I frequently ask the question, in a rhetorical manner: “When did God change?” I then provide the passages that make it clear...God has NOT changed. (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8)
And that fact alone, should be very good news to anyone who loves the Lord, and His word. Why I would even submit to anyone reading here today who would not consider themself a ‘believer’ or ‘follower of Jesus’ that this would be very good news for you; especially if you find yourself in a dark place with desperate needs. It is not God’s desire for any to perish or suffer, but to come to repentance...that you might find healing from the touch of the great Physician. (2 Pet. 3:9; Luke 5:31-32)
I have laid out before you this past week...how it was never God’s plan or desire for His people to be sick and afflicted with diseases. On the contrary, He promised to ‘take away’ and ‘remove’ ALL sickness... provided His people walk in covenant with Him. If God did not want His people sick and diseased way back then, why on earth would He wants us sick and afflicted today? And the fact remains that we are under a ‘better covenant with better promises’ so if God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (which He is) then why do we not see those better promises being fulfilled? (Heb. 8:6)
Here's a question that might be a jolt to your belief system- the Psalmist exhorts us to ‘Bless the Lord and not to forget His benefits’. (Ps. 103:2). He then tells us what two of those great benefits are- He ‘forgives ALL our iniquities, and heals us of ALL our diseases’. (3). Friends....if He is not healing us of ‘all our diseases’, how can we be sure that He is forgiving us of ‘all our sins’? And I don’t think you need a degree in theology to see how problematic that becomes if God is not forgiving us of our sins...that ‘separate us from Him’. (Isa.59:2)
Do you mind if I go a bit longer here today? You might want to grab a pen and paper.
When Jesus arrived on the scene and began His earthly ministry, having been sent by the Father (John 3:17), He began to preach and declare the gospel of the kingdom, commanding men everywhere to ‘repent’. (Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:14-15). He explained His mission there in the synagogue as to what He had been ‘anointed’ to do. (Luke 4:18). And then we read how Jesus goes out, and being filled with compassion...begins ‘healing every sickness and every disease among the people’. (Matt. 9:35-36) May I also point out this was not a ‘one time occurrence’. You might jot down these passages and look them up after you finish here with this post. (Matt. 4:23-24; 8:16; 12:15; 14:14, 35-36; 30-31). Oh, and those examples don’t even include the multiple ‘individual’ healings He did that are recorded in the gospels for us to read.
Peter reminds us all in Acts 10:38 as to why Jesus was ‘anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power’...so that He could ‘go about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil’.
Friends- when did the devil stop oppressing and afflicting people? Answer: He hasn’t. And when did Jesus cease from ‘doing good and healing these very people who are afflicted? Answer: He hasn’t. But there are some very legitimate reasons as to why we fail to see this done these days; and it has nothing to do with God being ‘out of power’ or even ‘lacking in desire’ to do such things. I have made the case before that He might be hesitant to bring healing and deliverance to many in the church today because of ignorance.
Ignorance is, after all...what leads to God’s people being ‘destroyed’. (Hosea 4:6). And I often cite what Jesus taught in Matt. 12:43-45 as to why He may be reluctant to answer prayers for such healings and deliverance- we are clueless to what is destroying us. So if He did remove that ‘unclean spirit’ that is bringing all the suffering, and we don’t even know how or why they got there to begin with...then what are we doomed to experience in the end, if what Jesus taught there counts for anything? Yeah...take another sip of coffee and think about that one for a moment.
For all of us who may have been taught that Jesus doesn’t ‘work like that anymore’ ... well, you were lied to. And don’t try and tell us that God is limited to just ‘using doctors and modern medicine’ today. That’s another lie we’ve been fed, and that’s no disrespect for doctors either there...doctors, by the way...that I am thankful for..
Tomorrow...I will share more with you what will prove otherwise, Lord willing, of course.
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