The Pastoral Healing Style
At a meeting where I was ministering, an adolescent girl approached the front of the church for prayer. A friend of the family had brought her to the front. Her body was thin, and her frame fragile. I ask her condition, and was told she had Cystic Fibrosis. I spoke a healing word over her and told her to take a deep breath. As she breathed deeply, she began to sob just as deeply. She collapsed forward in my arms. My mind raced with possible reasons for her tears. I tried to think of anything I said in the prayer that could have caused the tears. I asked her what happened, and through the sobs, she said, "that is the first time I can ever remember taking a full breath." At that moment I felt the heart of God for a little girl. God not only healed the girl's lungs, but also her heart. What pain it had been to struggle for each breath. I felt a touch of pain for each breath she had breathed through her life that was a struggle. I also felt such deep love from the father toward her. How deeply the heart of God loves his children and wants them to be healed.
As we begin this series of lessons on healing styles. I choose to begin with what I call the "pastoral style" of healing. I feel it is important to focus not only the power that flows through the hands of the healers, but also the passion that should flow through the heart of healers. You do not have to be a shepherd, to have a shepherd's heart. The motivation behind what we do is just as important, if not more so, as the method by which we do it.
Jesus, The Great Shepherd-Healer
As we seek to understand the pastoral style of healing ministry, I can think of no better healer to begin than Jesus Christ. Jesus epitomizes the charisma and character that we should seek to attain. For these reasons the masses loved and flocked to him and the religious establishment ostracized and eventually ousted him. What endeared Jesus to the people was the demonstration of his heart as much as the demonstration of his hands.
In the movie Brave Heart, the lead character, William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson) addresses the Scottish Nobles seeking independence from England. "You're so concerned with squabbling for the scraps for Long Shank's (the King of England) table, that you've missed your God-given right to something better. There's a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with a position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I'm going to make sure they have it."
It is exactly this kind of sentiment that set Jesus apart from the religious establishment of the day. This should also be core to the heart of those who would be healers of mankind. This should be the foundation of any ministry, especially the ministry of healing. Using the power for the good of people can be summed up in one word: Compassion.
Chasing The Heart Of God
Several years ago, I began to experience a feeling of desperation for miracles and healing. I took my desperation to God and asked Him to do whatever was necessary in me to make me a healer of mankind. What he showed me was that I had been seeking the "mind of Christ". He wanted me now to start chasing His heart. The starting point He gave me was one word, and it will be the word we start with. He said, "First, you must have COMPASSION."
I was not sure what He meant. I quickly thought of all the things I do that demonstrate my compassion. I support under-privileged children in foreign countries. However, that was my wife's idea. When driving, I show compassion by slowing down for animals crossing the street. That is, unless it's a cat. As for my family, I send my mother a card every Mother's Day. Okay, I suppose I need to learn a little more compassion.
Compassion: Ministry With Guts
To understand the truth about compassion and its role in healing, we must examine the healing ministry and methods of Jesus. His ministry exemplifies the pastoral style. "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick." Matthew 14:14 (NIV)
As I began to learn about the compassion in Christ's ministry I realized that compassion is not something of human origin but it of divine origin. It is not pity, which is a feeling that is human and lasts temporarily. If we are going to be healers of mankind, we must have a motivation that is God-given. Compassion is that motivation.
The word for compassion in the New Testament as used in Matthew 14:14 is the Greek word splagchnizomai (splangkh-nid'-zom-ahee) "to be moved as to one's inwards, to be moved with compassion, to yearn with compassion." It is from the root, splagchnon (splangkh'-non); the "spleen"; an intestine (plural). The picture is one of gut-wrenching pain when we are made aware of the spiritual and physical state of those around us.
This Is A "Gut-Wrenching" Experience
As Jesus was nearing the shore in his boat he looked out and saw the crippled, maimed, blind, demonized people. He began to be moved with compassion. His insides began to ache. He cared for the people; so much that He felt that burden internally. Can you imagine God in the flesh, holding His stomach, pained at the sight of a hopeless humanity? Let that sink in for moment. Jesus felt something when he saw people that were diseased and sick. Then his eyes flash. The motivation of compassion turns into the determination to bring freedom to the captive. His Vision, "to seek and save that which was lost." Gives way to His Mission, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed. Out of his empathy comes action. Out of his pain, power explodes. Out of compassion, he heals the sick; he frees the captive, and delivers the bound. The heart of God and the hand of God are reaching out and touching the masses. This is the synergy that makes a healer of mankind. Healing ministry is ministry with "guts." It sees, feels and acts.
Seeing With Eyes Of Compassion
Matthew 9:35-10:1 says, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.' He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness." (NIV)
Compassion sees the need. Jesus was moved to action because of what He saw. The first step to becoming a healer of mankind is to see the hopelessness and helplessness of mankind.
