The Great I Am – God’s Heart to Heal You Today!

*Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from the New King James Bible.

Father, we thank You Lord, for the healing revivals that are happening today. Father, we thank You for the word of God. I thank You, Father God, for the saints from near and far who are reading this message on the internet. And I ask You, Father, as Your word goes forward today, it will accomplish everything that You have preordained for it to do. Father, I ask that it would not return void; that it would pierce the hearts of those who hear it. Father, even now I give You praise and honor and glory for the healings and the miracles that have already taken place, and the healing and miracles that are going to happen as we move forward today and as this message is released in Your time, Father. And I thank You, Father God, for the word of God, which is sharp and powerful and alive and pierces us right to the marrow, to the spirit and soul. Father, I ask that You would breathe upon this message today and that I would say nothing more and nothing less than You would have me to say. In Jesus mighty name I pray. Amen.

I want to write and teach a little bit today about God’s heart to heal. I’m going to teach a little bit today about how we can expect to receive God’s blessings, we can expect to receive God’s mercies, we can expect to receive God’s healing touch, we can expect to receive the miracles from the Kingdom of God because it is God’s heart to heal you. As the Body of Christ, we have stepped into a God ordained moment of time when healing and miracles are going to become normal. We are now in healing revival worldwide. You just need to discern it and learn how to step into this amazing season individually.

By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, my wife, Kathy, and I have visited about thirty-three nations preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. We have seen many people saved, healed, and delivered over the years. But sometimes you see people saved, healed, and delivered that the church might think are not worthy of it—people who are Muslim’s, for example, people who might not even know who Jesus is—but God in His mercy and His grace reaches out and opens their blind eyes. God in His mercy and His grace gets the paralytics up off the mat. God in His mercy and grace reaches down and touches people and transforms their lives even when we might think they are not worthy. But in the eyes of God, He is willing to heal us all.

I want to encourage you to believe to receive as we go forward in this season. Just believe to receive as you hear the Gospel taught. Expect to receive because the breath of God is upon word of God; not because of any particular ministers that are behind the pulpit but because it is the anointed word of God.

I want to begin reading in Matthew 8, verses 1 and 2:

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

Now, this particular scripture is one of the parabolic teachings of Jesus, or what I refer to personally as a Hebraism. The leper was most likely a Hebrew person. When the leper approached Jesus, it was actually illegal for him to do so. But he had heard about the miracles and later had seen the miracles from afar that Jesus did. He had heard the rumors of this man who was going about through the countryside preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing all manner of sickness. Something arose in his heart; faith arose in his heart. So, he approached the Messiah, he approached Jesus, and he said, “Lord, if You are willing.” Another way to state this desire of the lepers heart could be phrased like this; “if You would delight,” “if God would delight,” “if God would show grace,” “if God would show mercy” upon a person— “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

In verse 3 the scripture is very clear. It says, “Jesus put out His hand and touched him.” Again, in the culture of the day, it was actually illegal for Jesus to make physical contact with the leper. In other passages and other Gospels, we see that Jesus heals the lepers with a word. But in this particular instance, Jesus reached out and He touched the leper, and He said, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And, “Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

Let me write about that (healing leprosy for example) briefly. Immediately the leprosy was cleansed! I have been able, by the grace of God, to go into leper colonies and to preach to lepers and to lay hands on lepers. I was in a place called Gulu, Uganda, in 2006 or 2007. One day a month they would allow the lepers to come into town. They can’t come any other time. The reason they are allowed into to town this one day of the month is to buy food and to beg.

A Little Uncomfortable

A few of my friends and I were in a restaurant having lunch when we saw a leper come and sit down in the ditch beside the restaurant where all the urine and all the feces and all the trash was. He got in the ditch and took his homemade prosthetic leg off and began to scratch his stump. Let me tell you, it was hot, about 100 degrees. So, when the man took his prosthesis off, you could smell the death, you could smell the leprosy. I am just trying to bring this biblical testimony down to you on a personal level. Praying for leprosy is different that praying for God to heal a head ache or a back ache, or a pimple.

