20140823: Matt10:1 & 8 To Heal the sick or to pray for the sick?

Late Simth Wigglesworth 

Matt 10:1 And when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, HE GAVE THEM POWER against unclean spirits , to cast them out, and TO HEAL all manner of diseases and all manner of diseases"

Sometime in May this year, a kind of fresh new perspective came to my mind. It was from  a book that my ex-pastor had written.  His first published book in fact.  Perhaps some parts were indeed a little controversial but I took home with this little nugget after reading.

For more than 20years now as a child of God, I have been brought up with the idea of that kind of prayer - to pray FOR the sick. Perhaps from James 5:15 where we know the "the prayer offered in faith, will make the sick person well, the Lord will raise them up, if they have sinned , they will be forgiven"  And that onus kind of lies on the 'faith' of the person.  The problem herein lies when the person does not get the healing and we get the guilt and allow that faith of ours to be questioned!

So in May 2014, while reading this book, it suddenly dawn on me that indeed, the Lord gave his disciples power To Heal all manner of diseases! (In fact, strangely, the verse all manner of diseases is repeated twice ? in v10? LOL?" (Not to Pray for the sick, but to Heal!!)

When Jesus sent forth his disciples in v 5-8, as they go into the lost sheep, what was to be preached? The simple declaration of "The kingdom of heaven is at hand.  HEAL the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils : freely you have received, freely give" Oh what kind of action verbs - Heal, cleanse, raise , cast out! Nike! JUST DO IT!

Smith Wigglesworth

“If it is in the Bible, it is so. It’s not even to be prayed about. It’s to be received and acted upon. Inactivity is a robber which steals blessings. Increase comes by action, by using what we have and know. Your life must be one of going on from faith to faith.”

So perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that my friend who had been just diagnosed with fairly advance lung cancer could not make it to church that day though I was dying for her to be there to be prayed for by my ex-pastor (quite normal for us to approach 'big players ....lol)  It was with this new fresh perspective that I took when I prayed with her together with another friend at her home subsequently instead. 3 mths had passed us by with her completing the arduous round of chemo and radiation. But with great report given just this week that the x-ray showed the tumor had disappeared much to the surprise of the doc that he thot it was the wrong x-ray and had to double check! To add to the joy of the sequel of the lady from the rainbow citing in April journal - she received Christ during an altar call in KL church this month! PTL.

 Smith Wigglesworth
“Fear looks; faith jumps. Faith never fails to obtain its object. If I leave you as I found you, I am not God’s channel. I am not here to entertain you, but to get you to the place where you can laugh at the impossible.”

“How can one come to possess great faith? Now listen, here is the answer to that: First, the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. Faith must grow by soil, moisture, and exercise.”

Reflections

I love to read Smith Wigglesworth books. Think I had read most of his books. Wigglesworth continued to minister up until the time of his death on March 12, 1947

He died exactly 18 years before I was born. So which is which now? To heal the sick or to pray for the sick? Just as Wigglesworth wrote "If it is in the bible, it is so.  It is not to be even prayed about. It is to be received and acted upon. Inactivity is a robber which steals blessings.  Increase comes by action, by using what we have and know. Your life must be one of going from faith to faith"

Mine just did in this month of August 2014. Pray that yours would to as we NIKE and run this race together on this earth till we receive the crown at the end of the line. It is not about how big our faith is but how big our God is. It is not about us but all about Him. And taking authority as vested by HIm in us.

Quite a funny preacher too. Here are some of his other funny quotes

“If I read the newspaper I come out dirtier than I went in. If I read my Bible, I come out cleaner than I went in, and I like being clean!”

“Some people like to read their Bibles in the Hebrew; some like to read it in the Greek; I like to ready it in the Holy Spirit.”

“Repeat in your heart often”baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire, fire, fire!” All the unction, and weeping, and travailing comes through the baptism of fire, and I say to you and say to myself, purged and cleansed and filled with renewed spiritual power.” “Who maketh his ministers a flame of fire.” Heb. 1:7

“How great is the position of the man who is born of God, born of purity, born of faith, born of life, born of power!”

“If you are in the same place today as you were yesterday, you are a backslider.”

“If you want to increase in the life of God, then you must settle it in your heart that you will not at any time resist the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost and fire - the fire burning up everything that would impoverish and destroy you.”

“I don’t ever ask Smith Wigglesworth how he feels!” I jump out of bed! I dance before the Lord for at least 10 to 12 minutes – high speed dancing. I jump up and down and run around my room telling God how great he is, how wonderful He is, how glad I am to be associated with Him and to be His child.”

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 Who is Smith Wigglesworth?

"Raised a Methodist, he became a born again Christian at age eight. His grandmother was a devout Methodist; his parents, John and Martha, were not practicing Christians although they took young Smith to Methodist and Anglican (Episcopalian) churches on regular occasions. He was confirmed by a Bishop in the Church of England, baptized by immersion in the Baptist Church and had the grounding in Bible teaching in the Plymouth Brethren while learning the plumbing trade as an apprentice from a man in the Brethren movement. He abandoned this trade because he was too busy for it after he started preaching. In 1907 Wigglesworth visited Alexander Boddy during the Sunderland Revival, and following a laying-on of hands from Alexander’s wife Mary Boddy he experienced speaking in tongues. Wigglesworth learned to read after he married his wife Polly; she taught him to read the Bible. He often stated that it was the only book he ever read, and did not permit newspapers in his home, preferring the Bible to be their only reading material.