April 25, 2014

In case you're wondering where #26 went to, because it still was so much a part of the flow of this continued teaching, I decided to incorporate last week’s Easter or Resurrection in the Aphiemi Healing series as #26.

The healing calls continue to see results, and the warfare against those of us involved has only intensified. George has been under repeated attack from the Enemy with physical issues, Monty has had to endure some of the same, and Dwain is still recovering from the rebuilding of his shoulder. Nevertheless we rejoice in the healings we are seeing.

This past week we ministered to Joe, a 10-year-old boy who was suffering with intense heart malfunction issues, along with a barely functioning kidney. When we began to pray for him, the pain in his chest immediately jumped to a 10 level (on a scale from 1 - 10). He began to cry out because of the pain. We knew the Enemy was simply trying to counterattack and we stayed with it, even declaring a new heart for Joe from the "body parts room" in Heaven. After some extended prayer, the pain virtually disappeared in his chest and suddenly hit him in his kidneys. Again we commanded healing to his kidney and to his entire body. The pain did not subside in his kidneys so long as we had him in our prayer call, but when he left the call, the pain began to diminish.

Joe's mother reported that by the time he went to bed, the pain had diminished to a level 4 and kept subsiding. By the time he awoke the next morning, although he still had some discomfort, the pain was completely gone. His mother is declaring that he is completely healed, and we are absolutely in agreement. Jesus paid for Joe's healing with the 39 stripes He took with the cat-o-nine-tails (amounting to an actual total of 351 lashes that ripped his body to shreds). From our perspective, Jesus deserves to get what He paid for on Joe's behalf! Right?

Back in March, I started to deal with a different area of healing -- that of the mind, the emotions and the trauma that seems to last psychologically in people year after year after year, even though they may actually forget the event that initially caused the emotional or mental trauma. We were talking about the Gadarene demoniac and the rather remarkable revelation that comes in reading the Greek text of this event in Mark 5.

To repeat a bit of what I shared back then, each time the word “tomb” occurs the Greek word is: ìíçìåsïí - mnemeion. This word may not strike an immediate chord for some folks, but we have a word in the English language which is a direct derivative of the Greek: mnemonics.

Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines mnemonics like this: The science or art of improving the memory, as by the use of certain formulas; aids to help in remembering.

The Greek word, mnemion, is drawn from Greek mythology and comes from the name of the goddess Mnemosyne – the mythological mother of Zeus, and the deity (actually, demonic entity) who caused people to retain memories of past events.

Mnemion, therefore, literally means: a remembrance; a monument or marker which causes a recall of the past.

J.H. Thayer, in his Greek-English Lexicon, adds: a visible monument to the past, a visible marker for preserving a memorial of a person, a thing, or some past event.

By now, it should become obvious why the Gadarene demoniac was so tormented. He literally re-lived his past failures, the betrayals of his past, events which had traumatized his thoughts, his feelings and his emotions. He lived every day being reminded of how he had been either mistreated, sexually abused (the word “unclean” in the Greek text implies this directly) or belittled – and he was tormented by spirits of fear which literally drove him insane.

It has always fascinated me that despite the fact that the man of Gadara was tormented by a legion of evil spirits (once again, describing a legion as 6,600 foot soldiers and 172 horse-drawn charioteers with bows, arrows and spears), even in the place of his torment and being tossed to and fro by evil spirits, he still had presence of mind to throw himself at Jesus' feet, knowing instinctively that his deliverance was available and at hand because of who Jesus is.

This is one of the reasons I don't like to use the common expression of being "demon possessed." In fact, there is no such phrase in the Greek text. That expression suggests that a person is "owned" totally by the demons. I grant you that I have run into some folks who come as close to that expression as you want to see, but they still have their own will, and -- like the man of Gadara -- still have the ability to come to Jesus for deliverance no matter how much the indwelling evil spirits try to obstruct or prevent it.

The Greek word, often translated "possessed with" in the NT, is daimonizomai, and it more literally means: to be vexed with a demon, to be tormented by, to be afflicted by, or, to be demonized. Nothing in this word supports the idea of ownership.

Now, let's get to some scriptures that get right to the heart of this area of mental and emotional healing. You understand, of course, that ALL of this comes under the area of aphiemi healing! Jesus didn't just pay for our physical healing and/or our deliverance from evil spirits: He paid for our emotional and mental healing as well. He eradicated completely every legal reason Satan tries to use against us to justify his hold over our mind and our emotions.

Isaiah prophesied of Jesus (See Isaiah 53:5): "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

Let me amplify this verse for you out of the Hebrew text: "But He was broken and profaned for our rebellion, our revolt, our apostasy and our [religious] quarrel against God; He was mentally crushed, oppressed and smitten, and emotionally broken into pieces for our perversity, our evil, our mischief, sins and faults; the breaking and ridiculing of our peace, our welfare, our prosperity, our health and our safety was upon Him; and with His bloodied and blue wounds we are cured, mended, repaired and made thoroughly whole."

When Jesus began His ministry, he preached from Isaiah 61:1-3.

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."