It was a little uncomfortable for the people having lunch. The smell of leprosy can “put you off of your lunch”, so to speak. Not me! I was a young evangelist. I was zealous to see the lepers healed. So I thought, “Cool! A leper!” I jumped down off of my seat and I ran and plopped down into the sewer with the leper. I laid my hands on him in the name of Jesus and I commanded the leprosy to be cleansed. I actually put my hands on the leper’s body and I also gave the man some money. I did not see any manifestation of his healing at the time. But I saw the man smile. And through an interpreter I was able to tell him about this man named Jesus who loves him. Hallelujah!

When I finished ministering to the leprous man in the sewer drain, I walked back through the front door of the open-air restaurant. All of the Africans and some of the white people who were on my side of the restaurant immediately ran to the other side of the restaurant because they didn’t want to be around me because leprosy is contagious and they had seen me touch the leper.

Listen, it doesn’t matter what you are battling; He is willing. He is willing to heal you. Sometimes Jesus just asks for you to be His hands and the Lord asks for you to be His feet and for you to lay hands on the lepers. Hallelujah! We have seen lepers healed. We do have testimonies of those kinds of creative miracles. The point is that God is willing to heal whatever disease that you come across as you live your life and proclaim the goodness of God. It is God’s heart to heal all. Period. Creative miracles are no harder for God to work through you then healing a pimple. You just need to get the revelation that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. Just envision that as you stretch forth your hands to heal that Jesus is working with you. That changes the paradigm within your spirit when you really get this reality tucked away in your spirit man. Acts 4:29, 30 illustrates this Kingdom principle; "Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, "by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus."

Immediately

Let me explain to you what this passage in verse 3 means: “‘I am willing.’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” Sometimes when people have leprosy, parts of their body fall off. Their fingers fall off, they are eaten from the tips all the way down to where there are no fingers. Their noses can be eaten away; the legs, as I just described, can be eaten away, and there can be a festering sore that stinks and it is ugly. That’s one of the reasons why lepers were illegal to touch in the days of Jesus. It was a communicable disease. But Jesus said, “I am willing.” And immediately the leper was made whole. What that means is: if he didn’t have any fingers, his fingers grew back; if he didn’t have an ear, his ear grew back; his leg grew out; his nose grew back! Nothing shall be impossible for God.

I believe that the God of the Bible is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Lord still wants to release these same types of miracles, and these types of healings today (through and to you). I believe we are going to see God do more miracles and healings of a creative nature as we move forward and come close to the return of Christ.

Let’s go to verse 4 where Jesus speaks to the leper who just received a creative miracle. He says,

See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.

In other words, Jesus was telling this man to fulfill the Law of Moses where it is required for a leper to go to the temple and to give an offering once they were cleansed. It says in other Gospels that the man went about and noised it abroad what Jesus had done. In this particular passage of scripture, it does not say that.

Your Miracle Comes With a Responsibility

Sometimes when God releases a miracle and a healing to you, there is a response and there is a responsibility that comes upon you. We have been in places where, for example, blind people have been healed. Once in Peru I prayed for a totally blind man the Lord opened his blind eyes. We were in a public market and this man literally had a license to beg because he was blind. When the man’s blind eyes opened at first he was really happy! A crowd began to gather around and ask for prayer as well and they were also praising God loudly because most of them knew the blind man from the market. Tt was evident to everyone that the blind man could now see well. However, when the man realized that he would lose his ability to beg to earn a living he suddenly pretended that he was still blind. That is until I held up a large denomination bill and moved it in front of his “blind” eyes. Suddenly the blind man could see the bill and as I moved it from right to left and his eyes followed it and suddenly he reached out and snatched it from my hand!

In some places some people are actually given a license to beg because they are blind. When their blind eyes are opened, and they realize they can see, they get really happy. Then they realize they have a responsibility as a seeing person. This man, when he saw there was a crowd gathered around him, he pretended like he was blind again so he wouldn’t lose his license to beg. This type of situation where people deny their miracle has happened on more than one occasion. So really, you need to understand that with your miracle comes with a responsibility.

So sometimes when God releases a miracle to you, there is a responsibility. We have had people come up out of wheelchairs from debilitating back pain, for example, that were on disability. They were totally healed but realized they would lose their pension, they would lose their Social Security, so they sat back down in the wheelchair. There is a responsibility sometimes that comes when God releases a miracle and a healing in your life. If God releases a miracle or a healing in your life, sometimes He requires you to be a witness of His goodness. Hallelujah! Sometimes people are not willing. I want to encourage you to believe to receive your miracle and to be willing. You need to be willing to receive, because Jesus is willing to release your miracle and healing.

Going on in verses 5 through 7:

Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

The Healing Word

Think about that. Jesus didn’t say, “I don’t know if I can. I’ve got to go the other city. I’ll have to get on an airplane. I’ll have to get in a truck.” He just said, “I’ll come heal him.” You see, Jesus is willing. I AM is willing! So, when you come to a healing service or healing school and you have a need, know that God is willing to release your miracle. You don’t have to meet any conditions, because He is willing.

Back to the scripture; a man in authority came to Jesus and said, “…my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” Jesus said, ““I will come and heal him.” Remember in verse 2 where the leper worshipped Jesus, he implored Jesus? This man is doing a similar thing. He is approaching the Son of God, the Messiah. He is approaching Jesus Christ, and he says, “Lord, I’m asking for an impossible thing; but in my heart I just have a glimmer of hope that you will come and heal my servant.”

Maybe some of you have just a glimmer of hope. Maybe some of you reading this article have just a slim glimmer of hope that maybe Jesus could just touch you over the internet. Listen, we get so many testimonies of people who were healed over the internet; we have dozens and dozens of them—people who have their blind eyes opened; people who have their backs healed; people who have all sorts of creative miracles. God is willing to heal you even if you are reading this by internet too.

Jesus said, “I will come heal him.” And then something amazing happens. The centurion was not a Christian. He was not a Jew. He was a Roman, someone who did not really believe. But he too had heard about the works of God that He was doing through this man named Jesus throughout the countryside. And so, he had a glimmer of faith. He comes, he approaches Jesus, he tells Him the need, and Jesus says, “I am willing.” Then in verse 8 it says,

The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.”

The Greek word translated “healed” is close to the word translated “salvation,” which is sozo. That means “shall be saved” as in “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Sozo means be saved in your spirit, your soul, and your body. You see, the enemy wants to oppress you three ways. He wants to steal your soul, so you will spend eternity in hell. But once you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, he can no longer have access to your soul. And the enemy wants to afflict your body with sickness, or he wants to put bondage or oppression upon you in your mind, will, and emotions.

What the centurion is saying is, “Lord, just speak a word and my servant will be made whole—spirit, soul, and body will be healed.” He goes on to say in verse 9:

For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.

Everlasting Life

You see, this centurion had a revelation of the spiritual structure of the Kingdom of God. And he knew that Jesus was the supreme ruler. He knew that King Jesus had the authority and the power to simply speak a word and his servant would be healed. And when Jesus heard the man say these things, He marveled. And the language there means He was pretty much in awe. He was, as they say in today’s modern vernacular: blown away, or freakin’ out because He hadn’t heard anyone speak with this type of faith before.

He marveled, and He spoke to the people who were following Him. Remember, the multitudes followed Him. Why did they follow Him? Because they had seen the miracles, they had seen the signs and wonders, they had seen Jesus multiply bread, they had seen Jesus heal the sick, they had seen Jesus heal the blind and the deaf, they had seen Jesus cast out devils with one word. This crowd followed Jesus because of the amazing things they were witnessing this man named Jesus doing.

