When talking about sickness, many people take a hopeful cautious attitude. “It’s raining outside, and the weather is cold, I hope I don’t get sick.” – “Gee, that virus is going around, I hope I am not next to get it.”
These statements are the norm, and they may even seem logical. However, are these attitudes really the way that God wants us to live? Is this the kind of abundant life that Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us to have?
What I want to share with you today, are some thought-provoking questions like the ones I just mentioned, and some scriptures that will open your awareness and increase your perspective regarding healing and health. Because Jesus didn’t suffer and die on the cross so that you would continue to suffer and die – but in-fact He has redeemed you from the curse, and as His ambassador, you should be walking in His blessings (all of them) and bringing them to others also.
As we begin today, I realize that this is going to be new and probably shocking for a lot of people. The sad truth is that many traditional churches no longer speak about divine health and healing – in-fact they shy away from it, and relegate it off to being “radical and extreme”, however there is actually no such thing mentioned in scripture. In-fact the scriptures make it very clear that because of the finished work of Christ, health and healing are not only available, but should actually be expected and normal for someone who is in Christ.
Again, that may be new and shocking for you, but I encourage you to not recoil at this idea. Many times in my discussions with people (believers, mind you) there is this kind of latent fear of sickness and disease, as if they are powerless against it, or that it is just a fact-of-life.
Sickness-Consciousness is all around us. We give an entire season to the flu. The very mention of Cancer strikes fear in the hearts of millions, and many people diet and exercise, not because they enjoy it, but because they are afraid of sickness. There are people I have talked to, who are afraid to step outside, because the current weather might make them sick. Sickness-Consciousness has literally crippled the lives of people.
My friend, this doesn’t sound like abundant life; but is this just my opinion? Certainly not. If it was, I wouldn’t be sharing it with you. Take a look at Psalms 103:1-3:
“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;”
These are words that David wrote long ago, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, and they are very applicable today. He says Bless the LORD, O my soul. Notice what he is actually doing… He is telling his soul (his mind, and emotions) what to think. He is not asking himself how he feels; he is telling himself how he feels, and specially he is telling himself to bless the LORD, to speak well of the God who keeps His Covenant promises.
Now David and the Holy Spirit don’t just leave it there… they go on to specifically state the manner in which he is telling his soul to bless the LORD and speak well of him, and by seeing this we can learn something life-changing as well. Look at verse 2:
David says, bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.
Now this is very interesting! Many people are either completely unaware of, or have forgotten the benefits of the LORD, because as I mentioned earlier, the church doesn’t really speak about His benefits anymore. Thankfully however, we have a detailed list of them right here in Psalms 103; and while we have studied the complete list in the past, for the purpose of our study today, we will only focus on the first two listed in verse 3:
who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases.
Isn’t it interesting that these two items are listed together? We typically don’t connect the two in our mind, but they are connected here in the Psalm. And this is one of the reasons that often we don’t see healing as something expected or even attainable… we don’t understand the reason why it is. Well, this right here is the reason – it is precisely because all of your iniquities have been forgiven, you have been washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ, that you can also be healed by His broken body for you (more on that specifically in a bit).
However as I have said, many people are not making this connection between forgiveness and healing, but it is a vital connection to make. You have no leg to stand on spiritually-speaking for healing, if you don’t approach it on the foundation of Grace in Christ and His finished work for you. The reason why you can be healed today, is because the curse has been completely removed from your life. Your salvation is not multiple works, but one complete work, finished by Jesus Christ Himself.
Is this becoming clear yet? We have done numerous studies in the past about how sickness and disease were actually curses of the Law. Curses which Jesus redeemed you from through His sacrifice on the cross. There is no reason for you to continue to live under a curse today, when the price has already been completely paid to free you from it.
The problem for many is that they have been deceived; they have bought into a lie that sickness is normal, unavoidable, and just a part of life that they must put up with and accept – when in-fact what is normal for a believer in Christ is to be free from every single curse!
Let this truth sink in and expand your perception of what Christ has actually done for you!
Allow yourself to begin to receive His abundant life!
What about health? It’s one thing to be healed, but it’s quite another to have supernatural health. You see, if you have supernatural health, it means you don’t get sick… and for many people, this seems only like a dream – they don’t even consider such a thing as being possible. However did you know that such a thing was a promised blessing of the Old Covenant? In Exodus 23:25, God promises to bless the food and drink of the people, and to remove sickness from among them. That, my dear friend, is supernatural health; and it was a blessing of the Old Covenant
How much more then, should we, who have a better Covenant, founded on better promises (Hebrews 8:6) who have the very substance of Christ and not merely the shadow of Him (Hebrews 10:1, Colossians 2:17), how much more should we have every blessing, including health?
Well, indeed we do! As scriptures such as Romans 8:32 says, we have been given all things with Christ. As Colossians 2:10 states, we are complete in Him! 1st Peter 1:3 says that we are given all things that pertain to both life and godliness. (Most of us know the godliness part, but we neglect that it also mentions life).
So you may be asking then, why do so many people still get sick? Men have come up with plenty of reasons, but there is one concrete reason mentioned in scripture. Turn to 1st Corinthians 11:29
-30:
“For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”
There is one cause for why many are weak and sick, and even have fallen asleep… and that is not discerning the Lord’s body.
The context here of course is referring to communion, and the blood and body of Christ (and we have done an entire study on this, which I highly recommend that you examine). For now, let me just say that I have performed an experiment several times where I ask a group of believers, what the blood of Jesus was for – and they say “to remove sins”, and then I ask them what the body of Christ was broken for – and they give me a blank stare and then stutter, and say “to remove sins”.
Do you see? People have forgotten what the body of Jesus is for, and through ignorance and a lack of proper teaching, we are failing to discern the Lord’s body.
The simple answer is that He shed his blood to remove your sins, yes. But He also broke His body for your healing and health. Isaiah mentions this way back in Isaiah 53:4-5:
“Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Isaiah was prophesying about the future coming of Christ and His finished work. Isaiah was looking forward.
Peter then repeats this statement, looking back at the fulfilled prophesy, and look what he says in 1st Peter 2:24:
“Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live to righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.”
In both of these cases, notice again the connection between forgiveness of sins and healing of sicknesses.
It’s the blood and body, both connected and yet distinct.
Now some have tried to relegate this into only a spiritual salvation, and that’s why I love the details in these verses so much, because if the salvation of Christ on the cross was purely spiritual, then there would have been no need for Him to suffer physically on the cross. But as these verses make so very clear, and as the Hebrew of Isaiah makes beyond doubt… the healing and salvation is both spiritual and physical. Your diseases and sicknesses and pains have all been dealt with. You are completely redeemed by Christ! He has left nothing unfinished!
So in closing today, I encourage you to receive all of what Jesus paid for you to have, both spiritually and physically. There is no need to continue to suffer with a sickness mentality. There is no need to let sickness-consciousness rule your life for another day. Be health-conscious in Christ Jesus. It’s part of your complete redemption.
Be blessed.
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