Garwood Presbyterian Church

"I Am the Lord Who Heals You: The Promise of God's Healing"

The Power of God's Promises

Exodus 15:26, Psalm 92:12-15, Mark 5:21-43

1. God's Healing Is More Than Physical Healing
   1. Spiritual Healing
      1. The healing of our separation from God by coming into a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
   2. The Healing of Our Soul
      1. I Peter 2:24, "He himself [Jesus] bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed."
      2. This says that Jesus died so that we can be healed of our sinfulness and sins, like an-ger, fear, greed, addictions, and selfishness.
      3. Have you experienced this wonderful inner healing in your life?
2. When You Think of Physical Healing, What Do You Think Enables It to Happen?
   1. Most people think of faith and prayer.
      1. Because of verses like James 5:14-15, "Is anyone of you sick? They should call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up."
   2. But, in spite of faith and prayer, too often people are not healed.
3. Why Is This, and What Can We Do to Receive More of God's Healing?
   1. We learned in the series on "God's Way to Health, Healing, and Wholeness" that our sin can cause or contribute to our sickness, and, in particular, our emotional sins like staying angry, or being anxious or fearful, or hating and rejecting ourself.
      1. We learned that we need to remove our sin by using the "9 R's".
         1. Recognize - that the emotion is sinful.
         2. Responsibility - take, that we have it.
         3. Repent - by telling God that we are wrong to have it.
         4. Renounce - it by saying that we don't want it any more.
         5. Remove - it by telling it to get out of our life.
         6. Replace - it with a Godly attitude:
            1. Replace staying angry with forgiveness.
            2. Replace anxiety and fear with trust in the Lord in that area.
            3. Replace self hatred and rejection with the unconditional acceptance and love that God has for us.
         7. Resist - it coming back into our life.
         8. Rejoice - that it is getting out of our life.
         9. Restore - others like we have been restored.
      2. Two of our Scripture readings pointed out that if we minimize the sin in our life by obeying God and living righteously, then we will enjoy better health.
         1. Exodus 15:26
         2. Psalm 92:12-15
   2. If faith and prayer do not heal us, a second way to experience healing is by going to a Christian who has the spiritual gift of healing as mentioned in I Corinthians 12.
      1. They can heal us by the power of God's Spirit.
      2. In Mark 5:25-34, even though Jesus says that the woman was healed by her faith, it also says that power went out of Him when she was healed, and this is the key to healing, God's power.