Jesus the Healer Part 1
“Jesus the Healer Part I: A 3-Part Sermon Series”Reflection for 4rth Sunday of Epiphany January 28, 2024
Churchill Gilford United Joint Service at Gilford United 10:00 am
By Krista Moore
Scriptures:
Mark 1:21-28 Jesus heals a man in Capernaum
Sermon Focus Statement: Jesus still has authority to heal the sick and cast our spirits.
Sermon Function Statement: Believe in Jesus’s authority to heal us in body, mind, spirit, and soul. (Even when things don’t turn out the way we want them to).
Introduction to the Scriptures:
It was quite a shock. The people were crowded in the synagogue.
A strange man spoke with such authority.
And he healed a man who was shouting and twisting on the ground!
And this man, this man, Jesus – from God knows where, came, and healed him and all the people that came to him.
I have never seen anything like this.
I can die a happy man.
My people are healed and whole.
The Messiah has come.
Shalom – peace and joy have come to Capernaum.
REFLECTION
When we hear the scriptures today, and over the next couple of weeks, we may wonder:
Did Jesus’s healing miracles really happen?
And do they still happen today?
And why don’t some people get healed?
Over the past year I’ve shared with you some of my call story, including some of the miracles I’ve experienced along the way. And I’d like to share more of how Jesus has healed me and others. I think it’s important to explain what I believe and why.
STORY: HEALING CIRCLE, NUT ALLERGY
Back in the early 2000s I was doing a lot of studying about God and miracles and I even wrote a blog about it. It wasn’t so much about physical miracles as it was about a radical shift in consciousness – where God guides us and transforms our lives for the better.
I had a lot of these shifts in the last 10-20 years.
In one of my spiritual trainings, I learned hands on healing, based on the healing that Jesus did 2000 years ago. We practiced on each other and experienced some very interesting phenomenon.
People healed, some convulsed and released things.
One time, I was being healed, and many people had their hands on me. Jesus spoke to me through one of the participants. I felt a moment of reassurance and peace. I didn’t have anything I needed to heal, and I was unaware of its impact.
After the healing, I was so hungry I stepped off the table, and went into the buffet room to find something to eat.
Well, something must have come over me, because I went for the almond bowl and put my hand in and scooped up a bunch of nuts and threw them in my mouth and ate them.
And then I remembered, I had a nut allergy. And my doctor had prescribed an epi-pen which I didn’t have.
I waited and waited. I would usually get a tingling sensation or numbness on my lips and my throat would start to feel weird and I would panic.
But nothing happened.
I just got up and ate and I was fine.
I was healed of my nut allergy.
And I never experienced an allergic reaction to nuts or any food since.
After that, my life changed – AGAIN.
I didn’t realize it, but I was becoming a healer.
Later, Jesus called me to help others. That includes the ministry I do now, but also the work I do with people from all walks of life along the way. People looking for reassurance, support, or spiritual healing. I never planned to do this.
I wanted to be a famous actor.
But God had a different plan.
I don’t like to call myself a healer. Because God or Jesus does the healing.
And I have to say, the healing just gets bigger and stronger the longer I do this work.
QUESTION: DID JESUS REALLY HEAL PEOPLE?
Earlier I asked, are Jesus’s healing miracles real?
Let’s think about this for a moment.
In the scriptures, the people are gathered in the temple. They are unaware of who Jesus is – this is one of his first healing miracles in the Gospel of Mark.
All they know is, this man spoke and a man who was previously tormented and writhing on the ground was healed, likely stood up and felt better. Because the next thing that happens is everyone runs to go get their sick and bring them to Jesus. Obviously they saw enough proof to believe in miracles.
And he healed many that day.
There were many pretenders and magicians in Jesus’s time who claimed to do healing miracles – but we do not have any of their names – they are forgotten. Because their healings were not real.
The text says, his fame spread – Jesus didn’t ask for the fame – he told the man to be quiet. Jesus knew it was a dangerous time to be doing what he was doing. The authorities were watching him.
But miracles tend to get noticed.
People wrote them down.
And here we have them in our Bibles today.
Let me tell you another story.
STORY: CLIENT IN THE HOSPITAL IN FLORIDA
A few years ago, I had a healing practice (after I had listened to Jesus and given up my acting career).
