Gifts Of Healings and Miracles (335)

0:01 Welcome again to the Quality Christian Living Podcast. I am your host, David Friend. Today's podcast is entitled, Gifts of Healings and Miracles. Today we're going to talk about a number of issues. One is, are the gifts of healing and miracles still operating today? And does taking medicine take away from our faith for miracles and healings? And can the power gifts be earned by good works? And who is the source of these two power gifts? And how can we receive these gifts? Well, we've got a lot to cover, but we serve a great big God who can take care of all this and help us with it. So before we get into it, let's pray. Heavenly Father, once again, I thank you for who you are. I pray blessing upon those listening in. I pray that you would anoint this podcast, Holy Spirit, take over. I surrender to you. I ask for you to guide and direct my comments, the scriptures I read, and the ones that I don't read, because I need to be led by you. I pray the Holy Spirit now that you would do what only you can do, that you would bring revelation and comfort and peace and joy to people who are in need of either healing or a miracle in their life, or they know of other people facing the same challenges. So Father, bless this podcast, I ask. And I'll be careful, always be careful to give you all the praise and glory for what's about to take place. For I ask all these things now in Jesus name I pray, amen. It might be a little hard to cover both of these gifts in one podcast, so I'll probably be in the future doing a little bit more on healings, a little bit more on miracles because there's so much to talk about.

1:28 But let me just answer a couple questions that I mentioned in the early part of this. I can guarantee you through my personal experiences, through my church family and the experiences we've had for hospital visits and those people in our church who fought many sicknesses and illnesses that the gifts of healing and miracles are alive and well today. All we have to do is look up Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 8 that says Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever. He is our healer. He hasn't changed. His healing power has not decreased in one bit and we can believe for miracles and we can believe for healings because his word says that we can. Now in my book, Fate for Miracles, it's something I wrote based on a series of podcasts I did here probably Six months ago or longer and I would encourage you if you'd like to to go pull up that list of podcasts There was about 20 of them dealing with faith for miracles and that podcast is what gave me the inspiration Shall I say to write a book on it? And so it's been one of my favorite books that I've written because I believe the Holy Spirit is Doing a great work with it and many people's lives have been touched by it.

2:31 I thank the Lord for it. So in that book I give actual examples of where these two power gifts have been manifested in the bodies of various people. I mean, there's a number of them there and I'll give some examples in this particular podcast also. Before we go further into the podcast, I want you to know that there's nothing wrong in taking prescribed medicines or supplements for an illness. Whenever I have experienced, you know, a physical setback of some kind, I like to tell the doctors that I'm a Christian and I thank the Lord for doctors, for medical care and medicine, but most of all for prayers. I usually get a little smile from them. Most doctors have a difficult time. with having confidence in prayer but I've seen a number of doctors over the years who've seen the miracle take place in my life and the lives of other people that I'm very much aware of and they've called it a miracle too. Now we must tell our doctors I believe that we need to tell them that you're Christians and that you believe in the Word of God and you believe that Jesus is the healer.

3:28 It's fine to take their medication it's fine to hear from them but we need to pray and trust God. You know in the old days when I first started talking about healings and miracles and things I used to talk about what I call the faith cabinet that's when we get a cold or something the first thing we do our faith leads us to the medicine cabinet in our bathroom and we open it up we start looking for pills and things that help us with it now we've all done it and I don't think necessarily there's anything wrong with that but on the other hand we better not make that our faith cabinet the medicine cabinet is just the medicine cabinet but by faith we were healed by faith we receive our sight by faith we receive the blessings that God has for us so let's not put our faith in a medicine but It's I believe okay to use those things and I also have no problem using supplements. I take several different supplements because they're natural and I think they're good for me and my doctors have even recommended them. So we thank the Lord for that. The gifts of healing and miracles come from the Holy Spirit deciding who should have these gifts. Now once again that's found in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 verses 7 through 11. I strongly recommend you go back and read those. If you haven't, I've covered them several times in the last few messages as we've covered the nine power gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are the last two in that series, but like I said earlier I'll be continuing to talk about in the future about Holy Spirit Directed healings and miracles because I believe that's such a vital part of our life. We cannot earn these gifts through good works. People sometimes think, well, if I'm a better Christian or if I help other people, then maybe God will give me these gifts.

