Sermon Archives (December  23, 2001):

Is Healing for You? – Part  6

Good afternoon Church.  After our last service a gentleman who attends came to me for counseling.  He told me that he was in pain, that he was both HIV Positive and had Hepatitis C.  But having told me this he then concluded by saying, “But I am a good person.”   Why?   Why did he say, “I am a good person”?   Had he been convinced by the proof of his illness that he was not?   Our focus today, the sixth in this series in Is Healing for You, is Ephesians 6, where we read God’s assurance (in verses 11-16)  “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

Beloved let us bow our heads.  Father, let every believer hear this message today and the world as well.  Father, tell us.  If we are sick, if we are diseased, are we rejected, and not of Your body?   Have we no part in Christ, and no part in salvation, let alone in healing?   Teach us Father.   Touch us Father.   Heal us Father.   Come among us now, and all God’s people said “Amen.”

The man said to me, “I am a good person.”   Should any of us who are infirmed feel so rejected that we have to defend ourselves over that sickness with? “I am a good person.”   When he said, “I am a good person” what he was really saying is that he still hoped he had God’s promise of salvation.   This is a common misconception among Christians: Many Christians when they see someone who is sick, they judge and condemn that sick person as not of God, and weak in faith.   Christ commanded, (Matthew 19:19) “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”  You cannot love those for whom you have contempt.   Many times we buy into this lie, and judge ourselves not of God simply because we have a cold; and we feel guilty even to take an aspirin.  Nonsense!   This is Satan’s lie, and you should understand it as a lie.

The text I read to you from Ephesians was not written for heathen, non-believers, but for those of the Body of Christ.   And what does it tell us?  Take up the shield of faith.   You can’t do that unless you are a believer and a Christian. You cannot take up the shield of faith unless you have already accepted Jesus Christ as Lord.   You are therefore entitled to salvation.   Why take up the shield of faith?   The verse tells us so “you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”   The wicked one is Satan.   What will Satan do?   His intent is to strike you who are a believer with “fiery darts.”   What are these fiery darts?   Pain, disease, sickness, loss of income, loss of home.  These are the “fiery darts” and believers will suffer them.  

Satan would like to lie to you and convince you that if you ever get sick, or lose your job and therefore experience one of these “fiery darts” that you could not be of Christ, because Christ cannot be ill.  One reads all four Gospels, and one fact sticks out:  Christ was never ill.   Therefore, Satan argues that you being ill separates you from Christ and salvation.  You stand condemned by the proof Satan offers of your own illness.   Wrong!   The very opposite is true for a believer.   I worry for those sanctimonious, “holier than thou” individuals who never have a cold.   Frankly, I’m concerned for these people. Obviously, Satan doesn’t think much of their Christianity, or their claim to righteousness, because apparently Satan has never even wasted one “fiery dart” on them.   Could it be that the self-righteous are not even worth the smallest cold, the slightest of pain, let alone that they be allowed to live unscathed if not meaningless lives?   If you don’t run into the Devil’s “fiery dart” ever, maybe there’s a danger that both you and the Devil are traveling in the same direction.  If you are of God, you will be a target, and Satan will seek to attack you, and you will feel paid.  That can be Cancer, diabetes, HIV, Hepatitis B, intense pain, loss of income, these are the “fiery darts” and the bowman who has and will wound you is Satan the Devil, not God who loves you.   Faith then enables the believer to quench those darts, to remove the pain, to bring healing. 

But the issue is when?   When will Satan’s “fiery darts” be quenched?  Is Christ’s promise only for the hereafter?   The apologist will tell you, “Well, God’s trying to teach you something.  He knows how much you can bear.   Just hold on to God’s hand while you work through this misery.”   No!  This is a lie.  In (John 10:10) Satan, the thief comes “to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”   But it is Jesus, our redeemer, and our savior who came that “you may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  Did Jesus withhold healing in the here and now?   (Matthew 4:23) “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.”

