Hindrances to Healing E-Book

Barbara Furguson

• Herausgeber: Grosvenor House Publishing
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 100

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

The hindrances to our healing may not be insurmountable as long as we remember what to be aware of and what to avoid. This book is not about alternative medicine. It is a look at the divine healing that is part of the agreement that Jesus Christ brought with Him when He came into the world. The author attempts here to see how we can go a step further in life, not only to health, but also to be made whole.

Leseprobe

This book is dedicated to my beloved sister, Judith, who has proved the truth of the words ‘I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.’ John 10:10

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

1. Healing According to Me

2. Healing According to God

3. Ignorance is Not Bliss

4. A Fate Worse than Ignorance

5. When Heaven is Silent

6. When Heaven Speaks

7. Heaven too soon

Copyright

Introduction

On my own admission, this book is lightweight when considering the healing power of Jesus and studying the scriptural record. It does begin benignly but there are a few stings along the way.

An in-depth perusal can be had from more scholarly efforts such as the following book, ‘None of These Diseases’ by S.I.McMillen - published by Marshall Morgan & Scott, which gives testimony to the wisdom of the Bible for the key to healthy living.

Divine healing is a miracle and a wonder! It is part of the new agreement that Jesus Christ brought with him when he came into the world.

We know from the New Testament that he continually confirmed his message of redemption and deliverance by the signs that he did.

In the Old Testament of the Bible these things pointed to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He came what He did was partly to lead to faith in Himself and it included healing and releasing from demon power as well as raising the dead. The miracles spread His fame and made people aware that He was actually there.

After His death and resurrection we find the same signs followed the preaching of the same message by His disciples, also confirming all that they said.

Although healing is not given on demand but as He wishes, God does reveal Himself through this way as well as through His word. His word and His works go together.

Sometimes though there are hindrances. To go a long way toward complete and lasting healing these checks and obstructions can be removed, either by the one needing them removed or by another coming to help.

This makes a way for God Himself to do His own work in the spirit, soul and body of His people.

The Lord Jesus, therefore, is central to this book. It is not about alternative medicine. It is not about trying new techniques when the old ones don’t work. If we are not healed, it is not the intention here to introduce ideas of surrendering to massage or meditation, therapy of any kind or to have anything to do with realising auras or the power within waiting to be exploited.

We will have to see to it, or try to, that God is not mocked by our supposed cleverness. There are false cult ideas and other religious notions of men that we read in much up-to-date writing where there is a passing acknowledgement of Jesus. We cannot, however, take what we want and leave the rest as irrelevant. He is the Resurrection and the Life and for the purpose of this book He is the Healer.

The hindrances to our health may not be insurmountable as long as we remember what to be aware of and avoid. There may be some good in some alternative remedies but ultimately the spirit may be tarnished and in many cases the life is ruined by following such ideas. Neither do we link ourselves here with mother earth, so called, or universal energy.

We are not seeking ideas that may have some smattering of truth.

We know the One who said, ‘I am the Truth.’ (John 14.6)

The full healing program will be complete with the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ and that to reign.

It will be satisfying for those who read or skim through these chapters, that are in no way conclusive, and who long for healing or better still, to be made whole, will see themselves as not after the good but after the excellent.

CHAPTER ONE

Healing According to Me

News that the body of a new born baby girl had been found washed up by the bank of a river saddened the local community. The police were in charge and everyone knew that all that could be done would be done, to find the mother and solve the mystery.

The task was likely to be impossible, however, and in the end the little body would be placed in a pauper’s grave; easily forgotten and without a name.

The people of this particular community in the West Country cared. They could not bear the thought of this happening. The landlady of the public house, a mother of three, and all her regulars, began to collect small amounts of money and a tin was placed on the counter.

Night after night contributions were made so that a proper grave and memorial could be paid for. People collected at work and the police gave too. Many added notes and cheques. The coroner eventually recorded an open verdict and said that it was not known how the baby had died and it would probably always remain a mystery.

By this time, however, the small community had made sure of a tiny grave and when the money was counted it was more than adequate. ‘Everyone was entitled to proper burial,’ they said.

A white marble headstone was ordered in the shape of an open book. It would be inscribed with the words -

‘I never lived, I never died, yet for me, some people cried.’

The funeral was arranged by the pub community and more than thirty people took time off work to attend including local councillors and police officers.

‘She belongs to us and is now part of a family,’ they said.

At the funeral the vicar led the graveside service with the words;

‘Suffer the little children to come

unto Me, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven.’

