By: Pastor Colleen Dick, Dansville Free Methodist Church
This is a sermon recently given by Pastor Colleen Dick at the Dansville Free Methodist Church. It was part of a series on the gifts of the spirit. It was powerful and has some emphasis that I am not used to hearing. Feel free to e mail responses to the editor: normwetterau@aol.com . Used with permission.
The Gifts of Healing
Acts 28:7-9
Divine compassion. Have you ever experienced divine compassion? Divine meaning “of or belonging to God” or “proceeding from God.” It is very different from the natural compassion or concern we may feel towards a person or group of people who are suffering. There are many organizations that strive to tug on our heartstrings in hopes that we will contribute money to those who are in dire need. Of course, we have all seen the commercials of the starving children in Africa whose bellies are swollen, and flies are buzzing around their heads. Some of you may be supporting a child in need in a poor foreign country. Our own Free Methodist Denomination offers this ministry through our International Child Care Ministry. This is a tremendous ministry to children all over the world, and there are a number of other Christian and secular organizations trying to help children in need as well. In America, we are very detached from the poor living conditions in which other human beings are trying to survive. So, to tug at our heartstrings, we are shown video images of starving and malnourished children. If these images don’t rouse compassion within us then something must be wrong with our hearts. I know that many of our parents and grandparents convinced us to finish our dinners with these images in mind.
But this compassion that we feel for starving children around the world is not the same as divine compassion. Now there are certainly people who have divine compassion for the malnourished children, and these same people are working tirelessly to change their horrific living conditions and holding their governments accountable for allowing their people to live in this manner. But most of us do not feel divine compassion for these children. We often are able to ease our conscience when we send them a $50 donation once a year.
But divine compassion is different. As I said before, it is compassion proceeding from God. It causes one to act. Divine compassion is the reason that God the Father was able to send his Son Jesus to die on the cross. Divine compassion is the reason why many of us are here in this church today. Divine compassion is being so moved by something that you feel it deep in your stomach. Now I ask you again, “Have you ever experienced divine compassion?”
Over the last four weeks, we have been studying the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. I want to remind you that these gifts are available to all believers of Jesus Christ because once we confess our sins and ask Jesus to be our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit moves into our bodies and sets up residence there. This is the same Holy Spirit with the exact same power that raised Jesus from the dead. These gifts that he distributes are one of the benefits we have as believers, but they are not meant to benefit us as individuals. They are for the common good of all, for the whole church. Their purpose is to point people to Jesus and to fulfill God’s plans and purposes.
The gift of the Spirit that we are looking at this morning is the gifts of healing. As I was studying for this sermon, these two words “divine compassion” really spoke to me. And I realized that when we see Jesus operating in these gifts of the Spirit, he was moved by love and divine compassion. The suffering of others caused a stirring within him deep down in his gut, and it was this feeling of divine compassion that triggered these supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. As a result, Jesus was moved to act on their behalf by allowing the power of God to work through him in the workings of miracles, the casting out of demons, and healing the diseases and infirmities of those who were suffering. Matthew 9:35-36 says,
“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
He had compassion on them, and when that happened, people were healed. When the four friends carried their paralyzed buddy up onto the roof so that they could lower him into the crowded room where Jesus was, Jesus could’ve yelled at them and told them they were out of order for interrupting him. But no! He was moved with divine compassion and said to the paralyzed man,
“I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” “Immediately,” the Bible says, “he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.” (Luke 5:24b-25)
I am beginning to see that the more love we have for others, the more our insides are stirred with gut-wrenching compassion, the more likely it will be that these supernatural gifts will begin operating in our lives. But if you are someone who looks down on others who aren’t like you, or if you are someone who is constantly offended and mad at people, or if you are someone who can only tolerate sinners in small doses, then it is very unlikely that these gifts will manifest themselves through you because love and divine compassion spark them into action. Why? Because when divine compassion comes into play, we are willing to spend countless hours on our knees for the plight of the other. We are willing to do spiritual warfare for those who are suffering from sickness and disease, or other external circumstances because we want them whole. Divine compassion will take our prayers for people to a whole new level, and divine compassion will cause a righteous anger that will make the devil quake in his proverbial boots.
I am convinced that those who have the gifts of healing feel deep compassion for the sick and spend copious amounts of time in prayer for them. I am convinced that those who have the gifts of healing believe the Bible when it says that we will lay hands on the sick and see them healed. They believe Jesus when he said,
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for ANYTHING in my name, and I will do it.”
People with the gifts of healing actually believe that Jesus meant what he said!
The gifts of healing are one of the power gifts. We said last week that the power gifts, which are the gift of faith, the workings of miracles, and the gifts of healing, are the gifts that get things done and get people’s attention. In our Scripture reading this morning, Paul and some other prisoners and men who were on his ship, ended up on the island of Malta because they were shipwrecked. The islanders showed the men great kindness and took good care of them. While staying at the home of Publius, the chief official of the island, Paul learned that Publius’ father was fatally ill. I imagine that Paul was filled with divine compassion, which leads us to the second part of verse 8, into vs. 9 says,
“Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. 9 When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.”
The manifestation of one of the power gifts, the gifts of healing, operated through Paul and got the attention of the whole island. The healing of Publius’ father increased the faith of everyone who heard about it, so all who were sick were healed.
Now think about what I am saying this morning in relationship to these power gifts…divine compassion plus divine power will blow the roof off of a church. It will cause every demon and evil spirit within ten feet of the place to run and hide. It will cause such a stirring in this community that we will need to hold services every night of the week. Divine compassion will trigger the power gifts.
