Personal Growth in Understanding the Gospel of the Kingdom. Luke 9:1-11
““1) And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.” 2) And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.
6) Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
10) When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. Taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida. 11) But the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.” Luke 9:1-2, 6, 10-11
Sometimes it is important to highlight several verses in a context to let a theme emerge. There seems to be a direct connection between proclaiming the kingdom of the kingdom and effective healing and deliverance ministry. This is true for the four Gospels and the book of Acts.
If you throw 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, 4:18-20, Galatians 3:2-5, Ephesians 3:20-21, Hebrews 2:3-4, 2 Peter 2:24 and James 5:12-18 into the discussion, it seems that signs and wonders accompanied the preaching of the gospel throughout the entire early church era. God constantly confirmed the message of the gospel with signs that followed.
As a short testimony, I was an evangelist from an evangelical background, but the power of the Holy Spirit and miraculous signs were not part of my training. I was taught they had ceased.
But for the past 50 years, I have been active in Freedom and Deliverance ministry. We have seen hundreds of people set free from bondage and demonic activity. This was anchored in the Name, blood and cross of Christ. It was based on authority.
Over time as I saturated myself daily with Scripture, I began seeing that the Gospel of the Kingdom included both deliverance and healing ministry. It soon exposed a huge weakness in my approach to the gospel and created an inner crisis of faith.
One thing that undergirded my rejection of biblical healing was the number of fake faith healers that preyed on innocent, ignorant and gullible people. They were becoming rich off peoples pain, sufferings and sickness. They were frequently exposed as planting fake healings at their meetings. They were marketing and profiting from false healings. It amounted to spiritual abuse and fraud. I would have no part of it!
But over time, the false could no longer obscure stories of true and genuine healings. They pointed to the conclusion that the Gospel of the Kingdom had not changed. God was still in the buisness of confirming His word with signs that followed.
My big enlightenment came from studying the names, attributes and titles of Jesus Christ. He is not only the Savior, He is also our Provider, Deliverer, Healer, Protector, Guide and Shepherd. These titles and roles have not changed. They are synonymous with His claim to Deity.
I always had a dynamic view of the Holy Spirit and belief that the Bible was written against the backdrop of Supernaturalism. I rejected the philosophy of naturalism as a theological lens. I refused the deny the many accounts of miracles in the Bible.
Over the past few decades, I stopped looking at others and just saturated myself with the Bible and started obeying everything it said. As we slowly started praying over the sick and injured, we started seeing results. We were still seeing more results with deliverance ministry than healing, but the gap was closing.
Then I started studying healing from the Bible. I was constantly challenged and my negative bias was exposed. My faith was growing and I started obeying the command of Jesus to pray for the sick. When there were no results, I chalked it up to my lack of understanding and bias of unbelief.
I am now at the point of being as comfortable praying for healing as I am for deliverance and salvation. My job is to obey, God’s job is to move the mountain. I cannot save, set free or heal anyone. My only job is to obey! I embrace the full counsel of God as revealed in the Bible.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
Sent from my iPhone
““1) And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.” 2) And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.
6) Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
10) When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. Taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida. 11) But the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.” Luke 9:1-2, 6, 10-11
Sometimes it is important to highlight several verses in a context to let a theme emerge. There seems to be a direct connection between proclaiming the kingdom of the kingdom and effective healing and deliverance ministry. This is true for the four Gospels and the book of Acts.
If you throw 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, 4:18-20, Galatians 3:2-5, Ephesians 3:20-21, Hebrews 2:3-4, 2 Peter 2:24 and James 5:12-18 into the discussion, it seems that signs and wonders accompanied the preaching of the gospel throughout the entire early church era. God constantly confirmed the message of the gospel with signs that followed.
As a short testimony, I was an evangelist from an evangelical background, but the power of the Holy Spirit and miraculous signs were not part of my training. I was taught they had ceased.
But for the past 50 years, I have been active in Freedom and Deliverance ministry. We have seen hundreds of people set free from bondage and demonic activity. This was anchored in the Name, blood and cross of Christ. It was based on authority.
Over time as I saturated myself daily with Scripture, I began seeing that the Gospel of the Kingdom included both deliverance and healing ministry. It soon exposed a huge weakness in my approach to the gospel and created an inner crisis of faith.
One thing that undergirded my rejection of biblical healing was the number of fake faith healers that preyed on innocent, ignorant and gullible people. They were becoming rich off peoples pain, sufferings and sickness. They were frequently exposed as planting fake healings at their meetings. They were marketing and profiting from false healings. It amounted to spiritual abuse and fraud. I would have no part of it!
But over time, the false could no longer obscure stories of true and genuine healings. They pointed to the conclusion that the Gospel of the Kingdom had not changed. God was still in the buisness of confirming His word with signs that followed.
My big enlightenment came from studying the names, attributes and titles of Jesus Christ. He is not only the Savior, He is also our Provider, Deliverer, Healer, Protector, Guide and Shepherd. These titles and roles have not changed. They are synonymous with His claim to Deity.
I always had a dynamic view of the Holy Spirit and belief that the Bible was written against the backdrop of Supernaturalism. I rejected the philosophy of naturalism as a theological lens. I refused the deny the many accounts of miracles in the Bible.
Over the past few decades, I stopped looking at others and just saturated myself with the Bible and started obeying everything it said. As we slowly started praying over the sick and injured, we started seeing results. We were still seeing more results with deliverance ministry than healing, but the gap was closing.
Then I started studying healing from the Bible. I was constantly challenged and my negative bias was exposed. My faith was growing and I started obeying the command of Jesus to pray for the sick. When there were no results, I chalked it up to my lack of understanding and bias of unbelief.
I am now at the point of being as comfortable praying for healing as I am for deliverance and salvation. My job is to obey, God’s job is to move the mountain. I cannot save, set free or heal anyone. My only job is to obey! I embrace the full counsel of God as revealed in the Bible.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
Sent from my iPhone
