“I Believe in Divine Healing” | Sunday AM | Don Shephard

Original Broadcast of Sunday Morning 10 AM Bible Class, 04/26/2026

Speaker: Don Shephard

Message Title: "I Believe in Divine Healing" 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

If you have your Bibles, let's turn to a verse, Exodus chapter 15, verse 26. If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you. God bless you, may be seated. You know, the word shall when you read it in a Bible is basically a promise from God. I shall do this. He's making a promise with you. He's making basically a pack with you. And coming in and reading and studying about I believe, I do. I believe in God and I believe everything about God. And it's just not, I woke up one morning and said, Well, I believe. There was a lot to do with me understanding for me to believe in God, to believe the things of God. Is we do this and we say this, but we really don't come out and say it. But it's almost like, God, you gotta prove things to me first. And the reason why we may act like that is because we're still human and we have human instincts, and there's a lot of things we don't believe. And the reason why we don't believe is because we don't understand. And it's kind of like your job, it's kind of like anything else, is if you don't understand the work, you kind of get frustrated real fast. If you don't understand or know what's going on, you get really irritated with situations. And with the word of God, and what God's trying to do is to instruct us all the time and trying to open doors for us to study. And also the word of God says, study to show yourself approved unto God. So God is basically saying, you know, you are responsible for studying yourself. Don't come and leave it to the pastor, don't come and leave it to the ministry. They're there to help you, they're there to guide you, and the pastor is there for more reasons than that. But if you're going to turn everything over to them, you're gonna mess a whole lot because we need to study. Because we're going through different situations in our life. Amen. And the topic here is I believe in divine healing. You know, a lot of times the word healing doesn't really pop up in our head because, you know, when it's in the Word of God, we want to know other things, and we get ourselves involved in the studying other things. But healing is a great part of our salvation. And it's probably one of the ones that we least really dive into to really find out. We get frustrated when we're not healed. Anybody ever been healed by God? Anyone never been healed by God? Anybody have a situation that God did not heal you from yet? That's happened. It's part of our life. I mean, it's not a reason to get frustrated, but it's a reason to understand and to study and to find out. So, in the paperwork we handed out to you, number one, God is the healer. How many people believe that? God is the healer. No one else is going to heal you but God. Amen. God's going to heal you. See, divine healing is not a side doctrine, as many believe. It's just not something off to the side. Divine healing is with us all the time. That healing is part as you walk. You are breathing air that's basically has a lot of contamination and things involved in it, and God is, without you knowing it, probably healing your lungs. Probably healing things that are hurting you as we walk this life, and we're not picking up on it. It healing is woven through Scripture and affirmed by the early church, the apostles, and the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus healed. And we got to believe that look, when Jesus was there, he was healing. We are being healed. Now you're going to be healed whether you know it or not. And there's things that are attached to you that you need healing on. And there's things that are attached to you that we don't know about. You don't know about. Now, sometimes we could see the physical, and hey, look, I cut my arm. Hey, there's blood. You need healing. And we understand that the body itself can, through God, heal itself through a lot of things. Amen. Healing is a part of God's uh redemptive work. It's part of salvation, it's part of Him coming to us, flowing from His compassion. God is not hard-nosed. I mean, I talk to people all the time and they go, well, what about these wars? What about the man that started them? Why are we blaming God? God gave us freedom of choice. So, you know, there's a lot of healing that needs to be done. Sure, my son-in-law is one of them. He went in there, he seen things, had to do things that normally he would not do. But now it's over with, and he needs to be healed. Not only in his body, but in his mind, in his heart, in his thoughts, in his compassion that he has, because he has two children. And we have to work with him continually, and I don't mind that. Because he's been through something that I never went through. And he lost a lot that we didn't lose. But he's seen it. He's seen things that he, I don't go up and just talk to him about it, but it be such as I'm driving along, and all of a sudden he'll just pop up for five minutes and talk about a situation that