HEAL THE SICK AND PREACH THE GOSPEL - Not Just A Choice But A Command

The Call of Jesus

Welcome to lesson 16
"Heal the Sick & Preach the Gospel".

Do you love Jesus?

Is He your Lord,
and do you obey Him?

If you love Him,
and if He's your Lord and you obey Him,

then you will be healing the sick
and preaching the gospel.

Why? Because this is what
He says to us.

This is what He has called us to.

That is what He has called you to.

You will not "only" heal the sick.

You also preach the gospel.

And you will not "only" preach the gospel.

You also heal the sick.

These two things:
healing the sick and preaching the gospel,

it's something we read in the Bible.
It's going hand in hand.

It went hand in hand in Jesus' life.

It went hand in hand in what
He was preaching

and what He called His disciples to do,

and this is what we see
with the early church.

Some of you will have problem
with what I've said before,

when I started with saying:
Heal the sick and preach the gospel.

You would think: No.
Why does he say: heal the sick?

Why is this chapter called
"Heal the sick" - first?

I know some of you, because of your
tradition, will have problem with it.

Others who see this, maybe will have
a problem with me, at all, saying:

"Heal the sick", because you don't believe
it's for today.

Some of you will think:
Okay, it's for today and this is okay,

but you don't like that I say
it's for everyone

because it's only for a few out there.

But when we continue,
I really ask you to be open,

open to what I want to share,

open to what I'm sharing
out of the Word of God.

It is so important that we don't
build theology on our experience,

that we don't build theology
on our lack of experience,

or on our church traditions.

Don't build theology on anything else
than on the Word of God,

on what Jesus is saying.

So, I hope you are ready for this.

In this series we have now came to
Luke 10:9, where Jesus is saying this:

"Heal the sick who are there and tell them,

'The kingdom of God has come near to you."

So, this is what Jesus has commanded
us to do.

And here we see that Jesus Himself said:

Heal the sick, first,
and then preach, later.

So, if you had a problem with me
in the beginning,

starting saying: heal the sick, first,

and then, I said, share the gospel later,

then, talk with Jesus about it.

Because, if you had a problem with that,

then you, actually, don't have a problem
with me.

You have a problem with Jesus.

Because I was just quoting
what Jesus was saying.

Why do I start with this?

Because there are so many traditions.

There are so many church traditions.

And I have seen it again and again,
if I say to somebody:

"Hey, you need to heal the sick."
"Oh... oh... no, no, no.

it's more important that we preach
the gospel."

And yes, we need to preach the gospel,
but...

How often do you hear somebody said:
"Hey, we need to preach the gospel!"

"Oh, no, no, no, we have to start
with healing the sick."

We don't hear people talk like that.

It's important that we do both.

Because other places, like in Luke 10:9,
we saw here, Jesus said,

first heal the sick,
and then preach the gospel.

But other places, Jesus said,
first, preach the gospel and heal the sick.

The importance is not the order.
The importance is that we do both.

The importance is that we obey Jesus.

And Jesus has never called us

"just"

to heal the sick,

or "just" to preach the gospel.

He has called us to both preach
the gospel and heal the sick,

or heal the sick and preach the gospel.

This is His call.

Let me read a short quote from
this chapter in my book.

"Jesus is the same yesterday,
today, and forever.

When Jesus walked on earth,
He went to people's houses

because the sick needed a doctor

and the sinners needed forgiveness.

Now, you and I are His body,

bringing healing and forgiveness
to people."

And that is the thing.
If we look at Jesus' life,

Jesus was not only healing the sick /
casting out demons.

He was not only preaching the gospel.

He did both.

He went around, in people's houses,
because the sick needed a physician.

The sick need healing.

And the sinners need repentance.
The sinners need forgiveness.

And these were those two things
He was preaching -

healing and forgiveness,
forgiveness and healing.

But then He saw that the harvest was great
and the workers were few,

so He called the first 12 to Him.

And those 12 He did not only called
to heal the sick,

or only called to preach the gospel.

No, He called them to heal the sick
and preach the gospel.

But then He saw that the harvest
was still great

and the workers were still few,

so He called the 70 to Him
and called them,

not only to preach the gospel,
not only to heal the sick,

but to both heal the sick
and preach the gospel.

But the harvest is still great
and the workers are few.

So He has called us to go out and do it
to all nations now, and make disciples.

That was what Jesus died for.
He paid the price on the cross.

By His wound we are healed.
By His blood we are forgiven.

And we need to bring that to people.

We need to go to the homes,
as Jesus did it,

and bring healing.

We need to go to the homes,
as Jesus did it,

and bring forgiveness.

