A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” 

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

In his gospel, Mark ties two supernatural events together that we often miss because they are separated by chapter breaks and so, in our minds, they are often viewed as unrelated incidents. But…let’s review. Toward the end of Chapter 4, Jesus told his disciples that he wanted to get in a boat and sail across the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. He calls on them to make the journey in the evening so it will be night before reaching the other side. Being on a large body of water at night on a lake subject to sudden storms always presents some concerns. In the middle of this night we are told that a “furious squall” came up suddenly and threatened to swamp the boat. The disciples, afraid for their lives, woke Jesus with the question, “Don’t you care that we drown?” There may have been a bit of accusation present in the statement suggesting that Jesus should never have insisted on crossing Galilee in the night. Of course, you know the story. Jesus got up, verbally rebuked the storm, and the winds and waves immediately subsided. The response of his disciples is interesting. Mark says, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’”

As frightened as they were of the storm, it seems that they were more upset by an encounter with the supernatural power of Jesus. They had already seen Jesus heal lepers, heal paralytics, cast our numerous demons, and raise the dead. Yet, at this moment they asked, “Who is this?”   As they tried to get their minds around what has just happened, they beached their boat in the area of the Gerasenes (Gadarenes) and immediately faced an even stranger situation.

Suddenly, out of the dark comes a man who is, by all definitions, demon possessed. Luke tells us he was naked (not the first thing you want to see after an already disturbing cruise); he came from a stretch of tombs that were probably carved into a bluff along the coast. He was a man who cut himself with stones and cried out in torment night and day. He was a violent man with pieces of broken chain swinging from his wrists and ankles and undoubtedly had the classic look of a madman with deranged hair and a ragged beard. He was most likely smeared with mud and smelled of everything dead or rotting.

It must have been disturbing enough to see this man in the distance, but in this case he ran straight at them. Just as they prepared themselves for a vicious attack, he fell on his knees before Jesus and began to shout at the top of his voice, “Want do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God. Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” How’s that for a greeting from a naked madman? Mark focuses our attention here on the demonized man but I would have loved to see the eyes of the disciples who must really be thinking now, “Who is this?” The wind and waves obey him and demons beg him not to torture them as they call him Son of the Most High God. Then the demon begins to bargain with Jesus. I’ve heard numerous demons speak and it’s never a nice, soothing, human voice but a hissing, growling, threatening or arrogant tone. But this time it is a fearful, pleading tone.

You know the rest of the story. Jesus allows the demons to leave this man and enter a herd of pigs nearby which immediately runs into the Sea of Galilee and drowns. That has to be another disturbing sight for these disciples – to hear the squealing of two hundred (just guessing) tormented hogs rushing to the water and then the thrashing of drowning swine and then their bodies floating out to sea. Witnesses to the event ran into town and told everyone what had happened. When they came out, they saw the man who had become an icon of demonization and insanity sitting with Jesus, clothed and perfectly sane. Luke tells us, “Then all the people of the region…asked Jesus to leave them because they were overcome with fear” (Lk.8:37).

From our perspective, the stilling of a storm and the deliverance of a severely demonized man would be good news and something to celebrate. But in the unrenewed mind, the evidence of the presence of God is a fearful thing. Perhaps, it is fearful because something unexplainable just occurred and we fear what we don’t understand. That was the normal response to God throughout the scriptures which called for the most frequent command in the Bible – “Don’t be afraid.”

As for the Garasenes, it seems that the wildly demonic had been with them so long that it had become the norm. Instead of being afraid of the destructive presence of Satan, they were terrified by the healing presence of God and essentially demanded that the Son of God leave them…even though they must have had their own sons and daughters in need of healing and deliverance.

Apparently, the only two men standing there that were not afraid was Jesus and the man who had just been delivered. The Gerasenes wanted Jesus as far away as possible. The former demoniac and nudist wanted to be as close to Jesus as possible.

Personal experience is often the catalyst for real paradigm shifts in the way we view reality. The apostles had seen Jesus heal and deliver others but had not experienced that themselves as far as we know. In all three gospels, the quieting of the storm and the deliverance of this radically demonized man occurred before Jesus sent the twelve out to heal and deliver on their own. After God worked powerfully through them on their mission trip, they too had a paradigm shift. They didn’t seem to be afraid of the presence of God anymore.

