Big Healing Book - Matthew 10:7-8

Matthew 10:7-8:

And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, freely ye have received, freely give.

Notes on Matthew 10:7-8:

When the kingdom of heaven is at hand, people get healed! Note that the disciples were called to preach, not just heal people. Also, notice that the disciples were told to heal the sick, not “lift up the sick in prayer” (or worse yet, “remember the sick”). How could they be confident when doing so? Because in Matthew 10:1, Jesus gave them that authority.

The fact that raising the dead is mentioned in here leads to an obvious question: Is that something we should all be doing? The answer is no. The Great Commission includes laying hands on the sick, but it does not include a promise that we can “claim” for the raising of the dead. The next obvious question is, “If raising the dead is not something we can all do by faith, can we think that any of the commands apply to us?” Yes, when people were called to preach Christ, healing of the sick went along with that calling. However, raising of the dead did not always go along with that calling. This is done exclusively by the gifts of the Spirit as the Spirit wills, not by normal faith. (This requires the kind of special faith alluded to in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11.) Observe that in Matthew 10:1, Jesus gave His disciples authority to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers (included in “all manner of disease”) and to cast out unclean spirits. The one thing on the list in this verse that was not included in the other verse was the raising of the dead. This shows that they did not have general authority to raise the dead but they had it in the other areas.

Preaching that the kingdom is here NOW is vastly different from the all-too-common preaching that the kingdom will “soon” come in great power in the form of a future awesome revival. Don’t wait! Go out and do the works of Jesus NOW!