The Bible is candid and truthful over the realities of ministry, yet as preacher/pastors we are often not as forthright. The popular, yet warped contemporary version of our faith, has become a magnet for the sick and sullen, longing for survival without healing.
By healing, I do not refer to the physical maladies that frequently plague aging frames, but the spiritual illnesses often manifested in the weariness of the mind (James 5:15), as well as the emotional dysfunction that gravitates to cathartic environments. These things do not qualify as healing, they are mere survival techniques. As pastors, many of us are struggling survivors, pretending to be healed so that the sick amongst us will not lose confidence in us. As a result, no healing takes place at all!
The only place of authentic healing is in the cross of Jesus Christ! Many of us preach about a cross or crosses, when these crosses offer no healing. Rape, domestic violence, poverty, divorce etc., do not represent the cross. These crosses are indigenous to a sick culture, both the saved and the unsaved fall victim to these crosses. The cross of Jesus Christ is represented by these three pinions. 1) It is a vehicle of redemption, 2) it is voluntarily received and 3) there are always voices of recall (saying come down)" says, Dr. A.L. Patterson. Nobody chooses to be raped. That disqualifies it as a rape. No one is redeemed because of another person's unemployment. These do not represent the cross, they are simply consequences of our fallen culture!
As preachers of the gospel, we must preach a message whose core rests in the cross of Jesus Christ. This is where he bears the scars resulting from our fallen condition and imputes his healing to us. We live focused on our imputed status, knowing that the scars of our past do not define us.
As a graduating Senior in college years ago, I worked for a restaurant that announced it's closing in a few months. It didn't bother me much because I knew that it was just a temporary job for me. I nonchalantly embraced the announcement until I remembered that I was employed with some parents whose livelihood was from that job. Some cried, others angrily protested. The air was thick with fear. It occurred to me, that when one places everything in something that fails, panic is inevitable.
As believers, the cross says, yes we suffer, but our healing rests in our placing everything in the eternal promises of our God. Jesus Christ is our everything. The cross of Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the stains of our sick society. We hurt, but it's temporary! The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us!
Our healing is in the cross of Jesus Christ. We must leave our self help motivational speeches for others to do that. We must declare that there is "power, power, wonder working power, in the blood of the Lamb!"