REALITY OF OUR HEALING IN CHRIST 2
(week 18/01)
Olubi Johnson
In our last article we saw that healing was our redemptive right in Christ and it is the will of God for us to be healed always; even when God uses sickness to chasten us His ultimate purpose is to get us to judge ourselves, learn what we need to learn, overcome the devil and get healed.
3 John 1:2 (KJV): Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
1 Corinthians 11:30-32 (KJV): For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
Hebrews 12:11-13 (KJV): Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
We should be healed so that:
Jesus can be satisfied. Isa. 53:11
So we can serve God fully: when we are sick we cannot serve God effectively.
Jesus’ suffering and death will not be in vain in our particular situation, making it a miscarriage of justice.
HOW TO USE YOUR FAITH AGAINST SICKNESS
Pray and reject the sickness. God expects us to use the best method, which is to use your own faith via the 7 pillars of healing:
1 Check for soundness of heart. Ask yourself, where could this sickness have come from? Anything that you find that is not right, i.e. wrong attitude etc. confess it, repent of it and get rid of it.
2 Pray in the spirit about it, with all kinds of prayer.
3 Bind the devil and cast out the operating spirit(s) (i.e. the influence of the spirit of infirmity from your body and circumstances), then loose the angels.
4 Confess the word and declare your healing.
5 Meditate upon the word concerning your healing: Every time the thought or feeling of sickness hits your mind or body, reply it by saying in your mind with determination “By the stripes of Jesus I’m healed” or some other healing scripture.
6 Do the word. Physical corresponding action: Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom for what actions you can take that will help the manifestation of your healing without getting into foolishness or presumption.
7 Sometimes it may be necessary to fast, perhaps for a day, in which you are praying about the matter.
In other words, put you confidence and trust firmly in God. Then watch to see whether you are feeling better. If not, it doesn’t mean that you are not getting better, because healing virtue starts to flow from the spirit before it comes out into the body.
Faith and Medicine
Jesus was never sick in his lifetime because the sickness had nowhere to attach itself to him, because he had no sin nature in His flesh. To be totally free of sickness you must learn how to be totally free of the sin nature! Therefore from the time a Christian gets born again until the time he comes into permanent perfection he will be attacked by sickness, and this is why God has made the avenue of medical science available.You should always use your faith, but you should never say to yourself that you will never use drugs (not using drugs is not equivalent to faith). Use medical science when necessary but do not lean on it. In Prov.3:5 the scripture says “not to lean on our understanding”, it does not say do not use your understanding. Medical science is like a walking stick that should be used to prevent us from getting so sick that we cannot pray. If our faith is not able to keep us from deteriorating to the place where we cannot effectively pray any more then we need to use drugs.
If you need to use drugs to keep you from deteriorating to a place where you cannot pray, then use them. The important thing is the fact that your trust remain in the Lord, and that you always put the Lord first. King Asa was a good king but when he was sick he did not put the Lord first (2 Chron.16: 12). Hezekiah, on the other hand, put the Lord first when he was sick (2 Kg 20: 5-7) then he used the medicine. Medicine alone is not enough because the root of sickness is spiritual. Medicine only cuts the branches.
The first method which God expects of us and which we must grow in is the method of using your faith. What heals you is the resurrection power that was wrought in Christ when he was raised from the dead. When you get born again, that same power recreates your spirit, and as you grow spiritually and use your faith in the word of God, you can cause greater and greater measures of that power to enter and reside in your flesh. And the more of that power that flows into your flesh the less sickness can come on it.
Romans 8:10-11 (NIV): But if Christ is in you, your body is dead (i.e. spiritually) because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Laying on of Hands and Gifts of Healings
You can also be healed by the laying on of hands and the gifts of the Spirit. This happens when you go out for healing in church, or when an elder comes to pray for you on your sick bed. These methods should be used as a help to your own faith and not as a replacement. If you take them as a replacement a time will come when God will demand that you use your own faith and no other method will work for you.
There are three stages to our experience in healing as we walk with God in this life:
Divine healing: this is the thirty-fold stage where you get sick, but through faith in the word, prayer and medicine (if and when necessary), you are able to maintain your health.
Divine health: this is the sixty-fold stage where you remain healthy all the time, however you still get attacked, i.e. the symptoms come but you drive them away using faith in the word and prayer. At this stage the sickness never establishes itself in your body.
Divine life: this is the hundred-fold stage is where there is no more sin substance in your body (at permanent perfection). At this stage the life of God is so much in you that even the symptoms cannot come.
Hindrances
What hinders the flow of life from the Spirit is the condition of the heart: i.e. things like disobedience, rebellion, unforgiveness, worry, envy etc.
In Prov.4: 23 the Bible says we should keep our hearts with all diligence for out of it flows the forces of life.
Prov.4: 22 it says God’s Word is health or medicine to all our flesh.
You must take God’s medicine according to God’s instructions otherwise it will not work properly.
Your attitude has everything to do with your healing. A sound heart is the life of your flesh (Prov. 14:30).