What this tells me is that personal experiences with God are catalysts for the renewed mind that Paul speaks of in Romans 12:1-2. Most believers have not had profound spiritual experiences with the Father, Son or Spirit. They believe they are saved by faith and do see the goodness of God and his blessings in ordinary ways in their lives. But if you asked them if he will heal them miraculously or raise a loved one from the dead they would not even entertain the possibility. They distrust spiritual experiences in general and shy away from them as a potential source of deception. They will live saved but powerless lives for the most part.

But a believer who has had a radical spiritual experience with God wants more. He or she does not fear it or avoid it but seeks it out. They run toward miracles, not away from them. Like the demonized man who was delivered, they want more. Those who have been insulated from those experiences will, like the disciples in Mark 4-5, typically feel fear as they see a supernatural move of God and move away from it.

The difference in believers can be marked. When the city folks asked Jesus to leave, the demonized man wanted nothing more that to follow Jesus wherever he went. But Jesus told him to stay in the area and simply tell people what God had done for him. When Jesus later returned to the area, crowds were waiting to hear his every word. The man with a God experience had done the job.

Supernatural encounters are good for the soul. When we begin to desire them rather than fear them because we know we can find more of Jesus there, we can know we are well on our way to a renewed mind. Paul says that when our mind has been renewed then we will be transformed. For some, even that prospect is fearful. They think that to be transformed is to lose yourself, yet the opposite is true. It is in transformation that we find the person we were always meant to be and experiencing a few weird nights or Sunday mornings is worth it to find the you that God intended.

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life. Philippians 2:14-16

I visited with a sweet lady last night who grew up in church, loves the Lord, hosts a house church in her home, but was still struggling with overwhelming feelings of fear and condemnation as she tries to serve the Lord. She lamented that the churches in her area were “powerless to help people like her.” In many ways she had no more freedom in her life than the unsaved men and women in her community.

If we are honest, many believers today are saved but remain in bondage to sin, addiction, shame, fear, and a host of other hindrances to their walk. The truth is that other than church attendance, a large percentage of believers look just like the people they work with or go to school with who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them. Divorce rates in the church rival divorce rates in the culture at large. Christian teens seem to have little power over the cultural pressure to drink, experiment with drugs, or to be sexually active. A significant number of believers live on antidepressants, tolerate marriages dominated by anger and rage, live with bitterness toward the past, and are crippled by an overpowering sense of unworthiness and rejection.

I’m not scolding these brothers and sisters for not being “the Christians they should be” because I have struggled with many of those issues as well. These believers are desperately looking for freedom, but in many cases have not been shown by their churches how to access the freedom that Jesus promises.

A gospel that only gets us to a place of forgiveness but that does not radically free us and change us so that we stand out in contrast to our culture is not the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached. Paul pointed to this truth in the text from Philippians quoted above. Stars stand out in stark contrast to the darkness. Jesus himself declared that his followers were to be the light of the world. Those who wear the name of Christ should stand out in the crowd by their sheer “differentness.”

Jesus spoke of being “born again” not as figurative language for trying harder or simply starting over with a clean sheet, but as a reality where something real and essential has been altered in everyone who comes to him. Scripture tells us that before Jesus came into our lives we were dead in our trespasses and sins and living under the dominion of darkness. We were in bondage to sin whether we knew it or not. Satan literally owned us. But in Christ, all things become new.

When the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, an incredible potential for radical change is released. The door to our prison cell is unlocked and opened wide. The question is whether we will walk through that door into a radically new life or voluntarily stay in our familiar environment. Many Christians stay because they are unaware of the destiny and power Christ offers to them to set them free and transform their lives.

One of Satan’s favorite strategies is to convince a believer that he or she is the same person they always were and will always be even after coming to Christ. If he can’t keep us from accepting Jesus then the next best thing is to convince us that we will only experience the power and blessings of heaven after our funeral. Until then, we will simply struggle and do the best we can while out life plays out like a sad country song. That is not what Jesus had in mind on the cross.

