The Holy Spirit: Power Presence and Purpose Part 108

The Gifts Part 13

Healings continued...

Although I keep trying to move ahead with the teaching on the gifts of healings, I keep going back to the passage in the gospel according to James, and each time I reread it, something new, and relevant to the topic of healing stands out.

James 5:16, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

One reason that we don’t see as many healings as we ought within the household of faith is because there is very little teaching on the importance of confessing one’s trespasses. When a trespass or a sin is not confessed to either the elders of the church, the deacons, the pastor or a fellow brother, it becomes a stumbling block between man and God. Until the stumbling block is removed, until the trespass is confessed, there is no healing, and this is the reason many are weak and sick within the congregation of God.

Not every disease, not every ailment, not every thorn is a messenger of Satan sent to buffet us, as was the case with Paul, but in many cases, they are the direct result of sin in our lives. Yes, sin is a destructive force that brings about weakness and disease within the church, and until the sin is confessed and repented of, and the individual in question is prayed for, they will remain in their state of infirmity.

1 Corinthians 11:29-32, “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.”

There is allot to unpack in these three verses, and although they don’t relate directly to the gifts of healings, they are nevertheless of great import in discovering the reason why so many within the church are in need of healing.

First of all, Paul is writing to the church of Corinth, he is writing to believers and not to those of the world. So this scripture passage pertains to believers, and it is the believer who is warned that if they eat and drink of the body and blood of Christ in an unworthy manner, they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

It is because men do not judge themselves, it is because men willfully sin and consider it an irrelevant thing, it is because men eat and drink of the body of the Lord in an unworthy manner, that they fall under judgment, and as such many are weak and sick, and many have already died.

I realize it’s progressive and tolerant not to preach against sin, I realize it gives the duplicitous and willfully sinful a warm fuzzy feeling to hear that Jesus loves them just the way they are with no need to confess, repent and pursue righteousness, but the men who tell these lies from behind pulpits aren’t doing the unrepentant sinner any favors, for not only will he be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord if he does not confess and repent, but he will be condemned with the world.

Try as some men might, we cannot change certain truths in the word of God, nor can we expunge certain scriptures because we do not like what they are implying.

Men throughout the land today are drinking judgment to themselves, not discerning the Lord’s body, and for this reason they are weak and sick with no hope of being made whole and renewed because they are not being taught the one thing that could bring them back to wholeness.

What we must decide is whether we want to be chastened of the Lord, or condemned with the world. Knowing that the Lord chastens those He loves, I would rather be chastened by the Lord, for when He condemns the world, and judges it in righteousness, there will be no mercy, nor will there be any reprieve.

Hebrews 12:5-8, “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.”

Now some will read this passage from the Word of God, and shake their heads and say ‘that’s not the God I serve’. If that’s not the God you serve, if you don’t believe that God chastens those He loves, and those who are without chastening are illegitimate and not sons, then may I humbly submit that you are not serving the God of the Bible.

The Word clearly says that God chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. To scourge is to flog or to whip, to punish severely, yet if we endure chastening God deals with us as with sons.

How many sermons have you heard of late on the scourging of the Lord? How many sermons have you heard of late on the chastening of the Lord? I wager not many, because chastening is unpopular and unwelcome, and a great majority today despises it, and you could never go wrong giving the people what they want rather than what they need.

If only we would begin to realize what it is that some of the most famous preachers and evangelists today are teaching the masses, if only we would begin to realize just how much of the Bible they are omitting, we would see just how spiritually deficient we truly are, and just how far we’ve strayed from the truth of God’s holy word.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.