Gregory Dickow - Healing Rest
Well, I'm so happy that you joined me today and that we have this time to really dig deeper into the love of God, the tenderness of Jesus. The healing rest is what I'm going to really get into today. But I want to pray for you:
Father, I thank you for healing today. I thank you for healing souls, Healing minds, healing hearts, healing relationship, peace, healing bodies. We thank you for you are the healer. You are Christ the healer. Thank you for the promise of healing through your stripes. Thank you for the promise of healing through your blood. Thank you for the promise of healing in our minds, in our bodies, in our families and our souls. In healing all trauma. Healing all disease, healing all sickness, healing every illness in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, I believe today is your day. And today is my day, too. Because this is the day the Lord has made. And we will rejoice and be glad in it. I'm expecting some joy to overtake you today. The last time we were together, I shared with you the five promises of Jesus tenderness from Isaiah 42 verse 3 and 4.
We talked about how, number one, he won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt. You won't be brushed aside no matter what this world does to you. He'll bring you closer, he'll heal you. He doesn't brush aside the bruised, he doesn't extinguish the smoldering wick. He doesn't break the branch that is bruised.
So number one, he won't brush aside or brush you aside. Number two, he won't disregard the small and insignificant, no matter how insignificant you might feel or how small you feel. You're not small to him. He will not disregard you. He will regard your prayer. He will regard your needs. He will regard your heart. He will regard your feelings. Bring them to him.
Number three, He'll steadily and firmly set things right. Listen, so often we try to be right and we want to be right in our communication with others. We want to be right. But it's not always being right that matters most. It's letting Jesus set things right, not trying to be right, just trying to let God make it right. Whatever's wrong, he can make it right. Whatever's turned, he can turn it around. Whatever is broken, he can heal. Whatever's been done, he can undone it. All right? So he will set things right. He will bring he will avenge you. He will bring justice. He will bring answer. He will bring the solution. He will restore.
Number four: He won't tire out or quit. He's never given up on you. You can give up on him and he'll still never give up on you. You can be faithless and he'll still remain faithful, I'm not encouraging you to be faithless. But even in our faithlessness, it doesn't change his faithfulness. He won't tire out. Say, Oh, will he ever get tired of me? No, he'll never get tired of you. Will you ever quit on me? No, he'll never quit on you.
And number five, he will not stop until he's finished his work. What is his work that he's doing? He's working in you all the while to work, to will and to work for his good pleasure. He's working things out for his glory and your good. He's going to finish it. It may seem unfinished, it may seem incomplete. It may seem like it'll never get done. But he will finish what he started because he is that good. He is faithful. And now I want to take us to a place of Scripture and find healing rest. It's in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28 through 30. And I want to read this to you from the message Bible, and I want to break this passage down for you and feed you with God's good word. And in Matthew 11, Jesus says in verse 28, Are you tired? Are you worn out? Are you burned out on religion?
Wow, I've been all three of those at different times and all at the same time. Like the trifecta, tired, worn out, burned out on religion. Notice Jesus' solution to all of it. Come to me. Come to me. Boy, there's something really beautiful when you hear these words come to me. He says, Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. He goes on to say, Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. You see, Jesus never says Walk for me and work for me. He says, Walk with me and work with me. This is all about our journey with him and his journey with us. He says, Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I'm continuing with this passage. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I want to talk to you about the rhythms and the reflexes of grace here. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Wow, what a savior. He says, Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. Wow, what a contrast to what so many of us have been has been shoved down our throats about what Christianity is. What a contrast that we've been sold these lies and sold this religious legalism that how hard it is to work for God, how hard, how hard it is to walk with God, how what a burden it is to accept Jesus, what a burden it is to try to live for him. Yeah, you know what? It is a burden to try to live for him. But thank God we don't have to live for him. We get to live with him. He's Emmanuel, God with us. Whoo! I'm telling you, this is the rhythm. We're learning the rhythm and the reflexes of grace.
