Rick Baugh Follower of Christ cleverly disguised as a software engineer

The scripture you reference is in regard to the authority Jesus gave to the Apostles. This level of authority is no longer given to Christians today, where the mere passing of your shadow would heal someone’s illness. However that is not to say that healing in Jesus name no longer happens at all.

Just before the verse you reference, Jesus said something else equally remarkable in Mat 9:5; “Which is easer to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’.” He equivocated forgiveness of sin with miraculous healing!

Sometimes I don’t think we as Christians truly comprehend the incredible power God has given us, in giving us the power to forgive. We know that we have this authority, because Jesus commands us to use it: Mat 6:14-15, Mat 18:21-22, Mar 11:25, Luke 17:4 among many others. This isn’t to suggest that our mortal forgiveness has power to heal the lame, but the question we should ask ourselves is whether we think it’s possible for someone to forgive, to truly forgive, without God being right there in the middle of it?

I didn’t come to Christ until I was 47 years old. Part of the reason it took so long for me was because I had a bitter heart toward God, his church, and the best friend I knew in my 20’s who suddenly “found Jesus” and became far more interested in hanging with his Christian brothers than with me. I didn’t see what a terrible influence I must have been to a young man just starting his walk with the Lord. When I came to believe myself at 47, after reading Mat 5:23-24 I saw that I needed to try to find my old friend to both offer, and ask, forgiveness. It had been well over 20 years since we had contact, but I found a mailing address for him by searching public property tax records, county by county, and I wrote him a letter to explain my desire to reconcile.

This eventually led to my friend and his wife coming to my house for dinner with me and my wife. There my friend explained how he was unaware of my bitterness over our past, but did recall that he and his wife used to pray for my salvation almost every night. As the months turned to years, and the years to decades, they eventually all but forgot about me, until one day he received my letter. In my letter I had given the date I confessed Jesus as my Lord and savior, a date, he said, that also just happened to be their 25th wedding anniversary. He said that he took God’s providence over that coincidence to be a sign from God that all their prayers from so long ago had not been forgotten, not by our God, but that here in His time was the sign of His answer. He said that he and his wife felt very blessed by God to have received my letter, and I realized that I too was blessed; as that bitterness that had been with me for so long was completely and utterly gone. I had been healed, not by what I or my friend had done, but by the power of God given in forgiveness.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you; full measure, pressed down, shaken together, heaping over, and poured out into your lap. For by the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:37-38

Who still heals the sick, raises the dead, and casts out devils? Jesus does. And our part in His work is to be faithful and obedient to His Word: to forgive and love one another, to be the light of God in a dark world by teaching the gospel and making disciples. But without Jesus being in the middle of all we do, we can do nothing.

August 06 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report