This is Part 4 in the
booklet
"The Lord, Your
Healer"
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"What A Friend" |
I mentioned earlier in this book
some of the problems with the divisions in the Body of Christ.
The Lord’s purpose for the Church is unity - oneness.
“Just as each one of us has one body with many members,
and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ
we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the
others.” (Romans 12: 4-5)
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be
prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and
teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so
that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity
in the faith in the knowledge of the Son of God and become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the
waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by
the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow
up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole
body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament,
grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must
no longer live as the Gentiles do, in futility of their thinking.”
(Ephesians 4:11 - 17)
Division and strife belong to the world and are signs of
immaturity. This is clearly stated in I Corinthians 3:3, “You
are still worldly. For since there is jealously and quarreling
among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?”
Many Scriptures refer to the Church as the Lord’s
sheep. A flock of sheep stay close together so the wolves cannot
come among them to destroy them. Their oneness is a large part of
their protection. However, if the flock is scattered, the wolves
can sneak in and ravage them. This is exactly what has happened
to the Church. There is protection in the unity of God’s
children. Sickness isn’t just an individual problem. It is a
problem of the Church in general. As God’s people, we have
been disobedient to the Lord’s Word. We should be one. This
unity is mentioned over and over in the Scriptures.
“For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the
Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak
and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.” (I Corinthians
11:29-30)
“Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks
a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that
we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is
one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of
the one loaf.” (I Corinthians 10:16-17)
We are weak, sick and go to an early death because we do
not function in unity as the Lord commanded us to. Take, for
example, the body of an animal. If we cut it into pieces, those
pieces would soon begin to deteriorate. The same is true with the
body of Christ. Sickness and deterioration have come in because
we have separated the body into parts. The Body of Christ, the
Church, is all born again people. It doesn’t matter which
denomination we belong to!
The Lord has determined a certain order in the family and
in the church. This has nothing to do with human values. If we
refuse to abide by God’s order in the family and the church,
the devil will come in an create all kinds of problems. Are we
willing to take our place and fulfill our responsibility in the
Body? Just as we have laws and police officers so that our
society can have order and peace, we have God’s Word and
leadership in the Body so we will not have chaos, but peace and
order. When we refuse to obey the law, we suffer the consequences.
We leave its protection. This is very important for us to
understand. There is protection in unity.
My wife and I have three children who have different
opinions on many things; however, that does not change our
relationship. They are still our children. We may have different
opinions than other Christians, but that does not change our
relationship in the Body of Christ. We are still brothers and
sisters and children of the Father. We need, however, to get
along and have family fellowship. It is very important to our
growth and protection. Many of our problems will be solved when
the unity of the Body is restored again. When this happens, we
will be like the first church where everyone was healed, which
was a result of their unity under the authority of Jesus Christ. “Crowds
gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their
sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were
healed.” (Acts 5:16)
The 91st Psalm is a perfect picture of the church in
unity. Read the entire chapter. Meditate on it. It describes a
very secure place.
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest
in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He
is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’
Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the
deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under
his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your
shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor
the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in
the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand
may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it
will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and
see the punishment of the wicked. If you make the Most High your
dwelling - even the Lord, who is my refuge - then no harm will
befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will
command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the
cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. ‘Because
he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will protect him, for
he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer
him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor
him with long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
(Psalm 91)
When we are obedient to the Word, we can say, “The
Lord is my Shepherd; nothing evil will happen to me.”
People who do not understand the Word think we are being
presumptuous, but we are not. We are only confessing the Word.
THE PROTECTION WE HAVE IS OUR OBEDIENCE IN ALL MATTERS. Above
all, we need to learn obedience. We must first know the Lord’s
will, through His Word, and then do it. We must not only preach
it but also live it. We must start with ourselves and then we can
minister to others. “And we will be ready to punish
every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.”
(II Corinthians 10:6)
Christians find many ways to excuse their illness. Some
favorite expressions are: “The Lord is trying my faith,”
“The Lord is trying to get my attention,” “The
Lord is chastising me,” “This is the cross I have to
bear,” or “This is my thorn in the flesh.”
