I have been in the ministry now for over 40 years. My First congregation was senior people. People in the church who were on pension. Some were single because either their wife or husband had died. In all cases, if an elderly person was dying, I never ever met any family member who did not feel sad. I've never ministered to a spouse who had been with their partner for 40 years or more and wanted them to pass away.
I have over the years given pastoral care to a number of people who were about to die of a terminal disease or other cause. In all these different situations the family members of the dying family member prayed for life. No one wants to die.
As a very healthy person with dreams and a hope of seeing your children’s children, you never wake up in the morning expecting to die. Expecting to get sick or have a car accident or some other form of violent death. No, you have a strong passion to live a healthy life.
People are obsessed with ways to slow down the aging process and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Many are exercising and eating healthy foods, and they use all kinds of creams and body lotions to keep their skin looking young. In addition, some individuals are also turning to non-invasive cosmetic procedures such as Botox and fillers to maintain a youthful appearance.
My question is why? Is heaven not going to be a great place? Should we not be longing to get there very quickly? Maybe we must have prayer lines where we can be prayed for to leave Earth now and go to heaven as soon as possible. Why are we so sad and even blame God for taking our loved ones or child at such an early age?
If dying is our doorway into heaven I have another question, why do we have medicine hospitals and spend so much on medical aids? It is as if we are resisting the will of God.
I have experienced families destroyed and children getting addicted to drugs because a father has died.
We sang a song at Sunday school with words that said, “This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
I would like to strongly suggest that God intends that we should have health and not die. Part of our inheritance is to live lives that will startle the world.
1 Corinthians 15:25-26 For Christ must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy to be abolished and put to an end is death.
You can be rich through your own efforts, live in a mansion, drive a luxury car, and wear the most expensive clothes and precious jewellery without believing in God. Actually, there are many more non-believers who are multi-millionaires than those who love God.
One thing you cannot do for yourself is a healthy safe life. No matter how much money you may have, you cannot buy health or life. Solomon said,
Ecclesiastes 9:4-6 But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, But the dead know nothing,
And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; Nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun.
King David said, in Psalm 115:17 The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence.
It is not the will of God for us to be sick and die but for us to live and have divine health; to be in His image, to reflect who He is; to be perfect even as He is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Where Adam had a perfect garden with conditions set to bring about death because of a wrong choice, we now live in an imperfect world with conditions set to bring about health, and eternal life. Jesus not only came to save us from hell but also from every sickness and disease on earth.
Atonement is forgiveness and healing
Psalm 103 Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is [deep] within me, bless His holy name. 2 Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget any of His benefits; 3 Who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases;
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.
3 John 2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
Our soul prospers because we have been saved to have a relationship with God. We have peace with God and are not separated from Him, therefore our soul prospers.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
We seek first His kingdom therefore God meets all our needs without any worry from our side. We prosper because we have a place to stay, food to eat, and clothes to wear.
Matthew 6:25-31 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
Prosperity is not about things! Prosperity is all about having a healthy soul and being well in mind and emotions and confident in identity.
In 3 John 2 not only does he pray for your soul and physical being to prosper but also to be equally prosperous in health.
The health of the soul is the key to physical health. In other words, a healthy and prosperous soul will evolve into one’s natural health. When a person is constantly stressed and worrying all kinds of infirmities take hold of the body.
All this is because Adam chose not to believe and obey God. Trust was broken. God had said,
Genesis 2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
When Adam sinned, he messed up the environment. God planted a garden with all the fruit necessary for Adam to live a healthy life and forever. Adam could just walk up to any tree and eat. There was one tree God told Adam not to eat of. When Adam ate of this tree he had to leave the self-growing garden and grow his own garden to eat from.
Genesis 3:17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
For a period of time, men were earth beings subject to the conditions of the earth and the world they lived in – subject to the curse, sickness, poverty, and death. This was never ever going to last forever. In the fullness of time – in other words, in God’s perfect time – He sent his only begotten Son, born of a woman, redeem man who had been cursed. When Christ hung on the Cross, He took upon Himself the Curse for our wrongdoing.
Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
God’s mind has always been focused on the man He created. At the Cross of Christ, all things become new. When Christ Jesus is received, the old man dies and is then resurrected into Christ Jesus. He is a new creature: old things are passed away; wow, all things become new. Although man now continues to live in his human body, the life he lives is the life of the Son of God.
Consider this for a moment. A man is born the son of Mr. and Mrs. Amp; he takes on the genetic characteristics of Mr. and Mrs. Amp; he inherits their strengths and weaknesses. As much as he rejects wanting to be like his father, as he gets older, he realises that the things he disliked are now more and more evident in his own life. For many, genetic diseases and physical defects are inherited from previous generations. It is time that there be a generation that will be true sons of God, no longer living in the sins, weaknesses, and sicknesses of the past generations, but truly living in the faith of the Son of God: united with Christ, no division, one new body completely. Such a person carries no history from their forefathers.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
In Christ, man can now live in a perfect environment. In a perfect environment, an organism can live forever.
Colossians 1:13 For He has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
In Webster’s Dictionary the word ‘translate’ is defined as ‘to convey to heaven without death’.
Ephesians 2:6 God raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus’
On Earth, there is a new environment for man to live in. Even though there is darkness, it has no power over the sons of God. They have authority over all sickness, disease, and death.
It is God’s will to heal every disease.
One evening very late, a surgeon in the city called me. He told me about a young woman who had had a Caesarean delivery in the morning and now was the mother of a baby daughter. There was a serious problem though; the woman was bleeding from the operation and the doctors could not get her to stop bleeding. Her blood type was rare and they were running out of supply. Having tried everything, the surgeon called me and asked me to come and pray for her. As I lived close to the hospital, I agreed. Remembering that the Scripture says in James, ‘If there are any sick, they should call for the elders of the church to come and pray, anointing with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well’, I grabbed my bottle of oil and rushed to the hospital. The doctors and the woman, together with her husband, were waiting for me in the Intensive Care Unit. I told her that she would be healed. Her words were, ‘If it is God’s will’. I then reminded her that a daughter had been born. I told her that there was no way that my Father would let her daughter grow up without a mother. It is His will that she lives. Her husband, with tears in his eyes, asked me to please pray. I anointed her with oil and declared that the bleeding would stop instantly. I then left the hospital. The next morning, the surgeon called to tell me that I was not even out of the doors when the bleeding had already stopped. A few months later, the mother of a beautiful daughter sent me a card to thank me for taking time to pray for her, because now she could enjoy life with her child.
Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
God’s will is not for us to rush off to heaven, it is His will to bring heaven to earth through us.
That is why we live.