4:55 No, we don't earn gifts. We don't go out and do those things. We, by faith, we operate in the gifts. By faith, we trust the Holy Spirit to do what only He can do. The gifts of healings and miracles come from the Holy Spirit deciding specifically who should have them and what gifts that they should have. And I think I've mentioned in other podcasts, I've been blessed on several occasions to have the gift of healing, the gift of miracles, the gifts of great faith and the gift of discerning of spirits. And they've been very helpful. They've come in at times when it was most needed. And 99 % of the time, it has to do with something in the church, something that's taking place in the church or a good friend of mine that I'm praying for or believing for. So the Holy Spirit, though, doesn't have me operate every moment of every day in each one of these gifts, but he brings them to me when there's a need so then I can be a blessing to those people that need and just give God all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise. Now, we don't have to, listen to this very carefully, we do not have to receive the power gifts of healing and miracles in order to see them come forth through our regular prayers and requests that we make to the Lord. You don't have to, it doesn't have to always be a power gift. Some people think, well it's gotta be this great power gift. No, it can be as simple as a child. The Bible talks about the children have great faith. Have you ever seen a little child of four or five year old and their mom or daddy's sick? and they want to go over and lay hands on them put their hands on their mommy or daddy and say Jesus would you heal him that's childlike faith and that's the kind of faith that he wants us to have that little

6:26 child believes there's nothing there's no doubt in their mind they haven't been polluted by the world to think that there's no reason that won't happen we need to have childlike faith in order to believe and if we even have childlike faith we can see miracles and miracles examined in the Bible many of them Jesus referred to as a little faith and great faith and incredible faith and the Bible talks about great faith with the Holy Spirit but you know just a small little bit of faith can bring forth a miracle from God and a healing for someone in need now let me describe what each gift is that just the two miracles and healings and how they are manifested during this podcast I pray that our faith will be increased if anyone listening needs a miracle or healing receive this prayer let's pray Heavenly Father I pray now that the Holy Spirit would release faith, greater faith, to those who are desiring to pray for miracles and healings. And for those who need a miracle or need a healing, Father, I call forth that miracle in the name of Jesus. There's no name like the name of Jesus.

7:28 Nothing greater, nothing more powerful, nothing more. supernatural than the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior so I pray Lord for those who need a physical healing that you would touch their body right now and for anyone listening in just place your hand upon part of your body that maybe needs a physical touch maybe with your back or your foot or your arm or your hand or your head headaches or whatever it might be just call it forth now say father as they lay their hands upon the knee that they have I pray that you would manifest a miracle healing miracle in their body that you would make it come to pass even at this moment as they're being prayed for I believe for that and I thank you for it father we expect nothing less than your Perfect touch your healing touch your miracle touch and I pray father for those who are been struggling Maybe some illnesses they've had for many many many years that they would not give up on the Apostle Paul had He had thorn in the flesh and on three different occasions the Bible tells us that he prayed for those things But the Lord did not meet that need but God had another plan for him And I believe the fact that Paul went on built his faith even though his prayer wasn't answered for his specific specific need his faith increased because he had trust in God his confidence was in God his confidence was not in himself his own ability and he did not allow him sir his circumstances to rob him from the blessings of God so I pray now father blessing what happened to each and every person and Lord I'm gonna read in Jesus name and Lord I want to read four scriptures that I read every single morning when I get up

8:59 my little my devotionals and scriptures that mean a lot to me for healings and for miracles father I believe Lord that these will bring forth healings and those who are listening in today. Father, I thank you for Luke 17, 9, where the Word of God says your faith has healed you. I thank you, Lord, for Mark 6, 56, where your Word tells us, who touched him were healed. I thank you from Matthew 8 16 where your word says he healed all the sick and Matthew 4 23 where it says he healed every kind of disease and illness father I claim that and I believe that for everyone listening in either for their need or for the others needs of others that they love or care for our friends with whatever might be we believe for that father and we thank you for it give you all praise now in Jesus name we pray amen.

9:45 Now the Holy Spirit gifts of healing refers to a supernatural healing without medication or treatment. Now don't shut me off on that now because I'm going to talk about that a little bit more and kind of clarify a little bit. That does not mean that medication or treatment cannot be blessed with a miracle or healings. I love to tell the doctors when I talk to them and they give me medication and they'll give me some pill or something for something I'll say, let me ask you a question doctor, whatever is in this pill is it anything that God didn't create? And sometimes they'll look at me like, hmm, I never thought of that way. But almost every time they'll say, no, it all had to be here on Earth someplace. So God created everything that's in there, right?

