When the Spirit Brings a Slow Recovery, Part 1

Those who endure seasons of suffering understand the painful process of waiting on God to heal.

Sometimes the delays combined with the silence are excruciating today on Insight for living. Chuck Swindoll continues his practical teaching series on the Holy Spirit called flying closer to the flame and today he's going to address this mysterious part of God's plan when he chooses to prolong our suffering. What are you recovering from an illness waiting on an emotional wound will appreciate the biblical wisdom ahead.

Chuck titled his message when the spirit brings a slow work on healing is a matter of time, wrote the renowned Greek physician Hippocrates and the deeper the wound physically or emotionally. The greater of the amount of time we need to heal. In light of our instant everything world that may not sound very encouraging, but it is more often than not true throughout my years in ministry. I've had a great deal of contact with people who hurt other ministers, it seems. Enjoy the role of leading people into rather rapid relief of their pain, whatever that pain may be. Admittedly, I could easily envy such a joyful and popular ministry. More often than not it seems my lot to help those who don't heal in a hurry. No matter how hard they try. No matter how firmly they believe no matter how sincerely, they may pray though, it isn't nearly as exciting as a miraculous healing. There are times when the spirit brings what I would call a slow recovery. Such a time of convalescence came at a crucial hour in the apostle Paul's life on his way to face trial in Rome pull ship was caught in a violent storm for days.

Everyone on board that ship went without food or wrist and what seemed like a hopeless situation. Finally, the battered ship struck a reef, spilling its cargo of exhausted passengers into the frothing surf of the Mediterranean island, though they littered the beach like so much human debris, all 276 people made it to the shore alive that storm however taken a tremendous physical and emotional toll on everyone there were going to need time to heal.

They were going to need lots of it. Let's join Dr. Luke in acts 28 as he describes that unique period of recovery. Acts 28 versus one through 10 when they had been brought safely through.

Then we found out that the island was called Malta the native showed us extraordinary kindness for because of the rain that it said in and because of the cold. They kindled a fire and received a soul but when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the flyer of Viper came out because of the heat, and fastened itself on his hand when the native saw the creature hanging from his hand.

They began saying to one another. Undoubtedly, this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea. Justice has not allowed him to live. However, he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. They were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down. Did but after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happened to him. They change their minds and began to say that he was a God. Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the leading man of the island name cochlea's who welcomed us and entertained us courteously three days and it happened that the father of poop Leah's was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery, and Paul went into see him after he had prayed he laid his hands on him and he will after this it happened the rest of the people of the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cure. They also honored us with many marks of respect. And when we were setting sail. They supplied us with all we need to study the Bible with Chuck Swindoll. Be sure to download his searching the Scriptures. Studies by going to Insight.org/studies and now the message from Chuck titled when the spirit brings a slow recovery. Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician in factories. Perhaps the best-known of all men in medicine and all of time. Fred was his Hippocratic oath or the physician's oath, that is, to this day still taken by men and women who enter the medical profession is as it were, a declaration of their allegiance to the high principles of their product but Hippocrates wrote more than just an oath.

Matter-of-factly wrote a piece entitled aphorisms in which is written extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme disease.

A little later in the first chapter of the work entitled simply precepts.

He wrote healing is a matter of time.

Brilliant man who wrote in the era of brilliant people. Socrates, Plato, Dionysius and young Aristotle were all contemporaries of Hippocrates and to the surprise of many, his his works sound a great deal like Solomon's Proverbs.

One wonders why you get wisdom like that if you put those two thoughts together, even though there written at different times you come up with a statement that sounds something like recovering from extreme difficulties sometimes takes an extreme amount of time. When did he live. Maybe that'll help us.

He lived between 450 and 375 BC. If you put that into biblical times. You know that he lived during the between the testament era between Malachi and Matthew. What is significant is that during that period of time. No scripture was written.

