Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried
our sorrows; 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.
Although sickness is a reality that every human being will
probably face and experience at some time in their life, it is a property of
the sinful fallen nature of this world. Sickness is not a feature of the world
as originally designed by our Creator. In His plan of salvation, God is
reversing all of the effects of sin. It should be no surprise, therefore, to
find that God has declared war on sickness as well as on sin.
Sickness in never a part of the perfect will and plan of God
for any person’s life. Healing is an essential part of God’s plan of salvation
and the Scriptures are very clear on this.
The passage quoted from Isaiah, here, shows that when Jesus
died on the cross He paid in full for every transgression and iniquity. These
are our sins. This same passage of scripture, however, shows us that He also
died for our griefs and sorrows. That is, He included every physical, emotional
and spiritual hurt and pain in His provision for us on the cross. Any doubt that this is what He intended is
removed by Matthew 8:17 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." This commitment
of the Lord to heal is often called the healing covenant.
The Bible is a book about covenant relationship. Covenant is
an important concept to understand in the Old and New Testament of the Bible.
One of the definitions of the word "testament" is covenant,
and is defined as a covenant between God and Humans. So you could call the Old
and New Testament the Old and New Covenant, as many people do.
Old Covenant
The concept of covenant is important in
receiving your physical healing through the Word of God. God states in the Old
Covenant in the book of Exodus, For I
am the LORD who heals you" (Exodus 15:26). King David instructs the believers
to bless the LORD and not to forget all of the benefits or spiritual blessings
of the LORD. David recognized the benefits provided in his covenant with God.
One of the benefits identified is, "who
heals all your diseases" (Psalms 103:2-3).
Jesus established the New Covenant the night before his crucifixion. Jesus said to
his disciples at the Last Supper, "this
is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins" (Matthew 26:26-28). Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant,
which was established upon better promises
“But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also
Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises”
(Hebrews 8:6).
Jesus at the same
time gave thanks, broke the bread and said, "Take, eat, this is my body,
which is broken for you" 1 Corinthians 11:24. "So then Pilate took
Jesus and scourged (whipped)
Him" [John 19:1]. "By whose stripes you were healed" 1 Peter
2:24. Jesus' body was broken so that your body may be whole. At the cross, Jesus' bones were not
broken For these things were done that
the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not one of His bones shall be
broken” John 19:36.
IF forgiveness of sins, physical healing,
deliverance, favor, provisional care, fruitfulness, and long life were
spiritual blessings of the Old covenant; how much more are they in the New
Covenant which has Jesus Christ the guarantor or surety of this better covenant?
(Hebrews 7:22 by so much more Jesus has
become a surety of a better covenant), (Psalms 103:1-3 Who forgives all
your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases), (Exodus 23:26-27 No one shall
suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land), (Deuteronomy 7:15 And the
Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of
the terrible diseases), (Psalms 91:6.…Nor of the pestilence that
walks in darkness).
God’s Promise
God promises the Children of Israel in the Old Covenant that
He would be their God, "if you
will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in
his sight, obeying his commands and laws, then I will not make you suffer the
diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you, Exodus
15:22, NLT. The same promise applies to the New Covenant.
Some religious folks say that God only wants to be the God
who heals us spiritually. If God is only talking about spiritual healing why
does he mention the words "disease or sickness" in these
passages Psalms 103:1-3, Exodus
23:25, Deuteronomy 7:15, Matthew 8:17?
Now that we laid the ground work of healing in the Old and
New Testament, what is the point of all this?
The point is: Where is the
healing in the church? The masses are
coming into church services with sickness and disease and going out of the
church services with sickness and disease.
I traveled for many years and tried to find midweek service
in the cites that I was in. I viewed
many services on television. I visited
many churches in the Denver area to get an idea of what they were
teaching. Too few were taking time to
heal the sick before service, during service, or after service.
Why have we left out such an important part of the Old and
New Testament? Why are we sick? Is it because of our sin? If the answer is yes and it should be, why are
we ignoring what was such a huge part of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus came to “To preach the gospel to the poor; He
has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the
captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty
those who are oppressed” Luke 4:18. Jesus
came to heal! Why are we not imitating
Jesus? Jesus in His instructions to the
disciples in the Great Commission said “they
will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” Mark 16:18. The church elders are called to do what? Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for
the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with
oil in the name of the Lord, James 5:14.
Are the elders making themselves available to pray for the sick? Or is “Elders” just a title?
In a time of declining church attendance, is it hard to
understand that deliverance, healing, and operating in the Holy Spirit may be a
key to increasing church attendance? The
word spread when they heard of the healing Jesus was performing. Then a great multitude followed Him,
because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased, John
6:2. Matter of fact, 5,000 came to hear Jesus and hoping for healing, “Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit
down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number
about five thousand” John 6:10. 5,000
came to hear the Apostles preach the same message Jesus preached, “However, many of those who heard the word
believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand” Acts 4:4. People want to be healed and they will go to a church who wants to heal
them in the name of Jesus.
Let’s forget all the
programs that have little effect on the flock.
Let’s “confess our trespasses to one another and pray for one another,
that you may be healed”, James 5:16 at the women’s tea parties, the men’s
breakfast gatherings, and the youth groups.
It’s OK to have a speaker, but there should be time set aside to pray
for healing. The church service should
set aside time for healing. Put the
altar team to work. Have all the Pastors
present to lead the prayer for healing.
When people humbly come to the altar with a repentant heart, the Holy
Spirit will be present with all of God’s glory.
It is time for the
church to come back and imitate the Apostles in first century church and carry
out what Jesus instructed them to do in The Great Commission:
And He said to them, “Go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not
believe will be condemned. And these
signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they
will speak with new tongues; they will
take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt
them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:15-18
Luke 9:57 Now
it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him,
“Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”
It
is one thing to say you will follow Jesus; it is another to see it through,
even when the road is narrow, steep, and nearly impossible. But, if we come to God, believe in God,
diligently seek God, he will reward (heal) us.
In
Jesus name,
Tony
Sanchez, 1-21-15
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