Introduction:
Before we can begin a cogent discussion about healing, it is necessary to fully understand the origin and nature of sickness in the absence of which there would be no need for healing. As children of Adam we have lived so long with sickness that we have come to accept it as “normal” and a natural part of human existence. We must understand that God did not program us to be sick, but that it entered in because of sin which ruled through rebellion. Our understanding has grown so dim that we actually think that God is responsible for making us sick, and that somehow He has some kind of divine plan in causing all of the sickness and disease which is ravaging mankind. Of course this is entirely contrary to the very nature of God. As long as we continue to accept sickness and disease as a “gift” from God , we will not recognize it as an enemy and make a stand against it with the weapons that the Lord has placed at our disposal. The purpose of this teaching is to get you to see sickness for what it truly is. Then you will stop blaming God. (Attributing sickness to Him is tantamount to blaming Him, for we can all agree that being sick not a good thing.) When you start fighting the good fight of faith you will tap into the healing power of God which is at your disposal through Christ Jesus. Before we go on to a discussion about sickness, I need to stress that God’s best is for us to walk in divine health and not even require healing in the first place. But nevertheless, praise God for His healing power which is available to each of His children to sustain them until they learn to walk in all the fullness of their salvation.
As already stated, it is required to first quantify the entity known as sickness, the presence of which has made the provision of healing necessary. How then do we define sickness?
Simply put, sickness is defined as any malfunction of the biological systems of the body, and limited solely thereto. Although erroneously attributed, sickness does not manifest in either the soul or the spirit realm. As man’s ability to understand the biologic nature of sickness and disease has evolved over time, we have been able to categorize malfunctions according to the specific organ systems which are involved, as well as to the source of the infirmity. For example, diseases may be the result of infectious processes, non synergistic cellular proliferation(tumors) secondary to environmental or toxic insult, or the result of genetically mediated organ system malfunctions. Any of these can result in such a degree of biological insult that the body is rendered uninhabitable, resulting in the departure of the spirit and the soul. This is a condition which we define as “death”.
Sickness vs. Senescence:
At this point we need to distinguish between sickness and the deleterious effects of simply growing old. It is the failure to discern between the two that has led ignorant Christians to discount God’s desire to heal His people. The way that it works is this. Our bodies are from the ground and as such are tied to the ground. And since the ground was cursed because of Adam, our bodies are also cursed. Because of this there is an entropic decay that occurs with everything in creation. So that even in the absence of sickness our bodies slowly break down and become less functional and eventually wear out from underneath us. Examples of this phenomenon are osteoarthritis, tooth decay and eventual loss, diminution of visual acuity, male pattern hair loss, loss of lean muscle mass, reduced coordination, a slowing of reflexes and other such maladies. These dysfunction’s do not fall under the purview of sickness, but are the unfortunate result of the rebellion induced decay that affects all of creation.
Sickness vs. Injury:
If you are playing baseball and while running to 2nd base you trip over the bag and break your ankle you are not “sick,” but you have of course sustained an injury. In like manner if you are involved in a car accident and go through the windshield, you will certainly not feel too well. Nevertheless you are not sick but injured. These may seem like obvious distinctions but those who would try to discount God’s desire to have us to walk healthy would offer these types of examples to say “ see I told you that God allows sickness”. Suffice it to say that to any reasonable person it is quite easy to tell the difference between sustaining an injury and having a sickness which is subject to the Word of God.
The Origin of Sickness:
In the beginning when God created Adam, He created him physically perfect. There were no defects in his genome and no negative environmental insults to affect his body. However, when he sinned against the command of God spiritual death occurred which was manifested as separation from God. Following on the heals of this spiritual death, physical death entered in. This physical death in the beginning manifested only as a result of the eventual wearing out of the bodies of the early inhabitants of the earth. This of course explains their extraordinary longevity, since in the beginning the genome would still have been perfect and environmental influences had not yet risen to hazardous levels. After the flood we see a precipitous drop in the lifespan of the subsequent generations. This likely resulted from the increased penalty from the consanguinity ( intermarrying within the family)which, although was necessary to repopulate the earth, was rendered less efficient than in the beginning of the creation due to starting with less robust genetic material. (Remember that the curse had had 1600 years to take effect). So then we can say that all sickness and disease is a direct result of the consequences of sin which was allowed to reign on earth through our father Adam. (“ As in Adam all die”).The tools that are used by sickness and disease to accomplish their goal, which is to bring physical death, are provided in the form of the aforementioned mechanisms ( genetic, environmental etc.). In this teaching I will show that deliverance from sickness has been provided for us in the person of Christ Jesus. Being set free from the effects of senescence however will have to wait for the time of the consummation of all things. This will happen at the end of this age when the Lord will defeat all of His enemies including death. We will then take up our abode in the “house” which is celestially based and not of the earth, and, as such, is not subject to corruption.