It's called 400 years of silence, but a lot of scripture is being compiled by men like Ezra the scribe and others who work hard on that difficult process could be, and perhaps it is only fertile imagination on my part that the writings of Hippocrates were in some way impacted by the writings of Solomon, I would wonder if perhaps the scroll of Ecclesiastes happened upon his attention in his vast research and in the process of time, he discovered something that God had led the wise man of oldies, son of David. If you have your Bible with you. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3, but Hippocrates says healing takes time. It sounds an awfully lot like what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3 there is an appointed time for everything, and there is a time for every event under heaven, and then in your Bible, you will see a whole list of times just take the next couple of verses with me time to give birth. The time to die.

A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted a time to kill and a time to heal. Time to tear down and a time to build up what intrigues me is the first part of the third verse of time to heal healing as a matter of time, wrote Hippocrates. That's not only good medicine that's that's good theology for years of for centuries after Hippocrates passed on their came on the scene another another man who followed in his train, not a Jew but a Gentile. The only Gentile who wrote anything in the New Testament not not a minister, as we would think of it today. Not even a priest or scribe but a medical doctor.

His name is Luke.

His mentors were man who had learned their trade from the writings of Hippocrates, some of which are extent to this very day, and remain true, and I wonder if in the writing of the book of acts that explains the reason. Luke spends so much time on a few verses that you and I Americans always in a hurry would have certainly passed over rapidly.

These 10 verses give time for healing. The first 10 verses of acts 28 therefore are not passed off hurriedly by a physician, but time is spent because when there have been extreme difficulties there often must be extreme times of remedy provided we don't have any room for that in our theology, even though it's biblical. We want people to get with it. If you have spent much time trying to recover from an ailment that cannot be explained by an x-ray.

If you have been in the dregs of depression. If you have heard grieved greatly over the loss of 11. And you can't seem to get out.

You have heard the words before long from someone snap out of it or get with it, but I want to suggest to you that to this physician who knew a lot about theology, healing takes time. I would therefore like to dedicate these words in this message to you that are healing, and perhaps it is the best-kept secret in the family of God. You don't feel a lot like being in the mainstream. You can explain why it's taking so long you can't seem to get over it.

The counsel you have gotten his like bromides from clich� world and you don't need more verses you just need time I want you to know that that you're in good company. So do a lot of other people sitting around you there hurts or varied.

Their hearts are many we have a large representation of people. The only one thing that draws us together is where all sinners, rotten sinners, we just get dressed up. Don't look like some of you have come out of alcoholism and some out of drugs are you're trying to.

Some have come out of a life of immorality.

Some of you have come out of a divorce or two or three. Some of you have made a royal mess of your business. You have mishandled finances. Some of you have prison records. Some of you have been homosexuals. Some of you are recovering doing your best to get out of it. Deep depression.

And you cannot seem to get a handle on it and you don't know why it's taking so if it's any help to you. I think you will find in these 10 verses seven assistance that won't necessarily be the black and white answers, but they will give you room to accept yourself right now as you are in the first verse we have sort of an initial orientation in this passage. There are three questions that anyone would ask who is interested in serious Bible study. First of all what's happened.

Second, who's involved. Third, where are they what's happening one word a shipwreck.

Chapter 27 is a story of a shipwreck, and Dr. Luke declares that they were delivered from the shipwreck and they were brought to the land, an island in the middle of the Mediterranean its name forests will look at that moment second notice who was involved, they and we up in verse 37 of chapter 27 there's a numbering 276 people, 276 people had been on board ship and deposited into the sea and brought up safely on shore.

See verse one and they had been brought safely through. We found out that the island was called Malta where in the world is Malta. Chances are great. Probably not more than five or six in this entire congregation is ever been there largest chunk of land that's pushes out into the Mediterranean is a boot shaped piece of land called Italy directly south of the heel and that boot is Sicily and directly south of Sicily, 50 miles further across the Mediterranean is Malta. It has no land around it. Closest thing to it is Sicily is a place of solitude and loneliness which I think is significant in that it is called the island of Malta.

