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“As metal conducts electricity so our yielding to the Holy Spirit helps us to receive power and be able to do the works that our Lord Jesus did and even greater works (see John 14:12).
Therefore be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5).”
Stella
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Word
Please read: 1 Cor. 12:1-11, 14:1
To one there is given through the Spirit gifts of healings … Eagerly desire the spiritual gifts.
1 Cor. 12:8-9 and 14:1
Christmas is a time of giving and here we are exhorted to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, of which healing is one of those gifts. The Baby Library sees many people come through the church doors. It’s the same building as we are in and yet we don’t see the same number of people coming in for anything related to church. Why are people coming to the Baby Library? Because they are giving them something they really need and giving it freely.
People need the Gospel but they need it in power. Jesus gives us the secret of His ‘successful’ ministry:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Luke 4:18-19
Jesus combined healing and preaching and sent His disciples out to do the same, when He sent out the Twelve:
Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
Matthew 10:1
and the Seventy-Two:
Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.
Luke 10:9
The early church just carried on doing the same:
Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. As Peter travelled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
Acts 9:31-35
Today, with the NHS stretched to its limits, let us eagerly desire the gift of healing for Bethel Baptist Church, that people will come and have their need for healing met and then hear the Good-News preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen!
Quote of the week
“The great hope of Christianity is not that we get to escape all the suffering of the world, but that God is going to use us to be a part of His healing project.”
K. Keasler
Verse of the week
Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
James 5:14-16
Let’s Pray
Father, in Your great love and mercy, pour out Your Spirit on us, that, as we lay hands on people, we might see them healed in Jesus Name, Amen!