Jesus Christ has a passion for the healing of the sick and I have a passion to stand with him while he does it.

 

I remain grateful to the medical profession for all that it does for us and I recognize that science was invented by God, but I ache as a Christian for those who suffer. Great leaps forward in medical science have been granted to us in recent years. God reveals to his people his creative and re-creative power. But I have a strong sense that there is a mountain of healing blessing available which could be missed if the church fails to focus on the power of the cross.

 

We thank God for the contributions made to the body of Christ by faithful leaders and teachers in the Church's ministry of healing evangelism, who point us to the word of God and encourage us to receive from him, according to his covenant promises, in the power of the Holy Spirit; but there is much to do. The well-known leaders are not called to do it all, and we need all hands on deck! So this book, The Passion to Heal, is written for those countless thousands of faithful men and women whose names are never in print, and whose faces are never seen in the church newspapers or on Christian television, whose quiet and unsophisticated toil in prayer bears fruit in the kingdom of God, and who want to see works of the kingdom of such magnitude that Jesus is glorified by everyone who comes to him. 

 

The so-called 'ordinary' Christian, who will not be singled out for any honour or attention, and is often hungry to see more spiritual fruit—more people coming to a personal knowledge of God, more people healed—is the one who can play a key role under God.

 

We tend to believe that effective Christian lives are not lived in the context of the ordinary, and yet the opposite is true. We sometimes focus too much on the high profile Christian—the writer; the person with the 'platform' ministry—and forget that 'great' Christian lives are only those which are subservient to the word of God. 

 

Jesus said to his disciples, "You are my friends if you do what I command" (John 15:14), and that obedience to him is what matters and makes the difference. Countless saints who started out along their road with Christ in quite ordinary ways are now numbered among the 'greats', and this only because of their obedience to God. 

 

The early disciples were simply ordinary people who became extraordinary because they fell into God's will for their lives. It really is the 'ordinary' people of the church who carry on the work of the gospel. We may think, quite wrongly, that our lives are much too ordinary for us to be effective in God's service, as we cope with jobs that may be less than exciting; our mortgages, and so many family and household needs, but the truth is that it is for us, in the midst of our everyday life, to heal the sick and to tell people that the kingdom of God has come near to them.

 

There is a great deal to do, and we should know what we are doing. We have to be about the business of the kingdom, but we should know our business and know it well. What most matters, though, is our relating to—and opening ourselves up to—our extraordinary God. He is capable of doing more for us than we could dream of, and longs to show us even greater things if we will work with him. How do we do that? Can we see greater things?

 

The Passion to heal – Revd Mike Endicott. Published by Terra Nova Publications Limited 2002

See the book at:

http://shshop.practiceinabox.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=9&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1