After coming to Christ, the essential difference between those with the Spirit of Christ living in them and those without the Spirit should soon become apparent, not as a reflection of our efforts but as a reflection of the power of God working in us. The fact that so many believers blend in perfectly with the world around them reveals that something is amiss. Speaking of Jesus, John tells us, “In him was life and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). There was a measure and quality of life in Jesus that was unmistakable. It stood out and drew men to him. With Christ in us, we should exude the same life. That life comes through the power that heals and sets men free (Isa.61:1-4) and the power than transforms us into the image of Christ. A powerless gospel will not take us there.

Last night we ministered the baptism of the Spirit to the lady I had visited with. We cast out spirits of fear and condemnation in the name of Jesus. For the first time in a very long time she felt totally at peace and the thoughts of condemnation were silent. I am confident that radical transformation for her is in her near future.

Whenever Jesus and his followers preached the gospel, they immediately healed the sick, cast our demons, cleansed the lepers, and so forth. That power was not just a demonstration that they were speaking for God, but it was also necessary for those accepting Christ to be released to meet their full potential in Him. Much of the church is reclaiming the power of the Holy Spirit but that realization has not made it to every church or every believer. My hope is that a time will come soon in which no one will have to say that the churches in his or her town seem powerless to help, “for the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20).

Fifteen years ago, I asked a faithful Christian woman, we will call Mary Ellen, when she was going to forgive her former husband. It was a hard question. She had been physically and emotionally abused even beyond what most abused women have had to endure. She had fled from that husband five years earlier, moved far away from him, and had started over with a new marriage. The problem was that her new marriage wasn’t going well either. She had come in seeking answers and, after three sessions, I felt compelled to ask the question. In fifteen years I haven’t forgotten her response. With her hands clenched into fists, the veins on her neck popping out, and her jaws tightened, she snarled, “Forgive him? Forgive him? I hope he burns in hell for what de did to me!” In her heart there was no impulse to forgive and in her mind she felt totally justified in hoping for his eternal damnation.

Although this was a woman who had grown up in church faithfully serving in various ministries, she was in bondage to bitterness, rage, and unforgiveness. She was the poster child for the old saying that “unforgiveness is like drinking poison, believing that it will make the other person sick.” She was aware of the multiple verses in which Jesus was very clear that if we don’t forgive those who have sinned against us, then our heavenly Father will not forgive our sins against him (Mt.6:14-15, Mt. 18, etc.). She simply felt that her case was exceptional so that those verses did not apply to her. The truth was that the toxic bitterness and rage she still felt against her first husband was spilling over into this new marriage and poisoning it.

Of all the sins that Christian men and women are in bondage to, I believe that unforgiveness is the most common and, in the long run, the most destructive. It is also the most common because we have all been wounded and betrayed and have all felt fully justified in our anger or bitterness toward the perpetrator.

In fact, we have likely been truly justified in our feelings. We just haven’t been justified in holding on to those feelings and keeping them alive. Because we are justified in our feelings in the beginning, we feel justified in keeping those feelings alive forever. But the decision not to forgive is where sin begins and when the door swings open for the enemy to enter. It is even where we begin to take offense at God when we discover that he is not hammering the person who wounded us.

Concerning unforgiveness, the apostle Paul counsels us, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” (Eph.4:26-27, ESV). This verse reveals several things. First of all, we can experience anger and not sin. Perhaps, our anger is a righteous anger such as the anger Jesus demonstrated in the temple when he was turning over the tables of the moneychangers. Perhaps, it is just the normal human experience of anger welling up within us when we feel threatened or betrayed. There is a point, however, in which our failure to manage our anger becomes sin.

