healing Archives - Colin Dye

KENSINGTON TEMPLE ABROAD

Colin Dye — Wed, 24 May 2023 16:30:00 +0000

Colin Dye shares his recent mission to Brazil.

Alcance Church, Curitiba

In October 2021, Amanda and I were set apart by KT for the work of missions. Following the leading of the Spirit, we have visited at least 12 nations averaging one mission per month.

Wherever we go, we are greeted by former KT members and leaders. Often these people are key players in the work we do outside the UK. The recent mission to Brazil found us working with Emerson Rocha, Leyff Wenderson and Willians and Sandra Barbosa, all previous leaders within the London City Church, KT Network.

Leyff Wenderson

â€œMy time in the KT Brazilian fellowship and IBIOL was both the foundation and inspiration of my ministry. It is so good to be reconnected with Colin.â€

Leyff was a student at IBIOL 25 years ago and now leads a church in Effingham, Illinois. He is a powerful evangelist with a strong healing ministry. Together, in Sao Paulo and Curitba we saw deaf and blind people healed, and as well as those with significant mobility challenges. Many people made decisions to become followers of Christ.

Emerson Rocha

â€œHaving finished at IBIOL, I was Colinâ€™s assistant for 2 years. Now I lead CfAN in Brazil. London was my home for several years, and KT is where I would be if the Lord had not called me back to Brazil.â€

Emerson greeted me at Curitiba Airport, helped me with my bags and said, â€œThis is how it all began!â€ Emerson now is very well-known and highly-respected in Brazil and helped mail out a gospel book by Reinhard Bonnke to 1 million pastors and leaders across Latin America. He organised a packed programme for me in some of the largest churches in the region.

Willians and Sandra Barbosa

â€œWe look forward to what God has for us in Brazil and we know that our time in KTLCC was preparing us for what God is doing now.â€
Willians and Sandra helped plant several Brazilian churches in London and also served for many years as overseers in our network. Now, many years later, Willians is teaching the Sword of the Spirit training programme in Sao Paulo. Sandra has powerful prophetic ministry and witnesses numerous miracles.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement was banned from preaching in the Anglican churches of his day. That did not stop him. He went on to say, â€œThe world is now my parish.â€ KTâ€™s ministry and influence goes way beyond the boundaries of the M25, reaching through Elim missions and KTâ€™s church-based initiatives.

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God Still Heals

Colin Dye — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 11:12:46 +0000

As I look back, one experience of God?s healing power stands out in my memory as the moment when God finally convinced me about his healing ministry and challenged me to partner with him. It did not take place when I was preaching to thousands in a packed and brilliantly lit auditorium, but rather when I was talking to a small handful of people in a dingy African hut.
It was September 1987 and I had seen God heal many people in the previous few years ? but mostly through other ministers and other church leaders. I was in my early thirties.
Eventually, I got up and stumbled out of the hut into the African sunlight. Where were the sick? I looked around, wondering who I was meant to heal. Just then, a messenger dashed up and started speaking rapidly in Kikuyu. I understood them to be saying that someone from the next farm was ill. Immediately, I heard the Holy Spirit speak to my heart, ?She shall be healed.?
I was stunned, but for a moment told myself, ?If it turns out to be a man, I?m going straight home!? But it was, in fact, a woman. She was five months pregnant and was miscarrying.
They needed to borrow our hired van to take her to hospital.
I ran across the fields to where I could see men carrying her, and I was convinced that she would be healed. By the time I reached the woman, I knew in my spirit what to do. I laid my hands on her, commanded healing and announced that she was healed. The farm workers ignored me and bundled her into the back of the van, with its broken suspension, and they drove off down the rocky track, bouncing about in a cloud of dust.
I learnt later that the bleeding and pain stopped ten minutes after we had prayed and that the men were rebuked by the hospital staff for wasting their time with a perfectly healthy woman. They fled from the hospital and, in true African fashion, immediately visited all their friends to tell them what had happened.
We had planned to show the Jesus film at the farm that evening, outside in the open air. Before we began, a local evangelist arrived and asked us to go with him to a group of sick people who had gathered five miles away, at the place where we had been expected that afternoon. (We had not been able to go because our van had not returned.) I told him that people were expecting to see the film, so he should bring the sick people to the farm if they wanted to be healed.
The film had already begun when these people arrived. We stopped the film for a moment, and I told those who wanted to be healed to come with us into the hut while the others stayed outside watching the film. Fifty people squashed into a mud hut which was lit by a single flickering oil lamp. They milled around and would not get into an orderly line. I felt excited and a little apprehensive. One particular woman kept on jostling the other people and bumping into them. I sensed myself becoming irritated with her and hoped that I would not have to pray for her.
A young man with a paralysed arm was the first person to be prayed for. I am not sure why, but I thumped his arm and he was instantly healed. With that, everyone in the room went quiet and still. The disorderly woman was pushed forward for prayer and I suddenly realised why she had been bumping into people: she was completely blind. I found out later that she had walked over seven miles to the meeting and now she just stood there grinning, knowing that she was going to be healed.

