Alpha | Session 15 | Does God Heal Today?

1. HEALING IN THE BIBLE

• Old Testament
  • ‘I am the Lord who heals you’ (Exodus 15:26)
  • The character of God – it’s in his nature to heal
  • Examples of God healing (2 Kings 5; Isaiah 38–39)
• The ministry of Jesus
  • ‘Jesus’ means ‘Saviour’
  • Greek sozo means ‘I save’, also ‘I heal’
  • The healing miracles of Jesus form 25% of the Gospels
  • Jesus healed (Matthew 4:23) he gave his followers authority to heal (Luke 10:9, Acts) we see healing throughout church history he commissions us to pray for and heal the sick today

2. HEALING TODAY

• God heals explicably – through the medical profession • God heals inexplicably and directly

‘When we prayed for no one, no one was healed. Now we pray for lots of people and some are healed’
(JOHN WIMBER)

3. HOW DO WE HEAL?

• It’s God who heals – not us
• Simplicity – pray as Jesus did with love and compassion (Matthew 9:36; Mark 1:41)
• Words of knowledge – Pictures
  • Sympathy pain
  • Impressions
  • Hear or see words
• Prayer – simple model
  • Where does it hurt?
  • Lay hands on the person
  • Ask the Holy Spirit to come
  • Ask how are they doing / if they can feel anything different
  • Sometimes you need to pray more than once