I think we need to just read that passage over again. If you will indulge me for a moment. Are you tired? Check. Are you worn out? Check. Burned out on religion. Check. Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. Who's ready to recover their life? I'll show you how to take a real rest, He says. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. Let's talk about these rhythms. Let's talk about this grace First we find in this verse an invitation to come and find healing. Jesus invites three people here the tired, the worn out, the burned out. Really, this applies to all of us. But he calls out specific only we know what it is to feel like giving up, to feel burned out, to feel that we're tired, worn out. He invites us. It's his invitation.
I think we have to embrace first in this passage that there is an invitation to come and find healing. He acknowledges the presence of trauma in our lives. He offers a safe place to find healing. You know, healing is always found in a safe place. God's love is a safe place. Jesus bosom is a safe place. So the first thing we find in this passage of Scripture is an invitation. Boy, when you think about it, you know, with summer on us, there's invitations to gatherings, graduations, invitations to holiday celebrations, invitations to weekend events, or Friday night lights or Saturday gathering Sunday after church, Sunday church. Right. The summer is full of invitations. Life is full of invitations. But the greatest invitation is to come to him. It's not an invitation to religion. It's an invitation to this sweet relationship that brings healing and rest in our lives in our souls.
Where we faint is not first in our body. It's in our minds. Where we give up is not first in our bodies. Our bodies simply follow our mind. Our mind runs the body. If the mind if the mind gives up, then the body will begin to catch up to giving up. If the mind refuses to give up because it's trusting in Jesus, trusting in his healing presence in his rest, the body will follow and the body will react in the body... the body will heal as well. So first we have this invitation to come and find healing. Second, we have this recovery of life. He says You will recover your life. Come get away with me. You'll recover your life. Jesus promises that by coming to him we can recover. We've lost our reason to live. We can recover our reason to live. We've lost our reason, our why. We can recover our why. We've lost our relationships and close friends because of various things that have happened in our lives.
God says we will recover whatever has been lost. He says, You shall recover all. We'll recover the lost opportunities. We'll recover our lost peace. We'll recover, recover our lost joy. David said, Restore to me, Lord, the joy of my salvation. So there is a recovery of joy that sometimes we need in our lives. He offers that we can recover. He offers true rest that goes beyond physical rest. It brings restoration, restoration, restoration to our souls. I prophesy to you right now resting nation.
Restore, restore, restore your soul. I prophesy restoration to your soul, Restoration to your peace, Restoration to your rest. Restoration to your mind Restoration to your body. Restoration to your health. Restoration to your family. Restoration to your joy. Restoration to abundance, Restoration to victory. Restoration to all the promises of God in Jesus name, Woo Jesus promises that we will recover. Have you failed? Have you blown it? You're going to recover. Have you fallen? You will recover. Have you grown sick or ill or impatient or fearful or anxious or worried or nervous or stressed or traumatized? You shall recover. He will bring recovery and restoration to you. Wow, what a savior.
Number three we find in this passage of Scripture, we learn from Jesus, gentleness and his humble ways. You know, in this passage of Scripture, Jesus assures us that he is humble. He assures us that he's gentle. He assures us that he's easy to please. Wow. This one is really hard for a lot of Christians to take. They'd rather make it, they'd rather create a fairy tale, a fable that He's hard to please. But you know what? His yoke is easy, he says, and his burden is light. So he's not hard to please. He's actually easy to please. You know what pleases God? Simply believing in him, trusting him, believing what he says pleases him, believe that you're loved. It pleases him, believe you're a son or daughter of God. It pleases him, believe it is finished. It pleases him, believe he's got you. That pleases him. We're not believing something that is some wishful thinking we're believing what he said.
We're believing what he did, we're believing that he is our Heavenly Father and an earthly Father would want our lives to get better. How much more does our Heavenly Father want that for us? Wow. You know, we can learn how to approach our pain when we know Jesus is gentle. We can learn how to approach trauma when we know Jesus is tender and compassionate, we can come boldly to the throne of His grace when we know he's humble. You know, if anybody could be proud, it would be him. I mean, there is a good pride and a bad pride. Obviously, God's proud of us in the sense, as a father would be proud of his children. He's proud of us in those ways. But he's very humble. He's willing to come to our level and bring us up to him. He's willing to take all that suffering and all the pain that we've experienced and nail it to the cross. You see, when you realize how tender and how compassionate he is, it draws you closer to him.
