Posted on January 31, 2018
God Wants You Healed – Always!
Did you know it is God’s desire that you are NEVER EVER sick a single day of your life? If we are not living that way, it is no one’s fault but our own. Yes, I know that sounds harsh, but it is still true. He provided for healing, just like He did for salvation. In fact, healing is part of the redemption package. Not sure what is in the redemption package? I won’t do a full teaching on the full redemption package here today, but it includes, forgiveness of sin, righteousness, eternal life, prosperity, healing, and peace. Those things, if we are born again, are what Jesus provided for us when He went to the cross and rose again.
Today, we will focus on healing. This is going to be a bit of a “high level” teaching. That is a business term we used in the business world that was to say, “we aren’t going in depth here, just hitting the highlights.” So for a more in depth teaching, I may offer some videos and/or one on one teaching via Skype. We will see. Let me know if that interests you.
In order to receive anything from God, we need to have faith. We needed faith to receive salvation and the same is true for healing. The problem for most people is the symptoms speak louder than our faith and we succumb to the symptoms until we die. We resolve to think “I gotta die from something.” That is not true, there is nothing in the Word of God that says we are to be sick when we die. In fact, God desires that we just have a greater desire to join Him in paradise than to live on earth any longer. That we just choose to go to heaven. He doesn’t want us to spend a single minute of our lives on earth sick.
Let’s start in Isaiah 53:4-5…I am going to use the Amplified Classic version for immediate clarity.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
This is found in the Old Testament, demonstrating what Christ was coming to do for us. The past tense parallel passage is found in 1 Peter 2:24.
He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an alter and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.
In the Isaiah 53 passage, it says that Jesus took our griefs which translates to sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses and carried our sorrows and pains. In the Hebrew, the word they used for “sorrows” was “makob” and is defined as “pains”. So this verse clearly states that Christ took those things for us so that we would not need to live in them ourselves. Why would He take them if we were going to suffer in them anyway? He never intended that we would. If we are walking in any sickness, pain, or any other ailment, it is because we aren’t standing in faith.
Have you ever been to an “all-you-can-eat” restaurant? You know that if you leave there hungry at all, it is your own fault, right? How many times have you heard people say that about places that give you huge portion sizes or when you are at a buffet? I hear it all the time….maybe I have been going to way too many buffets!
Anyway, this is like that. Think of the things Christ took on for us when He went to the cross. Think about walking up to the buffet and seeing a spread made up of “forgiveness, prosperity, peace, healing, eternal life, righteousness, etc. Imagine walking up to that buffet, knowing you can have all of it, but only choosing “forgiveness”, “righteousness” and “eternal life”. What will happen? Eventually, you will begin to hunger for the other things that buffet had. The pain will set in and ultimately, you find yourself sick.
I recognize that the forgiveness, righteousness, and eternal life things are easier to receive. They just happen because you made a decision to accept Christ as your Lord. Why can’t you decide you want to live in healing too? Why can’t you decide that you want to live without pain too? What is stopping you from walking in healing just like you walk in forgiveness and righteousness? Well, the symptoms probably speak otherwise, right? Guess what, I don’t wake up every morning feeling righteous, but I walk in it. I don’t wake up every morning experiencing eternal life, but I know it is mine and no one can take that from me. So why do we allow the devil to put symptoms on us to make us think we aren’t healed?
You do know that sickness and pain comes from the devil, don’t you? Would you take something else the devil tries to give you? He might try to tell you to rob a convenience store, but you don’t let him talk you into that, do you? Why do you let him talk you into symptoms? All symptoms are from the devil. God is never going to give you symptoms. He doesn’t have symptoms to give to anyone. There is no sickness in heaven and He can only give you what His kingdom has. The devil’s kingdom is earth and that is where sickness and disease lives. They are his weapons.
Knowing that God doesn’t desire for us to live in sickness and disease and that He sent His Son to pay the price so we wouldn’t have to live in it, how do we live that way? By faith. How do we get into and stay in faith? What do we do when symptoms start?
