The Active Ingredient

In this transcription, the speaker discusses the importance of recognizing Jesus as the healer. They emphasize that Jesus healed many people during His time on earth and continues to do so now. The speaker also highlights the significance of faith in receiving healing from Jesus. They provide examples of individuals who approached Jesus for healing and were healed because of their faith in His power. The speaker encourages listeners to have faith and believe that Jesus can heal them as well. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah to Jesus! Praise God! People of God, welcome to another wonderful evening in God's presence. As always, we are on standby to hear what says the Lord. As has been our experience, every evening, every evening, Holy Spirit is on standby. He's available to bring His Word fresh, hot and fresh. It's been our experience that Holy Spirit is ever new, ever new. He makes all things new. His Word every Sunday as we wait on Him with bated breath to hear what He will say, He always brings something new so that we know that He is the one speaking. Because the truth of the matter is the Word of God is alive. The Bible says the Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to cut asunder the soul and the spirit, is a discerner of the intents and the thoughts of the heart. There is nothing hid before God's Word. So the Word of God is alive and fresh. So if you have the gift, the grace to bring God's Word, you will know that once you yield yourself unto God to be used of Him as a vessel to release His Word, you are also expected to hear something new and something fresh. Regardless how prepared you are, regardless how much research you've done, because God's Word is God, because God's Word is alive, God is going to say something new and something fresh and something you didn't expect. So even the speaker is always waiting to hear that new thing that God is getting ready to say. Praise God. Hallelujah. So is this evening like other Sunday evenings. We are delighted and excited to bring God's Word. We are also anxious, not anxious in a bad way, we are expectant to hear the voice of the Lord saying something that we haven't heard before, something new. And so this evening we are going to talk about our Christ and we're going to talk about something that Jesus has been doing since the beginning of His ministry. When He was here in the flesh, something that He was doing and something that He still is doing. And many people take this aspect of Christ for granted. Many people. Many people take this aspect of Christ for granted. And what is this aspect? Healing. Jesus is the healer. When He was here on earth, He healed many of their diseases. Even after He had left and He is now sitting on the right hand side of God in heaven. He is still doing even now what He was doing in the flesh. We are going to go deep into this conversation but right now let's pray. Holy Spirit we invite you, we worship you. Great Jehovah we exalt you tonight because you are the one true God. You have no competition, there is none like you. We glorify your name, we exalt you, we worship you. Jesus we reverence you, we lift you high. We give you all the glory because you are greater than the greatest, you are wiser than the wisest, you are higher than the highest. And we lift you high. Tonight be glorified, in and through your word manifest yourself. By your Holy Spirit breathe upon us tonight so that the speaker shall speak even as the oracles of God. And speak only what does say the Lord. Let your word alone prevail as we speak tonight. Reveal yourself in a new dimension to us. Reveal yourself in a new way. In Jesus name, Amen. And so this evening I have titled my conversation, The Active Ingredient. So the subject of our discussion tonight I have titled, The Active Ingredient. And our text for this evening is from the book of Matthew chapter 8 verses 1 to 17. Matthew chapter 8 verses 1 to 17. So a little background to this scripture is, the little background to this scripture starts from chapter 4. And in chapter 4 we see Jesus. We're going now to chapter 4. We're not going to read chapter 4. We're not going to read from chapter 4. But in chapter 4 we see Jesus now led by the spirit to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. This is after his baptism by John the Baptist in chapter 3. So Jesus now has been baptized in chapter 3. This Holy Spirit has come down upon him like a dove. He's now in chapter 4. He has gone to be tempted of the devil. And he moves on in chapter 5. In chapter 5 of the book of Matthew, Jesus sees the multitudes. And he goes up to the mountains. And at the mountain he begins to teach the people. And this is where the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus teaches the Beatitudes. Jesus is still in chapter 6. He's still teaching. Even in chapter 7, Jesus is still teaching. A Sermon on the Mount. And here we are now in chapter 8. Jesus is done teaching. And we pick this story up in the book of Matthew. Chapter 8 verses 1 to 17. And the Bible says, speaking of Jesus now. When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him. Jesus touched the leper, saying, I will. I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said unto him, Jesus said to the leper, See that you tell no man, but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. Verse 5. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. Verse 8. