The realm of the miraculous is the realm of the born again believer in Christ. Miracles have not been done away with in this New Testament dispensation. The Lord is steadily proving this each and every day. Here you will find miracle testimonies that add to this thesis.
In this episode, we look at the importance of the human will in receiving divine healing as well as some steps one should take in order to hold on to healing once it has come.
[Tweet “Jesus put His finger on the pulse of the problem when He asked, “Will you be made whole.””]
In this episode, we look at the man who was healed at the Pool of Bethesda from a different angle. We ask the question, ‘How would you have ministered to this invalid man who was sick for thirty-eight years if you were walking in Jesus sandals?
[Tweet “It’s impossible to separate being led by the Spirit from operating by faith and still be successful.”]
In this episode, we look at the way Jesus ministered healing to one man at the Pool of Bethesda. By a manifestation of gifts of the Spirit, Jesus gave both hope and healing to a man who had been sick thirty-eight years. What Jesus did for this one man, He will do for you.
[Tweet “If you can get people to believe the Word, you can get them healed one hundred times out of hundred.”]
In this episode, we look at Jesus healing on the Sabbath Day. Since Jesus operated under the Old Covenant, the question invariably arises, why did He minister this way?
In April 2000, a boy named Nathan was in a near-fatal car accident while trying to avoid a deer. When he arrived at the hospital, he had a broken leg, spinal cord damage, numerous lacerations, and a collapsed lung. To stabilize him, doctors put him into a drug-induced coma. Nathan was in a coma for four days, but when the drugs were discontinued, he didn’t come out of the coma. That night Nathan’s father prayed and read the Bible to him, repeating the words Jesus said to Lazarus: “Come forth.” You’ve got to fight. You’ve got to wake up.” The next morning he came out of the coma. The parents were beside ourselves with joy. But the spinal cord damage was a major concern. Nathan had a fracture in his neck, the same vertebra that actor Christopher Reeve had injured several years ago. The doctors gave Nathan a protective neck collar to prevent further separation of the vertebrae. He was in danger of full or partial paralysis.
For two weeks Nathan prayed earnestly for healing. One night as he was falling asleep, he heard and felt a popping in his neck. The next morning physicians performed three sets of X-rays to see if the vertebrae were continuing to separate. Instead, the tests showed that the vertebrae had fused back together. The doctors were stunned; there was no medical explanation for the healing. Three months after the accident, doctors cleared Nathan to resume his participation in athletics, including football, wrestling, and track and field. 1 Our God is a healing God. He is a miracle worker and He will do a miracle for you.
In the USA, at the declaration of independence, only 5% were Christians. By the Civil War, the figure rose to 12%. At the turn of the century, 1/4 of the people included Christians. Billy Graham told reporters in 1977 that 40% of Americans claim they have been born again, and 95% of young people believe in a personal God.1 The number of people who claim to be religious is staggering. But there’s a difference between being religious and being divinely, supernaturally spiritual. Jesus was never religious. He didn’t act religious. He didn’t talk religious. He didn’t have a bumper sticker on His camel. He didn’t have rosary beads hanging from His donkey’s neck. He was not a pious prophet. He was uniquely spiritual and highly effective in His ministry to the sick. And here’s the marvelous truth. You can be just like Him.
It’s important to shut down certain voices like sinful thoughts. You don’t argue with those thoughts. You don’t examine those thoughts, you just cut them off in Jesus name. It is scriptural to talk to your soul. David, if you remember, told his soul to bless the Lord (Psalm 103:1). In last week’s podcast, we also talked about the multitude of arrows hitting the soul. The point being, we often live overloaded lives. How many irons in the fire can you have before it affects your ability to divide spirit and soul? How much mental angst can we have before our heads are roaring so much we can’t hear our hearts? For this series finale, let’s go down two separate tracks as we look at the important idea of slowing ourselves down so we can better hear our hearts.
In the previous four podcasts, we have endeavored to hone the point that you need faith in order to receive healing from heaven. We have tried to get you to see you need to go the Word route first before you go the prayer route, the medical route or any other route. Putting God first in all things is good Bible order. This is a striving for the highest kind of faith. The highest kind of faith takes God at His Word. You will find this is the best way to receive. Why? Because it’s one thing to receive from God. It’s another thing to hold on to what you have. It takes faith to receive anything from God but it also takes to hold on to the blessing you’ve received. We will see how all this works together in this week’s edition of Light on Life.
When the telegraph was the fastest means of long-distance communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, noisy office. In the background a telegraph clacked away. A sign on the receptionist’s counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office. The young man completed his form and sat down with seven other applicants. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. The other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. Why had this man been so bold? They muttered among themselves that they hadn’t heard any summons yet. They took more than a little satisfaction in assuming the young man who went into the office would be reprimanded for his presumption and summarily disqualified for the job. Within a few minutes the young man emerged from the inner office escorted by the interviewer, who announced to the other applicants, “Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has been filled by this young man.” The other applicants began grumbling. Then one spoke up saying, “Wait a minute—I don’t understand something. He was the last one to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That’s not fair.” The employer said, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse code: ‘If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. So the job is his.” 1 Godly results come from hearing God. Are you tuned into God’s Morse code?
The Shaw Pocket Bible Handbook says “In the Bible it is God who brings salvation from temporal as well as spiritual ills. Thus in the Gospels, referring to his miraculous healings, Jesus sometimes says, “Your faith has saved you,” meaning “healed you” (Luke 18:42 KJV). Characteristically, the term refers to salvation from sin (Rom. 1:16; 1 Thess. 5:9). Salvation means the decisive defeat of sin on the cross, but also victory over evil in a believer’s daily life.” 1 Why is this so? The answer can be found by an exhaustive look at the famous redemption chapter of Isaiah 53.
The Bible is meant for your everyday life. It’s meant to be used and applied. It’s not just a collection of short stories for entertainment. Are you hearing me Hollywood? How can the jump be made from narrative to vibrant faith? One way is to learn to put yourself into the verses in the Bible. The truth is God wrote this book especially for you. Putting yourself into the Word, into the stories, into the truths found within it’s pages will lead you out of defeat and into victory.
At roughly 11:05 PM on Christmas Eve, in the year 2001, while at work my wife Sharon suffered a brain aneurysm. You can find Sharon’s account of her anguishing life changing trial in this post “How God Miraculously Brought Me through A Brain Aneurysm.” This podcast is my version of that same day, the same ordeal, the same life changing distress. The same miraculous deliverance.