Today's Passage - Matthew 8:1-4

Matthew 8:1-4   When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.  A man with leprosycame and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."  Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.  Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."   Back then, leprosy was considered a disease of uncleanness.  In fact, all the leprosy patients must live outside of town and cannot enter in town center.  In the Old Testament law, even those who are touched by lepers are also unclean.  Therefore, when the leper went to Jesus, he was truly desperate.  He might be thinking it was impossible for him to be healed, but he still wanted to give it a try.  So, he might have been surprised when Jesus said "be clean!"  From this story, it is evident that the Lord is willing to heal our disease!   I used to think that God only heals in exceptional cases.  If God doesn't say He's going to heal, how could I pray for the patient?  Therefore, in my early days as a pastor, I didn't pray for patients often, because I didn't know that it's God's will to heal.  In the recent years, God showed me that healing is a fundamental part of God's will.  When a sinner comes before God to confess his sins and repent to turn back to God, not only will his sins be forgiven, God is also willing to heal all his diseases.  Psalm 103:3 says that God is "who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases."  God didn't say that He will forgive all our sings and some of our diseases, but ALL of our diseases.  God is willing to forgive our sins, and also heal our diseases.   Therefore obviously cases where we are not healed.  First, there are exceptions when God wants to train you with diseases in your life.  Paul prayed three times for the thorn in his body, but God didn't remove it, because God wanted to use this thorn to train him.  We must praise God for these cases because His grace will always be sufficient for us.  Second, your days on earth are about to end.  The Lord may want to take us back to our heavenly home; our body will change to be like the glorious resurrected body of Christ.  It is our ultimate healing - We'll get rid of our death-bound body and enter the glory of God.  Therefore, I am more than willing to pray for patients; as long as the Lord doesn't say He won't heal, I will pray for all kinds of patients until we see the Spirit of God move in the patients to perform wonderful work of healing.  May God place such faith insides us because He is both willing and ready.   Pray with Pastor Tong   Brothers and sisters, if you are in any kind of disease, I ask that you lay hand on wherever the disease is right now.  The Lord's blood will cover everyone - Not only forgive all sings, but also heal all diseases.  In the victorious name of Jesus Christ I rebuke all diseases and ask them to leave now, so that we will be complete.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!           Shekinah Glory - ROLCC Building Expansion Project - Follow us on our Facebook page!