The team were also looking at me and grinning, but they were more nervous than confident. I laid my hands on her eyes and prayed every type of healing prayer I knew. When I took my hands away I asked her whether she could see.
She blinked and replied in a low voice, ?I can see.?
The interpreter asked her what she could see. She peered in the dim light, fixed her eyes on me and then cried out in Kikuyu, ?I can see a white man!?
There was almost a spiritual riot in the hut. Of the fifty sick people, all bar one deaf boy were completely healed in the next thirty minutes. We burst out of the door and stopped the film outside. Amazingly, they had just reached the point where Bartimaeus is healed. I gestured for silence and announced,
?While you have been watching actors acting, the real Jesus has been active in here.? The blind woman then told her story and showed them how she could see every one of their faces which were dimly illuminated by the single light bulb burning in the dark African night.
The people celebrated through the night. As the news spread, more and more Kenyans came running from the surrounding farms and villages. I took it in turns with the team to preach and pray for healing. When it was light, we used a nearby lake to baptise those who had given their lives to Jesus.
Without any suggestion from us, they all came up out of the water speaking in tongues! It was a taste of revival, the clearest that I had known at that point in my life.
Looking back, I wish that we had changed our plans and stayed at Nyota Farm for longer, but we stuck to our itinerary and moved on to the next rural area we were scheduled to visit. Our gracious Father went on honouring our words and answering our prayers, but nothing as dramatic as the healings in the hut occurred again that trip. All too soon it was time for us to return to cynical, sceptical London, to comfortable homes and a large, contented church surrounded by millions of hurting people living without hope.
If you want to find out more about how healing ministry works please read my new book The God Who Heals available from Amazon and other online stores.

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Video: Pope Francis Performs 'Exorcism' on Wheelchair-Bound Man?

Colin Dye — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:54:47 +0000

Video appears to show Pontiff perform exorcism on wheelchair-bound boy after Sunday Mass. The Pope has been captured on film performing an apparent exorcism. Footage taken in St Peter’s Square purports to show Pope Francis carrying out a ritual to liberate a young man from demons.

The disabled man went into a frenzy of convulsions and shook, then slumped as Francis prayed over him.
The Pontiff was introduced to two men in wheelchairs after Pentecostal mass on Sunday. When a priest leaned across to tell Francis something, the Pope’s expression took on a serious tone.
Francis then took hold of the top of the man’s head firmly, pushing him down into his wheelchair. As he delivered an intense prayer, the man’s mouth dropped open and he heaved deeply half a dozen times, visibly shaking.
After the ritual Francis continued with his usual meetings with the sick who come to St Peter’s.

Vatican TV Shows the Pope ‘Carrying Out Exorcisms

Experts said the footage broadcast on the religious satellite channel TV2000’s programme Vade Retro, shows the Pontiff reciting a prayer to drive evil spirits from the body.
The incident caused a number of media outlets to proclaim that the pope had performed an exorcism against evil spirits, though Fr. Federico Lombardi, the director of the Press Office of the Holy See, clarified in a statement on Tuesday that Pope Francis had “not intended” to perform an exorcism.
“Rather, as he frequently does with the sick and the suffering who come his way, he intended simply pray for a suffering person who had been brought before him,” Lombardi stated.

God's Healing Power: The Story of Nyota Farm

Colin Dye — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:51:23 +0000

As I look back, one experience of God?s healing power stands out in my memory as the moment when God finally convinced me about His healing ministry and challenged me to partner with Him. It did not take place when I was preaching to thousands in a packed and brilliantly lit auditorium, but rather when I was talking to a small handful of people in a dingy African hut.

It did not take place when I was preaching to thousands in a packed and brilliantly lit auditorium, but rather when I was talking to a small handful of people in a dingy African hut.

