Called and Anointed to Proclaim Healing and Deliverance (St. Luke's Day)

 

This is Jesus mission statement. It should be the Churches’ mission Statement and it should be the mission of all Christians. Sadly, it is not. It is not because it can be dangerous and requires real commitment and community prayer support. You would think people who wear crosses would get it that crosses are for killing dangerous people. We avoid the hard, supernatural things in ministry – and Jesus weeps.

 

1.     We Are Called and Anointed – Its Spiritual!

Luke does not say He went to Wycliffe College and earned a Masters’ Degree in Divinity to teach people about Jesus.” It does say “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” It is not Good News about just healing blind people and busting prisoners out of jail. It is the Good News about the supernatural healing power of God working in the natural dimension to heal people both physically and spiritually. 

 

2.     We Are Anointed to Proclaim Good News

Those who are called and anointed by the Holy Spirit in our time have the same authority and pray for the same spiritual power to free and heal people as Jesus:

·     May not be ordained by a bishop – most are not. 

·     They and other anointed clergy and elders can counsel people

·     Identify the root of sin 

·     Lead them through confession, repentance and absolution of sin in Jesus authority. 

·     This is how we proclaim the Good News. Proclaim is a verb 

 

3.    Good News Opens Peoples Spiritual Eyes

Yes, Jesus did heal people physically including the blind. While that was the most dramatic part of His healing ministry, the healings were an outward visiblesign of His authority and power:

·     Few were physically blind - most were spiritually blind

·     Spiritually blind people cannot understand the Bible 

·     They do not understand how the supernatural dimension of the Bible works. 

·     You have to pray, see and experience it to really understand and believe 

·     Why I wrote Going Spiritual– We all need to understand:

·     How the Body-Soul-Spirit relationship works

·     How sin pollutes and weakens our personal spirit

·     How prayer and praise strengthen our spirit

·     How a healthy spirit can carry our soul to Heaven when our body dies

 

4.     We Are Anointed to Proclaim Freedom of Prisoners

Yes, the Holy Spirit did free people from physical prisons. But the main obstacle to developing a healthy spiritual life is the mental prison we get into as a result of bad teaching or modelling:

·     Pharisees are the best example – spent lives studying ancient scriptures but misses seeing who Jesus was

·     All seen the spiritual wreckage of clergy and religious teachers who think their interpretation of the Bible is right and everyone else is wrong – the work of human insecurity, self-deception and the evil one

·     Conversion of Paul the best example

 

5.    To Set the Oppressed Free

Again yes, Holy Spirit does strengthen us to resist political and physical repression. But many people also need to be delivered or freed from spiritual oppression:

·     Patterns of repeated sinful behaviour open spiritual doorways

·     The demonic can enter and oppress us from the inside to drive us deeper into sin and spiritual bondage

·     Good News is that even this can be healed through the same ministry of:

·     Identifying the root of sin

·     Repentance, Confession and prayer of Absolution – and acceptance of forgiveness