There Is Healing In the Atonement Of Christ!

Healing is provided for us in the atonement of Christ! Let me show you the evidence!

 

The Passover sacrifice offered by the Israelites the night that the firstborn of Egypt died is a type of Christ. Notice 1 Corinthians 5:7: Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

In Exodus 12 you find that the Israelites were instructed to eat the flesh of the Passover lamb to give them strength for their journey out of Egypt. This is a type of Jesus being the life and health of our physical bodies!

 

In 2 Chronicles 30, the Israelites were healed while partaking of the Passover sacrifice:  But King Hezekiah prayed for them, and they were allowed to eat the Passover meal anyway, even though this was contrary to the requirements of the Law. For Hezekiah said, "May the Lord, who is good, pardon those (19) who decide to follow the Lord, the God of their ancestors, even though they are not properly cleansed for the ceremony." (20) And the Lord listened to Hezekiah's prayer and healed the people (2 Chronicles 30:18-20 -NLT)

In Numbers 21: 8-9, the Israelites were healed while they looked at a serpent that God had Moses put on a pole and hold up for all to see. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Jesus referred to this serpent on a pole as Himself being made our sin in John 3: 14: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. If the type, the serpent on the pole, brought healing to every Israelite that gazed upon it, how much more will Jesus, the antitype (the fulfillment of the serpent on the pole), minister healing and life to those who come to Him!

 

Then in Isaiah 53, the great redemptive chapter, we find healing clearly shown in the sacrifice of the Messiah! He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows (pains) and acquainted with grief (sickness). And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses) and carried our sorrows (pains); yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

 

The words sorrows and griefs should be translated respectively pains and sicknesses in these verses! Any concordance will show this truth. When Jesus bore our sins, he also bore our sicknesses. He dealt with both the sin and sickness problem with the same sacrifice at Calvary!

 

Some folk tell us that Isaiah 53:3-5 is speaking figuratively of our spiritual sins and our spiritual sickness. And that he healing mentioned in Isaiah 53:5 is really spiritual healing. But we don’t need spiritual healing, we need spiritual transformation! We don’t get healed spiritually; we become new creatures in Christ Jesus!

  

The Father obviously knew that some people would try to spiritualize the healing mentioned in Isaiah 53 and He left us a Divine commentary. Notice Matthew 8: 16-17. It refers directly to Isaiah 53:4! When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."

 

Exercise your faith in the Father to heal you today! Believe you receive the healing that Jesus provided in His sacrifice for you. With His stripes you are healed!

God Wants To Heal You!

Most people know that God can heal them. But they are not sure that it is God’s will to heal them. And it’s not what we know God can do, but what we know He will do that inspires faith. Faith rests in knowing the will of God, not in the ability of God alone.  Faith begins where the will of God is known.

Many people have religious roadblocks in the way of receiving their healing from the Lord. They quote the scripture taken out of context, Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives (Hebrews 12:6).  And the religious roadblock tells them that God sometimes uses sickness to chasten the believer. But God does not make people sick. And He is not a child abuser! We would be accused of child abuse if we harmed our children physically, but people refer to God as a child abuser when they say that He puts sickness on us to teach us a lesson. God chastens us in our spirits through His word!

Other people say that God puts sickness on us to teach us to trust Him.  Still others tell us that God lets us get sick so that we can glorify Him in the sickness. And I’ve heard others say that I’m in God’s hands, and nothing can come into my life except it come through Him first.

But what does the Word of God teach? It teaches that “…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). It teaches that Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning (James 1:17) It DOES NOT teach that God puts sickness on His people!

Jesus prayed in Matthew 6:10, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. There is no sickness in heaven, and it is His will that there be no sickness on the earth! Moses admonished the Israelites to keep the Word of God in their hearts that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth (Deuteronomy 11:21).

