Healing is the Children's Bread
Jesus taught us that just as bread is nourishment to our physical bodies healing is a privilege and inheritance for those who belong to God's family through faith in Jesus Christ.
Matthew 15:21-28 " Jesus left that place and retired into the Tyre and Sidon district. There a Canaanite woman from those parts came to him crying at the top of her voice, “Lord, have pity on me! My daughter is in a terrible state—a devil has got into her!” Jesus made no answer, and the disciples came up to him and said, “Do send her away—she’s still following us and calling out.”
“I was only sent,” replied Jesus, “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Then the woman came and knelt at his feet. “Lord, help me,” she said.
“It is not right, you know,” Jesus replied, “to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
“Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs live on the scraps that fall from their master’s table!”
“You certainly don’t lack faith,” returned Jesus, “it shall be as you wish.” And at that moment her daughter was cured.
Healing is part of our inheritance through our faith in Jesus Christ.
This woman was a gentile and not a Jew. Jesus pointed out that he was only sent to the Jews who were lost but because of her faith she was able to receive the provisional inheritance of healing. She was crying out so loudly that His disciples told Jesus to send her away.
Romans 10:8-13
It is the secret of faith, which is the burden of our preaching, and it says, in effect, “If you openly admit by your own mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and if you believe in your own heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” For it is believing in the heart that makes a man righteous before God, and it is stating his belief by his own mouth that confirms his salvation. And the scripture says: ‘Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame’. And that “whoever” means anyone, without distinction between Jew or Greek. For all have the same Lord, whose boundless resources are available to all who turn to him in faith. For: ‘Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’.
It was her belief in who Jesus was that made her cry out at the top of her lungs " Lord, have Mercy on me! My daughter is demon possessed! Jesus heard her and so did his disciples. Sometimes persistence pays off whenever there is faith involved. I can see her faith becoming stronger each time she cried out. Then she put her faith into action and knelt at Jesus feet Verse
Galatians 4:1-7
But you must realize that so long as an heir is a child, though he is destined to be master of everything, he is, in practice, no different from a servant. He has to obey a guardian or trustee until the time which his father has chosen for him to receive his inheritance. So is it with us: while we were “children” we lived under the authority of basic moral principles.
But when the proper time came God sent his son, born of a human mother and born under the jurisdiction of the Law, that he might redeem those who were under the authority of the Law and lead us into becoming, by adoption, true sons of God. It is because you really are his sons that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts to cry “Father, dear Father”. You, my brother, are not a servant any longer; you are a son. And, if you are a son, then you are certainly an heir of God through Christ.
1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
The Holy Spirit is the conduit which divine healing flows
When Jesus walked the earth he not only taught us that healing was a fundamental aspect of our emotional and spiritual well-being but he demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit through the miraculous healings.
Not only did His miracles display His divine power but they revealed to us the heart of our Heavenly Father. He wants to have compassion upon us and restore us to wholeness.
Matthew 15:32-38
Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ They said, ‘Seven, and a few small fish.’ Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children.
Matthew 20 :29 -34
As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. There were two blind men sitting by the roadside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’ The crowd sternly ordered them to be quiet; but they shouted even more loudly, ‘Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!’ Jesus stood still and called them, saying, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, let our eyes be opened.’ Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they regained their sight and followed him.
Jesus revealed the purpose of the Holy Spirit upon Him whenever he quoted from Isaiah.
Isaiah 61:
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
Acts 10 :38
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
The Holy Spirit will bring about the emotional , spiritual and physical healing that is needed by humanity. We must recognize the importance of inviting the Holy Spirit to work in us, to breathe life into our bodies, and bring healing into every area of our lives.
The Lord is Our Healer
The Lord describes himself in the Old Testament as Jehovah- Rapha. In Hebrew the word Rapha means "To Heal" He is the God who brings healing and wholeness to his people. He has a heart of compassion towards those who are sick and broken and He desires to heal them.
Exodus 15: 26
There the Lord made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he proved them, saying, “If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord, your healer.
In this chapter the Israelites were afraid to drink the water because it was bad. They had just come out of Egypt and they saw the plagues that were placed upon the Egyptians because of their rebellion against the Lord. Moses was instructed to take a tree and throw it into the water and immediately the water was purified. He was showing them that He had the power to protect and heal his people.
In Jeremiah 30:17 He says " For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal,
says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: It is Zion; no one cares for her!”
Jeremiah had just witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and all his friends had been taken into captivity and God spoke to him encouraging him that He will mend their wounds and bring them out of captivity.
Psalm 103:2 -3
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—
who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases.
David was declaring that not only does God heal us of our physical ailments but our spiritual ones as well.
Because of our heavenly Father's compassion for our healing He sent his only begotten Son Jesus to die on cross for our sins and for our healing. This brought about a means that we might receive our healing by our faith in Him.
Isaiah 53: 3-12
He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity,
and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases, yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with affliction. When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
Out of his anguish he shall see; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors,
yet he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
These scriptures serve as a reminder of the healing nature of God and His willingness to intervene in our lives. Understanding this biblical perspective on healing for us as children of God not only provides comfort and hope for parents and caregivers but also encourages us to approach the Father with confidence and faith. By embracing this perspective, we can cultivate an atmosphere of expectation and belief that God can and will heal us. Recognizing that healing is a scriptural promise that extends to us allows us to pray with unwavering faith, trusting that God’s power is not limited to age or circumstance.
