Mark 5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee ‘whole’ (translated from the Greek word SOZO)
ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE IF YOU BELIEVE!! The active ingredient for all of these miracles is faith.
SOZO in a nutshell means, saved, healed and made whole.
SOZO is translated equally through the Bible for saved, healed and made whole. The exact same word.
‘Woman, you faith has saved your soul. Your faith has healed you. Your faith has made you whole’.
It is God’s will to SOZO you. No one questions God’s will to forgive us, but most question God’s will to heal us. Jesus’ prayer ‘thy will be done’ was about something completely unrelated to this subject.
“SOZO” IS THE GREEK WORD FOR SALVATION, YET ITS ROOT MEANING GOES BEYOND JUST THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. ACCORDING TO STRONG’S CONCORDANCE, SOZO ALSO CARRIES THE IDEA OF BEING PHYSICALLY HEALED OF DISEASES AND BEING DELIVERED FROM YOUR ENEMY. IN THE SPIRITUAL SENSE, THAT ENEMY IS THE DEVIL AND HIS DEMONS.
Salvation then must mean more than simply being saved to go to heaven when you die. To be biblically saved means there are also earthly effects on our lives today. Not only are you free from the judgement and wrath of God, this salvation also includes the ability to resist temptations to sin in a pursuit of Christ-likeness, to be set free from demonic attacks and oppression, and to receive healing in our physical bodies. These are listed among the many promises of God in the scriptures. For example,
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy…” (Psalm 103:2-4)
Christians say the word ‘saved’ offhandedly. SOZOed literally. When I say to a worldly person, ‘I’m saved’ or ‘I got saved’ they look at me weird sometimes. One elderly tourist in Guatemala even looked at me startled and innocently asked me ‘saved from what?’ I tried to explain it in my own feeble understanding, and he just smiled and walked away. He wrote me years later saying he now knew what it meant and that Jesus just saved him. Praise God!
It’s ok that an unsaved person doesn’t know what the word saved was trying to convey. Remember, a word is a thought container. What isn’t ok, is that I couldn’t explain correctly what Jesus did for me through His Holy Spirit. What’s even scarier, is that most saved evangelical Christians can not adequately explain what the word saved means to an unbeliever in non-Christian vocabulary. I said something ridiculous like ‘I prayed, then I quit smoking.’ Nothing about grace. Nothing about mercy. Nothing about being saved from hell, from my sins, from my sick lifestyle etc. Nothing about the Creator of the Universe rolling up His sleeves and pulling me out of the proverbial garbage can (Him doing everything, me doing nothing).They aren’t saved, so how would they know the inside jargon. But WE should know and be able to explain it at the drop of a hat.
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.
SOZOed (saved) is the Christian’s way of saying ‘made whole’. The lady in the opening verse Mark 5:34 was not only healed, but saved. Her testimony when asked later was ‘Jesus saved me from my sins, and from going to hell and He healed me! Amazing how few can clearly say the ‘reason for their hope’.
Over the years I hosted hundreds of teams from all over the world. I have gotten to know literally thousands of Christians who are serious enough about the Gospel to spend hundreds of dollars to come down for a few weeks to help my Nicaraguan friends to get saved. It was shocking, (still is) how few could explain lucidly in ‘nonbeliever’s vocabulary’ what being saved means. Scarier still, everyone had a different definition of the Gospel.
Whole means complete. A car with only three wheels or no engine is not a whole car. A whole car has everything needed.
Listen to testimonies. It’s often very lopsided. Mine was ‘I quit smoking’…. What???? Others is ’I was naughty, now I’m not’. Or some were about demons scaring them.
Fact is, when Jesus comes into your life, you are saved from sin, hell, addictions, mental and physical illness, premature death, financial mistakes, Satan, demons, bad people …the list goes on and on,
The Gospel is The Good News. If someone’s starving to death, and you have food, but instead of giving them something to eat you just talk at them about their sins, you’re not giving them good news. You’re killing them. The good news would be, ‘let’s eat and while we’re eating, let me tell you about Jesus’. A man is about to lose his house, crying because his kids are going to be homeless. You can help him, but instead of doing so, you just give him a hell fire sermon. You’re not giving him good news, you’re just making him miserable. Saying ‘let me help you save your house’ is good news. Then share Jesus with him.
When I talk to someone about being saved now, I cover all of it. After I try to help a brother out with basic stuff, I tell him to trust on the Lord and he’ll be saved and his family. Health will come to their lives. Finances will be more abundant. Spiritual attacks will subside. Why?
1. It’s Biblical (watch Jesus’s ministry. Do a word study on SOZO)
2. Faith comes by hearing. They will have the necessary faith for the things they are told about.
If you give it to them all at once, they won’t have problems later on. It is God’s desire to SOZO us.
Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Sin, curse and death issues are all handled when one is saved (SOZOed). As long as you remain in the vine, (abide in Christ) you are SOZOed. Even if you loose your family, health, finances (like Job) if you continue to abide, you are still SOZOed. Things happen, we doubt, we take our eyes off of Jesus (not abiding) and we start to sink. The same amount of faith required to receive forgiveness (which is easy because that’s what is preached the most, selah) is the same amount of faith required for finances, a healing, returned prodigal sons or anything else.
Matthew 14:30 But when he (Peter) saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
Dean and Winnie Peters