I had flown into Kenya determined to pray for people to be healed. It was my first long trip away from my church in London and I felt free to experiment, to be bold, to make mistakes, to preach and to pray in a way which guaranteed that I would look ridiculous unless God honoured my words. I knew that I would be away from my congregation for nearly three weeks and was determined to give it everything! On the plane I consoled myself with the thought that, if I did make a complete fool of myself, at least I would not have to face these people every Sunday for the following six months.
It was September 1987 and I had seen God heal many people in the previous few years ? but mostly through other ministers and other church leaders. I was in my early thirties. I had been a Christian minister for eight years, an assistant minister at Kensington Temple for two years, and I was eager to do what I had not really done before. I wanted to speak God?s words of healing and see people healed, clearly healed, not just headaches eased and indigestion improving, but deaf ears hearing, blind eyes opening, lame legs leaping. Nobody could have been more earnest.
I felt good about the trip from the day I accepted the invitation to hold meetings in rural Kenya. Whatever happened spiritually, it was bound to be a special time for me as it was my first visit there in thirty years. I had been born in Kenya and was going to preach in Nakuru where my father grew up. Some of the modern realities of Africa quickly brought my three companions and me crashing down to earth. When we arrived in Nairobi, there was no transport and no equipment awaiting us. We had planned to show the ?Jesus? film in the two local languages of Swahili and Kikuyu, but no arrangements had been made. The local leaders who had invited us were neither wealthy nor well organised, so we chased round Nairobi ourselves and hired ancient, crackly, beaten-up versions of the equipment we needed.
We drove north-west in a hired van to Nakuru and set ourselves up in the town square of its poorest suburb. Each evening several hundred people gathered in the square to sing. Local pastors and evangelists led the meetings and testified. I preached a simple message, appealed for people to give their lives to Jesus and, with a fluttering stomach, offered to pray for the sick.
I had not been in a situation quite like this before and could not tell what was happening. The people I prayed for were all dreadfully polite: they all said, ?Thank you? and insisted that they were feeling much better. I assumed that they were merely being nice to a foreign visitor! Yet, when I reviewed the meetings after a few days with the team, we realised that there had been a strong manifestation of healing improvements. We could not say that medical miracles had taken place on the previous evenings, but there had been an awful lot of excited Africans bending and stretching and beaming with glee.
My boldness grew and at the last meeting in Nakuru I preached on the healing power of Jesus. A twelve-year-old girl was first in the queue when I finally got round to inviting sick people forward for prayer. Her companions told us that she had been deaf and dumb from birth. Without thinking, I found myself announcing, ?She shall hear and speak!? The team stared at me in astonishment, but I was even more surprised than they were, for I had not said anything like it before in eight years of ministry.
We prayed for the girl, then I stood behind her and called her by name. Nothing happened. The team evangelist joined me and clapped his hands. The girl turned round and started to speak, not well or clearly, but falteringly, like someone learning to talk. It was a wonderful moment.
We visited the girl at a local house on the following day. Everyone was delighted, for she was hearing and speaking words much more clearly. The real joy was that she had been brought to Nakuru from the countryside to start attending a deaf school. I learnt later that she never did go there!
Excited, we left that family and were taken a few streets away to visit a bedridden woman in a typical two-room house. The team and I were elated after talking with the girl and did not grasp how seriously ill this woman was. We approached the house chattering about the girl, but became aware of an incredible spiritual atmosphere as soon as we went inside. We could feel that the sovereign God was standing in that tiny home beside us. We prayed for the woman, who was bedridden with a serious heart condition. She got up, started dancing round the room and promptly gave her life to Jesus. Everyone was overjoyed. None of us had experienced anything like it before.
From Nakuru, we drove high up to the mountains of the Rift Valley for some meetings at a place called Nyota Farm. This was to be our base for a few days and we went out from there to nearby farms, speaking in the fields to groups of about thirty or forty people at a time. We preached, urged the farm workers and their families to follow Jesus and offered to pray for the sick. There were several healings and a clear sense of power in evangelism; many people accepted Jesus. Then a group asked us to pray for a boy with a withered leg who looked as though he was suffering from polio.
About two dozen curious Africans crowded round us. We prayed and prayed until we ran out of words and energy. Eventually, crestfallen, we gave up. The young boy limped off in the same way that he had limped up and we drove back to the farm feeling as useful as an overcoat in a heat wave. It seemed that a dark, heavy cloud was pressing down on us. We had failed. After all the excitement of the previous few days, none of us could understand why God had done nothing for this lame boy.
The following morning I felt so low that I would not go out preaching with the team. I backed out from the session and told them to manage without me.
After they left, I tried to be pious and pray. Finally, I stopped pretending and blurted out, ?Why didn?t You heal him??
Quick as a flash, God responded, ?I have a purpose for that boy just as I have a purpose for you.? The issue was closed. God had nothing more to say on the matter.
This experience had an immediate and profound effect on me. I knew that God was dealing with me and, in response, I hunted through my luggage for a book about the Pentecostal healing evangelist, Smith Wigglesworth, which I thought I had packed in London as medicine for just such a low moment as this. But I could not find the book anywhere. I kept on packing and unpacking the contents of my suitcase, but in vain, the book was not there. Frustrated with myself, I sat in a chair and despaired that there was nothing to restore my faith.
I was not too low to smile at myself when I finally noticed my Bible. Nothing to build my faith – how could I be so foolish? I read through the healing stories of Jesus and it was as though I was being led by the Spirit on a personal guided tour. The Bible stories seemed amazingly real, so real that I could see myself in the situations. It was as if I was actually witnessing the events as they happened. I ?saw? Jesus touch the leper, open Bartimaeus? eyes, restore Jairus? daughter, and so on. A small group of seekers huddled in a dusty field round a boy with a withered leg did not seem that far removed from the events I was reading. Suddenly the Scriptures seemed desperately relevant.
By the time I put my Bible down I was deeply convinced of two truths. First, I realised that Jesus always ministered with an absolute certainty in the Father?s willingness to heal. Of course, I knew that Jesus followed the Father?s directions and healed only those to whom He was pointed ? He did not pronounce blanket, indiscriminate healing to all the Judean ill. But, equally, Jesus did not need to consult with the Father when the leper asked if He was willing to heal him. Jesus did not have to stop and check whether the man was on God?s list for that day, as he knew that the Father?s willingness to heal extended to all.
Second, I grasped that Jesus healed everyone who came to Him ? humbly, simply, sometimes privately, but always all and always completely. He never said, ?Wait and see? or ?Not today.? He never told anyone to go away and come back later.
As I sat there in a small African hut, Jesus? willingness to heal people flooded into my spirit and has never left me since. A phrase from one of the Bible stories started running through my mind: ?Don?t be afraid; only believe. Don?t be afraid; only believe.? It was as though a holy MP3 player was plugged into my mind.
Eventually, I got up and stumbled out of the hut into the African sunlight. Where were the sick? I looked around, wondering who I was meant to heal. Just then, a messenger dashed up and started speaking rapidly in Kikuyu. A woman who was five months pregnant was miscarrying and they needed to borrow the farm van to take her to hospital. I ran across the fields to where I could see men carrying her, knowing, knowing for certain, that she would be healed.
By the time I reached the woman, I knew in my spirit what to do. I laid my hands on her, commanded healing and announced that she was healed. The farm workers ignored me and bundled her into the back of their van, which had no suspension, and they drove off down the rocky track, bouncing about in a cloud of dust.
Later I learnt that the bleeding and pain stopped ten minutes after we had prayed and that the men were rebuked by the hospital staff for wasting their time with a perfectly healthy woman. They fled from the hospital and, in true African fashion, immediately visited all their friends to tell them what had happened.
We had planned to show the ?Jesus? film at the farm that evening, outside in the open air. Before we began, a local evangelist arrived and asked us to go with him to a group of sick people who had gathered five miles away, at the place where we had been expected that afternoon. (We had not been able to go because the farm van had not returned.) I told him that people were expecting to see the film, so he should bring the sick people to the farm if they wanted to be healed.
The film had already begun when this crowd arrived. We stopped the film for a moment, and I told those who wanted to be healed to come with us into the hut while the others stayed outside watching the film. Fifty people squashed into a mud hut which was lit by a flickering oil lamp. They milled around and would not get into an orderly line. I felt excited and a little apprehensive. One particular woman kept on jostling the other people and bumping into them. I sensed myself becoming irritated with her and hoped that I would not have to pray for her.
A young man with a paralysed arm was the first person to be prayed for. I am not sure why, but I thumped his arm and he was instantly healed. With that, everyone in the room went quiet and still. The disorderly woman was pushed forward for prayer and I suddenly realised why she had been bumping into people: she was completely blind. I found out later that she had walked over ten miles to the meeting and now she just stood there grinning at me, knowing that she was going to be healed. The team grinned at me, too, but they were more nervous than confident. I laid my hands on her eyes and prayed every type of healing prayer I knew. When I took my hands away I asked her whether she could see.
She blinked and gasped, ?I can see!?
The interpreter asked her what she could see. She peered at me in the dim light, then screamed in Kikuyu: ?I can see a white man!?
There was almost a spiritual riot in the hut. Of the fifty sick people, all bar one deaf boy were completely healed in the next thirty minutes. We burst out of the door and stopped the film outside. Amazingly, they had just reached the point where Bartimaeus is healed. I gestured for silence and announced, ?While you have been watching actors acting, the real Jesus has been active in here.? The blind woman then told her story and showed them how she could see.
The people celebrated through the night. As the news spread, more and more Kenyans came running from the surrounding farms and villages. I took it in turns with the team to preach and pray for healing. When it was light, we used a nearby lake to baptise those who had given their lives to Jesus. Without any suggestion from us, they all came up out of the water speaking in tongues! It was a taste of revival, the clearest that I had known at that point in my life.
Looking back, I realise that we should have changed our plans and stayed at Nyota Farm for longer, but we stuck to our itinerary and moved on to the next rural area we were scheduled to visit. Our gracious Father went on honouring our words and answering our prayers, but nothing as dramatic as the healings in the hut occurred again that trip. All too soon it was time for us to return to cynical, secular London, to comfortable homes and a large, contented church surrounded by millions of hurting people living without hope.
As we flew into Heathrow, I was determined to carry on praying for people to be healed. I promised myself that I would not go back to my old ways of ministering, for the trip had permanently freed me from the fear of experimenting and making mistakes. I was ready now to minister at home in a way which guaranteed my looking ridiculous if God did not honour my words. I told myself that, whatever the difficulties, I would stay with it until we were experiencing in London what I had tasted in that tiny African hut.

