Sitting in a number of hospital waiting rooms recently has alerted me to the fact that sickness and disease are everywhere. It's almost like they have been "unleashed" across this nation...and world. One encounter in an ER waiting room area has been seared into my mind and I woke up thinking about it this morning. My dad had been admitted into an ER room, but as the family sat there in the ER waiting - we witnessed the entire waiting room fill up. When I say full, I mean... overflowing! When the seats became full, they lined up wheelchairs for the ill to sit in. You could see the anguish and pain on their faces. They just needed some kind of relief and help was not immediately available. A lady was wheeled near us and she had been there for quite awhile. I went in to see my dad and when I came out... the lady was still there. She gripped her head in pain and could barely open her eyes! She was miserable.
These were the stories of suffering. It was quite an unsettling experience for all. Of course, one thinks as well of eternal suffering and how awful that must be - especially that the torment includes separation from God. It made me think of where most of those in the ER may have stood with the Lord. They needed healing for their bodies, but more importantly, did they need healing for their hearts and souls?
I thought about this scenario and saw it play over in my mind. What I felt the Lord saying to me this morning was this, "Jenni, what would have happened if you would have went to her and offered to pray for her?" I said, "Lord, I prayed for her sitting there in my chair as well as for many others in the waiting room." He said, "No, what if you went over to her and offered to pray. If there was faith found - even the size of a mustard seed - I would have healed her."
The faith link on the part of the receiver is key. We can pray for others all day or until we're blue in the face, but if they don't believe and receive... our words do not hold the power and effectiveness that they should. That doesn't mean that God would never heal others who had no faith - it does mean that His Word has given insight to a principle that shouldn't be ignored: Faith is the spark! After all, faith is: the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Scripture draws out faith in relation to healing in such passages as this: "But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour." Luke 17:19, "And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole."
Suddenly I felt guilty for being so blind. We are called to be His hands and feet - to do the work of Christ here on the earth. We get too confined by social expectations or our own fears to leap out and offer people the only real hope available... Christ. We worry that our offer will be rejected or that we will offend them because they may not believe in God. Yes, they come from unique perspectives, backgrounds, etc. - but so do we. Our background as a Christian is that Christ IS part of our story. For me, I think we were just simply wrapped up in our own problem at the moment which overshadowed the need to physically offer hope to anyone else (even if we were praying for them quietly)- though our entire experience hinged on our own faith.
Folks, people are in need all around us. I began thinking about "what if". What if we had gone over, offered to pray for this lady, and she accepted? Then what if we laid hands on her and she instantly was healed? What kind of atmosphere would have exploded in that ER? Those are the kind of opportunities God is telling us to look for in the coming days. Those are the circumstances that He can use to display His glory... the type that can transform lives.
The time has come to put our faith at the forefront of every aspect of our lives. This not only goes for healing, but for our daily encounters, etc. I know that there are certain topics that seem to be more prevalent in the Word than others and healing is one of those. Jesus HEALED. Either we believe that He was the healer when He walked the earth, is the healer now, and will be the healer in the future or we do not. It's time to take our walk to the next level!
"To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues." 1 Corinthians 12:8-10
Could the Spirit be desiring to use YOU in the gift of healing????
These were the stories of suffering. It was quite an unsettling experience for all. Of course, one thinks as well of eternal suffering and how awful that must be - especially that the torment includes separation from God. It made me think of where most of those in the ER may have stood with the Lord. They needed healing for their bodies, but more importantly, did they need healing for their hearts and souls?
I thought about this scenario and saw it play over in my mind. What I felt the Lord saying to me this morning was this, "Jenni, what would have happened if you would have went to her and offered to pray for her?" I said, "Lord, I prayed for her sitting there in my chair as well as for many others in the waiting room." He said, "No, what if you went over to her and offered to pray. If there was faith found - even the size of a mustard seed - I would have healed her."
The faith link on the part of the receiver is key. We can pray for others all day or until we're blue in the face, but if they don't believe and receive... our words do not hold the power and effectiveness that they should. That doesn't mean that God would never heal others who had no faith - it does mean that His Word has given insight to a principle that shouldn't be ignored: Faith is the spark! After all, faith is: the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Scripture draws out faith in relation to healing in such passages as this: "But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour." Luke 17:19, "And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole."
Suddenly I felt guilty for being so blind. We are called to be His hands and feet - to do the work of Christ here on the earth. We get too confined by social expectations or our own fears to leap out and offer people the only real hope available... Christ. We worry that our offer will be rejected or that we will offend them because they may not believe in God. Yes, they come from unique perspectives, backgrounds, etc. - but so do we. Our background as a Christian is that Christ IS part of our story. For me, I think we were just simply wrapped up in our own problem at the moment which overshadowed the need to physically offer hope to anyone else (even if we were praying for them quietly)- though our entire experience hinged on our own faith.
Folks, people are in need all around us. I began thinking about "what if". What if we had gone over, offered to pray for this lady, and she accepted? Then what if we laid hands on her and she instantly was healed? What kind of atmosphere would have exploded in that ER? Those are the kind of opportunities God is telling us to look for in the coming days. Those are the circumstances that He can use to display His glory... the type that can transform lives.
The time has come to put our faith at the forefront of every aspect of our lives. This not only goes for healing, but for our daily encounters, etc. I know that there are certain topics that seem to be more prevalent in the Word than others and healing is one of those. Jesus HEALED. Either we believe that He was the healer when He walked the earth, is the healer now, and will be the healer in the future or we do not. It's time to take our walk to the next level!
"To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues." 1 Corinthians 12:8-10
Could the Spirit be desiring to use YOU in the gift of healing????
