Healing and Prayer
Text: Acts 28:5-10
The pathway to health
SELF-CARE
Nutrition & Diet
Physical Fitness
Spiritual Disciplines: Faith, Prayer, Fasting
Biblical Meditation, etcetera.
Emotional Balance
Mental Exercise
Communal Support
Rest and Relaxation
MEDICAL INTERVENTION
MIRACULOUS INTERVENTION
(Healing beyond the natural course of life)
The health benefits of prayer
Reduction in stress, anxiety, and depression
Moderating influence on our emotions
Improved sense of contentment and peace
Engenders and restores hope
Helps to regulate bodily systems: cardiac,
endocrine, and respiratory
Speeds our recovery and natural healing
The Power for Healing
“See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life.
I have wounded and
IT IS I WHO HEAL,
And there is no one who can save
anyone from My hand.”
(Deut. 32:39)
Paul exercises the gift of healing (Acts 28:7-10)
Paul observed his condition
Paul prayed
Paul laid his hands on him and healed him
The people in the community who had diseases
were coming to him and being cured.
Footnotes:
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries,
and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”
The Biblical Pattern for Healing
Identify: Identify the Need
Pray: Prepare through Prayer
Practice Confession (James 5:16)
Practice Intercession (James 5:16)
Seek Wisdom and Direction (1 Cor. 12
Act: Act by faith as the Spirit leads
Pray and laying on of hands (Mark 16:17-18)
Pray and anointing with oil (James 5:14-15
Footnotes:
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. “ (James 5:16)
But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is [b]discerned by no one. 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:15-16) WWJD
“These signs will accompany those who have believed:
in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:17-18)
“Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up,…” (James 5:14-15)
Prayer and Faith in God’s Plan
Is it always God’s will to heal?
What is our motivation in asking for healing?
What should be our primary concern when
we pray?
Footnotes:
2 Cor. 12:7-10 “Because of the extraordinary
greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to
keep me from exalting myself, there was given
to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan
to]torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!
Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times
that it might leave me. And He has said to me,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is
perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore,
I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that
the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore
I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses,
in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ;
for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
John 9:2-3 “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he would be born blind?”
2 James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive,
because you ask with the wrong motives,
John 11:4 “But when Jesus heard this, He said,
“This sickness is not meant for death, but is for
the glory of God, so that the Son of God may
be glorified by it.”
Romans 15:7 “Therefore, accept one another just as Christ also accepted us, for the glory of God.”
1 Cor 10:31 “Therefore, whether you eat or drink,
or whatever you do, do all things for the
glory of God.”
In sickness and in health
“We do not lose heart, but though our outer
person is decaying, yet our inner person is
being renewed day by day. For our momentary,
light affliction is producing for us an eternal
weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen; for the
things which are seen are temporal, but the
things which are not seen are eternal”.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18