GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
HEALING AND EXHORTATION
DR. JIM DIXON
SEPTEMBER 3, 2000
ROMANS 12:1-8
In Southwestern France in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains, there is the great center of Roman Catholic healing, the city of Lourdes. The city of Lourdes has a population of just 16,581 people, but it has the second largest Roman Catholic Basilica in the world. (Only St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is larger.) It is the Basilica of St. Pius X. It is said that in the year 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared in the village of Lourdes. Mary appeared 18 times to a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette, telling her that the waters in the grotto spring at Lourdes were sacred and offered healing to all generations. That was 142 years ago.
Today, every year, two million people make the pilgrimage to Lourdes. They come to see the Basilica of St. Pius X (known as the Rosary Basilica) and the statue of the Blessed Virgin. They come to bathe in the allegedly sacred waters of the grotto spring, hoping that the power of God might be released in their body for the healing of their diseases and afflictions.
From 1960 to 1972—during that 12-year period—995 people submitted written documentation of their healing at Lourdes to the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church was skeptical. They hired two thousand doctors to examine those 995 cases of people who lived all over the world and had been allegedly healed. These two thousand doctors examined those 995 people. They developed physical and psychological profiles. They took a look at their medical records. They gave them new physicals. It was an exhaustive study. They concluded that, of these 995, only 15 were truly healed. Some of them made bogus claims; some of them had problems that were psychosomatic; and some of them had real diseases but were never healed. Only 15 were true genuine healings.
When, by the order of the Roman Catholic Church, the doctors examined the 15 more thoroughly, they concluded that only seven were actual supernatural healings that would be officially recorded and documented in the Roman Catholic Church. Seven healings over a 12-year period, a little more than one healing every two years. And that in the great center of Roman Catholic healing in this world.
That should not surprise us because the Bible is very clear that healing does not normally take place in grotto springs. The Bible tells us that healing is normally associated with a special group of people who have the gift of healing—people who have an endowment from God, a gift of the Holy Spirit called “the gift of healing.” This morning, we examine the gift of healing as the first of two gifts we will look at. I have four simple teachings about the gift of healing.
The first teaching is this: the gift of healing focuses on Jesus Christ. He is the power for all healing. It’s His power that’s manifested in the person who has the gift of healing. Now, in Luke’s gospel, the fifth chapter, we read how Jesus entered a Galilean village. A man came up to Him who, Luke tells us, was “full of leprosy.” This man, who was full of leprosy, fell down on his face before Christ and said, “Master, if You will, You can make me whole. If You will, You can make me clean.”
We know a few things about this man with leprosy. We know that his body was riddled with sores. We know that he had ulcerating sores all over his body. (This was characteristic of those who were full of leprosy.) We know that this man smelled, he stunk—people who were full of leprosy with all those ulcerations, were less than nasally palatable. It was a social stigma. We know that the tendons and cartilage in his hands and his fingers was beginning to contract. We knew that this man’s muscular system and nervous system were degenerating so that he was losing feeling in his limbs; he was beginning to have a hard time coordinating his actions. We know that this man’s destiny was coma, and, ultimately, death.
We know that he had left his family. He had left, perhaps, his wife and his children. He had no choice because lepers were banished—banished from their families, their spouse, their children, their city, and their job. We know that he lost his job because all lepers lost their jobs. We know that this man was living in a den or cave of the earth. Lepers were forced out of cities and towns and made to live in leper colonies, which took up residence in dens and caves of the earth. We know that this man was not allowed to come within a hundred feet of a normal human being. If he approached that distance of 100 feet, he, by law, was required to shout, “Unclean! Unclean!”
But this man was desperate. He had entered a Galilean village and fallen down at the feet of Jesus Christ. He had said, “Rabbi, Master, if You will, You can make me whole. If You will, You can make me clean.” The Bible tells us that Jesus reached down and touched him, touched the untouchable. Jesus said, “I will. Be clean.” The Bible tells us that man was healed in an instant. He was made whole. He was completely normal. His leprosy was eradicated and utterly gone by the power of the Son of God.