So, Jesus speaks to these same people who have seen all of these miraculous things and He says, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (v. 10). The phrase here implies such a faith or such a quality of faith or such a mature faith. We all have different levels of faith. The Book of Romans, chapter 8, verse 3, says, “God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” But I’ve got good news for you. Even if you have the tiniest little bit of faith, the scripture says if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can speak to a mountain and it will be removed (Matt. 17:20).

So, you all have faith because you have received Christ as your Savior, and if you haven’t received Christ as your Savior we’ll help you do that. But if you have prayed to receive Christ as your Savior and Messiah you have faith because the Holy Spirit drew you through faith in the Son of God. You made a confession of faith in Jesus to receive salvation. And if you have a little bit of faith, just the tiniest bit of faith, God can move the mountains in your life. Hallelujah!

In 1 Corinthians 13:13 it says, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three….” We all have human emotions; it’s part of our soul we touched on earlier. Hope is a human emotion. As the Gospel is shared with you in these healing revival meetings, or through articles like this one, you simply hope that you will receive your healing or your miracle or your breakthrough. Eventually as you water your hope it will turn into faith and faith eventually into love. So, you can exercise your faith and God can water your faith. And even as you read what I have written, I sense the Holy Spirit is releasing to someone an additional measure of faith right now!

The God Kind of Faith is NOW Faith

Now let me say this to you: Jesus was marveling at this man’s faith and he was not a believer in God. So, if God can honor and marvel at the faith of someone who did not know Him, how much more can we expect God to honor and marvel at our faith who do know Him. In verses 11 and 12 of Matthew 8, Jesus says,

And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I have often wondered about this passage because it does not seem to fit. I’ve studied it, I’ve prayed about it, I’ve asked the Lord about it. This again is another Hebraism. Jesus is speaking to the people who are following Him who are predominately Jewish. When He speaks about Abraham and Isaac, He is speaking about heaven. In that day when they talked about going to be with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, they were talking about entering into the Kingdom of God, they were talking about entering into paradise or heaven, Abraham’s bosom. But Jesus relates it to faith and relates it to the fact that many people who know God will be cast into outer darkness or hell. Here’s a brief sermon for you: Heaven is good; hell is bad; don’t go there, because hell is a real place. Jesus is speaking to people who presume to know God, and He warns them that they will be cast out into outer darkness.

In verse 13 Jesus is speaking to the centurion. He tells him to go ahead, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” Then the scripture says, “And his servant was healed that same hour.” Hallelujah! You see, Jesus didn’t have to lay hands on this man’s servant. When you study it out in the Gospels you find out that he was healed at the very instant that Jesus made the declaration. In Romans 4:17 it tells those of us who walk by the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit and in the will of God and who are sons and daughters of God that we can speak a thing and call it forth. We can call those things that do not exist as though they do. “Your servant is healed. Go your way.” Immediately the servant was healed.

Here’s what I want you to understand, especially those of you who may be reading this on the internet; that Jesus wasn’t even in the same city. You may not be in the same city, but you can receive your miracle at the word of the Lord, if you can just have the tiniest little bit of faith.

The phrase here that we see in Matthew 8, verse 13—you have believed—is a derivative from the Greek pistis or faith. Again, maybe you are reading this and you may not feel like you have a lot of faith. You only need the tiniest little bit of faith for God to touch you. At times God can use the faith of another person and combine it with your faith to pull you through to your miracle or healing. I don’t think the leper had any faith. He had hope. “Lord, if You are willing, you can heal me.” He hoped that God would do something. He hoped there would be a transformation. He received a creative miracle.

So maybe you are coming to healing revival meetings or maybe later you are planning to bring someone who has AIDS or deafness or cancer or whatever. God may use your faith for their healing or miracle. You can hope that God will use His servant to release that miracle. And your hope can grow into faith when we mix our faith together. In the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit and through the grace and favor of God, there can be a release of the Kingdom and your miracle can manifest. Amen! It doesn’t matter what you need. You can be used to get a miracle for someone else!