When you realize that he has already forgiven you. It gives you a desire to go forward and strength to go forward in honor of him. You know, the more the preachers preach against sin, the more people sin, the more preachers will preach about Jesus tenderness, compassion, love and grace, the more that they will become and people will become tender and compassionate and graceful to others. I love this humility of Jesus. It's the number one thing that I want in my life of all of his characteristics, of course, is love. But it's a humble love. It's not a it's not a worldly love. It's not a love of the lovely. It's a love of people because they're God's people. They're not things to fix. They're people to enjoy. Wow. When we get this figured out and straighten out this whole thing about things versus people, you know, people that are living a life that you don't approve of, we we kind of put them in categories like they're some sort of thing, but they're not a thing.
There are people. They're a person and God loves them just as much as he loves. We really need to stop looking at people as things, identifying with people's politics, identifying people with their life choices. We need to identify them the way we identify ourselves. Our identity is found in Christ. It is only in Christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for. As we know in Ephesians 111 of the message Bible, you know, here we see this unforced grace. Jesus invites us in this passage of Scripture to learn the unforced rhythm, to find this rhythm he gives us in Second Peter, Chapter three, he gives everyone space and grace to come to him. Why has Jesus not returned yet a second time? Because he's patient towards you. He's patient for your loved ones. He wants everybody in the kingdom. He wants everybody being given an opportunity to come to the wedding feast of the Savior, to come to the to come to the heavens, to come to heaven, and to be there with him when we die.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, if you've accepted Jesus. Boy there's just a rhythm that you discover a lifestyle of grace receiving grace and giving grace. It's an atmosphere where there's no pressure or burden to perform or strive for your healing. Did you hear that? There's an atmosphere of grace found in this passage. It's an atmosphere of grace where there is no pressure or burden to perform or strive for our healing. God, will you heal me if I do this? If I promise you this Lord will you do this for me? We do not need to make promises to God. The Christian life is not about the promises we make to Him. It's about the promises he makes to us. And then we come to this place of Scripture where he lightens the load.
I love this. This passage where he lightens the load. We can lighten our load and let go. Jesus promises not to lay anything heavy on us. He promises not to lay anything on us that doesn't fit us, that is hard to hold or carry, or a burden that's too difficult for us to bear, he promises. I will not lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. What a promise. What a savior. What happens when you believe this? He heals. He begins to heal our our trauma by lightening our burdens in helping us let go of the weight, of the pain of our guilt, our shame. You know, in Isaiah chapter 53, it says He himself bore our infirmities, carried away our sorrows, and by his stripes, we are healed, in Isaiah 53. To be exact, he says in verse 53 and verse 3 and verse 4, Surely he took our infirmities and carried away our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him, stricken by God, struck down and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. Wow.
Now, listen. This prophecy about Jesus in Isaiah 53 is fulfilled on the cross in Matthew 817, and on the cross, it's fulfilled in Jesus earthly ministry in Matthew chapter eight. But it's fulfilled completely in on the Cross in John Chapter 19, verse 30. And then Paul Peter shares it with us in 1 Peter, Chapter two. He repeats and quotes this passage of Scripture of prophecy about Jesus. Now he looks back and shows us that Jesus fulfilled that prophecy. It says about Jesus in verse 23, when He was reviled and insulted, He did not revile or offer insult in return. When he was abused and suffered, he made no threats of vengeance, but he trusted himself and everything to him, who judges fairly.
Verse 24, he says, in the amplified version of First Peter two He personally bore our sins in his own body, on the tree as on an altar, and offered himself on it that we might die to sin and live to righteousness and by his wounds, you have been healed. Wow. I'm just going to release my faith and add it to yours in this very moment when I hear that Scripture by his wounds, you have been healed. That means he said it was going to happen in Isaiah 53. And then he says he did happen in First Peter Chapter two. And so I want it to manifest in your life today. I'm praying for your healing right now. Heavenly Father, I thank you for healing bondage, healing us of bondage, healing us of trauma, healing us from whatever has left its mark in our soul and left us damaged. I just declare healing where there's damage, Healing where there's pain, Healing where there's regret, healing where there's guilt healing where there's shame healing where there's mental illness, where there's emotional illness Where there's physical illness. I speak healing for by your stripes, Lord Jesus, we were healed. We have been healed by the blood and by the stripes of Jesus on the cross. I pray for that healing to manifest in people's lives right now. Wow.