happened. Horrific. And I sat there and I prayed for him. I go, Lord, you gotta touch his mind. The things that us people and many of us seen. Amen. Divine healing is not magic. Nor is it guaranteed in our timetable. Now, me, I like things done pretty quick. Bam, you hurt yourself. God heal me now. And I'm I act like that. I mean, I know the other, well, God will do it on his time. I I don't do that. When I'm in pain, God heal me now. I get I I do. There's places I go and all of a sudden your stomach starts. Oh man, did I eat something? I go pray. God, heal me now. Touch my mind. Before I even pray for anybody else, Lord, touch my mind and touch my heart. I need to be healed before I just run around doing things. I pray for the service that God has put me into. And we see your pastor, he prays for the service that God had put him into. You need a pastor who prays for his people and in healing. Amen. So it's not magic, it is the work of a loving God who invites us to pray boldly and trust deeply and walk faithfully. Faith has a lot to do with healing from God. Amen. Our faith has a lot to do. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. Okay, without faith, it's almost impossible for you to get anywhere. Without faith, it tells me that there's an attitude somewhere in there. And it's not just because you have an attitude doesn't mean that we're going to be mean. We're going to dissect it and find out what's going on. So we want to help you. We want to get you cured, get you closer to God. Amen. Rather, healing is immediate, which I love, gradually, which I understand, are still unseen. Which sometimes, I'll be honest, frustrates me. How many of you have a wound in your body and you've been praying for years for it? And yet you still have that same wound. But God told me through those scriptures that one day I won't have that wound anymore. One day I'm not going to have those problems. One day He promised it will come to where all that's gone. But we're going to find out today why we have some of these issues and why sometimes we don't feel we're healed instantly. Amen. So in Exodus, we just read, I am the Lord who heals you. Amen. We hear it in English, uh Jehovah Rapha. Anybody ever heard that before? God who heals? Well, Yahweh Raphae is the Hebrew saying of it. But it still means the same. So please don't get tied up on the names. Jehovah Rappah and Yahweh. Okay, we understand one's Hebrew, one's English, still means the same. The name of Jesus, Jesus Cristo, Yeshua, the same. Same name. My name is Don in English, Donaldo in Spanish. Shah bin Shafah in Hebrew. Could you imagine calling me all? You know, well, what's your name again? Just call me Don. The promise follows instructions from God. And these promises were to the Israelites, and they are to us today. And there's three of them. Listen carefully to God and do what is right. I love this part. You know what holiness is? We have a holy God, but what's holiness? Just to do right. I love it when people talk about holiness and they have all these titles and words I don't even understand. But all it means is just do right. Just do right by God and keep his commands. Because God is our healer and our protector. Amen? God's awesome. So number one, God is the healer. In your scriptures, you'll find it in uh, as we just read, 1526, I am the Lord who heals you, the one who heals diseases, the one who restores brokenness, the one who renews strength, and the one who brings life out of death. Amen. God is the one who heals all diseases. As it says in Psalms 103, verse 3. God is the one who restores brokenness. He is the ultimate restorer. Broken lives. Broken hearts. Broken spirits. We get those. And we gotta have a compassionate God to work with us. Because we're all different. Some like straight from the hip. That's me. I just give it, shoot me straight, tell me what it is. But there's some that gotta go through another another lane, different avenue to get to them. Amen. God is the one who renews strength in Israel. Book of uh Isaiah, I'm sorry. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. God is the one who brings life out of death. Through the resurrection, we see it. God, Jesus went, laid hands, and people were restored. Their life was restored. Just by laying of hands. All through the work, the ministry that Jesus did, he taught it to the disciples who has taught it and put it in the first church, who is in the church today. Amen. Healing is not something God does occasionally, it is part of who he is. We have a loving, compassionate, healing God. Amen. Over here in number two. Healing is provided through the atonement. In Scriptures, Isaiah 53, Matthew 8, 16, and 17, and 1 Peter 2, 24. Healing is connected to the work of Christ on the cross. So we got down here. Jesus bore our sins. Jesus carried our sickness. Jesus broke the curse, which I put Galatians 3.13 for you. Sorry, it's a little scrubby, but I was writing fast. And Jesus conquered death. This does not mean sickness is healed instantly, but it means healing is part of the salvation Jesus purchased from the cross. Amen. Jesus bore our sins. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for iniquity, our sins that we have done. Sin is in a Bible when you go, what is sin? It's something that's called the wager of sin is death. There's consequences to sinning. Okay? But the ultimate end of it is death. But through the process of sinning, and I want, I heard just a long time ago, I remember a preacher got up and goes, well, sinning is fun. The consequence is death. So be careful what you choose in our lives. But we do a lot of things that's fun, but we find out it's wrong. Gossip may be fun until you find out who you hurt. Yelling at people may be fun until you find out who got devastated. Bullying may be fun until you find out who's the victim. You know, and I study that a lot too in psychology about people that bully is they always go for somebody that they feel is weaker. And if you could build and put your strength in somebody who's been bullied before. Anybody ever been bullied? I mean, if you don't want to reason. Now, I I'm not, I don't know if I ever been bullied. I I don't remember anybody trying to bully me. I mean, I was like, I somebody bullied me at the time, I probably had fun. But it was like, you know, when people get bullied, do they bully their body sometimes? But mostly it's the mindset. Manipulation, you know, they get in there and they want bully, they want to put you down. And you go away, and you know what? It hurts. You ever hear that saying, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me? No, it's the other way around. Sticks and stones may not break your bones, but names will always hurt you. Anybody like to be called a name? No. You don't want to hang around people that always put you down. Because it mindset, it hurts. And you need to work, and the word of God will help you in that. Sometimes you'll go to the ministry in a church, and there's people that can help you in that cope to help you cope with that mindset. Amen. So sin is a weight that is put on us, but it destroys us, and it damages our body. And you can name almost any sinful thing out there, and I can tell you if it's going to hurt your mind or your body, because it will do one or the other. Jesus carried our sickness. It's not intended. Sickness is not intended to remain in you. Did you know that? God never intended any of these diseases to stay in you. But it does get attached to us, and sometimes we do keep them. You remember the most you ever hurt when somebody called you a name. That still remains in you. Now, hopefully, you're able to forgive the person that did that and try to push aside, but that mark still stays. And you go, why is that still staying in my thoughts? Why does it hurts me? It hurts me deeply that they said that. Why is that still staying in me? Because it's shaping you. Because you know it hurts. And usually what I hear hurting people hurt other people. Yes, that's true. But if you get hurt, sometimes you take those pains and you let it reshape you into a better person. Amen. But through faith, we are healed. Sickness is not intended to stay. Amen. The cross is the foundation of both spiritual and physical healing. Amen. So I put together something here, and it's it's kind of a saying, and and uh, you know, going with Jesus when he was on the cross. And Jesus did the miracles, he did a miracle. When he went up on the cross, for one, he took all our sins, he purchased that with a price. He took all of it. We fully don't understand the agony he went through on that cross. What he went through being whipped, being torn apart. You gotta understand the Bible said he was unrecognizable. So, and yet he took all that pain and turned it to heal us. He took all that so that we wouldn't have to go through it, he would go through it, but to heal us. Amen. But on that, he did something different, he did something that was a miracle. And before the miracles could even happen, which we know, which was the resurrection, before that can take place, there's a situation that has to be guaranteed and positively noted. We had to really know before there was a resurrection that the body of Jesus was dead. If he wasn't dead, then the resurrection wouldn't mean anything. So let's go through a couple proofs that we may find in the Bible. There's guards. When he was on a cross, and one guard said, He looks dead. Ask the other guard, is he dead? That guard took a spear and pierced his side, said the body is dead. So the ones who came to transport the body had to look at the body and say the body was dead. Taking it to the medical examiner, if you please, the medical examiner said, The body is dead. The one who prepared the body said, the body is dead. The Pharisees who asked to see the body said the body is dead. Pilate asked the centurion, is the body dead? The centurion said, the body is dead. The ones who wrapped him in grave clothes said, the body is dead. The guard who stood at the tomb said, the body is dead. By all account, the body of Jesus is dead. And then three days later, he rose. You have to understand for everybody who seen and said and took note, the body is dead. That is the miracles Jesus did. That was the resurrection. That was