DAY 8 - New Job: To Bring More People into God's Kingdom through Healing (Please click here for English podcast)

Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people
3.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

              I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
                I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2                 I will be glad and exult in you;
                I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.  Psalm 9:1-2                                                 

Confession and repentance

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gift to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.  And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

                                                                      Matthew 4:23-25

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening
    

     Jesus calls you to do a job for Him when you are willing to give up everything for Him. A new job!

     According to this passage, you must be thinking that your job is somewhat like what Jesus did - to be a healer. Yes, but to be a healer is not our main job. Our main job is to bring in God's Kingdom on earth through healing.

     Bishop N.T. Wright says:

     Jesus really did have remarkable powers of healing.  But Jesus was never simply a healer pure and simple, vital though that was as part of his work.  For him, the healings were signs of the new thing that God was doing through him.  God's kingdom - God's sovereign, saving rule - was at last being unleashed upon Israel and the world, through him.

          N.T. Wright. Matthew for Everyone, Part 1. Louisville,KY:Westminster         John Knox Press, 2004, p.33-34.

     As disciples of Jesus who are anointed by the Holy Spirit, we should have quite a number of gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift of healing may be one of those gifts. It may be physical healing, or it may be relational healing between people. Above all, we need to be very clear that all those gifts are for us to show other people what the Kingdom of God looks like so that they are willing to repent and enter into the Kingdom of God. 

     The topic I received from Jesus today is : 

     New Job: To bring More People into God's Kingdom through healing

     

     What I received from Jesus today is a reminder of what gifts we should have and what is the purpose of those gifts. If you have the gift of healing, the end goal is not for you to be a famous and powerful healer. That's pride! The end goal and the purpose of your new job is your willingness and obedience to Jesus so that He can use those gifts you have to bring more people to God's Kingdom. 

     How well are you doing this new job for Jesus?

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to do our new job well so that we can bring more people into your Kingdom. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. 

Reflect on these questions:

1. Have you used words or actions to help people receive healing recently? Examples like helping couples to mend their broken relationship, praying for people so that they were being encouraged or physically being healed, leading people to have a spiritual renewal etc.)? 

2. What could be the thing to block you from receiving that new job from Jesus?  

3. What have you got from Jesus through today's message? 

Family Corner:
1. When there is hurt in your family, do you seek real healing to the wound, or do you just put a "band-aid" (metaphorical) on it and move on?

2. At this moment, is there any hurt in your family that God wants to heal through you? It could be in relationships with your children, parents, or siblings.

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:

10,000 Reasonshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E