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God's Word in Your Mouth is as Powerful as God's Word in His Own Mouth!

Colin Dye — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:12:15 +0000

Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever! He?s still doing today everything that He did when He walked on this earth. He hasn?t changed a bit!

He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, at the highest place of the universe, and He is your Healer. Nothing is beyond His power or control. And He longs to release you from all sickness.
Some people don?t believe that Jesus has ever healed anyone. Others think that healing miracles were only for biblical times. Many believers have been taught that sickness is God?s will for their lives. My friend, these common attitudes rob God?s people of Christ?s healing power.
It?s a basic biblical fact that God is a healing God. He introduced Himself to the people of Israel with these words,? ?I am the Lord who heals you.?? This is a central covenant promise, and was God?s first promise after Israel had left Egypt.
After Jesus had survived His encounter with the enemy in the desert, He also introduced Himself to Israel as the One who was ?sent to heal?. This shows us that healing is central to God?s nature, and at the heart of His dealings with His people. It?s why Jesus ministered to the sick, and it?s why He wants to make you whole.
Sickness is part of Satan?s rebel kingdom, and it points to sin ? which lies at the root of all sickness. This is why Jesus hates sickness so much.
Sickness didn?t exist until sin came into the world.? This doesn?t mean that your sickness must be the result of your personal sin. It?s more likely that your sickness is a consequence of the general sinful, polluted condition of the whole world.
When Jesus served on earth, He forgave sinners and healed the sick. His power to heal revealed His authority to forgive. The one pointed to the other. Jesus has exactly the same authority today to heal all your sickness and to forgive your every sin.
He carried your sickness on the cross, and struck at the root of the sickness, at sin. Once sin had been dealt with, God?s healing could properly begin. This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But, dear friend, Jesus? healing ministry is a sign which points towards something far more glorious than even the best healing on earth.
All healing is just a tiny foretaste of the future glory of God, which will be dramatically revealed at the resurrection, at the total transformation of the body. When that day comes, my friend, you won?t be needing healing again ? for you?ll never get sick again!
This hope is a real comfort for people who do not experience healing on earth. Keep on believing God for your healing. Never give up through discouragement or doubt. Remember, Jesus never fails. He was, He is, and He will be your Healer.
My friend, take all these promises of God for healing and let the Holy Spirit touch you today at your point of need.
But, as you do this, please remember that your real hope is for the future kingdom when you?ll experience every blessing to the full.

God?s words for you:

If you heed the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.?

Exodus 15:26

?
Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.?

Psalm 103:3

Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

?????????????? Isaiah 53:4-5

?
He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.? ?

Psalm 107:20

?
Which is easier, to say, ?Your sins are forgiven you,? or to say, ?Arise, take up your bed and walk?? That you may know the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic, ?I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go your way to your house.??

Mark 2:9-11

?
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Acts 10:38

?
?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?.?

Matthew 8:16-17

?
Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.

1 Peter 2:24

?
My son, give attention to My words; incline your ear to My sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.

Proverbs 4:20-22

And Jesus, moved with compassion, put out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ?I am willing; be cleansed.?

Mark 1:41

?
Jesus said to him, ?If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.?? ?????????

Mark 9:23

?
He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes.??

Psalm 105:37

?
Great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all.??

