Healing Fountain (Night 3)

Cleaned from the live recording. Lightly edited for reading.

Faith is tangible

It's already done. Amen.

Faith is the substance (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is tangible. Faith is something that can be measured. Faith is something that can be seen.

In Acts chapter 3, and I'm just passing there, I want to pick up where we left off last evening. At the gate of the temple Peter and John said to the crippled man, "Silver and gold we don't have, but such as we have." The Bible says, looking at the man, they took him by his hand and made him stand upright (Acts 3:6-7). Faith can be seen.

So I want to start the message this morning by saying to you: faith is not belief. The scripture says the devils also believe, and tremble (James 2:19). So I want us to rule out just believing this morning. Jesus never said to anyone, "According to your belief." He said, "By your faith." And that's what I want to get into this morning. By your faith.

We saw last evening Jesus spoke and miracles took place. Jesus laid his hands and miracles took place. What else did he do? He touched. He didn't always rebuke things. Sometimes, like with Peter's mother-in-law, he touched her hand and the fever left her (Matthew 8:14-15).

So when we rest our hands upon you, don't think we didn't pray for you long enough. Where we just rest our hands upon you, move on. That's all that you need. As Minister Colleen was saying, that's all you need. It's not by might (Zechariah 4:6). It's not by how long we pray. It's not by bending your neck wrong and running and running until you give up and fall down or throw yourself down. It's by the Spirit of the Lord.

There's nothing wrong with being passionate in prayer. We need passion. But we can do a lot of things with zeal and not with faith. The Bible says without faith it's impossible to please God, for those who come to him must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6). If you understand he is a rewarder, you wait. If you understand he is a rewarder, you look forward to something.

Faith is not just saying, "I believe, I believe, I believe." Faith is saying: he spoke, and I'll have what he said. He promised, and I'll have just what he promised. He said he'll heal the sick, the blind, whatever disease, whatever it is. I don't just believe. I know it will happen. So I start to operate as though it is already done.

Belief sits in the boat, faith steps out

When Jesus said to the man, "Get up, take up your bed, and go home" (Mark 2:11), the man didn't ask a question. He understood that once Jesus spoke and the command was given, it's already done. "He's not asking me to do something I'm unable to do. I may have been unable to do it two minutes ago, but a word went forth. His command was given. Because he spoke it, I can do it."

Peter saw Jesus walking on the water (Matthew 14:28-29). Belief says it's possible to do what Jesus is doing. Faith says, look at me doing it. Belief is sitting in the boat and saying, "Yes, it's possible. I believe the word of the Lord. We could walk on water." Faith is saying, "Bid me to come, Lord." Faith is stepping out on the impossible.

That's why your mouth, your words, your confession is so important. The power of God is moving, you've been prayed for, you receive, "Be healed in Jesus' name." Then you get up and say, "I'm going home to sleep. I'm feeling terrible. Tomorrow I'll go and check the doctor to see what's wrong."

Please pay attention to me. I'm not saying don't go to the doctor. But there's a difference between going to the doctor to confirm your healing and going to the doctor to diagnose how bad you are.

Sickness is not of God

If you weren't here for the last two evenings, just hear what I say to you this morning. Sickness is not of God. God doesn't use it. When God made Adam and Eve, he didn't say, "Let me give Adam some disease so he could walk humbly on the earth and not sin." I've read that nowhere in my Bible.

When Jesus healed people, he didn't leave a little bit of sickness. The man with paralysis we read about last night, Jesus didn't say, "I won't take the paralysis all the way. I'll leave a little bit so you continue to remain humble."

Sickness is not of God. Say amen with me. God sent his Son to bear our diseases and infirmities (Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 8:17). A loving father would never send his son to take away disease if disease was good. That would have been cruel to Jesus, to send him to die for something you want people to have.

So I want to start there. Faith, then, is believing as it is in the heavenlies. It's already done. The song, the rhythm and everything sounds lovely and feels good. But it's the Word. Jesus taught them to pray, "As it is in heaven, so let it be on earth" (Matthew 6:10).

The river from the temple

I'm a little conflicted this morning about where I want to go in the scripture, because I want to continue where I left off last evening. I don't know if I'll get there, but I'll mention it. In Ezekiel 47 there's a river that flows out of the temple of God. Wherever this river flows it brings life and freshness. On its banks it brings forth trees with fruit, and leaves that are for healing (Ezekiel 47:1-12).

There's a river flowing in this place this morning. As we continue into the service we're going to take some measurements, like the angel did with Ezekiel. Right now it's trickling. I believe we're ankle deep. In the next few minutes I think it'll be waist deep. And by the time I get to the end of my message, it's time to swim.

If you can't swim, just do like some people: catch the bank and paddle and move as though you're swimming. You remember those days, right, when we went to the black hole and were just on the edge paddling?

The woman who laid hold of him

Let's go back to Matthew 9:20. "And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment" (Matthew 9:20).