Our experience of anger becomes sin when we take the next steps of retaliating against the person who wounded us or when we choose to nurture our anger to keep it alive. We forget that Paul had some experience with the kind of rage that begins to take control of a person. As Saul of Tarsus, he was not just attempting to discourage false doctrines about Jesus of Nazareth from arising within the Jewish community. Rather, he was described as one who was “breathing out threats and slaughter” against the church (see Acts 9:1). He was the one who coordinated the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, without any evidence of remorse. Saul was a man who was full of rage and obsessed with the destruction of Jewish people who simply had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Before his encounter with Jesus, Saul was not a righteous man trying to defend truth, but an angry man filled with rage against people he had never met. He was in bondage to his anger in the same way that Mary Ellen was in bondage to hers.

We are also told that we should not let the sun go down on our anger. In other words, deal with it in short order. Don’t even go to bed until you have dealt with it as Jesus would. Why? Because…any kind of prolonged unforgiveness gives the devil an opportunity to establish a beachhead in our hearts. Some of the older translations say that we must not “give the devil a foothold.” The Greek word is “topos” and means a position, a sanctuary, or some standing in our lives. When we refuse to forgive or keep putting it off, we come into agreement with Satan. All Adam and Eve did was to come into agreement with Satan. Whatever we agree with, we give authority in our lives and you never want Satan to have any authority in your life.

Many Christians are not living a spiritually abundant life nor are they making progress in their faith or their freedom because they have chosen not to extend forgiveness to someone in their life. They unknowingly have given Satan a foothold that has probably become a silent stronghold over the years. A satanic stronghold is not typically the stuff that The Exorcist was made of where the presence of demons is totally weird, extreme, and unmistakable. Typically, strongholds manifest as compelling, persistent thought patterns that, in the case of anger, keep anger alive and provide total justification for continuing in our unforgiveness.

From these strongholds, the devil tells us that our case is the exception to the commands and warnings of Jesus about a refusal to forgive. He convinces us that our case is so extreme that it is not the kind of thing Jesus was talking about when he insisted on forgiving our enemies or he convinces us that we have been hurt so deeply that it is impossible for us to forgive. Because it is impossible, Jesus will give us a pass on that command. He will go on to convince us that our anger is righteous and just because to forgive would let evil people off the hook or excuse their behavior altogether. He will also tell is that our anger and unforgiveness is the very thing that protects us from more hurt and, therefore, is both necessary and justified.

The problem is that Jesus gave no exceptions to the rule and demonstrated the “no exception” clause on the cross when he asked the Father to forgive those who had just betrayed, beaten, and crucified him. What we must understand is that forgiveness is primarily for us, not for those who have wounded us. Forgiveness frees our heart from bitterness, from the past, and from those who would continue to hurt us. Forgiveness keeps the devil out and keeps us from poisoning our own wells. Forgiveness opens the door to God’s blessings in our lives and aligns our hearts with the heart of Jesus. Justice will be done. God will deal with those unrepentant individuals who go through life harming others whether you have forgiven them or not. If they are not right with God, he will deal with them. The bigger question is always whether or not we are right with God.

Forgiveness frees, heals, and makes reconciliation possible when it would bless all parties. It is the ultimate chance to trust God by doing the very thing that seems most risky and trusting him to bless and protect us in our obedience. It is the ultimate measure of how aligned our hearts are with his. The first step to forgiveness is acknowledging that there are no “exception clauses” for us, no justification to ignore his command, and that God only asks us to do those things that bless us. After that, we can receive God’s help in fulfilling his commands.

If, in fact, Christ has purchased healing for us as well as forgiveness under the New Covenant, then my next question might be, “Since I have been taught the opposite for years, how do I come to have faith in my heart for the healing that is mine?” Let me offer a few thoughts on that.

First of all, I need to study the word of God until I am convinced that scripture does indeed teach that Christ not only purchased forgiveness by his blood but also healing by his wounds for every believer. Until I am certain that this proposition is true, my faith will waiver in moments when I need to operate by faith rather than sight. I would recommend reading some books on healing. I have already recommended F.F. Bosworth’s classic book, Christ the Healer.

Secondly, I can ask for the faith to believe in my heart what I now believe in my head. Paul declares, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Rom.12:3). If my measure of faith is given to me, then I can ask for a greater measure. I will need to cooperate with God in the growth of my faith, but ultimately, faith comes by grace like anything else. In the same way that we can ask for more wisdom, more of the Spirit, etc., we can ask for an increase in faith for healing.

