The Best Friend You Never Knew Part 6: Yeshua, The Forgotten Healer

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Cleansed of Colon Cancer

A friend of mine had the following experience:

“Last December, a friend and I visited Bobby, who is pretty poor and lives in squalid conditions. This particular day, we found Bobby pretty depressed. We asked why. The response caught us off-guard: “I have cancer, and it’s really making me tired.” 

Right then and there, in our blue jeans and casual shirts yet without any consecrated oil, we laid our hands on Bobby and pronounced a blessing. It wasn’t one of those generic blessings where we say that God loves you, God is “aware” of you or that He knows your name. It wasn’t a blessing where there wasn’t one “if” statement (“IF you have the faith to be healed” or “IF it’s the Lord’s will”). Far from it. The blessing was personalized and intimate, with words from neither man giving the blessing, but from God Himself.  

Father spoke directly to Bobby, and right then and there, pronounced healing on Bobby, and that Jesus would come to this person and heal them. 

A few weeks later, I was in a ward council meeting and saw Bobby’s name on a list. Excitedly, I shared with the full-time missionaries that I had recently met Bobby and prayed over him for healing. The missionaries said they had dropped him a few weeks earlier because Bobby couldn’t make the appointments due to the cancer treatments.
Soon after that, I stopped by Bobby’s. He was at the door with a completely different look on his face. I asked him how things were going.  

He said, “Well, I’m cancer-free, so I’m doing pretty darn good!”  

I asked Bobby if he recalled when a friend and I prayed for healing in the name of Jesus.
Bobby beamed “Yes, IT’S A MIRACLE!” 

Bobby pointed to his back side and said “No more colon cancer!” 

Bobby had stage 2 colon cancer. Now, to the utter amazement of many cancer doctors, there was no trace of cancer in his body. None. At. All. 

I hurried to call my friend who had been part of that healing blessing. We felt amazed and humbled to have been partners with Jesus in this blessing, and were awestruck by the wonderful manifestation of kindness and compassion from the Lord. 

Interestingly enough, I asked Bobby, “So, what did your congregation at your church think about this amazing healing?” Bobby responded, “Well, they don’t care much about me. I’m just a nobody.” 

He may consider himself a nobody, but anyone who has been touched by the finger of God and healed of a disease that just doesn’t cure itself is, well, they are definitely somebody.  

You know how Jesus used to heal the outcasts of society -- like the blind, the crippled and especially the lepers?  

I almost forgot to mention:  

Bobby is a transvestite.”

Cleansed of “Leprosy”

“Leprosy” or Hansen’s Disease, is a chronic inflammatory disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. It isn’t the same “leprosy” we read about in the New Testament.

The Hebrew word sara’at, which is predominantly associated with Biblical leprosy, is a ritualistic term denoting uncleanness or defilement. It covered a wide variety of conditions that could affect people, clothing or even structures. They could be described today as boils, carbuncles, fungus infections, infections complicating a burn, impetigo, favus of the scalp, scabies, patchy eczema, phagedenic ulcer, vitiligo and of course, Hansen’s Disease. The “leprosy” on walls or clothes was more likely to be fungus, mold, dry rot, lichen or similar conditions. (source)

Two thousand years ago, a man with sara’at approached Yeshua and said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.”

At that moment, Yeshua “put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean.”

The man’s sara’at was cleansed.

Back then, physical leprosy wasn’t the only thing that would get you ostracized. Being a publican (a Jewish tax collector for the ancient Romans) or sinner (often considered those who habitually sinned) were avoided by the ruling religion of the day.

But this didn’t matter to Yeshua. Not one bit. Instead,

"as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him.
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Mark 2:15-17)

That’s right -- Jesus invited the outcasts of society to dine where? Check it out again -- “in his house”

Fast Forward to Today

“For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 9:13)

Turn on the radio or TV, go to the store, check your emails, and you’ll invariably see or hear the word, “coronavirus”. “Social distancing” is likely the new phrase of the year. There are no hugs, no handshakes, no high fives, no contact with others for fear of catching this disease.

