Our health is something we deal with every day of our life. Our health determines what we do or do not do on any given day. It is the most significant aspect of our life. If you have your health, nothing else really matters that much.
Some today do not believe healing is for our day. They recognize that in the past God did some marvelous healing. That is not for us today. We live in a different dispensation.
My question is simply this. Why would God neglect such an important part of our life? Why would He be interested in everything else, but not in our health?
I know many do not believe in divine healing for the simple reason that it has been one of the most abused doctrines in the Bible. Certainly, I will admit, many people have abused the doctrine of healing making it something that our Lord never intended it to be made.
Nevertheless, I refuse to surrender any doctrine because somebody abuses it. I want to get to the core of that doctrine and understand what is behind it and what God has in it for me.
One of the most outstanding activities of Jesus in the Gospels is His healing ministry. In the book of Luke, there are 15 instances of healing. If you look at them all, you will notice that healing was not a spiritual “template” to be used on every occasion. Each person or group of people, were dealt with according to their present situation.
Healings in the book of Luke.
1. 4:31-37 = The man with an Unclean Demon
2. 4:38-41 = Jesus Heals Many
3. 5:12-16 = Jesus cleanses a Leper
4. 5:17-26 = Jesus heals a Paralytic
5. 6:6-11 = A man with a Withered Hand
6. 6:17-19 = Jesus ministers to a Great Multitude
7. 7:1-10 = Jesus heals a Centurion's Servant
8. 7:11-17 = Jesus raises a widow’s son
9. 8:26-39 = Jesus heals a man with a Demon
10. 8:40-56 = Jesus heals a Woman And Jarius' Daughter
11. 9:37-43 = Jesus heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit
12. 13:10-17 = A Woman With A disabling Spirit
13. 14:1-6 = Healing of a man on the Sabbath
14. 17:11-19 = Jesus cleanses 10 Lepers
15. 18:35-43 = Jesus heals a Blind Beggar
We will have occasion to look at these in a variety of contexts but today I just want to introduce the whole subject of healing. A big subject, I grant you. The subject needs to be studied and understood as the Holy Spirit gives us light.
Walking in divine health is a daily discipline focused on Jesus Christ our Healer. When we focus on our problem, we rarely see our solution.
I want to begin with the first words recorded on Jesus and the Gospels. “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49).
The KJV says, “How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?
The assumption on Jesus’ part was that they should have known His purpose. Where else would you look for Him except “in my Father’s house”? It was a natural thing for Him.
From this, I would put forth the suggestion that walking with Jesus is a daily discipline that carries with it appropriate blessings. One of the blessings I want to focus on today is, Divine Health.
I refer to it as Divine Health because it is a daily discipline. Often we only think that a person needs healing if they had some obvious sickness or health issue. We need to look at it in a different light. We need to look at it as our daily strength and health each day coming from the person and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only the sick need to find health, but each of us every day, every moment of the day, need to be experiencing the divine health, strength, and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We have become a culture dependent on artificial means to sustain ourselves. If anything happens the first thing we do, pop a pill. I will be the first to acknowledge medical science has done a marvelous job in developing the drugs necessary to deal with certain health issues. No problem here. Doctors and medications have been a great blessing to people throughout the years.
Dr. A. B. Simpson, who was the primary force in divine healing in a former generation made this comment. “If you don’t have the faith for the healing get the best doctor you can afford.” He was not saying that in a derogatory manner.
Believing in divine health does not rule out doctors or medicine. This is a very hard balance to make and nobody can tell you how to do it. Work this out for yourself.
One thing that must be noted, my daily spiritual discipline is reflected in my discernment. This is crucial. Because it is crucial this is where the enemy strives to cloud the issue with confusion. Discernment is revealed in the choices we make.
This discernment is important for one vital aspect. That is to understand the source of my sickness. Not all sickness is the same. Because it is not all the same, the solution to the sickness is not one little pill. I need to know where the sickness is coming from and then I can determine the solution to deal with that issue.
I. The Source of All Sickness
This is the first step in walking in divine health. To know what I am up against enabling me to deal with it. Let me suggest some of the basic sources of illness and sickness.
1. All sickness has its roots in human depravity.
In the book of Genesis, we read of the origin of man. God did not create man with a health flaw.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26a).
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27).
“And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good…” (Genesis 1:31a).
Sickness was not a part of the Garden of Eden culture. It was brought into humanity through the Fall of man. Sin brought into the human stream sickness and disease and finally death. Man was not created to die.
