Join Sharon Knotts as she dives deep into a tale of unyielding faith and divine intervention. In this episode, we explore an extraordinary event where the healing power of Jesus was palpable, drawing in even the most skeptical. Witness how faith-driven action led to a miraculous healing that left everyone astounded and in awe of God’s power. Drawing from the Scripture, we uncover the relentless determination of friends who would let nothing stop them from bringing their paralyzed companion to Jesus for healing.
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to the program. I’m Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today on The Sound of Faith, because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message, Healer in the House, is an old-fashioned, faith-boosting, camp-meaning, anointed word of the Lord on the healing power of Jesus. When sickness comes as a satanic attack against our bodies, we must rebuke it and claim our healing because Jesus, the healer, is in the house. But I want you to see that when it was noised about, that Jesus, the healer, was in Peter’s house when that word began to travel. Amen? Because obviously he didn’t just come there for a day. Obviously he would come and stay there for a while. But on this certain day, after it had been noised about, the Pharisees and the doctors of the law and the scribes had come as far away as Jerusalem to Peter’s house because they heard the healer. Jesus was in the house. Now I don’t know how they found out because they didn’t have Facebook and they didn’t have an iPhone. I don’t know how they found out that Jesus was in the house. I have to imagine they had some people tailing him and following him all around and finding out where he was going all the time because they were always trying to find something that they could use against him. But you know there was curiosity because this man did great miracles. And remember when the Pharisee Nicodemus came to Jesus, he said, no man. can do these miracles except God be with him. That’s how we know you’re a man sent from God. We know that. Amen? And so somehow they got the message all the way down there in Jerusalem and about that Jesus was in the house. And they got on the next camel on the way to Capernaum. And so the place was packed. You couldn’t get in. You couldn’t get out. The place was packed. Amen? And people such as the Pharisees. You know what the doctors of the law is? PhDs. Doctors of the law. It means that they were lawyers and they had PhDs. And what were they lawyers of? Not Roman law. What were they lawyers of? The scriptures. The scriptures. God’s law. They knew Moses’ law inside and out because they loved to constantly tell Jesus, Moses said, Moses said, amen. They were always saying to Jesus what Moses said. One time they said, this fellow, we don’t know about him. We’re Moses’ disciples. Amen. And so we’ve got these Pharisees there and we’ve got these PhDs there. And as I said, we’ll see they’ve got the scribes there. All of these people are here. And then with just, I don’t think it’s an accident that he says, the very next thing he says, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. I guarantee you that some of those Pharisees needed healing. Amen. I guarantee you that some of those elite PhD guys needed healing. I guarantee you that in that audience there were many of them that needed healing and the power of the Lord to heal was present to heal every one of them. Not one of them should have left out of that place with sickness in their body. Because the healer was in the house. Amen? And every person in that house could have been healed. That was their day to be healed. And the power to heal was present. And that word power in the Greek is the one you all know well, dunamis. Dunamis, that inherent power, that divine power and ability to perform anything. Amen? That was the power that was present. It was present. It was there. And we already read in Mark, when we read the two verses in Mark, we read that Jesus preached the word to them. How many remember we read that? Because you see, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The divine, the supernatural, that sickness chasing, demon defeating, heaven sent, power of God to heal was present to heal them all so that every one of them could have been healed that day. But let’s look at verse 18. And behold, men brought in a bed, a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means to bring him in and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went up on the housetop, and they led him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. Mark tells us they tore off the roof. So now we have a man who’s paralyzed to the point that they cannot get him there except to carry him on his cot. And when they get there, it’s impossible for them to get the man in the house. But this was his day to be healed. He was not going to go back home. I know it was a struggle to get there. It was probably painful for him to get there, for them to