A Time for Deliverance

In this passage of scripture, it gets even better. I love studying the Gospels and just meditating upon them. Jesus is having a pretty good day: He’s just preached the beatitudes, people are being transformed by the word of God, multitudes are following Him, creative miracles are happening, people are witnessing the miracles, lepers are being cleansed, and people are being healed in other regions at His word. He gets hungry, and in verses 14 and 15 we read that He heads to Peter’s house:

Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.

She immediately arose. I believe for some of you, as your touched by the minsters, that immediately your miracle will happen. Do you remember what happened with the leper? Jesus touched him and immediately he was cleansed. I believe for creative miracles to happen in these healing revival meetings. Now going on with verse 16 it says, “When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed.”

As a new believer, a grace gift came upon me for a time for deliverance. I could come within ten feet of someone who was suffering from demonic oppression or obsession or whatever description you want to insert. And they would immediately begin to manifest the demon. Sometimes their eyes would turn, and their tongue would come out and white foam would come out  of her mouth and they would growl or snarl and try to bite me. And I would be like, “Cool! A demon!” And in the name of Jesus we would cast those devils out and people’s lives would be transformed. There is a correlation between casting out evil spirits and healing. Going on with verse 16:

“When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.”

He healed all who where sick! One of the problems we have in the Body of Christ today is that we do not honor the anointing of God that rests on His vessels. If we could begin to give honor to whom honor is due, if we could begin to recognize who God uses in His gifts and who God uses in His anointing and who God uses in His callings, and we honor that anointing, we could receive the things God wants to release to us. Sometimes God sends people to us to release our miracle and release our healing who we do not recognize and honor as God’s servant.

You need to understand that deliverance is much more than casting out devils, though we do need to do that. Going back to the testimony about the season when God was using me in deliverance. We were in a denominational church and we were having a prayer line. I was praying with some other ministers. I got within about ten feet of this woman and she began violently manifesting demons. The whites of her eyes turned red and the pupils of her eyes turned white, her tongue was forked like a snake and foam was coming out of her mouth. She hit the ground and started writhing like a snake.

I was like, “Cool! A demon!” So, I went over to her. Back then I liked to yell a lot; so, I said loudly, “Come out of her, devil! Come out of her, devil!” I was casting the devils out, and they were coming out because there was grace gift on my life, a gift of faith on my life, for that period of time for that particular anointing for that particular type of gift and move of the Holy Spirit. And the devils were coming out and she was getting set free.

All of a sudden, the ushers grabbed me and they pulled me off of her and pulled me to the back and said, “What are you doing?” The guy who was my overseer came and asked, “Basconi, what are you doing?” I said, “That woman is full of devils. I’m casting the devils out of her.” He said, “That’s the pastor’s wife!” So, they dragged her back into the office kicking, screaming and foaming at the mouth. I don’t know about you, but if I’m a pastor and I’ve got demons, I want them out. If I’ve got demons, I want them out!

She was a precious woman who loved God, and my heart was to see her healed. It was a learning curve for me because I discovered that not everybody in the Body of Christ believes a Christian can have demons. A wonderful teacher, Derek Prince, once said that a Christian can have anything they want, including demons. So, I guess if you want demons you can have them. Personally, I don’t want them. That’s why I love it when we have those who carry the glory and anointing of God to cast them out come to minister to our friends and the people within our sphere of influence.

If you know someone, in your family, for instance, who is struggling with drug addiction or pornography or all manner of other evil things, get them in the service at one of these healing revival meetings right away. You don’t have to tell them they need deliverance or have demons. Just by being in the atmosphere they could be set free and get delivered. I’m preaching the Gospel to you this afternoon, the Gospel of the Kingdom.

