Dear beloved: I have been teaching a series on gifts of the Holy Spirit the last 2 months at the prison, and recently we have been focused on the gifts of healing. 1 Corinthians 12:9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit. At a recent callout meeting at the prison, the Lord began the service by giving me several words of knowledge about physical and spiritual ailments that afflicted some of the men in the room. 1 Corinthians 12:8 For one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit. I have found over the years that when the Lord gives a word of knowledge about a condition, that His intention is to give a healing also so that His power may be revealed not only in the original word but in the healing. God is so great and cares about us so much He wants to see us healed and made whole in every way. Of course, for our part we must be obedient not only in speaking out the word of knowledge, but those for whom the word is intended must be obedient in coming forth for prayer.
One of the words of knowledge was for someone who had a pinched nerve or compression fracture of a disc in his back that was causing him lots of pain. I spoke it out and one of the men came down and we laid hands on him and prayed for his healing. Last night this same man gave his testimony about how the Lord had healed him that night of a chronic back problem that dated back to 1997, when he twisted his back while lifting a heavy hot tub spa on the job where he was working. He testified that when we laid hands on him, he instantly received a healing of the pain, and it has not bothered him since that original meeting.
Often times our pride blocks healing. We are too proud to admit we are in pain, or that we need help, or even that some man may know from God our situation, even though in our inward man we know it to be the truth.
In 2 Kings 5:1, we read about a man named Naaman who was a captain of the army of the king of Aram, who was a great man and highly respected, and a valiant warrior, but he had leprosy. He had a servant girl in his house who was from Israel, and she knew about the healing powers of the Lord's prophet Elisha, who was in Israel. v9 So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. v10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, "Go wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean." v11 But Naaman was furious and went away and said, "Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LOrd his God, and wave his hand over this place, and cure the leper." v12" Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.
So we see he was first furious at the man of God, and then went away in a rage, all signs that his pride was getting in the way of him receiving his healing. But when he got home, his servants got him straightened out and humbled him to show him how childish his actions had been. v13 Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, " My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?" How much more then, when he says to you, "Wash, and be clean". 14 So Naaman went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Many times all we need to do is just humble ourselves before the Lord to receive the healing we are asking for. Ask the Lord today where you need cleansing, and what in you needs humbling. Naaman testified in verse 16 that the God of Israel was the only God in all the earth. Praise God He was then and still is! God bless you as you pray today, in Christ, Jim www.gathertheoutcasts.com
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