Robert Morris - Healing
We're in a series called The Ministries of Jesus. We did The Good Shepherd in January, talking about Jesus as our good Shepherd. In February, Pastor Josh did a series, Oh, the Humanity and talked about the humanity of Jesus. He and I were talking about this the other day, and then I did The Gifts of Jesus out of Ephesians 4. Now I'm doing The Ministries of Jesus. This summer, he'll be doing a series on the divinity of Jesus. So it's like we're talking to the same person here about what to do, and we're just kind of exploring this. So we're in Luke 4, but let me say something to you, that I want you to be able to follow up on what the Lord is doing on the weekend in your heart.
You remember a few weeks ago, we talked about emotional healing. He came to heal the brokenhearted, last week to set at liberty the captives, to proclaim liberty to the captives, or freedom. So we did Kairos here for many years, and then we decided to go through it again, kind of make sure it's exactly what we want it to be, the best way to help people, and so we're beginning that again at every campus. This week, I think it'll be at the Southlake campus, but I want you to take advantage. It's a Greek word called Kairos. It's on the screen there, how to get to it, and it just means "the appointed time". But it's just simply the name we took. It's the time for us to get free. And it helps us. It goes further in the ministry I talked about of healing the brokenhearted and setting at liberty those who are free, those who are bruised. So I want you to take advantage of that. All right? So if you want to explore this more, you can go to the website and find out more information, and it'll be at different times at different campuses.
So, we've talked about Salvation. We've talked about, I called it Mending or inner healing, emotional healing. We talked about Freedom. This week is Healing. And the next week will be Anointing. These are the five foundational ministries of Jesus found in Luke 4. So look at Luke 4:18. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor", there's salvation, "He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted", mending or emotional healing, "to proclaim liberty to the captives", that would be freedom. And then this week, "...recovery of sight to the blind". The gaining of sight is what this word recovery means, recovery of sight. So this week we're going to talk about physical and spiritual healing, and I can't talk about one without the other, and even physical healing would include mental healing. We have a lot of mental health issues that I want you to know that Jesus came to heal our mind, our soul, the way we think, our hurts. Jesus came, but he also came to heal us spiritually.
So I'm going to talk about spiritual opening of eyes. I can't talk about simply the physical opening of eyes without talking about the spiritual opening of eyes. If you remember, when we talked about The Gifts of Jesus, the week I talked about the evangelist, I talked about how to share your story and just stick to your story. And we read the funniest chapter in the Bible, John 9, about the blind man that got healed and how he just stuck to his story. "He made clay, anointing my eyes, and I was healed". Okay. At the end of that chapter, though, the Pharisees said to him, because Jesus said, I come into the world that those who think they can see will continue to be blind, in essence, talking about religion. And I've come that those who can't see could have their eyes opened. And the Pharisees said, "Are we blind also"? And in the Greek, Jesus said, bingo. That's the Greek word bingos in the Greek. Okay, bingo.
But here's what He said in John 9. This is very, very important. John 9:41, "Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would have no sin, but now since you say, "We see", therefore your sin remains.'" Here's what He's saying: "If you would come to Me and admit that you're blind and that you can't see without Me", listen to this, "you would have no sin". In other words, "I would remove your sin as far as the east is from the west. You will have no more sin if you just admit to Me that you're not as smart as you think you are, that the Creator of the universe might know some things you don't know. If you would just simply admit that you need a savior, that you're a human, and you need the divine in your life. If you just admit that. If you just admit that. But since you say, 'we can see without You'", this is pretty strong, Jesus said, "Your sin remains". It remains.