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, go. And he goes. And to another, come. And he comes. And to my servant, do this. And he does it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled. And he said to them that followed, verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say to you that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit there with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness. They shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Verse 13. And Jesus said unto the centurion, go your way. And as you have believed, so be it done unto you. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. And when Jesus was coming to Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and ministered unto them. Verse 16. When the evening was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils. And he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick. Verse 17, our last verse. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias, the prophet, saying himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses in Jesus' mighty name. This is God's word. Hallelujah. And so we find here Jesus healing the sick. Jesus setting free those oppressed by evil spirits. Jesus had been teaching on the mount. Great multitudes followed him. He wasn't too tired. He was a man, remember. He was both man and God. Jesus did what Jesus does. He healed the sick. He had compassion and was moved by the infirmities of the multitudes which followed him. Now, the chapter opens with a leper coming to Jesus and worshipping him. This is how this chapter opens. Even though a great multitude followed him, the Bible tells us that the leper came to him and worshipped him. The Bible doesn't record the multitude worshipping him. They followed him. They followed him, why? Because of what he had been doing in the previous chapters. In the previous chapters he was teaching. He was teaching. And if we go to the end of chapter 7, chapter 7 verse 29 says, And he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. So, the multitudes in chapter 8 verse 1 followed him because he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. But they realized there was something different about this man. This man taught with authority. He didn't only teach with knowledge because you have to know in order to teach. He taught with knowledge but he also taught with authority. And so the result of that was that the multitudes now could tell that this man is worth following because he has knowledge and authority on what he is teaching. And so they followed him. Now, in that multitude was a leper. The leper also followed him. Why? Because he taught them with authority. But the leper distinguished himself. The leper realized that this man was not only a teacher. This man was not only a rabbi. This man is God. And he did what? He worshipped him. And he worshipped him as God knowing that this man has authority. He has power. And by recognizing that he had authority to teach. He had authority. He was his God and he has power. The leper said to him, Lord. The leper didn't say to him, teacher. He didn't say to him, rabbi. He said to him, Lord. He recognized Jesus as Lord. The multitudes, the Bible does not record the multitudes calling Christ Lord. The multitudes didn't recognize Jesus as Lord. They recognized him as rabbi, as teacher. So they were following him for the knowledge which he gave through his teachings. But the leper was able to distinguish. He was able to see beyond the authority that Jesus had to teach. He saw Jesus as Lord. And the Bible says in chapter 2, he worshipped him. And he said, Lord, if you will, you have the power to make me clean. I don't only believe in your power to teach. I don't only believe in your authority over the world. I believe you are Lord. And you have power even over sickness. And if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus responded. Jesus responded to this man's discernment of who he is. Jesus responded to this man's discernment. This man could see who Jesus really is. And Jesus responded to that knowledge, to that faith, the faith of the man to say, I know who you are. And because I believe who you are, I believe that if you, if it pleases you, you can make me clean. And Jesus responded to this man's faith. Jesus, the Bible says in verse 3, Jesus put forth his hand and Jesus touched the leper. If you know the story, the history, the culture of Israel, lepers couldn't even come in the midst of people. They had to announce themselves as they moved. The Bible says they had to announce themselves so that people knew that they were coming and they could move away from them. Here comes Jesus touching the leper. And Jesus said to the leper, I will. You believe I am Lord. I am Lord. And I will cleanse you. I will cleanse you. And Jesus said, be thou clean. The Bible says immediately. His leprosy was cleansed. I found this very interesting. I found this very interesting. So we're going to jump now to verse 5. The Bible says, and when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, besieging him, saying, again, the centurion recognized Jesus as Lord. The centurion said, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick. He's grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. Now, the centurion even has taken his level, the level of the centurion's faith is now even greater than the leper. The Bible reveals to us that the leper distinguished himself by recognizing Jesus as Lord and recognizing Jesus' ability to heal sickness. That Jesus had power to heal