The Correlation Between Deliverance and Healing

Before we go back to Matthew 8, let’s look at a passage of scripture in Luke 9:1. Jesus “called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.” The word translated “power” is the Greek dunamis, miracle working power; while the word translated “authority” is exousia, delegated authority from heaven. This power and authority was over all demons and to cure diseases. When demons are cast out, disease is cured. God has given you all power over all demonic authorities to heal the sick and to cure disease.

Lord, You are good to us and Your mercy endures forever.

Let’s go back to Matthew, chapter 8. So, we just looked at Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law when He touched her hand (cast out a demon of fever- Luke 4:39), and she immediately rose up and fixed them some fish or nice soup. Sometimes ministers get hungry. And then after they had a little refreshment, the scripture says in verse 16:

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.

At times there is a correlation between deliverance from demonic spirits and being healed of sickness, though not all the time. In verse 17, Matthew writes the reason for this was so the prophecy “…might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,” and quotes Isaiah 53:4: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.” The language here speaking of when Jesus took our infirmities means for one to be offered for another or for one to take for another.

How many of you know that Jesus was the Lamb without spot or blemish? How many of you know that by the stripes of Jesus Christ you are healed? He bore our sicknesses. That word translated “infirmities” can mean maladies or diseases or sicknesses. It can also mean distress, discomfort, or emotional bondage. You see, when Jesus died upon the Cross, He did it all for us. He paid the full price. He gave us salvation for our spirit so we could go to heaven, and not just when we die for we can entertain heaven today. He gave us deliverance for our soul, the area where the enemy of our soul wants to oppress us with poverty, sickness, emotional bondage.

The Greek word for soul is psuche, the word from which we get psychology. Many times psychologists try to just treat emotional and mental issues. They can’t understand why their theories and their applications and their medications can’t heal people. Well, it’s really simple; it’s demonic. It’s a demon. The people they are treating may need deliverance. Having said that, I thank God for psychologists. Maybe we need more Spirit filled psychologists? But sometimes you need to have the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit mixed with your understanding of psychology.

Your Generational Line

Jesus’ death also gave us salvation for our body. The Greek word translated “body” is soma, your physical body. Sometimes the enemy wants to afflict us by putting sickness upon our body. Sometimes we open the door to allow sickness to come upon our body through sin. Sometimes it’s not what we do but it’s generational in nature. Your father’s, father’s, father’s grandfather, for example, may have been involved in sexual immorality and fornication. And because of that there is a familiar spirit that has come down your generational line that tries to oppress you. You can get set free from that.

You can get set free from that pornography. I’m speaking to somebody reading this on the internet. You’ve got those links in your computer for the pages you’ve been looking at. You can get set free from that. You know you don’t want to watch that stuff. The affliction can be spiritual in nature. Sometimes it can happen with arthritis. The scripture says when we gossip, murmur, and complain, open the door to sickness to attach to our bodies. You see, when we begin to gossip and murmur and complain and murder our brothers and sisters and take advantage of our brothers and sisters with our tongues, with our deeds, we set in motion and we open the door that allows the enemy of our soul to afflict us.

And the scripture is alive, the scripture is the word of God, and if the scripture says if we are jealous of envious of another it can become rottenness to our bones. That sounds like arthritis to me? That opens up the door for arthritis. Scripture is clear that gossiping, murmuring, and complaining also affect our health. These sins open up the door for sickness or in the case of envy our bones breaking. Did you ever know someone who just break their bones all the time: “Oh, I broke this arm last year and I broke my other arm this year and I broke my big toe five times.” That’s not normal, that’s a curse! You can get free from those when you receive deliverance ministry from an anointed man of God. I believe many of you are going to be set free this weekend. Hallelujah.

Mature Faith

So, we see in Matthew 8:17 that the author shares with us that as Jesus did these things—cleanse the lepers, heal the sick, cast out devils—He was fulfilling the prophetic word in Isaiah 53 about the Messiah.

We go on to verse 18 where the multitudes came: “And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side.” Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. In verse 19 it says, “Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, ‘Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.’” This was a specific time in a specific place where a man of God came to Him, a man who worked in the temple, a scribe. If you want to serve God, you want to be used in the Kingdom of God, sometimes it is going to cost you. You need to pick up your cross and bear it daily.

Then Jesus said, “That’s great!” Well, that’s what it implies. Jesus said in verse 20: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then in verse 21 another disciple came to Him and said, “Lord, I want to follow You as well, but first allow me to “go and bury my father.” In verse 22, “Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’”

Sometimes the things that we think are acceptable and good in our culture, not just in America but many cultures, God doesn’t look at them the same way we do. God said to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these other things will be added unto you (Matt. 6:33). I’ll let that one sit there for another message at another time. Sometimes God is going to require something of you that will be greatly breaking to your mindset. And that might include not going to your mother or your father’s funeral and being led by the spirit to a ministry assignment in the nations for example. Many people might say that was very rude and that was not honoring. But Jesus said to let the dead bury the dead.

Verses 23-26:

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save [sozo] us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”

The Greek word here is ogliopistoi, little faith, lacking faith, immature faith, or it means no trust or confidence in the power of God. Some of us have oglioistoi faith. Our faith is not mature. Some of us have not embraced the refining fire of the Holy Spirit. Some of us have not picked up our cross and followed Jesus. Some of you need a miracle, you need a healing. God wants to give it to you. He is willing.

But you need to understand that there is a responsibility that comes; sometimes there is a requirement that God asks of you. God wants to release your miracle. God wants to release your healing. God wants to release your deliverance even now. But there is a responsibility. There is something He requires of you. Do you want to know what that is? He requires you to recreate Christ in your sphere of influence. He requires you to pour out the same grace upon others that He poured upon you—whether it’s sovereignly or whether it’s a man or woman of God who touches you by laying hands on you or whether it is through a spoken word like when Jesus spoke to the centurion and said, “Go your way!” Your servant is healed.” You need to give that testimony.

One reason we make place in our meetings for testimonies is that it’s a form of worship. Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony….” You see, when you give the testimony of what God has done for you in meetings where your miracle of healing happens, in the spiritual realm it seals your miracle. The enemy cannot approach the throne of God and say, “Well, da, da, da, da….” But you can stand there with Jesus Christ as your advocate and say, “Lord, on July 10, 2015, I stood on the platform at the healing revival in Fort Mill, South Carolina and I gave a testimony about my neck being healed.” Hallelujah! And in the spirit that is a legal “document,” which will help you to keep your healing, help you to keep your miracle.

I know by the Spirit of the Lord that there were several of you who were healed. Share your testimony. You don’t have to share it publicly. You can go to our webpage and send us a written testimony. We usually don’t do anything with them. We just file them. The reason we make that opening for you is so you can seal your miracle, you can seal your healing. And I give God glory for these things.

Back to Matthew 8:25-26 where the disciples say, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And Jesus replied, “Why are you so fearful, O you of little faith.” Again, that just means immature faith. I believe by the grace of God that many of you are going to have your faith watered by the word of God. You are going to have your faith breathed on by the Holy Spirit. And your faith is going to expand, it’s going to grow.

I want to share something. I am a whole lot bigger on the inside than I am on the outside. Some people say I am pretty big on the outside, but I am a whole lot bigger on the inside. Hallelujah! Because, greater is He who is in me (1 John 4:4). Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). If the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me (Rom. 8:11), then nothing is impossible with God (Matt. 19:26; Luke 1:37).

Back to Matthew 8, looking at verses 26 and 27:

Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

The answer is the great I AM. The answer is Elohim. The answer is the Creator of the heavens and earth. The thing that is so amazing is that this same I AM is in you. Hallelujah! This same power that worked in Jesus can work in you.

Going on in verses 28 and 29, it says,

When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?”

