The other day I began whistling the Christmas carol, Hark
the Herald Angels Sing. Goodness, Lord, this Christmas carol in the
summer? I fished around in my memory bank for the lyrics but could only get
some of them. The inability to
remember all the lyrics can drive me crazy when the tune is familiar and right
there coming out of my mouth. So, I stopped, thought hard and asked God to let
me know what the words were. This is one of God’s favorite ways to speak to me. Why
is it that at Christmas time all the words of a carol just flow from memory but
if it is summer we can’t always remember the words? So I turned to the internet
to check the lyrics. God must be trying
to get some message across to me, I thought. Which words, Lord, do you want to remind me of? I asked. I got to verse 3 which Charles Wesley penned
in 1739: “Hail the Son of
Righteousness! Light and Life to all he
brings, Ris’n with healing in his wings….”
The words expressed come out of Malachi 4:2. I stopped everything to
listen further to the Spirit. Healing
first. Freedom and joy are a result of healing not the other way around. You
can’t expect a wounded person to feel free and leap with joy. Healing of wounds
or injuries come first. God was speaking
and I was listening. I had observed a lack of joy and freedom in certain people
and wondered what caused it. Then God revealed woundedness was the root problem
and God wanted to rise with healing in his wings. Then there would be joy and
freedom.
To further confirm the words of the Spirit that same day our
son, Jonny, who is a volunteer fireman, sent us some video clips of a serious
car accident which he was summoned to. Stars, the ambulance helicopter, was
sent to the rescue to carry away the injured to the hospital. It came down to
the injured, hovered over them, propeller whirling, the ground rescuers
assisted the injured onto the helicopter
and then it rose up to take the wounded off to the place of healing and
life. It was a graphic portrayal of both
the Bible verse and Christmas carol.
Many instances of Jesus, rising up and coming to me with
healing, were brought to my memory. It is like he just flies to the rescue of
the wounded. There have always been God’s rescue people assisting but sometimes
the 'Stars helicopter' needs to fly in. The ground rescuers are not enough. I
have many Muslim friends who need the Sun of Righteousness to rise up and bring
healing, freedom and joy to them because I can be there to help but they really
need the ultimate Healer to take them under his wings.
P.S. No sooner had this been posted than I received a SOS phone call from a convert requesting urgent healing prayer for a Muslim classmate whom I don't know. The phone was passed to that lady and I prayed Jesus would go to her and heal her.
P.S. No sooner had this been posted than I received a SOS phone call from a convert requesting urgent healing prayer for a Muslim classmate whom I don't know. The phone was passed to that lady and I prayed Jesus would go to her and heal her.