I was saying last evening, I love this portion of scripture because Jesus was not looking in this woman's direction. Jesus was going to Jairus' house. He was going to raise Jairus' daughter from the dead. And this woman laid hold of him.

How many of us would have been bold enough to press in for our healing, or even come to church? Many people today with that kind of sickness would not come to church. They would use it as a reason to stay home. "God will understand." But she had lost all hope.

You heard about hands being healed, shoulders, knees, backs. There are things we'll never ask people to come up and testify about, because as I said to Minister Alex last night, the church is not ready for it. We have people healed of things in their private areas in this church. These are documented healings. The doctor said they would have it for the rest of their life, and it never returned after a number of years. But if we asked them to come to the pulpit like the people who testified about their shoulders and hands, from the time they start testifying some of you would start running your head: "I wonder how they got it. I wonder who gave it to them."

Jesus was not concerned about that. Jesus didn't stop and ask the woman what caused the issue of blood.

"For she said to herself, 'If I only touch his garment, I will be made well'" (Matthew 9:21). We know the story. Jesus asks, "Who touched me?" And I was saying last night, there's a kind of touch where people know when virtue flows out of them. You can be in a meeting and a minister can know when faith is there. You can feel people pulling on the anointing on your life.

The woman was a little ashamed, because it seemed as though she was a stealer of the anointing. She didn't ask permission. Listen to me. Jesus did not rebuke her for taking it without consent, because Jesus understood healing belongs to the children. Healing is his children's bread (Matthew 15:26).

Thank you, Holy Ghost. I'll stay here a little while. "Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, 'Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well'" (Matthew 9:22).

Immediately (Luke 8)

Let's go to Luke 8:43. "And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased" (Luke 8:43-44).

The Lord will be healing blood disorders this morning. Various issues in the blood will be healed this morning in Jesus' name.

(Word of knowledge: pain in the left hand, from the middle, in the bones coming upward. "I command that pain to leave in Jesus' name. I speak order in your body, healing in your bones.")

Tell your neighbour: immediately. Immediately the discharge of blood ceased. There will be some immediate healings this morning. There will be some immediate miracles this morning. I hear the Lord saying it has been prolonged too far and continued too long, and he's about to do it immediately in this place.

It's okay to believe God to be healed sometime in the future, but God also does immediately. And I'm hoping people in here will believe God for the immediately and not just for the future. Sometimes the future can be a cop-out of faith. You listen to some people: "I know God will heal me sometime in the future." It doesn't have to be God. You could just heal with time.

That's how scientists sometimes operate. They tell you in the next 500 million years this will happen, and you believe it. Neither you nor they will be around. Who will be there to witness if they're right or wrong? Ask them what will happen ten years from now and they can't tell you. Ask them who will win the World Cup and they can't tell you. But they can tell you what happens 500 million years from now.

Two camps in the church

"And Jesus said, 'Who was it that touched me?'" (Luke 8:45).

There are usually two camps in the church, two groups of people. One is like the woman with the issue of blood, with faith. She believed if she just touched him, something would happen. She understood that there are invisible, tangible things. And there's another group that doesn't know it exists.

"When all denied it, Peter said, 'Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!'" (Luke 8:45). In other words, "Jesus, like somebody put something in your drink. We stopped just now to eat, and it's like somebody spiked your drink. You're talking stuff. How you mean who touched you? Look at this crowd pressing in on you. I know you usually talk some deep stuff, but this is next-level conversation."

(Demonstration: several people rest their hands on Minister Tracy, and she asks, "Who is touching me?")

If you didn't understand this story, and Minister Tracy was standing out here with different hands resting on her and asking, "Who touched me?", you could come to one conclusion: she's blind. Another: she's making a joke and messing around with you. Another: maybe you're all spirits and she can't see you. Or, like Peter, you could conclude she sniffed some stuff and she's flying. Or she went a little lulu and lost her mind. Thank you all very much.

There is a type of touching that is beyond just physical when it comes to healing. What happens to many people is that they only look for the physical touch, and sometimes that's all they receive. They do not understand that Jesus was not just a man. He was a man full of the Holy Ghost, full of the Spirit of God. He may have been walking normally on the earth, but something else was resting upon him and flowing out of him.

On the first night we talked about a law working inside of us. There was a law working inside of him. We call it the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2).

So when Jesus said, "Who touched me?", there was an aspect of him that could be accessed, but only by faith. There was a tangibleness about him that could only be accessed by faith. Many others touched him and nothing happened. This woman touched his garment, not even his flesh, and instantly the bleeding stopped.

If we understand that there is an anointing that rests upon people, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, we will be able to access so many extraordinary things.

You can have an altar call with a crowd pressing in for the laying on of hands. And you can have an altar call with people who know how to access supernatural things, who know how to draw something from the Spirit of God. It's not about a touch. It's not about a physical touch.

"I perceive that power has gone out of me"

"But Jesus said, 'Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me'" (Luke 8:46).