carry him on his cot. And he’s got paralysis. But just because a person is paralyzed does not mean they don’t feel pain. Amen. I mean, that is really adding insult to injury, to be paralyzed and on top of it to be in pain. But a lot of times their motor nerves have been paralyzed so they can’t use them, but their sensory nerves are still working. So they can’t move, but yet they can still feel pain. So I imagine it was hard for that man to endure getting there. Them carrying him, they didn’t have nice sidewalks and paved roads. Amen. They would have probably, he’d have been jumbled about a lot and jostled a lot and moved a lot. When you’re in pain and somebody’s moving you, you scream, you know, you holler. I remember being in pain so bad I could not stand for anybody to touch my bed. Just to touch my bed, I would yell out. And so this man was suffering. But when he got there and he could not get in, there was no way. They could not even try to get in a window or a door because people were backed up into it. But they said, no, we didn’t come this far to turn around and go back. And thank God he had, I’m going to take a guess, four guys. He had four friends. He had four brothers. He had four people. He had people that were going to stand with him and believe with him. And they said, you know, we didn’t bring you this far to turn around and go home. And somebody climbed up on the roof. Somebody said, what are you doing? Come on, get up here, help me. And they began to tear the tiles off the roof and throw them down on the ground. They had to get a hole big enough, an opening big enough. I can imagine Jesus is preaching, Jesus is teaching, and all of a sudden the roof begins to come off. And everybody probably stopped and thought, what meaneth this? Amen. And then they had to get this poor guy on his bed up on that roof. That couldn’t have been fun. That couldn’t have been easy, but they got him up there. They got him up there because they knew the healer was in the house. They weren’t staying on the outside. They weren’t going to be on the outside. Oh, no, they said, we got to get in that house. The healer is in the house. And the Bible says that they lowered him down right before Jesus. Amen. Sometimes you got to go after your miracle. Sometimes you got to go after your healing. Sometimes you got to fight the good old fight of faith. Sometimes you got to fight through obstacles and discouragement and hindrances and setbacks. But Jesus was in the house and there was a particular anointing that day that the power of the Lord was present to heal. And let’s see what happened. All right, verse 20. And when he, being Jesus, and when he saw their faith, he said unto the man, man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason. As soon as you start to reason, you start paralyzing your faith. They began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But when Jesus perceived by the Holy Spirit, he discerned their thoughts. He answering said unto them, what reason ye in your hearts, whether it is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee or to say, rise up and walk. You know, if we would ask that question today, we’d get the very opposite. If we’d say, what’s easier to say your sins are forgiven, you can be saved or you can be healed. God, you’re getting quiet out there. How many know today people can preach and teach and believe to be saved, but the healing is what they stumble over. Amen? But Jesus said, well, I want to know what’s easier, to say your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power upon earth to forgive sins He turned to the one who was sick of the palsy and he said, I say unto thee, arise and take up thy couch. Man, that was a big bed. take up thy couch and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them and took up that whereon he lay and departed to his own house glorifying God. And they were all amazed and they glorified God and were filled with fear or reverence, holy reverence, saying, we have seen strange things today. I tell you, when Jesus is in the house, you will see some strange things. Amen? When Jesus saw their faith, he said to that man, because you see, faith is followed by action. Faith is action. We named our magazine that. Faith is action. Now, action is not always faith. Let me say that again. Action is not always faith, but faith is always action. You got to think about that for a minute, don’t you? See, some people act in presumption. Some people act in themselves. And then when they don’t get the desired result, then they really get shook up. Like, uh-oh, something, I don’t believe this faith thing. The problem was they weren’t acting in faith to start with. Amen? But we won’t get hung up there, but we’re going to say this, that when you have faith, there will be action. And when Jesus saw that they had torn the roof off the place to bring that man there, he saw their faith. Amen? He said, your sins are forgiven. You know, we don’t even know those four men’s names. The Bible doesn’t