CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.

1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Great things are happening in our time. While many are losing their hold in the world, their security, even the basic necessities of life; while destruction and violence are gaining the upper hand and the devastation of nature becomes more and more apparent everywhere, while illness and epidemics gain ground, God, the Father of us all, does not leave us, His human children, alone. In the Old Covenant, He spoke through prophets like Moses and Isaiah; in the New Covenant, Christ, His Son, speaks through His prophetess, our sister, Gabriele. The Divine Prophetic Healing is one of the greatest gifts from the Spirit of God to mankind. In Christs words of revelation through the prophetic word, we may receive His direct and mighty divine radiation. As divine healing, this becomes active in all those who live in "active faith." To them is given the salvation for their souls and - by way of the purification of their soul - soothing and healing of the body, "as it is good for the soul." During His Divine Prophetic Healing, Christ said: "And so immerse into the word, the I Am, and you will grasp the infinite grace that is given to you in this hour." During the hour of the Divine Prophetic Healing, heaven bows down to earth. Christ is near us not only in the word, but in the deed. He heals today as Jesus of Nazareth once healed - 2000 years ago. When we open ourselves for His mighty, divine works, then He touches us in the depths of our soul. Through the active, divine power, the shadows of our soul come into movement; we are able to recognize our base humanness, our sins, and to clear them up with His power and no longer commit them. True healing is never a passive process. We have to do our part; we have to change something within ourselves, so that the transforming and redeeming power of Christ can become effective. So that we are able to receive the direct healing by the Spirit of Christ in the right way, the basic spiritual principles should be known to us. For example, we should know that our illnesses, our suffering, our pain and need were always caused by ourselves, through our way of thinking and acting that goes against the law of love. Ultimately, the shadowing of our soul through our sins

affects our body and our fate. Thus, we should know about the law of sowing and reaping, the causal law. Illness is the expression of an effect on and in our body; but the cause that should be removed lies in the soul. Therefore, no true and lasting healing can take place when only the symptoms of the illness are eliminated from without. The real healing, the whole or holistic healing, takes place solely by way of the soul - through the recognition and purification of the sinfulness that lies in the soul. In order to really clear up a guilt, that is, to be able to pay it off and erase it, we have to know that this can happen in no other way than by forgiving, asking for forgiveness, by making amends - if this is still possible - and by doing-it-no-more. The do-it-no-more is essential. After healing, Jesus of Nazareth also said: "Go and henceforth sin no more." Christ knows of the difficulties that each individual has to struggle with in order to dissolve deep-seated sinful programs. So that we can dissolve this programming that affects our whole body, He gave us spiritual instructions and suggestions. One valuable aid He gave us is the "ideal picture of perfect health, the ideal picture of perfect life." Our Brother and Redeemer, Christ, teaches us how we, individually, can develop this ideal picture from the human weaknesses we have recognized, and then apply it as a positive, new program. In His revelations of the Divine Prophetic Healing, He helps us to understand again and again that what is important is to lead a life in active faith, in the faith of the deed. This means to recognize our sins and weaknesses, the faults that appear daily, to clear them up with Christ's strength to no longer commit them from then on. Christ points out to us again and again that to follow Him is easy for the one who strives towards the highest commandment of Inner Life and lives ever more in accordance with it each day. The highest commandment says: Love God, your eternal Father, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength - and your neighbor as yourself! Not all of this is known to all the people on earth who are reached by the word of Christ and by His divine healing. Jesus healed the sick, rather than just prayed for them! He did it by prophetic revelation, depending on the Father to show Him what to do. The word spoken in prophetic power, not only showed a state of affairs, but could also produce creative results.

For instance He only covered one of the three thousand waiting to be healed at the Pool of Siloam. When asked why He did this, he explained it in terms of His dependence on prophetic vision: (John 5:19) Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (KJV) Immediately however, I was faced with another problem. In many Churches people were being taught that they should not seek this kind of healing, since illness is " God's chastening." One observation however, was surprising. At the same time they are advised to call the doctor to make them better! In doing so, how did the sick know that they were not fighting God? Why not pray for more sickness? Because prophecy and divine healing must operate under the guidance of the Scriptures, I felt it was time to study what the Bible taught about the will of God in this issue. Then we would have a real basis for the prayer of faith that can heal the sick. (James 5:15) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17; KJV). The main conclusion from both Old and New Testament, is that God is a healing God. In the Old Testament, there is a definite promise to those trusting God. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. (Psalms 91:10; KJV) The late Rees Howells proved this in Africa during the 1918 flu plague, when everybody in his compound under the protection of God, was safe from the flu epidemic, where the heathen were dying like flies all around. Health and not sickness are normal for those seeking God. Those actively seeking God and chastening themselves by fasting were not promised sickness but health. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward. (Isaiah 58:8; KJV) In fact it was part of God's nature to heal and forgive those that obeyed Him, not to make them sick. This seemed to be conclusive proof that God wanted His people to be healed !