10:26 And so if he did, the man's just now getting around to understanding what the pill is. So when you take a pill, that pill has something in it that God created and that man has just been used by the Lord to use that medication to help us. So therefore, I'm really not supporting drugs and medicine all the time, but I just want you to know that sometimes when you take medication, you can get a much greater... reaction, or a good reaction, a positive reaction of something great happening in your body. Matter of fact, in all the eight months that I was taking chemo, the doctor would tell me, he'd say, okay, now we're putting this chemo in you. I went every week for my treatments for eight months when I was... fighting their diagnosis of multi myeloma bone marrow cancer and they said we need you're gonna need to take this for many many months maybe for many years and it was pretty heavy stuff and it was trying to beat me up and they would say this medication you know is is really attacking your kidney and is attacking your body and at the time I only had one kidney left because 20 years before that I lost my right kidney to cancer and I believe due to Asian orange exposure in Vietnam and then 20 years later here came multi myeloma bone marrow cancer which was due to my experience in Vietnam being exposed to Agent Orange, which by the way, if you know of a veteran who's fighting those things, I would encourage you to get them to contact the VA and try and get help from them. The VA was a huge blessing to me and they paid for all my chemo medications for a number of years. Eight months had gone by and the doctor was telling me, you know, he says, matter of fact, you're way ahead of what we thought you'd be at this stage. And so it was eight months from the time I started that, that he looked at me and he said, this

11:57 is still incurable. There's no cure for it and it's still in your and I said well I don't accept that anyways and he says but no it is and he says and it probably will could take your life someday he said but and there's no cure for it he said but you are coming along well so let's just keep putting more medicine in you so they went from chemo treatments to pills and I started taking pills which were chemo pills and I took those for enough after that now put people might say well pastor don't you have any faith now I had no problem taking a pill that was filled with all the chemicals that God had placed here on earth and when I would tell the doc and the nurses that would bring that stuff to me, they were always blessed by it. And I know that God received the glory and honor for it. So we can look at medication, that God can do something greater in that medication than what the medication is capable of doing. I saw it in my own life and I give God all the praise and all the glory for it. Now healing is a divine manifestation.

12:50 The gift of supernatural healing is a divine manifestation. The gifts of healing can be an explainable experience. I remember when I was at the doctor and they were giving me all this chemo and I said I'm just curious about something I have one kidney its kidney function is okay it's not as good as it should be I said is there any reason that with all this chemo I'm taking which is attacking my kidney why is my kidney why am I is my one kidney why is it improving and functioning stronger and he looked at me and he said Have no idea I said are you doing something to give me medication to help my kidney? He says we're not doing anything to help your kidney He said for a 70 year old man He said that should not be happening and he said but it is and he said there's only one answer for it And he said it has to be a miracle because your kidney function is now better than it has been in the last 10 years of your life So we give God all the glory and all the praise for it. Amen. Here's another example of kidney diagnosis that I had when I was 25 years old. I've had so many kidney issues in my life and because of that I'm thoroughly... take advantage of any opportunity I can to pray for people with kidney issues. Matter of fact, right now, if you're facing a kidney issue, maybe it's a functioning problem, maybe a kidney stone, an infection, whatever, Father, in the name of Jesus, I call forth healing in those kidneys. Lord, for anyone these people may know that's having kidney problems, whether it be cancer, whatever, because I've had it all. And Lord, you have touched me in every situation. And Father, I give you praise

14:20 for it, and I speak healing in their bodies, in Jesus' name. You see when I was 25 years of age, I had kidney failure. The doctor looked at me and I was a young man at the time, very young man at the time, 25 years of age. And it was a long time ago and they didn't do kidney transplants very much. And he said, you would not be able to survive a kidney transplant. You're not that healthy. Your blood is not in good shape. And we had just become Christians. We had just found Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And a few months later I was diagnosed with incurable kidney failure. And my kidneys would just simply die. And I would die. And there was no other thing else that they could do. Anyways, so we prayed. So six months later I went back to the doctor. He looked at me and said, what did you do? I said, well, we prayed and I drink a lot of water. He said, well, I like you drinking a lot of water.

15:02 But you prayed? I said, yeah, every day. My wife and I prayed over my kidneys. I even prayed over the water that it would cleanse and do more than what the lot of water was intended to do. And he said, well, it worked. He said, because you have absolutely no disease whatsoever. Your kidneys have completely healed. They're restored. They're normal. You don't need any medication. You don't need any treatments. And I said, well, to God be the glory. So I'm just telling you, because these are the ways that God wants to work. His ways are greater than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And because of that, we've got to trust God in every situation that we face and believe that we can have a miracle or a physical healing and that that healing, Father God, will come from you. Now the gift of working of miracles are also a supernatural, divine intervention. It is a display of something without an intellectual explanation. Of course, that's what'll, and I'm not down on doctors, I think they're great. I have some good friends that are doctors one doctor that I go to now I've been seeing him for 25 years. We've become good friends I prayed for his son who played football I prayed for his family and we've got to know each other and he's always said call me if you ever need anything and I have a couple of times and he's been right there to help in any way that he could but it's it's not an intellectual explanation a Working of miracles and so doctors sometimes have a difficult time with that because they are doctors of science and that's good, but both the gifts of healings and working of miracles work together with the gift of faith they all kind of come together and work together for the glory of God and for healing and emotion

