HEALING OF THE SPIRIT

God created us to have intimacy with Him in His love for us. We are to be one with Him as Jesus is one with Him. Nothing short of this will suffice as a definition of healing or salvation. Christian Healing is growing toward wholeness in the presence of God in the Kingdom.

The healing of the spirit is one that is essential to that wholeness. It means that we who were born into the world separated from God by Sin must be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. It means that we are to seek to become everything He intended us to become when He called us by name.

We are not to put off that healing as something in the future. We are to embrace the revelation of God now. We are to receive and begin to enter into the Kingdom of God now. We are to begin our transformation now. That is what it means to be born again. When we, who were first born of the flesh, are born of water and the Spirit, we are birthed into a new creation, and begin to grow into what we are to become in God's will for us.

Getting to know God is the process of healing the relationship with Him that we are called to enjoy in Christ Jesus. Prayer is the dialog through which we come to know Him. It is in prayer that we ask the questions and receive the answers as children of God. We see now through a glass darkly, but we do see. As we grow in prayer, we grow in that continuing revelation of God in our conversation with Him. See the tract, "What is Prayer Anyway?"

As we come to know God, we seek to find His will for us. God does not deal with us as some generality. He deals with each of us particularly as a parent with a large family. His will for us is called our vocation, what we were created to become. When we are walking in obedience to God, we are in our vocation. What we do is what we were created to do. It is neither drudge nor boring. It is fulfilling as we live out God's purpose for us. See the tract, "Vocation and Healing"

Vocation enables us to live in an obedience orientation rather than a result orientation. We find that it is true that the reward for a Godly life is nothing more or less than the life itself. We enjoy His presence now to the extent that we have come to know Him, and we look forward to coming to know Him as He knows us.

In order to grow in some measure of balance, we would do well to adopt a Rule of Life. That means that we will give regular attention to our spirit as we do to our bodies. We eat regularly, bathe regularly, brush our teeth, comb our hair as we take care of our bodies. We are to give our spirits the same kind of regular care. See the tracts, "Rule of Life" and "Healing Power of Communion"

As we receive, we are to share. One of the last things Jesus told the disciples before they became apostles to be sent out was, "Ye shall be my witnesses.." That means two things. When God's love touches our lives, we are given something we are to share with other people who are also seeking. Witnessing to what God does in our lives encourages others who are seeking the same grace from God.

The second aspect of witnessing is that we are to be the embodiment of Jesus' presence in our lives. As we are created new by Holy Spirit, others will see in us Jesus' presence even when we are not aware of it ourselves. Love is never self conscious. It is always seeking to give to others the gift that God has given to us for them. See tract on, "Witnesses" and "Holy Spirit".

 

 

 

 

JESUS SENT US TO PROCLAIM THE KINGDOM

In ministering healing in the realm of the spirit, the primary concern is that we enable people to know God as Jesus did. As many as are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. The Kingdom is at hand. Holy Spirit has been poured out on the people of God. We are called into Spiritual communion with Him now.

1. Do we really believe that God can be known?

2. Do we ourselves know God or just know about Him?

3. Can we see the Kingdom of God? Have we entered the Kingdom of God?

4. What is the one assurance that we have been born again? "Unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God." Jn 3:3

5. What is the one universal mark of a Christian? "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples." Jn 13:35

6. Are we prepared to help people, seek, find, know and walk with God?

7. How can we communicate God's presence to others?

8. Can Christian healing be received without our will to be reconciled to God and walk in obedience to His will for us?

 

 

 

SUGGESTED EXERCISES

1. What would you like to say to God, or ask God? Take a pen and paper and write your letter to God.

What would God like to say to you? Turn the paper over and allow God to speak to you through the written prophesy of your writing what you sense He is saying to you.

2. Establish a prayer/share time with the group. Select a passage from Scripture and read it together. Ask the Lord to speak to you to tell you what He is saying to you through the passage. Spend ten minutes in silence listening for the movement of the Spirit within you. Spend some time sharing what you have received from Him.

3. Establish a prayer/share time with the group.

Ask the Lord to speak to you about what He wants from your OSL chapter. Spend ten minutes in silence listening to what He is saying within you. Spend some time sharing what you have received from Him. Begin to seek the way in which God is speaking to you, so that you might listen at other times.

4. Ask God how to pray for those on your prayer list. Try praying for one another as you are led by the Spirit.

5. Everyone does not hear God in the same way, but He seeks to speak to us in some way. As we seek together to find the way He wills to speak to us, we are given the opportunity to speak to Him, and to practice listening as He speaks to us.

As we receive Holy Spirit into our own lives, we are led into the will of God for us, and we enter into the growth that God intends for us. As our spirit is healed, we are reconciled to God and begin our growing toward the wholeness that He has prepared for us in Jesus Christ.

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