even bother to name them. I am sure that if Luke would have taken one or two minutes to go say, you know, I’m going to be reporting on this later. I’m going to be writing a book about this. So I’d like to have your names so I can put it in the book. What’s your name? Okay. You’re Joshua and you’re Jonathan and you’re Nehemiah. And what’s your name? But Luke, who’s usually very good about all the details, didn’t tell us their names. If he would have told us the names of these four guys, I tell you, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of parents would have named their kids after these boys. There have been hundreds of people, men walking around with the name of those four guys. These were heroes of the faith. These were the best friends you could ever have in your hour of need. Give me friends like that when I’m in trouble. Give me friends like that when I’m sick in the bed. Give me friends like that when I’m lying there in pain and suffering and I’m too sick to pray for myself. Give me some faith tabernacle friends that will come and pray for me. Because that’s the kind of friends I had. Many times they came in my bedroom and prayed for me. Prayed till the pain lifted. Amen? What heroes of faith they were. And we don’t even know their names. But I tell you what, when we get to heaven, we’re going to know who they are. Amen? So Jesus said to the man, the sick man, your sins are forgiven. You see, you’ve got to minister to a person’s spirit first. If a person is spiritually very weak and their faith is anemic and they’re under condemnation and they’re under fear, it’s not wise to jump right to the healing part. Amen? Because you might get them healed on your prayer of faith, but you go home. You leave. And here comes the devil sitting on their shoulder. You feel that pain? You didn’t get healed. Well, what if it comes back tomorrow? Well, what if this happens? Well, maybe you just imagine that you don’t feel the pain. Look, if you’ve been suffering in so much pain, you’re pulling your hair out and it’s gone. You were not imagining when it’s gone. You know when it’s gone. You know when you have received something in your body. Many times I came through the prayer line and would receive something in the prayer line, but on the way out the door or almost home, somebody would come up and say something to me that was a little off the wall. And boom, fear would jump on me again. And the devil knew it. And they were totally innocent. They weren’t trying to say anything to upset me. They thought they were just saying something. But you see, the devil was there to take it and twist it and jump on it. That’s why you’ve got to be careful when you’re ministering to sick people. You’ve got to minister to their faith. And Jesus knew that this man had condemnation in his life. He knew it. He knew there was condemnation there, and he wanted to get a clean slate. So that condemnation was lifted. Yeah. And that man could freely receive his healing from the Lord. So he ministered first to his spiritual need. And that load of sin and guilt was lifted. And what did those old Pharisees and scribes say? Ha! Who does he think he is? Telling him he can forgive his sins. They were reasoning. And reason is always of the intellect. And faith is not of the intellect. Faith is not of the mind. 2 Corinthians 4.13, faith is a spirit. Yeah, I know we have the fruit of faith. That’s really faithfulness, not faith. That’s really faithfulness. We have the fruit of faithfulness. We have the measure of faith. We can’t get saved without the measure of faith. And then there is the gift of faith, one of the nine gifts when God supernaturally, in a moment of need, especially if a miracle or a rescue is needed, this powerful faith comes on you. You don’t even know where it comes from, and you boldly act in that faith. And deliverance and rescue happens in that moment. Amen? But there’s a spirit of faith. And that spirit of faith comes by hearing the word of God. And they were reasoning with the intellect. Amen? But Jesus rebuked them. He said, you know, you’re questioning my authority, that I have authority to forgive sins. But I’m going to show you it’s no harder for me to tell this man who is paralyzed and crippled to rise up and walk and prove my ministry that God has sent me. Amen. And so he said to the man, Get up. Rise up. And take your bed and go home. Go back to your house. Amen? And when he did that, that supernatural dunamis power… See, Jesus said, I’ve got authority to do this. That’s exousia. You just read, I have authority from my father, exousia. But now I have the dunamis. I got the power. To heal this man. I’ve got the authority to forgive his sins. I’ve got the power to heal his body. Amen. And he said rise up. And the man rose up immediately. And there he was carrying his bed. And glorifying God. And praising God. And I tell you what. He didn’t have to go back out the roof either. people began to make way. People began to spread out. People began to make an aisle way