I want to make the verse walk on all fours and spiritualize everything in it but I think you got to say something about healing being a lonely experience right here. No one can heal for somebody else as deeply as I may feel the grief that is in my own trials are my own wife's heart.

I cannot experience it for them and save them from it is your own island. It is something that you perhaps are not responsible for on the other hand, your island may be something that we could call a consequence you are directly responsible for where you are Jesus himself withdrew to a lonely place and by himself recovered.

I appreciate so much the writings of Winston Churchill, one of the books in my study is called a man of destiny.

It's an anthology of Churchill works and among. It is a article called painting as a pastime that you didn't know it but the former prime minister of Britain left paint and if you ever saw his paintings, you would see whether not so popular but nevertheless he left paint and as a matter of fact, he looked upon that as a marvelous repose from the strains of his beauty want to make is that your island that Malta may not be sitting beside a beach for a month, watching the waves roll in ever try to stop worrying about saving yourself saying to yourself today I am going to worry about nothing redundant today. I'm not going to think about and that is what you think about all day long to do to get rid of that strain that worry that muscle that keeps exercising. You gotta do something else with vigor with energy, you have to change from one to another.

That's Churchill's point is here it's it's not a part of the brain is weary from a whole series of things and you have even become more you moved into boredom through that experience without even calling it that you need to change the pricing up your job responsibilities. Changes needed.

That's all part of the experience that Malta now I want to warn you, as Paul models for us here, there will be a whole number of things that you will experience from other people. While you healing.

First, you will experience extraordinary kindness.

See verse two. The native showed us extraordinary kindness for because of the rain that it said in and because of the cold a Kindle fire and received us all.

There's kindness shown by the way, I think it's interesting that the word natives has as its Greek root barbarian. The Greeks in their sophistication referred to those islanders that spoken sort of a gibberish at least to him.

It was a gibberish think they just passed them off with sweep of the hand that's a bar bar bar bar bar bar and the word barbarian grew out of it and that is the word translated need translated need here the new anguish Bible refers to them as Russ islanders we would call and maybe savages funny things happen when you're around savages. One young man from our congregation spent a couple years in West area or area. Jaya and while he was there he was with the Donnie tribe and he certainly didn't learn the language or they learn he is but he had a lot of fun with it while he was with them. He did funny things like stick a copy of our church newsletter in front of them and there's a picture of them quote reading our newsbreak.

They're not reading it that you standing there looking at it and they just its frame in the hands of one of our secretaries office is just as a reminder that our newsbreak's go all the way around the world is amazing. In fact, he taught them to say things they know what they were saying they practiced E the free and they said you got to say that he got even tape-recorded new.

Perhaps if you heard these natives were learning to say all the apostle or something like it.

I don't know, but they received him they welcome them, though there was there was extraordinary kindness that will happen early in your illness that will be the first response you will get from individuals who hear that you are laid aside second unjust criticism. See verses three and four. Paula gathered a bundle of sticks and lay them on the fire of Viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand, and when the barbarians saw the creature hanging from his hand. They began saying to one another. Undoubtedly look that word operate from superstitions and you make sweeping statements. Undoubtedly, the man is a murderer, though he has been saved from the seed justice is not allowed them to live, says well undoubtedly. It certainly would look like that anyway. I am sure that you have experienced unjust criticism. If you have been ill for longer than three days you Pull out you don't have the right password to get out and you there and you're hurting and along comes someone that believes that false principal calamity is proof of guilt like Job's counselors remember them to a man.

