your car, you find a big, ugly dent. How do you react?

Do you celebrate? I don't.

Maybe we need to change our perspective. We can learn to trust God in all our problems. God always wants to help. Gratitude for God's help changes everything.

It is important to be grateful for God's help after He has helped.

If you are familiar with God's love, you can be grateful in advance that God has a solution to your problems where you have not yet found a way out.

In this earthly life, we will always encounter problems, setbacks and disappointments. We must learn to accept this reality as normal. Not so easy.

What did Jesus say about this?

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jn 16:33 NIV

If we don't expect difficult problems, we will always be stressed because the problems will always come anyway.

When we read in the Bible that we can overcome with God's help, we should expect that we will always experience something we need to overcome.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Rom 8:35–37 NIV

In the Bible we see how God has saved his children time and again with miracles. If we study these miracles, we will realise that in many cases the people who experienced a miracle had no other way out.

You don't need a healing until you are sick. You don't need a miracle until you need a miracle.

Despising the Poor

 Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done. Pr 19:17 NIV

Some years ago I was visiting another city. A man asked me for some money. When I asked him about his situation, he said he was unemployed and homeless. He had been in a poorly paid job and living from paycheck to paycheck, unable to save. 

The conservative government made him wait six weeks before he could receive unemployment benefits. He couldn’t pay his rent and was homeless.

Some people are able to save money from their wages but spend everything, but others are genuinely unable to save, and are punished by heartless governments.

If we look upon all welfare clients as lazy dole bludgers or freeloaders, we are guilty of arrogance. The Bible tells us God is not pleased.

It is a sin to despise one’s neighbour, but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy. Pr 14:21 NIV

We can despise the poor by looking upon everyone on welfare as lazy and irresponsible. Some are, but many are not. Many are suffering from mental or physical ill health.

We can be cruel to the poor by trying to pay the least possible tax and supporting policies to keep wages and welfare payments as low as possible.

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. Is 5:8 NIV

Socialist dictatorship is evil, but market economics without humane regulation has resulted in unrestrained profiteering from real estate speculation, resulting in an epidemic of homelessness in some rich countries.