These are notes on the sermon, The Healing Power of God’s Word, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, October 20, 2024, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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Pastor Prince starts his sermon by sharing the story of Jesus healing a woman with an issue of blood.
Even though it was the Lord’s healing power that healed the woman, notice what the Lord said: “your faith has made you well.” Her faith was like an “ignition” or “spark” to Jesus’ power being released! This shows us that faith acts like a conduit through which the Lord’s power flows, and God always honors faith. He is not a respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11) but is a respecter of faith!
Today, while there are times when the gifts of the Holy Spirit operate and we are healed instantaneously, independent of our faith, there are also times when our healing takes place progressively. Those are the moments when we need to exercise our faith! And when we are in faith, the Lord will bypass even thousands in the crowd to zoom in on and minister to us.
Beloved, if you are going through a health challenge, know that God’s heart is for you to be healed and made whole! Healing is the heavenly Father’s grace gift to us. It is not something we can work for or earn, but a gift we are to freely receive. Hence, as believers, we should not feel a sense of entitlement, but instead, respond with a heart of gratitude because, on our own, we neither deserve God’s healing nor earned it!
Take a look at the story of our Lord Jesus healing ten men with leprosy (Luke 17:11–19 KJV). All ten were healed of the then-incurable illness, however, only one out of the ten men returned to give thanks to the Lord for healing him. And we see in verse 19 that this man received an extra portion that the other men did not: he was not only healed of leprosy, but was also made whole, having the parts of his body that had been eaten away by the disease restored. Likewise, when we give thanks to the Lord for what He has done for us and carry a posture of gratitude, His blessings are multiplied in our lives. Friend, let’s never take the Lord’s blessings in our lives for granted and instead learn to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving!
Now, in our journey of recovery, the enemy might try to distract us from God’s truth by focusing our attention on the symptoms or try to trick us into believing the lie that we are not healed. Even if we are still experiencing pain or other symptoms in our bodies, instead of believing the lies of the enemy, have faith to believe that healing has already begun and will continue to flow in our bodies, especially as we continue to keep our focus on God’s Word.
Our Lord Jesus shared a powerful illustration in Mark 4:20 about seed in the ground, growing and bearing fruit first thirtyfold, then sixtyfold, and finally a hundredfold. In the same way, our healing might not manifest immediately, but we can have faith that it will spring forth progressively, and that we will get stronger and better.
A seed grows and bears fruit when it is watered and nourished. In the Bible, water is a picture of God’s Word (Eph. 5:26). So, even as you have received the word of healing, continue to water this seed with the Word of God! Keep on meditating on the Scriptures, especially verses on healing, and continue to activate your faith as you lay hold of God’s promises.
Are you faced with a health challenge today? Beloved, have faith that what God has promised, He is able to perform. Don’t be discouraged by what you see: God’s Word is our reality! Look at Abraham—even though he and Sarah were both old in age, he considered not his own body while waiting for the promise of a son. He did not focus on the state of his natural, physical body, but instead was strong in faith and held on to what God had promised him! Like Abraham, instead of focusing on our symptoms or looking to ourselves, let’s choose to look to God’s Word and hold fast to His Word. The more we spend time in the Bible, the more we become Christ-occupied and experience His benefits!
Understandably, the health challenges we face can be worrisome and cause fear in us. But, child of God, your heavenly Father does not want you to be bogged down by your fears. In the face of our challenges, this is the attitude He wants us to have:
The Hebrew word for “bread” or “feed” is lechem, which comes from the Hebrew word for “fight,” lacham. Looking at this connection, we can explain it to mean that we are to fight our battles by feeding!
Doesn’t this remind you of Psalm 23:5, which says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”? This verse shows us that God’s heart is for us to remain at rest even in the midst of our challenges. We do not need to fear the bad reports or health conditions that we might be faced with. Our Lord Jesus has already conquered them for us. Instead of fear, we can feed even in the midst of our challenges. And what are we to feed on? Our challenges and God’s Word!
In last week’s sermon, The Key To Prospering In All Things, Pastor Prince shared that the key lies in meditating on God’s Word.
Now, the crux of meditation is this: our approach to God’s Word.
In Luke 8:18, our Lord Jesus said, “Therefore take heed how you hear,” reminding us to be mindful of how we receive God’s Word. How have you been hearing God’s Word? Do you only hear it once and let it pass you by, or do you hold on to it?
And how does the Lord want us to hear His Word? Let’s take a look at these verses:
Notice that here, “ears” is plural. This refers to listening with our physical ears.
In comparison, look at what the Lord says here:
Here, “ear” is singular. The Lord is inviting us to listen inwardly to what the Holy Spirit says.
These verses show us that we are to incline both our spiritual and physical ears to God’s Word. It’s so important that we pay attention to how we hear, especially when we are such a distracted society!
Notably, with the advent of smartphones, we are getting more and more distracted. Whether it’s the notifications we receive, the list of things we need to do, or social media, there are so many things we can be distracted by. Many of us cope by multitasking, but we’re not meant to have our focus split onto so many things. Unfortunately, while modern inventions were made to help us be more efficient and to save time so that we can spend it with our loved ones, many of us have instead allowed these distractions to rob us of quality time with our families. Pastor Prince also shared a word of advice for parents: If you keep looking at your phone whenever you receive a notification, it shows your child that they are not a priority. Be intentional to be present with them!
Before Deuteronomy 28 goes on to list God’s blessings for His people, the chapter opens with an exhortation for us to “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God.” Here, “hearken diligently” is shema, shema in Hebrew, which means “hear, hear,” or to hear continually.