II: Does God Make
Anyone Sick?
If we as a church are ever going to walk free of sickness we
must divorce ourselves from the idea that it is God who is making us sick.
After al,, if we think that our sickness is from Him, it would be quite
illogical to go to Him to be cured, since that would seem to have Him operating
contrary to His own agenda of sickness and certainly would appear to show Him
as confused and double minded. The desire of the Lord to have His people
healthy can be demonstrated by the promise that He made to the children of
Israel when He delivered them from Egypt. In Exodus 23:25 He told them that if
they would serve Him He would remove sickness from their midst. Remember also,
that this no small promise was made to
the ones who were beneficiaries of the lesser covenant. Of how much more health
do you suppose we, who have been made partakers of the new and better covenant,
established on better promises, are entitled to walk in?
Looking at Deuteronomy chapter 28:15-68, we can clearly see
that sickness and disease is the result of the curse that ensues from
disobedience to the Word of God. Moreover this curse is mediated by the one who
Jesus called the thief, namely Satan (John 10:10). God does not test us with
evil (James 1:13), but we are carried away with our own lusts. Consider the
example of fatherhood given by the Lord Jesus in Luke 11:11 when He compared
the benevolence of earthly fathers, who by nature are evil, with that of our
heavenly Father. His righteousness must certainly exceed ours. So if we know
how to give good things to our children, then how much more does our Father in
heaven bless us.
That of course brings us to the question of Job who has
become the unwitting poster child for unbelieving Christians. One would counter
with, didn’t God test Job by afflicting him in his circumstances and also his
body? Most people’s view of the book of Job is shaped by the same arguments of
ignorance that they have been hearing from the pulpit. They have not actually
critically read the book. .or if they did, they would see that the one
responsible for afflicting Job was Satan and not God. The Lord was unable to
intervene in his circumstances seeing as how it was Jobs own sins that had
pulled his hedge down and not some arbitrary act by the Lord. Recall what God
said to Satan in chap. 1:12. “ Behold all that he has is in your
power “. Remember too that Job had no promise of the deliverance and prosperity
that comes from obedience to the law of Moses. Neither did he have an advocate
with the Father as we do under the new covenant. Then of course there are the
words of Job himself, who declared that “the Lord gave and the Lord took away.”
Now indeed this is truly stated in the Bible, however this is not a statement
of truth. This means that it was not an accurate recounting of the actual
sequence of events that had occurred in the throne room of God. Now of course
Job had no way of knowing the conversations that had transpired between the
Lord and Satan. From his point of view he assumed that the One that had given
him the blessings was also the One who had taken them back. Is God capable of
doing such things? Of course, even as we are, but then He would be a hypocrite
to judge us for violating rules that He Himself established but did no better
job of following than we did. It is the spiritually uninitiated who make such
statements as “ God can do anything” or who hide behind the veil of “God’s
sovereignty”. God will not violate His own word and to blame Him for the deeds
done to Job is to ascribe evil to Him, namely to afflict without cause, and to
subvert judgement, and to pervert justice. These are the precise crimes, in
addition to being fearful that took Job’s hedge down thus making him
susceptible to Satanic attack(See Job 3:25, 33:8-18, 34:5-9).
It should now be abundantly clear that God does not
perpetrate evil in order to obtain a beneficial outcome. These are simply
excuses to cover up our unbelief of the Word of God, and our failure to make a
strong stand of faith by reaching out and grabbing what the Lord Jesus has died
for us to have. Christians tend to be passive participants in healing by saying
such things as “ I know God will heal me if it’s His will”. Healing is every
bit as active as salvation. You never hear anyone say “I know God will save me
if it’s His will”. Moreover, if you really thought that it was God’s will for
you to be sick, why do you have heath insurance, go to the doctor, take
medicine, and call 911 in an attempt to subvert God’s “will” for you to be
sick? Why then do we continue to blame God for sickness? Chiefly because we
judge the veracity of the word of God by the circumstances of others who had
the appearance of high levels of spirituality. In reality they were babes
unskilled in the word of truth, and were usually beset with rampant unbelief.