There are 4 steps of faith and if we follow these steps, we can have faith for healing and anything else God promises. (The steps listed below are taken primarily from the book Foundation for Faith by Kenneth E Hagin.)
- Find the promise in God’s Word for your situation
- Believe God’s Word and speak it out
- Do not consider contradictory circumstances
- Praise God for the answer
Let’s talk these through.
“Find the promise in God’s Word for your situation.” What are you needing? Are you needing healing? Then find scriptures where God promises you that. I have given you Isaiah 53:4-5 and 1 Peter 2:24, but there are others: Psalm 103:2-5, Proverbs 4:20-22, etc. Get into the Word and find them.
“Believe God’s Word and speak it out.” Do you believe just part of the Word? Do you pick and choose what you want to believe about the Word? No, you know God doesn’t lie, so believe it all! Now, speak it out! When a symptom arises, tell it what the Word says about it and dismiss it. We see throughout the Word that when we want something, we need to speak it out. Jesus spoke to the fig tree. He tells us to speak to the mountain to be moved. Faith works by action and speaking is an action. Kenneth E Hagin said, “Faith in your heart, released through your lips will bring results.” It isn’t enough to just believe it, we need to speak it!
“Do not consider contradictory circumstances.” Symptoms are contradictory circumstances. Doctor reports are contradictory circumstances. Thoughts from the devil are contradictory circumstances. Those are not good reports. We only listen to good reports. In Romans 4:18 – 21, Abraham had heard from God that he was to be the father of many nations. His body said otherwise. Sarah’s body said otherwise. But he didn’t consider those circumstances. He only heard the good report from God and without weakening in his faith, he did not waver. The NIV (and others) say he was “fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised” regardless of the contradictory circumstances. I love that phrase, “fully persuaded”! He didn’t let anything cause him to doubt what God said He would do. He stood in his faith and he saw the promises of God fulfilled. That is exactly what we need to do.
“Praise God for the answer.” To have faith for something, we need to believe we have already received it (“by His stripes, we WERE healed” – the work is done) and just praise God for it even if the circumstances are still unchanged. Look at it this way, if you were to win the lottery, does the money just start falling from the sky? No, you have to wait for it to manifest. That check doesn’t arrive for a few days (or longer…I have never won the lottery so I don’t know how long it takes for the money to come, but I know it doesn’t fall from the sky.) but that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to receive it. Believe me, if you win the lottery, you are going to be praising God immediately. There will be screaming, jumping up and down, tears, and true thankfulness. You don’t wait until the money comes to start that celebration, you begin immediately because you know you have already won it. This is like that. If you have found it in the Word, you are believing God’s Word it true, you have spoken it out loud, you are disregarding the circumstances, you praise God NOW for it. The victory has been won and as a result you are more than a conqueror, so praise Him now for what He has already done for you.
This reminds me of a story my husband has told while preaching on being more than a conqueror. He says that when Evander Holyfield stepped into the boxing ring, he would get punched and beaten, even have both his ears bitten off (by Mike Tyson), but he would win. There he would stand, bleeding from his face (and ears), trying to stand up and he would receive that big fat paycheck. I am sure he had a moment when it all seemed worth it. He was a conqueror. Then his wife would come over and take that check right out of his hand. She was MORE THAN A CONQUEROR! She didn’t have to enter the ring, get beaten, barely able to stand up, but she reaped the reward…the paycheck. That is what Jesus did for us. He was the Conqueror. He fought the fight. He took the stripes upon His back. We get to reap the reward. We are more than conquerors.
It is time we walked in that victory and claimed what is ours. Healing is yours, if you will receive it.
Again, this was a high level overview of healing. There are other things that certainly be deep-dived into here and I will probably do more of it over time, but in the meantime, if you are dealing with sickness and want more teaching on it, let me know and we will work something out. It is my desire that you are healed. I don’t want anyone living in pain and sickness and neither does the Lord!
~Jennifer