Unfortunately, amidst the deafening sounds of worry and fear, what we don’t hear about is the saving power of Yeshua.

The scriptures often mention the word “pestilence”, which is defined as “a fatal epidemic disease”. That sounds a lot like coronavirus to me. “Pestilence” is used over 40 times in the scriptures, and almost always, as a means to help motivate people to prepare and repent.

“If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14; emphasis mine)

Yet today, many are hopping on social media and pleading with others to join them in praying for the disease to end swiftly. Is there any possibility whatsoever that God (who’s ways do not change) is perhaps using this pestilence to (again) motivate people to prepare and repent? Which is the Lord likely more pleased with: the prayer to end a pestilence, or the prayer that people will turn from their wicked ways, repent and turn to Him so He will heal our lands (as He’s promised)?

Others profess belief in the Savior, but are quick to minimize or neglect any recognition whatsoever of His healing powers. When was the last time you saw someone mentioning true, powerful blessings which could easily eradicate the pestilence on the spot? After all, if two men can do so over someone with colon cancer, shouldn’t the same method work for someone stricken with coronavirus?

As we read throughout the scriptures, we never see Yeshua quarantining Himself from sick and sinner alike.

We never see Him saying “IF it’s God’s will, you’ll be healed.”

We never see Him saying “God is aware of you” or giving a generic ”any blessing you stand in need of.”

No. He was simple, direct and in command of any situation, from devils to diseases, vulgarity to viruses.

So what do you see today? Do you, who have taken upon yourself Christ’s name, proudly and unashamedly proclaim the power of God? Or do you see and publicly praise messages which neglect mentioning the word “repent” (Isaiah 30:9-13) and deny the power of God (Mormon 8:28)?

Who among us has the faith to do as Jesus did, as depicted in the videos below...to bless as He blessed...even those considered the most physically and spiritually unclean and diseased among us?

BE the Gift of Hope

In my previous post, I mentioned how this blog’s Facebook group is devoting this month to an in-depth review of several spiritual gifts you may have heard of or suspected, but never really learned much about (for details, here’s a link to the post).

In a recent post I consider congruent with the Gift of Hope, author John Eldredge said this:

“Ground yourself in Jesus. The world is reeling; it wants to pull you down with it. Fear and anxiety are more contagious than any virus. This is our chance to shine. Peter tells us to be ready to offer the reason for the hope we have to anyone who asks us (1 Peter 3:15). He's assuming that in times of crisis, the friends of Jesus will be so rooted in him, so grounded in his goodness, that they will have a visibly different reaction to those in the world around them. This is our time to offer hope!” (You can find more here: https://www.ransomedheart.com/blogs/john/peace-midst-storm)

Might I suggest that what the Lord is truly asking of His disciples these days isn’t just fear, and believe it or not, it’s not just faith. It’s superfaith -- the kind the Brother of Jared had -- which pierced and cracked open the veil.

It’s time not just for prayers, but also power which flows not through another mortal to you, but instead, it flows directly from God to His true believers, both male and female. Spiritual gifts know no gender.

It’s a time for knowing not just that “God is aware of you”, “God loves you”, and “God watches over you” (Come on! We’ve known these things since we were in Sunbeams)! Instead, it’s a time to obtain a personal knowledge, independent of anyone else, that Yeshua is a real person, who laughs, cries, gets mad and loves life more than possibly anybody who’s ever walked the earth. Oh yeah...and that He would love nothing -- and I mean NOTHING -- more than to establish a personal relationship with you.

Everything the enemy tries to throw at you is a sign as to how much God has available to you. The spirit of fear is nothing compared to the spirit of God. More powerful than a thousand lukewarm Christians, more powerful than the coronavirus in your city, county or state, is the one who will stand for God in a day of darkness.

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13)

YOU get the chance to stand for God in a day when the world is against God. What a high, powerful honor!

I invite you to embrace this opportunity...while you still have the chance.