And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy [compassion] on us.
(Luke 17:11-13 AMP)
What was Jesus’ answer? Did He say, “No, I’m not going to heal you today, because you guys have been bad dudes and you need to learn a few things. You keep that leprosy, and after your eyeballs fall out, your ears fall off, your noses fall off, and your legs fall off, I might do something about it, because then you’ll be spiritual.”
Jesus didn’t say that, did He? I know it sounds silly, but a lot of people believe that was His attitude. These people need to get a proper image of their heavenly Father so Satan won’t be able to hoodwink them.
Then they’ll know that God loves them, and they’ll understand that they have been made the righteousness of God. You won’t have any trouble with faith if you know you are in right standing with God. You won’t have a sense of sin-consciousness when you enter His throne room.
Yes, you will miss it sometimes, but when you say, “Father, I sinned today, I got ugly at my brother, will You forgive me?” He’ll answer, “Yes, you’re forgiven according to 1 John 1:9. Come on in,” and you will be able to walk into His presence…like you had never sinned. Praise God! He has forgotten it. I realize this sounds rather cocky to the natural man, but that’s the way our Father loves us.
Jesus didn’t tell the lepers to keep their leprosy. He said, “Go shew yourselves unto the priests…” (Luke 17:14).
There is something important to be seen here. These lepers could have reasoned, “He’s telling us to go show ourselves to the priests, but doesn’t He realize that if we even approach them, they’ll stone us?”
Lepers always had to stay afar off; they weren’t allowed near healthy people. Rocks were thrown at them if they got too close. No one wanted them.
Praise God When Healing Comes
Jesus was telling them to get close and show themselves to the priests. The lepers must have heard about Jesus and thought, if He says it, let’s do it! That’s what we should do: act on the Word of God!
They could have said, “That preacher is nuts, let’s not listen to Him. Instead, the lepers started out in faith to visit the priests. At first they didn’t see anything, they just acted on the words of Jesus. Then the Bible says, “And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice gloried God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan” (Luke 17:14-16).
God received the glory in the healing! Notice, too, that one of the lepers glorified God with a loud voice. That’s what I like about people who get healed and they don’t care what anyone thinks and they praise God with a loud voice.
Others may talk about them, but so what? They have received their healing!
And Jesus answering said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke 17:17-19).
The tenth leper came back and gave glory to God for his healing. Some people lose their healing when they say, “I’m not going to praise God, because I’ve still got the pain.” But the leper returned and glorified God for being cleansed of the leprosy.
There’s Power in Praise
Jesus said to him, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” What does “whole” mean to a leper? What does leprosy do? It eats away at its victims! All ten lepers were cleansed of their leprosy. Although the process of the disease was stopped in their bodies, their bodies weren’t restored from the effects of the leprosy.
The tenth leper, however, came back praising God, and Jesus said, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” He had body parts and flesh restored because he went a step further than they did; he gave God the glory for his healing. There’s power in praise!
His fingers and feet were restored, his nose and ears popped back on, his hair returned, and everything else that was missing was replaced. He was made whole!
The other lepers were cleansed, but they forgot to give God glory for their healing, although the leprosy process was stopped in their bodies, they were not made
whole.
God gets the most glory in your healing, not in the sickness. Sickness, poverty, strife, confusion, unbelief, rebellion, depression, and anything unlike God is from the pit of hell. You must resist all these things!
Know that there’s a Healer in the house!
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Dr. Ed Dufresne was a bold and compassionate minister with over 49 years in the ministry. In 1971, God put a tangible healing anointing in Dr. Dufresne's right hand, and since then he had traveled over 11 million air miles carrying that healing anointing to this generation.
In 1999, Dr. Ed Dufresne had a vision of heaven, and at that time God gave him an endowment to kill cancer. Since then, there had been an increased number of dramatic healing's from cancer recorded.
It has been said of Dr. Dufresne that he had a unique ability to draw the anointing's and gifts out of ministers. His Campmeeting's and Conferences drew ministers from around the globe who desired to receive impartation's through this man of God whose ministry is earmarked by the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Dr. Dufresne's heavenly assignment was enlarged to go to the nations. With a heart for the harvest, Dr. Dufresne traveled extensively encouraging the Body of Christ to get ready for the last days move of the Holy Spirit, which will usher in the harvest and mark the return of the Lord!
Dr. Ed Dufresne has five children, Carole, Suzie, Stephanie, Stephen, and Grant.