Next, as we close out our time together, by the way, just thank him right now. Just say thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. I receive my healing from trauma. I received my healing from mental illness. I received my healing from mental instability. I received my healing from emotional sickness or disease, from physical sickness or disease. I receive my healing now in Jesus name. You see this passage goes on to show us about how to live freely and how to live lightly. Remember one place where Jesus said He said, Take no bag with you. He said, Don't take any bags with you. You know, he said, When you go in my name, don't take any baggage, go out light, don't carry the baggage of your past, don't carry the baggage of your offenses. Don't carry the baggage of what your parents put in you that's negative, or that they didn't even know what they were doing. Just forgive them and just walk free.
Just declare I'm free in Jesus name. I'm not that of that DNA anymore. I'm not of that cursed DNA. I'm blessed because I'm in Christ. I belong to Christ, and I'm therefore Abraham's seed. I'm no longer a descendant of a cursed generation. I'm a descendant of a blessed generation. Come on. Say that I'm no longer living under the curse of a past generation a cursed generation. I'm living in the blessing of a blood bought, healed, delivered blessed generation in Jesus name. God is so good. Listen, He heals our trauma by empowering us to live freely and lightly unburdened by the shame of our past. There's no shame anymore. He's found you not guilty. Were you guilty? Yes. But he found you not guilty. Why? Because he pleaded his blood over you. And in you. And under you. And above you. And he's you and around you. Now let's find our healing today in the presence of God. And let's believe the Jesus presence is with us right now, where two or three are gathered in my name.
Jesus said, There I am in the midst of them. Receive your healing from his healing presence, receive his rest from his presence right now. Receive his healing touch of restoration, Embrace his work of restoration. Let it go through you right now. Just say I receive your work of restoration in my soul, Lord. See, it's not just a message I'm preaching. It's a prayer we're praying together. It's a healing experience that we're having right now together. I embrace your restoration. Just say that I receive your restoration. It brings healing, wholeness, redemption from the pain, the trauma, the past, my past. In Jesus name. Wow. What do we do now? What Jesus said in John chapter 15, verse nine. What we do now and I'll close with this, He says, As the father has loved me, so have I loved you, abide in my love. You see, this is what I want you to hear. This is the battle. This is where we truly win in spiritual warfare. It's not in defeating every demon.
Jesus did that. It's believing the love He has for us. And staying in that. It's believing the love he has for us. This is the battle. It's really it's really easier to just try to battle against sinful behaviors. I've shared that with you before. That's not where the battle really is and the other sins that other people have. Our battle is not with their sins. Our battle is to stay, abide in his love for us. Don't get out of His love for you. It's not about you staying with a loving attitude towards everybody else. It's you remaining in this attitude of receiving his love for you is remaining in that love. That's what he says when he says, Abide in my love. That's where the battle is. It's in the abiding. We we tend to stop abiding in that love. We say God loves me, but... God loves me, but... God loves me, but... God loves me, but... Abide in that love. Stay there. He loves me still. He loves me still. I failed. He loves me still. I blew it. He loves me still.
I'm abiding in the love the father has for the son. The very love the father has for the son. That's the love that he has for us. The very love that he has for Jesus. He has that same exact love for you and me. Abide there. Don't let any failure, Don't let any mistake. Don't let any person, don't let any religion. Don't let any preacher, Don't let any mistake you've made in your path. Don't let any of that move you from your address, which is his love for you. Whew. I got so much to share with you more. But I'm out of time and I want us to give people an opportunity. If you've never accepted Jesus, let's pray for all the people around the world right now that are watching in this moment. Jesus loves you. Jesus died for you. Jesus rose from the dead. Receive Him. To as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to be sons and daughters of God. Just receive him. If you've never received him, just say I received Jesus. Just pray that out loud.
I receive Jesus into my life as my Savior. I believe Jesus died for my sin. I believe Jesus died for the sin of the world. I receive His forgiveness through his blood. I am now a child of God. Jesus is risen from the dead, and I am risen with Him. In Jesus name, Amen.