Okay, so I just cannot talk about simply physical opening of eyes without talking about spiritual opening of eyes, and the Bible combines them in many, many places. It talks about, "Don't forget the benefits of the Lord". It talks about, who forgives all our iniquities, who heals all our diseases. I had so many scripture that I just couldn't go over because of our time limit. But I want to show you a miracle where Jesus combines the spiritual opening of eyes with the physical opening of eyes. All right? It's in Mark 8, beginning of verse 22, "Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes". I don't know why He spits on blind people, I don't know. But this is the second blind person that He's spat on. All right? But anyway, "when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him", now watch this carefully, "He asked him if he saw anything". So Jesus wants to know, what do you see? "After putting His hands on him", all right, "he looked up and said, 'I see men like trees, walking.' Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up". In other words, what do you see now? "And he was restored and saw everyone clearly".
Years ago, it was so long ago, this is just to tell you how long ago it was, I was a traveling evangelist, so 30 something, almost 40 years ago, I guess, and I done a revival somewhere, and I was watching a preacher on television, and he read this passage, and after he read it, he said, "You see, even with Jesus, it doesn't always work the first time". And I thought, the one who said, Let there be light, It doesn't always work?! The one who holds the universe in the palm of his hand, it doesn't always work? And I got so upset. This is how long ago it was, there was an ashtray. I don't think there are ashtrays in hotel rooms anymore. There was an ashtray. I felt like just throwing it through the TV. I'm just telling you how, I was young then, okay? But I didn't because I hadn't finished my cigarette. But anyway, I'm just joking. Please don't post that, all right? Okay. So the point was, I just thought to myself, That's crazy. That's just crazy. I remember even when we began on television, we've been on television 15 years now. I know I felt I was called to do it, but I remember thinking even then, Where are the pastors teaching the Bible on TV instead of all these people saying, "If you send me $10, you'll get $100 back". Where are the pastors just teaching the Bible on the TV?
So anyway, I just thought, Well, that's not right. I don't know what that means, but that's not right. And so I tried, and I went through Scripture, and I looked, and I pulled out a concordance. That's how long ago it was. No Bible program, no computer back then. And I did everything I could to figure this out, and it was about 3 hours. And it seemed like that the Lord just kind of slid up beside me. Now, obviously He didn't, but that's what it seemed like, and I had this impression, like the Lord was speaking to me, not audibly, but just had this impression, and it was like the Lord said to me, "What are you doing"? And I said, "I'm trying to figure out what this means, with no help from You, I might add". And He said, "Do you think I know what it means"? And I was like, "Yeah, of course You know what it means". And He just said, "Why don't you just ask Me"? "Why don't you just ask Me"? And so I went like this, "Okay, wha..." And before I could say the word, "what", there was the answer, like that, just like that. And I knew immediately what happened, which will take me five minutes to explain it to you, but I knew it immediately.
Remember, He made him look up and He said, "Do you see anything? What do you see"? And he said, "I see men like trees, walking". Okay? Do you know what He did? He opened his spiritual eyes, because when you read this book, which is a spiritual book, men are described as trees, all through this book. Let me show you just a few. I couldn't put them all in here. Just a few. Look at Psalm 1. "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water". Psalm 52, "I am like a green olive tree in the house of God" Psalm 92:12, "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree". Jeremiah 17 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters". Zachariah has a vision. "Then I answered and said to him, 'What are these two olive trees, at the right of the lampstand and at its left?'" Verse 14. "So he said, 'These are the two anointed ones who stand beside the Lord". And in Revelation 11, it confirms this, verse 3. "'And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees.'"
These men that you see, they're trees. Zechariah saw trees, and God said they were men. Jesus lays His hand on a blind man, and says to him, "Now what do you see"? He said, "I see men like trees". He opened his spiritual eyes because since, I'm telling you, something happened to me at one point in my life when I would read about trees producing good fruit. When Jesus comes in Matthew 7, does the Sermon on the Mount, and He talks about a good tree produces good fruit. He's not talking about actual trees! He's talking about people. And something happened one day in my life where I started seeing people like trees. And here's this blind man. And so, now, let me just say to you, what have I told you, though, about interpreting Scripture? Scripture is of no private interpretation, which means, you don't interpret it; It interprets you. Another way, though, to understand scriptural interpretation is the Bible interprets itself.
