What Hinders Your Healing? Series

October 22, 2016

Morning Worship

Text: Isaiah 53

Subject: The Promise of Healing

Title: What Hinders Your Healing – By His Stripes We Are Healed – Part 4

This is our 4th in the sermon series we are calling By His Stripes We Are Healed. Before we get started let’s hold up our bibles together…

I believe this is God’s word…

I believe it is for me…

I accept it as mine…

And I will appropriate it to my life today…

In Jesus’ name…

In Isaiah 53 and verse the prophet begins with these words…

1 Who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

In this chapter Isaiah was reporting what he had seen in the spirit about the coming Messiah and the things associated with His coming. And when he says, “Who has believed our report?” It seems that those around him were doubtful of the things that Isaiah had been reporting. “the arm of the Lord” refers to God’s mighty power and for us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ it becomes obvious that is it to us that His power has been revealed and that we are the ones who can believe the report. Our faith in the report, the Word of God spoken through the prophets, releases the arm of God to work on our behalf.

Your faith is key in your believing the report. If you are depressed or sad or unsettled or fearful and you hear the report and nothing changes, then you didn’t believe the report. And if you don’t believe the report how can God’s power be revealed to you? If you are struggling financially but have heard the report that My God shall supply all my needs… and you don’t get happy about it then you haven’t believed the report. You know when you hear the report you ought to just get to shouting and praising God and dancing. When the doctor says, “there’s nothing we can do” and you have heard the report that He is the God who heals you… Oh, friends you ought to just get happy because you have a promise that the doctor can’t give… You have the report from God!

If you believe what the Psalmist said, Psalm 91:14-16 (NKJV)

14 "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.

15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.

16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation."

If you have heard that report and you still have doubt and fear then what does that tell us?

That you haven’t believed the report!

Hallelujah!

Isaiah goes on to give the good report of what he has seen in the spirit… how God has sent someone to take away your sin and your sickness and your pain… to carry them away so you don’t have to bear them any longer and even though you may feel the weight of sickness and pain in your body you don’t have to believe it in your spirit!

4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 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.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows…

Now we talked about how the words “griefs” and “sorrows” are translated as sickness and pain in other translations.

The Amplified bible says it this way…

verse 4, But [in fact] He has borne our griefs,

And He has carried our sorrows and pains;

Isaiah 53:4 (YLT)

4 Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains--he hath carried them…

Personalize it!

4 Surely He has borne MY sicknesses And carried MY pains…

You could just keep on repeating that – confessing it with your mouth – and it will help build your faith…

But, and I have to say this, many Christians think that they can use confession like some sort of magic incantation to get what they want from God. Oh but listen to me church, that’s not faith. Faith doesn’t come by what you say, but by what you know that He has already done. In Acts chapter 19 the seven sons of Sceva thought that they could use the name of Jesus as some sort of formula to cast out demons and it didn’t work too well for them.

Acts 19:13-16 (NKJV)

13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches."