Who wants to be a healer?

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to HEAL the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised...."  Luke 4:18

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to BIND UP the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of prison to those that are bound..."     Isaiah 61:1

"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

I've been born again now for twenty years this month. In that time, I have heard Matthew 16:16 preached and taught on many times. Unfortunately, I think we may have missed something vital here.

We have been taught militant, warrior Christianity. Believe me, I have no problem with that, nor with believing we are in the midst of major spiritual battles. However, if you've been in this thing for very long at all, you've heard some things like this: "I BIND you, Satan!" "Devil, we BIND you in the name of Jesus." "We BIND this sickness..."

Sounds good, right? We are told that we battle with spiritual powers in high places. We are to pray for the sick and cast out devils, right? There's just one small problem. That's all we focus on. The word for bind, in the Greek DOES carry, in it's definition, the concept of binding an enemy. However, is there a connotation we have missed?

Jesus came, died, was buried, and rose again. He left the church, empowered by HIS Spirit and HIS love, to continue HIS mission. HIS mission, in part, was to "BIND UP the broken hearted."Luke says it this way, "HEAL the broken hearted." So how is HEALING, called BINDING? Surely Jesus doesn't want people all bound up?

The truth of the matter is that BIND up in the sense of healing is like placing bandages on wounds. We are supposed to let Jesus love the broken hearted through us, placing a spiritual bandage on them so that they can then begin the process of emotional and spiritual healing.

Even the military has people in the medical fields, in order to help to save and heal the wounded. We as God's Army and children, are supposed to have healers among us, too. It's not all about battle. Sometimes, it's about loving the wounded so God can heal them and "set at liberty them that are bruised."

There's an old Gospel song, sung by the Imperials, that says, "You're the only Jesus some will ever see. And you're the only words of life some will ever read. So let them see in you the one in whom is all they'll ever need. Cause, You're the only Jesus some will ever see."

So this is a call to all of us warriors out there. How many of us are tired of the constant battle? How many of us don't just want to see the captives set free from their bonds, but also made whole of their emotional and spiritual wounds, as well? Who wants to be a healer?