The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and on earth. He is the Beloved. He is the Great Physician. People who have the gift of healing are really just vessels. They have no power in themselves. People with the gift of healing are people through whom Christ has chosen to manifest His power. But the focus is Christ. The focus of the gift of healing is Christ. He is the Healer.
A second teaching about the gift of healing is that this gift is not universally effective. A person who has the gift of healing is not able to heal everybody. The gift is not universally effective. The Apostle Paul had the gift of healing. You can’t read the second half of the book of Acts and deny that. The Apostle Paul had the gift of healing in great measure—so much so, that people were, the Bible tells us, “getting hold of his handkerchiefs and his aprons,” thinking that if they could just touch those objects, they would be healed. So great was Paul’s gift of healing.
Yet, Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi, as recorded in Philippians 2:25, that he could not send Epaphroditus back to them because Epaphroditus was ill. Paul wrote to Timothy, as recorded in 2 Timothy 4:20, that he had to leave Trophimus behind in the city of Miletus because Trophimus was sick. In 1 Timothy 5:23, Paul wrote to Timothy. He told Timothy to take a little wine for his belly’s sake, to help with his stomach problems and frequent illnesses. Paul had the gift of healing. Why didn’t he just heal Epaphroditus and send him back to Philippi? Why didn’t he just heal Trophimus so he didn’t have to leave him at Miletus? Why didn’t he just heal Timothy? The gift of healing is not universally effective. You can’t heal everybody. The sovereign will of God determines it.
A third teaching about the gift of healing is that this gift can be blocked. The gift of healing can be thwarted. It can be thwarted by a lack of faith. Sometimes, biblically, people were healed regardless of their personal faith; but other times, God demanded faith, at least in some measure. Jesus Himself tells us that He did not do many healings in Galilee because of the lack of faith. Oftentimes, when He healed someone, He said, “Your faith has made you well.” Healing can be thwarted or blocked by lack of faith.
Healing can also be thwarted or blocked by unconfessed sin. We’re told in James chapter 5, that we are to confess our sins to one another and so be healed. Sometimes, it is true that the gift of healing is blocked by sin that is not confessed. I think, sometimes, the gift of healing is just blocked by God’s sovereign will. Sometimes God just doesn’t choose to heal in this life or in each individual case.
It’s hard to look at the Bible and deny that, sometimes, God just doesn’t want to heal or doesn’t choose to heal. In 2 Corinthians 12, we’re told how the Apostle Paul was afflicted with what he calls a “thorn in the flesh.” Most Bible scholars believe that it was some kind of physical affliction. Some think that it was some measure of blindness. Some people think that it was a speech impediment. We really don’t know, but three times Paul prayed that he would be “delivered,” that he would be “healed.” God said, “no,” each time. God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you. My strength will be made perfect in your weakness.” So, God doesn’t always choose to heal. The gift of healing is sometimes blocked.
Fourthly, and finally, with regard to this gift: the gift of healing is rare. It is truly rare—would that it were common. I don’t know why, but it is evident that with regard to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, some gifts are more common. Other gifts are more rare. The genuine gift of healing, I think, is quite rare.
In the early years of our church, I did all of our hospital calls. The first five or six years, when anyone was in the hospital or sick, I went to visit them. This was kind of strange because it was, in a way, kind of outside of my giftedness. Being something of a hypochondriac, by the time I got back to the church, I had whatever it was that the person I visited had.
John Patterson does our hospital calls today, and he does a wonderful job. He is anointed for that ministry. When John Patterson cannot do our hospital calls, then Ron Chew does our hospital calls. But every two weeks, I still receive from John a list of everyone who is in the hospital so that I can pray over them. I seek to be faithful in that. I have wished, so many times through the years, that I had the gift of healing. I’ve had times when I prayed for the gift of healing, and I’ve not been given that. I always pray for people, and I pray for the power of God to be released in healing.