You see, even the demons of hell know who the Messiah is. Even the demons recognize that the day will come when Jesus Christ will put them in bondage once and for all. He will cast them into the pit or the abyss, if you will, for a season. But many of us in the Body of Christ do not understand who the Son of God is. That is something to think about: “What do we need to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?” We need to get the revelation of who Jesus is—Christ in you, the hope of glory. When we begin to understand everything that Jesus Christ purchased for us through His death upon the cross of Calvary, through the thirty-nine stripes and the scourging that He took upon His body, through His burial in that unused grave, through His glorious resurrection to stand and sit at the right hand of the Father. When we get the revelation of who Jesus is in us, it can transform who we are in Christ.

Continuing with verse 29 through 33, we read:

And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.” And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water. Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.

Now if you will study the harmony of the Gospels you will see that there are different versions of this testimony. One version said the demonized man became an evangelist. Does anyone have any demonized people in your family who might be hooked on heroine or crack cocaine or drugs? Anybody? I was like that. I was a demonized man. But I fell down at an altar like this and I received this man named Jesus as my Lord and Savior and I was set free. Hallelujah! And I became an evangelist. And I give God glory for that. What God did for me, He can do for you.

“Behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region” (v. 34). Think about that for a minute. Do you understand that there are going to be cities and regions that will reject this current healing revival? In other places the power and the glory and the Kingdom of God are going to manifest with great miracles, great healings, great signs, great wonders, and great glory and yet these places will also reject the move of God? You should be praying that you do not live in such a place.

Let’s go to the Book of Mark, chapter 1, verses 39 through 44:

And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons. Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Listen, Jesus is willing. You can approach Jesus and ask Him to approach you and meet you at your point of need. “I am willing.” Jesus is willing to meet you here today. He is willing.

Let’s have a look at Exodus, chapter 3, verses 13 through 15:

Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’”

He is I AM. God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).

Now let’s read Exodus, chapter 15, verse 26. God says,

If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.

Of course, that’s Jehovah Rapha. It means the God who heals in a similar manner to a physician, a doctor. It means that Jesus is the great I AM. It means that Jesus is the great physician. It means that I AM is willing to heal you spirit, soul, and body.

The God of Jacob, the God of Abraham, your God, Jesus Christ, the great I AM is willing. He is willing to heal you. He is willing to deliver you. He is willing to prosper you. God takes pleasure in the prosperity of His saints. I want to finish with one final passage of scripture, Psalm 103, verses 1 through 5:

Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

This speaks of the character of the Great I AM Willing, Jesus. He is willing to forgive our iniquity and our sin. It is iniquity and sin that open up the door for the enemy of our souls to oppress us with sickness and disease; to oppress us with poverty and all of these other emotional bondages such as fear and anxiety. But we can be set free because, “I Am willing to heal you,” says the Lord. He is willing! And the same Jesus who reached out and touched the leper, the same Jesus who reached out and touched the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law, the same Jesus who spoke a word and the centurion’s servant was healed in another city is here today. And He is willing to heal you. He is willing to speak to you. He is willing to breathe upon your faith so it will grow. He is willing to heal you.

Prayer of Activation

Father, I just thank You for the ministry of Jesus. I thank You, Father God, that Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Lord, we thank You that the Messiah never changes. We thank You that you sent Your only begotten Son into the world that whosoever, Jew or Gentile, shall call upon His name will be saved spirit, soul, and body. Father, I thank You for the healings we’ve already seen. I give You the praise and honor and glory for the miracles, the signs, and the wonders that are going to be released. Lord, I thank You for healing Your people. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray. Amen.

 

This article was written by Kevin Basconi, for

King of Glory Ministries International,

PO Box 903, Moravian Falls, NC 28654.

kingofgloryministries.org -336-818-1210.

 

This article was taken from Kevin Basconi’s forth coming book:

God’s Heart to Heal You

To see Kevin’s other resources click HERE.

 

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