Wounded Healer: A great victory looks at first like defeat

Today's reading: Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53:3: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

In at least ten places, New Testament writers identify Jesus as the suffering servant. In one instance, Philip corrects an Ethiopian official who wonders if the servant refers to an ancient prophet (see Acts 8:26-35). Isaiah 49-55 includes vivid scenes of the servant's sufferings, predictions that find their fulfillment in Jesus' death on the cross.

Indeed this chapter reads almost like an eyewitness account of Jesus' last days on Earth, even though it was composed centuries before Christ's death ... The physical description-the Bible contains no other physical description of Jesus-is shocking. The servant "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him" (Isaiah 53:2); he was "like one from whom people hide their faces." (Isaiah 53:3).

Healing Testimony : Pastor Jack Hayford

About Pastor Jack Hayford

Jack Hayford knows the awesome power of God firsthand. When he was a baby, he was gripped by a life-threatening illness. But as a result of the earnest prayers of friends and family, he was miraculously healed. The doctors had no other explanation except that the grace of God snatched him back from the brink of death. 


Several years later, Jack was struck down again by sickness. This time it was polio. The church elders anointed him and prayed for his recovery. God heard their petitions and granted a second miracle. 


These two extraordinary events ignited in Jack's heart a passion for God and convinced him that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the contemporary church. 


"Contrary to our preconceptions, God is not economical with healings and miracles. Such wondrous works are frequently attending the proclamation of truth in Jesus’ name," asserts Pastor Jack.