What are the limitations of this salvation that Christ’s promised?  Is it limited to eternal life, just the hereafter?   The actual word from which the English word “salvation” is translated comes from the Greek word  “soteria”.   This original Greed word “soteria” meant both physical and spiritual rescue or safety.   It meant deliverance, and it was applied to health, welfare, as well as eternal life.   Satan would argue that we must accept the contemporary English interpretation today of salvation as it applied to eternal life only.   But the Bible tells us of God (Malachi 3:6)  “I am the Lord and I change not.”    (Hebrews 13:8)  “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and for ever.”    So Christ’s offer of salvation is in His words as he spoke them from the Father, not in our contemporary words of today.  Our salvation is not for relief just in the future, but it is therefore a firm promise for health and healing today as well.

In the Old Testament, we read this promise of the savior yet to come, (Isaiah 53:5) “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.”   Note the words “we are healed.”   In the Old Testament, healing was something to be experienced now.   But now we read of this promise in the New Testament after Christ’s Calvary sacrifice.   Peter writes, (1 Peter 2:23-24)  “He was reviled, “ but “did not revile in return” “He suffered, “ but “He did not threaten.” He “ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed.”   Note, in the New Testament the promise of healing is not now, but rather, in God’s eyes past tense, having already been accomplished by Christ sacrifice on the cross.   By His “stripes you were healed.”  Past tense!

So how should we pray?   “If it be your will Lord, heal me.”   No!   That is a prayer of unbelief, a denial of God’s promise, and of ignorance.   (Hosea 4:6)  “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”   If you pray, “If it be your will Lord”, you are signing your own death warrant.   God cannot lie.  Don’t call Him a liar. Every Christian has been promised healing now.   As a Christian, claim that which is yours.   By His “stripes you were healed.”   By the Blood of Calvary, God sees you already healed.  Claim that healing now!

“Yes!” you reply, “but I have claimed my healing by Christ stripes and yet I am still sick.”   Really!  Are you absolutely certain of this?  Let me answer you this way.   Have you ever had a checking account?   The money is in the bank, and it is real just like God’s healing is real.  You have no doubt that the banking system works, and that checks will clear, because you’ve written checks all your life.   So you write a check. Similarly you call out in prayer for healing claiming the promises as a believer.   And you send that check in the mail to make a purchase, and to pay for something.    The reality is that it takes time for that check to clear.   The money is there.   The check is written.  It is sent in the mail, and you know that check is good, that the banking system works, but you also know that it takes time for that check to clear.  In reality, some banks, and some individuals, take longer to clear their healing than others.   If you have money in the bank, do you doubt whether your check will clear?   No!   You should have the same faith in God’s Word when it comes to healing. 

Just like with the check, there is a difference in time with many between when they claim their healing, and when that healing is actually manifested.   The disciples could not understand why they had failed to cast out demons. (Matthew 17:20-21)  “So Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer.’”   Was Christ suggesting a single little prayer today, or prayer day by day, week by week?  No!  God's word teaches, "Pray unceasingly." The time it takes for a healing to manifest itself is directly proportional to one’s faith and spiritual strength.  It’s like lifting weights.   For one who has lived in the Spirit, claiming and experiencing God’s promises year after year, their faith in the manifestation of that healing is so strong and assured that the healing comes very quickly, if not immediately.   But if you have never claimed healing before, if you lack experience and lack confidence in God’s promises of lifting this heavy bar, then the manifestation may take time; days, weeks, months.   Just because you say a thing doesn’t mean you actually believe it.  Don’t get me wrong.  Words are power, so if you will say the word even in unbelief, those words of faith take on a life and a power of their own before the throne of God.   You may have to say those words many times, over many days. But when you actually believe that the money is in the bank, that “by His stripes you were healed”, then your healing is absolutely assured and it will manifest itself. 

Even having received one of Satan’s “fiery darts”, you remain in Christ by his perfect sacrifice “a good person.” Beloved, will you bow your heads, close your eyes, and repeat after me, “Blessed is our Father, who gives us the shield of faith to quench Satan’s fiery darts.   Blessed is our God who heals us.  We bind you Satan for you have no power here.   Today we claim God’s healing.  Forgive me my sins. Come into my life. I believe you are the Son of God, and that You died on the cross for me.  I repent of all the works of the Devil.  Cover me with your blood.  .  Create by God’s Holy Spirit a clean heart, and the strength to reject Satan’s world.   Heal me and renew my spirit so that I can hear Your voice, and be used by you as your child to bring many to salvation.   I accept you as my Savior!   Your are my Lord!  Amen!”