So first of all, it has to agree with the whole of Scripture. So this agrees with all through Scripture. I showed you several verses, but it also has to agree with the context of Scripture. So we started in verse 22. What happened in Mark 8 right before this? Well, He fed the 4000. Now there's two feedings. There's a feeding of the 5000 and a feeding of the 4000. With the 5000, He had five loaves. With the 4000, He had seven loaves. But right before this, He feeds 4000 people with seven loaves, and by the way, as soon as He finished, the Pharisee said, "Show us a sign". You talk about spiritual blindness. Okay, but then let me show you what happened right after He feeds the 4000 and right before He touches the blind man and says, "What do you see"? And he said, "I see men like trees". Then He touched him again and he said he saw everything clearly. He opened his spiritual eyes, then He opened his natural eyes. Okay?
So, let me show what happened right before, verse 13, "And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. Then He charged them, saying, 'Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.'" In other words, the teaching, not the actual bread, the words. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word". Beware of the words of the Pharisees and the words of Herod. Beware of it. And then watch verse 16. And they reason among themselves and saying he's mad because we don't have any bread. "I told you we should have brought more bread". Watch his reaction to them, verse 17, "But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, 'Why do you reason because you have no bread?'" I just think He just got a little upset every now and then. "'Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?'" Watch this. "'Having eyes, do you not see?'"
What kind of eyes is He talking about here? Spiritual, right? "'Having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?' They said to Him, 'Twelve.' 'Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?' 'Seven.' So He said to them, 'How is it you still do not understand?'" How is it you don't understand what I'm talking about? In other words, what he's saying is, "Guys, if I wanted bread, I'd just whip us some up! Bread is not the problem. We've got one loaf and 13 dudes. I can take care of the bread. Do you know why, though? You don't understand? You think I'm talking about literal bread because you have eyes, but you can't see, because your spiritual eyes have not been opened".
Now let me just give you a little illustration here. This phrase, "You have eyes, but you can't see," is all through the Bible. And it's a big deal to me, and I've preached on it many, many times because I know when the Lord opened my spiritual eyes and it was like I had a whole new book. But let me just give you a practical application: Women can see things that men can't see. I have this black shirt that has these snaps that fits me well. Now that's hard to find. It's hard to find because I'm a very level person. My bubble is in the middle. I actually believe I've just entered my third trimester, and the doctor said it could be twins, so I'm kind of excited.
Anyway, I've got this shirt, and when people say, "Oh, that looks good on you". So I bought 180 of them now. So I love the shirt, but it has these snaps on it and all. I only have two really. And so anyway, but Debbie has my closet organized. Most of you know, I'm colorblind and it's horrible. When the church was really small, the ladies would go on a retreat. Instead of a Pink Impact, they'd do a retreat over the weekend. And so the ladies were gone. But Thomas's wife, Mary Beth, had to stay to be on the worship team, and I came on Saturday night. We had Saturday night and Sunday morning service, and I walked into the green room and Mary Beth said, "Is Debbie out of town"? And I said, "Does this not work"? She said, "No". She said, "Thomas and I can come over afterwards and pick something out for you". I mean, I thought it looked good, but I don't know. So Debbie has my closet organized, like church jeans, office jeans, work jeans, church shirts, office shirts, work shirts. She's got it organized.
So I know where these shirts are that I like, but I can't find them. And I look, and I can remember the first time it happened. I pulled each one of them off because I don't want to tell her because it's there. I know it's there, and I know I'm going to get in trouble, and so I looked at each one twice, and then I say to her, "Sugar". Now, she's not, I do these funny things. She's not mean, she's sweet, but I'm just letting you know we do things to play with each other, so this was all in fun. But I said, "Sugar, I can't find my black shirt". This is what she does. She walks in, she goes like this. "It's right there". And then she said to me, "You have eyes, but you can't see". And when she walked out, I said something, and it came out a little louder than I thought. I said, "No, you a voodoo woman". She turn around. She said, "What did you say"? I said, "Love you, woman". But she can make things appear that aren't there.
