Can We Be Healed of Sickness and
Disease?
Moses stood
before hundreds of thousands of Israelites in the desert. God had a
message for how they should live once they entered the promised land. The
message was a warning and offering them a choice between blessings and curses,
between health and sickness.
Deuteronomy
30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set
before you life and death, blessing and cursing; Therefore, choose life, that
both you and your descendants may live.
Moses gives us
details of blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28. He reveals
God’s truth that we all need to know concerning the spiritual roots of disease.
“Now it shall come to pass, if (condition) you diligently obey the
voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I
command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations
of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you,
because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Look at what God is
promising! His people (us) will be “high above all nations of the earth,”
and they will be “overtaken” by more blessings that they can count if we obey
and not sin.
But Moses’
message doesn’t end there. He follows with a warning in verse 15 that
he never wants them to forget. But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey
(if you sin) the voice of the Lord
your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I
command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake
you. In verses 15-68 Moses describes the curses – the disastrous
events and the disease that will overtake God’s people if we don’t listen to
Him and not follow His commandments. By disobedience, we will open
ourselves up to curses and many of those curses are sicknesses and diseases.
Yes, we are
under a new covenant, but there are many things that do not change between the
old and new covenants. Like the Ten Commandments. “If you love Me,
keep My commandments, John 14:15. For this is the love of God, that
we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, 1 John 5:3.
Every class of
disease know to man is found in those verses in Deuteronomy and many that are
not listed in Verse 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is
not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord
bring upon you until you are destroyed.
Believers
should ask themselves why diseases aren’t considered a curse. Better yet,
ask yourself “do you think disease is a blessing?” Not according to God’s Word.
The church is
filled with every work of the Satan found in Deuteronomy 28 that is called a
curse, depression, anxiety disorders, autoimmune disorders, cancer, incurable
diseases, addictions, family discord, job loss to name a few. Satan and
his army of devils come to destroy us, The thief does not come except to
steal, and to kill, and to destroy. John 10:10. In the same verse God says:
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more
abundantly. If we believe God, why are we still getting sick?
A curse by
definition is of great harm, misfortune, and torment resulting in sickness and
disease. We are cursed because we violated community standards defined by
God. We disobeyed God.
When Can a Curse Affect a Christian?
– The Bible tells us that a curse without cause, or without a reason for
being there, cannot affect us. “Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting
swallow, an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim, Proverbs
26:2. In other words, we don’t have to worry about curses if we are doing
right by God.
Did Jesus Christ end the curse
form Adam and Eve by His death on the cross? Yes! But Christ has
rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross,
he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the
Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree, Galatians 3:13.
Then how can
Christians who are covered by the blood of the Lamb, be under the burden of a
curse? It is because of the effects of the curse are a result of
disobedience of God’s Word, and Christians can be just as disobedient to God’s
Word as the Old Testament Believers were. Curses (sickness/disease) can
come because we give them the permission to do it.
Satan does not
have all the power. He can only touch us with our permission. We do
this by disobeying God and His Word. Even Paul struggled with the curse
(sin). And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful
nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but
I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what
I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me
that does it, Romans 7:18-20. Sin is Satan’s legal right to torment
and destroy us.
Generation Curses – Where do
generation curses come from? The curses come from the same disobedience
that we struggle with every day as outlined in Deuteronomy 28:15-63.
Unfortunately, we are not exempt from the sins of our fathers. Many of
these curses come down the line affecting us all at one level or another.
The Bible tells us what happens when we are born, Romans 5:12 Therefore,
just as through one man sin (Adam) entered the world, and death through
sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. Psalm
51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother
conceived me. Psalm 58:3 These wicked people are born sinners;
even from birth they have lied and gone their own way. Every person born
into this world has inherited and been affected by the sin of Adam and the
following generations to this very day. No exceptions.
There will be
people who will make the argument based on Exodus 34:7 keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing
the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the
children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” The
Bible has a lot of symbolism and it is apparent when one reads the Bible
thoroughly over and over. This probably refers to the number of current
generations living under normal circumstances. Curses don’t end after the
fourth generation. Generational curses are perpetual.
How to Be Healed from Sin that causes
Sickness and Disease
Why are we not
being healed when God promises Healing? These are my findings from being
in the healing and deliverance ministry for many years.
