Hey. Listen. Does god always heal? What about healing and suffering? And what about thy will be done? Stay tuned.
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Now open your hearts to what god’s word has to say to you. Here is Jack Gibbs.
Well, everybody, we’re gonna be talking about, um, healing today, healing. It’s a big topic. Let’s be honest.
It’s always been a big topic ever since Adam and Eve, uh, stumble in the garden.
Healing has been an important, uh, issue uh, and it’s certainly something that the Pagan universe, the Pagan, uh, religions of the world have always sought to do all kinds of incantations.
There’s been the North American Indian, uh, which doctor type shaman uh, the wise man.
I mean, it just goes by all kinds of all kinds of players, all kinds of things whereby man seeks healing.
And, of course, we do. Because number 1, we live in a fallen world and sickness, uh, and death is part of this fallen world, but glory be to the lord Jesus Christ, right, who has come, to take care of business.
And first business was, uh, to dine the cross for our sins. Always first things first.
And then after that, um, the healing, not only of individuals, but of nations and of the world, ultimately, and it’s final in in culminating act of a total redemption, uh, which will transpire in eternity itself.
That’s gonna be a glorious moment.
The Bible calls it the book of Revelation, I believe, or it could be Peter. I’m sorry.
I’m skipping a beat here, but it’s called the day of god. We’ve heard about the day of the lord.
The day of the lord Jesus Christ, the day of Christ, uh, but the day of god is a reference to when all physical things as we know it end and eternity begins.
It’s one day. It’s the day of god. And it’s forever.
So let’s talk about healing. Uh, first
of all, let me lay some groundwork to where I’m at. I think that’s a fair thing to say.
I think everybody should uh, issue their disclosure. Is that the right word?
Disclaimer is, um, I believe in the Bible from cover to cover.
I even believe in things in the Bible that
I don’t
understand. Um, but the Bible says it.
And so because I don’t understand it, doesn’t make it true or false.
Um, I believe it because god says it.
And then the second thing is, um, I believe it because god repeats it in scripture.
It’s not that he has to. Uh, god can say things once,
uh, and that is done in the scriptures.
But when you have the opportunity of reading the Bible and god just repeatedly does or says says says things.
I need a healing of my tongue. Says things, uh, that just strengthens the argument. So first things first.
Let’s just dive into this because the the controversy of healing, uh, number 1 should not be a controversy.
Do you think god wrote about healing in the Bible to make it a controversy.
The only controversy I see healing justified in being a controversy is when there’s, uh, Pharisees, unbelievers who hate the fact that god moves and god heals and god does a great work to the glory of Jesus because the bible tells us that they were very jealous of him.
So, um, that’s the only controversy that I think should exist regarding the issue of healing.
When it comes to those of us who are watch believers, I need to find out what kind of believer are you because there are believers that follow Jesus as long as the gold is, uh, the gold dust is falling on their head.
It’s a sunny day. It’s 75 degrees. And, um, their vespa, you know, works.
Uh, then, uh, god is great and awesome and all powerful. He is amazing.
And then there are those who, and I’ve known them,
uh, who have who have suffered Unspeakable pain and
injury from disease and cancer and things like that.
Who, by the way, in my life have been the most powerful Christians I have ever experienced.
So I have I have
a biblical base to what I’m gonna talk about.
At the same time, there as, of course, the topic demands.
There’s a temptation for emotion to get involved because I’ll I’ll mention one person and, um, and and look, she’s in heaven now, but for decades, a friend of ours, Terry Vella, uh, at Calvert Chapel Costa Mesa suffered unspeakable sufferings and pain.
But if anyone’s watching this podcast and they know they knew Terry Vela, they knew that she was one of, if not, the most godly woman that they had ever met.
Uh, no one prayed more. No one exhibited more joy. No one was thankful more.
Uh, Terry has been an amazing example of how to suffer.
But you might say, well, Jack, um, that’s that’s terrible.
She didn’t have enough faith because she should have been healed.
Um, I understand you saying that, but you need to know why you’re saying that.
And the reason why you’re saying that or you believe that is because you have, uh, believed and you are believing in heresy.
That is heretical doctrine. Does god heal? Yes. Are there times when god chooses not to heal? Yes.
Is god sovereign? Yes. Does god do what we tell him to do? No.
Prayer and even prayer for healing
is to be done in faith Believing that god has the power to heal thanking him for what he does, and all of it culminates in.
Are you ready for it? Are you ready? Really?
Are you ready for it? Because a 3rd grader knows this.
Be it according to thy will. Oh god. Thy will be done.
That’s the number one thing where the faith community often struggles with.