Our elders are faithful. They always pray over people and pray for the power of God to be released in healing, as we’re commanded to do in James 5. We’re faithful to pray. Through the years, we’ve seen God do some incredible healings. We’ve also been very frustrated at times, as healing has not come forth in the way that we prayed for. I know that on our leadership staff and on the elder board, no one would claim to have the gift of healing. We’re just seeking to be faithful. The gift of healing is offered. I think maybe there aren’t enough people praying for it. Have you prayed for it?
Last Thursday, I got a phone call from Whitey Albrecht, the person who Gene prayed for in his prayer this morning. Whitey went in the hospital Friday to have surgery on his lungs. Whitey has lung cancer, and he has been told that it’s terminal. They’ve done a few months of chemotherapy. Now they’re trying some more radical procedures. They just attached his lung to his ribcage so fluid can’t build in that space. From a medical perspective, the picture is not bright. We all need to pray for Whitey.
When Gene brings prayer requests before us, we should pray for all the people. We should pray. I’ll go a step further and say that each of you who believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior should pray for the gift of healing. Maybe God will give one or two of us in this congregation the genuine gift of healing—and what a blessing that would be for this congregation, as you would join in the pastoral ministry of this church. I believe God still heals today. I believe Christ still gives the gift of healing today.
The second gift I want us to take a brief look at is the gift of encouragement. This gift is sometimes called, as in the RSV, the gift of “exhortation.” The gift of exhortation is the Greek word “paraklesis,” which is related to the word “paraclete.” Its more accurate rendering would be “to comfort” or “to encourage.” So, this is the gift of comforting. This is the gift of encouragement.
Coca Cola is the most popular soft drink in the world today. Every day, in 155 nations, 300 million cans and bottles of Coca Cola are purchased. Most people have no idea what they’re drinking. I mean, 99% of the ingredients are known. We know the primary ingredient is sugar. We know the second ingredient is carbonated water, then caramel. Then there’s phosphoric acid, caffeine, spent coca leaves, and cola nuts. But there’s a mystery ingredient in Coca Cola. The Coca Cola Company calls that mystery ingredient “Merchandise 7X.”
The formula for Merchandise 7X is kept in a vault in the Trust Company of Georgia. That formula cannot be accessed except by permission from the board of directors of the Coca Cola Company. The formula for Merchandise 7X is only known to ten people. That’s what we’re told. It’s hard to believe that in this day of sophisticated chemical analysis, that formula could remain a mystery; but apparently it is, and it is protected by the United States Food and Drug Administration’s privacy clause. It’s part of the mystique of the soft drink industry, a multibillion-dollar industry.
The formula for Coca Cola was originally scripted by John Pemberton in his back kitchen, in Atlanta, Georgia, 1886. Pemberton was a would-be chemist. Originally, he put cocaine in it. From 1886 to the turn of the century, Coca Cola had cocaine in it. When they advertised Coca Cola, they claimed that Coca Cola could do two things: soothe your headache and lift your spirits. Of course, Coca Cola can’t really do that anymore. Cocaine really can’t do that either. It just gives you a drug-induced delusion.
But there is something that can soothe your headache, and there’s something that can lift your spirits. It’s a person with the gift of encouragement. A person with the gift of encouragement can comfort you. A person with the gift of encouragement can lift your spirits. How we need this gift in the body of Christ and in this world.
In the year 1843, a man named Henry and a woman named Frances were married in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They loved each other very much. In the course of world history, there have been billions, literally billions, of weddings, billions of marriages; but, I think if it’s safe to say that Henry and Frances loved each other as much as any couple ever has. They were often seen holding hands as they walked or as they sat talking and laughing. It seemed like life for them was twice the joy when they were together.