- We don’t read His Word
consistently and we don’t fully believe what we read in the Bible
- We don’t apply the Word
to our lives
- We don’t make ourselves
available for prayer
- We don’t pray
effectively when people make themselves available for prayer
- The church of today as a
whole does not teach healing.
- If the church does pray
for healing, its not effective. They pray for the symptoms, not the
cause
If sin is
causing our diseases, what can we do to heal these diseases? We can start
by knowing Jesus died on the cross for our sins. But Christ has
rescued us from the curse (sin) pronounced by the law. When he was hung
on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is
written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree, Galatians
3:13.
Two stories
about Jesus that are important to understanding what we must do. First, is the
woman caught in adultery in John 8. The Pharisees saying, she should be
stoned. Jesus says in verse 7: “He who is without sin among
you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Verse 10-11 “Woman, where are those
accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
The woman was suffering from mental anguish from the act of adultery and
from the Pharisees accusations. In other word, sin no more and she
would not suffer from her sinful acts. Second, is about the man who had
an infirmity for thirty-eight years. in that was healed at the pool of
Bethesda. John 5:7-9 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put
me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another
steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and
walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and
walked. Jesus knew sin was what caused the infirmity. Jesus
said in verse 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him,
“See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon
you.”
Deuteronomy
tells us what causes sickness and disease in the Old Testament. SIN! Jesus
confirms this in the New Testament. If Jesus died on the cross for our
sin Galatians 3:13, what is our process to be healed? The first
thing everyone mentions when we talk about sin is repentance. Although
repentance is important, repentance does not absolve us of our sin.
Repentance is changing our sinful ways.
In order to
change our sinful ways, we must first address our sins so we can repent (change
our ways). The bible is clear and basic. I didn’t say it was easy.
It is very hard in that we don’t make the effort outlined in His
Word. His Word tells us the basic concept in James 5:16 Confess
your trespasses (sins) to one another, and pray for one another, that you may
be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. It
means to confess your sins to one another before God. God is the healer,
not us. Many interpreted this scripture incorrectly. The trespasses
James particularly has in mind may be those of the sick person, which could
have been the root of their sickness or they may be those of the believers in
general.
The process is
basic as I mentioned before.
First, confess
your sins to God every day. Second, ask God to forgive you for these
sins. 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, Isaiah 53:5.
Keep in mind
that you may have to confess the same sins every day until it doesn’t ping you
anymore, the sin has been absolved, or you have a healing breakthrough. Some of
the hardest to overcome are unforgiveness, bitterness, rejection, feeling
unloved, offences, anger fear, addictions, depression, stressors, traumas
(emotional/physical and the stressor tied to them) and many others. His
guaranteed promise to us is healing in the name of Jesus.
Folks, the
reality is we have damaged believers coming to church every Sunday and they
leave damaged because they are not being taught the healing promises of
God. Even if they are taught, which I have not seen much, they are not
taught how to pray effectively. Every prayer is important, but we will
only have minor successes if we continue to pray for the symptoms (effects)
rather than the root cause. The medical profession treats the symptoms
and we continue to suffer with illnesses. They cannot heal you! Only
God can heal you. and said, “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,”
Exodus 15:26. God has healed me of many things following what God
teaches in His Word. He can heal you whether you are a believer or a
nonbeliever. The healing promises are for all.
I will leave
you with two profound scriptures to ponder:
Therefore,
let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man (Jesus) is
preached to you the forgiveness of sins; And by Him everyone who believes is justified
(set free) from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets
come upon you: ‘Behold, you despisers, Marvel and perish! For I work a
work in your days, A work which you will by no means believe, though one were
to declare it to you’” Acts 13:38-41.
Go and say
to this people: When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see
what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are
hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their
eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot
understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’ Acts
28:26-28
Final
thoughts: We are a sickly people. We would rather trust doctors who
simply treat symptoms with drugs and advice. Doctors and alternative
practices cannot heal you of terminal sicknesses and diseases. If you or
others in your family have sickness or disease and it’s getting progressively
worse, why continue to ignore God’s promises of healing in the name of
Jesus? Why are you not seeking effective prayer? Don’t make it
complicated!
Obedience is a
blessing. Disobedience is a curse causing sickness and disease. God
wants us all to be healed and He provides a way in His Word.
Folks, we are
the last defense for those who are in trouble or are dying. What do they
have to lose?
