Matt 26:28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.
The bread & the wine are symbols to remind Christ followers through the ages of His redemptive sacrifice.
We cannot receive healing just because we take communion, everyday, you must have faith, it's just the same if we want to loose weight in ten easy steps then give up after step two because we haven't lost ten kilos. Once you have the teaching it must move into the depth of your spirit to become a quickened revelation that illuminates your spirit & cause great excitement in your soul.
Communion is not some quick fix or some sort of magical formula. If a person believes for God to restore his or her health they must read through the healing miracles of Jesus, beause in everyone He performed, the faith of the individual was linked to the manifestation of the miracle. If I read a promise from Scripture saying I can be born again, but I do not believe it, then that promise is automatically void in my life. The same is true if I read about End-Time outpouring of the Holy spirit, but don't believe it is for our day & time. The Lord does not force His blessings on anyone. Therefore my unbelief can make void the promises of God for me personally.(Matt 13:58) If an individual reads of promises of healing through the atoning work of Christ & does not believe it, then he will not receive it, This is what the Bible tells us.
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Without faith it is impossible to please God; therefore, no matter how many good works you offer, God will not be pleased if they were done to earn His favour.
This verse says that God is a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him. I rejoiced when I finally realised this! I know I have made many mistakes in the past, but I also know that I have diligently sought the Lord with all of my heart. That means I qualify for those rewards. I decided a long time
ago that even though I did not deserve them I would receive the blessings that God wanted to give me. I hope that you will do the same also.
During a healing service many will go forward for prayer, sometimes you get to types of people, those who truly expect to be healed, The other type just come forward waiting to see what will happen when prayer is offered. Almost every time those how have a high expectancy are the ones who leave with the blessings. Those who go through the routine of prayer without much feeling, revelation of the Spirit or anticipation of expected result seldom leave or receive a breakthrough at that moment.
When receiving Communion with the emphasis of releasing God's healing anointing into our spirit, body & soul, we should never go through the physical motions with the attitude of, "Lets see if this works". We need to understand Communion in terms of God's covenant with man since redemption & the cross are keys to unlocking the promise of the new covenant.
The English translation of the Bible is divided into two sections called the Old & New Testaments. The English word testament alludes to last will & testament, which reveals the benefits left to a family after the death of the one who made the will.
Another term is old covenant & new covenant. Since some Christians consider the Old Testament to be out dated & done away with, it is probably best to call them the first & second covenant, the first being the Old Testament, & the second being the one initiated with Christ. the sixty six books of the Bible are a summary of God's covenant with mankind.
The Covenant The promise the covenant
Noachian covenant The earth would never be destroyed by water again.
Abrahamic covenant Abraham’s son would produce a nation & rule the nations.
Davidic covenant David would rule from Jerusalem as king forever.
New covenant We can receive eternal life through Christ.
In some way every covenant was sealed in blood. In the days after the flood, Noah burned sacrifices on the alter & God made an agreement that the earth would never again be destroyed by water. In the Abrahamic covenant, the physical act of circumcision was a sign that a Jewish male had "cut the covenant" with God. On the eighth day every male child was circumcised as a token of the Hebrew covenant with God. This was a physical sign that the male child would be raised to believe in the God of Abraham & that he would be raised in a covenant relationship (Gen17:11-12).
After the resurrection of Christ it was no longer necessary for a believer to be physically circumcised. Paul taught that true circumcision was when God removed the hardness of a persons heart after he had accepted Christ & the new covenant. Under the new covenant, water baptism replaced the physical act of circumcision.
Col 2:11-12 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptised. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
Understand that your life is based on the work done in you through Christ's death & resurrection.
Many believers are slowed in their spiritual
growth for lack of wisdom. Sometimes teaching that stunts spiritual growth is enthusiastically endorsed because believers do not know the Scriptures. We should heed Paul's warning against listening to people who pander to the flesh, rather then edifying in the truth.
Under the old covenant, if a Jewish male child was not circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, he was not in covenant, & as an adult he could be cut off from among the people. (Gen 17:4). Water baptism is so important to the salvation process that Christ taught that people should repent of their sins & be baptised In Acts 2:38 Peter linked repentance & water baptism to the act of salvation.
Water baptism identifies you publicly as a believer in Christ. It is a picture of you being buried with Christ & coming up out of the water with a new life. In the early church, baptism immediately followed a persons conversion to Christ (Acts 2:38; 8:12, 38; 9:18; 10:48; 16:15; 18:8; 19:5; 22:16) Water baptism is so important when a person comes to Christ.
When you begin to understand the spiritual truth behind the power of communion, one of the important areas of illumination is the power of communion as it relates to faith & healing.
There are many methods of healing found in Scripture. There is the healing by speaking the Word, healing through manifestation of the Spirit, healing through the gifts of the Spirit, & healing through the prayer of faith. In James 5:15 we are told that: The prayer of faith will save the sick & the Lord will raise them up...
During the prayer of faith the lack of faith can become a hindrance to the prayer being answered. There are many times when a persons faith may be stronger then at other times, & we often judge the power of our prayers on the circumstances or feelings surrounding the request. An example of this is that we might think that a migraine headache is no problem for God to heal, but terminal cancer is another thing all together. In many methods of healing, the manifestation comes as a result of the person's faith.
The same is true with communion. A person must believe in the healing power of Christ's body & blood, & that the redemptive anointing of Christ is working in his or her body to produce healing & strength. Faith is the path that all spiritual blessings follow. Communion is powerful because it is based on God's covenant with us. When we receive communion we should have a feeling of relief knowing that we are not leaning on another person's prayers or faith, but simply trusting in God's covenant!
In the 1950s & 1960s, there were many ministers who operated in the gifts of healing & miracles which 1 Corinthians 12:7-10 speaks off. Multitudes would attend these meetings, & many were healed of sickness & disease. People would say if I could just get to the tent of Brother so & so I would be healed. Many times they were because they released their faith, not in the man but in the anointing present when he prayed.
In those days there might be thousands of people attending the service each night. The ministers often sat in chairs & prayed for hours on end for individuals in the prayer line. The ministers would become weary & if a person was missed in the prayer line, he or she left disappointed. Today there are people who leave disappointed because the minister didn't call them out or the Lord didn't seem to have His eye on them.
The secular unbeliever often mocks these
meetings & considers them a sham or a show. This causes stress on the ministers who walk in this calling, because the sincere ones have a burden for people & are often accused of being a fraud because someone was prayed for who wasn't healed.
God does use people to minister to others, & He does bring special miracles through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.(Acts 9:11). But I think the most perfect way of receiving anything from the Lord is through your own personal faith in the Word. That is why Communion is so powerful. God is true to His covenant. He is true to His Word. He has magnified His Word above His name (Ps 138:2). God is so true to His covenant then when He threatened to destroy the Hebrews for worshipping the golden calf, Moses simply reminded God of His covenant with Abraham. With that reminder the Lord repented of His decision to destroy Israel.
Receiving Communion is both an act of faith & an act of obedience. God is moved towards us when He sees us act in our faith in His Word & believe the words of His covenant. Jesus said it this way in John 15:7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything
you want, and it will be granted.
AS you come to communion believe in the healing power of Christ's body & blood, & that the redemptive anointing of Christ is working in your body to produce healing & strength.
Acknowledgement Perry Stone.
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