He didn't say, "I felt the tugging of my garment." He said, "I perceive that power, virtue, has gone out of me." How did Jesus know power went out of him? Have you ever asked yourself that question? How do some ministers know to say to somebody, "You're healed"?

Power is tangible. There are cases where you speak by faith. But there are times when you speak or lay hands and you can feel it, whether it's fire or electricity. I don't know how to explain it, but you can feel substance come out of you. Tangible substance.

Jesus was carrying something. This thing came out of him. When did it go into him? It looks like I'm asking you some strange questions this morning, but I'm going somewhere.

He opened the scroll and read from Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" (Luke 4:18). After he was baptized in water, the Spirit rested on him like a dove. He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, and the Bible says he came back in the power of the Holy Ghost (Luke 4:14). So when he said, "I perceive that power has gone out of me," it means what he was carrying was active and alive. It can move.

"And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed" (Luke 8:47).

This woman is saying, "We all touched him. But I did a type of touching that got me something different from you. I did a type of touching that connected me to the supernatural power of God. You touched his flesh. I touched power. You touched his physical garment. I touched the Spirit of God that rested on him, the Spirit of God that clothed him. My touching was different from yours. I accessed power. You accessed just a touch." And she was healed.

The same Spirit is here

Before Jesus died he told the apostles, "Stay in Jerusalem." In other words, "This same Spirit I'm carrying is able to do extraordinary things. He's going to come upon you and you're going to receive power, and you will be my witnesses" (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). We know the story in Acts chapter 2. They waited and the Holy Spirit came. When you read the book of Acts, they went about doing extraordinary work, walking and working with that same Holy Spirit.

That same Holy Spirit is here this morning. The Bible says the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside you (Romans 8:11). Do you believe that?

What made Jesus so aware of the Holy Ghost and his power that he knew somebody had made a withdrawal? Have you ever prayed for someone and felt power leaving you, flowing through you? I know there are people in here who have.

Two kinds of people. One is able to draw. The other is able to experience a nice meeting. One group could say, "I was there when Jesus raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. It was glorious." And somebody else could say, "I know it was glorious, because when he was going with that power to raise the dead, I took some of it for myself."

A word of knowledge can be given for someone, and you can get healed by faith. If God is calling blind Bartimaeus and I see him healing a blind eye, I could say he could also heal my deaf ear. I don't have to wait for a word of knowledge about the issue I have. It's the same power at work, the same Holy Ghost at work. I can just receive by faith, because the healing God is in the place. The One who heals is present, and because he's present, I receive my healing. I don't have to wait for hands to be laid upon me.

Desperate enough to press

With this woman, what led her to desperation was not just the long time she had this sickness. What led her to desperation was that her money was finished.

Every time you go to the doctor, you know what you have to pay. Consultation fee. They send you to do some tests, and they already know the issue. MRI, CT, some other test. Sometimes they're good friends with somebody at another lab: "I don't really like this place's scanning. Can you go to this other place and do a proper CT scan?" Then they look at the X-ray and say, "It's not giving me a good reading. Can you do an MRI?" You do the MRI. "It's just like I suspected. I could deal with this, but not at this hospital. I'm usually at that hospital between these hours." Another consultation fee. They give you some medication. "Let's see, seven days, twenty-one days, if it will change."

This woman was running for twelve years. Every time she went: "I don't know what's happening. We ran this medication, but there's cutting-edge research happening right now, and a particular drug on trial, and because I really want to help you, I'll show you how to access the trials." Over and over, everywhere she went, she paid. The Bible says her money was finished, but she wasn't healed (Mark 5:26). I know you know many cases like that. Money finished, but the person wasn't healed.

Some doctors get conscious. They may not say it requires supernatural intervention, but they'll say, "This requires something the medical field really can't help you with at present. Maybe you can check a church and let them pray for you."

This woman was at her wits' end. I'm trying to say to you, there are things that can drive you to faith. Desperation. And one of them is being tired of your sickness. If you're not tired of it and you want to nurse it, many times you won't get healed.

Some of you don't get healed, and you know why? Because you still have money to go to the doctor. You still have money to go and do a scan. When your money is finished you think you can still borrow: "At least this brother or that person will lend me money." But this woman exhausted all of her means.

We've had people in here who could not get pregnant. Not just the woman's issue, the man's issue too. Now they have babies. Not a baby. Children. I'm saying this to say you must get to the end of yourself, where you want to get rid of that sickness.

Wrap-up: the same Spirit

Let me wrap up. He said, "I perceive that power has gone out from me." And I was saying last night, it's the same power, the same Spirit, that healed the crippled man, healed the paralyzed man, healed the woman with the issue of blood, healed the woman of fever. It's the same Spirit that delivered the man with the legion of unclean spirits within him (Mark 5:1-15). It's the same Holy Ghost at work.

And where is he? I love that the Bible says the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells within us (Romans 8:11). It also teaches that we are baptized into one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13), and he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Let us stand.