The Power to Heal - Gina Kulikowski

The Power to Heal - Gina Kulikowski When Pastor Bruce asked me to preach this message, The Power to Heal, I was really excited and nervous at the same time. Because I, like you, have questions about healing. Do I believe God can heal? Absolutely 100%! I ve prayed for many people including youth kids and my own family to be healed and God has healed them. I have also prayed for healing for my kids, youth kids, my family my husband and God hasn t always manifested that physical healing the way I wanted them to be healed. So I am constantly seeking God on this topic of healing! And I believe When we seek God we find him! (would you pray with me now) PRAY I also believe and love this verse! (screen) Mark 16:17-18 says And these signs shall follow them that believe, in my name they shall cast out devils, speak with new tongues; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover! I ve seen people healed, but I want to see people healed every time I lay hands on someone and pray for them. Just like the early disciples did! So I say ok God, What s the deal here? You said it in Your Word and Your Word is filled with promises like this! So I am going to start with this What I do know for sure is God s Word doesn t lie and the bible is Gods Word! Let s read this together (screen) 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is God breathed is and is useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be equipped for every good work! So let s see what God says about healing. (screen) Isaiah 53:5 But He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. One more (screen) James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. So this is God s Word. God said it I believe it! I take God at His Word. God s Word has complete authority. So why don t we see healing every time we pray for someone? Some people say, well it all has to do with faith; if you have enough faith God will heal you. Well I have faith people! I do! But I also have trials and tribulations; sometimes those trials and tribulations keep our eyes on God and sometimes they take our eyes off God. 1

Let me introduce you to some of my trials and tribulations. Their names are Mary Lizzie Ashley and Daana. My four beautiful trials and tribulations wrapped up in such pretty packages; don t you think? We take one every year and every year they complain how embarrassed they are to stand on our front lawn holding their Easter baskets! And this one too, our Thanksgiving photo right before we eat dinner! 2

We always fight before these pictures are taken because no one but me wants to take them! So a year and a half ago God added two more trials and tribulations both their names are Matt.. my daughter s husbands. And at the end of the month we will have another one added to the family; Baby Christopher! He s due at the end of this month! 3

So you are wondering why I am calling my beautiful family trials and tribulation? Well you see they are my greatest blessings and just like you parents out there, when they hurt I hurt, when they have problems they become my problems. So in a sense they are my trials and tribulations! The more kids you have the more faith you will need; trust me! So I m always praying for healing for someone in my house I have a daughter Ashley who was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was in 8 th grade she is now 20 years old. And my husband John has had juvenile diabetes since he was very young. Two chronic conditions that could be life threatening. But let me tell you why I take God at his word. Although we haven t seen a complete healing in either one of them yet, and I say yet because I truly believe in healing in Gods timing. In the meantime, He uses these things to keep us close to Him. The ultimate goal in all of our lives is to know God more and know His ways and His presence. Let me share how God has showed up time after time in miraculous ways! So everyday I pray for Gods protection on my family. He answers that prayer every day in spite of some of the things epilepsy or diabetes brings. Let me share a few ways I ve seen God move supernaturally in my life. My daughter Ashely went through a time when she was having seizures at least once a week. She has been seizure free for over a year now. Praise God! But this time period was very fearful. I would always pray over her and start worshiping God during her seizures. She would come out of them so afraid screaming I am going to die I am going to die and I would say you are not going to die in Jesus name! Then I would pray 2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give you a spirit of fear but of love and of power and sound mind. That was our thing. So one time I was in the kitchen and I heard a crash in our downstairs bathroom, the door was shut but not locked. I heard Ashley having a seizure. I could actually hear her head banging against the bathroom door. When she fell her body was up against the door holding it shut with her body. I could not get in because of the weight of her body against the door. I was so afraid. I started praying my usual prayer for her, and praising God, then I heard a gentle voice say tell her to sit up in My Name. So I yelled as loud as I could, Ashley in the name of Jesus Sit up now! she sat right up. I pushed the door open and she 4

