Divine Healing Made Simple: Simplifying the supernatural to make healing & miracles a part of your everyday life (The Kingdom of God Made Simple Book 1) by Praying Medic Read Free Book Online Page B

I know a few pastors who embrace healing, but many do not. For example, when I was new to healing, my pastor Dennis Teague encouraged me to pursue it. He set aside a time for healing every Sunday during church services. In contrast, I have received reports from many Facebook friends who were asked not to come back to their churches after they began healing the sick. I believe some of this is due to attitudes of stubbornness and fear. Leaders can be intimidated when their followers are doing things they aren’t doing.
    To have success in healing, you must deal with the issue of what people think of you. If you have fear of what others think of you, it may prevent you from realizing your full potential. You must learn to put aside the criticism of co-workers, church leaders, family and friends. Jesus wasn’t popular with religious leaders or his family. He was despised by many people, but the sick loved Him like crazy because to them, He was the “fragrance of life.” And I believe that kind of life is worth pursuing.
    When I became interested in healing, I noticed something in the gospels that I’d never spent much time thinking about. Jesus healed a lot of people. If you don’t think healing is for today or you don’t think it’s your calling, it’s easy to overlook just how many people He healed. As I studied His life, I realized that there wasn’t much else He did that could be called “ministry.” He taught in the synagogues and preached the kingdom as people followed Him. But He spent an enormous amount of time healing the sick. The more I studied His life, the more I knew there was something missing from mine.
    The Bible reveals many things about us. When we read it we tend to identify with someone. I might see the heart of King David and identify with him. You might see yourself in Deborah or Ruth. Some identify with the apostle Paul. We all see someone whose life is similar to our own. But almost no one looks at Jesus and says, “I can see myself in Him.”
    The people we strongly identify with become our role models. Ironically, we aren’t called to become like the apostles or prophets. God’s plan is for each of us to be conformed into the image of Christ. If we never identify with Jesus, we have a big problem. God wants us to become like Him and that means He must become our role model. But many of us have used a pastor or one of the disciples as a role model instead. If we are to be transformed into His image, we must begin to identify ourselves with Him. He must become our model in everything we do. We must allow Him to live His life through us.
A Change of Mind
    The first message Jesus preached was, “Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (see Matt. 4:17).
    The message of repentance has become well-known, even among those who are not religious. But its true meaning has become distorted over the years. The word repent, which is used in most English bible translations, comes from the Latin translation of scripture. It implies a change of action in an attempt to gain favor with someone.
    The Greek word used in this passage is the word
metanoia,
which comes from two words; one refers to a change; the other refers to the mind. The instruction of Jesus was not for people to change their behavior to gain favor with God. He wanted them to change their way of thinking, because the kingdom of God had arrived.
    For centuries, people tried in vain to please God by following religious laws. Their idea of repentance was to conform their outward behavior to the law, in order to please God. Jesus was approached by many people who believed they had kept the law perfectly. He said that no matter what they did, they could not keep the law, because the law dealt not only with external behavior, but with the thoughts of the heart, which are harder to control.
    Jesus changed the emphasis and tone of the spiritual conversation. Rather than focus on keeping the law by our own strength of will, He emphasized the