Over Health

SUPERNATURAL – Part 3
July 12, 2020
Randy Hageman

was an important part of Jesus’ ministry.

… [At Marah] the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, ‘If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.’ —Exodus 15:25-26 (ESV)

In this passage God reveals one of His many names – Jehovah Rapha: The LORD, Your Healer – telling the Israelites He will be their

.

[The LORD] heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. —Jeremiah 33:6 (NLT)

‘Nevertheless, the time will come when I [the LORD, the God of Israel] will heal Jerusalem’s wounds and give it prosperity and true peace.’ —Psalms 147:3 (ESV)

And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’ —Matthew 8:14-17 (ESV)
When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.’ —Mark 2:17 (ESV)

Jesus, as the Great Physician, came to heal more than physical infirmities, but also to heal people’s

by overcoming evil and taking away their sins.

Health and wholeness was

original plan and design.

On its most basic level, disease and disability are

of our human sin and were never God’s design or plan.

By the end of the Bible, our relationships with God and each other are

and

Reveal Answer

, and the vision of Genesis 2 returns, on a much grander scale.

Jesus Christ is God incarnate, come to live with us, to walk in our sin-filled world and proclaim the Kingdom of God is

, in word and action.

Jesus: … ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’ —Mark 1:15 (ESV)

After his resurrection, Jesus gave his Spirit, to those who put their faith in him, to live in them, as a

of what the Kingdom will be like and be our

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that that day is coming.

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. —2 Corinthians 5:1-5 (NLT)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.’ —Revelation 21:1-4 (NLT)

One day, sin, death and disease will be

– we will be fully healed – with the return of Jesus and the arrival of God’s Kingdom.

THINGS THAT HAPPENED WHEN JESUS HEALED SOMEONE:

1) Healings were then and have always been a vivid

, that God really does love us and care about us.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. —Psalms 34:18 (ESV)

2) Jesus’ miraculous healings served as signs of the

, revealing what God will do for all who find themselves in His Kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

3) Healings by Jesus served to

that he really was who he said he was, the Messiah, the Son of God.

Yet many of the people believed in [Jesus]. They said, ‘When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?’ —John 7:31 (ESV)

[Christ} personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. —1 Peter 2:24 (NLT)

Along with spiritual healing, people are still healed physically and emotionally

in the name of Jesus Christ.

Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. —James 5:14-16 (NLT)

We also have to acknowledge that many requests for healing, many good and seemingly worthy requests,

granted by God.

Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk.’ And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.… —John 5:2-9 (ESV)

From all indications, this man was the

person Jesus healed at this time.

…I [Paul] left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. —2 Timothy 4:20 (ESV)

So to keep me [Paul] from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations [I received from God], a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. —2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (ESV)

Sometimes God may have a greater

to not heal, at least physically, in this life.

God may remove your suffering, and that will be great cause for praise. But if not, He will use it, He will use anything and everything that stands in the way of His fellowship with you. So let God mold you and make you, transform you from glory to glory. That’s the deeper healing. —Joni Eareckson Tada

The very fact that we long for healing and wholeness, to be made well when we’re sick, goes beyond its inconvenience or pain – it indicates we know instinctively that we were created for

, and we “long to put on our heavenly bodies.”

Jesus showed us the New Kingdom was

, but it had not fully come, and it will not fully come until he

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, and sin and death are destroyed.

Healings, especially those by Jesus, are signs of what is to come, but they are

the real or final thing.

For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. —Romans 14:17 (NLT)

Next Week: Supernatural – Over Hunger