In Luke 4:18-19, we are told that Jesus quotes this very passage from Isaiah's prophecy as He begins His public ministry in the town of Nazareth. Reading this in Hebrew gives us much clearer understanding of what Jesus was saying.

After stating clearly that the Spirit of the Lord was anointing Him, He begins describing the ministry He's about to begin by saying that He was specifically anointed to proclaim and preach joyous news to and for those who were in a state of mental depression. The Hebrew word, 'anayv, literally translates to: depressed in mind and circumstances.

Next, Jesus states that He has been sent to bind up the brokenhearted. Here, we have the Hebrew, shabar, which means: to burst, to break down, to crush, to quench (one's heart or innermost being).

Then He describes His ministry as being sent to proclaim liberty to those who have been held captive. The word in Hebrew is shebiy, and it describes: one who has been taken into captivity or held in bondage -- whether spiritually, mentally, emotionally or physically. This is a perfect description of the ministry of deliverance, and it represents fully one-third of all the recorded miracles in the Gospels.

The next statement may seem self-evident when He says that He came to open the prison to them that are bound, but there's a lot more to this than the setting free from physical fetters. Jesus is describing the captivity to death that every human born into this world experiences because of sin. He makes it clear that His objective was to break the bonds of death, and with it, sickness, disease, infirmity, physical afflictions of every sort.

Paul affirms this in Hebrews 9:27-28 when he writes, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Paul makes clear with this statement that Jesus kept our appointment with death, thus negating the need for us to die.

Jesus now makes clear in His next statement that He had come to "proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" as well as the day "of vengeance." Folks often mistake these as being one and the same day, but they misapply the Hebrew terms in this case. When Jesus says He has come to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, that's not some future, far-off date. That's not the day of the "judgment seat of Christ." Here's how Paul puts it in writing to the Corinthians as he quotes from Isaiah's prophecy (Isaiah 49:8):

"(For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)" (II Corinthians 6:2)

EVERYTHING, and I do mean, EVERYTHING that Jesus declares He has come to do is NOW! NOW is the acceptable year of the Lord! NOW is the day of salvation (sozo: salvation, safety, healing, wholeness, prosperity, protection)!

Jesus' proclamation of "the day of vengeance of our God" is notification to the Enemy that He IS giving His people authority to execute His vengeance, His retribution, His judgment upon Satan so they can reclaim and re-take territory stolen from them. I remind you of how David put it in Psalm 115:16 when he wrote, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earth hath He given to the children of men."

Father God did not give us the earth and then take it back! From His perspective, He gave it to us -- PERIOD! The fact that Satan has gained control by deceit and treachery doesn't make him the owner. Let's not forget that Jesus refers to Satan as "the prince of this world." You get it? Prince, NOT king! We are the ones Jesus is growing into "kings and priests unto God." The earth is ours to re-take, and the authority to re-take it has been given by the Lord Jesus Christ Who came to proclaim, to declare and decree "the acceptable year of the Lord!"

Moving right along, Jesus continues that same statement saying that He has come to "comfort all that mourn." Here's another interesting Hebrew word: nacham. Often translated "comfort" in the English texts, the word literally means: to breathe heavily upon or in. While one can legitimately translate this word "to comfort," it becomes clear that the comfort comes in the very breath of Holy Spirit, breathing life back into us when we are disconsolate over some perceived misfortune.

Rather than break down each Hebrew word in the next statement that Jesus makes, let me simply amplify it for clarity's sake.

"To appoint, commit and convey unto them that lament, mourn and bewail [their misfortune and troubles] in Zion, to give unto, to assign and fasten upon them the ornaments and embellishments of authority with a crown or diadem(beauty) for ashes, the [anointing] oil of joy, gladness and mirth for mourning, the {covering} garment of exhilarating, dancing and boisterous praise for the spirit of heaviness, depression and gloom; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."

This last part is perhaps the most extravagant and exuberant part of Jesus' decree and proclamation! He finishes up by stating that the purpose of His anointing is to re-plant His Garden with us as His trees of righteousness. Let's not forget that John the Baptist prophesied of Jesus following His baptism, "And now the axe is laid to the root of the tree....." What tree? The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil! Jesus is making it clear that His objective is to cut down and remove that accursed tree and replace it with new trees -- US! -- as trees of righteousness, trees that live and breathe next to the Tree of Life.

You know what Jesus gets out of this? We become His planting, and Father gets the Glory from us! Right! This is for Him!

Here's how Paul puts it in Philippians 1:6: "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

THIS is aphiémi! This is His kind of forgiveness. This is Hs kind of healing. Aphiémi healing! The eradication of, the sending away of, the total cleansing of the past to the degree that -- from God's point of view -- it never existed in the first place!

I didn't get to go where I wanted to today in expanding on this picture of mental and emotional healing, but we're getting close to wrapping up this series. Perhaps a couple more and we will move along to a different subject.

Again, if you are in need of healing -- especially if you have some terminal disease or prognosis of a very short time to live from the doctors -- please join our prayer conference calls on either Monday, Wednesday or Friday of each week at 7:00 PM Eastern. Once again, the number to call is (805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. Let us minister to your need for healing!

 

Blessings on you!