By John J. Settlage
Your Pastor Speaks
I have been blessed to have had relatively good health throughout my life thus far and I believe that will continue. Oh, there have been some broken bones and stitches but that is the process of a boy growing up and hopefully gaining wisdom.
In my day, measles, mumps, and chickenpox were just the normal thing one endured to develop immunity. Growing up on a farm I sometimes wore dirt and ended up eating some too. But, the Lord’s hand was always upon me, even when I didn’t recognize that and by His grace I have very few physical scares.
I fully understand that this is not how things have worked out for many folks. I have known many people who have experienced significant health challenges, some even dying way too early. Some have suffered ongoing medical treatments for years and are in a holding pattern but have not experienced physical good health. I don’t have any presumed answer for that except God’s ways are oftentimes far beyond our understanding.
In the Old Testament God sometimes directly intervened and healed people. But more often healing came through the prayers of men close to God like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and others. Many times it was not just by prayer but also included some unusual antics that required some level of faith for the healing to manifest. That faith involved both the one being healed and the one administering the healing work.
In First Kings 17, we see the faith of Elijah praying for a boy to be healed, raised from death actually. Elijah laid the boy on his bed, stretched himself over the boy three times (an unusual antic) and prayed, in faith. Life then returned to the boy.
In Second Kings 5, Naaman is healed of leprosy by Elisha’s prayers and sending Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan river. In my opinion, washing seven times seems an unusual antic and as the story goes Naaman seemed to think the same thing. By persuasion of his friends (their faith) and his eventually developing faith he follows through and is healed of his leprosy. These are just a couple of examples in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, Jesus heals many people but often by different means. Sometimes merely speaking healing to a person. Often Jesus inquires of what specifically the one needing healing desires.
In John 9, Jesus makes some paste of clay and saliva, applies it to a blind man’s eyes and sends him to a specific place to wash his eyes. When the man follows through, though he was blind from birth, he receives his sight.
In Mark 5, the report is given of a woman with a twelve year long hemorrhage who had sought every medical treatment available and could not be healed. Exercising her faith she merely reached to touch Jesus’s clothes and she was healed. Frequently unclean spirits are cast out in order for healing to manifest. The healing miracles are too many to list in this article. I encourage you to read the gospels and rediscover the scope of these miracles.
Jesus is not the only one doing the healing. The disciples are sent out in teams to preach about the Kingdom and heal the sick. This is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. There are an additional 70 disciples sent out in Luke 10 also with authority to heal the sick.
In Mark 16, this authority is extended even further all the way to this current age. Jesus says, “Go into all the world…in My name…lay hands on the sick and they will recover…” Mark 16:15-18.
I believe that we have a wonderful opportunity to live in the miracle power of Jesus just as the original disciples did. I have seen people healed where the medical industry said it could not happen. If we can just exercise our faith, pray fervently, step out with courage, take some risks, and truly trust the ongoing ministry of Jesus within us, we will see the hand of God move in and through our lives in demonstrative ways. Are you interested?
Christ the King Church will host a livestream of the Healing Summit on Aug. 30.
John J. Settlage is the pastor of the Christ the King Church in Jackson Center.