Obviously you're getting punished not get your act together. Clean up your life mad plead with all of us. All of us to minister to the hurting to guard against unjust criticism there hurting enough without. By the way, if you are a leader and you go through periods of valleys than you will experience that also one man wrote it's true. If you're a leader you spend your time either on the top or on the bottom you so know what it's like to be in between your either the hero or the villain you respected are your virtually hated people in leadership must live on the yo-yo of public opinion under the gun of verbal jabs as well as on the crest of great admiration. The object of intimidation are blinded by the dazzling lights of exultation. Often an individual who is laid aside, does things that offend you sometime.

A person who is engaged in his work and for some unexplainable reason does something that you don't like changes your whole opinion if you're not careful and a little piece entitled who changed we read there was once a preacher, whom I used to like I thought he was great sermons were wonderful, as long as I like his speech was fair.

His life was clean. He was a hard worker. As long as I like it was the man for the job. In fact, I was strong for him.

As long as I like to, but he offended me one day whether he knew it or not I don't know since that day. He has ceased to be a good preacher's sermons aren't so wonderful since he offended me. His speech isn't so good in his faults far more prominent since he offended me. He's not a hard worker. In fact, he's really not the man for the job since he offended me.

It's really a shame he's changed so much.

Of all the human tendencies. Perhaps that is among the strongest 80.

Robertson, the Baptist scholar of yesteryear said so fickle is popular opinion in the true look at the next statement look at verses five and six on the heels of her score.

They said he is undoubtably a murderer. Look at verse five. However, he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm.

They were expecting was about to swell up suddenly fall down dead, but after they had waited a long time and it see nothing unusual happened to them. They changed their minds and began to say he is a God. The third response is inappropriate exultation is remarkable how the opinion of the public will change it. It is so fickle the only place you will find ultimate security. Believe me, is in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is never changing. Before I go any further I I want to add this thought, practically for all of us. If for some reason you were called alongside someone who is in the midst of the The Valley.

It is safe to assume that that person wants out of the valley more than you want him out or want her out and it is doubtful that sermons will help. Probably they will hurt. It seems really ashamed that we feel we must address everything verbally sort of cut out of that mold.

It is almost as though we haven't done our job as counselors or friends if we do not give a message to the hurting or the guilty, those in the Valley. You really do not need to do that.

Believe me, that's the spirit of God's job better part of wisdom often is to say nothing, just to be there to let them know that you care. We have a family in our church that has gone through a horror of losing a daughter who was viciously murdered happened last year. They are just now recovering 13 months.

It's pretty quick that they wanted to recover.

The next day it is, it was just impossible to put the pieces together and find good to feel in the whole horror of it. The truth of Romans 828 which Shirley was quoted dozen times the first week.

As you can likely tell there's much more the Chuck Swindoll wants to say about today's topic were talking about what to do when the spirit brings a slow recovery you're listening to Insight for living Chuck Swindoll's teaching series on the Holy Spirit is titled flying closer to the flame to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit us online@insideworld.org each of these programs is located on the inside for living website and by utilizing this resource will have all of Chuck's teaching right at your fingertips, but perhaps today you're looking for something more tangible like a book to read well. Chuck wrote a full-length volume called embraced by the spirit. It parallels the teaching series in many ways but Chuck goes into far greater detail in the book. The subtitle gives you an idea of what you can expect the untold benefits of intimacy with God to purchase a copy right now. Go to Insight.org/store and that is God prompt you to give a donation, please follow his lead. There's no large church or institution fully underwrites his nonprofit ministry meets your voluntary donations that make it possible to provide these daily visits with Chuck to give a donation today. Visit Insight.org. Your gifts truly make a difference recently heard from a widow who lives all of she said this, Chuck. My husband and I would listen to you every morning on the way to work. We would time our commute so we could listen to today are not able to leave the house but I'm so glad I can still hear my phone. It's your donation that allows us to reach grateful listeners like this, so please give us a call if you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8880 or give a donation online@insight.org/recovery on Insight for living in the preceding message when the spirit brings a slow recovery was copyrighted in 1979, 1984, 1993 and 2003 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2003 by Charles R.

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