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; (Psalms 103:2-3; KJV) Furthermore, when His people were sick in the Old Testament, they seemed to pray with evident expectation of healing from God. I found this to be true, even in those prophets who were open to depression, like Jeremiah: Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. (Jeremiah 17:14; KJV) Not only that -- God promised healing for the whole nation of Israel, when they had been delivered from Egypt, as long as they obeyed Him! This was done on the basis of God's name and nature as a healer! And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26; KJV) The Bible clearly sets this out for all people obeying God who come under the blessings which He promised to King David and his descendants: Psalms 89:33, Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. (KJV) Psalms 89:34; My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. (KJV) If this was true under the old covenant (Old Testament) how much more under the new covenant (New Testament) which has better promises. (Hebrews 8:6) In fact, even in the Old Testament, God healed many like Naaman, who were by no means in a Covenant relationship to Him: 2 King 5:1-2 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. (KJV)

I noticed in this story the positive attitude of the little maid that had been hurt and captured by Naaman. I also saw her great statement of faith in God's prophet, when nobody in Israel had actually been healed of this disease (Luke 4:27) according to the comment of the Lord Jesus himself on this incident. One individual child of God may, even then have tied Prophetic healing therefore, to attitudes of forgiveness and faith! There is more said about it in prophecy than we have time at present to read, but I will just quote a few verses, and the rest can be read at your leisure. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing." Isa. 35. 5, 6. This very prophecy is referred to by Jesus Himself in Matt. 11. 5, 6, where it was daily being fulfilled, "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Another very plain prophecy is found in Isa. 53. 4 "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." The fulfilment of this wonderful voice of inspiration is found in Matt. 8. 17 - "Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses." It is admitted by all reliable translators and the most eminent Hebrew scholars, such as Barnes, Magee, Young and Leeser, that Isa. 53. 4 in its literal rendering corresponds exactly with Matt. 8. 17. We see, therefore, that the latter is a direct reference to the former. Then the beautiful prophecy of salvation and healing is found in the following verse, viz.: Isaiah 53. 5-" But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." These prophecies all point to the Redemption work of Jesus, which finds its centre in the Cross. The apostle Peter refers to this verse just quoted in the following language: "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." 1 Pet. 2. 24. The following references will enable you to see that more is said in prophecy about healing: Isaiah 42. 7; Isaiah 61. 1. Fulfilled in Luke 4. 18-21. Prophecy in Mal. 4. 2. Fulfilled in Matt. 4. 16; Luke 1. 78, 79. These are all fulfilled in redemption. 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Jesus reveals perfectly the will of God when He says "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Heb 10:7 KJV) That was the reason for His coming ... to do God's will. John 6:38; For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of

him that sent me. (KJV). The only time He was ever asked whether it was God's will was for healing, Christ replied that it was Mark 1:40-41; And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, "If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, "I will; be thou clean." (KJV). Jesus not only healed the sick Himself, He also taught that all believes would lay hands on the sick and they would recover. In Mark 16:17-18, And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (KJV). With this background laid, remember that the Lord does not change and does not have respect of persons. Malachi 3:6: For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. (KJV) Romans 2:11: For there is no respect of persons with God. (KJV). The problem herein is to investigate the relationship between prophecy and healing. 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. Have the mass media contributed to the worldwide growth of Christianity? 2. What is the relationship between Prophecy and healing? 3. Is there a religious media or a mediated religion? 4. Has Christianity transformed and/or restrained the media? 5. Are Christianity and media converging on one another? 1.4 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

This aims of this project is to: i. Review some emerging frameworks for studying media and Christianity and see how current scholars situate the topic. ii. Analyze the relationship of different media to Christianity, focusing on journalism (especially the coverage of Christianity), the entertainment media (both the content and the critique), and the information media (primarily the Internet). iii. iv. Examine the Christian reflection on media. Examine if the media has been part of the tremendous growth of Christianity

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SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

This study contributes toward the gap in the literature about Christianity, healing and prophecy by providing research about three aspects of their interactions. The three aspects are: the relationship between the Christianity ministration process and the use of mass media in that process; the effect mass media has on the transmission of religious values; and providing insight into how mass media effects the transmission of values in general. The value of the present study is to provide grounded empirical research into the effect of mass media in a contemporary Christianity setting. The group most directly benefiting from this line of research is researchers and professionals within the Christian religious community as well as the larger religious community. This research also provides helpful data for researchers in such fields as cultural studies, media studies, sociology and those with a vested interest in communicating specific values and/ or content interested in the role that mass media plays in the transmission of values. The results of this research benefit the Christian religious community directly in that it provides insight into the role mass media plays in the transmission of values. 1.6 SCOPE OF STUDY

The coverage area of this research work shall be limited to relationship of prophecy to healing. 1.7 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial costs, time consumption and the ability to get the right material will be the challenges I may likely come by during this research work.