The first thing I want to say is that you should not fix your mind on sickness. If you go asking and looking for what is wrong with you, you are likely going to find one or two things that are slightly wrong. You should rather ask for what is going well with you. I want you to pinpoint and thank God for thirty things that are going well with your health. Begin now. God has been good to His children in matters of health. If you are reading this book, it means you are healthy enough to be able to do it. The other thing is that people are often healthier than they seem to be. Pessimism is not a Christian attitude. How can we have a wonderful Saviour like the Lord Jesus and yet concentrate on the negative side of things? It is not fair.
We Are More Than Conquerors
The Bible says: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conqueror through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8: 28-39).
We need to believe that we are more than conquerors and then enter into the experience of it. We have to believe before we see. Some say, “Seeing is believing.” But with the Lord, “Believing is seeing.” Even if I were to fail a million times, I would still confess that I am more than a conqueror, because that is my status. But, by God’s grace, I labour to ensure that my status is also my experience. I, however, do not begin from my experience. I begin from the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. How does this apply to healing? I must first look at what God has done. And what has He done? When the Lord went to the cross, all our sicknesses, diseases and infirmities were put on Him, and by His stripes, we were healed. This is a fact.
By His Wounds We Are Healed
n Isaiah, there is the description of this man of sorrows: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5). He was a man of pain and sickness. He put upon himself all our sicknesses. When we meet the Lord in the New Testament, we see the accomplishment of what is said of Him in the book of Isaiah, as quoted above. We read that, “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases” (Matthew 8: 16-17). Isaiah said it, and the Lord did the miracles to confirm the fact that He indeed took our infirmities and bore our diseases. From God’s point of view, Jesus bore our sicknesses,—by His stripes we had been healed. That is what the Bible says. If the Bible is true, and true it is, then we were healed. Since we had been healed, what we need now, is to enter into our inheritance. Let us illustrate it this way – If your wife were to come to you pleading so that you may accept her as your wife. Would that be normal? Or, how would you take it if your daughter should come begging to be accepted as your daughter? If there were a need in that direction, they would only need to affirm who they are – your wife or daughter. In the same manner, we turn to the Lord and say, “You took my diseases and my iniquities upon You. Yours was the chastisement that made me whole. By Your stripes, I have been healed.” The question is – Do you believe that by the stripes of the Lord you had been healed? All you need to do is to believe His word, sing His praises and enter into your inheritance!
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The Believer’s Healing Is In The Past
I have heard of some people who were trying to crucify themselves again, so as to please God. God can no longer be satisfied in that way. He will instead be of- fended. Why? Jesus has already done it once and for all. The Bible says, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (He- brews 9:27-28). Why was Moses disqualified? The first time, God told him to strike the rock. He obeyed by striking the rock and water came out of it. The second time, God asked him to speak to the rock. But then he stroke it twice. This was a theological tragedy.
e was like saying that the Lord should go to the cross three times. Why? The Bible clearly says that that rock was Christ, and the Lord had said He would strike the shepherd and that the sheep would be scattered. The rock, Christ, was to be stricken once. He was to die on the cross only once. In anger, instead of speaking to the rock, Moses hit the rock twice. By this act, he was disqualified from leadership. There could be no help for him. Anybody who tries to die on the cross again, will be doing something terrible beyond telling. When it comes to sickness and healing, we must have the same attitude. The Lord took our sicknesses, and by His stripes, we had been healed. We look upon Him and confess our healing. It is not our sicknesses that we confess. We confess our healing. We confess what He did, bless Him for it, and then enter into the reality of it.
By Faith, Not By Sight
The Lord has given you His health. No man could give it to you. But He has. He has healed you. Since He had done it, you need to believe and confess it. You must do so, regardless of how you feel. This is because faith goes ahead of experience.
When some people are prayed for, instead of believing the Lord and moving ahead, they concentrate on the sickness. That is not the pathway unto the healing of the Lord. The story is told of somebody who planted beans in the morning. In the evening he went to open and see whether it was germinating. He saw no roots. Then the next
day, he went and opened the ground to see if over the night any roots had sprung up. He did this for some time and never found any roots. The problem is that so long as he kept opening the ground, he was preventing the beans from germinating. In other words, he wanted to walk by sight. Do not do like him when it comes to your healing. Have faith in the Lord and you will see His wonders in your life.
