The Healing Presence Of The Lord

Jesus is the Word of God, and we see both Old and New Testament tie healing to the Word:

John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. NASU

Ps 107:20
He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. NASU

John 1:14
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. NASU

The "Word" in these verses refers to Jesus, the Son of God. He was in the beginning and has existed for all eternity. This same Jesus came and dwelt here on earth. Even though He was God almighty, only a few people suspected His deity until after His water baptism. This is when Jesus was anointed with Holy Spirit. When Jesus was water baptized, Father God openly anointed Him with His Spirit. He did this to equip and commission Jesus for the mission that the Father sent Jesus to do here on earth. We see that Jesus, who is our role model, was filled with the Spirit. Therefore, we also need to be filled with the Spirit. Luke 4:1 says, "Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness" (NKJV).

Jesus was sent the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus used the Word of God to over come the devil's temptations. And each time that He used the word, God's presence became stronger. Jesus did all of this to obey Father God, and His obedience was pleasing to Him. This gives us an important principle: the more we please God, the stronger His presence is within us.

Luke 4:14 says "Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region" (NKJV). In other words, Jesus' ministry was launched. This is what Jesus proclaimed about Himself and His ministry:

Luke 4:18-21
"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."

Then He (Jesus) closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (NKJV).

In Luke 4:22-30, we see that Jesus identified Himself as a prophet and He linked His ministry with the Old Testament prophets' healing ministry. Jesus would minister to all "walks of life," but He directed the ministry mostly to the poor also to the ordinary people. By contrast, the Old Testament prophets ministered mostly to those in authority.

Jesus walked in a healing authority because He carried God's presence. Luke 5:17 states: "And it came to pass on a certain day, as He [Jesus] was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them" (KJV). Jesus was in the presence of the Lord. The power to heal was there, God's presence.

One might ask, how does He get "the presence" to come? As we read through the Gospels, we see that Jesus was always talking or praying to Father God. He stayed in close contact with Him. He only did the will of the Father. Jesus knew the word of God; He never stepped out side of the boundaries of God's Word. His obedience pleased the Father. God said this in Mark 1:11, "And there came a voice from heaven, saying, 'Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased'" (KJV). I believe that this behavior, designed to please and honor God the Father, was what ushered in God's presence.

We must walk in the Spirit doing the Fathers will, just like Jesus did. We must do only what the Father is doing, just like Jesus did only what the Father told Him. Romans 8:8 tells us "those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God" (NIV). I want to please God don't you? Therefore, we must be controlled by God's Spirit instead of by our sinful nature. We must have faith and we must praise and thank God in all.

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him" (Heb 11:6). "I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs" Ps 69:30-31.

As we walk in this, drawing near to God, His presence becomes stronger and the glory of God comes, this brings the healing power just as it was said in Luke 5:17, "And the power of the Lord was present to heal them." We must have compassion for those who have a need, just as Jesus did. "When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick" (Matt 14:13).

Let us look at some scriptures that show Jesus ministering healing.

John 4:46-54

Healing a royal official's son

John 5:1-18

The lame man at the pool of Bethesda

John 9:1-41

The man born blind

John 11:1-44

Lazarus

Matthew 8:5-13

The centurion's servant

Matthew 9:27-31

Two blind men

Matthew 20:29-34

The blind men of Jericho

Mark 5:21-43

Jairus' daughter

Mark 5:25-34

The women with the issue of blood

Mark 2:2-12

Paralyzed man let down through the roof

Mark 1:40-45

A leper

Mark 1:29-31

Peter's mother-in-law

Mark 3:1-6

Man with a wither hand

Mark 7:31-37

Deaf and dumb man

Mark 8:22-26

Blind man in Bethsaida

Luke 7:11-17

Widow of Nain's son

Luke 13:10-17

Women bent double

Luke 14:1-6

Man with dropsy

Luke 17:11-19

Ten lepers

Luke 22:47-51

High priest's servant

Jesus sets the example for us, how to minister healing. Read all the gospels and see how He ministered. Take a high lighter (say light blue) and mark all the healing scriptures in your Bible. His presence in our day to day lives increases when we have God's Word in our heart and not just in our mind. Jesus knew that the Father was willing to heal. Jesus healed those who came to Him asking to be healed, and those who the Spirit sent Him to.

I am going to share with you one of our adventures in God. We minister healing in our meetings; people come and ask to be healed. We speak to the need and believe God to heal. At times Holy Spirit tell us to go and pray to minister healing. One example of this was when we were in India. We see many healings and salvations on these trips. Each mission trip is a month long, so there are many opportunities for ministry. One evening we planned to hold a meeting in a believer's home in the slum area out side of Coimbatore, India. It was dark by the time we arrive in the area. The streets were too narrow for us to drive our car on. So we had to walk to the house. There were many people walking along that same street. A number of the men were drunk and shouting. On both sides of the narrow street there are open sewer ditches. It was very dark, so we tried to stay to the center of the street to avoid those open sewers. We also needed to keep our mind stayed on the Lord and not on the difficulty. It was getting late so we were walking fast so we would arrive on time. As we were walking a Hindu women called out from the gate to her home. She asked us to come in to her home and pray for her son. I asked the pastor we were with if he knew her, but he said that he had never even seen her before. So we asked the Holy Spirit if this was of Him, should we go in to this home? If we went, we knew that would make us late for the meeting. And we were aware that it could be a trap to keep us from having a meeting. But, the Holy Spirit told us to go in, so we did. We found that the the woman's son, (and adult man), had been in an auto accident six months back. He had not spoken since, and he had to be fed through a tube. My wife and I and the other pastor prayed and commanded healing come to this man. He began to speak God healed him, praise God! We left and walked to the meeting. Many people are followed us. God began to move mightily in this Gospel meeting, which was held in someone's private house. The house, and the yard and street in front of the house, were full of people. Those close to the open windows had their heads poked through wanting to see and hear all they could. All want to hear about the God that had just healed that man down the street. As a result, many were saved, many were baptized in the Spirit and many were healed that night. I believe that the key to this whole miraculous situation was that we stopped and asked the Holy Spirit if He wanted us to go into that house. Our natural thought told us we should not go, so we would have missed this divine appointment if we did not seek God for His will.

Our next lesson will be on letting Jesus heal.