I was brought up to not hate people. I remember my Nana saying “You can dislike people, but you can’t hate people.”
I remember that as a child, when kids pick on you, this was a hard message to hear. However I feel as if I have made it to be that I can’t hate anything. I can dislike it, but never hate it. Today I’m here to say that I hate sickness and disease. I hate it. There I’ve said it. I hate what it does to a person, I hate that it can rip people from families. I especially hate when the sickness becomes a person’s identity.
I have experienced too much sickness and death in my family and I hate the thought that some will say it was “God’s will.” Sickness is NOT God’s will. Oh I know that in the Old Testament God sent out things upon people. But they were also under the Law of Moses, yet even in the Old Testament many were healed when they cried out or came back to the Father. (ex: Gen 20:17, 2 Kings 20:5, Num 21:9) Today however we have Jesus to show us the Father’s will. We can have an assurance of His will based on the life of Jesus.
First off, Jesus was sent because God so loved us (John 3:16). If God loves us would he place sickness on us. If my child is sick I would do anything to make them better because I love them. So if our God puts sickness on us what kind of Father is that? I ask you that as parents especially; do you want to curse your children with a disease that could take their lives? What would you do for your child? We serve a God that wants to bless His children.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:7-11
Well I’m here to say Our Father in heaven has soooo much more love for you and your children than you can ever image. He sent His son to die for you. He sent HIS SON to..
“be 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
Yes, by his stripes we are healed. This does not mean healing spiritually as I know some believe. In fact the word used here is
raw-faw’; or רָפָה râphâh; a primitive root; properly, to mend (by stitching), i.e. (figuratively) to cure:—cure, (cause to) heal, physician, repair, ×thoroughly, make whole.
There is nowhere in the definition of the word that speaks to our spirit. We could say by His stripes we are cured, repaired, made whole. Now if that doesn’t make you excited I don’t know what will.
Now I know some will say this healing power was only available to the apostles. Yet Jesus “gave power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases” (Luke 9:1-2) to first the twelve and than later He sent out seventy others in which they too were able to “heal the sick”. The seventy reported back in in Luke 10:17 “Lord, even the demons are subject to using Your name.” Wow!! Therefore He sent twelve and than He sent seventy more.
The great news is it doesn’t stop there. Jesus proclaimed in John 14:12
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
Read those words again if you haven’t read them recently or have never read them before. This is a promise that Jesus left for you and me. He who believes in Jesus. Yes, I believe in Jesus. Do you? If so Jesus says the works He did you can do also, but He didn’t stop there He says and greater works than these. Well first off think of all the works Jesus did do. Think about it for real. What did Jesus do? Let me inform you today you can do that too.
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Let me add this final thought because I think we are great at praying for people but many don’t actually see anything happen. In Mark 16:17-18 as Jesus was speaking to his disciples He says,
“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.”
Let me encourage you to lay hands on those that are sick and believe that the prayer of faith will heal them as it states in James 5:15 that “the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up.”
I think for many of us the prayer of faith is often difficult as we look at the natural and see with those eyes instead of the eyes of God. Even the twelve sent doubted when they prayed for the boy with seizures. The father told Jesus that the disciples could not cast it out and Jesus response was this,
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you?” Luke 9:41.
The word here for faithless is
ap’-is-tos disbelieving, i.e. without Christian faith (specially, a heathen); (passively) untrustworthy (person), or incredible (thing):—that believeth not, faithless, incredible thing, infidel, unbeliever(-ing).
Faith is defined in
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
We must hope in what we currently cannot see in the natural. So whatever sickness or disease you may be dealing with right now. Know first of all that Jesus came into the world so that by the stripes He bore for you that you would be healed. 1 Peter says it best, “by whose stripes you were healed.” It is done. His finished work is on that cross but we have to have faith and believe. It may not happen instantly and that is when the lies of the enemy come in trying to snatch up the seed that is being planted. Continue to meditate on His truths and water the seed. Have hope in what may seem like the impossible. God loves you and sent His son for you. Reveal in His love and know He is a loving father that does not send sickness yet instead came to cure you of it. Now that is a loving father. Amen
**Father I thank you for sending your Son down. I thank you that we are no longer under the curse of the Law and that we have been set free. I thank you that we have authority in the name of your son, Jesus, to cast out demon, sickness, and disease. We rebuke any lies that the enemy has tried to plant and we receive Your seed of truth. In Jesus name we receive that promise that we are healed and it is done.
***If you have a testimony of God healing you or someone you love, I would love to hear and share with others. It is through our testimony’s that others can be healed.