The frequent rebuttal is as follows. “ My grandmother was a good Christian and
she had faith but she died of cancer anyway”. Well this is incredibly easy to
judge, either your grandmother or the Lord God of heaven is lying. I will leave
it up to the reader to decide who. I hope you choose wisely. Just remember that
Grandma did not suffer any stripes for you.
It should now be becoming clear that God takes no profit in
making us sick. On the contrary sickness and disease are sticks of dynamite
waiting for someone to light the fuse in order to set them off. The “matches”
that light the fuse are rebellion, ignorance, unbelief and fear. Any of these
running rampant in someone’s life will guarantee that sooner or later sickness
will have its way in them. Let us now cover these doorways to sickness and
disease one at a time.
A:
REBELLION:
In the Bible there is
portrayed a clear relationship between rebellion and the consequences
thereof, namely sickness. This is very dramatically illustrated in Deuteronomy Chapter 28, where the Lord clearly
contrasts the reward for obedience to His Word with the devastating
consequences which result from rebellion against Him. You can see that a number
of the negative effects are clearly related to malfunctions of the body in a
manner that we would call sickness and disease. Remember that something cannot
be simultaneously a reward and a punishment, and according to Deuteronomy
Chapter 28 sickness and disease certainly belongs in the category of
punishment.
The relationship between sin and sickness is again
demonstrated in dramatic fashion during the ministry of the Lord Jesus. In the
Gospel of John Chapter 9v 1-4: we see that one day He and His disciples were
walking along the road and came upon a man who was blind from birth.
Demonstrating a knowledge of the relationship between sin and sickness, they
perceived that his disorder must have been secondary to some sort of rebellion.
They questioned Jesus as to the origin of said rebellion. They wondered if his
condition was a result of some sin on the part of his parents since he was born
that way, or if perhaps some sin was
committed by the man himself to account for his congenital blindness. Jesus
answered them that neither the man nor his parents sinned. (Which is not to say
that someone further back in the bloodline didn’t. Remember that the sins of
the fathers are visited unto the children to the 3rd or 4th
generation). His subsequent statement did not imply that God made the man to be
born sick just so that Jesus could mosey along some years later and heal him,
but that this was an opportunity for the works of God to be revealed in him.
Another example of the association between sickness and
rebellion is found in the book of 1st Corinthians Chapter 11 where
Paul admonishes the church at Corinth about their abuse of the Lord’s Supper.
Because of said abuse many of them were sick and a number had already died.
Their abuse took the form of what he called “not discerning The Lord’s body.”
His body is of course represented by those of us who believe on Christ Jesus.
The sin against the body was not esteeming each other more highly than ourselves
and operating contrary to the unity of the Spirit. The devil was able to take
advantage of this shortcoming and attack their bodies with sickness, disease
and ultimately untimely deaths. And finally the Lord Jesus Himself testifies to
this concept in the gospel of John Chapter 5 :1-14. After healing a man who had
been paralyzed for 38 years, He said to him “See you have been made well. Sin
no more lest a worse thing come upon you.” Again the implication here,
as well as with the other examples given, is clear. There is a direct
correlation between rebellion and sickness. Those who sow to the flesh will of
the flesh reap corruption. This corruption will certainly initially take the
form of (guess what!) sickness and disease.
B:
IGNORANCE:
Hosea 4:6 tells us that “ My people are destroyed for a lack of
knowledge.” Notice that He says “My people,” meaning that we are not dealing
with unbelievers. In the case of the church, we’re talking about born again
folks who are eligible to be healed by any or all of the methods available to
us as redeemed ones. However if we are not aware of what belongs to us, then we
cannot avail ourselves of it, and then the devil will hijack our bodies and
hold us captive to sickness and disease. The rampant sickness which permeates
the church is evidence of the fact that the body of Christ is woefully
uneducated in the area of healing.
C:
UNBELIEF:
This failure is in the purview of those
that are born again, but fail to take the scriptures to heart, letting them
kindle a fire of faith in them which is well pleasing to God. Notice that this
condition applies to Christians who have heard the Word, but refuse to believe
it, so they become hearers only and not doers. Again the end result is a body
that is ripe for the picking by the devil.