Thirdly, we need to consistently confess what we now believe to be true. This is a primary way tin which we cooperate with God for the increase of our faith. Paul speaks to this as well when he says, “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Rom.10:8-10).

This verse suggests a causative connection between confessing with your mouth and believing in your heart. Verbally declaring something consistently over time tends to write that truth on our heart. The declaration of God’s word has power. The writer of Hebrews says that God’s word is living and active (Heb.4:12). As we declare his word, it operates not only in the atmosphere around us but also on our hearts. The Holy Spirit can then take that and give our heart a revelation of that truth. As the Spirit uses our verbal declaration of God’s truth to bring revelation to our hearts, our faith increases. Our part then is to speak in ways that are consistent with God’s truth regarding his healing for us.

The fourth thing we must learn is to live by faith and not by sight. This means that when we begin to experience illness or pray for healing that does not come immediately, we still stand on the promises of God that he is in the process of healing us. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (Jn.14:12-14). We know that healing is God’s will. We know that if we ask for anything that lines up with his will he will do it. Therefore, if we have asked with any faith, he will do it. Jesus reserved the timetable for himself, but we can say with certainty that he is in the process and our healing is in the pipeline.

Lastly, our faith is often undermined when we don’t see what we have asked for immediately. Sometimes, God is simply in the process and our answer has been ordained. However, we must also consider the possibility that something in the spiritual realm is in the way of our answer. We are told in 1 Corinthians 11, that some Christians were sick because they were defiling the Lord’s Supper by taking it when they did not love the brethren and were even abusing them.

In James 5, we are told that if any among us are sick, they should call the elders of the church to pray over them and their prayer of faith will raise them up and if they have sinned they will be forgiven. This tells us that although our own prayers can bring healing at times, some illness is to be overcome by the prayers of spiritual leaders. Again we are told that some illness lingers because we have unrepented sin in our lives that we have not confessed to others- – sin that needs to be forgiven before healing can manifest.   Hidden sins, unforgiveness, unbelief, bitterness, etc. that we have not confessed and dealt with through the cross can hinder our prayers and our healing.

In Daniel 10, we also see that demonic spirits can hinder the answers to our prayers as well. Generational curses from our “fathers” and sin curses or word curses from our own actions or from our own mouths can also get in the way if they are not dealt with through the cross. Before we start declaring the healing power of Jesus over ourselves, we should take a spiritual inventory to see if something in our present or our past may be hindering that grace from operating in our lives. James underlines this necessity of repentance and confession when he tells us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another that we may be healed (Ja.5:16).

As we conclude this short series, my hope is that the Holy Spirit has borne witness with your spirit that the in heritance of every believer in Christ is healing. The ultimate expression of that is to walk in divine health but we are not promised that we will never get sick. However, we are promised that Christ bore our sins, sicknesses, and infirmities on the cross and that healing is available to every believer who can receive it by faith. As we think this truth, speak this truth, pray this truth, and teach this truth we are sowing seeds from which we will eventually reap a harvest of faith and healing. If you are ill now or struggling with some infirmity, may Jesus impart healing even now for the sickness he has already carried away.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 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” (Isa.53:3-5).

The text above is one of the most important scriptures in the Bible related to our healing and forgiveness. It is one of the most familiar Messianic prophecies in scripture that prophesies what Christ would accomplish for us at the cross. Notice that Isaiah points to the Messiah as a solution for two categories of issues in our lives. The prophet says that Messiah will take up our infirmities and sorrows (NIV) and our transgressions and iniquities. We understand transgressions and iniquities. These speak of sin and violations of the Law. But what about infirmities and sorrows? That category is a little vague.

Unfortunately, it has been poorly translated in most modern versions. The poor translation is most likely due to a theological mindset that healing is not for today. There are two important Hebrew words in this passage that we must take note of. The first is choli which means “sickness” and the other is makob which means “pains.” In most modern translations they are translated as grief or infirmities and sorrows.