Matthew 12:15

?
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

3 John 1:2

So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound ? think of it- for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?

Luke 13:16

?
Jesus answered and said to her, ?O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.? And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Matthew 15:28

?
He touched their eyes, saying, ?According to your faith let it be to you.?

Matthew 9:29

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God my Healer- Yahweh Rapha

Colin Dye — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:51:26 +0000

I believe that Yahweh, the living God of Israel, has been a healing God throughout the whole of human history ? that He is still the great physician today and He will be my full and perfect healer at the last day of resurrection. This deep, abiding, personal belief is based on both revelation and observation, on what I read in the Bible and on what I regularly see in many places around the world.

Jehovah Rapha The Lord Who Heals

In Exodus 15:26, God personally identified and introduced Himself to the people of Israel as Yahweh Rapha, the Lord who heals you. This divine revelation came at a critical time for the Jews as God had just liberated them from slavery in Egypt and helped them to cross the Red Sea. Just three days later, when they were facing their first test and their first doubts in the wilderness, God revealed His healing name and nature to them.
Exodus 15:22-27 is a pivotal passage for it records the first law and the first promise that God gave to Israel after leaving Egypt. In many ways, the revelation of God as healer is the introduction to all the detailed rules of the Mosaic Law and establishes the therapeutic principle behind all the regulations which follow.
Luke 4:16-20 reports a similar divine revelation at the beginning of Jesus? ministry. Immediately after He had passed through the waters of baptism and survived His encounter in the wilderness with the enemy, He also personally introduced Himself to Israel as the one who was ?sent to heal?.
Everything that follows, in both the Old and the New Testaments, is built upon these two revelations: that healing is fundamental to the nature of the Father and the Son and that it lies at the heart of their dealings with their people. God is revealed as a healer right through the Scriptures from Abimelech to Eutychus, from Genesis to Acts and on into the days foreseen in the book of Revelation. Even without the considerable testimony of believers today and through the ages, the weight of scriptural evidence is enough to convince me that the God I love and serve is the great healer.
Yet, nearly every Sunday, I also see convincing proof in my London congregation that God is still Yahweh Rapha today. A thick pile of testimonies lies on my desk which vividly describes how God has brought some degree of healing to a large number of our members in the last few years. Seeing all this, it seems eminently reasonable for me to conclude that our healing God can be relied upon to carry on healing in and through His people right up to the day of resurrection.

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God-earnt Healing

Colin Dye — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:46:13 +0000

A God-earnt healing

Some people doubt that God is a healer. They ask, “If He’s all-good and all-powerful, why hasn’t he dealt with all the sickness in the world?” They argue that the presence of disease proves that God must be either bad or weak. When people reason like this, they are ignoring the cross.

Because of the cross, you have a wonderful inheritance of healing

God did not create evil, pain, suffering, death, sickness, corruption, pollution and so on. They came into being as a result of the first human sin. God could have made a world where sin and sickness were impossible, but only by making puppets rather than people. In making the first man and woman free to enjoy a wonderful, face-to-face relationship with Him, God had to make them free to reject Him and to follow their own paths. The possibility of sin was the price of their free will. The consequences of sin are the result of the their rejection of God’s perfect will.

God’s promise

Even while God was justly subjecting the world to futility, He was also promising that the Seed would triumph over the Serpent, that Christ would overcome evil, that Jesus would defeat Satan. Which is exactly was happened on the cross! In Christ, on the cross, God did everything to deal with the root of evil – sin- and to deal with the fruit of evil – which includes guilt, death and sickness.

Realising what God accomplished for you on the cross

On the cross, in Christ, God broke the power of evil and death so that you can be released from the grip of evil and the fear of death. In Christ He bore His own just wrath against sin so that you can receive His unconditional forgiveness and be clothed in his righteousness. In Christ, He showed you how to live and die, how to handle abuse and suffering, how to deal with pain and mortality, so that you can follow Him and draw strength from His example. On the cross, in Christ, He travailed to give birth to a new nation, to “see His offspring’, so that you can live with the new life of God within you as a genuine child of God.

The fullness of Christ’s accomplishments on the cross

It will take you eternity to discover and experience the fullness of everything that God accomplished for you on-and-through the cross. When Jesus died without sin, Satan had to concede defeat. By His death on the cross, Jesus achieved the critical victory over evil, and over every form and every fruit of evil – including sickness and death. It’s really very simple to understand. On the cross, Jesus died for sin. He paid the price for sin. He suffered all the consequences of sin. He broke the power of sin. He defeated sin. This means that you can be free from sin and free from all the consequences of sin. You can be free from wickedness, free from guilt, free from hell, free from death and free from sickness! An every aspect of your perfect freedom was earnt for you by God-in-Christ on the cross!

The Apostle Peter explains

In the second chapter of his first letter to the church, he explains that “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps’. Peter affirms that Christ “committed not sin, nor was any guile found in His mouth; who when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously’.

He declares that, “Christ Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness’. And then the apostle concludes: “…by whose stripes you were healed’. (1 Peter 2:24). Although Peter is writing mainly about forgiveness, it’s clear that this conclusion is as much about healing from sickness as it is about forgiveness from sin. If Jesus dealt with the root of evil, He also dealt with the fruit of evil. If He delivered you from sin on the cross, He also delivered you from sickness and death on the cross.

It’s really true! Christ’s death guarantees your healing. Sickness has been banished because sin has been vanquished. The power of death and disease has been broken, because the devil has been defeated.

The guarantee of every aspect of your salvation

You must not forget, however, that you did not experience all the benefits of the cross fully and completely the moment that you first believed. Christ’s death guarantees every aspect of your salvation for eternity but there is much for God to complete on the last day of resurrection.