Okay, all right. So that's what He's trying to tell them. "You have eyes, but you can't see". Let me just ask you something. Jesus said, I came for those who can't see, so they can see. Would it be all right with you if you opened up this book and you could understand it? It's a spiritual book written by a spiritual Being to spiritual beings. So many people think that we're humans having a spiritual experience. Actually, your spirit's having a human experience because your body is going to die, and your spirit is going to live on. So, God wants to heal spiritually, and that's very, very important, but he also heals naturally. But there are three ways that God heals naturally, and we overlook the first two, many times. God heals three ways. He heals physically three ways: He heals naturally, medically, and miraculously. And we tend to always seem to look for the miraculous, and we need the miraculous, but you need to know that God designed your body to heal itself. It's a miracle.
Just two ways. You have white blood cells that attack anything from an injury or an illness that would hurt you or harm you. God did that. You have platelets that cause your blood to clot so that every time you cut your finger, you don't bleed to death. I'd like us to get in the habit of giving God the credit for all that He deserves, and that is, He gave us these bodies that fight off sickness and disease and illness, and we can get healed from injury. We could be healed naturally. Medically, I'm tired of preachers putting down medical professionals who help us to be healed. They are instruments of God. They are vessels of God, and we should be praying for them. In the same way, we need professionals, in the same way we need teachers to teach us, we need counselors in the area of mental health, things like that. We need construction people that know how to do stuff. It is known around my house. The kids say, "Please, dad, don't try to fix something that breaks around the house. Please".
A few years ago, the toilet handle broke in the guest bath. It was a few days before Thanksgiving. Debbie said, "We're going to need the guest bath. We'll have all the family. Can you just look at it"? And what she meant was, "Can you call someone to fix it"? And I saw it was just the handle. I thought, "Okay, I can fix this". I got the crescent wrench out, and I'm going to try to loosen this bolt on the back. Now, I don't know if you know, but toilets are porcelain, and it seems like just a little touch and they'll break on you. I did something, and this crack all the way down to the floor, and I flooded the bathroom. $700 to get the professional. Do you know what my motto is now? "No job is too small to sub out". Let the professionals come in. It's the same with medicine.
Listen, four years ago, I almost died. I was healed naturally, medically, and miraculously. I know people prayed for me, and I'm grateful for that. And I know God sustained me, but those paramedics kept me alive. The surgeon kept me alive. And then my own body had to heal from those two surgeries within 24 hours. I actually brought you a picture you've never seen. I debated on whether to show it or not. So some of you, if you don't like squeamish things, but I just thought I'd show you. These are the staples they put in my stomach. Oh, isn't that great? Okay, take it down. I have a zipper right here, now, if I ever need to get anything out. No, I don't anymore. I just have a very slight scar. Here's the reason. Even when the doctors finished, my body, it had to do its work as well. Are y'all hearing me? My blood, when I left the hospital, I only had 60% of my blood. Even though they'd given me all these transfusions, they wanted my own blood to rebuild itself so I would be healthier. You follow me? So God still heals, but He heals naturally, He heals medically, and He heals supernaturally.
Let me show you one about supernatural healing. Matthew 8:16-17. "When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.'" He bore our sicknesses. 1 Peter says, He bore our sins.
Now let me just answer a question. If Jesus bore our sicknesses, why do we still get sick? Well, let me answer it with a question. Did He bear your sins on the cross? Yes. But do you still sin? Yeah. You're human, and we live in human bodies. I said this a few weeks ago. Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin immediately. He is saving us, as we walk this life out, from the power of sin, and he will one day save us from the presence of sin. Right now, we still have fallen bodies and we still live in a fallen world, but one day we're going to have a resurrected body and there'll be no sickness. But that's coming. But does He still heal today? It's a very, very simple question to answer. Of course he does because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He can't change. You can't build a doctrine that God changes. You can't say God is immutable and that He never changes, and then say He doesn't heal anymore. Of course He heals. So not only does He heal naturally, but medically and miraculously. So, let me give you an illustration of all three of those.