I saw clients on Skype. One of my client’s husband was in hospital for heart surgery in Florida, and she wanted me to pray with him and do some healing work. The man’s family was there including his young son.
CHANNELING/HEALING EXPLAINED
I did my healing prayer to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and then I felt the light of God coming into me, and the presence of Jesus and the angels.
It’s hard to describe. It is like I am in an altered state of consciousness. I am no longer thinking as myself, Krista.
I am simply a channel of God’s peace and healing.
Sometimes words come through, sometimes sounds like singing, insights or awareness, visions, smells, and or high-high energies. People may feel calmed, reassured, peaceful or even physical sensations of healing in their body.
So when I channeled for him, Jesus came through – his words became my words, and I just allowed it to happen.
It’s hard for me to do, because my own thoughts and fears may prevent me – I am terrified people will think I’m a nutbar! But I do it anyway because it is almost always helpful, and Jesus pushed me into it.
Jesus wanted me to heal the people and teach them how to heal. **I realize now if I had been in Jesus’s time as one of his disciples, I probably would have been stoned or crucified.
If I had been in Salem in the 1500s, trying to help my sick neighbour, I probably would have been burned as a witch. But I digress…
STORY CONT’D: PRIEST IN THE HALL
Later when my client called she said her husband came through surgery with flying colours. And that his son felt good when I was “singing.” He wanted to hear it again. So I sent them the recording.
The “singing” are tones that come through unbidden from a higher realm. They are not really me “singing,” they are healing sounds that help lift people emotionally, mentally, or physically, to release negative thoughts and emotions, and calm their heart and soul.
She also told me that while we were doing the session, outside in the hallway of the hospital stood a priest listening at the door, waiting to come in.
When he heard what was happening he stopped and took it in. He confided to her later that what he heard and felt was the most peaceful thing he had ever experienced.
I couldn’t believe it. He was a priest after all! A man of God, how could what I was doing on a computer impact him?
But you never know who God will reach, when you allow healing and the Spirit to flow through you.
I never know what will happen, and I take credit for none of it.
I am so blessed to be able to help people because Jesus put me on this path.
It wasn’t me– it was the energy – the work that Christ does through me. The same work Jesus the Healer did in Capernaum that day. He reached the man in the synagogue, and he reached the man in the bed waiting for surgery, his son, and a priest standing at the door.
QUESTION: DO MIRACLE REALLY HAPPEN TODAY?
Remember my Second question:
Can miracles really happen today?
Well, in my first story, you could say I just had a powerful placebo from the healing and got up and ate the nuts and my body adjusted accordingly.
Mind over matter.
But I know I’m usually a worry-wart, and in that moment I had no fear of anything.
Jesus took all my worries and cares away.
I was healed.
Or in the second story we could say the man, boy and priest felt better from the soothing singing. Good music will do that. But I know better. My voice is not that good!
Jesus reached through the screen and spoke to the man. The angels reached through my vocal cords to bring waves of peace into their bodies and minds.
It was not me. It was God’s doing.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DON’T HEAL OR DIE
The third question, some may wonder, why didn’t I get healed, or why did I have to lose a loved one?
That’s a difficult question.
As I said, healing comes in various ways – it isn’t all about physical healing or avoiding death or difficulties.
Sometimes God works through us in our grief, and opens our hearts in numerous ways.
Sometimes healing comes during or after death.
Some people I’ve worked with were near death and got to experience this peace before or after they passed.
STORY: GHOST AT THE MANSE.
Some of you may have heard that our previous minister, Glen, knew about a ghost at the manse. A spirit that was still there after a hundred years…
Well I can honestly say….
that I will tell you more about that next week in Part II of Jesus’s Healing miracles!
CLOSING
Remember, Jesus came to the lakeshore and asked his disciples (US) to follow him. That includes believing in him and his healing miracles.
But we may have to let go of something first.
Sometimes we must drop our nets of disbelief, worry or fear.
Sometimes we must open our minds to something new we haven’t seen or heard of before like the people in the synagogue or the priest at the door…
Often these moments are life-changing.
Even miraculous….
May we be open to experiencing new things…
(even spiritual things that don’t make sense to our physical senses and logical minds!)
May the Spirit of Jesus the Healer be with you…
…and give you peace, hope and healing.
Amen.