The Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever!
Today I want to bring a message of faith, hope, and love in God’s eternal nature. God is steadfast and never changes. His love for humanity is beyond our understanding.
Jesus revealed the very love and nature of God. Every miracle, every act of compassion revealed the Father’s love toward us. The writer of Hebrews declared:
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Heb. 13:8 NKJV
God has never stopped performing miracles, healings, deliverance, or salvation! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!
To receive healing and wholeness from God, believe it is part of His demonstrated love toward humanity through Christ and that it is His will to heal. We may not understand why all are not healed, but it is important to believe it is God’s desire to heal, to save, and to deliver the oppressed.
The question of whether it is God’s will for people to be healed is debated by many, theologians and non-theologians. Understand, healing is part of God’s Kingdom and nature.
Jesus demonstrated God’s Kingdom by preaching the gospel of the Kingdom accompanied by healing the sick and delivering the demonized. Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of God, but the full consummation of God’s kingdom won’t occur until He returns. There is a tension of the “now and not yet” of the Kingdom.
Until then, there are two kingdoms at war, opposed to each other. The kingdom of darkness opposing the kingdom of light. God is not the source of evil, disease, and suffering – the kingdom of darkness is.
Jesus said that if we had seen Him, we had seen the Father. Everything Jesus did revealed the loving, compassionate, and healing nature of God. In this age of grace given through His death and resurrection, God is reconciling the world to Himself—to restore, heal, and make whole.
Jesus demonstrated God’s will to heal,
When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” Matt. 8:1-3 NKJV
In this passage from Matthew 8, Jesus met a leper. Leprosy was an incurable disease in Bible times. It would be the equivalent of AIDS or Ebola today. Not only does leprosy slowly kill a person, but it was also highly contagious, and every leper was therefore quarantined.
I love the ministry of Jesus. He was not intimidated by the severity of this disease. He saw it as any other sickness, an enemy of God and therefore it needed to go. Jesus, not even pausing to think that the man wouldn’t be healed, touched the man and pronounced, “Be clean!”
Jesus was very clear in this passage. He was asked if He was willing to heal, and He answered yes. While it could be argued this was just for this man and situation, when we look at the entirety of the gospel accounts, we see Jesus continually healed all who came to Him. Therefore, we could safely conclude that it is God’s will to heal.
I’ve found in my years of praying for the sick that one of the challenges in ministering to people is convincing them that God wants them healed.
Can I encourage you to see the simplicity of this passage? A dying man, with an incurable disease, asked a profound theological question,
“Does God’s will include healing?” Jesus’ response is quick and to the point, “Yes!” God is willing to heal—it is in His nature and Kingdom.
Not only is God willing to heal, but God desires to heal humanity of every kind of disease, sickness, and infirmity, whether the root cause is an accident, sin, demonic, generational, or whatever the root cause.
Whether you are in little pain or much pain; whether there is a name for your disease or not; whether the doctors say it can be treated, or is life threatening, or inoperable; His will is simple, straightforward, and obvious. It is revealed to us in this short passage. “I am willing!”
Everywhere Jesus went, He taught and demonstrated God’s love and power of His Kingdom.
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Matt. 9:35-38 NKJV
Jesus went into the cities and villages, taught, and preached the gospel of the Kingdom by healing every sickness and disease. (Healings demonstrate God’s kingdom is near.) He saw the multitudes and had compassion on them. He told us to pray for laborers to go into the harvest – for it is plentiful – God wants to send laborers forth who will continue His ministry on earth.
After Jesus told us to pray for laborers in Matthew 9, He then sent the 12 out in Matthew 10 and Luke 9. He instructed them,
And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Matt. 10:7-8 NKJV
This missional, kingdom model of discipleship and ministry didn’t end with the 12 disciples, or the 70 or the 500 Paul wrote about. This method of discipleship and ministry was to be replicated by every generation until His return. The great commission of Matthew 28 is a continuation of the earlier commissioning accounts. (for more information on this important subject, see my book Receive Your Miracle Now! A Case for Healing Today)
Healing All!
Peter declares in Acts 10:38, “how 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.” NKJV
Notice Peter said Jesus healed all and every sickness? What was the source of sickness and disease? The devil—not God! Again, two kingdoms opposed. Satan desires to steal, kill, and destroy all of humanity, God desires to save, restore, and make humanity well!
One of the most notable miracles I’ve ever heard of occurred in Brazil several years ago. There was a ministry team from our parent organization, Global Awakening, ministering in a church where there was a blind man who received prayer for new eyes. When he was 9, muriatic acid went into his eyes, destroying his corneas and pupils, leaving only scar tissue. A woman on the Global team prayed for the man for 5 hours – with no sign of healing. She and the Global team left the next day for home. Three days later, the man’s pastor contacted Global saying how the man woke up on the third day with new eyes! Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever!
This missional model of Christ was to demonstrate the gospel of the kingdom by healing the sick and delivering the oppressed. Jesus taught and demonstrated God’s kingdom was at hand, or near, by the miracles, signs, and wonders He performed.
Through ordinary disciples today, this still occurs as we believe and make ourselves available to pray for the sick and proclaim the gospel! Just like when Christ walked on earth, the needs of humanity for healing and restoration are significant. He healed, not just to reveal who He was, but out of the very nature of who God is.
Works Reveal God’s Glory
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.
Jesus said, “the works that I do, you shall do” if we believe on Him (John 14:12). Not merely more works, but the very miracle or supernatural works He did!
Mark’s gospel tells us that as we “lay hands on the sick they will recover.” (Mark 16:18)
As His disciples, we have the Holy Spirit living in us, empowering us. We do the works in the authority of the name of Christ, the authority of God’s Word, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever Church! The events of the last couple of years don’t eradicate God’s healing nature, despite many becoming ill and dying of Covid and other diseases. Our mandate is to go into all the world, proclaiming the love of God, salvation through Christ, and demonstrate these truths by healing the sick and delivering the oppressed!
For a deeper look at this topic, watch the Passion Church message “The Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever!”