So James and Bridgette, my son and daughter-in-law, they had a son, their first son, and then she had two miscarriages, both about six weeks, and she didn't really even know she was pregnant, and it was because her progesterone was low. And then they had another son. God touched her, plus she began taking some medicine and her body reacted to it, so naturally. And then they were praying about whether to have another child because she had a very difficult second labor and pregnancy. And so we had a 21-day fast here at the church, and we do every January, and it's fast however God tells you to. Start the year that way. So I'm sitting down here about to preach. I'm worshiping. Bridgette at that time was serving on the worship team. She's standing like right here on the worship team. I've got my eyes closed, just worshiping, and I just open my eyes, and I look up, and I see Bridgette, and the Lord says to me, "Bridgette is pregnant". Just like that.
Well, that night we were having a family meal, kind of a breaking of the fast. So we had all the adult sons and daughters. We have two sons, one daughter, then they're all married, and then the grandkids, and so at the meal before we started, in essence, before we broke the fast, I said, "I have an announcement to make". And they said, really? Because normally that means someone's pregnant in the family, but Debbie and I are like Abraham and Sarah. So anyway, they thought, that must not be his announcement. And so they said, "Okay, what's your announcement"? I said, "Bridgette's pregnant". And everyone kind of laughed, but the look on Bridgette's face, and James, my son, laughed. What we didn't find out until later was that Bridgette had prayed that if they were supposed to have another child, she prayed that, "Lord, during the fast, would You let someone close to us give me a word"?
So this is right before we end the fast, and I say, "Bridgette is pregnant". And so James, my son, said, "Well, dad, thanks, but actually, she couldn't be pregnant. It's just impossible right now. The cycle and things like that. She's not pregnant". And I said, "Well, the Lord says she is". And so in a little while they said, "Are you serious"? I said, I'm just telling you what God said. God said, "Bridgette's pregnant". Those two words. And it was as clear as anything I've ever heard, "Bridgette's pregnant". Like that. So they decide to go to the doctor because they say, "Well, your dad has this history of when he says that he's really heard the Lord". So they go to the doctor and the doctor said, "You're not pregnant, and actually, your progesterone is so low you could not even get pregnant right now. You couldn't even conceive. So if you're thinking about conceiving, you need to get back on progesterone". So they said, "Okay, you know what, let's go ahead and start, and because your dad had this word, and it was pretty strong word. So let's just start".
So she starts taking progesterone, and the doctor says, "Come back in like four weeks, and we'll check your progesterone levels". She goes back. They check. The doctor comes in. The doctor says, "You're pregnant". And so, they have this way of figuring out how long. So they did that, and they said, "So how long has she been pregnant"? He said, "Four weeks and six days". Four weeks and five days before is when I told her, when I gave her the word, "You're pregnant". She'd been pregnant one day.
Here's what I'm telling you. That was miraculous, but we needed medical help, and then her body did what God designed it to do. And here's a picture, by the way, just a recent picture. We were fishing with them at our land outside the country. There's the two boys. They now have a little sister. By the way, I thought, just look at her face. I think she feels a little bad for the fish. But those little boys have a baby sister because the Lord heals naturally, medically, and miraculously.
So every week what we've been doing on The Ministries of Jesus is just praying and letting the Lord touch us. So maybe you want to pray for spiritual opened eyes today. Maybe you say, "Lord, I want to be able to see things in Your word I've never seen, and I want to be able to see what's going on around me. I want to know how to pray for my family, how to pray for my kids and my grandkids. I want to see in the Spirit". And maybe that's what you want to pray for, but maybe you have a health challenge for you or for someone in your family, and you say, "Lord, I want to pray for healing; naturally, medically and miraculously".
