Pastor and 1st Lady Mims

Mims Chapel Church


Lesson 4 • Fourth Week

THE HEALING POWER
COMES FROM THE
HOLY SPIRIT

Background Reading Devotional Reading
Psalm 103:2-5, 107:20; Mark 9:17-29
Jeremiah 17:14; Mark 16:17-18;
Acts 3:6-10

Central Verse
"Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."
Acts 3:6, KJV

"But Peter said, "I don't have any silver or gold for you. But I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!"
Acts 3:6, NLT

Key Terms
Paralyzed— Rendered incapable of movement or action.
Miracle—An extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.

Introduction

The healing of the crippled beggar was done by the power of Christ working through His Apostles. Healing is part of the empowerment that is given to believers when they receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples that in His name they would be able to lay their hands on the sick, and the sick would recover. The believer knows that it is the will of God for His children to be healed.

He is the one who made each one of His children and He knows how to heal them of all sickness and disease. It's His delight to heal, deliver, and set His children free. God gives many gifts to His disciples, and healing is one of them. He gave the Holy Spirit so that the believers could continue the healing ministry after He had gone back to His Father in Heaven. So, Peter continued Jesus's healing ministry in obedience to His will. Therefore, the miracle was accomplished through faith in Jesus Christ and the gift of healing operating through Peter.

Discussion

Peter told the man that he had neither silver nor gold to give him, but what he had to give was much more valuable. Many times, believers are reluctant to move forward in the power of the Holy Spirit because of their financial status, but they must understand that it is not by power nor by might, but by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer should not be influenced by the opinions, looks, or spirits of others. He must be led by and move in the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.

Evidently, someone must have brought the crippled man and laid him at the gate daily to beg and ask for alms. We don't know how long he had been there, but the day of his healing was different. Peter and John were entering the Temple to pray at prayer time when they saw him. He had chosen a good place to be laid, because normally people who pray or go into the Temple are people whose hearts can be touched, and they are usually generous.

But this day, when the crippled man asked for a monetary gift, Peter and John had no money to give to him. They looked at him and saw that what he really needed was to be healed of his disability. So, Peter told him to look at them, and of course, being a beggar, he expected to receive money. But to his disappointment, Peter told him that they didn't have money and that they had something better than money.

God is a revealer, and He knows what a person really needs even before he can ask. It is important for believers to stay in tune with God, so if He needs to reveal something to them, they will be on the same page. Peter was full of the Holy Ghost and was attuned to God, so, when he saw the need, he was able to command the blessing in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This was very important because there were many young men of that time named Jesus, but Peter identified the Jesus that he was talking about.

Because the Holy Spirit was operating in Peter and John, Peter was able to take the crippled man by the right hand as a point of contact and lift him
up. The right hand is the hand of favor, so when he lifted him up by the right hand, the man received strength in his feet and ankles immediately. The man leaped and stood up and walked with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God. The people saw him and recognized that he was the beggar that had been lying at the gate, crippled. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what God had done for him. Miracles tend to increase the faith of unbelievers.

Some years ago, I was in a revival in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a woman was there who had been paralyzed for eighteen years was brought to the service. I prayed for her, gave her my right hand, and told her to get up, and of course she did. Not only did she walk, but she ran around that church. Many of the people said that they had never seen a real miracle like that before. Afterwards, God gave many miracles in the service that night.

Conclusion

When a believer is filled with the precious gift of the Holy Spirit, he can pray or speak and expect the Holy Spirit to release healing for him. It is one of the privileges of allowing the Holy Spirit to live inside of him. The Lord has informed the believer that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but He delivers the believer out of them all (Psalm 34:19).

It's important that believers read God's Word. In it, He tells the believers that He is the Lord who heals them. He repeats that promise over and over again in many verses. He is the same today as He was when the crippled man was healed at the gate of the Temple and remember that He is no respecter of persons. What God has done for one, He can and will do for another.

Peter was so excited that he addressed the wonder of the people, reminding them of the greatness of the God that they served, the greatness of the God who had healed the crippled man. Let your faith make you whole.

Questions

Where does healing power come from?
Who can be healed?
What does God say about healing?
How did the crippled man get healed?

Essential Thought- "If the believer has faith in the Lord, all things are possible."