They won’t even mention this part of thy will be done. Um, so God does heal. God heals supernaturally.
I know there’s world renowned pastors who will say Jackie wrong because I’m a world renowned pastor and I know better.
That’s too bad. I know that God heals. And Jesus gets the glory.
Let’s jump into some of these and you can study them for your own edification.
John chapter 9 versus 1 through 5. John chapter 9 versus 1 through 5?
Jesus, uh, is, of course, ministering, number 1, always preaching the gospel.
Always preaching the gospel first and then ministering among
the sick. And the Bible tells us that there was
a man who was blind and Jesus healed him uh, of him being blind.
And, of course, the pharisees are always following Jesus. Black robes, black tablets, Black hearts.
Just just wicked little spiritual nincom poops. Always trying to find fault.
And those people exist today, by the way, but the Bible says that they hated Jesus, uh, for his miracles and for declaring that he was god.
They wanted to stone him to death. So Jesus encounters this man and he opens his eyes.
Jesus heals the man of blindness And so the disciples and others have been conditioned to think, um, wow, regarding this guy that’s blind,
who sinned that he may that that he’s blind?
Is it him or is his mom and dad? Notice this. Wow. The guy’s blind.
He must be a really bad center, right, or his parents are really messed up.
And Jesus said, he didn’t sin nor did his parents send to bring about this blindness, but this man is blind
for the glory of god.
I don’t understand how god does that But I know this.
I know that god doesn’t dwell in my time frame of things.
Now Jesus enters this world that’s broken and ravaged by sin and the results of sin.
And he comes in and
he brings the kingdom. Jesus in his earthly ministry was exposing the kingdom of god’s power to the power of darkness and of wickedness and of hurt, pain, sin, sorrow, and illness.
And in this situation, Jesus says, the man was born blind that for this moment, the glory of god would be blade.
Alright.
Okay. Why why do some people have down syndrome children? I don’t know.
But it’s for the glory of god. If my left arm falls off, I don’t understand that.
But I know this. It’s gonna be for the glory of god.
I don’t understand that. Takes a lot of faith to understand. You wanna talk about faith?
Takes a lot of faith to accept from god something that is not going your way.
2nd Peter chapter 2 verses 1 through 3.
2nd Peter 2 versus 1 through 3 tells us that in the last days, in fact, it was true back in Peter’s and it’s gonna become even more true in our day that there will be those who will be manipulated by Satan.
They’re they’re gonna do signs and wonders and they’re gonna be involved in the ministry because the bottom line is that their hearts are greedy.
They are greedy, and they will manipulate people for greed.
Notice by the by the way, notice this that many of the healing ministry people, uh, number 1, schedule their schedule their healings, which I find incredibly hilarious.
Hey. Make sure you join us in 2 months.
We’re gonna be at the dingdong auditorium, and we’re gonna have a healing service. Really?
Um, if god heals, it’s gonna be his sovereign choice, but you cannot schedule a revival.
You can’t schedule a salvation. You can’t schedule a healing. This would rob god of his sovereignty. Okay?
Now get to some of these other verses that you’re already starting to get all sweaty about and upset about, but just know this.
In the last days, uh, greed is gonna be the motive for people to uh, preach bogus messages about Christ and and poor sermons, uh, but they’re gonna they’re gonna titillate and tantalize people by demonic activity, but the bottom line for the human is greed.
I wanna make money. Notice how many of these really super duper rich people that are in the ministry traffic around the healing circuit.
But notice how they don’t go where there’s no money.
You don’t see them in the dust fields of Ethiopia or in Uganda or Nigeria.
You don’t see them um, in in the impoverished regions of Vietnam, do you?
You wanna know why god’s not healing in those countries?
Because there’s no money in it for the greedy guy. I was being sarcastic.
I know God heals in those terrible places.
But the greedy guy, he doesn’t wanna go there because there’s not enough money in for him.
So that’s often the case said to say, I’m not gonna mention a name.
I don’t wanna sued because he’s got way more money than we do, and he could sue the snot out of us.
But I knew somebody who at this our church, the the church that I’ve honored a pastor.
Uh, his main sound and lighting director for his international tours went to our church.
And told me about the things that would go on and the things that would be the prerequisite for scheduling where a healing would take place and money was always the first consideration.
Here’s one of my favorites of all time. Because it happened to me.
Mark chapter 7 verses 31 to 37. Mark 731 to 37.
Is a situation there where this guy who’s got some very good friends, uh, bring him to Jesus Uh, you get you kinda get the feeling the guy doesn’t wanna go anywhere, and I I I get it.
But they bring him to Jesus, and Jesus takes the young man. I assume he’s a young man.