sickness. Jesus, responding to his faith, did what the leper had faith for and confirmed to the leper, you are right, I do have power over sickness, I am Lord. And the leper now had the benefit of his faith in Christ. Now, the centurion, the Bible says, the centurion said, no, Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof. Oh, you just speak the word. I believe in you. I believe you are Lord and I believe that the word of your mouth will do whatever you ask it to do. And the centurion understood authority. He said, I am a man under authority. My word, as unworthy as I am, when I speak to my people, to my servants, they do as I say. So I know because you are Lord, because you have authority over all things, over sickness, sickness must bow to your word. You don't have to come to my house. Sickness is under you. You have authority over sickness. Sickness must obey your word. Wherever you are, once you speak it, sickness must obey. And Jesus, the Bible says, marveled. Jesus marveled not only at this man's understanding of who he is as Lord. Jesus understood. Jesus marveled at his ability to understand the dynamics of his power and his authority over the things of the spirit. Over the things of the spirit. And Jesus said, I have not found, this is verse 10, I have not found so great a faith not in Israel. And Jesus spoke the word. As the centurion believed that he could do, Jesus did. He spoke the word. And he said, as you believe, so let it be done. Because the centurion already believed that Jesus had the ability to send his word to his house. He didn't have to come physically. All he had to do was send his word. And his servant in the house would be well. Because the word of God will have the ability, the word of Jesus, Lord Jesus will have the ability to run swiftly and meet his servant in the house. And do the bidding of Jesus. And Jesus confirmed to him, he said, as you have believed, so it is. And the Bible records that this man's servant was healed in the self same hour. Now remember, the centurion and Jesus are together. So the centurion isn't home to see that the healing has taken place. He believes. So by the time he gets home, he is going to be able to find out that the time of the servant's healing was the time when he was with the Lord. And the Lord sent his word to his house to heal his servant. Now, the amazing thing, the amazing thing is that the centurion, the Bible doesn't record that the centurion is a Christian. The centurion would have been a Roman, a Roman centurion. But he recognized Jesus as Lord. He had faith to believe Jesus as Lord. So it is not only Christians, followers of Jesus, who are positioned to benefit from the power of Jesus. Anyone who believes is able to see the move and the manifestation of God's power. If we remember from verse 1, a great multitude followed him. But in that multitude, only one leper was healed. Because only one leper worshipped him. Only one leper recognized Jesus as Lord. Only one leper had the faith to ask to be healed. And Jesus responded to his faith. But a multitude followed him. The centurion wasn't in this multitude. The Bible doesn't say so. The Bible doesn't say so. Now, in verse 16, the Bible says something very important and very instructive. The Bible says, when the evening was come. So now Jesus has been on the mount. Jesus has been teaching. Jesus has come down now from the mount. Jesus has healed the leper. Jesus has been to Capernaum. Jesus has healed the servant of the centurion. Jesus has healed the leper. Jesus has been to the house of Peter. Jesus has healed the mother of Peter. The evening has now come. We would want to believe that Jesus will be ready to rest. But the Bible says, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils. Who are they? I believe the multitude who followed him. Now, in verse 16, they see now what the leper saw. In verse 1, they see Jesus as Lord. In verse 1, they saw Jesus as rabbi. They saw Jesus as teacher. And they followed him in that capacity except for the leper. Now, the leper, the centurion, the mother of Peter, have revealed Jesus as healer. Jesus as Lord over sickness and diseases and evil spirits. Now, in verse 16, the Bible says, when evening has come, when Jesus now has established for himself a record as a healer and as Lord, they, the multitude, now they believe. Because they have seen the manifestation of his power to heal, to save and to deliver. They have seen now Jesus as Lord. Now they believe. He's no longer just rabbi. He's no longer just a man with authority. He now, they see him now for who he is. Jesus is Lord. And so they do what? They bring unto him many who are possessed with devils. They've seen him do it now with the leper. They've seen him do it with the centurion's servant. They've seen him do it with Peter's wife's mother. Now they bring to him many. And the Bible says, remember, Jesus touched the hand of the leper and healed him with his word. When the centurion asked for his servant to be healed, Jesus said, I will come to your house. Jesus touched the mother of Peter's wife and they were all healed. Now, when it became obvious that Jesus now is Lord, he has the ability to heal, we don't see Jesus going one by one and touching the many. The Bible says they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils. Jesus didn't go and touch them one by one. Jesus didn't go, he didn't say I will go. He didn't touch them. But he still healed them. How? By his word. His word, whom Jesus deployed to the