D:
FEAR:
This is what overcomes us when we have fallen victim to any or
all of the above conditions, because without a solid foundation in the Word,
our minds will think that the state of being sick is what’s common to man and
that sooner or later we will succumb. This of course will result in fearful
expectation which will lead to negative confessions inconsistent with God’s
promises. Eventually those things which we have spoken, not doubting, those
things which we have greatly feared will come upon us. What you must realize is
that you shape your destiny with your tongue. This is why the Bible says that
life and death itself is in the very power of the tongue.(Prov.18:21). Jesus
said it this way in the gospel of Mark Chap. 11:23“Whoever says to this mountain,
be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but
believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he
says”. What you must realize is that this law of confession works in
either direction: to bless or to curse. In other words, if you speak sickness
and death to your life, then out of your mouth you will reap sickness and
death. However if you speak the words that God says about your life, then you
will reap the fruits of His promises for those that belong to Him. If we
examine the phenomenon of fear closely, we can see that it stems from a sense
of uncertainty and lack of control over our lives. As we nurture this fear the
devil will eventually be able to ride it into our hearts and destroy us from
the inside out. But the Lord tells us in His Word that we have not been given
the spirit of fear, but the Spirit of power, and love and a sound mind. If we
feed our spirits on this instead of the voice of doubt then we can walk free of
the effects of fear.
III SATANIC OPPRESSION:
At this time I need to speak briefly on
the concept of direct demonic oppression which may also be responsible for
sickness like manifestations. These differ from classic sickness in that
although they result in biological
malfunction, there may or may not be demonstrable pathology. Those
“malfunctions” however are manifestations of demonic activity in the body or
the soul realm of the afflicted person. This type of “sickness” is not dealt
with in the same way as classic sickness, but the offending demonic activity
must be stopped with the authority of the name of Jesus. Examples of this type
of manifestation are the deaf and dumb spirit
(Autism), and Schizophrenia.
In summary then we can see that God is not
involved in making anyone sick. On the contrary He has provided, in the form of
the Body of Christ Jesus, the ability to actually reverse the effects of
sickness. When someone becomes sick what we are seeing is the end result of a
process that began in the heart and the mind and has finally manifested itself
in the body. So too healing must begin on the inside in the heart where the
arena of faith is, and then proceed to the outside where it can be clearly
seen. But yet, as wonderful as this is, I would show you a more excellent way
than healing: health. If we can conquer the four aforementioned reasons for
sickness and disease, then I submit to you that it is entirely possible to go
through life healthy and to fulfill the number of your days.
Why then do we continue to blame God for sickness? Because
we attribute it to some perverse manifestation of God’s will when we see
sickness and disease affecting seemingly “good” people. When dear old Grandma
or nice Uncle Albert, or little Sally becomes afflicted, we reason that it must
be the result of some “higher” plan from above. Since they were such good
people their infirmity could not possibly be the result of any failing on their
part. This thinking makes God out to be a co-conspirator with the devil who is
the one who came to rob, steal and to destroy. But no, He sent us the Lord
Jesus Christ that we might have abundant life. Let every man, including dear
old Grandma, Uncle Albert, and little Sally be found to be a liar, but let the
Word of God be found to be true.
IV LIVING IN HEALTH:
As previously discussed, the key to walking
healthy is to avoid falling victim to any of the four aforementioned doorways
to sickness and disease. You may however walk through these doorways in ways that
you do not realize. Obviously there are many ways that people can jeopardize
their health by abusing themselves in ways that defile their temples, which is
the body. Things such as smoking, doing drugs and excessive drinking are all
ways to eventually destroy your body, and these certainly account for a large
amount of the carnage that we see occurring in people’s bodies. For example
cigarette smoking is directly responsible for more than 700,000 deaths annually
in this country. And unfortunately I would say that a goodly number of them are
Christians. This is 100% preventable. Simply don’t smoke and the devil cannot
visit you with cigarette related illnesses.
However there are even more subtle ways
that we can affect our own health. A killer that is equally as deadly as
smoking, but is much more socially acceptable, is gluttony and its accompanying
sign or evidence: namely obesity. You hear much said in the church about a
number of sins that can affect our lives, but you scarcely ever hear anyone say
anything about the equally deadly error of excessive eating. In the church
obesity is responsible for killing more Christians than fornication, idolatry,
adultery, or murder. Yet it is not dealt with by the leadership( probably to
avoid hypocrisy since many of them are also greatly overweight). Gluttony is
the sin of not disciplining your body and keeping it under subjection. You may
find this hard to believe but it is impossible to get fat unless you constantly
consume more calories than your body requires. As evidenced by the prodigious
mass of some people, there is virtually no limit to the cravings of the flesh.