Sickness came with the fall of man, and its’ cure is found in God’s remedy for the fall, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ! To listen to some people, it sounds as though God and the devil have changed jobs over the last two thousand years. To them, God is the one who makes us sick, and the devil is the one who heals us! But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

For me, the will of God concerning my healing is settled by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 8. Jesus came down from the mountain where He was ministering the Sermon on the Mount to His disciples, and there was a man stricken by leprosy waiting for Him at the base of the mountain. The leper said to Jesus, …If you are willing, you can make me clean. Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him saying, I am willing; be cleansed. If Jesus could tell this leper that it was His will to heal him, then He must also tell me that it is His will to heal me, or He is partial and treats some people better than He does others. Romans 2:11 reads, For there is no partiality with God! Again, if it’s the will of God to heal the leper, then it must be the will of God to heal me!

If it is the will of God to heal some and not all, then there is no basis for faith in God to heal except through some special revelation. That’s the reason we sometimes hear the faith destroying prayer for healing, Lord if it be thy will… Folk that pray that way for healing simply do not understand the Word of God on the subject. We as Christians know the will of God through His Word. His Word is His will for us!

Faith Works The Same Way To Receive Forgiveness And Healing

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases (Psalm 103:1-3).

 

Jesus sacrifice on the cross provided both forgiveness of sin and healing of sickness and disease for us. The same kind of faith that brings the new birth to us also provides healing for our physical bodies. The same faith we exercise to be forgiveness when we sin is the same faith we exercise for healing. Let me explain.

When you’re born again, the confession of your mouth that comes from the faith in your heart brings salvation into your life! That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10).

Faith is released with words. Be careful with what you say. Words carry what you believe! And words bring your salvation into a real experience in your life. It works the same way with healing. In fact the Greek word for salvation includes everything that salvation brings us, including healing!

So you could read this verse in Romans this way: That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be healed. For with the heart one believes unto health, and with the mouth confession is made unto healing!

The same faith that saves from sin also heals disease. Here’s how it works. When you sin, you go to 1 John 1:9, where the Word says If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. After you act on that scripture, you probably don’t feel forgiven initially. You’ve confessed your sin. You’ve asked for forgiveness, but the emotions retain the remorse of failure.

 

And that’s where faith comes in focus. You then say out loud, Lord, I thank you that I’m forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. And you stand your ground on the word where God says He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse confessed sin. It may take a while, but eventually the feelings of failure subside, and the peace of God returns. The bottom line here is that you must believe you’re forgiven before you feel forgiven.

Faith for healing works exactly the same way. You go to the Father with the symptoms that are attacking your body. You remind Him of what His Word says about you. That Jesus took your infirmities and bore your sicknesses the same time that he took your sins. You command the sickness to leave your body. You resist it in the Name of Jesus! Then, you ask the Father for complete healing and according to Mark 11:24, you believe you receive your healing.

Then, just as you do for forgiveness of sin, you stand against thoughts and feelings that tell you that you’re still sick. Your faith in the Word declares that you’re healed while the symptoms are still raging. You continue to voice aloud the promises of God for health. And healing eventually manifests in your body. Your faith in the Father through the Word for healing will make you whole. Act on the Word for healing today!

 

Don't Lose The Blessings God Has For You!

In Numbers 22-24, You can read the story of how Balak (King of the Moabites) tried to get the prophet Balaam to curse Israel. And what a blessing we receive when we read of Balaam’s response, How can you curse whom God has not cursed! (Numbers 23:8). As christians, we are the people of God, and are like Israel we are destined to be blessed!

But there is an interesting twist in the story of Balaam. Though he could not entice God into the notion of cursing His own people, Balaam through his warped spiritual view encouraged the Israelites to go and party with their heathen relatives, the Moabites (See Numbers 25). The Moabites worshipped Baal through very gross immorality. And the Israelites went right along with the Moabites into their heathen fleshly sexual indulgences in their worship of Baal.

  

As a result, 24,000 Israelites died of a plague that broke out. Balaam couldn’t get God to curse the Israelites, but the Israelites brought a curse on themselves through yielding to the flesh and purposely disobeying God and breaking their covenant with Him!

  

Esau was to be blessed with the inheritance of the first born (which was getting 2/3 of the inheritance passed down from his father), but he gave it away in a pledge to his brother Jacob. Esau became so hungry that he despised his own birthright (which in that culture was the greatest honor) for a bowl of soup! His flesh caused him to lose the blessing destined to him by God!