Before we move on and talk about healing
the sick and preaching the gospel,

I'd like to remind you of what Jesus is saying
in Matthew 11:28-30. He is saying this:

"Come to me, all of you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your soul.

For My yoke it is easy
and My burden is light."

Jesus says here that His yoke is easy
and His burden is light.

That also comes to healing the sick
and preaching the gospel,

in that way that...

You can learn this.

We can all learn it.

We can all learn to walk in this.

So remember, Jesus' yoke is easy
and His burden is light.

Also, when it comes to healing the sick
and preaching the gospel.

Yes, all beginnings are hard,
but when you start to learn

and start to walk in it,

it will be an easy yoke to carry.

It will not be a big burden,
to heal the sick and to preach the gospel.

Why? Because it's what Jesus
has called us to do.

But remember, Satan is a liar.

And we need to understand that

the gospel was not only meant

to be preached from a platform,
by a few people,

but the gospel was meant to be preached
from everyone out there in the homes.

Remember that healing the sick

is not only for a few people today,

who have a special gift,
or a few people who stand on a platform.

No, healing the sick is also meant
for everyone out there in the homes.

Some of you will say: No, no, healing
the sick cannot be for us and for everyone.

It's only for a few. Why? Because it's not
everyone who has the gift of healing.

And we need to look at that.
In 1 Corinthians 12:30 we read:

"Do all have the gift of healing?"

And the answer, in this context is:
No, not all have the gift of healing.

But remember, Satan knows
the Word of God,

and Satan was using the Word,
or twisting the Word

to mean something else,
when he was tempting Jesus in the desert.

And this is what we see here
in 1 Corinthians.

If people say: No, no, we cannot
heal the sick because this verse is saying

that not everyone has the gift of healing.

Let me explain.

No, it's not all who have the gift of healing.

It's not all who are prophets.

It's not all who are evangelists.

It's not all who are teachers.

It's not all who have the gift of faith.

It's not all who have the gift of helping.

Just to say some of the giftings
and ministries we see in the Bible.

But you have to understand
how this works.

You can have faith without having
the gift of faith.

You can help people without having
the gift of helping.

You can learn to prophesy without
being a prophet.

You can learn to evangelize
without being an evangelist.

You can teach other people something
without being a teacher.

And you can heal without
having the gift of healing.

Those gifts are here to equip
the saints to do ministry.

Let's say like that.

Try to imagine you can only do
what you have a gift to do.

That means that... The Bible says
it's not everyone who has the gift of faith.

Does that mean, if you don't have
the gift of faith, you have no faith?

Then you are lost.

You are lost.

Try to imagine if somebody come
and say to you:

Hey, can you help me move this chair?

You say: No, I cannot help you move the chair.
Why? I don't have the gift of helping.

Or somebody says: Hey, can you give a gift
to this ministry?

No, no, no, I cannot give a gift,
because I don't have a gift of giving.

Or, if your kid come and say:
Mom, dad, can you help me with homework?

No, no, we don't have the gift of teaching.
We cannot help you with teaching.

Or somebody says:
Can you tell me about Jesus?

No, no, I cannot tell you about Jesus,
because I'm not an evangelist.

It will just be crazy
if we will think like that.

No, we can all do everything
in Jesus Christ who strengthens us.

I can help other people, even if I would say
I have not the gift of helping.

I can prophesy even I would say
I'm not a prophet.

I can teach other people even
I would say I don't have the gift of teaching.

I can do different things,
and you can do different things.

How do the gifts work?

There are people who have a special calling.

For example, there is a ministry,
a teacher called David Pawson.

David Pawson is an old gentleman
from England.

Hi is a teacher with the big T.

He blessed me a lot.

I listened to his teaching.

I can teach. I love teaching.
I'm teaching you.

But, it's not like: Hey, I want to teach
Sunday, after Sunday, after Sunday,

for a year, or two years.
I don't have that in me.

But David Pawson has it.

David Pawson is a teacher with a big T.

By me being with him,
and receiving from him,

he inspired me and made me better
in teaching.

Then I know other people
who are prophets with the big P.

I can prophesy, but I'm not a prophet,
but when I'm together with those people

I become stronger in prophesying,

because they are making me strong,
they help me.

The same way is with all the other gifts.

There are people in the church
who have a special gift in some areas.

They don't use it only for themselves,

but they use it to equip others to do it.

The same way, I would say, you don't need
a gift of healing to heal the sick.

Just start to heal the sick.

If you then grow up and become
strong in it

and start to equip others to do the same,

then we can say you have
the gift of healing.

Do you understand?

So, forget all about the gifts
in the beginning.

Start to serve.

Start to help where you need to help.

Start to teach where people need teaching.

Start to heal the sick where people
need healing.

Start to share the gospel where people
need the gospel.