It is up to you, the spirit man on the inside, to command your body and to say
“no more”. “I will not continue to shove more food down my gullet than my body
requires.” You must also realize that your body requires very little food to
sustain the typical American sedentary lifestyle. What about those who would
say “It’s not my fault, I have a gland problem”. or “Everyone in my family is
overweight”. I’m sorry to inform you that you are deceived. There is no medical
condition that directly results in obesity. As a matter of fact most illnesses
cause a great deal of weight loss, because when you don’t feel well physically
you tend not to want to eat. Body fat does not appear out of thin air but is always
the result of too much consumption. In order to win this battle we must
discipline our bodies and crucify our flesh, in other words JUST
SAY NO to food. So then the diseases that are secondary to obesity are
actually self- inflicted and as such are entirely preventable. I think that you
are also beginning to see that we have been making the devil’s job very easy by
providing the means by which he tries to destroy our bodies.
V. HEALING
Now that we have begun to get an understanding of the causes of sickness and disease, and found out that the best course of action is to avoid them in the first place, let’s find out what the Word of God has to say about healing if we do find ourselves afflicted.
The first thing that we must realize is that healing is the children’s bread( Matt. 15:26). This means that the Scriptures that apply to healing are written to born again believers and outsiders need not apply, with one exception. Under the ministry of the Evangelist, the Lord does heal unbelievers as a way of “advertising” the Gospel. In general though the benefit of the blood precedes the benefit of the stripes, and since by His stripes we were healed, it follows that we must first be partakers of the blood. Then we may freely partake of the stripes. So now, how do you actually go about obtaining healing if you have fallen victim to illness?
4. The Gifts of Healings: This is a specific manifestation of the Holy Spirit, whereby He will anoint an individual with special power to produce healings in those that are afflicted. This is accomplished either by the laying on of hands or by the speaking of the word of faith, and is usually part of the ministry of the Apostle or the Evangelist. As such it is largely limited to unbelievers. In this way God “advertises” the Gospel to arrest people’s attention so that they give heed to the words of deliverance that are spoken by the man of God. Those that belong to the Lord are primarily expected to obtain healing by the first three methods discussed. This explains why two sick people can go to an evangelistic meeting, one a born again, Spirit filled, Bible toting believer, and the other one a drunkard who stumbles in off the street, and the unbeliever goes home completely healed and the Christian fails to be healed. Why is this? Is God a respecter of persons? No not at all, but the child of God is expected to operate at a higher level of faith than an unbeliever. Remember to whom much is given, much the more is required. Moreover, as we have already discussed, chronic sickness in a believer is already a sign of failure to appropriate all the Christianity that the Lord Jesus suffered and died for us to have.
In summary I can say that by any or all of the aforementioned methods, a child of God should be able to be set free from any infirmity and to eventually walk in the divine health that is our birthright in Christ Jesus.
VII. Hindrances to Healing:
The reasons that people don’t get healed are much the same as why they get sick in the first place. Ignorance, unbelief, rebellion, etc. Most Christians are taught today that divine healing no longer has a role in the church, and that the power of God somehow disappeared with the death of the last Apostle. Obviously if there is no faith being demonstrated by the leadership of the church, then we cannot expect any to be shown by the flock. For their faith will not exceed ours, but should mirror ours as they consider the outcome of our conduct. Some leaders present such ridiculous arguments as “It’s not God’s will to heal everyone”. This statement is made countless times to explain the failure to be healed which results from a lack of faith. One of course could argue that if the process is in His hands and He heals one and not another, has He not become a respecter of persons? Now of course by right of sovereignty He could choose to heal or not heal as He sees fit, except that He has forsworn this right by declaring that He would NOT be a respecter of persons. No one ever says that it was not God’s will to save someone when they become lost in sin, because we all recognize that that person has become disqualified by rejecting the gift of salvation that has been freely offered to all. In like manner to this, the person who does not get healed has not accepted the benefit of the stripes by which we are all healed. We cannot blame this on the Father since He sent Jesus to suffer and die once for all. So it is up to us to press in boldly by faith to obtain that which has been as freely given to us as salvation. So beware of frivolous statements which not only exhibit extreme folly on our part, but also make God out to be a liar. I cannot stress enough the importance of faith in the process of receiving healing. As long as we are ambivalent about God’s desire to heal us, we are double-minded and the Word tells us that such a person is unstable in all their ways and will get nothing from God. We must be convinced in our own hearts that it is God’s will to heal us, and the source of this knowledge is not from speculation but is clearly spelled out in the Word. If we account that God is not a man that he should lie, and that what He has promised, that He will also be diligent to perform, then we, not wavering or growing weary, can hold fast to these truths, and have full assurance that God will make good on His promises.