These are just excuses for defending a lack of knowledge. Even through they say the sickness is
God’s will and purpose for them, they run to the doctor to
get rid of it. This is confusing. If God
really gave it to them for a purpose, why not keep it until God
takes it away and the purpose is fulfilled? That would be
consistent, but people don’t think that way. If God gave the
sickness to teach or try us, then to get rid of it would be
working against God’s will for us. All doctors and nurses
would be working against God. How foolish can we be? How twisted
our thoughts can be! They are fighting sickness, which is the
work of Satan.
What is the suffering of the believer? It is the
suffering and death of the ego (the self, the I). This is worse
than physical pain. The ego is very hard to kill. We are often
hurt by what people say. It is the ego that is being hurt. We
need this rubbing and shaping to make us fit together. The truth
is sharp yet it is the truth that shapes us.
“In Him the whole building is joined together and rises
to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being
built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His
Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:21-22)
We have a tendency to avoid those who don’t agree
with us so we won’t be hurt or upset by what they say. This
is what has happened to the Church. We have formed different
denominations based on differences in doctrines. We should love
each other anyway and work together in the Body of Christ.
A pastor’s wife asked me one day, “Do you
mean that I have to be like a door mat so people may just walk
over me?” “Yes,” I said, “When you
get to the place you don’t feel it anymore, you will be dead
to self, and that is what it is all about.” This is the
reason for suffering. We ought to die to self, so Christ can live
in us.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live,
but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20)
“The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means
you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be
wronged? Why not rather be cheated?” (I Corinthians 6:7)
Submission to proper authority is an excellent way to die
to one’s own ego. It is not my will that matters; it is God’s
will in my life. My will should be dead, and my intellect should
be under His command.
“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is
steadfast, because he trusts in you.” (Isaiah 26:3)
We can have perfect peace and always be happy even when
the circumstances are not good, because our peace is not
dependent upon the circumstances. It depends upon the Lord. He is
faithful and just and His Word never fails. In Hebrews we read:
“Remember those earlier days after you had received the
light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face
of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and
persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who
were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and
joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you
knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So
do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God,
you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:32
- 36)
The affliction that the above Word is referring to is to
die to our own ego and live in obedience to the Lord. It is not
sickness. Sickness does not glorify the Lord. It glorifies Satan.
We can suffer in many different ways. Sometimes it helps us to
see where we are wrong and leads us to repentance or changing our
minds or way of thinking.
“If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you
are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If
you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other
kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as
a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that
name.” (I Peter 4:14-16)
“Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what
he suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8)
We have no record of Jesus being sick. But He did suffer.
He learned obedience. We must submit ourselves to the Lord and
obey His Word.
It is our nature to rebel and not to enjoy submission.
Even on our jobs when the boss tells us what to do, we want to
rebel. We do this even though he has the authority to command us.
We treat the Lord the same way sometimes. Our ego is the gigantic
problem. We must let it die. The process is a suffering, but if
we want the Lord to live in us, we must die to self.
Now you know what the Word says about healing. Suffering for the Lord
is not illness. We can live in Divine health. We must believe the Word and receive
it as Truth. The Lord did not die on the cross the day you were born-again.
It was done long before that, but you had to personally understand it and exercise
your faith to receive it. The same is true with healing. Once you really understand
the Word and have faith to receive it, it will be yours. Jesus made provision
for it 2,000 years ago.
“He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might
die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have
been healed.” (I Peter 2:24)
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds
we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
Calvary stands between these two verses. The Book of Isaiah is looking
forward; the Book of Peter is looking back. When Jesus took the scourging and
was nailed to the cross, healing was provided for all who would, by faith, believe.
That is why it is so easy for us to receive our healing. It is a gift. If you
don’t have it, the devil is cheating you of God’s provision. Do not
allow this to happen. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you into the Truth. “But
when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
(John 16:13a)
"The Truth will set you free!" (John 8:32)
It takes time to reprogram the mind. It does not happen overnight. Read
the Word. Listen to the Word. Pray and meditate on the Word. The Holy Spirit
will reveal the Truth to you. You have to decide whether or not you want the
things God has provided for you, and then you must not give up until you receive
them in the material dimension.
Remember: “We live by faith not by sight.”
(II Corinthians 5:7)
“The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:17b)
“And without faith, it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews
11:6)
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