Today we continue with our unpacking of God’s complete grace package; building our understanding of everything we have in Christ Jesus. We will consider one of the goodies for our taking – healing and divine health. Studying the package of salvation, we really see that the forgiveness of sins and healing with divine health are all equally a part of the same grace package, there is none higher than the other: if we believe our sins have been forgiven through Jesus, then we also ought to believe that we have received healing and divine health. The Lord Himself indicated this when He raised up the paralytic man, He said, “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house” (Matthew 9:5-6). This is the acceptance that we must come in order to be able to receive the fullness of what is available for us.
Considering the Old Testament, we read from the psalmist, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases… ” (Psalms 103:2-3), showing us that while the forgiveness of iniquities was one of the benefits God bestowed on His people, so was the healing of all diseases. Again, we read in Exodus 23:25, “So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you”, wherein the term ‘take away’ referred to the complete turning off of sickness from the midst of the people. We see that even in the times of the Old Covenant, healing and divine health was a possibility and blessing from God to His people. But now we know that all these blessings that we see shadows of have been given over to us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ..” (Ephesians 1:3) – [every], not some! So the blessing of healing and divine health that we see was on offer to the children of Israelites earlier on, has been given over to us freely as a blessing from God!
We then see the apostle John pray the heart of the Father in his third epistle to the churches, saying, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 1:2) – showing us that our health is important to God and that He wishes that we remain in health. It is possible for one to be materially poor and still live out a full life, but it is quite hard to be compromised in health and still live a life that will allow you to reach your purpose. So it is very important that we arm ourselves with tools to ensure that we attain healing in the times we need it and to live out our lives in divine health, to the glory of the Father. Reading of the diverse gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, we see that the gift of healing is one of them – meaning that believers have the option to be healed through this gift of healing operating through the brethren should they fall sick and also through the prayer and gift of faith (Mark 16:17-20; James 5:14-16).
Additional to this, believers can also receive their own healing on their own without the working of external gifts of the Spirit. Reading from Galatians 5:22, we see that ‘faith’ is one of the listed elements of the fruit of the Spirit, showing us we all have a deposit of faith that can bear the results we desire to see in our lives. John 15:5-10 shows us how we ‘bare much fruit’, stipulating that it is through ‘abiding’ in the Word of God that we will begin to be fruitful in our journey. Faith is a fixed noun, and we work out this faith through the act of believing, which becomes the application and doing on our part, and it is with our hearts that we believe. The importance of remaining in the Word is also stipulated again as we read, “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them; and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:20-22) – showing us that the mere fact of abiding in the Word is health to our flesh, even before all other principles are applied.
Church, understand this: symptoms of illness are to sickness what temptation is to sin – indicators presenting themselves and awaiting a response from you. But we often do not respond as we ought, just a mere symptom is not sickness, but it becomes such when we accept defeat and even go as far as diagnosing ourselves. Do not accept any signs thrown at you by the enemy for your defeat! It is always easier to give in and take the easy way out through medications, but this does not help your training for the enforcement of your victory. Scripture says, “… casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) – those symptoms are the arguments that are attempting to exalt themselves above the reality that through the stripes of the Lord, we were healed (Isaiah 53:5)! This is why we need to have an aggressive attitude towards any intrusion that comes in to kill us! From Ephesians 2:26-27, “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil” – we ought to be angry and vengeful whenever the enemy throws darts at us and we should resolve to give him no room in our lives to breed and operate! We really ought to be comfortable with taking what has been given to us by force!
Additionally, we also ought to be comfortable with applying the faith principles that have been given to us through Scripture, one such being found in Mark 11:23 – we must believe that we have that which we have prayed for at the moment we pray for it, and not wait for physical manifestations before we believe it. Healing is a process, believe that you have been healed and your body will eventually catch up to this reality. Second to this, we really ought to learn to control our tongues! From the book of James chapter 3, we learn that once we learn to govern our own tongues, we will be able to control the rest of our bodies and the bodies will move in the direction that we will. And lastly, another way to teach the body to be subject to your instruction is through fasting! While fasting does not change God, it does help you minimize doubt and remove carnality from your life and give way to the governance of the Spirit. We should be eager to take every opportunity to exercise our faith, even in small areas and small symptoms of sickness. Should the devil turn to throw something bigger at us, he will find us well trained and equipped to enforce our victory!
Prayer
Father, Your word is the light to our feet, directing us towards all that You have made available for us! We thank You for continually revealing Your will, tearing down the lies of the enemy and the cultures of men that have misrepresented Your intentions over the years. Healing is our portion! Divine health is our inheritance! We receive the grace to keep ourselves in Your truth and light! You are the final authority. In Jesus’ name! Amen.
