Faith: For Healing
My wife and I just returned from a week of ministry in churches in Sao Palo, Brazil. It was such a wonderful time of ministry in churches as Jesus moved in power in the meetings! This city of 21 million people, named after the Apostle Paul, is experiencing a significant move of God.
In fact, the entire nation of Brazil has been in revival for over 25 years. Churches have been started all over Sao Palo and the nation, many of them having multiple services every Sunday due to the numbers of people. There is a hunger and expectation with the church in Brazil that is building faith for those of us in North America for another awakening and revival in our region.
We were part of a team of 70 people affiliated with Global Awakening, an organization with which we have been ministers for almost 20 years. I’m one of the seminary professors with Global Awakening Theological Seminary, and our team was comprised of Global staff, seminary faculty, and seminary students. Many of the students had never been on a trip like this, and they experienced God’s love and power in these gospel healing and revival meetings.
Here are the stats from our trip: 2,575 physical healings, 619 emotional healings, 57 salvations, 26 re-dedications, 44 metal miracles, 23 blind eyes gained sight, 24 deaf ears heard, 13 tumors, and 7 lame began walking! Thousands were impacted by our team, and we give all the glory to God; Jesus is the Savior and Healer forever!
Today in this article, I will be sharing passages about the healing ministry of Jesus, both in the Bible and present-day accounts of healing we observed in Brazil. My book, Receive Your Miracle Now! A Case for Healing Today provides biblical, historical, and theological proof that the gifts of healing and miracles have never ceased.
Jesus Went to the People (Matt. 9:35-38)
He went into the cities and villages, teaching and demonstrating the reality of God’s Kingdom. Jesus took it to the streets, and He desires we do the same. After all, there is a ‘go’ in ‘the gospel’! He taught and preached the gospel of the Kingdom by healing every sickness and disease.
His ministry of healing demonstrated not just His divinity, but the power of God’s Kingdom that He inaugurated. He saw the multitudes and had compassion on them. Jesus has the same compassion today for the lost, hurting, and sick.
Jesus Sent Laborers into the World (Matt. 10:1, 7-8)
Jesus told us to pray for laborers to go into the world. God sends laborers and encourages us to pray for workers to go now into the harvest fields. He commissioned the 12, then the 70, and He now commissions us to go. We are to go in the same manner of both proclamation of the gospel and demonstration by healing the sick and delivering the oppressed.
Jesus gave His disciples (then and now) ‘power’, from the Greek ‘exousia’, which is ‘authority from a superior or delegated authority’, and it’s also the ‘power to preach and to heal’. In fact, He didn’t tell us to pray for the sick, but to heal the sick! How? According to the authority He has given us (see also Matt. 28:18-20).
Jesus Went About Doing Good, Healing All! (Acts 10:38)
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth 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.” (Acts 10:38 NKJV)
Jesus healed all, and He healed every type of sickness. Sickness is from the devil; it is not from God. God is a good Father who wants us to experience His salvation, freedom, and healing. Oppression is from the devil and kingdom of darkness.
While in Brazil, I prayed for a woman born deaf in her right ear, who also from birth had a deformed left arm and back pain. I invited the Holy Spirit to begin to minister to her, and then I began to pray for her arm and back. The Holy Spirit’s presence noticeably began to increase upon her, and she then told me that the pain in her arm left.
So, I asked her if I could pray for her deaf ear, and she said, “Yes.” As I began to pray, the Holy Spirit’s presence once again became strong on her, and she became weak and fell with the interpreter catching her. As she went down in the Spirit, she heard a popping in her deaf ear. Joy came across her face as she let us know she could hear 100% out of the ear that was deaf! God performed a miracle!
There were many other healings that night. For example, an older woman who was legally blind in her left eye received prayer and was able to see normally!
Missional Model of Christ
The missional model of Christ was to demonstrate the gospel of the kingdom by proclaiming the good news and healing the sick and delivering the oppressed. Jesus both taught the gospel and demonstrated God’s kingdom was at hand by the miracles, signs, and wonders He performed.
Just like when Christ walked on earth, the needs of humanity for healing and restoration are significant. He healed them, not just to reveal who He was, but out of the very nature of who God is, and so it is today.
In Corinthians, Paul said the kingdom of God was not in word only, but in power (1 Cor. 4:20). The healings and miracles reveal the very glory of God. They point to the majesty of God, and the superiority of His Kingdom.