house of the centurion. The word of God now went at the same time to heal many who were sick. Jesus didn't need to touch any of those people. But you see, he met them at the place of their face. The leper was talking to him one on one. I know that if you want to, you can heal me. Jesus met him at the level of his face. The centurion who had the face to even ask, Jesus said, I will come to your house, because Jesus met him at the point of his face. This is why Jesus marveled. Because the centurion understood that Jesus didn't have to come to his house for Jesus to be able to do what he had the power to do. His word is able to run swiftly and obey his command. The centurion knew this. And Jesus knew it. But Jesus was meeting the centurion at the point of his level, the level of his face. Jesus touched the mother of Peter's wife at the level of her face. In reality, he didn't have to do any of that. He didn't have to touch the leper. He could have just spoken the word, which he did, but he touched the leper because the leper expected that contact. The leper expected that contact. The leper expected that to be healed, he needed to be touched. But here we are now in verse 16. There is now no doubt that the word of God and God are the same. In verse 16 now, there is no doubt that the word of the mouth of Jesus and Jesus himself are one and the same. So now that the level of faith has risen for the people to believe him enough to bring the many to him, now they recognize who he is and they recognize the power of his word. And so what does Jesus do? Jesus heals them all with his word. He heals them all with his words. This is amazing. Because when we look at this scripture and we examine what Jesus did in this scripture, we see that the active ingredient of the miraculous which he did was his word. The Bible says he put forth his hand and touched the leper and then he spoke bitter clean. He touched him and he spoke. And the result was healing. Jesus sent his word to the servant of the centurion and the result was healing. So now, in verse 16, that people see the demonstration of his power, they now get wise and they gather unto him, the Bible says, many who are sick. So they gather unto him the sick, the infirm, those who are bound and Jesus did what he did before. He deployed his word and healing was the result. So all this Jesus did when he was here on earth. Because in the book of Matthew, Jesus was still here on earth. He was here walking the earth as a man, both man and God. So all of these miracles that he was doing, he was doing while here on earth. So on earth, he was doing the miraculous by the instrumentality of his word. Now Jesus is sitting in heaven at the right hand side of God but his word is still here. His word is still here. We have his word with us everyday. His word, his living word, the Bible, is still here. That is the word of his power. The Bible says, Jesus, God, upholds all things by the word of his power. The word of God is still here. Doing right here, right now, what Jesus did when he was here. Because he changes not. The power which the word of God had when Jesus was here, the word of God still has right now. And so if you and I deploy the word like Jesus did when he was here, you and I will get the result that Jesus God when he was here. See now, think about that. If we have the faith, such as the centurion, to say that the word of Jesus is able to run swiftly and accomplish the purposes of God, and we deploy the word to the situation, and like the centurion, we expect the word to fulfill the purposes of God, we will have the result that the centurion had. Because Jesus said, be it unto you according to your faith, as you believe, so let it be. If we have the full understanding that the word which we have in our houses, which we have in our phones, which we have in our computer, is the same word that came out of the mouth of Jesus when he was here. And the word went and healed the sick, the word went and released the bound, the word raised the dead. If we believe that this word is still one and the same, and we have the faith to deploy this word as Jesus did, we will have the result that Jesus did. I believe this, and this is true. This evening, I am going to end our meeting with a testimony. This is such a powerful testimony. I am still, my mind is, I've been thinking about this testimony for a long time. And, well, not a long time, as in the length, as in days. I found this pastor, I ran into his testimony, and he was a sorcerer. He was a high-level sorcerer, a warlock. From his youth, he had worked for the kingdom of darkness. And somewhere along the line, he got saved. And when he was about the age of 24 years, he was stricken with cancer. And for one year, one whole year, this man suffered from stage 4 leukemia and was left for dead. I mean, the next thing really was his family, the doctors, everybody was just waiting for him to take his last breath, draw his last breath, and go to be with the Lord. But one year, this man was still alive. Even though his testimony is that he had tumors in his brain, he was now blind, he couldn't, he was now paralyzed, he had bed sores, I mean, he was in a bad shape. He couldn't walk, he had to be carried, almost like gathering bones together. And his mother, he says, had already prepared, made full plans for his funeral. And then he says one day, after he had been discharged from the hospital, because now the hospital is certain that he's going to die, and they don't want him to die in the