Now the gifts of healing are a supernatural manifestation of God’s healing power. Derek Prince explains that these gifts “supernaturally restore people to physical wholeness.” Healings can be miraculous, but this gift is different from the workings of miracles. Prince also explains that “a healing relieves the body of disease or injury.” We often cannot perceive it with our senses. It can be dramatic, but it is often gradual, meaning someone may pray over you for an issue that you are having in your body, but you might walk away not feeling any different. But just because you don’t experience the healing instantaneously doesn’t mean that God isn’t at work healing your ailment. Sometimes it is a gradual process. My mother had back issues for a couple of years. She prayed often for herself, we prayed for her, and I believe a minister prayed for her as well. She wasn’t instantly healed, but one day some time later, she noticed that she no longer had back pain. She was healed through a gradual process and through that time of waiting, she regularly thanked God for her healing.
A miracle, on the other hand, can be perceived by the senses and is almost always instantaneous. For example, Brett and I went to hear a minister by the name of Bobby Conner speak at a conference. He shared this story about a time he was ministering in Mexico City: “As I prayed for people during the ministry time, a dear man cradling a baby girl began walking down the aisle toward me. I looked into the father’s tender eyes and could see his desperate heart’s cry. When I focused on his precious little girl, I understood his pain. With her raven black hair and her sparkling, dark eyes, the baby girl was beautiful—but when she turned the side of her face toward me, what I saw took my breath away. One side of her face was missing. I could see into her mouth, her jaw and tongue were exposed, and saliva was flowing down her dress. Oh, Lord! I gasped. What will you do?” Well at that moment, to stir within him even more compassion, the Lord gave him a vision of how this girl’s life would end up if she wasn’t prayed for. He went on to say, “I asked the Lord, What do you want me to do? His response was soft and gentle, Take your thumb and rub it across the side of her missing face. I did just that, extending my thumb and rubbing it across the huge hole in her face. As I slowly moved my thumb, God grew the little girl a brand new, lovely face! The miracle happened in a split second.” Yes, this girl was healed, but what she experienced was a creative or restorative miracle. But what triggered this miracle was divine compassion and a word of wisdom from the Lord.
The gifts of healing are the only gifts spoken of in the plural. This implies that there are a variety of gifts of healing, and some believe it is because there are numerous types of sicknesses and infirmities. Therefore, one could never say they have the gift of healing; instead they would say, they have a gift of healing. One may find that every time they pray for someone with arthritis, that person gets healed. But when they pray for another ailment, such as heart disease, they don’t see the same results. One evangelist that my husband and I like, named Ted Shuttlesworth, has a gift of healing for the deaf. We have witnessed the Holy Spirit’s power manifest through him to open people’s ears, and he often does it by sticking his fingers in their ears and then moving his fingers around until he hears a “popping” sound in his spirit. We witnessed with our very own eyes deaf ears opened. It was incredible, and I can tell you that this evangelist has great compassion for people.
We see this in the New Testament as well. In Acts 8, Philip goes to a city in Samaria to preach the Gospel and proclaim the Messiah. Verse 6 says,
“When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.”
It would appear that Philip had a special anointing to heal those who were paralyzed or lame, and the Bible felt it was important enough to point that out. But remember, it is God who heals. He just chooses the channel he will use to bring about the healing; in this case, it was Philip. It is also crucial to remember that “everyone with the spiritual gifts of healing in the New Testament ministered in the name of Jesus Christ and promoted the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
If you are sick, I believe the first thing you need to do is pray to God for yourself to be healed. You have the same ability to go before God as I do. He listens to you just as much as he listens to me. Find Scriptures in the Bible about healing and allow them to help increase your faith. The next thing you can do is enlist the prayers of others. But be sure not to ask people who will make you feel worse than you already do. You know who I’m talking about “Negative Nelson” and “Doubting Delores.” Never ask these types of people to pray for you! Don’t even tell them you’re sick! They will suck out every ounce of faith you have left with their negativity and doubt. The third thing you can do is call on the elders or the ministers of the church, as is written in James 5,
“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”
This “prayer of faith” is not a supernatural gift of healing. But is instead a prayer being offered up by spiritually mature men and women of faith who love you and want to see you made well. Then the fourth thing you can do is seek prayer from a person who has one of the gifts of healing, but don’t allow this to become your obsession. There are many people who go to every healing service looking to be healed. When we get to this point, we are putting more faith in the human beings than we are in the One who actually does the healing, GOD!
Now let me add this disclaimer because someone will scold me if I don’t. Not everyone we pray for gets healed, and we don’t know why this is so. There could be a number of reasons, but we have to trust that God knows what he is doing. But there are also different types of healing besides physical healing. Sometimes the spiritual or emotional healing we experience can be more beneficial or important than the physical healing. There are stories of people who accepted their physical ailment, allowed God to heal them spiritually or emotionally, and then went on to do great things for the kingdom of God. One of those people is Joni Erickson Tada, who became a quadriplegic after a tragic diving accident. In an article she wrote, she said, “God’s goal is not to make us comfortable…For the last 50 years in my wheelchair, I’ve been daily dying to self and rising with Jesus, dying to self and rising with Jesus, dying to self and rising with Jesus.” Those are some pretty humbling words right there.
But once again, I leave you with this question, “Have you ever experienced divine compassion?” If you are desiring the gifts of the Holy Spirit to operate in your life, then I want to encourage you to begin to ask the Lord to give you love and divine compassion for others. Then read the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and imagine yourself walking with Jesus and experiencing the same compassion he felt for the people who crossed his path every day. I believe that if this is our heart attitude, then we will begin to see the gifts of the Spirit in operation in our lives and in each other’s lives.