16:33 whether it be emotional healing would be physical healing whether it be a miracle someone needs and a cancer that they've given up hope on there is no way that God ever gives up on us I know he doesn't always heal everyone I don't understand why that is all I know is that when we get to heaven we'll know the answer then and that's just good enough for me now but I believe that I Every time I pray I believe that God's going to perform a miracle and he's going to do something that man will be in awe about. Man will be wondering how it happened and to God be the glory. A miracle takes authority over sickness and even sin. Recently you know at one of our men's breakfast meetings a man experienced a massive coronary or heart attack. His heart stopped. twice and he was taken to the hospital. I went and jumped in my car and drove behind the ambulance to get to the hospital to be with him. We went to the emergency room and the doctor came out there and he looked at me and he said, you know, Pastor, he says this type of a heart attack almost always takes the life of the patient. He said when I saw what it was and the kind of heart attack he had, it's just unbelievable that he's alive. The doctor told me it had to be a miracle. And I'm not making this up. The doctor looked at me and he says it had to be a miracle that he's alive because his heart did stop twice and God brought him back. Now, the heart blockage and all that that he had in his heart was not healed. So the man had to have bypass surgery. The bypass surgery was great. We prayed that the doctor's hands will be led and guided and directed. We need to do that. When someone goes for surgery, we need to pray over the hands of a doctor. I remember

18:03 one time I was praying for someone. who was having hip surgery. And the doctor came in the room and I said, Doctor, would you mind if I prayed over your hands that the Lord would bless you? And he said, Oh, that's wonderful. So he put his hands out and I just reached over and I put my hands on his. I just simply put my hands over top of his. I said, Father, you made these hands. You created them and you've given this man the ability to use them in a proper way. I pray now that his hands will be touched and blessed and this surgery will go better than he's ever seen before. And quite frankly, the surgery was incredibly successful. The doctor even told me, he says, I thought it was going to be a four, four and a half hour surgery. And it took me an hour and a half to complete this surgery that normally takes four and four and a half hours. So once again, to God be the glory. Going back to the guy with the heart attack, the severity of the blockage should have taken this guy's life, the man that we had at the men's breakfast. So we just need to pray for medicine, for doctors, and that they can work together. And through that, God will receive all the glory, all the honor and praise. Now this tells me that miracles and healings can happen at the same time, but in many cases the miracle will bring a physical healing and it might be physical, it might be mental, it might be spiritual. As a pastor for over 28 years I've seen the gifts of healings and miracles bring entire families to receive Jesus Christ as Lord. I knew a family once. They were from the the mid -east and they came and there was a lady in the family who had cancer.

19:33 They came to me. I prayed with them. They were converted Muslims. They came to our church and got saved and I prayed with them and I had a little cloth and I said let's take this cloth and pray over it. I put some anointing oil on it. Now it's not the cloth. It's not the anointing oil that healed anything. I said but take it to her and in faith claim her healing and they went all the way back. to the Mideast to meet this family member. They prayed for her and she was miraculously healed. Now that is just over the top miracle and healing and faith. These people started Bible studies. in their little town. And they had Bible studies underground because they couldn't let anybody know that they were seeking advice from Christian pastors and reading and having Bible studies. And God's power spread throughout that community that they were in. Remember, Jesus performed healings and miracles.

20:20 After those healings and miracles, many people followed Jesus. They went after him. Matter of fact, I'm going to read a scripture to you found in Matthew, and it's in chapter 4, verses 23 and 25 as I close this part. I'm reading out of the New Living Translation or paralyzed, he healed them all. Large crowds followed him wherever he went. People from Galilee, the Ten Towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River. Look at that. The power of God in action through miracles and healings.

21:09 Heavenly Father, thank you for this podcast. And I pray that people were blessed. I pray that they receive something very special today, because I believe you were here in a very special way. I ask this in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Well, I hope that you enjoyed this podcast on healings and miracles. and we'll be talking more about these in upcoming podcasts on the Holy Spirit. This seems to be something that is really touching a lot of people because we've seen a large increase in our downloads all over the country, matter of fact all over the world. People are downloading this and I just thank God for it because the Holy Spirit is doing a very special work and I pray that you'll receive the blessings that the Lord wants to give to you and what you need. So Heavenly Father, I just pray blessings again on the upcoming podcasts that you guide and direct us Lord. And I pray Lord that your hand would be upon everything Father that takes place. Once again, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. If you'd like to know more about Quality Christian Living, that is the overall title of our podcast. You can go to my webpage at davidcfriendauthor .com and when you get there, the front page will show you a link to my podcast. This has been podcast number 335. So we've had many series that are 10, 15, 20 podcasts on series on finances, on miracles, on healings, on the gifts of the Spirit.

22:17 We've talked about finances. We've even helped veterans with the challenges that they faith so you might want to look through all the podcasts and see something that's of interest to you. In addition to that if you'd like to subscribe to my podcast you can do that by going to CBNshows .com or wherever you listen to your podcasts. On our next podcast we're going to be taking up the title or the topic of Holy Spirit led witnessing. You know when we receive the Holy Spirit when we become Christians Jesus said that gives us the powers to be witnesses of him and I'm going to talk about how the Holy Spirit can help us so everywhere we go we just feel like we've got to say something to someone. Bless you or invite them to church or let them know that Jesus touched you. I know when I go into a Starbucks or a coffee shop or something and I'm standing in line, I like to turn around and say, this is going very fast, is it? And just make some comment to get a conversation going.

23:05 And they'll say, no. And I said, well, you know, I'm just glad to be anywhere. And they'll say, what do you mean? I said, well, years ago, I was given six months to live with multiple myeloma bone marrow cancer and Jesus Christ healed me. And here I am today, all these years later. And it's interesting, they'll start talking about a sickness that they have or someone else they know that needs prayer. And I'll get their name and say, can I pray for you? Is there anything that I can pray with you about? And it gives us that opportunity. We just have to keep our eyes sensitive and our hearts sensitive to where the Holy Spirit wants us to share, even if it's a little thought just a little slight comment that says God loves you or may the Lord bless you those types of things can mean a lot to people and so with that I hope that you will Tune in for the podcast entitled Holy Spirit led to witnessing.

23:52 We're gonna have a lot of things We're gonna get into it'll be fun and it won't be something that will over challenge you but it'll be something that's fun then that will help each and every one of us to sense the power of the Holy Spirit in a greater way than we ever have when it comes to letting other people know that we're Christians and also where we go to church and that we like the Bible and all those types of things so I hope that you'll listen in and let your friends and family members know about it because I believe they're a blessing there for them. So I want to encourage you to continue to stay with us on this whole series on the Holy Spirit. We will come back at later dates and talk more about healings and miracles and some of the other nine power gifts of the Holy Spirit. You can't just do one or two in one and cover all the topics that need to be there. So I just want to thank you so much for listening in to the Quality Christian Living podcast. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate and review the podcast.

24:45 Now it really helps us reach more people. you can leave a review on apple podcast apple music and charisma podcast network or you can give us a star rating on spotify however you choose to do it to support us we certainly appreciate you so thank you so much again for listening in to the quality christian living podcast i want to pray a blessing over you i pray that the lord will bless you and keep you may his face shine upon you may he be gracious to you and give you peace may you prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers. So until next time, I pray that God will richly bless you. I pray that you'll operate in the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, that you will experience the gift of great faith and experience the prophetic world that's out there that's so powerful for Christians and understand the power in miracles and great faith and healings and all these things that the Holy Spirit has that he has. the choice to decide who he's going to give those to. And I want to have my hand up and say, Holy Spirit, I'm over here. And I'd sure like to have that.

25:46 Now, like I said earlier, you can't buy it, you can't pray it in necessarily, but you can certainly be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and allow him to fill you with one of these power gifts. Matter of fact, you're more likely to experience a power gift of the Holy Spirit if you're praying for other people. The more you pray for other people, I believe you get the attention of God. And if you're praying for the needs of others, get on prayer group someplace. Be a part of something, whether it be on a TV program or whether in your church or just your neighborhood, whatever it might be, get on that list and get the names of people who need prayer. When we pray for other people, it shows that we care. It shows that God loves them and he's put in our hearts a desire to reach out to them. And I believe when we do that, that blesses the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. I believe the Holy Spirit is blessed and is open. to touch us and bless us if he sees that we're good soil, that what we're doing is good things that will bless other people. So I just pray that you'll receive that little something. There was no extra charge for that by the way. So thank you once again for listening to Quality Christian Living.

26:47 This has been podcast number 335 entitled Gifts of Healings and Miracles. You'll find it on Quality Christian Living. I am your host, David Friend. Thank you once again for listening in. May God bless you.