Pastor Ken…
Good morning and welcome those in person and online. We’re so glad you’re with us.
Let me share a passage of scripture with you this morning. In Hebrews 12:12 it says, “Therefore, strengthen the hands, which hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.”
Isn’t that interesting? Now, in the Passion translation, it says this of that same passage. “So be made strong even in your weakness by lifting up your tired hands in prayer and in worship and strengthen your weak knees. For as you keep walking forward on God’s paths, all your stumbling ways will be divinely healed.” Isn’t that good? I love that.
I took that personally…
I have to say, I took that very personally last night when the Lord just kind of spoke that to me because it talks about things being dislocated, being healed. And I have to go in for a surgery on Friday for something I tore on my arm and it’s been dislocated, basically. And so I’m like, “Wow, God, you are just amazing and so good.” He just spoke to me on that right there. And so He’s going to heal. There are different ways He heals.
Healing comes through different ways…
And so I felt like we need to take a little time to just pray online and in the chapel for healing in different ways. Because what’s been broken, what’s been dislocated, God desires it to be healed: physically, emotionally, relationally, in various aspects of our lives. He’s the healer. He delights to heal. His passion is to heal. Jesus is the healer. As we like to say, He’s our great physician. He died to give His life. He died to turn His back to the one who whipped Him 39 times or so, that every single malady, infirmity, sickness, disease, weakness, pain, and injury… the price for that would be paid in full. That we might be recipients of His goodness in the price that He paid.
You can’t debate me about whether God heals or not…
Another point of reflection here, let me just share with you what it says prophetically in the book of Isaiah. You can’t debate it with me regarding “Does God heal today or not?” Oh, absolutely, He heals today. I’m too far gone. I’ve just seen too much. I’ve experienced too much. I take it from the basis of God’s Word, what He says, but also what I’ve experienced and what I’ve seen through my life in ministry. I’m talking about people that have been delivered and healed of cancer in a day. We have people here that have been healed… remarkable testimonies of God’s hand to heal. And He’s still stretching forth His hand to heal. We just need to get in that flow and just let Him do what He wants to do in that regard.
Cathy…
Pastor Ken?
Pastor Ken…
Yes?
Cathy…
It’s not just the physical. I had clinical depression for over 10 years. I was miraculously healed and delivered about 12, 13 years ago. Now I had wise counsel. They said don’t just go off your meds. Go to the doctor and do it right. I had some really awful things happen right after that. Grief came but depression never came back. I had to work to keep it. Now that’s my job. Like I couldn’t give into the stuff the enemy was throwing at me. But I was miraculously delivered. So it’s not just the physical stuff that Jesus can heal you from. It’s your mental health stuff too. And I’m not the only one. You can talk to all sorts of people. They’ve been delivered from all sorts of mental health stuff. So just keep that in mind. It’s not just your physical problem. It’s the stuff in your mind too. Jesus says He gives us His mind. We have the mind of Christ. So that includes your mental health. And hallelujah for that.
Pastor Ken…
That’s really good. Thank you, Cathy.
According to news reports and surveys, we’re in the midst of a mental health crisis in many ways. He is the one who the Bible says restores our soul. That’s why we love to come together, right? When you sit with Jesus… Really, prayer is just a matter of sitting with Jesus until you receive your answer. The throne of God… the Bible invites us to come boldly and without reservation to His throne every day, in the spirit, wherever you’re at physically to receive.
The throne is a place where there are only answers, no problems, no questions. Only answers. And so prayer is coming to Him in just sitting with Jesus until you receive what you need. And Kathy is exactly right. We’ve had others. I’ve received reports over the last year from who maybe don’t attend in person, but attend prayer online who were going through clinical depression, who were struggling with suicide ideation… all sorts of emotional, mental struggles in their soul and were completely changed and healed and delivered and free today in maintaining that freedom as they walk with God.
So be reminded of this, this morning that Isaiah 53:3–5 says, “He is despised and rejected of men.” He’s talking about Jesus. “A man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrow.”