It seemed like they had everything going for them. Frances came from an extremely rich family. Henry and Frances lived in a mansion in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Henry was a professor at Harvard University, and he was becoming world renowned. They had a next-door neighbor who was also very wealthy and famous. That next door neighbor’s name was Oliver Wendell Holmes. Oliver Wendell Holmes was concerned about Henry and Frances. He said, “They love each other too much.” He said, “They’ve had everything too good.” He said, “Things are going so well for them that they have nowhere to go but down.” Every time he walked past their house, Oliver Wendell Holmes had a sense of foreboding that something bad was going to happen. That was in the year 1861.
Sure enough, on July 7, 1861, Henry was in his study reading and writing. Frances was in the adjoining library. She was putting together some family keepsakes. She had two locks of hair from their daughter. She was trying to put these locks of hair into a book with hot wax. Somehow she lit her dress on fire. In a matter of seconds, she was ablaze, her whole body engulfed in flames. She began to scream and panic.
Henry ran to her from the room next door. He was stunned to see his wife on fire. He panicked. He didn’t know what to do. He grabbed the carpet off the floor in front of the fireplace. He tried to wrap her in the carpet to extinguish the flames, but it wouldn’t put the fire out. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t put it out. Finally, engulfed in flames, she ran into his arms, and he extinguished the fire with his own body. He was badly burned, but, of course, she was horribly burned. When the doctor came, Henry desperately wanted the doctor to save the life of his beloved wife. All the doctors could do that night was give her some medicine to help her sleep.
The next morning, July 8, she woke up and she asked for a cup of coffee. She looked at Henry and said, “I love you.” Those were the last words she ever spoke. She slipped into a coma. She died on July 9. On July 12, which would have been their 18th anniversary, they had her funeral. Henry couldn’t go because his face and hands were burned. He was just emotionally unable to cope.
His physical wounds would heal, but Henry’s emotional wounds would never heal. He’d live another 21 years, but those emotional wounds would never heal. He grew a beard to cover the scars on his face; and for that beard, Henry became famous. He poured himself into his work. He wrote narrative poetry, such as “The Courtship of Miles Standish” and “The Song of Hiawatha.” He wrote historical poetry, such as “Paul Revere’s Ride.” “Listen my children and you will hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere . . .” We’ve all read that. Henry was, of course, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He died in the year 1882. Upon his death, they went into his house, and they found a poem. He had written it three years earlier in 1879, but he had hidden it. He never published it. The poem was called “The Cross of Snow,” and it was about Frances.
Most scholars agree that it was the greatest example of Longfellow’s poetry, “The Cross of Snow.” In that poem, Longfellow says that through the years, upon his heart, there was a cross of snow since Frances died. And that cross of snow would never go. He would never experience summer again. Never experience spring again. Never experience fall again. Forever winter upon his heart. Forever and ever, a cross of snow and a permanent winter. What a tragedy.
There are people in this world who feel like that. They have a cross of snow upon their heart because they lost someone they loved so much. That might be true of some of you here today. Perhaps you’re bearing a cross of snow. It feels like summer never comes. Spring never comes. Always winter. But in the body of Christ, we’ve been given to each other to minister to each other, to serve each other. Christ has given His people this gift, the gift of encouragement. We need to pray for that gift. All of us need to pray for that gift, so we might be able to encourage, comfort, and lift the spirits of one another. This is the call of Christ upon us.
I read just recently about a man whose name was Stanley Reamer. Stanley Reamer, in 1981, had a massive heart attack. He was taken to the hospital. For 22 minutes, they couldn’t get his heart to beat. Then they revived him. They got his heart to work, but their fear was that there had been significant lack of oxygen to the brain, that there had been significant brain damage. Stanley Reamer was in a coma after they revived his heart. His eyes were open, but in a glassy stare. They never moved. His body never moved. One day, as he was in a coma in the hospital and his wife, Billie, was by his bed crying, Robert Schuller came to the hospital. Robert Schuller was the Pastor of Garden Grove Community Church. Robert Schuller was Stanley’s good friend. Stanley had been a chemist for a major company in southern California, and Robert Schuller was his friend.