In the New Testament, we also see a similar verse on the importance of meditation and how it brings about God’s blessings in our lives.
We are to give ourselves wholly to God’s Word, to meditate on them, and to continue in our meditation of the Word! And what happens when we meditate? From last week’s sermon, we’ve seen how meditation is one key principle that the Bible says will cause you to prosper in all things!
Joshua 1:8 shows us a clear promise: those who meditate on God’s Word day and night will make their way prosperous and have good success. Even though Joshua was already anointed with the spirit of wisdom (Deut. 34:9), God still told him to continue meditating on the Word. This shows us that receiving wisdom from God alone is not enough—we need to continually meditate on God’s Word to experience good success in all areas of our lives. In fact, those who are filled with wisdom recognize the need to meditate on God’s Word all the more!
We see this truth highlighted again in Psalm 1:2–3:
Beloved, the key to us experiencing good success in every area of our lives is by meditating on God’s Word! This prosperity does not only include material wealth but also spiritual and emotional well-being, as well as physical health.
Going back to 1 Timothy 4:13–16 (KJV),
The phrase “may appear to all” is also translated as “manifest in all things” in Young’s Literal Translation. This means that when you meditate on God’s Word, your profiting will be made evident in all things in your life AND to all people—whether it’s in your career, your health, or your relationships.
How do we know that this comes to us through meditation? Let’s look at verse 13,
“Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine”—This refers to the Word of God.
“Meditate”—The Greek word here is meletaō. According to the Septuagint, meletaō is also used for the word “meditate” in Joshua 1:8, which in Hebrew, is hagah.
So, if you want to unlock the heavenly Father’s abundant blessings in every area of your life, start getting into and meditating on His Word!
One of the blessings and benefits of God’s Word is its healing power!
The word “save” is “sōzō in Greek,” which does not only refer to salvation from hell, but also means:
This is also the same word our Lord Jesus used when He told the woman with the issue of blood, “Your faith has made you whole (sōzō)” (Luke 8:48 KJV). When we spend time in God’s Word, we experience its healing power, and we are made whole and restored to health!
This is how powerful God’s Word is. It is unlike any other book—many of us can read a novel and find it fascinating, but when we’re done with it, nothing is imparted to us. However, with the Word of God, whatever virtue that we’ve been reading about has the power to reproduce itself in us. For example, if you spend time reading healing scriptures, the scriptures that you meditate on have the power to reproduce healing in your life.
The Word of God also has the power to transform us. This power does not come by us putting in the effort to change ourselves. It comes to us as we behold the beauty of our Lord Jesus, His finished work, and the blessings that come with it.
Now, God’s word is not just for our spiritual benefit. While God’s priority is always our spiritual man and our growth in character, holiness, and grace, He also wants to be involved in every area of our lives. He loves and cares for us and wants us to experience and receive life and health through the Word.
In fact, Proverbs 4:22 tells us that God’s words are “life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.” Now, this scripture is definitely referring to our physical bodies! And notice how it says, “to those who find them.” While the Word of God has healing power, we experience it when we spend time in the Scriptures.
Knowing that there is a healing power in God’s Word is important because it helps to activate our faith whenever we read it! The more we see that the Bible isn’t just a book of laws but a book filled with God’s promises, the more we will have faith and hope to lean in and receive our inheritance and blessings in Christ!
The Word of God is living and pertinent to us even today! Some of us might wonder how reading a certain passage, for example, a story about David in the Old Testament, can benefit us today. Beloved, the Bible is not just a historical book; it is alive and able to speak to our current circumstances. For example, we might be going through a loss, and as we read about the story of David and his loss at Ziklag (1 Sam. 30), God can minister to us through that story. It becomes for us a word in season, or the rhema word of God.
Pastor Prince shares a personal example of how he received a rhema word from the Lord when he experienced a season of depression. Back then, Pastor Prince was going through a really tough season as he thought that he had lost his salvation. In his desperation, he called out to the Lord. As Pastor Prince opened up the Bible, he was led to a verse in 2 Timothy 4, which encouraged him and became a personal word that he held on to throughout that difficult season.
Even our Lord Jesus demonstrated to us the importance of the written Word of God! In the Gospels, we see how whenever Jesus was challenged, for example, when the devil tempted Him in the desert and when the Pharisees tried to trick Him with the questions they asked, the Lord’s response was always to quote the Scriptures. We often find Him saying, “It is written.” This shows us just how powerful the written Word was that even our Lord Jesus, God Himself, gave it so much weight!
Today, as you endeavor to get into God’s Word, here’s a useful handle on how to approach reading the Bible:
When you read God’s Word, don’t try to analyze it; see it as a book that God specially designed for our nourishment and eat of it! The Bible was meant to feed us, strengthen us, make us strong and healthy, grow our character, and help us grow in grace and holiness.
The verse above starts with “Your words were found,” but then goes on to say, “Your word was to me.” This change from a plural to a singular form tells us that as we read widely across the whole Bible, we will receive the specific rhema word that we need at that specific time!
Have you ever experienced a moment when as you’re studying the Word, a specific verse “jumps out” at you? Pause and ask the Lord to speak to you through it! It is likely His rhema word, His word in season, for you. You will know that it’s God’s word for you when you experience a joy and rejoicing upon receiving that word. And this word is just what you need to fight the enemy, and to fight your fears and worries!
So beloved, let’s start getting into and meditating on God’s Word today!
We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2024
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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