From the ministry archive
The Healing Promise
What physical afflictions or adverse physical conditions do you presently have? Okay, since you’ve answered that question let me ask you a couple more questions pertaining to the matter. Are you in Christ, meaning have you been baptized with the holy Ghost by Jesus? (I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27) If you answered yes to that question, then my next one is, Who do you belong to? Do you belong to yourself or to Jesus? I’ll let the Bible answer that one for you: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor. 6:19,20). So if you belong to Jesus, and you’re IN HIM, then who do you identify with? Is it him, or is it you, or even someone else? Here is how one true believer answered that question: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live IN THE FLESH I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). The truth of the matter is that when Jesus gave his life FOR us, he was making the way to give his life TO us. His life is his Spirit, and he plainly said that he came “that [we] might have life, and have it more abundantly” (Rom. 8:2; Jn. 10:10). The scripture also tells us that “the Lord IS that Spirit” (II Cor. 3:17). When we repent of sin and literally give our lives to Jesus, he in return literally gives his life TO us, meaning his Spirit. Seeing that Jesus gives himself to us when we receive his Spirit, the question becomes this: What physical afflictions or diseases does Jesus have? I’m sure your answer is the same as mine, which is NONE!! What that means is that any adverse physical condition that we receive, we have NOT received it from Jesus. In fact we haven’t received sickness or disease from Jesus any more than we have received sin from Jesus; and I KNOW we haven’t received sin from Jesus, though many through erroneous doctrine call it as though we have. My Bible reads very plainly, and it says this: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a NEW creature: old things are PASSED AWAY; behold, all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17). “Old things pass away” because we have taken our lives out of our own hands, and out of the devil’s hands, and truly given our lives to Jesus. “All things are become new” because Jesus literally gives his life to us so that he can live in us and through us, so that we can “glorify God in our body, AND in our spirit” as we read above (Philip. 2:13). Sickness or disease, quite frankly do NOT glorify God in our body any more than sin glorifies God in our spirit.
Just accepting sickness and physical affliction is an ‘old thing’ that we have always been accustomed to, even as sinning is an “old thing” that we had always lived in (I Pet. 4:3,4). So the question becomes, Where DO we receive sickness and such things from? Jesus answered that one for us: “The THIEF cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have LIFE, and that they might have it more ABUNDANTLY” (Jn. 10:10 - AGAIN). And just who is this ‘thief’ that Jesus was speaking of here? Let’s allow Peter to answer that one for us: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and HEALING ALL that were OPPRESSED OF THE DEVIL; for God was with him” (Acts 10:38). That’s correct my friend, the thief that Jesus spoke of is Satan, and it is HE that is the oppressor. If Jesus healed ALL that were oppressed of Satan when he was here, and those people were NOT in Christ as we are, nor he in them; how much MORE will he heal ALL who are oppressed of the devil now, that ARE in him? It’s “high time” that God’s people “wake out of sleep” and quit accepting the devil’s lies (Rom. 13:11). We are NOT born again to be sinners again, and we are NOT born again to be sick and oppressed again. If we are in Christ then we are “new creatures,” and “old things have PASSED AWAY!” The devil has sent us his mail all of our lives, and in darkness and ignorance we have been opening and reading it all our lives, thinking it was for us. It wasn’t and isn’t for us, IT IS AGAINST US, and we need to stop opening it and reading it as though it is ours! Mark it ‘Return to sender’ and thoroughly REJECT IT! We need to understand that we are “joint heirs with Christ,” and Christ has NOT inherited anything from the devil! (Rom. 8:17) We need to understand and believe our calling, and that it does NOT include the works of the devil. Hear what the beloved apostle said: “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might DESTROY the works of the devil” (I Jn. 3:8). Sin is a work of the devil, and sickness and disease are works of the devil as well. Jesus simply is not a sinner, and neither is he sick. When he gave his life for us he paid the price for both of these enemies to be defeated in our lives (Isa. 53:5; Rom. 6:10-12; I Pet. 2:24,25). Go ahead, look those verses up and read them.
If we abide in him in “righteousness and true holiness” then we should be partakers of what HE is, and NOT what the devil is (Eph. 4:24). Jesus is the truth, and the savior, and the healer, and the deliverer, and the comforter, and the giver of help and strength. Satan is the chief liar, and the oppressor, and the thief, and the robber, and the crippler, and the destroyer. It’s very simple really: We need to believe the truth, and STOP believing the lies. We need to stop marking mail from Jesus as ‘Return to sender,’ and START marking Satan’s mail as ‘Return to sender.’ Jesus is not trying to trick anyone; he remains the same as when he “went about doing good; and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.” If there is any change at all, it has to be an upgrade from that because he has since paid the ultimate price for our deliverance and healing, and we are now IN HIM. The devil on the other hand IS trying to trick EVERYONE into believing that we have to accept his mail as our own, and to confess it as though it is our calling. The scripture tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21). If death and life are in the power of the tongue, then sickness and health are in the power of the tongue as well. If we confess sickness, then sickness and the devil’s works we will have. If we confess healing, then healing and Jesus’ works we will have. If we have sinned, “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” as long as we sincerely confess our sins (I Jn. 1:9). Let’s not make an easy thing hard, and let’s not try to make a hard thing easy. Here’s the easy thing: “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the [congregation]; and let them pray over him… And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (Js. 5:14,15). In fact Jesus will be there for your need whether you have any elders to call on or not, for it is he who does the work. The hard thing is coming up with all of the non-biblical reasons of why we maybe can’t be or shouldn’t be healed, and subsequently are NOT BEING HEALED! No such reasons can be confirmed by the ministry of Jesus, and as for me, I don’t need to go beyond Jesus for my answers. Here’s the bottom line on the matter my friend: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Prov. 3:5). And this: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:5). Amen and amen.