so he could go out the door carrying his bed. And all the people that were outside who couldn’t get in because there was no room, they looked and all of a sudden the door flew open and here that same man that they saw pull up on that rooftop, here he comes walking out carrying his bed because Jesus was in the house. Because the healer was in the house. he was a walking miracle and they were all amazed and glorified God and said we have seen strange things here today that word strange in the Greek is paradoxos we actually bring it over into the English as paradox or paradoxical what is a paradox a paradox is something that seems to contradict itself but it’s true Amen? And this is exactly what happened here. It’s something we would say incredible. You know, we say that’s incredible. Incredible means you cannot believe it. We don’t mean that when we say it. How many are on the same page with me now? It’s incredible that you can walk that tightrope like that. It’s incredible that you can do those gymnastics. It’s not incredible in that you can’t believe it because you believe it because you just saw it. But you’re saying it seems to contradict what you could expect that someone could do. But there they go doing it. Amen. And this is what they were saying. We have seen incredible things here today. On one hand, if you would have told me that when they took that man up on the roof, he would come walking out the door carrying his bed, I would have said, no way. But here he comes. Amen. But there he is. Amen. We have seen strange things because the power of God was in the house. Because Jesus was in the house. We’re going to have prayer for every one of you. But if there’s anything in your heart against anything or anybody, any unfinished business in your spirit, you need to ask the Lord to forgive you right now. Come on, let’s bow our heads. We’re doing what the scripture says. We’re doing what Jesus did. Lord, if we have unforgiveness in our hearts, if we have bitterness against anybody, if we’ve been harboring bad feelings against someone, if we’ve been trying to tell ourselves to get ready to go to that person and fix it and make it right or apologize or whatever it is, and we have been too proud and stubborn to do it, it’s not worth it. We don’t want any of that to hinder our receiving healing from you tonight, a breakthrough from you tonight. So, Lord, right now we ask you, forgive us. In your spirit, you know what you need to ask him. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive us. We let it go. We let all those bad feelings go. And we ask you to put it under the blood. And if you tell us we need to go and make it right physically, then, Lord, we vow right now. Yes. We will do that. But tonight, Lord, we thank you for lifting any and all condemnation off our hearts. I take authority in the name of Jesus over every spirit of fear. Fear that would attack your mind. Fear that would come on you and bring the symptoms on and make them get harder and go through the roof. That fear that comes on you and says you’re never going to get better. You’re never going to be well. It’s going to get worse. The devil is a liar. I rebuke that spirit of fear. I rebuke every lie of the enemy. I evict you, Satan. I command you to back off of God’s people. These are God’s children, and you are a trespasser. And in the name of Jesus, I kick you out. I command you to take your hands off of God’s people. Their bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. They don’t defile these bodies with alcohol and drugs. They don’t defile these bodies with perverseness. They don’t defile these bodies with fornication and adultery and uncleanness. They use these bodies to serve you. Now, Lord… Rebuke that lying demon and that spirit of fear in Jesus’ name. Amen. What a faith-inspiring word of the Lord. Healer in the house. Whether a sick person has come under a direct demonic attack like Peter’s mother-in-law or has dealt with a long-term chronic sickness like the paralytic, the healing power of Jesus Christ is present to bring deliverance to all. Often when we are on the way to receiving a miracle or healing, Satan will throw in interference to distract and detour us from receiving. This is when we must press our way and keep our focus on Jesus, the healer. Jesus has delegated the authority to use his name to his church, and the Holy Spirit has come to undo us with the power to do the works Jesus did. And he went about healing all that were oppressed of the devil. You can be healed today by the power of God because wherever Jesus’ name is declared and believed, the healer is present. You can order Healer in the House on CD for a love gift for the radio ministry of $10 or more. Request offer SK190. That’s SK190. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to soundoffaith.org. where you can also order on MP3s. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK190 for Healer in the House. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott singing Maranatha.