Jesus’ death on the cross dealt with the human depravity issue. Through his death on the cross, Jesus Christ opened up to us a source of blessing and strength and grace to be our daily portion. Christ has defeated the power of sin in our life.
2. Some sickness is the result of deliberate acts of disobedience on our part.
The apostle Paul warns concerning the communion table that those who partake unworthily… “eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:28-29).
Deliberate acts of disobedience carries with it consequences. You cannot be a Christian and follow the world or act like the world. When you do, you bring upon yourself the judgment of God. Often that judgment is a sickness.
Not all sickness is a judgment of God!
All the prayer in the world will not bring God’s healing power to a person who is deliberately at odds with God’s word. To access the healing in this case, the person needs to acknowledge his sin, repent, confess it and allow God to cleanse him.
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lust is against the spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:16-17).
The blessings of the Christian life, including Divine Health, are the fruit of walking in the Spirit.
3. Much of our sicknesses due to poor stewardship of our body. This is a lifestyle issue but it is also a spiritual issue. My body does not belong to me; therefore, I do not have the right to do anything I want to with it. This is an ownership issue.
“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
When I understand the Lordship of Jesus Christ, I will begin to understand the Lordship of Christ over my physical body. Just as I yield to him my soul and spirit, I also need to yield to him my body.
Too many people are wearing themselves out and not resting as they should. Even in the book of Genesis, we read that after God created for six days He rested on the seventh day. If you are not taking one day a week away from your work and resting as God gave us an example, you are misusing and abusing your body. This abuse carries with a definite consequences.
4. Then some sickness is a result of the attack of the enemy, spiritual warfare.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:10-12).
Many Christians are vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy because they have not been fully equipped to stand against the enemy. Be sure that the enemy will attack when you least expect it.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
For some reason many Christians feel that their Christian life should be a happy walk in the park. We have an adversary, this adversary desires to mess up our life and the best way he can do it is attacking the flesh.
Job is a prime example of this.
This is where depression comes in. The source of most of our depression is the adversary. If he can get our eyes off the Lord and on our situation, he can maneuver us into the slough of despondency. One look at Jesus will break the spell of depression.
5. We also must consider some health issues are a result of accidents and has nothing whatsoever to do with anything we did or did not do. Some children are born with diseases that make your heart break as you see them suffering. Accidents are in a different category but still we can claim God’s healing grace in these incidences. Just because you have had an accident, does not mean that God’s punishing you. Accidents are part of life.
Jesus said, “… for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth His rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
6. Finally, some sickness is the result of God testing us in preparation for some ministry.
“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6).
We also have Paul’s thorn in the flesh, as he called it.
“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2 Corinthians 12:7).
Sometimes this is a testing from the Lord to see if we are going to trust him or our feelings. God never healed Paul of his thorn in the flesh even though he prayed three times. That thorn in the flesh never kept Paul from doing what God had called him to do. In fact, Paul’s thorn in the flesh was a channel through which God’s grace could enrich his life.
We need to know, and can know, what we are up again so we can apply God’s grace.
II. The Solution for All Sickness
Unfortunately, there is no one cure-all solution for sickness. Just as there are variety of sources and sickness, there also is a variety of solutions.
There is a completely different solution for fixing a broken leg than for dealing with a heart attack. When you are having a heart attack, you better have a doctor that knows the difference and is not trying to apply a cure-all solution.
If we are going to live in Divine Health, we need to understand the spiritual disciplines associated with this. Some people believe they can live just any which way they want to, and God’s grace will override all of their actions.
How’s that working?
Often God does not take away the consequences, but gives us grace to endure those consequences. We do not like to hear this.
If we do not know the source of our sickness, we will not be dealing with it in any sense of finality.
The foundation of all divine healing is in the Atonement.
Listen to some important scriptures along this line.
“Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
Healing is a present reality, accessing it is the challenge of our Christian discipline each day.
If, as we stated, all sin has its roots in human depravity than the cure for human depravity is also the cure for our sickness. I know the body we have is mortal and we are looking forward to that body that will be immortal. In the meantime, we can walk in Divine Health as was provided for us by Jesus Christ on the cross.
Conclusion…
There are several things we need to do in the assessing of our situation.
1. Discern the source of your physical problem. (Prayer, Bible reading, fellowship)
2. Take the appropriate actions to bring your life into complete harmony with God’s Word and God’s will.
3. Dedicate your life to serving the Lord Jesus Christ. What right do you have to ask God to do anything for you if you give yourself and your body to worldly pursuits? Turn your back on the world, and follow Jesus Christ and you will discover the amazing grace of God to live every day in Divine health.