A word of knowledge…
I just need to stop there for a moment. Who is carrying sorrow and grief around? I get it when we go through loss or difficulties, but that was something He carried for us. And that in our present state, as sons and daughters of the most high God, we’re not qualified to carry that toxic stuff that the enemy wants to attach to us. Jesus is inviting us this morning to offload some things. The Bible says to cast your care. One translation says to hurl like a hot potato, whatever it is, whether it’s worry or fear or trepidation or sorrow or grief… I know a lot of times that’s a process, don’t get me wrong. But regardless, Jesus is wanting us to send whatever that is packing to Him. That sorrow, that grief, that emotional upset, pain, loss, shame. Shame’s a big one in the church. People carry shame around like a badge of honor. The truth is that there is therefore now no shame to those who are in Christ Jesus. Release that to Him this morning. God wants to heal you. Sometimes things get in the way and prevent you from receiving your healing because you’re holding onto something.
“I’ve got this, God. I can manage this.”
He doesn’t want you to manage it. He doesn’t want you to cope and just get by. He wants you to be free. Jesus died to free us, to give us perfect liberty, to live in perpetual jubilee where nothing is missing and nothing is broken, and nothing is out of joint. But there’s only wholeness and soundness and fullness and the air and scent of heaven on our lives. He is the darling of heaven. And if you’ve professed His name, He’s in your life and He wants to swallow up by His ever-expounding grace, whatever that is. So if He’s putting His finger on something this morning, just let Him do that. Let God the Holy Spirit, the divine psychologist as I call Him, put His finger on whatever that is in your soul. Agitation, melancholy, hurt, upset, unforgiveness, shame, harassment in your soul by a demonic entity. Just release that to Him in a word, in a prayer with breath this morning. Release that to Him, cast that over onto Him. Whatever is in the way would be taken out of the way so that whatever is out of joint, dysfunctional, not working right, body, soul, or spirit would be healed in a moment by His hand. There’s fire, there’s molten, holy healing fire in the hand of Jesus. And He wants to reach down and minister that healing power to you right now this morning.
“I get that, Ken. I’ve heard that.”
Well, I’m just inspiring you and reminding you that faith comes by hearing. We all need to hear what we’ve heard before and keep hearing it and keep hearing it and keep hearing it. As long as we’re on this earth in this particular realm and situation where we’re living amidst a corrupt system and a demonic kingdom that wants to try to get the best of us, we need to keep flushing our hearts and souls out with God’s Word. The Bible says you are clean through the Word. You’re made whole through His Word. Jesus is the Living Word. Right? He sent Wis Word, the Old Testament prophesied, to heal you.
Isaiah goes on to say, “Yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes, we are healed.” I like that.
Let’s look at a New Testament promise regarding healing. It says in 1st Peter 2:24, “Who his own self bear our sins on his own body.” Maybe someone needs to just simply release some sin this morning. Maybe it’s something small, maybe something big. I don’t know. Just put that under the blood. Let that be plunged under the fountain of Emanuel’s blood.
Don’t sweat it. Confess it and keep going…
Don’t get caught up. Don’t get tripped up. Don’t get preoccupied with your mess ups. If you’ll listen, when you mess up, when you screw up, when you fail in some way, when you’re weak and you yield to a temptation or whatever, just listen for a moment and you’ll hear the God the Holy Spirit say, “Don’t sweat that. Just bring that to Me. Just confess that, put that under the blood and just keep going.”
Don’t let it worm its way into your consciousness so that you start feeling shameful. No. Just let that be dealt with by the work of redemption, and you keep focusing on your righteousness, your qualifications, your pleasing status before God so that you can keep receiving and keep going in relationship with Him.
“So who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness. By whose stripes ye were,” in other words past tense, “you were healed.”
One translation says it was the suffering that he bore but which has healed you. From God’s perspective, you were healed. From the angel’s perspective, you were healed. Like Brother Hagin used to say, “If I was healed, then I am healed.” And maybe the manifestation physically doesn’t show up this very moment. But spiritually and from a promised standpoint, we need to just agree with that and say that and believe that and accept that.