So I want you just to bow your heads and close your eyes, and I want you just to allow the Lord just to speak to you. We say every weekend, "Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me through this message"? So just take a moment and just ask the Holy Spirit, "What are you saying to me"? In other words, I feel like we're saying, Lord, what should I ask You for today? I want You to open my eyes. Should I ask You for open eyes spiritually? Should I ask You for a healing? And you can ask for both. You can't ever exceed your limit with the Lord. He's limitless. He's boundless. So you can ask the Lord, whatever comes to your mind, if there's healing for someone in your family, if there's something that maybe you have grown sons and daughters and you've got grandchildren, you're concerned about one of them, and you just say, Lord, I'd like to know how to pray. I'd like for you to open my spiritual eyes, to be able to pray for my marriage, for my family, for my job situation, for my health situation. We just may need all of it. We need all that Jesus came to do.
So I just want you to take a moment, and I'm going to give you just a few moments of silence to just ask Jesus to touch you today, and to heal you, whether it's a natural healing, a mental healing, emotional healing, a physical healing, a spiritual healing, just ask the Lord to heal you, and you can ask Him in the area that He speaks to you.
Lord, we want to tell You that we are so grateful that You died on the cross for our sins, that the greatest gift of all is obviously the gift of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ, by grace through faith; that we don't earn it, we just receive it. It's a gift. But Lord, I want to tell You also thank You, that You heal the brokenhearted, that You set us free, it says, from those bruises that we have, those hurts, some of them going all the way back to our childhood, Lord, that You proclaim, or You speak, liberty or freedom over us in areas where we have difficulties and bondages.
And Lord, we thank You as we talked about this week, that You came for the recovery of sight for the blind, and we don't want to be like the Pharisees and act like we can see without You. Lord, we admit to You today we're blind spiritually without You. We need Your help. And I pray today that You will open our eyes in the spirit realm, that we could see as we read Your Word the eternal that's going on around us, that we could see how to pray for our families, that we could see how the enemy is trying to come against us, and we could see how to walk, and which way to go, and where to live, and what to do, and all these decisions, Lord, we're asking for spiritual sight today.
And I pray for my brothers and sisters that are going through a physical battle right now. Thank You for the marvelous way You made our bodies. Thank You for the wonderful medical professionals You've given us. Lead us to the right ones if we're going through something where we need medical help. And Lord, I also want to pray for miraculous healing today. We want to ask You to do miracles, Lord, to touch those areas that our body doesn't have the strength to fight anymore, and medicine might even be at the end of its rope. Lord, will You heal today? And we receive healing, spiritual and physical, the same way that we receive the forgiveness of sins and salvation. We receive it by grace through faith. We don't deserve it, but we receive it because You're such a good God and we believe it. So, Jesus, thank You for healing us today, in Jesus' name, amen.
And Lord, we thank You as we talked about this week, that You came for the recovery of sight for the blind, and we don't want to be like the Pharisees and act like we can see without You. Lord, we admit to You today we're blind spiritually without You. We need Your help. And I pray today that You will open our eyes in the spirit realm, that we could see as we read Your Word the eternal that's going on around us, that we could see how to pray for our families, that we could see how the enemy is trying to come against us, and we could see how to walk, and which way to go, and where to live, and what to do, and all these decisions, Lord, we're asking for spiritual sight today.
And I pray for my brothers and sisters that are going through a physical battle right now. Thank You for the marvelous way You made our bodies. Thank You for the wonderful medical professionals You've given us. Lead us to the right ones if we're going through something where we need medical help. And Lord, I also want to pray for miraculous healing today. We want to ask You to do miracles, Lord, to touch those areas that our body doesn't have the strength to fight anymore, and medicine might even be at the end of its rope. Lord, will You heal today? And we receive healing, spiritual and physical, the same way that we receive the forgiveness of sins and salvation. We receive it by grace through faith. We don't deserve it, but we receive it because You're such a good God and we believe it. So, Jesus, thank You for healing us today, in Jesus' name, amen.