Doesn’t say. Jesus takes the man and takes him off to the side and away from the people.
And Jesus
does a series of actions that are quite remarkable because the man cannot speak He can only make what the Bible, uh, says in the Greek language, very strange sounds.
He can’t hear and he can’t speak.
Think about how embarrassing that is.
I stuttered terribly up until, like, about the age of 23, I think it was.
So I understand the embarrassment of all of that. I I it it was bad.
I was I didn’t stutter sometimes. I stuttered all the time. Very embarrassing.
So you’d rather avoid people and you’d rather not say anything at all.
So Jesus Spitz on his fingers. Jesus grabs this man’s tongue.
Okay. Then Jesus puts his fingers in the man’s ears.
Looks up to heaven, size the word in Greek as he heaves his chest.
With grief.
And looking up to heaven, says, be open, be loosed.
Maybe the man read
his lips because Jesus spoke aramaic.
And the Bible says that immediately the man could hear and he could speak plainly.
And the Bible says, Jesus told him, don’t tell anybody. I just did this miracle.
Just keep this between us.
And the man went probably went anything you say and then took off and was shouting and telling everybody what had happened.
And the Bible says the more the man was told not to say anything, the more he proclaimed it.
The conclusion of the crowd was Jesus does all things well. Isn’t that beautiful?
I find that gorgeous, beautiful, thrilling, and he did that to me one night.
On 1 night on Lido Island in Newport Beach, California got touched my tongue and healed me in a second.
Was awesome. He does all things well. Matthew 13 verses 5758.
The bible tells us that Jesus could not do any miracles in his hometown of Nazareth because the people did not have faith in him.
They didn’t believe in him. And so he wanted to do miracles there, but the people didn’t believe in him.
I find that interesting. Jesus doesn’t just roll into town and do anything against uh the will of people.
Notice there are people that Jesus Hill
who had fears and doubts. Remember he even said to many only believe So that is a very, very important thing, but know this that if god just rolls into town and performs healing, then what about his own town of Nazareth where he said he couldn’t heal there because of unbelief?
You need to process that. You need to think that.
You need to file that, uh, in your in your, um, doctrine of healing.
Again, I believe God heals And I’ve seen god heal.
Uh, I remember praying for a woman by the name of Judy.
And she had breast cancer. I didn’t know that. She was in the crowd.
It was a Wednesday night.
We were having an afterglow service, and I just felt led by god to say this.
And so I had to exercise this in faith because I didn’t know there’s a couple thousand people sitting there quiet.
We’re just waiting upon the lord.
And I said, this might apply to somebody here if I’m hearing from god, but this thought I
just entered my head.
And the lord is desiring to heal you right now of breast cancer.
And I made that statement and I found out on Sunday, the following Sunday, that Judy came up
to me crying at church. She’s crying, and she said, you won’t believe what happened on Wednesday night.
When you said what you said, I felt my right breast.
It felt like there was a blowtorch of fire on my right breast. That’s where I have the cancer.
And I felt like I caught fire.
And then I went to the doctor to my scheduled appointment on Tuesday, and the cancer’s completely gone.
Pastor Jack, I was healed. Hey, that’s awesome.
And we gave god the glory. I believe that. I believe that. Does god always heal?
He doesn’t always heal, but he
does according to his will, and it’s always good.
When you go to Israel, there’s the pools of, uh, Bethesda.
In John chapter 5 versus 1 through 8.
And at the pools of Bethesda’s, an amazing situation that takes place, and you can read about it in detail, but the Jews believe that an angel or angels descended from heaven and stirred up the pool.
And when the water began to move, the the people, the the, uh, in, uh, informed the sick, those that are in need of healing, they would gather around the pool and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait.
And there is no, uh, pattern or or consistency to this but their belief was
when the angel stirs up the water, the first guy in wins the prize.
And the prize was healing. Really a weird thinking. Right?
But, um, that’s what they believed.
And so, uh, Jesus walks by he says to this guy that’s crippled, and he’s got his little bed, his little homeless mat kind of a thing.
Right? Uh, Jesus says, Do you wanna be healed? And the guy’s probably looking at Jesus.
Like, what are you crazy? Of course.
I do. And Jesus tells him, why why don’t you stand up?
And he said, well, I can’t get healed because I start making my way to the water when the angel moves the water.
So I start making my way there and people cut in front of me. They take cuts,
and I never make it in time. Can you get me to
the water? And Jesus tells him I want you to
take up your bed and walk and the man begins to stand up and he walks And of course, the pharisees are foaming at the mouth freaking out.
They’re just all upset about this. And, uh, he’s healed.
