Luke Teaches Us to Proclaim the Healing Power of Jesus (St. Luke's Day, Oct. 18)

Luke / Acts is the longest and most practical of the Gospels. Luke focuses on the Good News as healing. This includes physical healing and spiritual healing. In fact spiritual healing often leads to physical healing. The goal is to restore individuals to wholeness or holiness so they can be in a right relationship with God – who is holy. Humanity is imprisoned by sin, guilt and fear under the power of Satan and destined to die both physically and spiritually. Jesus claims (Luke 4.16-21) the Prophetic mission of Isaiah to free humanity from this captivity to sin and death and restore us to physical health, right relationship with God and eternal spiritual life. This is accomplished by our proclaiming the forgiveness and healing power of Jesus.

 1. Jesus is the “ANOINTED” teacher and healer

Unlike the “false teachers” 2 Timothy 4.3 warns us about Jesus is anointed by God to teach the Good News to the poor. This anointing is critical in teaching and preaching. The history of the Church is a history of false teachers promoting heresies and conflict over doctrine. We seem to be living in an apparently kinder and gentler time when it is considered wrong to condemn heresies and disagree. Many people are concerned that some Church leaders, including Bishops, have caved in to political pressure around the Good News of healing. For example instead of offering healing prayer to the sexually disoriented; our Anglican Synods has affirmed ‘the sanctity and integrity of same-sex relationships”. This indicates that we have lost our Faith in the healing power of Jesus – and are listening to false teachers.

 2. We are to PROCLAIM the healing power of Jesus

Words have power in the spiritual dimension. Notice in the Creation Story, God does not “do” – God “says” let there be..., etc.

·         We are not to “be” healers – we are to SPEAK HEALING

·         Proclaim is aggressive – Timothy is to “correct” and “rebuke”

·         Proclaim is to take authority, “endure hardship”, not compromise or avoid conflict – Dan and Marilyn Wilson

 3. To proclaim freedom to prisoners of sin, guilt and fear of death

Healing involves freeing people from something that has gone wrong.

·         Physical condition such as sickness or injury where we speak words of healing, asking the Holy Spirit to enter the persons’ body and energize or speed up the natural healing process.

·         Emotional trauma such as grief where we speak words of healing to the persons’ mind or soul, asking the Holy Spirit to provide a sense of comfort and strengthening.

·         Spiritual Wounding caused by sin and fear – speak words that lead through a process of spiritual discernment with the Holy Spirit helping them name, repent, Confess the sin guilt, ask Jesus for forgiveness and accept Absolution.

·         Spiritual Oppression can result from a pattern of sin that opens a doorway to evil spirits that enter a soul and deceive it into believing lies or destructive thoughts

·         Healing comes through speaking the words of self-examination, repentance, Confession, asking for forgiveness and then proclaiming Absolution and  rebuking / binding the evil spirit

4. We are to proclaim “recovery of sight” to the blind

Many people have been blinded by the lies of our culture. They see evil apparently rampant and winning (as opposed to testing or Faith) and have never had or lost their faith in God. Timothy is charged with the responsibility of giving “careful instruction” – something we have not always done well. This “careful instruction” is what we all need in order to be able to proclaim the healing power of Jesus Christ.

·         Many people are emotionally and spiritually wounded because they have believed a lie about themselves – “I am no good”

·         Our Mission is to proclaim recovery of sight by exposing the lies, asking Jesus in prayer to tell them the truth and speaking the words of Confession and Absolution.

 This is how we proclaim the healing power of Jesus Christ!