What about the argument that is made that “God gave us
doctors”. There is no evidence in the Bible that God ever moved on behalf of His people by natural mechanisms. For example, God did not provide engineers to construct a bridge across the red sea so that His people could cross over, but He supernaturally parted the waters and as such demonstrated His glory to His people. Nor did He provide a team of demolition experts to blow up the walls of Jericho, or send technicians with special fire suppression suits to protect the three Hebrew boys in the fires of Nebuchadnezzar. Did He send a banker to float Jesus and the disciples a loan so that they could pay their taxes? What airline did Phillip take when he departed from the Ethiopian eunuch to go to Azotus? On the contrary, it is quite clear that when God moves on behalf of His people, He does so by extraordinary and dramatic supernatural means. This He does to manifest His power and majesty so that there can be no doubt that He is Lord of all. It would be a serious breech of His eternal Godhead to employ the aid of the very subjects that He seeks to convince in accomplishing some benefit on their behalf. So I can safely say that it wasn’t God who gave us doctors, but it was we who gave us doctors, in an attempt to mitigate the sin induced damage that was being inflicted upon mankind. It is also a substitute for believing in the Word of God. He will never abdicate the greater in order to serve us through the lesser. But through faith in His Word, we can receive the greater and as such walk in newness of life and in health be satisfied with long life
What about Paul’s thorn? There are those who would reject God’s provision for healing offering the argument that if it were God’s will to heal, then surely Paul would have been healed. First of all, who ever said that Paul was sick? He only stated that he had been sent an angel of the devil to buffet him to be a thorn in his flesh. This could have taken many forms other than sickness. For example a similar phenomenon occurred in King Saul, who after being rejected by the Holy Spirit, was tormented by a spirit from Satan. Also there are those who would say that Paul had some kind of sickness in his eyes. What these people conveniently forget is this. How “sick” could Paul have been when he went around the then known world three or four times in preaching the Gospel? How compelling would his testimony have been if his friends had to wheel him in to the various places that he preached? How believable would he have been if, in offering the healing power of the Lord, he himself was obviously more in need of it than the ones that he purported to help? Those who make this argument also forget the testimony of Paul, who stated that out of all of his trials, the Lord delivered him. ( 2nd Tim. 3:10-11 ).Finally this is all very irrelevant since Paul would be the first to say “ let every man be found to be a liar, but let the Word of God be found to be true”. In other words the power of the Word of God is far greater than the frailty of those that He used to write it.
There are doubtless many other reasons that people come up with to reject God’s healing. But the bottom line is that they are all due to a refusal to accept that God really does care about His people and will move on their behalf in a dramatic supernatural fashion to deliver them from the bondage of sickness. The proof of this fact is that He allowed His Son to be beaten before He was killed. This beating did not serve the cause of delivering us from sin, (the death and resurrection alone would have sufficed for this purpose) but did provide for deliverance from sickness. If we do not believe this, then we cannot receive this vital benefit of our relationship with the Lord Jesus. Remember that all of these manifestations of God’s love and glory are present whether we accept them or not,. or even if we know about them or not.
In conclusion then, I would say that you all should be careful not to be defrauded, either by ignorance or the traditions of men, so that you are robbed of the tremendous blessing. Rise up well in the Name of the Lord Jesus, for it is part of our birthright as children of God to have sickness removed from our midst, and by His stripes to be healed. The best time to begin to apply these principles is before you become afflicted, since faith is a process which is established line upon line and precept upon precept. The Word of God is not a magic potion that one takes in an emergency, but it is a way of life that, when diligently followed, will produce in us the abundant life that Jesus promised to all those who would receive it from Him. Amen.