But here’s a great here’s a great challenge that was pointed out to me.
The Bible says there were a multitude gathered around the pool.
But Jesus only healed one guy. How come?
That was his will. I don’t understand it.
I don’t know why he didn’t walk around and clear the entire area out.
By the way, those of
you who believe that god always heals and has to heal because you say so, then why are you sitting down right now watching this podcast?
Why aren’t you at your local children’s hospital raising kids from sickness?
Why aren’t you down at the The old folks home, praying over all those people and raising them up.
Mark chapter 16 verses 15 through 18.
You gotta remember that, uh, when Jesus launched the kingdom of god, this is the this is the order in which it goes.
The gospel is preached and then people were healed or the gifts were manifested. Always in that order.
The gospel is preached, people are saved, and then signs are miracles follow the preaching of the gospel.
Always in that order. By the way, that is still happening today in what we call the unknown parts of the world.
Obviously they’re known because they’re missionaries that are sent there. But, um, we have missionaries in some countries.
We have missionaries in many countries, but I I was just told not too long ago by one of our missionaries.
I’m not gonna name the country because it’s a very violent anti Christian country. They kill Christians.
They’re like it’s nothing. But, uh, he prayed for a young Muslim man, thirteen year old Muslim man, um, that Had a absolute, um, mangled birth defect foot.
His foot was completely like, not fully formed at the end of his leg.
And on a on a on a on a busy street, they were sitting down having coffee.
At a cafe in this Muslim country, and the man’s foot was healed in an instant.
This is only 10, 12 months ago. So god does this stuff.
He said, well, how could I prayed and and and, you know, he didn’t do it. Listen.
The number one thing is the gospel first and then the signs and miracles follow. Okay?
And the other thing is this. There’s times when god even
as the kingdom is introduced, there’s times when god uses suffering because it’s the best
thing for the time. Best thing for the season. Now that takes a lot of faith.
And don’t don’t write me and tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Because I suffered for
3 years with something called Crohn’s disease. You can look it up later.
I asked god to heal me. I had people pray for me.
Uh, and it went on for years.
And he didn’t, but I’d tell you what he did do. I had no
idea that
the day that it hit and it hit, by the way, like a lightning strike. That’s how it comes.
It just, boom, it happened. It just so happened that it was our Monday night bible studies, uh, desire to have an Easter Sunrise service.
We had a Sunrise service and hundreds and hundreds of people came And it was an amazing day, and we were all shocked.
We couldn’t believe it. And god did an amazing thing. And then that night, I got whacked by this thing.
And now I look back years later, decades later, and I thank him for it.
I praise him for it because I think god used it to keep my head on the ground because our our our Monday night group went from fifty people to 300 people on a Sunday Easter morning.
You know? So god I think god used what the enemy maybe the enemy wanted to do it.
I don’t know. I don’t care. It worked. Uh, it gutted me, so to speak.
And, uh, and so but
Keep that in mind that when the
gospel goes out, it often goes out in power, and you can expect god to move in power.
And gifts of the Holy Spirit will be manifested in power. According to the will of god.
Um, so also this, uh, Philippines 310.
This is great because during that time that I was suffering with Crohn’s disease.
This was the verse that became, uh, the, uh, part of the fiber of my life.
Paul in Philipp 310 uh, announces that I wanna know, uh, the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings, if I might be conforming to the image of Christ.
Did you hear what Paul prayed in Philippians 3 10?
Lord, give me the power and give me the sufferings.
I wanna have the power to preach and to proclaim and to do whatever you want
me to do. But I also know that I cannot be a mature believer without suffering.
So give me that too.
That takes a huge amount of faith to receive from god what is best for you, even if it hurts.
Paul knows this. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verses 9 through 11.
Paul rejoices in the fact that I’d rather hang on to my infirmities and my sicknesses any day to have the power of god.
I’d rather have god’s strength exhibited in my life. And be weak. Alright?
John 11 verses 34. John 11 verses 34.
Remember, Jesus is it seems,
I mean, I can’t prove this exactly, but if Jesus had a best friend, Uh, it’s not Peter.
James or John, it appears. When you read the gospels, it seems that Jesus’s best friend was Lazarus. Remember him?
He had 2 sisters Martha and Mary. Lazarus, their brother.
Uh, just seemed him and Jesus seemed to have a tight relationship.
But remember Jesus was down at the Jordan River when news came to him that his good friend Lazarus was really sick, bad.
And Jesus didn’t go. He didn’t go
to heal him. It was asked of him, lord, will you come and heal?
And Jesus waited and waited, and the disciples said, are you gonna go? Are we gonna go?
