I am by defintion a bapticostal, raised in a traditional baptist family even a preachers Kid. I took the road of rebellion like many of my pears only to find the end lonely, dark, and revolting. Through a dramatic encounter with the Lord, I found Jesus as my rescuer, my deliverer, my peace, and ultimately as my Lord.
I was an expert in pain, emotional pain that is. When I began the Christian walk I found a revolving door of people desperate for just a moment of peace. My peace seemed to be over flowing and people just knew. Our House was always full. My wife Dianna is a great cook and hostess and together we were a team. It didn’t take long for the needs to outweigh both my character and Dianna’s patience.
So it was time to train, time to wrestle with the Lord, as the Lord chipped away at my pride and prejudice. It came in an unexpected way by it,I mean compassion. Soon after my Jesus encounter we started attending a charismatic church I didn’t quit fit in with hyper-faith movement. I watched a pastor die of Leukemia. He refused medical care and stood on faith until the end. I watched those around him dwindle as it became apparent He was not healed.
I prayed on the phone with Him just a few days before He passed away. He Faith was so strong and I felt ashamed at the amount of Christians who passed judgement with a sentence of Lack of Faith. During that same time my Wife found out She had Cushings Syndrome. We had a few people who pulled the Lack of faith card but in most cases our Denominational friends showed great compassion.
After 25 years and being sick, and healed and praying for the sick, and seeing many healed and many not, I have come to these conclusions.
•Isaiah 53 vs 3-5 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like one people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn’t value Him. 4 Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.
•summed up in Hebrews 4:15 Hebrews 4:15 (Amplified Bible) 15For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.
Jesus on the cross, not any more. He is at the right hand of God the Father presenting our case for us. He felt what we feel and He is moved by our pain and stirred with compassion for us.
Yet remember :
•Phil 2:5-11, 5 Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. 7 Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, 8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death–even to death on a cross. 9 For this reason God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow– of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth– 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
See Jesus took on humanity and while cloaked in pain, defeated death, and Returned to heaven. His life was an example of identifying with the pain, and for the joy that was set before Him He endured, even the cross.
I am blessed to have been given the opportunity to pray for the sick in the third world where the needs are overwhelming. Many times I have just wept, and could not even find the words to pray yet God healed. I don’t know why some are healed and some are not, but This I Know. Love in the heart and compassion in your hands, God will be there too, maybe not like you think but He Will be there.
I challenge you to trust God and don’t offer a why God didn’t, or won’t, or hasn’t and continue knocking asking and seeking. Continue loving people in their pain and not be scared off by it. Don’t make a person who hasn’t been healed feel like a outcast or shameful. It’s not 12 steps or a lesson in the Greek word for healing that’s needed. It is LOVE, give some away today.
What a beautiful word in times of such turmoil. God is always present. I am both encouraged and built up by what I read. Thank you again and may God pour out abundantly on you and your work.
God Bless, Glenn Smith Jr
It’s good to see you blogging again, John.