Healing is a gift from God just like being born-again from above. Being born from above means we are not of this world in the sense our insides have changed to desire to please the Father instead of pleasing ourselves. When we were younger, we wanted what we wanted and would go to any means of manipulation to get it. When we saw that our tantrums would not suffice, we were able to calm down and realize the world didn’t revolve around us. However, there are some of us who do not understand that still applies.
Since we have been born again ……born from above, the worldly rules no longer apply to us. Oh we still have to obey the law and serve the law of “Do unto others as you would have them to unto you” but it goes way beyond that. It involves the God kind of love to be able to serve another in the way we never experienced before.
How do you love others? What is this Agape love anyway and how to I receive it so that I can love others like Christ has loved others, since that is what I’m called to do. What is Agape?
here is one definition of Agape (Greek) Agape, which is most often crowned as the highest form of Christian love, is the kind of love and action that shows empathy; extends the desire for the good of the beloved; wants the best; extends help or demonstrates good intentions; and is intended for everyone.
This type of love comes from ONE source….God himself. We always want to have the best intentions but somehow if we are really honest with ourselves we do a lot of things out of a need for love, ourselves, our of a desire to please, from a position of empathy or sympathy. There is certainly nothing wrong with any of these kinds of responses, it is the best sometimes we can do at the moment in our journey….No condemnation here. It just is difficult to experience the God-kind of love without a letting go of every personal desire toward the person or “what’s in ti for me” Then if we can check our motives, we find a new kind of love brewing in our spirits. The kind that causes our own hearts to soar and to bring us more joy than we would have ever received had we reached out in phileo “love” to have our own needs met somehow in the situation.
Difficult to understand, yes I’m sure. My desire is not to alienate any certain groups of people or anyone for that matter. God’s love is for all to experience and give away, if you are blessed enough to recognized what that is. It isn’t about us, it’s about someone else, completely. However, we must understand it must be cultivated within in order to find ourselves able to give and receive out of a place of complete surrender. Actually, giving and receiving comes out of the same place. deep in our hearts, once the “eyes of our heart” have been opened. Then, we experience this and move into the perimeters of a “death to the soul life” or what could be better understood is called a “letting go” of the desire to be pleased and receive the grace, if you please to bring pleasure to another. Make no mistake, there is great truth in the statement, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Up till now I’ve discussed the Agape kind of responses we should want to have toward others. So, I’d like to take us back to some scenarios when Christ walked the earth, right before a miracle was performed. Let’s see what happened, shall we?
Picture over 10,000 people on a huge field who have been there for a couple of days. They only counted the men back then so women and children were “extras.” They were beginning to be hungry as they had been there for two days with nothing much to nibble on any more, if indeed they had brought something before, it was surely gone by now. Jesus told his disciples to give them something to eat. They were astounded. In our vernacular, we might hear them say, “are you joking?” There are so many people here it would take a year’s wages to feed all these people and we don’t have that in the treasury. Jesus said, “Well, look and see what food is out there.” They brought to him five loaves and 2 fish a young boy had brought from home. That’s probably all he had left from a lunch he had been munching on this whole time. but it was enough……for Jesus. “Tell the people to sit down in 50’s. So they counted themselves out and they all divided the groups into 50 people each. The disciples watched Jesus as he prayed over the food and asked for more baskets because by now the basket was full that the 5 loaves and two fish had been in.
The gospels are full of Jesus expressing compassion for the outcast, the poor, the sick, and the oppressed. His compassion was unconditional, it was complete and it reflected the very nature of God. So, we must see our role as seeking to be Christlike in our compassion for those who are in need, as well. Healing comes after compassion….so it seems….not before.
There is another possible reason why when we are prayed for, we are not healed. I can’t imagine why it would not be enough “faith.” I think instead we just don’t know what “faith” is. Then too, there is a possibility that we don’t really understand the amount of authority Christ obtained when He suffered and gave his life so that we might have health, healing and restoration in every part of our lives.
Let us look at the definition of what the bible calls faith” Hebrews 11:1 Says, “Faith is the substance hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” Well, that’s fine for the one who understands what faith is in the first place but let’s dig deeper.
There are several passages in the old testament that are translated “faith” that are actually the word “trust” in Hebrew. I will attempt to explain some of them here.
There are other situations where Christ also felt “compassion” or Love for another. This compassion flowed out of His heart for the rich young ruler. Compassion we will see is the greatest move on a person’s heart for healing to be manifested. Compassion comes from the Father’s heart. Will you understand that God longs for you to display compassion for your fellow brother or sister? The way we sometimes view one another is …”why we have prayed for you so many times, it must be something you are not doing right.” And the condemnation is heaped upon the “victim” and the unsuspectiing person, trying to help the poor suffering person find healing is just put back another 2 or 3 months maybe even years because they feel it is something they have done wrong and God isn’t pleased with them. Then truly they feel they are unacceptable becuase ….yes I’ve heard if a 1000 times. “you must not have enough faith.” How many times have you heard that when healing you sought was prolonged.