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| PentecostalTheology.com
HEAL THE BROKEN-HEARTED AND
BRING HOPE THIS CHRISTMAS – Ray E Horton
“Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me. Or else believe Me on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me will do the works that I do also. And he will do greater works than these, because I am going to My Father” (John 14:11-12).
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do. For whatever He does, likewise the Son does‘” (John 5:19).
Do What Jesus Did
Before Jesus ever set out on His healing ministry, He proclaimed a further mission as well
As Jesus did what He saw the Father doing, so we must open our spiritual eyes to see what the Father is doing and align our hearts with it. Another way to do that is to see what the Bible tells us that Jesus, the express image of the Father (Heb. 1:3), did in His earthly ministry.
We know that before going to the cross, Jesus went about healing the sick and working miracles, but, before He ever set out on His healing ministry, He proclaimed further mission as well:
“Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit … He found the place where it was written (Isa. 61:1-2): The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord … Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:14-21).
Bring Them Hope
Jesus’ calling and actions in His earthly ministry show forth the love and compassion of the Father. So, before we set out to work healings and miracles in Jesus name, let us first be sure to be preaching the “Good News” of salvation “to the poor” – remembering that the poor of spirit are all who do not know Jesus. And so many people are spiritually blinded and oppressed by the enemy. They need to have the hope that the “acceptable year of the Lord” for their deliverance is now.
But there is more: If they are to listen to us, let us, like Jesus, show His compassion on those in the hurting world around us and “heal the broken-hearted” and minister to their needs. Is there a better time to start than now, during the Christmas season, a time of love and comfort and giving for many, and a time of hurting memories for others?
Chris
Amen.
There really is no more acceptable time of the year than during the holidays for the message to declare the acceptable year of the Lord.
We really need some more strengthening through the scriptures, encouragement throughout these hard times, and to be able to find the courage to strengthen others.
With many churches across the nation have facing closures due to financial hardships amid such turmoil in the current political atmosphere, we need more people to be equipped to get out there and let captives go free through such bold declarations as these done by the Lord, Jesus Christ according to the prophet Esaias.