 

Samson took the vow of the Nazarite. He consecrated himself to God and became a national hero in Israel through feats of supernatural strength. The power of God would come on Samson, and he became a one man army as he single handedly defeated the enemy. But he lost God’s blessing on his life when he fell in love and sinned with a Philistine prostitute named Delilah. She coerced him into telling her the secret of his strength (his long hair through the Nazarite vow). Sin had so numbed Samson’s life that he was unaware of when the Spirit of God left him. Unconfessed sin cancels God’s blessings.

  

The lesson for us today is strikingly clear. We are destined to be blessed with Abraham’s blessings as believers! We’re the head and not the tail, always at the top and never at the bottom (see Deuteronomy 28). The Father wants to lavish us with His best. But we through our own disobedience can cancel the destined blessing. Let’s keep the flesh under, and refuse to sell our birthright of blessing for a moment of selfish pleasure!

 

I’ll leave you today with the words of the prophet Isaiah on the subject:

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword"; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isaiah 1:19-20).

 

If you miss it, repent! God forgives when you confess sin. Refuse to live in disobedience. God blesses obedience! Walk with God, refuse the offers of the flesh to dishonor your Lord. When you mess up, go to God in humble repentance. He will forgive, forget, and cleanse. And you will be available for the best that God has for your life.

Through Christ, We Inherit The Blessings Of God!

We are destined for blessing! The Father’s desire was for the human race to be blessed beyond measure! Adam’s sin ended the blessing and instead allowed the curse to creep into this wonderful planet. The goodness and blessing of God was curtailed as a result.

 

God appeared to Abram and told him that he was going to bless him and make his name great. He told Abram that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed. The blessing that Adam lost through the fall is being restored through the blessing of Abraham! This blessing will reach its finality when Jesus returns, reigns for one thousand years, judges all His enemies, and then the earth is renewed and the curse removed! The blessing will be back in its entirety then!

 

Until that time God has instituted His blessing back into the earth through the family of God! It started with Abraham, and has been passed on to the believer through Christ Jesus! The blessing that belonged to Abraham now belongs to us by faith! Take what belongs to you in Christ! You’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing!

 

The Old Testament word for blessing means to endue with power for success, prosperity, fecundity (Webster’s - fruitfulness, fertility, productivity), longevity, etc.(1) As believers we are enabled with BLESSING! We have the Father’s favor that He poured out on Adam, that Adam lost through disobedience, but has been reinstituted in the earth through God’s promise to Abraham! In Christ we are blessed with faithful Abraham (Galatians 3:9). That means that we have the same blessing that God gave him!

 

Notice again Galatians 3:13-14, and Galatians 3:29: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

 

You are BLESSED! Success, prosperity, fruitfulness, productivity, longevity, health, wholeness, soundness, belongs to you in Christ! Take it by faith. Confess it, believe it, act like it, and release it to others!

 

In closing let me remind you of your BLESSING:

Deuteronomy 28: 1-14

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God: Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed. "The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! "The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. "If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you. "The Lord will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom. You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.

---

(1) (from Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Copyright © 1980 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)

Are You Faithful?

Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Moreover it is essentially required in stewards that a man be found faithful – proving himself worthy of trust (1 Corinthians 4:2-Amplified)

A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished (Proverbs 28:20).

God is faithful, and renews His mercies to us every single day. His steadfastness is surer than the rising of the sun. His desire is that we be faithful just like Him. Faithfulness is something that we must choose to walk in. It transcends feelings and circumstances. A faithful person is as faithful when the storm is producing relentless rain as he is when the sun is shining. Outward things simply do not shake the person of faithful heart.

Here are some definitions: Faithfulness: the quality or state of being faithful.

Faithful: true or constant in affection or allegiance; loyal; firm in adherence to promises oaths, or undertakings; firm and thorough in observance of duty.

The Father abundantly blesses the faithful. Part of this may be due to the fact that the faithful person will hang in there through thick and thin. It takes consistency to receive from the Lord. A double minded person is unstable in all of his ways.

