DIVINE HEALING: YOUR PORTION (PART 7)
" ... Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." - Matthew 8:17 (KJV)
" ... by whose stripes ye were healed." - 1 Peter 2:24 (KJV)
Welcome to part 7 in the series on "Divine Healing: Your Portion". In the last part (part 6), I'd made reference to the two Scriptures above quoted. I'm particularly grateful to the Lord for His calling upon my life and that of my wife, to minister healing to the sick. These two Scriptures have been used to minister healing to the sick and have brought tremendous glory to God because many have testified as having been healed of diverse ailments.
The first thing to note about these two Scriptures and generally about God's blessings and graces in Christ is the fact that the language is in the past tense! " ... Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." - Matthew 8:17 (KJV). Note the words "took" and "bare". Similarly, in 1 Peter 2:24 we note the phrase "by whose stripes ye were healed." is in the past tense. What does this teach us? Simply that the Lord Jesus did accomplish our healing sometime past. Having done so, what is expected of the sick today is simply to release his faith on what Jesus has accomplished for him.
Faith is simply your positive response to what God has already accomplished by grace. In other words, faith is how you appropriate and receive what God has already provided. It may interest you to know that God doesn't "move" when you believe Him. When you believe in God for healing, He doesn't respond to you and heal you. 1 Peter 2:24 reveals that by His stripes, you were healed two thousand years ago. It says " ...by [His] stripes ye were healed."! This is speaking of what happened in Herod's judgment hall over two thousand years ago. The Lord Jesus Christ, on His way to the cross, took those stripes on His back. (Matt. 27:26.) The truth is that Jesus isn't healing people today. He healed people two thousand years ago. All of the power that it takes to heal every sickness, infirmity, ailment and disease of the entire human race was generated two thousand years ago and that power is flowing unabated. Hallelujah!
In the same vein, He " ... Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." - Matthew 8:17 (KJV). Since the Lord Jesus "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses" over two thousand years ago, it logically follows that no believer has any reason to be sick in the body. No wonder that Prophet Isaiah told us that in Zion (the Church) " ... the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: ... " - Isaiah 33:24 (KJV)
This is a robust reality that's eluding many believers today. In ministering healing to the sick, what we do is to help people first and foremost get God’s Word into them so faith will rise up in their own hearts. We've discovered that people can be healed and delivered just by acting on the Word for themselves. This is the more reliable way to get the sick healed. At other times, and if God wills, we can also minister to sick and oppressed people by or through the anointing we graciously carry (ie, the supernatural manifestations of the Spirit of God).
But it is important to teach people what the Word of God says first, so they can receive their healing or deliverance for themselves and most importantly, know how to hold on to what they receive from God. Their own faith plays a vital part in that; otherwise they won't know how to stand against the wiles of the devil for themselves when he tries to rob them of what they receive from the Lord (see Matt 12:43-45).
Like I said, God may choose to use the anointing of the Spirit on the man of God to set people free. Sometimes, He may not. But His Word always works when people know what the Word says and act on it for themselves (see John 8:32). This accounts for why we teach people to rely on the Word to be set free from Satan's oppression and bondage - not on the anointing of the Spirit because the manifestation of the Spirit is always "as He will" - 1 Cor 12:11.
God's Word is reliable and never will return to Him void without accomplishing what it says (Isa 55:11). As we learn to believe God's Word regarding any given situation of our lives, we are sure to see His faithfulness. That isn't to say that the devil will not challenge our faith, especially with recurring symptoms when we believe God for healing. At such times, we are admonished to "be strong in the Lord ... to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Eph 6:10-11); and to be "strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 2:1, KJV).
Once you have confessed and received your healing by faith, recurring symptoms become irrelevant because they are not real, but are at best only lying vanities that are never to be regarded or observed! (see Psalms 31:6, Jonah 2:8). As we persist, believing the Lord, confessing His Word and refusing to give up, resisting the devil, our sickness or disease gives way in complete submission to the power of God's infallible Word. Amen.
Thus saith the LORD, my " … word … that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. - Isa 55:11. Hallelujah!
PRAYER:
Dearest Heavenly Father, I believe your Word regarding my healing which Word never returns unto you void without accomplishing the purpose for sending it. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for having healed me over two thousand years ago. I've found an answer to my sickness. Thank you for making me an overcomer and also more than conquerors! Praise the Lord!