And then you start and do it all,
and maybe some of the areas you grow

and you become stronger, and then you start
to equip others in that area,

and then we can say:
Wow! You have a gift.

So, again, it's so important that we don't
build theology on our experience.

Why? Because our experience can change
from day to day.

So never build theology
out of the experience.

But, look at Jesus.

We need to always look at Him,
when we talk about theology.

My experience is that it's not everyone
I prayed for who get healed.

But my experience is also that many
people get healed,

and more people get healed now
than they did last year and the year before.

So, let's look at Jesus.

What do we see in the Bible?

We see that Jesus healed everyone
who came to Him.

So simple as that.

He never needed to send anyone away
and say: Sorry, I could not heal you.

Sorry, I did not have faith for it.
Sorry, I cannot help you. Go away. No.

Everyone you came to Him,
it's not everyone who came,

but those who came to Him,
He healed them.

Those who came to Him,
He set them free.

And Jesus is our role model.

He is our example.

Imitate me as I imitate Christ,
Paul said.

But in those areas where Paul
did not imitate Christ,

we should not imitate him.

We should imitate Christ instead.

Christ is our example.

If we look at Jesus,
He healed everyone, every time.

He set everyone free every time.

But there is an example in the Bible,
in Matthew 17,

where Jesus' disciples prayed
for a young boy with a demon,

and they could not cast out that demon.

Jesus came there and rebuked
the disciples for their lack of faith,

and then He set that boy free.

And they asked: Why we could not
cast out that demon?

Jesus said: Because you don't have faith.

And then He talked about the unbelief
in their lives,

and He said: That kind of unbelief is only
being cast out through prayer and fasting.

But here we see an example
of Jesus' disciples

who tried to do something
and they could not do it.

Like we try to pray for people
and they don't get healed.

We try sometimes to cast out demon
and people don't experience freedom.

What do we, sadly, do today?

We come with a lot of theology
why it didn't happen.

Oh, maybe it's not God's will
or maybe it's not time,

or maybe they have the sin in their life,
or maybe it's a curse, or special curse...

We complicate it.

But I know those times I prayed for people
and they didn't get healed,

and I prayed and they didn't get set free,

if Jesus was coming, He would just look
at them and set them free right away,

look at me and rebuke me
for my lack of faith.

It's so simple.

It comes down to faith.

We need faith.

And it's okay for me to recognize
that there are things I cannot do, yet,

that I'm not like Christ, yet,

that I pray for people who
don't get healed, yet.

Why? Because we are all disciples.
We are all apprentices, as we have talked about.

But I want to see more healing and
breakthrough this year than I did last year.

Why? Because we are here to learn.
We are here to grow.

I want to read a bigger text from
my book, from this chapter.

"My theology is very simple
when it comes to faith.

I truly believe it's always God's will
to heal,

just like it's always His will
to save people.

When Jesus' disciples could not
cast out the demon,

they could have come up with many excuses
as to why the boy was not set free.

Yes, they could have said, 'Oh, maybe
he has sin in his life

and that is why he was not set free',
or

'Maybe it is not God's will to heal.'

Or, they could have said,
'Maybe healing is not for today.'

They could have come up with so many excuses,
just like people often do today,

but at that time, Jesus was still
physically here on earth,

and He rebuked His disciples
for their lack of faith,

and He set the boy free.

The problem today is that Jesus
is no longer physically walking

around on earth,
as He did at that time;

therefore, today, when people
do not get healed,

we start to come up with a lot of false
theology

as to why it did not happen.

There are many books out there today
saying why healings do not happen,

but much of what is being taught
is not biblical.

If Jesus physically came down on earth today,

He would heal everyone just like He did
before,

and we would all have to change our theology,

and throw away these books and
false teachings about healing.

So I have a simple theology.

Jesus wants to heal everyone,
and everyone who came to Jesus was healed.

Not everyone came to Him, but those
who came to Him, all of them were healed."

And this is as clear as I can say it:
I truly believe this.

This is what I see in the Bible.

Don't build theology on your experience
or your lack of experience.

Let's look at Christ.
Let's look at His life.

Let's look at what Jesus has called us to do.

Let's obey Him.

And if you take the time to look
at the Bible, you will see very clear

that you are called
not only to heal the sick,

not only preach the gospel,

but you are called to do both.

You are called to heal the sick
and preach the gospel

and that go hand in hand,

together with, of course,
casting out demons.

Because what do we see in Luke 10,
when Jesus sent them out,

He actually just said: Heal the sick,

but we read that they came back
later rejoicing and saying:

Even the demons obey in Your name.

So, what we see? When you start
to go out and heal the sick in faith,

you will see that some of those
you prayed for,

suddenly a demon manifested
and you say: Come out in the name of Jesus!