continued to have a seizure. God sat her up for me! God spoke to me so clear and I listened to his voice and I could pray over her while it was happening. Another time my husband John, who has diabetes, woke up in the middle of the night with an insulin reaction. During this he will shake a lot and he can t do anything but shake like he was in a seizure. When this happens I have to pour orange juice in his mouth and hold his head so he drinks it to bring his sugar up. So he was in bed and I had to run downstairs and bring up a glass of orange juice. When I came up he was shaking so much and was saying no no every time I try to give it too him. So the orange juice is going everywhere including my nice pottery barn quilt and on the floor. I m frustrated now and I am saying Jesus help me, John will not take this and He is saying No the people said NO! The People Said NO! I said Who are these people John? There are no people just drink the orange juice. So it goes all over and I ran to get another glass. I come upstairs now he s looking worse and I am scared for him because he could die if he doesn t get his sugar up quickly. So I franticly prayed Jesus please tell me what to do? Should I call 911? What should I do? I heard Jesus say to me, Tell him the people said yes. So I went into the hall way and I came back and I said John the people said YES! And he let me give him the orange juice and He was ok! As we look back it was quite funny, but not at the time. It s times like that, even though John and Ashley aren t healed completely, I know God has them! He shows up and maybe we wouldn t know His power if we didn t have these trials to keep us close to Him. But do I still believe in healing? YES I do with all my heart! Why? Because God says He heals in His Word! God said it and I believe it! Its that simple! So when I have questions for God, there are two things I do. I go into my prayer room and I put on worship music and I worship God; because even if I don t understand all that God does, I know He loves me! When I do that He takes away my fears. Then I search His word for answers because I know without a doubt the answer to every question we have can be found in the Word of God! So let s do that now; this story is one I can relate to. Mark 9:14-29 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. What are you arguing with them about? He asked. A man in the crowd answered Teacher I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit but they could not. You unbelieving generation, Jesus replied how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boys father How long has he been like this From childhood He answered. It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us. If you can? Said Jesus. Everything is possible for one who believes 5

Immediately the boy s father exclaimed, I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief! When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. You deaf and mute spirit, he said I command you, come out of him and never enter him again. The spirit shrieked convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said He s dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet and he stood up. After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately why couldn t we drive it out? He replied, This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting. Wow, so let s take a look at verses 21-24 Jesus asked the boys father, How long has he been like this? From childhood he answered. It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything take pity on us and help us If you can? Said Jesus. Everything is possible for one who believes Immediately the boys father exclaimed I do believe help me overcome my unbelief! So there it is The word UNBELIEF tells it all He said he believed but he still had unbelief in Him. You see we all have a measure of faith to move mountains; all you need is a mustard seed right. Matthew 17:20 If you have faith as small as mustard seed you can say to the mountain move and it will move. Jesus said it, I believe it. So where does this unbelief come in? The disciples couldn t cast out the demons. Why? they had faith I m sure they did. They saw Jesus do miracles before this. But somehow they also had unbelief! (Screen) UNBELIEF comes in when we take our eyes off Jesus. It comes in when we let fear take over our minds and hearts. It comes when we try to control things because we are afraid of the outcome. The world around us is saturated with unbelief. You don t really think God hears your prayers, why would he listen to you, look at all you ve done wrong. The lies of the enemy will fill us with unbelief if we let him. And when unbelief sets in, God won t do anything, God doesn t feel sorry for us when we worry, He doesn t move on fear or unbelief. He moves on faith! How do we get rid of unbelief? Lets look at Verse 28 (screen) Mark9:28 This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting. When I first read this years ago I thought it meant these were some pretty tough demons, but no demons are tough compared to Jesus. C mon people they were shrieking as they came out of this boy. They were afraid for their existence. You can t mess with Jesus! Prayer and Fasting clears the way in our flesh to hear God through our spirit and know His power in our life. Jesus knew that power! He had no doubt His Father would drive out those demons. Jesus spoke with authority! The Power of the Holy Spirit was in Him! The disciples needed to spend more time fasting and praying to know that power. You better be filled with Gods power to drive out demons. Spending time fasting and praying will do that! 6