For example, no matter how close you live to God in loving obedience, you will not reach absolute perfection and unceasing victory in this life. Satan may have been decisively defeated on the cross, but he has not yet been fully destroyed and finally eliminated. Instead, your increasing holiness is a wonderful foretaste of your certain eternal perfection. And your every experience of victory points to the absolute triumph of the last day.

It’s the same with healing. Because of the cross, you have a wonderful inheritance of healing. But it is essentially incomplete in this life – you know that not everyone is healed of everything and that everyone who is healed eventually dies. However, every healing that you experience is a foretaste of the ultimate release you will experience at the last day of resurrection. And every healing you receive points prophetically forward to the great and wonderful day when “there will be no more pain’.

Every time you turn to “The Lord your healer’, you celebrate the decisive healing breakthrough of the cross. You show that you’re living in the good of this important blessing, and are applying it in your life. But don’t forget that your total healing will not be finally and fully completed until the last day of resurrection. After that, you’ll never need healing again! “He has borne our grief (or sicknesses) and carried our sorrows (or pain)’. (Isaiah 53:4).

Before the cross

Some believers, when they read Isaiah’s prophecy, wonder how Jesus managed to heal anyone before the cross. The answer is easy. Jesus healed before the cross the same way that He forgave people before the cross – and in the same way that God had been forgiving and healing Israel for a thousand years before the cross.

First, God gave healing and forgiveness to people before the cross on the basis of what He was going to do for them on the cross. He healed and forgave them on credit!

Second, every part of Jesus’ earthly life was deeply inter-related with His death. His life wasn’t one thing and His death something different. The way that Jesus triumphed over sickness and sin in His earthly life paved the way for His decisive defeat of death and sickness on the cross. Isaiah’s prophecy should make it impossible for you ever to separate healing from Christ’s finished work on the cross. It establishes that, by bearing your sin, Jesus bore your sickness; that, by taking your guilt, He incurred your punishment, and that your total healing came at the cost of His terrible wounds.

It’s true, by His stripes, you were healed!

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Hope for the unhealed

Colin Dye — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:04:49 +0000

We have seen that Jesus healed everybody who came to Him requesting healing and that He cured all those to whom the Father sent Him. But the rest of the New Testament is not a record of unbroken success. There are at least four references which may imply either unsuccessful or unattempted ministry for healing.

Disappointment is bound, at times, to face those of us who commit ourselves to the ministry of healing. There will be some people who are not healed, others whose initial healing lapses and a few who are half healed and then make no further progress. There are many questions about this puzzle and few answers in this life.