Let me quote from F.F. Bosworth regarding this passage. “All who have taken the time to examine the original text have found what is universally acknowledged everywhere. These two words mean, respectively, “sicknesses” and “pains” everywhere else throughout the Old Testament. The word choli is interpreted “disease” and “sickness” in Dt. 7:15, 28:61; 1 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 1:2, 8:8; 2 Chr. 16:12, 21:15; and other texts. The word makob is rendered “pain” in Job 14:22, 33:19, etc. Therefore, the prophet is saying, in this fourth verse, ‘Surely, he hath borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.’… Isaiah 53:4 cannot refer to disease of the soul, and neither of the words translated “sickness” and “pain” have any reference to spiritual matters but to bodily sickness alone. This is proven by Matthew 8:16-17: ‘…and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, ‘Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses’” (F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer, p.34-35).

The point is that Matthew quoted Isaiah 53:4 and clearly applied it to Christ as he was healing sickness and disabilities or physical infirmities.  So…when we are told that by his wounds we are healed, he means “healed from sickness and physical disabilities.” We tend to doubt these promises because as westerners affected by Greek thought, we somehow believe that God is only interested in our spirits and not our bodies. Yet, in every covenant, God provided for both. Forgiveness is for our spirits and souls. Healing is for our bodies. God is concerned with all three.

Isaiah is echoing what David wrote in Psalm 103 – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Sin separates us from God. Separation from God because of sin opens us up to the curse of the Law, which includes disease. Leaf through the curses and blessings of Deuteronomy 28 and you will have a feel for the curse of the Law. Under law, sin still stands against us and gives the enemy a legal right to afflict us. When sin is taken away, the curse of the Law loses it power. Health and healing are then within reach. Healing can be received by those with faith and also administered by those with faith.

Remember the paralytic man in Matthew 9. Jesus declared, “Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees, of course, began to whisper that no man had the right to forgive sins. Jesus then said, “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man got up and went home” (Mt.9:5-7). Jesus demonstrated that the forgiveness of sin makes healing available to us. At the cross, Jesus not only bore our sins but also our sicknesses. Through the cross, God intends to heal the whole man – body, soul, and spirit.

Those in Christ walk in forgiveness and have been freed from the curse of the Law. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal.3:13). Therefore, healing is our inheritance in Christ. Like many blessings in Christ, the blessing is available to each of us but must be received by faith. As we reflect again on the Lord’s Supper, the blood represented by the cup symbolizes the forgiveness of our sins. The bread, which represents the broken body of Christ (his wounds), symbolizes the healing that is available to us as well. Both forgiveness and healing come by faith. Both are readily available to the children of God. We are quick to receive forgiveness, but most believers still doubt God’s healing for them – at least in their hearts. Most of us fall in the category of knowing that he can but not being certain that he will. On many days I tend to slip into that category as well. That uncertainty keeps healing from many of us who need it.

So then…how do we move from doubt to faith in the area of healing? We will discuss that in my next blog, Both Forgiveness and Healing – Part 4.

We are currently discussing the promise of healing in the New Covenant. If, in fact, healing is promised in the covenant we have through Christ and he purchased healing for us as well as the forgiveness of our sins through his suffering, then healing and divine health are available and desirable for every believer. It is part of our inheritance in Christ so that we should believe as easily for healing as we do for forgiveness.

To underline this covenant aspect of healing, we need to look a little further into the past to see if health and healing were typically part of God’s covenants before the cross. When we look at the beginning of all things, health was obviously God’s will in the Garden of Eden. No one would suggest that illness or infirmity existed in the Garden. As long as Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life, they would live and apparently not be subject to disease or infirmity of any kind. I would say that disease did not exist in the Garden environment any more than it exists in heaven so that, in many ways, it was never to be part of the equation of life.

Many believers today hold the position that God is not willing to heal everyone because sickness or infirmity often draws people closer to God. They hold a theology that asserts that suffering often purifies us and makes us more spiritual. They say that when people suffer and maintain their faith, God is glorified. Since suffering draws us closer to God and often glorifies him, it is, therefore, God’s will for some believers to be sick or blind or paralyzed.   They would suggest that God sends disease and infirmity to make us better Christians. In that case, why did God not create Adam and Eve with some disabilities or cause them to suffer from some exotic disease in the Garden to mature them spiritually?Why do we never see Jesus laying hands on some person in order to impart disease so that the man or woman could draw closer to God or become more spiritually mature?