Jesus said in the book of John before He went to the cross that:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12 NKJV)
Notice Jesus said we would do the works that He did? The phrase ‘works that I do’ comes from a Greek word, ‘erga’, which tells us that the same supernatural works Jesus did, we should also do!
As His disciples, we have the Hoy Spirit living in us, empowering us. We do the works in the authority of the name of Christ and by the power of the Spirit. Paul said in Colossians 1:27 that “Christ is in you”… God lives in us! Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
While on a previous trip to Brazil, the Lord spoke to me one afternoon before taking a team to a church, “If you see yourself as merely human, you will function as merely human. But if you see yourself as a supernatural being, you will function as a supernatural being.” I shared this with the team before we went, and that night, God encountered many with His love and power. Many significant healings occurred that night because a group of people knew as truth that God was working through them to minister to others.
Paul also declared in 1 Corinthians 6:17 “but he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him” (NKJV). New birth in Christ unites us with Him!
While in Brazil a week ago, I prayed for a woman who just had surgery in her shoulder due to a torn rotator cuff. She had pins in her shoulder, pain, and lack of mobility. She couldn’t lift her arm above her shoulder, and she was disappointed with the results of the surgery. After praying for a few minutes, the pain left her shoulder; after praying a couple of times, she was then able to lift her arm above her shoulder pain-free! She was 100% healed and smiling!
Another night in Brazil, I had a word of knowledge about a deaf right ear. A man came to me for prayer who was nearly deaf in his right ear. As we prayed, he gradually received healing. First 50%… then 70%… then 100%!
A couple of minutes after praying for the man with the deaf right ear, a young woman came to me for prayer who was legally blind in her right eye. She could only see 18% in that eye (thus legally blind). She was desperate for healing. After inviting the Holy Spirit to come with healing power and praying for a few minutes, she received complete healing in the eye! She left smiling and overjoyed! Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8)!
Relationship of Words of Knowledge and Healing
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes various gifts of the Spirit. Some gifts go together and work together, for example words of knowledge and healing, faith and miracles. Let’s look at an example in the gospels of a word of knowledge working together with faith for healing.
In Mark 10:46-52, Blind Bartimaeus cries out for mercy as Jesus passes by. Jesus sends a disciple with this message: on your feet, be encouraged He is calling you! When Bartimaeus heard those last four words, he stood and threw off the cloak given to him by religious leaders identifying him as blind and worthy of alms. When he heard the words, it created bold faith; he discarded his cloak, claiming that he was not blind anymore. Jesus granted His request, and Blind Bartimaeus was healed.
How did the message come? Through a disciple. How would you like to hear Him calling you today? If you understand the purpose of the word of knowledge, it will create faith and help release healing.
While in Brazil, I had a word of knowledge about a problem in the right ankle, and I had an impression of three metal pieces in the ankle. A young man came forward with this condition, and after a few minutes of prayer, he no longer had pain and regained mobility in the ankle again!
If Jesus appeared to you and told you what He was going to heal you, wouldn’t you believe Him? So put your faith in His word, not in what you feel or sense.
Remember what Jesus said in John 16:7, “…it is to your advantage that I go away… but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” Send who? The Holy Spirit—our Helper, Comforter, and the One who affects the grace of God to heal and deliver. We do the works of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us and works through us.
Faith is what you expect God is about to do. There is a realm of anointing He is willing to entrust to a group of people He could never entrust to just an individual.
The gift of the word of knowledge is modern-day disciples coming to you saying, “on your feet, be encouraged He is calling you!”
Final Thoughts…
Keep in mind that someone can receive healing, but without Jesus in their life, they are lost. However, here is the great news; Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost!” Jesus is our hope and salvation. Jesus alone is the way to eternal life (John 14:6). So, this article is to build faith for healing, but if you don’t know Christ as Savior and Lord, make the decision today to surrender to Him and follow Him.
If you need healing today, continue to seek God, read as many scriptures as you can about healing, and ask others to pray for you and stand with you in faith until your healing manifests. If you live here in Tucson, we have Healing Rooms at our church which meet every 1st and 3rd Tuesday evening of the month from 6-8 PM. We also pray for the sick at the end of every Sunday service. You can find more details at www.passiontucson.org.
For a deeper look at this topic, watch the Passion Church message “Faith: In Action”:
