Pastor Barry's "Chapter & Verse" Day 58

February 27;      Matthew 8:17;       8/260(IV);        ‘Forever the Healer’

Matthew 8:17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses."  

As the Lord Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38), He was fulfilling what Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would do 700 years before it happened.  Since Jesus is the Messiah, He could legally heal, by the power of the Holy Spirit even before He redeemed humanity from sickness on the cross.  Not only was the Lord Jesus our Redeemer, He was our Example.  Jesus came to earth as a Man, leaving His deity in heaven and He ministered as a Man.  When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, the power of the Holy Spirit came upon Him and this is when His teaching, preaching and healing ministry began.  Jesus did not minister until He was empowered by the Holy Spirit, because He needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit to minister.  In John 17:18 the Lord Jesus commands us to continue His ministry and that is why it is vital for every Christian to be baptized in the Holy Spirit so that that same power to teach, preach and heal is upon us as well.  At the cross Jesus bore our sins and sicknessses upon Himself so that legally we have a right to be healed as well as forgiven of our sins.  Now we have the privilege and the responsibility to tell others, who need to be healed that they have a legal right to be healed and you would love to pray for them so that they can receive from the Lord what is legally theirs.  Continuing the ministry of Jesus, it doesn’t get any more exciting than this.  Share with others the fact that the Lord loves them and would never want them to suffer from sickness and disease.  If they can see that God is love, believing He wants them well physically is easy for them to believe.