Introduction
At this very moment, while you're reading these words, thousands of people all over the earth are receiving a blessing, a healing, a deliverance. God is limitless. He is able to speak to millions of people at the same time. The question isn't whether he's at work. It's whether you're willing to step out in faith and receive.
Jean-Marc LAMOTTE, pastor of Église la Riane in Nice, preaches here with a simple conviction: the Lord has come to set you free. Not in a year, not in heaven someday. Today. Whether you're carrying a heart broken by grief, childhood wounds, moral or sexual abuse, an addiction, or a fear that's followed you for years: the power changed hands at the cross. Isaiah 61 isn't just an old poetic text. It's what Jesus himself read as his mission (Luke 4). And that mission is for you this morning.
Message outline
1. A living church where God truly moves
There are churches on fire, and there are churches that have lost their flame. Keep the fire you have. That fire isn't an atmosphere you manufacture with music and lights. It's a spiritual climate, the one the Holy Spirit creates when a heart opens up without putting limits on what God can do.
Expect to receive. That's the first decision. Many come to worship with no expectation, so they leave with nothing. But whoever comes saying, "Lord, today I believe you're going to touch me," is already reaching out to receive. Mark 16 says it plainly: "These signs will accompany those who believe." The miracle is tied to the faith of the one receiving, not just the anointing of the one preaching.
The gift of miracles, as Jean-Marc LAMOTTE points out, belongs to God, not to the servant. In some large churches, people rush toward the pastor believing he has some special anointing, while the elders praying next to him are ignored. That's not right. It's the Lord who heals. Your faith, on the other hand, can rise up anywhere: in the room, at home, in your car, in front of your screen.
2. Taking hold of the promise, not just wanting it
Isaiah 58:11 says: "The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don't fail." The key word here is take hold. Not "I wish," not "I hope," not "oh, if only God would." It's the violent who take the Kingdom of Heaven by force (Matthew 11:12).
Jesus says it with brutal clarity: "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you" (Matthew 17:20). You don't need enormous faith. You need real faith, even a tiny one, pointed in the right direction.
The Bible says we are heirs. Many think the inheritance is for heaven. But as long as the one who made the will hasn't died, no one inherits anything. Jesus died on the cross. He rose again. The inheritance is available now. You still have to believe to see it. "According to your faith be it done to you" (Matthew 9:29). Faithless faith doesn't exist: it's a contradiction in terms. Either you believe, or you don't.
Stay anchored in the Word. If you thirst for the supernatural without being grounded in the Bible, you drift into mysticism. If you thirst for the supernatural while staying anchored in the Word, you remain in God's own natural order. That's a very different thing.
3. Healing the broken heart before everything else
Isaiah 61:1 is the central passage of this message: "The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound."
Look at the order. Before physical healing, there's the healing of the broken heart and the release of captives. Why? Because as long as your heart is broken, you can't receive. Resentment, unhealed pain, buried wounds block the flow between you and God. The Lord wants to start there.
What does a broken heart look like? A man who still can't get through grief years later. A woman who closes the shutters and turns her living room into a shrine to a child who died. That's not honoring the one who's gone, it's stopping her own life. God left you life so you could pass life on, not so you could mourn forever.
A boy grown into a man who still hears his mother's voice telling him: "You're worthless, you're no good, you'll never make it." Those destructive words have traveled with him his whole life without him even realizing it. A girl who has carried, for forty years, the weight of an abuse she never dared speak about.
Christ wants to touch every one of these wounds today. That's what he came for.
4. Breaking free from the chains of the past: abuse, grief, addictions
The statistics are brutal. In 2025, a child is a victim of incest every three minutes in France. In 2024, 614 infants between 0 and 2 years old suffered sexual violence. In Peru, 80,000 children are abused every year. These aren't numbers meant to shock, they're faces. In our churches, brothers and sisters carry these wounds in silence because no one has ever spoken to them about it.
Jean-Marc LAMOTTE has seen it with his own eyes in his ministry: a heart broken by abuse is worse than a severed hand. It's a pain that bleeds constantly, that shapes personality traits, that makes a person quick-tempered or aggressive, that keeps them from flourishing. Those who haven't lived through it can't understand it. But God understands. And he comes to set free.
Deliverance happens in stages. First, come out of silence. As long as you stay quiet, it keeps going. Next, refuse the accusation that says it's your fault: it isn't your fault. Finally, declare with authority: "In the name of Jesus, I am set free. The power has changed hands." Smith Wigglesworth used to say you had to enforce that spiritual authority without arguing with evil. You don't have to negotiate with what destroyed you. You command it, in the name of Jesus.
The same is true for addictions, fear, destructive words spoken over you in childhood, a grief that's holding you captive. Christ didn't come to take note of your captivity. He came to break it. "If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).
Key takeaways
- Expect to receive. The faith of the one receiving matters as much as the anointing of the one preaching. Mark 16: "These signs will accompany those who believe."
- Take hold, don't just wish. It's the violent who take the Kingdom by force. A tiny but real faith moves the mountain.
- The broken heart comes before everything else. Isaiah 61 places inner healing and the release of captives before physical healing.
- Silence prolongs the captivity. As long as you stay quiet about what hurt you, it keeps acting on you. The Lord wants to bring what was hidden into the light.
- The power changed hands at the cross. You no longer negotiate with what destroyed you. In the name of Jesus, you command it to let go.
- Stay anchored in the Word. Without it, hunger for the supernatural turns into mysticism. With it, you remain in God's own natural order.
Personal application
- Do you come into God's presence truly expecting something, or just out of habit?
- Is there a promise in the Word you've wished for for a long time without ever daring to take hold of it by faith?
- What part of your heart is still wounded enough to block your relationship with God? A grief, words spoken over you as a child, an abuse, a betrayal?
- Is there a silence God is asking you to break this week, with him first, then with someone you trust: a spouse, a pastor, a spiritually mature friend?
- What addiction, fear, or chain from the past can you speak over out loud today, with the authority of the name of Jesus?
Scriptures cited
- Isaiah 61:1-3 · The central passage: healing broken hearts, proclaiming liberty to captives.
- Isaiah 58:11 · You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters don't fail.
- Mark 16:15-18 · The signs that accompany those who believe.
- Matthew 11:12 · The Kingdom suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
- Matthew 17:20 · Faith like a grain of mustard seed moves mountains.
- Matthew 9:29 · According to your faith be it done to you.
- Luke 4:16-21 · Jesus reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and declares: today this scripture is fulfilled.
- John 8:36 · If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
FAQ
Why does God want to heal the broken heart before healing the body?
Because an unhealed heart blocks reception. Resentment, buried pain, hidden shame create an inner resistance to grace. Isaiah 61:1 explicitly places the healing of the broken heart and the release of captives before physical healing. That's not by chance, it's the order of God's work: he starts by making you able to receive.
I went through abuse a long time ago. Do I really need to talk about it?
As long as you stay silent, what hurt you keeps working in the shadows. Speaking up isn't exposing yourself, it's bringing the thing into the light so it loses its power. Start by talking to God about it, very concretely. Then, if you can, talk to a pastor, a mature believer, or a trained Christian counselor. You are not guilty of what was done to you. Christ came to proclaim your liberty.
How do I know if my hunger for miracles stays balanced?
The measure is simple: the Word of God. If your hunger for the supernatural sends you chasing experiences disconnected from the Bible, you slide into mysticism. If it keeps bringing you back to what God has promised in Scripture, you stay in "God's natural order," the normal course of a Christian life where God is at work. Stay anchored. Read the Word. Expect God to do what he said.
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