In 2 Timothy 4:20, Paul sadly records, ?But Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick.? (Trophimus the Ephesian is mentioned twice in Acts as a trusted travelling companion of Paul). In 1 Timothy 5:23, Paul does not instruct his prot?g? Timothy to pray or have hands laid on him. Instead he urges him to ?no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach?s sake and your frequent infirmities.? Paul may have been writing about a personal ailment in Galatians 4:13-14, ?You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject.? Finally, in Philippians 2:27, Paul records that the messenger Epaphroditus, ?was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him.? Does this mean that Epaphroditus was miraculously healed, or is a slow, natural recovery a more likely explanation?
It is interesting to note that these four sick men were all servants of God and that Paul does not record any reason for their lack of healing. Their stories should be some small solace to us when we are faced with similar situations.
Disappointment is bound, at times, to face those of us who commit ourselves to the ministry of healing. There will be some people who are not healed, others whose initial healing lapses and a few who are half healed and then make no further progress. There are many questions about this puzzle and few answers in this life.
Sometimes, as I have suggested, the cure of our pride will be higher on God?s agenda than the healing of the person?s disease. In other instances, we will mishear God. There are bound to be a few occasions when we act out of human enthusiasm or because of worldly pressure. And there will be times when we have not prayed enough or have been distracted by materialism or unnecessary worries.
We might have been ambitious, impatient or fascinated by spiritual phenomena. We might have been concerned to stay safe in a narrow tradition or have experimented with unbiblical matters. We might have given up after a setback, exaggerated with false claims or, worst of all, we might have blamed the sick person for the failure and have pretended that sin or lack of faith was the reason for the disappointment. Blame God, if you must. Blame the devil, if that is what you really believe. Blame yourself, if you have to. But never, ever blame the sick person.
All too often, believers who are involved in the healing ministry imply, either by innuendo or silence or because they are embarrassed, that the failure is somehow the responsibility of the one they have prayed for rather than theirs. They hint that the person did not have enough faith or was perhaps a little bit rebellious, or maybe did not really want to be completely healed. All of these are theoretical possibilities, but they are rarely the truth.
In one sense, it can never be right to say that nothing has happened. With God nothing is impossible, so if we have spoken His words, radiated His love and performed His actions, something must have taken place. The gifts of our time and attention, our words and gestures, our prayers and practical caring all have healing value. This does not ignore the question of why physical healing has not taken place, rather, it negates the pretence that nothing has happened.
Sometimes, as with many of the Old Testament stories we examined in Part Two, the appreciation of the healing is delayed. At other times, the actual healing is gradual, as with Naaman, the Shunammite?s son, and the blind man in Mark 8. In cases like these there is no scriptural authority for suggesting that people should be urged to ?believe? God for a fuller healing than they are actually experiencing. The participants in these stories were not urged to intensify or quicken the healing by praise or belief. They were simply asked to obey God.
?Believism? is pretending, or trying to believe, that we are healed. Real faith is something quite different. Matthew 13:58 informs us that Jesus did not work many miracles in Nazareth because of the general lack of faith, but it does not say that He tried to work miracles and failed. The Scriptures do suggest that Jesus found the presence of faith in some people to be quite remarkable. There is no record, however, that Christ ever informed people that they could not be healed because they lacked faith or belief, though He did explain to the disciples that their lack of faith was preventing a boy from being healed.
The mere fact that a person comes to Christ requesting healing demonstrates faith. We do not need to imagine the person into being cured or even to be thoroughly convinced ourselves that healing will take place, or to urge anyone to manufacture healing through spiritual willpower. We are only called to speak God?s words, to perform His actions and to be full of his overwhelming willingness to heal.
The truth is that people are sometimes not healed when we are absolutely certain that they will be and that they may be healed when we are full of doubt and uncertainty. Unfortunately, we can never eliminate some degree of mystery from divine healing!
Some people turn to the Christian healing ministry only when a loved one is dying and then see death as a failure. But, for believers, death is always the full and perfect healing and those who are involved in this ministry must have an adequate theology of death. We must celebrate the fact that Christ is as active in our dying as He is in healing and that there can be miraculous deaths as well as wonderful cures!
In the early chapters of Part Three, we thought about the fulfilment of healing, the total transformation which will take place at the day of resurrection. We saw that, somehow, we need to find the right balance between insisting that God does heal today and pointing people to the promised healing still to come. This means that we can look sick believers straight in the eye and promise them that they will be wonderfully healed. We can issue them with an unconditional guarantee that their pain and suffering will cease and that their broken body will be transformed. We do not always know when they will be healed, but we know that they will be.
In Christ, there is unlimited hope for healing, both now and in the future, and we need to encourage people to embrace every element of divine healing. They might not be healed now in the way that they hope, but they can be certain that in Christ and because of the cross, they will be.
We must, however, be careful how we urge people to receive God?s healing. There are many disabled people today who avoid Pentecostal and charismatic churches because of the insensitive treatment that they have received. I know that the Bible refers to ?the blind?, ?the deaf? and ?the lame?, but it is completely unacceptable for us today to personify people by their disabilities in this way.
It is just not good enough for Christians to be eager to pray for people in wheelchairs but unwilling to install the slopes and special facilities they need. If our ministry of healing means that we genuinely care for ?the disabled?, we will get involved in disability issues. We will help them on their terms and in the way that they seek; we will not presume that we know what they need or want. Some disabled groups campaign outside Christian healing meetings under the slogan, ?Rights, not miracles?. I often want to stand with them and hold up a banner proclaiming, ?Rights and miracles?!
Some believers seem to be in greater need of emotional healing than the disabled are of physical healing and we need to have a healing attitude which does not make people feel conspicuous, uncomfortable or unaccepted in their disability. We should not automatically assume that they are aching for physical healing or that they lead lives which are unfulfilled. Please remember that a person who is physically or mentally handicapped is as much in God?s image as a talented gymnast or a gifted dancer. We must respect each person?s individual humanity and value the special contribution each person can make, but we must also sensitively encourage everyone to look to the loving hands of Yahweh Rapha.
It would be easy? to give the impression that every person I have ever prayed for has always been instantly healed or that the healing ministry at Kensington Temple is the greatest thing since the book of Acts. God has been gracious and I have seen Him work in quite wonderful ways, but I always return home and weep about the multitude of sick folk who have not received their healing. By writing about my daughter, I have tried to show that my partnership with God is rooted in pain and I know what it is to endure the daily domestic struggle with the practical issues of disability and hardship. I know what it feels like to face disappointment and to be bewildered by God?s sovereignty.
So it is from my experience in the whole area of helping the unhealed that I make the following suggestions of things that we can say and do when, after much ministry, an expected cure has still not taken place. As with the other suggestions I have made, please do not follow these slavishly, ask the Spirit to shape them to your own situation.

Hope in the midst of trials. God is our anchor.

1. Have a prayerful de-briefing with your team and go through the steps you took in ministry. Try and find out whether you were obedient to every prompting. Establish if you made any mistakes or omissions.
2. Talk and pray about the whole matter with somebody who is more experienced than you in the healing ministry and ask for suggestions. If anything emerges from the process of de-briefing and seeking advice, arrange to see the person you ministered to again.
3. Pray and fast for guidance on your own. Ask God why the person was not healed.
4. Praise God with the person for the time of fellowship and prayer that you spent together. Point out that they are no worse off than before the prayer and help them to appreciate the care and love of the people around. Remind them that the healing God is with them and cares for them.
5. Establish one thing that you have learnt from the episode and explain it to the person. Find out what the sick person learnt through the ministry and praise God together for the insight. If other people were healed, encourage the person to praise God for the healings instead of wondering why they were not healed.
6. If the person you were ministering to is a Christian, encourage them to join you, or somebody else, in healing prayer for others. Point out that Elijah was healed of his depression by carrying out the three tasks he was given to perform.
7. Remind yourself that you are part of a battle, that the enemy is implacably opposed to healing, but that he has been defeated on the cross and will be destroyed at the last day.
8. Make sure that neither you nor the person feels guilty about the lack of healing. Explain that God?s priority is often to prune the healing partner?s reputation and pride and laugh together about this.
9. Remind the person that Jesus? main purpose in supernatural healing is to point people to the reality of the kingdom rather than to give them a few more healthy years on earth. Show that Jesus does care about our bodies, but that He is more concerned about our eternal health and our full salvation. Encourage the person to take one more step towards God.
10. Send a short note thanking the sick person for giving the time, promising your continued prayers for healing and suggesting something helpful to read from the Scriptures. Encourage the person to meditate on God?s biblical healing promises and to apply them.
Some people, especially new Christians, do not know how to handle biblical promises and it may be useful to indicate a way of applying God?s words. For example, a man suffering from, say, asthma, could use Matthew 8:2- 3 in the following way.
He could be asked to sit quietly and to read the simple story several times. He could then be encouraged to imagine the scene and to ?see? the leper coming to Jesus and being cleansed. Next, he could personalise the story by applying it to himself in this way: ?And behold, I came and worshipped Jesus, saying, ?Lord, if you are willing, you can make me whole.? Then Jesus put out his hand and touched me, saying, ?I am willing, be made whole.? And immediately my asthma was healed.? Finally, he can thank Yahweh Rapha for being with him and for guaranteeing his healing. This is, however, only one way of personalising God?s Word and it is not a healing technique.
The Bible is packed with promises and we can help people to apply all of them in a similar way. The references to many of these were given in Part Two, but we can also encourage people to use some of these verses:

Exodus 15:26
Deuteronomy 5:33, 7:15
2 Chronicles 30:20
Job 5:26
Psalm 23:1-2, 34:19-20, 41:3, 91:10-16, 103:1-3, 107:20, 116:8, 145:14, 146:8, 147:3
Proverbs 3:7-10, 4:20-23, 9:10-11, 16:24, 17:22
Isaiah 32:3, 35:5, 40:31, 41:10, 53:4-5, 58:8
Jeremiah 17:14, 30:17
Ezekiel 16:6
Hosea 13:14
Matthew 10:1, 11:4-5
Romans 8:11, 32
1 Thessalonians 5:23
2 Timothy 1:7
Hebrews 12:12-13, 13:8
1 John 3:8
3 John 1:2
Revelation 22:1-4

Although we should urge people to go on praying for their healing and to go on claiming God?s promises for healing, we should not neglect to remind them to be hungrier for the Healer than for their healing. We have to recognise that, ultimately, healing is not the great hope of the unhealed, Jesus is. In the middle of all our pain and problems, all our disappointments and difficulties, our only hope of inner peace and contentment is to keep our attention tightly focused on Jesus and on His overwhelming love for us. He is the only rock which will stand when everything else collapses around us.
If we are preoccupied with healing, we will never be whole and we will never know peace. But if our goal is God Himself, we will find that Yahweh Rapha soon embraces us in His gentle healing arms.

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Dealing with emotional pain

Colin Dye — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 08:39:44 +0000

Who can bear a broken spirit?

There is dangerous traffic on life?s highway and much that can harm us, leaving us by the side of the road broken, bleeding and hurting. We are all casualties in something, whether broken relationships, abuse in our childhood, parental failures, personal sins or tragic happenings.
Pain caused by other people
God has made us dependent on other people. We need companionship, acceptance, approval, recognition and many other things that God provides through relationships with people. Whenever these needs are violated in some way, we can suffer great personal pain.
Bad relationships in marriage and the family can result in the most severe forms of emotional damage. Pain caused in childhood by bad parenting can leave behind a lifetime of misery. Divorce is notoriously painful, no matter what circumstances surround it.
There are so many people who suffer the pain of loneliness or rejection. They open up to another person, get rejected and then recoil behind a hard protective barrier, hurting and afraid to ever come out again.
Separation can come through the death or unfaithfulness of another. Intense pain can be the result of some gross sin committed against you, such as verbal, physical or sexual abuse.
Casualties lie fallen everywhere. Selfish ambition and greed lead to all kinds of hurts inflicted upon people who are trampled down by others in their clamour for personal advantage. Violence overtakes a society of individuals who deny others their value or worth, seeing them either as obstacles to be removed or objects to be used and then discarded.
Pain caused by events that happen to you
Life is full of uncertainties and we are surrounded by many tragic circumstances. Traumatic experiences can leave you shattered and in deep shock. Slowly the true extent of the painful damage becomes apparent, making way for fear, mistrust, loneliness and depression. Somehow the pieces never seem to come back together.
At other times, the events are just as tragic but not so sudden or dramatic. Your boyfriend marries another woman. Your brother excels leaving you to bear the pain of your parents? disappointment and their constant negative comparisons between you and him. You miss the opportunity of a lifetime in your career. You fail an exam, which alters the course of your life. Your teenage son walks out on you and your Christian faith. You make a wrong choice in a major area of your life and deep disappointment sets in.
Pain caused by your own personal sin
It is unhelpful to suppose that all suffering is due to personal sin. It is not that simple. The Bible gives us many examples of righteous people suffering. The best-known example is Job who suffered the accusation of his friends, adding to his already extremely painful circumstances. They could not understand Job?s sufferings apart from the narrow view that said he was suffering because he was a sinner.
Biblical writers also record the fact that many unrighteous people seem to flourish. Psalm 73 records what Asaph observed on this matter and how he came to terms with the whole question. God showed him that he would never forsake the righteous and, even though the wicked may appear to flourish for a season, their time is short.
My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For indeed, those who are far from you shall perish; you have destroyed all those who desert you for harlotry.
Psalm 73:26-27

Sometimes the pain is just too much

Some of our pain, however, is our own fault. We disobey God?s word and refuse the things that bring wellbeing into our life. The consequences can be both physical and emotional.
Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared?
Proverbs 6:27-28
Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity. Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood. He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the ditch which he made. His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.
Psalm 7:14-16
Psalms 32 and 38 describe the physical, emotional and spiritual pain caused by sin. But the answer is always near: forgiveness and restoration through Christ.

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The Grace of communion

Colin Dye — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:10:43 +0000

When you are taking communion, discern the Lord’s body. What does this mean? Remembering that He was broken, that you may be healed! The Lord’s table is a healing table where you come by faith to fellowship with Jesus and to feed on him. It is the place where the promises of God will be activated in your life at exactly the point of your need!

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