This was a true story recorded in a daily newspaper. What a testimony to some of the best that humanity can offer. Those who attended the funeral wept openly. They cared and they became involved.

Let us ask ourselves a simple question.

Is it possible for us to be actively involved in compassionate caring in our own community and further as far as God takes us, when we ourselves are sick?

All of us, our neighbours, our friends, the particular circle we move in, not to mention the rest of the town and group we meet with for worship, all need some form of healing. So we could almost say, ‘no involvement, no healing.’

‘All seek their own,’ said Paul to the Philippians in chapter two v.21, so that ‘all’ must include us, too.

It certainly includes me. I am almost totally self-interested when I am sick, complacent in the extreme about others and concentrating on my own narrow welfare.

‘You don’t know how I feel!’

Paul said Epaphroditus was so sick he was dying, (Phil 2.27) simply because he had been fully engrossed in serving others. God did heal him, partly for Paul’s sake but he had completely disregarded his own life in the risks he took.

This is the heart message of the Bible. If we try to save our lives, cosset our emotions, look to our own interests, we lose them; if we give them away, we save them. If I want to be like God’s Son, I need a heart full of compassion for the world, the whole of it and all humanity in it. God intends that the healing for this poor world of ours should come through us.

The whole of Christ’s ministry was healing orientated as it was with the emerging church. If it wasn’t, over 700 references to it in the New Testament would have to be crossed out. The authority for it was given to the twelve Apostles, in Mark 6.7.

‘And He called unto Him the twelve and began to send them forth … And they cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick’. Very comprehensive. They were to heal the sick wherever they found themselves. They came back elated.

Verse 13 finishes - ‘and they healed them.’

The church as we know it now has the same work to do. It should be our normal activity. The gospel, when it is preached in where we call the third world, is automatically attended by rebuking of spirits of infirmity and many healings.

A recent survey in this country (Britain) showed that 90% of people expected from their doctor sympathy, kindness, understanding, a listening ear and at the end of the list, medical knowledge. And the scriptures are full of a variety of ways in which God’s loving compassion is shown like this.

Hebrews 11.25 tells us that Moses, when he had the world at his feet ‘chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.’

Timothy endured all things for the elect’s sake (you and me) even to being treated as an evildoer. (2 Tim.2.10)

The bearing of each other’s burdens fulfils the law of Christ. ‘Bear one another’s burdens and so obey the Lord’s commands.’ (Galations.6.2)

If you want a ministry, here it is - refreshing and encouraging one another.

‘Your kindness has so often refreshed the hearts of God’s people,’ says Paul to Philemon verse 7 in The Living Bible Paraphrase.

There is import we can give here to the matter of touch.

This is compassion at the fingertips. body language if you like, at its most sublime. It goes along with healing of spirit, soul and body. It puts backbone into the words we speak. We don’t need to be afraid of it.

We all ought to know what it is like to be hugged when catastrophe or grief overtakes us. Loving care is tangible.

‘If I may but touch His clothes,’ said the dear woman who had suffered so much from the professionals and received nothing. Mark 5.28

Elisha sensed the immediate need of extreme close contact for the dead child, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. 2 Kings 4:34

Then he did it again. What a man to be around in an emergency.

Isaiah tells us in chapter 58, that if we are looking for our ‘own health to spring forth speedily’ we are also automatically, to be found helping others in trouble, sharing our food, bringing right into our own homes those who are helpless. This is going a long way with inroads into our natural reserve and dignified silences. He is talking about an attitude that is expected when we are crying for our own relief. Don’t hide from relations, he says, or your own flesh and blood when they have a need.

Jesus constantly touched people in the process of healing, no matter what the sight of the running sores did to others. There is no place for squeamishness. He put mud on eyes mixed with his own spittle. You can’t get much closer than that. The open places on disease-ridden bodies, for example, leprosy, are as objectionable now as they must have been then. The smell alone is not conducive to drawing near. Even other people’s normal perspiration is inhibitive. But Jesus drew near.

He didn’t wait for the apothecary to go around spraying perfumes as we might. .

Matthew 8.3 tells us, ‘Jesus put forth His hand and touched him,’ and the word there, Haptomai, includes the thought of holding and embracing.

The Good Samaritan, you remember, came where the wounded one was. He bound up the wounds, pouring in oil and wine and took care of him. Not only that but he paid for it all, plus the hotel bill. He went on caring even when it became costly.

Praying for one another also is a necessary extension of the caring process.

‘Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another that you may be healed. James 5.16

Psalm 139 is a wonderful example of a prayer that can be used for someone else, changing it from being personal to using the name of the one who needs compassion.