The disciples continued to heal people as they preached the Gospel after Jesus ascended into heaven. Healing and working miracles were quite common and are well documented in the Acts of the Apostles. In Acts 3 Peter and John healed a man who had been lame all of his life. The man was not asking for healing, he was begging for food or money. So there doesn't seem to be any faith present on his part. Yet Peter and John healed him anyway. This was a very public miracle because the man begged every day at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Acts 5 is even more dramatic. Beginning with verse 14 we read, "More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed." As with Jesus, all of them were healed. None were turned away. We could continue to heap up citations from Acts as from the Gospels. The clear fact is that the disciples continued to heal and work miracles in support of preaching the Gospel. They didn't heal people just for the sake of healing people; they healed people to show the truth of the Gospel message. And the basic Gospel message is this: Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God who became a human being, who suffered, died and rose from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins. Repent of your sins and believe this good news. Be baptized and spread the kingdom of God further. Let us pray and meditate today on Peter's words to the High Priest and the Jewish Council: "We must obey God, not men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from death, after you had killed him by nailing him to a cross. God raised him to his side as Leader and Savior, to give the people of Israel the opportunity to repent and have their sins forgiven. We are witnesses to these things - we and the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to those who obey him." (Acts 5:29-32)
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I've been asked to explain why I believe so strongly in Christian healing. There are several reasons. The first, as I've pointed out before, is that Jesus healed everyone who came to him in faith asking for it. There is no record in the Scripture that he turned anyone away. Jesus said that this was part of his mission. In Luke 4:16-21 we have the occasion when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth, his home town. He read from Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people. Then Jesus proceeds to do just that in his ministry. The second is that he told his disciples to go and do likewise. Matthew records it as (10:7-8), "Go and preach, 'The Kingdom of heaven is near!' Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, heal those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases, and drive out demons." Luke has Jesus sending the disciples out twice. In Luke 9:1-5, Jesus sends out the 12. Giving them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, he sends them out to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. In Luke 10, Jesus sends out 72 more men to do the same. The third reason is that the disciples were successful in healing people. Mark says, "So they went out and preached that people should turn away from their sins. They drove out many demons and rubbed olive oil and many sick people and healed them." (Mark 6:12-13). Luke tells us about the 12, "The disciples left and traveled through all the villages, preaching the Good News and healing people everywhere." (Luke 9:6) The 72 sent out in chapter 10 return to report (10:17), "Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we gave them a command in your name!" Then Jesus rejoices at their success and gives praise to his Father (Luke 10:18-24). Three reasons are enough for today, but there are more. Let us pray with Jesus today the prayer of praise upon the return of the 72 (Luke 10:21). "Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned. Yes, Father, this was how you were pleased to have it happen." "What Would Jesus Do?" was a catchphrase a while back. It got a lot of people thinking and, sometimes, a lot of people arguing. They argued because they did not agree on what Jesus would do. In certain moral situations it is often difficult to determine what Jesus would do. And in our brief reflections here we can't go into those morally ambiguous debates. But we can look at what Jesus did. Matthew sums it up nicely when he says, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness." (Matthew 9:35) Then Jesus gave his followers the authority to do the same. (Matthew 10, Mark 6, Luke 10) And they did. They did it while he was alive and they did it after he returned to his Father and sent the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they too disagreed over how to go about preaching the kingdom and healing the sick even though they had been with Jesus day after day. I suspect the disagreements among Christians about how to go about things may not end, but what cannot end is our going out to preach the good news and heal the sick. It's what Jesus did. For reflection: Am I doing what Jesus did? Let us pray. Jesus, you set an example it is not always easy to follow. Help me to keep asking myself through the day, "Am I doing what Jesus did?" How many of us wear glasses? Obviously lots of people wear glasses and we are grateful for them. Think what our lives would be like without them. I, for one, wouldn't be able to drive. Using a computer would be difficult. I would miss the expressions on people's faces when they were talking. For millions of people, glasses are a wonderful benefit today. In his day, Jesus healed blind people. Matthew 9:27-31 tells us that two blind men followed Jesus. They even followed him from the street into someone's house. Perhaps, since they were able to follow Jesus, they were not completely blind but had suffered severe vision loss. They had heard of Jesus and the miracles he was doing, but they hadn't seen him. How could they? Yet they had faith that he could and would heal them. And he did. This is one of the occasions when Jesus told the people who were healed not to tell anyone. But you have to wonder, if they had been blind or nearly blind, how could the blind men not go home to their wives and children with a big a smile? How could their family and friends not notice that, all of a sudden, they can see. It's not something you could hide, much less not tell anyone about. So they ignored Jesus' instructions and spread the good news. For reflection: Do I need physical healing of my eyes? Spiritual healing? Who else do I know who needs to have their eyes opened? Let us pray. Jesus, I don't know why so many people lose all or part of their eyesight. But I have faith that you are able and willing to heal all of us. Come, Lord Jesus, and heal our eyes both physically and spiritually. Another day, another miracle. If we've been Christian a long time, and read the Scriptures for many years we can become ho-hum about all the miracles Jesus performed and how much he suffered on our behalf. The challenge can be to read them with new eyes and hear them with new ears. Before we read Scripture, we should ask the Holy Spirit to be with us and help us to hear what God is saying to us today through that particular passage. Today let's read Luke 6:6-11 (The same story is also told in Matthew 12:9-14 and Mark 3:1-6.) Jesus heals a man with a useless right hand. Perhaps the hand had been crushed in an accident or maybe the man had a stroke and no longer had the use of that hand. We have the description of the hand being shriveled, but we don't know why. The healing is intertwined with the Jewish leaders' criticism of Jesus for curing people on the Sabbath - which they considered to be