the healing power of Christ. You're saying, can God heal my wound? He can heal death. In the Bible, we read that, we even read it. He brought people back. Lazarus one, he brought a little girl, he brought them back. And then he came back. So he can heal death. If he can heal death, if he has power and dominion over that and the power, he can heal every disease that's in you. Amen. We are healed by his stripes. The problem is a lot of people forget who Yahweh Raphae is. He is our healer. Amen. So a lot, yes, a lot of times they forget on that. Amen. Jesus' ministry was filled with healing all through it, right? And we find it in the scriptures, Acts chapter 10, verse 38, he went about doing good and healing all. Healing was central. Jesus never walked by anybody and just left them. The Bible said he went by healing all. He's not going to leave them. And there's some that were maybe had more pain than others that needed to see Jesus. And there's times that in church today we have an altar that we come and we could plead out because he says, Bring. Bring all that. Bring not only your sands, your baggage, and all that, but bring everything to the altar. And I'm going to take it away. I'm going to lift those burdens from you. I'm going to heal you by lifting those burdens. You don't need to walk around worried about somebody who just flipped you off on the freeway. And people do. For the next one, why are you worried about it? They're gone. Don't get in the way for them to do that. Or don't don't equal their energy. Just, you know, God bless you, move on. We were coming driving here this morning, driving to church. And I seen a whole biker club out there. You know, bikes were all lined up on the side of the road. They're all over the fields. You know what they're doing? They're on the side of the roads picking up trash. I don't think the devil told them to go and pick up trash. But there's something inside their heart that says, hey, you know, we need to do something. And that's where they're at. They think they're doing good, which they do good for this community, but they're trying to do good in their heart. And sometimes we get that, we're trying to, but the thing is we need to please God. Doing good for the community is good, but we need to do good in our hearts. Amen. We need to sit there and do what God wants us to do. So God healed the sick, he opened blind eyes, he cleansed leopards, he raised the dead, he delivered the oppressed. Jesus healed because he had compassion, he had the authority, and he revealed the kingdom of God. Amen. Those who challenge his authority and accuse him of breaking the law, as the Pharisees did, and express their unbelief. It blows me away when we get back, then I'm reading about Pharisees that have unbelief that Jesus healed. Jesus is healing, and they're arguing. My goodness. That's like somebody comes up and we pray for them, somebody backs up. That's stupid. You guys don't need to do that. You have no authority doing that. It's an unbelief. But for this person, they have belief. And they know what the word of God says, and they need to be healed. They need to be healed for their unbelief. Amen. So they're breaking the laws when he was healing. They're saying he's breaking the law because he's healing others, are the same people that in Galatians 3.13, what it was talking about. Jesus broke that curse. He broke that. He says, No, I'm going to heal on the Sabbath. The one thing about us, the Sabbath, every day is the Sabbath for us. I just don't wait for a Friday night and go, oh, I'm going to love and praise God. I'm going to do it every day. Every morning, every noon, and every night. Because if my children get sick, I'm praying for them. And I don't care what day it is. Nor do I care what time it is. If they call me up and go, you know, I really need prayer. Now, we, my wife and I, we're on the phone when people call. And they're calling all over. People that know us from here, they'll call up and go, I'm going through this, I need you. I pray on a phone. Pastor Siser Brothers, they pray on a phone. They'll come down and see you in person, but they'll pray on a phone if they have to. But we're still praying. We're going to bring the throne of God to where that place is because we got to sit there and get things done. Amen. I don't know if any of you know it. I was a chaplain in a motorcycle group. And these guys, when they needed prayer, they would pull up on their bikes. And I remember walking across the big parking lot, and I was walking across, and the guy pulled up and he goes, Chaplain, he goes, It says, Chaplain, on you, go pray for me, man. I'm going through a hardship. I'm going through a hard time with my family and stuff. Turn in the middle of the parking lot, all these bikers all over. And I prayed for him. And I prayed sincerely for him. I wasn't a half-beat, oh, everybody's looking. I don't care. He didn't care, so I'm not gonna care. And I prayed. And when he was done, another one came up. And I prayed for him. And then when he was done, nobody came up. So I turned around and I was walking because I want to look at this new bike that this