HEALING THROUGH COMPASSION By Gale Maiden JESUS RELEASES THE COMPASSION RECEIVED FROM HIS FATHER Early morning recently I heard my heavenly Father say, “I am passionate concerning your healing and wholeness.” Many times over the years when challenged I have doubted the desire or passion of God to alleviate my infirmities. This most compassionate breath of life from my Father quickened my whole being and inspired me to again have His faith. Not only is God passionate concerning our total well being, He wants every believer to have His heart of compassion in order to successfully administer healing to the world. It is noteworthy that Jesus ministered out of compassion with profound results. And when He (Jesus) went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and felt compassion for them, and healed their sick. (Matthew 14:14, NAS) It is so comforting to know that God is passionate concerning our every need. God’s passion for the salvation of the world was demonstrated to the utmost when He asked Jesus to become our substitute in death. Jesus in his death became sin for all thereby setting free all who will believe. Jesus of course being full of the compassion of His Father passionately obeyed the will of His Father God. The dictionary defines compassion as having sympathy for the distress of others along with a desire to alleviate it. Wow! Do we inherently have this compassion? To some degree we all have compassion simply because we all were created by and have in us the Holy Spirit compassionate breath of God. As with Jesus who had compassion to give because he had experienced the sufferings (temptations), we are given impartations of compassion from our heavenly Father as we righteously embrace the challenges of the world systems. COMPASSION RELEASES RESURRECTION POWER Now as He approached the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her, and said to her, "Do not weep." And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise!" And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And {Jesus} gave him back to his mother. (Luke 7:12-15, NAS) As Jesus approached the gate of the city of Nain he encountered a widowed mother whose son had died and was being carried to his burial. This is the same Jesus who had previously escaped death as He miraculously was saved from a crowd who wanted to kill him. Jesus had moments before this attack announced his role as messiah. God had compassion on Jesus through which He was delivered from death. Jesus had freely received deliverance through his Father’s compassion so that when he encountered a need for resurrection he freely and compassionately gave it. PASSIONATE LOVE FOR GOD, SELF AND NEIGHBORS God deals with His beloved in order to impart the faith substance of compassion and mercy. All of mankind down deep inside is desirous to know that which God is doing presently. Because God created humanity for His pleasure through intimate fellowship we can with certainty know that God has always passionately been working with His creation to fulfill such. The commandment to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind clearly mandates God’s call to a passion for Him. The second part of this commandment says to likewise with passion love our neighbor as we passionately love ourselves. Know that only out of a passionate love affair with God will we learn to love ourselves. We will love others only to the degree that we love ourselves. God has made it very clear that I must allow Him to impart compassion to me; compassion necessary to heal others. One only has to trace through the Gospels the word compassion to know that compassion is the conductor of healing and deliverance. PLEASE… DON’T MENTION JOB! One example of this process of God imparting compassion is clearly demonstrated through a Biblical man of who most do not want to think or talk about. Job is a great example of how God deals with, yes, those who are righteous and sinless in imparting compassion. Note that which the Apostle James scribed concerning Job and compassion. Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings that the Lord is full of compassion and {is} merciful. (James 5:11, NAS)   Want to be blessed? Job’s blessings came only after He realized that all that happened to him was the righteous dealings of the Lord. God used Satan as a tool of great challenge against Job. Job suffered unimaginable events yet maintained a confession of God’s right to do with him as He will. Job did not sin yet he had some issues of misunderstanding. As Job we can hear a lot of things about God but only through the process of God imparting compassion will we be able to see (understand) God. To make a long story short, Job’s two-fold restoration only came as he released   compassion to the three men who had accused him of sin. God deliver us from being so pragmatic with our assessments of God’s dealings with His creation. One who is pragmatic might say of God’s dealings with Job, “It looks bad therefore it must be bad.” Job’s three friends were pragmatic in that they saw the “bad” and concluded that these harsh things in Job’s life must be a result of Job’s hidden sin. CHARGE In the end, God told the three that they were incorrect in their assessment of His dealings with Job. The three accusers of Job were delivered from their unrighteousness only when Job, now full of God’s compassion prayed for them. God heard Job’s prayer of compassion and the three were healed and restored. Job also was doubly restored and healed as he released the compassion which he had received. Job saw through the eyes of God the great need for the healing of his three accusers. The nature of the world hasn’t changed…it is unfair. The good news is that Jesus said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” God, full of compassion and mercy, desires more than anything to impart His compassionate and merciful nature to each of us. In this time of great challenge and temptation, let us not say, “Why Lord?” Let us know that God is dealing compassionately with each of us inspiring believers to go into the entire world with healing. Let our response continuously be, “What Lord would you have me do?”