A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (May 28, 2015)
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. (Matthew 9:35)
We live in a South Georgia town that has a large hospital that helps service all of South Georgia. They have a huge cancer center here that is constantly recruiting new doctors to help with all their treatments, including radiation and chemo, and they do a very good job with the expertise and tools that they possess. My main concern is not the physical disease of cancer, that eats away at our bodily systems, but the cancer of fear and unbelief that eats away at our spiritual belief systems.
We live in the “Bible Belt” but it seems that the prevalent doctrine in this basically evangelical area is that healing through Jesus Christ, and the laying on of hands, has passed away. As a result, we have become reluctant to seriously pray for the sick and have become more familiar with the disease than we have the healer. It has weakened the faith in the Body of Christ and the sick have sometimes interpreted their ailments as either God is trying to teach them a lesson, or God is giving then a sign that their time has come to go home to be with Him. Those, to me, are some very slick deceptions from the enemy and they do not line up with the actions of Jesus or the Word of God.
When I have hard to answer questions about life, like questions about sickness and disease, I always return to the Word and look at how Jesus approached those type situations. In this case, I see Jesus healing every sickness and every disease, even to the point of raising people from the dead. That tells me that sickness is our enemy and it should be fought both physically, medically, and spiritually until we are healed here (on Earth), or healed there (in Heaven). My wife and I have seen miracles through healing prayers, and we have seen miracles through death, but I will always believe that God’s perfect will for our life is to be healed (III John 1:2).
I do not want to meet Jesus in Heaven one day and He ask me why I did not pray for a particular person’s healing like He instructed me to do in Mark 16 and James 5 (see below). It’s very simple to me. Believe the Word, and Do the Word! We are in advertising. He is in management. He will never lead us astray. It is up to us to perform the doing of it!
And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. (Exodus 23:25)
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. (Matthew 8:17)
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:18)
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if they have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. (James 5:13-15)
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (Psalm 1:3)