guy built. And you uh you go up, you go look at him, but you don't touch him. And when I went up there, the guy standing by his bike, his arms folded. He wasn't smiling, he was just mean. And uh I promise you, he was probably about 6'11, 7 feet tall. He was huge. And I'm looking at the bike, and I look up at him, he's just standing there looking at me, and finally I'm like, you know, you have a really nice bike. I really like your bike. You know what he said to me? I need prayer too. I promise you. So I stood up, and I'm thinking, oh God. So I'm like looking at this guy, praying for him. I think I'm hitting somewhere around here, praying for him, and he lifts his hands, and I'm telling you, he's like 14 feet tall. I was like, oh my goodness. You know, biggest person I've ever seen in my life. But you know what? He felt good. He just looks at me and goes, I feel good. And so, all right, and that group always knew that when I was there that I would pray for them. But here's the thing when they a certain time came by, it was time for me to leave. And they would come and get me, and they would wrap their arms around me, and chaplain, thank you for coming. We appreciate you, we love you, and they're escorting me out. You know why? It's time for them to send. But they don't want me there when they do that, they felt convicted, and so I go home and she goes, Oh, you know, I yeah, they it's time for me to leave. But you know, many bikers have been bullied. A lot of people don't know that, they think they're the bullies, but they're in something because they need security and they don't know where to go. My security is my church because I come here and I could breathe, and I know people and they know me. And you know what? If I need prayer, they will pray for me, and if so, I will pray for them. Amen. The ministry of Jesus shows us that God's heart towards humans suffering, that God is compassion. Amen. The early church continued the ministry of healing. In the first church, yeah, they brought in some weird stuff, but they brought in what Jesus wanted. And one is, you know, baptism in Jesus' name. You know, healing's part of it, and healing in the name of Jesus. So when people go, well, are you Jesus everything? I go, but Jesus is everything. So if you want to call me Jesus everything, I don't get, but Jesus is everything. My God's name is Jesus. And you can find that through the Bible. We're not going to go through that right now. But in scriptures of Mark 16, 17 through 18, Acts 3, 1 through 8, Acts 5, 5 through 16, and James 5, uh, 14 through 16. Healing did not end with Jesus. It did not end. It's continued through the apostolics and the early church. They prayed for the sick. Does that remind you of anything? They anointed with oil. Have you seen that? They laid hands on the afflicted, they saw miracles, signs, and wonders. Healing was part of the church witness to a living Christ. We do all this today in a church. And the world will sit back and try to stop it. How? By mocking it. Oh, they'll blast it on the internet. Oh, look at these fools. And it's like, they don't, if only they understood. You know. Are they set there and go, well, I'm not going to church. I don't need church. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Church is well, a bunch of hypocrites are. That'd be the whole world. Don't blame the church. Church is at least trying not to. And yet, people in this church are being healed. And people are being forgiven, and their mindset is being renewed. Amen? Because we want to have a renewed mind. I got news for you. It's old news. But the devil's a liar. He's been lying about Jesus since it happened. He's been lying since the beginning of time. Healing is part of Jesus' ministry. The same spirit that empowered the early church empowers this church today. Amen. Blind eyes will be healed. Anybody ever seen a miracle? Anybody ever seen anybody raised from the dead? Anybody really? I haven't seen that yet. I mean, I'll be honest, you know, when I was ministering and in a ministry and all that stuff, I felt I was being left out. I just didn't get to see all this people being healed. I didn't get to see a guy raised. I wanted to see real life. I would go to heal where they had healing things and people in wheelchair, and I would go up, I just look at them. I'm waiting. I want to see that. I end up praying with some and stuff like that. But I remember Billy Cole. And I'm waiting, and uh these people grabbed this guy in a wheelchair and they yanked him up. Billy Cole was sitting down, yanked him up, and this guy came up and he went down on his face. And I remember walking up and I asked, Brother Cole, I need to ask you a question. Why wasn't he healed? Guess what he said? I don't know. He goes, but I have seen him get healed and walk out the door and never come back. Now I did, I expected the big old thing, but you know, it's just straight from the hip. So there was a lady that I knew, she was a pastor's wife. They had a church in uh in Los Angeles area, and she was blind in an eye. And uh at a conference, they had a big conference, and she was up there. And you know, yeah, as