Healing | Richard Anniss

Well, a number of years ago, we received what we felt was a prophetic word, a message from God to us as a church about being a center of healing.

And if you have been around for a while, you'll have heard us talk about that, about what God has done.

spoken to us and laid in our hearts about being a center of healing.

You might have been part of us praying into that together.

But what does the Bible actually say about healing and the church? And what should we expect when we pray for people to be healed? Why do we sometimes hear stories and testimonies of remarkable healing miracles? And they are amongst us as a community.

But other times we're left confused or disappointed, wondering why God didn't seem to answer.

And this morning, I don't want to try and explain away that tension.

I want us to see that the Bible actually teaches us how to live in that tension.

If we're going to be a church that is known as a place of healing, a place where your friends, your family, your colleagues would know that they could come to us if they had a need for healing, then we're going to need more than just a few inspiring stories.

We're going to need a biblical expectation on which we can rest our trust and our faith.

And the good news is that the Bible does give us exactly that.

It gives us a genuine expectation that God heals.

but it also gives us an honest framework for those times when we're left waiting, wondering, and sometimes hurting.

See, the Bible tells us about a kingdom, the rule and the reign of God that is both now and also not yet.

God's kingdom has truly arrived in Jesus.

but it hasn't yet arrived in all of its fullness.