hospital, they discharge him to go home and die there. So now he is back in his home. And he says one day, he's on his bed, and he sees Jesus. Jesus comes into his room. Jesus sits on his bed, and Jesus heals him. And this man, who had been bedridden for one year from cancer, leukemia, cancer of the blood, this man who had been blind, paralyzed, with bed sores, couldn't talk, all he could do, he could hear, he couldn't see, he couldn't talk, he couldn't walk, he was living in darkness, just waiting to die. So Jesus comes now and heals him. And instantly, he begins to see. He gets up on his feet. He's been paralyzed for one year. He gets up on his feet. He didn't have to do physiotherapy. He gets up on his feet, and he walks to his mother, who thought he had actually died. Maybe she must have thought he was a ghost. And he tells her, Jesus was here. Jesus healed me. You know, the amazing thing for me about this testimony is that it gives me so much joy to realize that our Jesus is real. The Jesus of the Bible is real. And Jesus has left for himself faithful witnesses. Witnesses who you and I can see, we can hear, tell us, Jesus came to my room, he sat on my bed, he touched me, he healed me. And there are people who can confirm the testimonies. This man's mother is a living witness. Jesus, ladies and gentlemen, is alive, he is well. And Jesus has left for himself faithful witnesses. Everything written about Jesus is true. What Jesus did for this man who is alive right now, traveling all over the world, telling people in this generation what Jesus did in Matthew 8 verses 1-7, he did to a man alive today who can say, Jesus came, Jesus healed me, I stood, I walked, cancer vanished for 23 years, my blind eyes opened, my brain healed, I'm on my feet walking, I didn't have to go through physical therapy. Jesus healed me immediately. I was healed, 23 years and counting. Jesus is doing today what he did in the Bible. He is doing today. And there are people alive who can testify that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. What the Bible said of him is true. Why? Because he is doing it today. He did it for this one, he did it for this one, he did it for this one. And they are here right now to testify. The glory belongs to Jesus. The glory belongs to Jesus. And so we honor our Christ. We honor his love. We honor the reality of Christ. God has not called us to worship a mirage. We are not worshiping a phantom of our imagination. We are worshiping a living Christ. The risen Christ, the Son of the Living God. The only true and living God. The fullness of the Godhead. That's him whom we worship. And Jesus has left with us his word. So if you know that Jesus, you believe that this Jesus of the Bible is the same then and now. And his word which he used in the Bible to heal, to save, to deliver. This same word which you and I have access to is the same. Then why can't we believe that this word can do now what the word did then? Why can't we believe that? If we hear testimonies, the Bible says, and this is Revelation 12, 11. And they overcame him by the word, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. This is why the testimony of people like this man are so important. And so powerful. Because they are evidence that the Bible is true. Evidence that Jesus is true. Evidence that we are serving a living King. A living Christ. And the word of God is alive and well. Amen. Hallelujah. So my prayer tonight is that as many as would hear this tonight, as many as would hear by rebroadcast, as many as would believe, we will begin to walk in that fullness, the fullness of the knowledge. That the word which we have in our homes, in our hands, in our phones, this is the living word of Jesus. This is the word with which Jesus did the miraculous. And Jesus gives us authority to deploy his word because he said so. Luke 10, 19, Behold, I give you power. So Jesus gives us power how? By his word. His word was his power. He moved by the power in his word. He sent his word and it healed them. So he has given us power to do what? To send his word. And we will see manifest what he manifested by his word in his time when he was here on earth. Amen. Glory to Jesus. Well, thank you, brothers and sisters, for joining us again this evening. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will tabernacle over this ministry, tabernacle over our meetings, and every Sunday the Spirit of God will do what he always does, bring the word of God fresh. That lives be transformed and illumination be increased. Wisdom, superior levels of wisdom be achieved to the glory of our Father. In Jesus' name, amen. So we're going to close with a prayer, a word of prayer. We always start with prayer. We close with prayer. And so in the name of Jesus, Father, we thank you so very much for your presence with us on tonight's meeting. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the reality of you. We thank you for your power. We ask now, O Lord, that you will send revival on the earth, send revival in our midst, send revival, O God. Manifest yourself, Lord Jesus. Reveal yourself to us in new ways. Empower us to see you correctly, to believe you correctly, to engage you by your word correctly in the name of Jesus. It is so. It is done. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in this evening. Until next time, I wish you a wonderful week. I wish you liberty. I wish you healing. And I pray that you will have encounters with the Almighty Christ this week. In Jesus' name, amen.