And he waited and he waited. And then the word came Lazarus is dead.
And Jesus turns into disciples and he says
to them, I’m glad for your sake that that he is dead because You you’re you’re not about to I’m paraphrasing.
You’re not about to believe what’s about to happen.
Uh, unless it happens this way, Jesus gets there and Lazarus is already entombed.
He’s already wrapped with grave cloth. He’s placed in the tomb. He is dead.
And Jesus waits extra long. He shows up and they’re all everybody’s crying. Everybody’s crying.
And Jesus says, Lazarus come forth and Lazarus comes out of the ground and is resurrected from the dead.
And it’s beautiful because Lazarus’s sickness, it says also was used for the glory of god.
God was gonna be honored in that.
So, Jack, how can god be honored in my eleven year old getting sick and, uh, having to go through all this suffering.
I don’t know, but I see it all the time.
Why do some kids get healed and my kids don’t? I don’t know.
But I see it all the time. Why do some kids die and other kids recover? I don’t know.
But I see it all the time, and I know this that every time people’s eyes are focused on Jesus or people don’t know Jesus.
People hear about Jesus. It’s remarkable. God waste nothing. I’ve never seen him waste a thing.
So, Jack, I don’t believe in what you’re saying.
I believe that wherever the Christian goes, people should be healed.
It’s too bad Paul didn’t know that because in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 20, Paul says that he has left
trifamous at miletus sick. So people take care of him.
I gotta go. I left him there sick
at my latest I gotta hit the road. I got ministry to do.
Why didn’t Paul just heal him?
Why didn’t Paul just snap his fingers in Jesus’ name? Get up. Try for this. We’ve got
a lot of work to do. Stop goofing around.
I need you. Let’s go. Uh, what’s the deal?
God is sovereign. God heals when he wants.
We pray always for a healing, and we pray believing.
But we leave the outcome to god.
I could go on and on about this, but I
need to end. I’ll leave you with this. When or how are you going to go to heaven?
When are you gonna go to heaven? You don’t know. Neither do I.
And you can’t tell me when. Because you don’t know. I don’t know. How listen.
When are you gonna go to heaven as a believer?
And how are you going to die? You have to die to go to heaven.
Or the rapture interrupts death. How and why?
Until the rapture happens, you gotta get sick to go to heaven.
Or you gotta get hit by a truck or fall off a a ladder.
You gotta have a heart attack. Right? Billy Graham died of sickness. Right?
Javerna McGee died of cancer. Uh, wow.
I was in Oxford not too long ago, and I literally stood on the spot where William Tindale was murdered to death.
You gotta die. You gotta how are you gonna get to heaven?
We pray for the sick. We pray believing. Sometimes God heals. Sometimes he doesn’t. He’s sovereign.
He’s got all power.
But don’t walk around thinking that
you could snap your finger and heal people.
You know, you don’t believe it because if you believed it, you’d make sure that everybody that you saw that was sick or hurting would be healed in a moment.
But you know, that doesn’t happen. And the reason why it doesn’t, because god is sovereign.
We leave the results with god. We pray believing.
We trust We pray according to the word of god and we pray thankful and we pray they will be done.
And Jesus is the one who epitomizes that Ultimately, lord, if this cup can be passed from me, if you can remove this cup.
That’s the cup of the Salvation of man’s redemption. If this cup can pass for me. Let it pass.
But nevertheless, thy will be done. That’s the prayer that we are to pray.
But by all means, friends, be praying, anointing them with oil, and and praying for god to heal, and expect god to heal, And if he doesn’t heal in that second, in that hour, enter in the week, or in the next 6 months, let god be god.
Will you still walk with him when the days are hard and difficult? Or you have cancer?
You know, my sister would not accept the gospel. She had her new age crystal crystals.
She had her pyramids and all of her weird new age junk until she got cancer.
And none of her new age isms could help.
So then she asked me to share the lord with her again, and I did.
She accepted Christ and she suffered for 7 years. And she got close, close, close, closer every year.
She got closer to Jesus until she went home to see him.
My mom was a Catholic not born again.
Through her suffering with cancer accepted Christ 4 weeks before she died, She went to heaven.
My dad accepted Christ and 7 days later died and went to heaven.
Cancer in my family has been the greatest evangelist.
It could it it couldn’t do what Billy Graham did. It it couldn’t do what Greg Lori did.
It couldn’t do what Louis Pulowed did. It couldn’t do what I did.
Cancer got used as an evangelist to save the stubborn. Think about it.
So, listen, we, uh, greatest thing you can do for us, you guys, is to hit the subscribe button, stay up to date on what’s going on as we bring more
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