His Heart, My Home

The record of Jesus’ earthly ministry is incredible! Peter, who was an eye-witness of those 3½ years of ministry, testified in Acts 10:38 that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing ALL who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

It’s unfortunate that some Christians have been wrongly taught to believe, “that was then, and this is now.” Sadly, whole denominations preach and teach that the miraculous, healing power of God has passed away, and is no longer available today.

Thank God, these groups do still teach eternal salvation by faith in the name of Jesus, but they neglect an important part of the gospel message by omitting healing.

Let’s look again in Acts 10:38, at the word that is translated as “oppressed.” The Greek word used is “katadunasteuo” and it means, “to oppress; to tyrannize; to wield harsh control over; to exercise cruel dominion against; to use one’s power against one.”

THE DEVIL IS THE OPPRESSOR
Who was oppressing people with physical sickness and bodily infirmities in Jesus’ day? The Bible gives us a clear, direct, and obvious answer. The multitudes in Jesus’ day were being abused, tormented, and oppressed by the devil. Did the devil’s oppression pass away with the apostles? Absolutely not! He’s still just as evil, sadistic, and cruel as he ever was. He’s still in the same old business of stealing, killing, and destroying people’s lives, and oppressing them with physical pain and suffering. (John 10:10)

We can see that our enemy continues “to wield harsh control and to exercise cruel dominion” in the earth. He tyrannizes and terrorizes God’s people, stealing their health, their finances, and their futures through sickness, disease and other attacks against their physical bodies.

It’s important that we examine the concept of dominion and see how the oppressor can “use our power against” us.

God created mankind in His likeness and image, “an exact duplication in kind.” He gave Adam and Eve and their descendants total dominion over the entire earth, over all the works of His hands. They were comissioned, deputized, and charged to be God’s under-rulers in governing the earth.(Genesis 1:26-28 and Psalm 8:3-6)

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they were cut off, and separated spiritually from God’s life. Because they were now spiritually dead, they became subject to the devil. They were now easily deceived, influenced, and controlled by satan, whom they had made the “god of this world.” Their God-given authority and dominion now rested in the hands of their cruel taskmaster.

Consider this: God had given Adam and Eve the God-like capability of exercising their authority and dominion through their words. There was creative, life-giving power in their words. But after they had surrendered their authority and dominion to satan, he began to use the inherent power of their words against them, to produce fear. sickness, lack, misery, defeatand death in their lives.

Satan is still operating in the same way. He is still using the same weapons, the weapons of our authority, our dominion, and the power of our words against us. I am convinced that many times, sicknesses, diseases, and infirmities are planted, and take root in our hearts, minds and bodies because of our own words; which were spawned, influenced, and manipulated by the devil’s lies and deceptions.

In attempting to explain the rapid rise of so many catastrophic diseases in modern times,
you will hear many people say, “The toxins in our environment are the root cause of many of our ills.”

I agree. Often, we are not really living a healthy lifestyle. But, I believe the toxins that are the most dangerous and destructive to our health are the ones we release into our “environment” with our words. Strife is a toxin. Fear is a toxin. Anger is a toxin. Satan oppresses (dictionary definition = to press against) us, till we express (release by words) that which we have allowed within us. Thus sickness-filled, death-filled words are sown as seeds into the fields of our lives.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
(Proverbs 18:21, NKJV)

“Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit -you choose.” (The Message)

Jesus came to destroy satan’s works in mankind and heal ALL who were oppressed by the devil. But there were always more oppressed than He could minister to personally. He was motivated by God’s love to heal them ALL, so He created and implemented a plan to multiply His efforts and effectiveness.

JESUS x 12

Matthew 9:35-38
” ³⁵Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. ³⁶ But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. ³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ³⁸ Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Up to this point, the disciples had been following Jesus around, listening to him preach, and watching him heal, but now because of the increasing size of the multitudes, Jesus began to restructure His team, and transition them from disciples (disciplined followers) to apostles (sent ones). He starts with challenging them to pray.

I love how Matthew 10:1 in The Message describes what happened next. It says, “The prayer was no sooner prayed, than it was answered.” As soon as they said, “AMEN”, Jesus put them to work!

He told the twelve to go the to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, “and as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:5-8)

JESUS x 70

The result? His ministry multiplied through the apostles. The more they healed the oppressed, the more the oppressed came, when they heard the Word of His power. Soon the 12 were not enough. And so Jesus commissioned a total of 70 and sent them out with the same instructions to preach the gospel of the kingdom, and heal the oppressed. (Luke 10)

JESUS x MILLIONS

After His resurrection, Jesus commissioned the Church from the book of Acts, to our present day, to continue His ministry of proclaiming the gospel and healing the oppressed. (Mark 16:15-18 and John 14:12)

With Jesus, there is always good news! Through His supreme sacrifice, we have been redeemed, reconciled, and reconnected with God. The life of God is within us! As we speak words of life and healing, we deliver ourselves and others from the oppression of sickness and disease! We can “be Jesus” to “our world”, family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Pray to the Lord of the harvest, then let’s go, healing ALL who are oppressed. God is with us!