Before going to the hospital, Schuller had prayed about what he would say. He knew that Stanley was in a coma, and he knew that medically the picture was bleak. He prayed. He said, “Lord, what do you want me to say to Billie? What do you want me to try to say to Stanley if he can hear me?” Robert Schuller, in prayer, was told by the Lord that Stanley Reamer was going to be healed. That’s a word of knowledge. (That’s a different gift of the Holy Spirit, which we’re going to get into in a subsequent week.) The Lord gave Robert Schuller a word of knowledge, that Stanley Reamer was going to be healed. Robert Schuller went to the hospital with incredible joy. He took hold of Stanley’s hand in the hospital bed, and he said, “Stanley, this is Bob. I know there is some part of you that can hear me. Stanley, you’re going to be healed! It’s going to be a long hard journey back, but you’re going to be okay. God is going to make you well.”
Suddenly, they saw form, in the corner of Stanley’s eye, a tear that just began to roll down his cheek. The doctors were stunned because they knew that some part of Stanley was indeed hearing this. Stanley Reamer was healed, and he went on to become an elder at Garden Grove Community Church.
I know that there are probably mixed feelings here with regard to Robert Schuller and his ministry. He’s somewhat controversial in terms of some of his ministry strategy and even in terms of some of his theology. But nobody can deny this about Robert Schuller: God has given him the gift of encouragement. I mean, how could you count the thousands of people through the years who have been encouraged through the ministry of Robert Schuller? He comforts people, and he lifts the spirits of people up. It’s not just pastors who are called to do that. We’re all called to do that. All of us are called to encourage each other. We are to pray for the gift of encouragement.
I want to conclude with one story. Our son and daughter have grown up. Our daughter Heather is married to a great young guy named Chris. They’ve moved to Yakima, Washington where Chris has taken a job at a hospital. They are doing great. Our son Drew has graduated from college. He’s working for Project Cure, which is a great ministry that seeks to take medical supplies to impoverished nations. Drew will be going to med school next year. But it seems like the time has just flown by. Barb and I can look back, and it seems like just yesterday when Heather and Drew were so young and when we were so young.
I can remember when Heather was around five years old, and Drew was almost three. To understand this, you need to understand that Heather had this pink blanket. This was her comfort blanket. Sometimes, you would see her kind of chewing on the corners of the pink blanket. When she began to crawl, she would drag the pink blanket with her. It was kind of her comfort object. When she was in the back seat of the car, she would hold onto that pink blanket. When she went over to visit a friend or stay at a friend’s house, she would stuff the pink blanket into that little wooden suitcase. She would take it with her, and she would sleep with the pink blanket.
Heather was about five years old and Drew almost three. Drew had been playing out in the neighbor’s yard, and he had fallen. He scraped up his knee and hand. He came home. He was crying a little bit. Maybe there was a little ego damage there too. I’m not sure. Heather came into the room to talk to Drew, to try to comfort him. I looked in the room. Heather was sitting next to Drew, and she was patting him on the back. She was saying, “It’s going to be okay. It’s all right. It’s going to be okay. You’re okay.” It wasn’t doing a whole lot of good I could tell. Then I saw Heather’s eyes get really big like she had just thought of something.
Suddenly, she ran out of the room and ran into her room. She came back with her pink blanket, and she gave the pink blanket to Drew. Now, I could tell that Drew wasn’t really into that. What was precious there was that Heather really wanted to comfort him. She really wanted to lift his spirits, so much so, that she was willing to give him her precious blanket.
Sometimes you can learn a lot from kids. I think, sometimes, maybe our hearts aren’t quite as soft when we get older. When you look at somebody who’s hurting, do you really want to comfort them? Do you really want to lift their spirits? If you do, if you really want to encourage people who are hurting, you need to pray for this endowment of the Holy Spirit, this gift of the Spirit of God called the gift of encouragement.
How much the body of Christ today needs these two gifts, the gift of healing and the gift of encouragement. I know that the Spirit of God would challenge each of us today to pray for these gifts. Let’s close with a word of prayer.