The Children's Bread (Part 2)
Posted by: bneumann848 <bneumann848@...>
The
Children’s Bread (Part 2)
He sent his
word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. (Psalm 107:20
KJV)
So where does
the idea that God puts sickness on people come from? A misinterpretation of John
11:4.
When Jesus heard
that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. (KJV)
This verse is sometimes interpreted to mean
that God put sickness on Lazarus in order to bring glory to Himself. But does
that interpretation line up with the rest of scripture? (Remember all the
scriptures we listed in Part 1?) If God wanted people sick, why did He send
Jesus to heal them? Remember, Jesus always did the will of the Father (John
5:30) and He healed all who were sick unless their unbelief prevented Him from
doing so (Matthew 13:58). Well, if sickness glorifies God, was Jesus sick? Not
until He went to the cross and willingly took on the infirmities of mankind’s
fallen state. Rest assured, God is not double-minded.
Let me ask
you this: Is there sickness in heaven? If sickness were God’s design and heaven
is a place of perfection, wouldn’t it stand to reason then that every person in
heaven would be terminal? You’re shaking your head, aren’t you? The whole idea
is absurd!
I propose that Jesus was making a statement
of faith in John 11:4. This wasn’t just a case of the sniffles; He knew Lazarus
would die. But He took authority over the situation and declared in faith that
death would not have the final word; that God would gain the victory and Jesus
would be glorified.
Jesus heard the message.
He said, `The man is sick, but he will not die from it. But this [situation] will
show people that God is great, and his Son also.' (Worldwide English
Translation)
Did healing
stop when Jesus left the earth? The book of Acts assures us that it didn’t. Did
it stop when the last of the twelve apostles died? No, because it wasn’t confined
to the twelve. In Luke 10, Jesus sent out 70 disciples with the instruction to
“heal the sick”; they returned with joy that even the demons were subject to
them. In James 5, the sick were still being healed by the prayer of faith.
You see, the
body of a born-again believer is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. You are
not your own; you were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) through the
precious shed blood of Jesus. If sickness of any kind takes up residence in
your body, it is trespassing on God’s property. In Luke 13:16, Jesus makes it
very clear that infirmity comes from Satan. Yes, symptoms will come because you
live in a fallen world. But don’t lie down and take them. Take your stand on
God’s word and fight them off like the intruders they are! Your body is meant
to glorify God, not by how much or how agreeably it can suffer, but by how much
the life of God can flow through it.
Brethren, I
wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul
prospers (3 John 2).
So how do we
fight? That’s a lesson for Part 3.
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