Healings continue to be reported in the Acts of the Apostles as we return to Peter's life and ministry in chapter 9:32. Peter healed a man named Aeneas who was paralyzed. How? Simply by saying to him, "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat." There is no long drawn out prayer. There is no, "Oh Lord, if it be your will." Instead there is a statement of faith, "Jesus Christ heals you" followed by a command, "Get up and take care of your mat." Who knows how many people Peter witnessed Jesus healing? No doubt quite a few, so he learned from the master. Jesus healed simply by command. Jesus knew it was the Father's will to heal people; so Peter knew it was the Father's will to heal people. Both acted out of complete faith, with no doubt of what the Father wanted done. For reflection: How often am I able to act confidently, out of complete faith? Do I know that it is the Father's will to heal? Let us pray. Father, sometimes I lack the faith to do the things I know you want done. Sometimes I am afraid of being ridiculed. Or I am just afraid of doing things "wrong". I am the one in need of healing today, Father. Heal me physically, spiritually, emotionally. Heal my unbelief.
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The prayer of Ananias for his enemy Saul was very effective. Within a few days Saul had completely changed his mind and the focus of his life. He went from a persecutor of the followers of Jesus to proving that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 9:19-22). That was one powerful prayer that Ananias prayed. It not only changed Saul, but also changed the history of Christianity through Saul's conversion. Our prayers for our enemies can be just as life-changing. It reminds me of the passage in the letter of James which reminds us to pray in all situations (James 5:13-20), assuring us that the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. For reflection: There may be enemies in several areas of my life - family, work, church, nation. For whom is God asking me to pray today? Let us pray. Dear Jesus, please bring to mind all for whom I need to pray. . . . I forgive them for what they have done. I set them free of my judgment. I ask you to bless and heal them in whatever way they need and to draw them closer to you. Brave Ananias went to pray with Saul at the Lord's direction (Acts 9:10-19) and Saul was healed of his blindness, both physical and spiritual blindness. Saul was actually the enemy of Ananias when Ananias went to pray with him. Jesus asked Ananias to go pray for the healing of his enemy. So Ananias was living out Jesus' teaching from Matthew 5:43-45. "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." Loving and praying for our enemies is one of the hardest things to do that Jesus taught. I have heard quite a few Christians pray against their enemies, rather than praying for them. But Jesus didn't say pray against them; he said pray for them. Perhaps Paul was remembering what Ananias had done for him when he wrote to the Romans: "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. . . . If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head" (Romans 12:14-20). For reflection: Who are my enemies? How have I been treating them? Let us pray. Father, I ask your blessing on (my enemy). Help me to speak kind and loving words and to follow your lead in what I should do for them. If I can help lead them closer to you, please show me how to do that. And please forgive me for the way I have treated them in the past. Stephen and Philip are only minor characters in the Acts of the Apostles. By far the major figure in Acts is Paul. (He was called Saul in Hebrew and Paul in the Greek language.) Saul was going about his business, rounding up Christians to be sent back to Jerusalem for trial, when God has an appointment with him. Saul didn't have an appointment with God, but God had an appointment with him. God was not at all polite about getting his attention either. God knocks him to the ground and speaks to him. When Paul gets up he is blind. His fellow deputies escort him on to Damascus and find him a room. While there, God gives Saul a vision of a man named Ananias visiting him, laying hands on him, and restoring his vision. Meanwhile, God is speaking to Ananias about Saul. Understandably, Ananias, a follower of Jesus, knowing who Saul is, doesn't want to go see him. But God insists, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name" (Acts 9:15-16). So Ananias keeps his divine appointment with Saul and Saul is healed. For reflection: What does Jesus have to do to get my attention? Do I have a regular appointment time to listen to Jesus? Am I keeping it? Or am I on vacation from God? Let us pray. Jesus, I apologize for not keeping my appointment time with you, for not listening and for not seeing what you want me to see. Open my eyes. Open my ears. How did Philip witness to the Ethiopian man (Acts 8:26-40)? Being divinely guided to meet this man, how did Philip proceed? First, he began from where the man was. The man happened to be reading from Isaiah. So Philip knew the man was a Jewish believer. If he got to know him at all, which he must have or we would have no details in this account, he found out that he had traveled all the way from Ethiopia to worship in Jerusalem. So the man is a devout Jew. Philip starts the witnessing conversation with the passage from Isaiah that the man is reading. Second, from that starting point he led the conversation around to Jesus and the good news that the Messiah had come. We don't know exactly how long this conversation lasted. Possibly it lasted several hours. Even so, it was a "quickie". In only one meeting, Philip brings the Ethiopian to belief and even baptizes him. Philip's divine appointment led another person into the kingdom in one day. No doubt the man went back to Ethiopia and told others what had happened. So the Gospel spread even further from that one encounter. Earlier this year at my regular appointment with my hairdresser Thomas, I noticed that he had a large lump on his right wrist. I asked him what was wrong. He said it was a type of tendonitis and that it was so bad he was only cutting hair for two people a day. He had rescheduled all of his other customers with other hairdressers in the salon. He didn't know what was going to happen or how he would continue to support his family. His wrist was not getting significantly better with therapy. Knowing that Thomas is a believer in Jesus, when we finished I asked if I could pray for healing of his wrist. He took me into a small room in the salon and we prayed for a minute or two. Twice it felt like electricity passed between us. When I returned for my next appointment, Thomas's wrist was healed and he was back to cutting hair all day long. This was not a divine appointment, but a regular appointment, used for divine purposes because I was able to step out in faith. I didn't know if Thomas would be healed, but I knew prayer wouldn't make it any worse! I met Thomas where he was - in need of healing. Jesus took it from there. For reflection: Have I missed opportunities to meet people's need for God, for healing? What is holding me back? Let us pray. Holy Spirit, I don't want to miss any more opportunities that you provide. I give you my fears of reaching out to others, of being rejected, of not knowing what to say. I don't want those fears any more. Stephen, Peter and the other disciples were following Jesus' instructions in going out to preach and heal. But it was not only after Jesus' death and resurrection, and the empowerment of Pentecost, that the disciples began to go out to fulfill the gospel command. They got some practice while Jesus was alive. In Luke 10 Jesus sent out 72 of his followers to preach and to heal. (Perhaps Stephen had been one of the 72.) He sent them out two by two as his advance men to prepare the people where he would be going. You could say they went into the towns to stir up interest and get the people excited about Jesus' arrival. Jesus authorized them to do this. The disciples were operating under his authority. And in his name great things happened: not only were people healed but even the demons submitted to the name of Jesus. What is the difference between the 72 who were sent out while Jesus was alive and the many disciples who went out after his death and resurrection? Jesus had told them to wait until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). They received the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and were authorized and empowered to pass that on to all who would come to believe. They are not acting solely under the deputed authority of Jesus, who was acting on the authority of his Father (John 5:19-23). The entire Trinity is now backing them up. For reflection: If the Trinity has my back, what can I do to preach, to heal, to defeat demons, to bring the kingdom of God on earth? Let us pray. Father, thank you for creating me in your image and likeness. Thank you for adopting me into your family through baptism. Thank you for saving me through Jesus' death on the cross and authorizing me to do your work with the power of the Holy Spirit. May I always be a good ambassador for you. If we look to the early church for evidence of what it means to be a disciple or follower of Jesus, we see several things. They prayed daily in the temple and elsewhere. They fellowshipped and took communion together. They lived in common or at least saw to each other's needs as they grew into a larger group. They attracted new believers through preaching, healing and miracles. The healings and miracles served to confirm the fact that the power of Jesus, who had been crucified and was risen from the dead, was now with his disciples. Healings and miracles were not for the sake of showing power, but so that people would be drawn to listen to the gospel. After hearing the good news, people were being baptized and their sins forgiven. Lives were changing. The gospel still has the power to change lives today if we are not afraid or reluctant to share it with other people. If coming to have a personal relationship with Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to us, why do we hesitate to tell others about him? We don't want to be pushy about it, though, as Peter says, "Always be prepared to given an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15). For reflection: Do I have my answer ready if someone asks me? Let us pray. Lord Jesus, you promised to give us all that we need and to give us words when we need them. I am trusting in your promises. I need boldness, gentleness, respect and the right words. Evidently Jesus healed all of the sick and disabled people who came to him because there is no record in the New Testament of his not healing someone who asked. Sometimes he even healed people because someone else asked (the Centurion's servant in Matthew 8:5-13). Often there is the mention of faith in these healings, but not always. People have searched for some common denominator in these accounts - some surefire method of healing or magic words to say. There are none. This 100% record of healing continued with the early apostles. Following the story of Ananias and Sapphira there is another short summary of apostolic activity (Acts 5:12-16). So many people were being healed by the apostles that "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 from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed." If healing was such a constitutive part of the ministry of Jesus and the apostles, why do we not see more healing today in the Christian churches? Some say that the gifts in the early church (healing, prophecy, tongues) were not intended to last long. They were simply to get the church started. I disagree. Jesus said we would do the things that he did (John 14:12-14). He was here among us to set the example and that example clearly included healing. For reflection: What do I believe about healing? Have I/Could I pray with someone to be healed? Let us pray. Jesus, you are the Lord of Healing, the Source of Healing. Heal my unbelief and help me to step boldly out in any areas of ministry to which you are calling me. Peter and John got off with a warning from the Jewish leaders after the healing of the beggar at the temple. It was a warning they had no intention of heeding. Keeping quiet about Jesus was not an option (Acts 4:18-22). They returned to where the disciples were gathered and reported what had happened. Immediately the entire group began to praise God and to ask him to continue helping them to preach about Jesus. They ended with, "Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus" (4:29-30). The result? "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly". Once when I was at a prayer meeting I happened to lean up against the wall while the whole group was praising God. The wall was shaking! I believe praise is a key ingredient for enabling us to speak the word of God boldly. Notice that the disciples asked for boldness and then received it -- they spoke the word of God boldly. Praise is still needed today. Boldness is still needed today. For reflection: How much time do I spend praising God as opposed to asking him for things? Have I asked God to make me bold in speaking about him? Let us pray. Father, we praise you for who you are, author of life, ancient of ages, prince of peace, creator of all that exists, sharer of your divine holiness, provider, sustainer, deliverer, healer, savior. "Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep" (Ps 36:5-6). (In case you missed it, there was an extra post yesterday for Father's Day. It's a wonderful song of love from the Father's heart.) Since we've been looking at the healing of the beggar at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, let's spend a few moments with phrases from Peter's speeches following this act of healing kindness (Acts 3:12-4:20). Surprise . . . author of life . . . name of Jesus . . . made strong . . . faith . . . healing . . . as you can see . . . acted in ignorance . . . foretold through the prophets . . . repent . . . times of refreshing may come . . . appointed for you . . . a prophet from among your own people . . . heirs . . . act of kindness . . . Jesus Christ . . . salvation is found in no one else . . no other name . . . what we have seen and heard. For reflection: Read the passage again. What words or phrases stand out? Was I able to perform any acts of kindness this week? Was I able to speak to anyone about Jesus this week? Let us pray. Author of Life, Healer of the Beggar, there are areas where I need healing. Bring times of refreshing to me, please, and help me to share healing and refreshing with others. |
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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