When praying about this message, I heard the Holy Spirit say to me We need to be healed spiritually before we can be healed physically. (screen) We need to stop focusing on the Healing and Look to the Healer. (screen) I woke up Wednesday morning with Gods voice in my ear and this is what I heard; Gina, the Power to Heal is a person! That person is the Holy Spirit! When He shows up everything changes! We need to look at Jesus, sit with Jesus, listen to Jesus, worship Jesus! How awesome is that we as a church are doing this fast together! There is power in Unity! Gods Power! We will see breakthroughs IF we keep our eyes on JESUS! So the only way to get rid of unbelief is to fill your mind with faith! Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. THE WORD OF GOD! Last week Pastor Bruce talked about forgiveness and how forgiveness is huge when wanting God to hear our prayers, we must forgive others if we want God to forgive us. Where healing is concerned, we have another problem. It s when we really don t believe that God has forgiven us. We don t walk in that forgiveness. We still walk in condemnation. This alone can prevent our healing. We need a spiritual healing before we will receive our physical healing! Think about this; if we saw someone get healed who couldn t walk and God healed them, and they could walk, we would talk about it everyday this week. Maybe even the news would be here too and that would be awesome! I do believe we are going to see healings today because God is a healing God. But the person who gets healed physically is only healed temporary because they will ultimately die because we will all die someday. Every week Pastor Bruce shares the gospel, and people are healed spiritually! They have crossed over from death to eternal life! They are healed for eternity! That s the healing God is doing among us every week and He wants us to understand how amazing that is and Praise Him for it. That s why we need a spiritual healing before a physical healing can happen. Let s look at (SCREEN) 1 John 3:19-22 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence. If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater then our hearts and He knows everything. Dear friends if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask because we keep his commands and do what pleases Him. So now we have.. (SCREEN) Two things that prevent our healing. UNBELEIF and CONDEMNING HEARTS! 7

LET S GET RID OF UNBELIEF AND CONDEMNING HEARTS TODAY! SO WE CAN BE HEALED! THE POWER TO HEAL IS A PERSON HIS NAME IS HOLY SPIRIT. HE WILL SET YOU FREE TODAY! If you ve repented for your sins and asked Jesus to forgive you and be your Lord and personal savior, and you ve committed your life to Him then all your sins are forgiven. But there are people who don t forgive themselves, therefore their heart is condemning them. And God is saying to you right now, for you to get a physical healing you need to believe that God has forgiven you and you need to walk in that forgiveness because even if your heart is condemning you GOD is greater then our hearts! But if your heart does not condemn you, if you take God at His word when He said by my stripes you are healed then you can have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask because we do what pleases Him. Are you living a life that is pleasing to God? Are you spending time in His presence reading His Word letting Him love on you? Are you walking in His love and forgiveness? THIS IS WHAT PLEASES GOD! The first step is to cross over from death to life. You have a chance right now to receive your spiritual healing, then your physical healing may come in Gods timing and it could be today. It s so simple, to cross over from death to eternal life. ABC A-Admit you are a sinner and that you have done things that don t please God, ask God to forgive you. B-Believe in Jesus; that He died on the cross and took your sin. He then rose from the dead and all your sin was gone, past present and future. C-Commit your life to Him. Let Him change you. You can t do it yourself. D-Do it today! (Pray) Now is our time for healing prayer, God inhabits the praises of His people, God loves when we worship Him; we were created to worship Him and love Him. We have altars set up on each side they are the rocks with the pillows you see on each side and in the middle. We are going to have a time of worship. As we do that if you have something you need healing for, please come up take a second and leave that request before the feet of Jesus. After you do, come back to your seat and worship God with all your heart! Because as we worship we believe that God will show up for you to be healed! Remember the Power to Heal is in a person; His name is Holy Spirit! All God has to do is show up and touch you with His Holy Spirit and you will be healed if you have faith. Ask God to help your unbelief just like the man whose son Jesus healed! Because He will! I am sure of it. Remember the Power to heal is a person; His name is Holy Spirit! Ask Him to fill you and heal you today! 8