And will start to cast out demons instead.

So, we are called to do it.
Yes, we are not like Jesus yet.

Sometimes we pray for people
who don't get healed.

But then we need to just grow
in our faith.

We need to keep growing,
we need to keep looking at Jesus.

We need to grow in our faith.

And those who maybe don't get healed
this time, if we come back a year later,

now we have faith, now we can help them
and we can set them free.

So, you don't need a special gift.
You just need faith.

And start with the faith you have.

Start be faithful in the small things,
also when it comes to your little faith,

or my little faith. We need to be
faithful in the small things,

and then we need to grow from there.

So, when you are out there,
in your everyday life,

and want to obey the call of Jesus,

then be bold, find a person of peace,
share Jesus with them.

But not only share Jesus.

Pray for them. Ask them: Hey, excuse me,
do you have anything I can pray for?

Lay hands on them and pray for them.

And you who are out there already
laying hands and praying for people,

not only do that. Remember also
to share the gospel.

Those two things should go
hand in hand.

How do you start with this?

I encourage you to read my book.

I have much more teaching about
healing the sick in this chapter.

Beside that, we have a lot of videos
on our YouTube channel

with teaching about how to heal the sick
on our online "Pioneer School".

I have many hours teaching about
how to heal the sick.

I have many hours teaching about
how to cast out demons.

And together with this video
I'm going to put a link in

to some of those teachings of how to
heal the sick and how to cast out demons.

But I want to add here a very, very good way,
is to find somebody near you

who can take you by the hand
and take you out on the street

and get you started.
We call it the kickstart.

Why? Because it's one thing
to read about it,

it's one thing to hear about it,
it's something else to obey it.

From hearing to start to obey it,
that step can be a big step.

So, what we can offer,
if you go to TLRmap.com

and in the text together with it
there is also a link, TLRmap.com.

Try to find somebody near you
who already go out and pray for people.

And meet with them and say:
Can you take me out on the street?

Because when you do it with somebody,
it is so much easier.

If you've done it one time
you can do it again, and you can do it again,

and you can do it again,
and many get healed, some don't get healed,

and you grow from there, and you start
obeying Jesus and the call He has given you.

If you don't have anyone around you
who can take you out,

just do it anyway.

That was the same with me.

I did not have anyone who took me
by the hand,

but I saw what Jesus has called me to.

I needed to make a decision:
do I want to obey Him,

or do I want to obey
my church's experience?

Do I want to obey Him or my tradition?

Do I want to build my life on my experience
or build my life on the Word of God?

In the beginning, my life looked
very far away from the Word of God.

But slowly, how the years have gone,
I moved up, and I've grown and learned

to walk more like Christ, my life
more and more looked like the Word of God.

My life, more and more, looked like Christ's.

And this is the same journey
we are all on.

So, I really, really want to encourage you...

take that extra step.
Remember it's God's will.

Remember it's the call of Jesus.
Jesus has called you to heal the sick

and preach the gospel.

Don't ask questions:
Oh, does God want me to pray for people?

Yes, He wants you to pray for people.
It's in His Word.

You don't need to ask.
It's already written.

It's the call He has given you.

Instead of asking:
Oh God, oh Jesus, is it Your will?

Do You want me to pray for people?

Stop asking that, but instead,
ask other people around you:

Excuse me, can I pray for you?

Ask them. Be bold.

When you meet somebody:
Excuse me, can I pray for you?

What if they say "no"?

Then you say: "have a good day" or say:
"the reason I asked you is

because I want to tell you about Jesus".

But what if they say "yes"?

What if you pray for them and they
don't get healed?

Then you prayed for them and they
did not get healed,

and you have learned from that,
and then you share Jesus.

But what if you pray for them
and they get healed?

We will all experience people
who will say "no".

We will all experience people
who will say "yes".

We will all experience people
who will get healed.

We will all experience people
who won't get healed.

The worse thing you can do
is - do nothing.

Try to remember that this is
a call Jesus has given us.

When you say "yes" to Him
you said "no" to yourself.

You say "yes" to denying yourself
and taking up your cross and follow Him,

and be His disciple.

So, let's be bold and let's start to
obey Him,

and then grow from there.

So, I really encourage you to take
some steps.

In the next lessons I will take time
to look at how to preach the gospel,

as we read about.

And then later, after taking two or three
lessons, where I will look at the gospel,

I will put it all together and start
to share testimonies

where we see Luke 10 come together,

everything we've been looking
until now.

God bless you and see you next time!

Share this video and let's see a church
that not only confesses Jesus as Lord,

but starts to obey Jesus as Lord,

starts to live the life
He has called us to do.

God bless you!
See you next time! Bye-bye!

The Call of Jesus