To find God’s best for your life you must be faithful! He rarely speaks to a slack person! He’s already spoken 66 books full of directives! And unless we’re after obeying what He’s already instructed, He’s not likely to add more in the way of specifics! And let me mention that this is not a legalistic thing. When Jesus bears His presence on my heart through His Word, that precious presence urges me to bless and be a blessing. That presence from within urges you and me to action.

I began ministry just by being faithful in small things. Whatever I saw that needed to be done in my church, I just pitched in and helped without being asked. There are so many who are much more skilled than me to preach and to pastor. But God rarely looks at skills. He looks at the heart. And there He yearns to find faithfulness!

If you’re not sure of exactly what the Father has for you, just start being faithful! Two things will happen. First of all, you’ll be blessed! And secondly, the Father will shed His light on your path, and you will eventually walk into the plan of God for your life!

God Gives Ability When You Follow His Plans!

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry (1 Timothy 1:12).

 

The Father has given each one of us divine ability to fulfill the tasks He has called us to do. He enables us to do His will. One translation reads, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has made me equal to the task. Ephesians 4:7 reads, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. This grace is a divine ability to walk in the calling the Father has for the individual believer.

  

Each of us has a purpose in the family of God. The will of The Father has been placed deep within us. He places in us a desire for something. Following that desire will move you into the purpose of God for your life.

 

For me, after I received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, I began to have an innate desire to help people see who they are in Christ. I would find myself constantly encouraging and teaching as I had conversations with friends. That desire to build up the believer led me into the call that is on my life today. I simply yielded to that inward tug of the Father.

 

Some have a desire to help children. Others have a yearning to ministry to the imprisoned. Still others find a sense of fulfillment in ministering to the elderly in nursing homes, in helping singles parents and widows with house repairs and natural things they can’t do alone. Many will find great fulfillment in helping the pastor in the local church with ushering, greeting, with sound, in children’s ministry, and in all the necessary things that make ministry happen each week.

 

When people ask me what I think God has called them to do I ask them a question. What do you want to do deep down inside. The Father places His desires in us. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

(Psalm 37:4). Then, He gives us the ability to perform those desires. Jesus said, The Father who dwells in me does the work (John 14:10).

 

To walk in God’s best for you, listen deep within to the want to the Father has placed within you. Then follow that want to and you’ll eventually end up fulfilling the high call of God in Christ for your life.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14).

We Are Kings And Priests Before God!

And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Revelation 1:5-6).

 

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

 

We have two important positions as believers. We are kings. And we are priests. Being a king doesn’t mean that we whiz around with the pomp and circumstance of royalty having servants cater to every whim and fancy. A king rules his domain. We have the spiritual authority of a king! Historically, a king’s word was the bottom line in his kingdom. Where the word of a king is there is power (Ecclesiastes 8:4). We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). That means that He actually shares His authority with us! Demonic forces must bow when we exercise our authority.

A king reigns with words. The Father wants us to fill our words with His word! He watches over His word to make it good! He is the King of kings! When we speak as a king, our King, the Lord Jesus, and His power, backs up what we say and brings it to pass! Jesus is Lord of lords. We are lord over our domain. And Jesus is Lord of us! We have spiritual authority in our homes and families. We have the legal right before God to command Satan to keep his hands off our lives! He must go with his sickness and disease, with his poverty and lack, with his strife and rebellion, with his depression and fear! We’re kings. Our words rule. The King of kings backs them up. Exercise your kingship!

 

We are also priests before God. A priest represents others before God. Jesus is our High Priest. He ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). As priests, we are to go before the Father on behalf of those who don’t know their rights and privileges in Christ. We are to bear their burdens, and be the go-between for them before God. We represent the weak, the helpless, the fear-filled, the sick, the depressed, the poverty stricken before God in prayer. We ask on their behalf. Then, as the Father gives direction, we go minister to them! And His power becomes available to set them free.

 

Exercise your rights as a king and a priest today. The Father depends on you to help Him. We are laborers together with God!