Did Jesus ever heal someone who didn't have any faith?
Hi, welcome to today's Little Lesson.
Thank you so much for joining me.
If you're a regular viewer, you know that we've been on a theme here for quite some
time on our Little Lessons, on the subject of divine healing.
In fact, we did five Little Lessons answering the question, "Is healing in the atonement?"
And then 10 Little Lessons answering the question, "How do I know if it's God's will to heal
me?"
And of course, the Bible has a lot to say about healing.
I've already mentioned to you that 1/10th of everything that we know about Jesus as
revealed in the four gospels concerns his healing ministry.
And so there's healing in the gospels, there's healing in the epistles, there's healing in
the Old Testament.
God revealed himself to Israel as the Jehovah Rapha, "I am the God who heals you," and so
forth.
Healing was a part of the covenant that Israel had with God.
So this is a lot to say and we haven't by any stretch of the imagination looked at everything
the Bible has to say that would encourage us to look to the Lord for healing.
And that's what I want to do.
I want to be an encourager.
I want to be someone who sticks with the word of God and not sticks with people's experiences.
And so I've kind of monitored some of the comments and questions that have been made
along this journey as we've looked into this topic, and one I think a really great question
that came up, because I've been emphasizing how many times, for example, that Jesus said
to people whom he healed, "Your faith has healed you," or he mentions something about
believing, indicating to us that that is a component.
And although that does make some people mad, it doesn't make me mad.
It might make me scratch my head, because I don't know why without faith it's impossible
to please God.
That's what pleases God.
He's pleased by faith.
And I don't know why.
I mean, I guess maybe I could take a guess at it.
I like it when people trust me and I don't like it when they don't trust me.
All right?
And if you were God, multiply by 10 million, right?
Because God always tells the truth.
And so of course he expects us to trust him and take him at his word.
So maybe that's it.
But regardless, don't let it make you mad because Jesus told people, "Your faith has
healed you," or mentioned something about believing in conjunction with divine healing.
It's just, in the Bible that's the way it is.
Might as well to face up to it.
And God's a good God and he's not expecting anything of us that's impossible.
If he expects us to have faith, well, we can have faith.
Jesus got upset with his disciples, you remember, on several occasions when they fail because
of their unbelief.
And he said, "Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I put up with you?"
one time when his disciples failed to cast out a demon.
And when they later on asked him why they couldn't do it, he said, "It's because of
the littleness of your faith."
Like it or not, that's what Jesus said.
Okay?
Now, someone asked a great question, "Did Jesus ever heal anyone who didn't have faith?"
And the answer is absolutely yes.
Because when you study it out closely, the healing ministry of Jesus, you find that...
To say it simply, and the most simple way to say it is Jesus healed people primarily
by two methods.
Now, you can actually break it down into more than two methods, but just for simplicity's
sake, you can really break it down and into two methods.
One, he healed people crediting their faith.
So he said, "Your faith has healed you."
If they wouldn't have had faith, they wouldn't have been healed.
And then there's cases where he healed through gifts of the Holy Spirit, specifically gifts
of healings.
And I don't know how much you may or may not know about the gifts of the Spirit, but they're
listed in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 12.
They're listed there.
Nine of them altogether.
Maybe I can just read it to you here.
1 Corinthians 12 and verse number 4, I happen to have it right in front of me.
Paul writes, "There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.
There are varieties of ministries, but it's the same Lord.
Varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.
But each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."
Now, here's where he begins to list them.
"For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.
To another, the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit.
To another, faith by the same Spirit.
To another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit.
To another, the effecting of miracles.
To another, prophecy.
To another, distinguishing of spirits.
To another, various kinds of tongues.
And to another, the interpretation of tongues."
Now listen very closely to verse number 11, "But one and the same Spirit works all things,"
listen closely, "distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
Okay?
So nobody can like turn a switch and turn on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and began
to operate.
You can't manufacture any of these nine gifts that we just read about.
They're gifts given by the Holy Spirit and they're given as the Spirit wills.
So he may will to never give you one of these gifts.
You know?
That's totally up to the Spirit.
And how does the Spirit determine who to give a gift to, or gifts to?
Nobody knows.
That's God's secret.
That's a mystery.
Now, a lot of people think that Jesus healed people by virtue of the fact that he was the
son of God.
And he was.
And so therefore they conclude, well, he could heal anybody anytime he wanted to.
You know?
He was God.
But what they fail to realize is that although Jesus fully was the son of God, scripture
makes it very plain that in his incarnation when he became a man, as it says in one of
the epistles, like it's Philippians, if I'm not mistaken, that Jesus stripped himself
of certain Godly prerogatives that he would've had.
Well, obviously when Jesus became a man he was no longer omnipresent, was he?
No, he was limited to be in one place at one time in the form of a man.
And it's very clear that Jesus didn't operate in ministry as the son of God, although he
was the son of God.
Don't ever debate that.
But in ministry he operated as a man anointed by the Holy Spirit.
All right?
See, now where's the proof of that?
Well, there's lots of proof of that.
Jesus didn't do any miracles until after he was baptized in the Jordan River by John the
Baptist.
At which time, the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove.
Why would God need to be anointed with God the Holy Spirit?
Why would God the son need to be anointed?
Well, because Jesus explained it himself, that he went about preaching in all the synagogues
and Galilee and so forth, and in one of those synagogues, he opened up his text from Isaiah
and said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor and to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind."
And then Jesus went on to say, "This day this is fulfilled in your hearing."
In other words, I'm the one Isaiah is talking about.
I am the anointed one.
That's what Messiah actually means, I'm the anointed one.
And I'm anointed to preach.
It takes an anointing to preach.
I'm anointed to teach.
It takes an anointing to teach, at least with the help of Holy Spirit.
And I'm anointed to heal.
And Jesus was anointed to heal.
And in that case, in Isaiah it said recovery of sight to the blind.
And so Jesus was limited to the will of the Holy Spirit in regard to gifts of the Holy
Spirit.
He just couldn't turn it off and on anytime he wanted to, it was up to the Spirit when
a gift of healing would manifest itself through him.
Okay?
Well, unfortunately we are out of time.
And that's a great question that was asked, so we're going to have to carry over into
our next Little Lesson and I hope you'll join me for that one as we pick up where we left
off today.
Okay?
God bless you.
I hope to see you then.
Bye bye.