FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
THE GIFTS
OF THE SPIRIT – XIV
THE GIFTS
OF HEALING - I
1 Corinthians 12:9 …to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit...
There is much to examine in the Scriptures
regarding this gift; and by so doing, we may learn many aspects of what this
gifting is, how it works, what interferes with its exercise, and what enhances
its manifestation.
Literally, the Greek text says “gifts of
healings” (or “graces of cures”); so there are different forms or
manifestations of this particular enablement of grace resulting in different
kinds of results/healings. One may manifest a particular grace to provide one
cure or one form of cure; while another may manifest this grace to provide a
different cure or form of cure. Through the years, I have known of many
ministers who knew they had a particular anointing in this gift to heal a
specific problem; and had little confidence to attempt to minister to those who
had different ailments or diseases.
[Let us never forget, however, that grace is
the power IAUE gives to man that enables man to do His will. We must keep in mind at all times in this
study to be aware that each of the “gifts” of the Spirit of IAUE are designed
to give the members of the Body of Messiah the power to do His will in
supernatural ways.]
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of IAUE is upon
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty them that are bruised,
It is important for us to understand that healing was and is
an absolutely intrinsic part of the ministry of Yahushua. In the above passage, Yahushua was in the synagogue and was handed the scroll of
Isaiah the prophet; where he read the above passage from Isaiah 61, then closed
the book and said, “This day, this Scripture is
fulfilled in your hearing.” He identified
himself as being the one anointed by the Spirit of IAUE in this Scripture. From this passage we may glean a very
important aspect of the gifts of healing.
The anointing is to preach the gospel; and that anointing provided for
manifestations of the authority of that gospel to confirm the message. Specifically, the anointing empowered Messiah
to heal, and to cast out demons. This is
much in the same way that Moses was anointed to go to Pharaoh to command him to
let the people of IAUE go free, and was provided with signs and wonders to
manifest the authority of IAUE that sent him to accomplish the task of bringing
deliverance to the captive Hebrews. It is the gospel that liberates man; and it is the anointing of the Holy Spirit
that heals.
Acts 10:37 That word, I say, ye
know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after
the baptism which John preached;
38 How IAUE anointed Yahushua
of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing
good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil; for IAUE was with him.
Peter confirms that it is the anointing that
heals in his message to the household of Cornelius; but he added one element
that, though obvious, was not specifically stated in the book of Isaiah; and
that was Yahushua was anointed with the Holy Spirit AND WITH POWER. This
concept was confirmed by Messiah himself when he told his disciples:
Acts 1:8 But
ye shall receive POWER after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you…”
The gifts of the Spirit are the manifestations
of the power to which Peter referred; but the power itself is the anointing…the
anointing of the Holy Spirit. This is a
critical element to understand not only the gifts of healing but all of the
gifts of the Spirit. (We will come back
to this point in a minute.)
Matthew
10:1 And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against
unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to
heal all
manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye
have received, freely give.
Luke 10:1 After these things the Master appointed other seventy also,
and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he
himself would come.
9 And heal the sick that are therein,
and say unto them, The kingdom of Elohim is come nigh unto you.
When
Yahushua first sent out his 12 apostles, he specifically empowered them to cast
out demons and to heal the sick. When he
sent out his 70 hand selected disciples, he empowered them to heal the sick,
and in so doing to tell those being healed “The
kingdom of Elohim is come nigh unto you.” With both the 12 and the 70, their mission
was to preach the gospel. The power to
heal the sick was inseparable from that gospel.
The purpose of this power to heal was two-fold: 1) It was to destroy the works of the devil;
and 2) It was to manifest the authority of the Kingdom of IAUE. In other words, it was to bring the kingdom
of IAUE into direct conflict with and overwhelming victory over the kingdom of
Satan; leaving the people with an obvious choice. Either they remained in allegiance with the
clearly inferior and defeated kingdom of Satan, or side with the Kingdom of
IAUE that had brought freedom and deliverance to their lives.
This
is why multitudes routinely converted when the gospel was preached and healing
and deliverance confirmed the gospel message.