work. Of course, none of them had ever restored someone's hand. So perhaps the real reason they were mad was that Jesus made them look bad. He could cure people and they, the educated and most faithful, couldn't. In Luke's version the healing of the hand is almost incidental to the story. But it was not incidental to the man. No doubt his life was changed by having his right hand back. For reflection: One method of getting something new from a Scriptural passage we've read many times is to place ourselves in the story. There are many options for who we might be in this story: the person with the shriveled hand, a Pharisee or teacher of the law, Jesus, a family member of the man being healed, one of the bystanders. Where am I in the story? What do I see and hear now? Let us pray. Holy Spirit, I don't want to become immune to the message. Help me to see what you want me to see, and hear what you want me to hear, and do what you want me to do today. Photo credit: Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_aparagraph'>aparagraph / 123RF Stock Photo</a> As I looked around the church on Sunday, I noticed how many people in the congregation were using canes, walkers and crutches. Those are great testimonies to the treatments of modern medicine, but not such great testimonies to the healing power of Jesus. When Jesus saw the faith of the man's friends, he healed the paralytic. We looked at this story of healing on Monday (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26). We don't know if the paralyzed man had faith. Maybe he did; maybe he didn't. But we know that his friends did. They carried him to Jesus, tore a hole in the roof, and, using ropes, lowered him in front of Jesus. That took planning, preparation and persistence. This may be the case when we pray with someone. They may not have much faith, but their friend does or we do. The person in need of prayer may be hope-filled but not faith-filled. They may be doubtful or skeptical. They may be incapable of getting to Jesus on their own. We may be the only one praying who has faith. We may need to plan, prepare and persist so that the experience of healing can bring them to faith. What would have happened to the man who was paralyzed if he hadn't gotten a little help from his friends? He could not have gotten to Jesus on his own. His friends helped him get his life back. For reflection: Is there anyone among my friends with a knee, hip or ankle injury? Anyone facing joint surgery with weeks of rehabilitation afterward? Am I the friend who will take them to Jesus? Can I help them get their life back? Let us pray. Jesus, you instantly healed the man who was paralyzed because his friends brought him to you. I bring to you today _____. I don't want him/her to suffer any longer. I don't care what the doctors say about the length of their recovery. I care about their health and their relationship to you. Another of Jesus' healings is of a man who is paralyzed (Matthew 9:1-8). The man's friends brought him to Jesus on a mat. Now we don't know how long the man had been paralyzed or why he was paralyzed. Was he born that way or was he hurt in an accident? How old is he? Is he married? We are not told. The encounter is a little strange because the first thing Jesus says to the man is, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." His friends didn't bring him there to have his sins forgiven; they brought him to be healed. Evidently Jesus thought it more important to forgive his sins than to heal him physically (recall Matthew 5:27-30). Nevertheless Jesus heals him physically also. Jesus attends to the full person - body and soul. For reflection: Jesus is interested in the whole person. When I pray with someone for healing, am I listening to Holy Spirit for guidance about praying for the whole person? Who have I seen in the last few days who needs prayer for healing? Let us pray. Jesus, you set an example that is not easy to follow. People don't bring friends to me for healing. I have to be brave enough to step up and ask if they would like prayer. Even though people seldom say "No", it still takes courage on my part. Strengthen me with more courage, please. (In honor of the kidnapped girls in Nigeria and their mothers.) Korea, early 1800s Cecilia's husband was killed by the authorities because he was Christian. Eventually she went to live with her son who was involved in dangerous missions work. Cecilia prayed for the success of her son's work and practiced a life of sacrifice so that others might eat. At the age of 79 Cecilia was arrested. The authorities demanded that she renounce her faith and tell them where her son was. She refused and was whipped repeatedly until she died with the names of Jesus and his mother Mary on her lips. (This account is taken from the May issue of Magnificat, an excellent resource for daily prayer and Scripture reading. http://www.Magnificat.com ) For reflection: Christians have been persecuted since the time of Jesus. Several times per hour, somewhere in the world, another Christian dies. Let us pray. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. (Psalm 35:1) We ask you, Lord, to deliver the girls in Nigeria from their abductors without further harm and to release from prison all who are persecuted for their faith. Many times when people are considering a new job, they ask about the benefits. Is there health insurance, life insurance or some kind of retirement plan in the pay package? God has a benefits package too. It is partially outlined in Psalm 103. God forgives all our sins, heals all our diseases and redeems our life from the pit. He crowns us with love and compassion like a father. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love. He satisfies our desires with good things. He renews our youth like the eagle's. If we are oppressed, he works righteousness and justice for us. He is slow to anger. When he is angry, he won't stay that way forever. He knows how he formed us, that we were made from dust. He knows that our days are short, but he remembers us and loves us forever and ever. For reflection: Let us be thankful today that God made us, that he knows us completely, and that he loves us. Let us pray. Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (Psalm 103: 1-2) Let us give thanks to the Father for having made you worthy to share the lot of the saints in light. He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Through him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creatures. In him everything in heaven and on earth was created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All were created through him; all were created for him. He is before all else that is. In him everything continues in being. It is he who is head of the body, the church. He who is the beginning, the first-born of the dead, so that primacy may be his in everything. It pleased God to have all his fullness reside in him and, by means of him, to reconcile everything in his person, both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:12-20) For reflection: St. Paul gives us this great hymn of praise of Jesus. Let us choose one phrase or sentence to think about and let it dwell within us for a day or two. |
AliceI started this website and blog on May 1, 2012. I am a Catholic who has been in ministry for many years. I first developed what I would call a close relationship with Jesus in the early 1970s. Ever since then I have been praying with people for healing and other needs. It is because I have seen so many of these prayers answered that I am so bold as to offer to pray for you individually through this website and phone line. Archives
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