“And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.” (Mark 1:41)
This Scripture has been preached by many. It shows the compassion Jesus had for suffering humanity. Suffering is the result of sin and not particularly the sin of that person, but sin in the world. We were once in a city in Canada where there was an abundance of crippled people, on crutches and wheelchairs. This is not to say that the town was sinful, but there was not a hedge in that city holding back the forces of darkness. There are two things that need to be discussed in my statements. One is whether the prayers of the saints can hold back the forces of darkness and the other is whether darkness can prevail in such a way as to attack the citizens of a place.
There are the issues out of the ordinary and clear elements mentioned in this Scripture that we will consider. Let’s consider the compassionate heart of our Savior. It’s supernatural. Jesus put out His hand. He touched the leper, something no one with any sense would do. It was forbidden by law. “And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.” (Lev 13:45-46) This was because leprosy is contagious. But Jesus is healing. The mere touch of His garment healed. The lady with the issue of blood was healed in this manner and so were others. “And when the men of that place had knowledge of Him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto Him all that were diseased; And besought Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.” (Matthew 14:35-36; Mark 5:25-34) We don’t know how long the leper Jesus touched had been sick, but his loneliness and hopelessness is detected in his words. Jesus is his only hope. He reverences Jesus and kneels before Him. He is full of faith believing that if Jesus wants to heal him, he will be healed. That belief, that faith in Jesus is what moves Him. The leper is representative of all humanity who although is suffering, believes Jesus will heal him if Jesus wants to. And Jesus’ reply is “I will...” And that is always the reply that Jesus says to us. I will heal you. I will restore you. I will touch you. I will love you. I will have mercy on you.
Jesus is healing. Healing exuded out from Him. “And the whole multitude sought to touch Him: for there went virtue out of Him, and healed them all.” (Luke 6:19) All were healed. And Jesus is very much alive and still heals. The question may be, “Why am I not healed?” I believe Jesus healed then and He heals now. I believe that by Jesus’ stripes I am healed. (1Peter 2:24) I do not want to offend anyone, but it could be you are not being honest with yourself, or you are negating the Word of God by your words and actions. God’s Word is not false. And there should be no doubt about it. We should not make our experience doctrine. Jesus healed spirit, soul and body and He still heals spirit, soul and body. (Luke 6:18)
One of the issues with my statements about sin is that a place can be run over by a spirit of sickness, death or tragedy, much like the city I visited in Canada. Every place in the world is ruled by spiritual beings in the heavenlies or heavenly realm, not meaning heaven. Paul taught that. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph 6:12) We do not literally fight. The Greek word comes from the word that means cast out. Our first line of attack is our light. The light exposes the darkness. And where there is light, there is no darkness. Our light casts out the darkness. So we could conclude that in these places that are overcome with darkness, lack light, either the Word of God or believers. Another thing is that the authority of the Name of Jesus makes the darkness tremble and flee. Notice that I did not say just merely saying the Name like an incantation. It’s the authority of Jesus. Jesus cast many demons out of people. It’s Jesus in us that demons tremble at. When we see a situation such as I saw, know that the light of Jesus is needed there. It is the abundance of darkness that depresses a place and takes advantage of those in the darkness.
After being away fifty years from my hometown, I found on my return a different spirit in the city. There has always been a spirit of the occult in this city. Now there is violence and craziness added to it. There are many churches in the city, but there is hypocrisy in the churches. There’s an element of them and us. There is sin in the church. There are those who profess to love Christ who love themselves more. There is an ignorance of the Word of God. There is a tolerance to sin. There are breakthroughs though, but not without great opposition. Sparks of light are penetrating the darkness.
What can believers do? Pray with power, pray God’s Word and declare the Lord’s authority over every power on earth, under the earth and in the heavenlies. Realize your light shines in the darkness, exposing it so we can cast it out. We can be the compassion, the feet, the hands and the lips of Jesus declaring (praying) for the light of Jesus to shine in the darkness and to dispel the darkness.
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