Only fools rejected the Kingdom of IAUE; and before them, the disciples
shook the dust from off their shoes and departed from them. It is why
contemporary preachers plead with the lost to accept Messiah. They are offering the lost only a message to
be believed; presented as cleverly as they know how in order to convince or
cajole the lost to come to Messiah. Paul told the Corinthian disciples:
1 Corinthians 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of IAUE.
4 And my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of IAUE.
The
anointing of the Holy Spirit provides the power to confirm the gospel. NO MAN
IS EXPECTED TO BELIEVE A MESSAGE WITHOUT A CONFIRMATION OF THE AUTHORITY AND POWER OF THAT MESSAGE. Any preaching that is void of the inherent
manifestation of the power of IAUE is not the gospel of Yahushua Messiah. Many of us believed a message at first; but
later, hopefully, we believed in the power and authority of the message…or of a
message that was necessarily altered in order for the Truth to be
revealed. Virtually no believer ever
walks uprightly before IAUE on the basis of believing a wisely crafted
presentation of the gospel message. The
Kingdom of IAUE has not come nigh the person who responds only to words.
Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to every creature.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned.
17 And these signs shall follow them that
believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with
new tongues;
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing,
it shall not hurt them; they shall
lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
19 So then after the Master had spoken unto them, he was received
up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of IAUE.
20 And they went forth, and preached every
where, the Master working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
Healing is inseparable from the preaching of
the true gospel (“Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.“). It is part of the mandatory equipment of the evangelist. Without it, no man may call himself an
evangelist. However, it is not limited
to the evangelist. It is a manifestation
of the Holy Spirit guaranteed to all believers who preach the true gospel;
for healing is one of the signs IAUE has given to confirm the authority of the
gospel.
I specifically express it confirms the “true
gospel” because it is not given to confirm a false gospel; which is what has
been preached for generations resulting in the contemporary powerless
church. Those who would operate in the
gifts of healing should dedicate themselves to understand what is the true
gospel message; for the gifts follow the preaching/presentation of the gospel…guaranteed.
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of IAUE is upon
me, because he hath anointed me…to heal the
brokenhearted…
There is a singular anointing to consecrate
one to the priesthood; and Peter refers to believers as a royal priesthood in 1
Pet 2:9. Receiving the Holy Spirit is
that anointing of consecration to the priesthood of the believer; and that
anointing does not require repeating. There
is, however, a fresh anointing that the disciple should seek on a daily basis. The anointing of consecration is not the same
thing as the anointing of empowerment.
In the temple worship in the day of Moses, Aaron the high priest, and
his sons, the Levitical priests, were anointed by oil to their office; but they
could not enter the Holy Place simply by virtue of being an anointed
priest. They first had to wash at the
brazen laver in the Outer Court of the temple (Exodus
40:30-32). The laver had been anointed by oil for this
purpose. Consequently, the priests could
not enter without a fresh cleansing from the anointed laver before they could
minister in the Holy Place (the ministry of fellowship at the table of showbread,
the ministry of worship at the altar of incense, and the ministry of the Holy
Spirit at the candlestick).
When you read the book of Acts, you will see a
number of times that disciples and/or apostles who had already received the
Holy Spirit, are said to have been filled with, or became full of the Holy
Spirit before they moved out in a fresh power/anointing of the Holy
Spirit. It is from this concept, and
from the personal experience of myself and many ministers I have known through
the years that I offer the following regarding the gifts of healing.
Healing is administered from power that
derives from the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
That anointing within the believer functions very much like a
battery. When fully charged, signs and
wonders can flow freely from the believer.
When that power has been tapped repeatedly during ministry, the disciple
may become aware of a physical tiredness that is associated with a depletion of
that anointing. It is necessary for the
disciple to steal away and recharge the battery in order to be able to continue
to minister in the gifts of healing.
Messiah did this repeatedly throughout the record of his ministry in the
books of Matthew, Mark and Luke. (There are specific ways we can recharge the anointing
of the Spirit in our lives. We will
discuss them later in this series.)
We have much more to discuss regarding this
gifting, as we have barely scratched the surface, today.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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