The Healing Element
 

        Would it be great if we could just say magic words and be healed of all our diseases?  Some claim you can.  Some say there is power in the name of "Jesus".  But Paul also spoke that many are preacing "another Jesus", in whose name there is no power at all.  In fact, that Jesus is an idol.  So much for magic words where the biblical Jesus is involved.
        Jesus Christ earned an unprecidented reputation for healing with AUTHORITY.  When he felt led to heal, it simply happened. There was no guess work. There is a book by a woman name Johanna Michaelson, recounting her experiences helping a "psychic healer" in Mexico. Very strange things happened (someone had a tarantula removed from their throat, for example...!)and the woman would operate with dirty scissors and knife. Doctors from the US witnessed the pnenomena. But the results were very hit and miss. (Eg. One woman who was a Christian and knew she was compromising by going to this woman suffered incredible pain and got worse instead of better.) But Jesus Christ had a few advantages. He didn't have to become posessed by a foul spirit named "Hermanito" and use rusty dirty utensils to perform bizarre surgeries on people. He simply healed them by the power of the God who created us all.
        Healing power resides in the God head, or the Father in Heaven Jesus referred to.   Y'shua was even MORE effective as a healer than his personal record shows.  WHY?  Because he passed along the secret to healing power to his followers; thus multiplying his efforts.
        Some consider Jesus to have been a failure, because he was crucified before he got everyone healed.  But did he say it was his goal to physically heal everyone?  Rather, it clearly says that there were places where he could do no works.... NOT because there were no sick to be healed, but because there was no faith.  The people were spiritually dead and determined to stay that way.  People in the region where Jesus healed the demoniac asked him to go away.  They didn't even want his kind of healing, because it cost them a flock of pigs.  The price was too great.
        Therefore, each of us must examine our own heart before we can access the awesome power of the creator of it all.  He's not a God who can be manipulated, and he has allowed our sicknesses to awaken us spiritually often.  Other times, as in the case of Job, God will also use our sickness to affect the lives of others and attempt to draw them to a realization of their own corruption.  But we often don't know why we stay sick.  Yet if our heart is after God, it will draw us closer to him in our spirit.
        But there is a time when we may cast off sin from our life that has resulted in sickness.  The sin of believing that God has nothing better to do than torture us.  The sin of believing that God doesn't care, and disease just "happens".  The sin of doing self-destructive things that cause our bodies to reap ill benefits.  Much sickness results directly from sin in our hearts.  Scripture even testifies of the sin of taking communion in an unworthy fashion.  We should be in fellowship with the people we celebrate with, discerning the body rightly, and have real relationships there.
       If we don't have these things in proper order, it is indicative of a spiritual sickness in our lives, and that will result in physical sickness. It is MUCH like having a house that you rent out to irresponsible tenents. The one who BUILT the house will gladly help us use it properly if we only ask. But most of us, rather, decide that we know best how to use the house, and we tear it apart in the process.

        So be at peace where the Lord has you physically, and seek the deeper healing of your spirit first.  Allow others to pray for you and annoint your physical body for the purposes of God's kingdom!  Do not be taken in by people asking you to chant or perform other meaningless formulae.  For that would all fall under the sin of believing that God does not have time to interact with us PERSONALLY and talk with us like a friend. He is not interested in hearing us clammer mindlessly. He created us for good purposes.  God bless, -Bob