What leads your life?
The Bible says when you pray, believe that you receive and you shall have. Right? What leads our lives is our faith, our belief. And as we go with faith, go with the promise of God, we agree with it, we chime in with it, we say it, then in its wake will come change.
Your steps of faith create a wake…
Just like a boat goes through the water and it leaves a wake. So too your words, your agreement with God, your steps of faith, no matter how small they may seem on a given day, they are creating a wake that is coming behind you. And that wake is healing. That wake is the manifestation of the fullness of God’s promise for every cell of your being, for every intricacy of your emotions and soul, for every aspect of your finances and your future calling. We have been called to a countercultural way of being and doing, no longer to live according to just our five physical senses. Yes, use your five physical senses when you’re crossing the street. But when it comes to your spiritual life and the steps you’re taking for Him, let’s your faith… let your belief… let your mouth lead the way in agreement with His promises. And you will create a whole new pathway that you didn’t see with your eyes, but you saw with the eye of faith, where you can be whole and sound and strong. Amen.
The enemy wages a war of attrition against you…
The enemy wages a war of attrition and discouragement. He wants to discourage and kind of wear on us when symptoms flare or you still feel the same way or nothing changes. In those moments as pray-ers, as we just read over there in… Let’s go back to that just for a second here. In Hebrews 12, it says, “So be made strong even in your weakness…” Even in your weakness. Even and especially in your weakness… in your feebleness, in your lack of understanding what to do in the midst of debilitating pain. I get it. I empathize. But if I’m going to help you, if God’s going to help us, we have to connect with truth, the higher order of truth that He’s given us. His promises. And He’s saying, “So be made strong in your weakness by lifting up your tired hands in prayer and worship.”
The Bible says that everything in this realm was created by a spirit dimension, the spirit realm, the Word of God. So your words in the spirit realm can create some new experiences and a new reality for you and for us. And our nations and our churches. That’s why we pray, right? Am I speaking to anybody this morning?
Make the hoards of hell really nervous…
So be made strong, even in your weakness by lifting up your tired hands in prayer and worship and strengthen your weak knees, for as you keep walking, just keep going. Just keep going. Yes, learn and grow and lean into Him, but in your going, lean into Him. Just keep going. Rejoice when temptation comes knocking. That means the enemy is freaking out and the hoards of hell are really nervous about what you’re about to step into and what you’re about to receive. Because you’re sitting at the feet of the one who came and still is here to give. Healing. Deliverance. Wholeness. Recovery. Refreshing. Whatever it is you need, He is open handed with us.
You have a right to the resources of heaven…
Oh my goodness! There is no insufficiency in the kingdom of God. If you live and breathe and have your being in Him and consider yourself a citizen of heaven, then you have a right to the resources and the fullness and the unendingness of His supply and goodness that has been made available to us. The storehouses are opened up. Joseph opened up the granaries in Egypt during a severe famine. He opened up the granaries so that grain flowed in the midst of a famine, and that there was sustenance and resource for millions of people. That’s a great word picture for what Jesus has done for us. Joseph was a prophetic type of Jesus. And when Jesus came, He opened up the granaries of heaven.
That’s good preaching this morning. The granaries of heaven. So that’s why we sit with Jesus. That’s why we engage with prayer. That’s why we keep swimming. That’s why we keep going. Because He’s continuing to supply and He will continue to make a way where there seems to be no way… for you and for me, for Living Word, for your church, for America, for the church around the world.
We are to be the move of God—you and me—as we take advantage of these granaries, these resources, this healing: body, soul, and spirit. For as you keep walking forward on God’s paths, all your stumbling ways, all your weaknesses, what’s been dislocated in your body, in your soul, what’s broken, what’s missing will be divinely healed.
The Bible says in His own person, He carried our sins. One translation says that we might die to sins and live again in righteousness, that we might break with sin and live for righteousness. The Basic translation says, “might have a new life in righteousness and by his wounds, we have been made well.” His bruising was your healing by means of whose bleeding stripes you were healed. For His wounds have healed ours.
