Today's Passage - Matthew 9:23-26

Matthew 9:23-26   When Jesus entered the synagogue leader's house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him.  After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.  News of this spread through all that region.   When Jesus was performing this miracle, he did something special, which was to ask the crowd to go outside, because they we did not believe.  When the Lord came to this girl's house, He told the crowd that the girl was not dead, but only asleep.  They laughed at Jesus because they didn't believe he could heal her. Therefore, before Jesus performed the miracle, he asked the crowd to go away.    When Jesus performed miracles, it was important for him to be in an environment of faith.  This was not the only miracle where Jesus needed such an environment; back in the home town of Jesus, Nazareth, the Lord also didn't perform many miracles, because the Nazarenes did not believe Him.  When the Lord performed miracles, he always chose an environment of faith, and that's where he would proactively perform healing and deliverance.  As soon as you understand this principle, you would find that when you are performing healing prayer, you can't simply just pray, but you must first prepare an environment of faith.  We must first teach God's word and promises so that people would have genuine faith because of God's word.   That is why when we are conducting healing ministry, we must spend time to worship and pray first to stir up people's faith.  Only when people have faith In God will the Lord's Spirit bring forth the impact of salvation to the lives of people.  When the Lord healed the sick, He often said to them "your faith has saved you," because faith is essential to healing.  One time a patient was brought to our church by his relatives to be prayed for.  When everyone was praying for him, we sensed a strong spirit of rejection inside him, so we couldn't continue to pray.  I really pitied him in my heart because the Lord was willing to help in, but God's grace could not come upon him because disbelief and rejection inside his heart.   When we prayed for healing, we must cultivate an environment of faith, and we must also pray for others by faith.  When the crowd responds to prayer by faith, they will see how God's grace comes upon each person who's sick.  Do you have special needs that you want to bring before God?   Do you have any weakness or diseases?  Let us learn to pray by faith because only in an environment of faith will we experience the mighty power of God.   Pray with Pastor Tong   Lord, please give all of us a genuine faith, especially when we are praying for those in the body of Christ that are sick.  May the Lord's Spirit come upon brothers and sisters who are physically weak.  When we pray to you by faith, you're healing will come upon us, and we will give you all the glory.  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!