It always amazes me that people want to discount the spiritual power of God and put their faith in science. Now, let me say that I certainly believe in science! The more we discover the bigness and complexity of the universe as well as the smallness of all the details knitting everything together…the more, I believe, that God’s amazing power becomes evident! In fact, I have found that God’s power goes beyond all imagination! I see God’s power breaking through almost every day and it is so visible that it is hard for me to understand why we want to discount it as “coincidence” or just a fluke thing. No, it is what it is! God’s power breaking through and into our lives! Jesus is the Great Physician!
Mark 2:5-9 (TNIV)
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?
In this case, it wasn’t the faith of the paralytic man that impressed Jesus; it was the faith of his friends. Note that the Scripture says, “When Jesus saw THEIR faith…” Jesus is speaking to an assembled crowd and these men break through the ceiling (which had to be a big interruption don’t you think?) and they go to all this trouble to bring the paralytic man to Jesus. Jesus saw the determination and faith of this man’s friends and acted on it! Are you as determined that your friend’s receive healing in their lives? Do you take them to Jesus, indeed God…the true healer?
Here is an interesting concept about sin: Sickness and death came as a result of the fall of humankind in the beginning, as a result of sin, or straying from the right path. IMPORTANT: they are the result of the fall….we cannot judge a person’s spiritual life though from their physical condition. God, indeed Jesus, works forgiveness and healing together!
Psalm 103:2-5 (TNIV)
2 Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits– 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
I would also point out that forgiveness of sins was a sign that the messianic age had come.
Micah 7:18-19 (The Message Version) This is the prophet Micah talking to God:
Where is the god who can compare with you–wiping the slate clean of guilt, turning a blind eye, a deaf ear, to the past sins of your purged and precious people? You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long, for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most. And compassion is on its way to us. You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing. You’ll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean.
God’s power comes to us today, as followers of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit that Jesus left as a “helper”. The word translated as helper in Greek is, “parakletos” [par-ak-lay-tos] which is often translated as “advocate” or “counselor” and as below in the message version, simply as “friend”.
John 14:16-17 (The Message version) This is Jesus speaking to YOU:
I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
The more we receive this help, the power of God……..the more there is to give. When God, indeed Jesus, the Holy Spirit (we call this the trinity), breaks through and you view this healing power in your life, no, it isn’t coincidence, no, it isn’t a fluke. It is your Father God who loves you and wants you to find joy and happiness in your life. Most of all, he wants you to love Him and to love others. Everything else revolves around those two things. Ask Jesus….he’ll tell you!
Matthew 24:34-40 (The Message Version)
One of their religion scholars spoke for them; posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?” Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”