I asked God to give me His compassion. I wanted my insides to feel what His insides felt that day in the seashore. I wasn't prepared for what happened. I began to be moved with tears at sick people. I began to have my heart broken over diseased people. There were times when I would drive past a person walking along the road and begin weeping for the physical and spiritual state. I started seeing people differently. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I started seeing people through His eyes.
Moved To Action
That is when God started opening up opportunities for me to touch people with His healing and transforming power. Formerly, I viewed my neighbor as a spiritually lost, alcoholic woman, with inoperable back problems, living on welfare. As my eyes began to open, God opened the door for a spiritual encounter. The same week I asked God to give me compassion, I arrived home from the office one day and my wife said we needed to visit the neighbor. We found her in a desperate state, much like the people Jesus described, "harassed and helpless." We shared the gospel with her and she accepted Christ. We shared God's delivering power and she was delivered of her addiction. We shared God's healing power and God touched her. Within one month she was in a rehabilitation program, involved in a small group at church, off of pain medication for her back, and on her way to wholeness, spiritually, physically, emotionally, and financially. Many times sickness is the fruit of other spiritual and emotional issues. When the "root" is dealt with, the "fruit" withers.
The Role of Compassion In Healing
Every Kind Of Sickness
Matthew 9:35 in the NAS says, "And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness."
The word for sickness nosos (nos'-os), can also be translated, "to dote about, have a diseased craving for." When we open up our hearts to God's compassion, He will open up our eyes to see and our hands to heal EVERY KIND IF SICKNESS. There is not one sickness that is too small or great for Him to heal.
Consider the power of compassion in Jesus' healing ministry. Below we find a list and miracles and healing that Jesus performed motivated by compassion:
- Compassion provides for physical needs. (The miracle of the bread and fish)
Matt 15:32
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way." (NIV) - Compassion heals blind eyes
Matthew 20:34
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him. (NIV) - Compassion heals Leprosy
Mark 1:41-42
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was clean. (NIV) - Compassion heals the deaf and dumb
Mark 9:22,25
"But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!" (NKJ) - Compassion raises the dead
Luke 7:12-15
And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep." Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still.And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise." So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother. (NKJ)
Compassion Builds A Team
In Matthew 9:36, Jesus was moved with compassion because the people were harassed and helpless. In Matthew 9:37, Jesus does something about it. He calls his disciples together and transmits what He is feeling to them. He says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." What He is saying is that He could not do all the work himself.
Compassion doesn't fly solo. Even Jesus understood that His job was not to DO all the work. He could never minister to each one personally, He knew He needed a team. Throughout scripture we see example of teams of healers. The disciples being sent out two-by-two ( Luke 10:1). Peter and James at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1-11). Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:1-4).
In most cases there will be a lead person. In the case of Peter and James it was Peter, who also had the proclamation gift. With Paul and Barnabas, it was Paul, was had the Apostolic calling. Regardless of the role an individual plays, whether they are the "lead healer" or part of the "team of healers." When we are motivated with compassion we will be content to play our role and realize that God has called us all to be healers of mankind.
Compassion Shares The Power
In addition to telling the disciples about the need, Jesus empowered the disciples to meet the need. Matthew tells us that just after Jesus saw the crowds, and felt compassion; He called His disciples together and "gave them authority." There is a direct correlation here between the transmittal of compassion, "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few," and the transmittal of authority.
Jesus had just demonstrated what compassion could do. He had healed "every disease and sickness" (Matthew 9:35). Now He is giving them authority to heal "every disease and sickness" (Matthew 10:1). The only thing that happens between His demonstration of authority and His imparting of authority is the demonstration and imparting of compassion. Compassion precedes authority. If authority can be imparted, so can compassion.
I believe we are marching forward to a time when we will walk in authority i over every disease and sickness. But preceding that authority we will walk in the compassion that Jesus walked in. We will have the mind of Christ and the power of Christ, but we must first possess the heart of Christ.
Let us ask for His heart. Let us ask that we may see people through His eyes. Let us chase after His heart. Let compassion be our motivation to be healers of mankind. If compassion is not our motivation then what is? Is it flattery, fame or fortune? These may come, but they must not motivate us. The driving force for healing ministry must be compassion as demonstrated through the ministry and heart of Christ.
Perhaps, your primary style of healing ministry is not the pastoral style. You must still learn the compassion of God. Make this your prayer:
Father. Thank you for giving me your heart of compassion. I receive it now. Help me to see with your eyes, feel with your heart and touch with your hands. I believe you want to use me to feed the hungry, open blind eyes, cleanse the leper, free the oppressed and raise the dead. I believe you have given me authority over every sickness and disease: spiritual, emotional and physical. I don't want to be motivated by any thing other than your love and compassion. Please expose and cleanse any other motivation in my heart. I thank you for your forgiveness and grace. Thank you for choosing to use me to demonstrate your power and your passion. In Jesus' name. Amen.
I expect that this week, God will begin moving on you supernaturally with His compassion. Get ready to be used in ways you never have before. As the heart, mind and hand of God begin to pulse through you.
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