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#1419 0815 10P The healing ministry of Jesus is clearly established in the New Testament, and since He is Hebrews 13:8 “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever,” then we can claim the same healing today. He told His disciples to Acts 1:4 “wait for the promise of the Father”—the Holy Spirit—the working member of the Trinity Who inspires faith in us to believe for healing. Jesus promised Matthew 28:20, “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Jesus said Matthew 9:22, “Take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that moment.” God has promised to heal all through Scripture, and it is our responsibility to trust Him in faith all through life. Jesus said “your faith has healed you” Matthew 9:22 numerous times in many verses to encourage us to trust in His Atonement sacrifice. The first recorded healing is when Genesis 20:17 ”Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech.” Then God had 1 Peter 2:24 written, “The burden of our sins He Himself carried in His own body to the Cross and bore it there, so that we, having died so far as our sins are concerned, may live righteous lives. By His [stripes ye] have been healed.” Multitudes who profess faith in Christ, do not act in faith on His Atonement for healing, protection, provisions, and other life issues. They say that doctors, medicine, and drugs are gifts from God—but the Bible does not say that, nor teach that. Bible Christians trusted God alone for healing. James 1:17 ”Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,” so drugs and medications would have to heal, and not harm. Statistics say, however, that the third leading cause of deaths in the U. S. is medical mistakes and that 250,000 die in hospitals every year from taking, or being given, the wrong medication. There is no Bible command to take medicine, but many verses warn against trusting in doctors or drugs. 2 Chronicles 16:12 “In the thirty‑ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.” The king died two years later with no mention of repenting. There is the woman Mark 5:26 who ”had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.” Job called them Job 13:4 “You forgers of lies, You are all worthless physicians.” The only mention of asking help from a doctor is when Genesis 50:2 ”Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel.” In the beginning everything was perfect—Genesis 1:31 “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Satan, however, deceived Adam and Eve to disobey God, which brought sin, sickness, and disease into the world. 1 John 3:8 “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” God told His people Exodus 15:26, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you." The people were afflicted when they sinned, but were healed when they turned back to God in faith. God has to be faithful to His promises—Exodus 23:25 “I will take sickness away from the midst of you,” because He cannot lie Titus 1:2 and He cannot change Malachi 3:6; James 1:17. Jesus said John 12:44, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.” The Jews said they believed God, but they opposed divine healing through His Son. After a man was healed by Jesus, the Pharisees Mark 3:6 “immediately plotted” “how they might destroy Him.” To reject divine healing in unbelief, is to reject Almighty God as our Healer. The apostle Paul noticed the lame man “had faith to be healed” and told him Acts 14:10 to "’Stand up straight on your feet!’ And he leaped and walked.” Everyone today has that choice to believe, and to act in faith on the Word of God. When we are enlightened and inspired by the Holy Spirit John 16:13, we will be able to trust God and receive the victory by faith. Jesus said John 12:46 "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.” A minister who claims to teach from the Bible, but goes to a hospital for medical treatment, is not trusting God in faith on the Blood sacrifice of His Son. The minister’s decision reveals his serious lack of faith. To preach that Jesus came to save us, but not to heal us, is false teaching—and we are warned to watch out for false prophets Matthew 7:15; 2 John 1:8. Our close friends should share our believing faith in Christ, and our trust on God for health, healing, and Heaven. Jesus said His true followers were those who did His Father’s will Matthew 12:50—and it is His will to trust Him in believing faith for healing. God sent His Son to shed His Blood, and to heal those oppressed by the devil Acts 10:38. If we accept Christ as our Savior, we also have to accept Him as our Healer, because Jesus defeated Satan who causes sickness. It is a sin to trust on medical help and pills; and it is real faith to trust on the Blood of Christ for healing. Romans 14:23 ”All conduct not based on faith is sinful.” God wants us to repent of the sin that caused the illness, and to trust Him alone for the healing. Moses was educated in Egypt, and would have known about the Pharaoh’s medical plans, so he would have taught the Israelites to use medicine—if that was God’s will, but Moses did not do that. He always told them to go directly to God in prayer about everything. Sickness is from the devil, but we can be healed by faith in the Blood of Jesus. John 14:13 ”Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Trusting on medicine and drugs brings no glory to God, but results in huge profits for the hospital. God’s people left Egypt in perfect health because of a blood sacrifice of an animal Psalm 105:37, so we can claim health and healing today on the merit of the Blood of Christ. God's one requirement is to believe in His Son John 6:29. The disciples were sent out to ”Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give” Matthew 10:8. Medical insurance, hospital fees, and prescription costs today are enormous, but a believer in Christ receives healing for free. The ministry of Christ was a ministry of healing for those who put believing faith in Him. Luke 5:20 ”When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven,’” and Jesus is the same forever Hebrews 13:8, so our responsibility is to repent, and to trust God’s Ephesians 1:19 ”incomparably great power for us who believe.” God wants us to be in good health, and to be healed by our faith in Him if we are not in good health. The centurion asked for healing, so Jesus said Matthew 8:7-13, ”I will come and heal him.” The centurion just wanted His Word; to which Jesus said, ”I have not found such faith, no, not in Israel.” It was the kind of faith that believes God and brings healing. Jesus said, ”Many shall come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven.” Faith like that to be healed is the type that enters Heaven. Jesus added 12 ”But the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” Many would not receive eternal life, because they would not trust God in faith for healing. If anyone has more faith in doctors and drugs, than they have in God and the Blood of Christ, their salvation would be in serious jeopardy. There is a great risk involved when trusting God for healing. When we trust Him for healing, we risk our life on His Word. If we can trust God for divine healing, however, we can easily trust Him for all lesser needs. We trust God to avenge our wrongs, and to help us forgive people, because if we will not forgive others, God cannot forgive us Matthew 6:14. Jesus said Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me, but loves his father, mother—[or anything] more than he loves me, then he cannot be my follower.” If we love some thing, some person, or some plan of the world more than we love God, it is because they have first place in our heart. Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.” The Israelites were under a lamb’s blood in Egypt as a substitute for the real Lamb’s Blood. Not one thing could touch anyone who obeyed the Word. ”When I see the blood, I will pass over you” Exodus 12:13. We are to trust in faith on the Blood of Christ, and then to act in faith on the Word of God, because the “preaching of the Cross…is the power of God” for us who believe 1 Corinthians 1:18. When Israel reached the Red Sea, they were still under the blood. God went ahead in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night Exodus 13:21. They were trapped by enemies in back, and had a raging sea in front, but the blood provided a path through the waters. Psalm 103:2-5 ”Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” No matter what the test, trial, trouble, or temptation; and no matter how impassible the barrier, or impossible the situation—whether angry waves, a fiery furnace, a den of lions, or a physical attack of Satan—“With God all things are possible” Matthew 19:26. |
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