Mr. We go up and we pray, but this time uh it was just something inside me saying, No. There's like 75 ladies over there praying with her. So I went over there and I go, There's enough power here. I I just want to see it. I didn't I was sitting there even telling God, I I just didn't go, I don't get to see anything. I mean, you things happen after I leave or before I get there. You know, I won't see it. And so they were praying for her, and I walked, and I didn't walk up to her, I didn't pray it. I went back in a crowd. I was probably 50 people back of her, about three-quarters of the way back of the whole crowd. And I had my hands and I just like watching her and stuff like that. And she went like this, and all of a sudden they, you know, everyone starts screaming, and she's like raising her hand, and uh she's sitting there and she's blinking her eyes, and everyone's all the ladies were ah going crazy. And I'm sitting there, no unbelief. I just want an assurance. It looks like maybe I was you know being mean. I wasn't being mean, uh sometimes we get that way. And she goes like this, she goes, now remember, I'm like where the doors are. She goes, I see you, Brother Shepard. Now, do you think I went, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I felt pretty much about that big. Not because she said that, because God shaped me into something going, see? And I just went, oh God, you did it again, you know. And uh I just went, okay. You know, yeah, I believe, but I believe she was gonna get healed. I didn't know I was gonna be part of that, but because that was the first thing out of her mouth. Maybe thank you, Lord, was first, and then I heard that part. But oh my goodness. God heals in different ways, and I learned that one. God heals in different ways, right? Instantly. I love that one. Gradually and through means and ultimately. Miraculous is the one I look for, and he does do that. There's people that had their bones reconstructed when they were in trying to lift up their hands, and God healed them. There's people that my wife would tell me about that had tumors in their stomach and they went to the restroom and the tumors were gone. Uh, other people will come and they will come that they had issues in their head. Now, rather it be a migraine or a headache or a tumor. But has anybody ever been healed that way? Yes. There's times, I'll be honest, there's times I just go to church and I go, God, I have a headache. And then all of a sudden I'm like, ooh, I didn't even finish anything yet. Then I go back and I go, maybe you just didn't want to listen to me whine. I don't know. You know, you ever get that way? Yeah, God, man. He big crybaby. Okay. But you know, um, he heals. And it could be instantly, or it could be over time. Why is it over time? Because if you're healed instantly, sometimes we forget about it. But if we're going through a process over time, we remember that, and God is shaping us and molding us for something better. Amen. And our attitude will be different by the time he does that. Amen. He'll heal that through means, which is medicine, doctors, treatment. Those are part of healing process that God has established on us for us. I'm if you're the ones that say, I don't take any. Okay, but some of us go, yeah, I'll take that because God gave somebody a half a brain to figure that thing out, and I'm going to take it too, because it's part of God. Knowledge and wisdom is from God. Ultimately, and finally in the resurrection, eternal life, you will be completely whole. God's sovereign and his timing is perfect. But we are still called to pray boldly. Why some are not healed immediately? We live in a fallen world, sickness is part of the human mortality. God works through suffering to shape character. Healing may be laid, may be delayed for reasons we cannot see, but faith is not measured by outcomes. The big question is this lack of faith? Maybe unconfessed sins? God's timely for a greater purpose. Those are the questions. Why am I not healed yet? But you are being healed. As I speak now, God is touching your heart and touching your mind. God is healing things in your body and sometimes in your body that you don't know, and God is always healing our minds. We need a good working mind. We need a loving heart. If my heart's not there, then God needs to work on it. I need to work on it. If my mind is off in Lululand, I need to bring it back. Amen. I asked the response of the world. Can you explain why we are not instantly healed? The world says this. People do not heal instantly because biologically, repaired is a complex, multi-stage process requiring energy, proper calculation, and time for tissue recognition. I have no idea what they're talking about. But that's what they gave me. I looked it up. I'd rather look into a word of God and go to prayer and go, God, you heal me instantly. I am grateful for that. But if it takes a process, then you work with me until the ultimate thing. Let's all stand. Our purpose, our response, prayer, belief, and trust. Pray for the sick. Anoint with oil. Call on the name of Jesus and believe God is able and trust God with the results. Amen.