I am not saying that God can’t use suffering to mature us, but that is a different thing from wanting us to be sick or willing us to be sick. We must also acknowledge that sickness has often been part of some judgment that has come on God’s people when they have forsaken him. However, it was never what God wanted for his people and repentance brought healing or the cessation of some plague. God never sent disease, tragedy, or war on his people when they were serving him in order to upgrade their spirituality. In the Garden, health was his desire for his people.

Now, let’s go to the other end of the timeline. In John’s vision of the end, he sees a river of water flowing out to the nations from the throne of God. He says, “On each side of the river stood the Tree of Life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse” (Rev.22:2-3). In the beginning, God provided a Tree of Life to keep his people walking in divine health and at the end of time he does the same. My point is that God’s perfect will for his people is health. How many of us would believe that heaven is full of disease and paralyzed people? The very idea seems like a contradiction. Why? Because we know that disease and infirmity is not a blessing and that God does not want illness, birth defects, or disabilities for his children. Can he use it? Yes. Does he want it? No. Not only that, but we are to pray for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Since there is no illness in heaven, we are to pray against illness here.

When we look at the patriarchs, we see them sick and infirm at the end of their days, when they are greatly advanced in age, but never get a sense of them struggling with illness or infirmity before their appointed days had been fulfilled. Part of God’s blessing was health along with a fullness of days.

The fact that God’s blessings do not include illness or infirmity is very apparent in the covenant he made with Israel. To Moses, the Lord declared, “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span” (Ex.23”25-26).

A consistent expression of God’s love for his people has always been health. In another place he says, “If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The Lord will keep you free from every disease” (Dt.7:12-15).      In fact, God reveals that it is his very nature to heal those he loves. He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you” (Ex.15:26).

God’s blessings always include health. The curse of sin is alienation from God, eternal suffering, and disease and infirmity if anyone is not delivered from the curse by the blood of Jesus. When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they became subject to death and those things that produce death. They were removed from the Garden of Eden so that they could no longer eat of the Tree of Life and walk in perpetual health. Sin changed all of that. As sin impacted the soul, illness impacted the body. Disease is a manifestation of sin in the human race.

Sin and a fallen nature became a gateway to disease and infirmity. It became the natural state of man….unless man entered into a covenant with God in which he promised to take away sickness and infirmity as part of his covenant blessings for his people. Under the Old Covenant, the presence of plague or disease that was not was not being healed, were both signs of rebellion and disobedience and a call to repentance. When repentance came from the heart, however, both forgiveness and healing followed. If that was true under the Old Covenant, how much more should it be true under a better covenant? If that was true under a covenant where the blood of bulls and goats opened the door to healing, how much wider should the door be under the blood of the Lamb?

More in my next blog about the healing found in the New Covenant.

One of the spiritual gifts I pray for often, or at least for an increase in the gift, is the gift of healing and the associated gift of miracles. There is much I don’t understand about healing but I am learning more and know that there will always be some mystery attached to the supernatural. If we are going to operate in the supernatural, we will have to be at peace with not knowing or understanding everything. I also know this: to move ahead in spiritual things we need to stand on what we do know rather than teetering on what we don’t know.

There is an older book by F.F. Bosworth entitled Christ the Healer that I would recommend to anyone who wants to increase their faith in God’s healing for today. I like Bosworth’s approach to the subject because he doesn’t appeal to experience for faith in healing but appeals to the Word of God. His position is that healing has always been a benefit of any covenant God has established with his people and once we are convinced of that by scripture, we will have faith for healing since faith comes by hearing the word.

Let me quote a few lines from Bosworth in regard to this position. I think it is compelling and helpful.

Is it still the will of God, as in the past, to heal all who have need of healing and to fulfill their number of days? The greatest barrier to the faith of many seeking bodily healing in our day is the uncertainty in their minds as to it being the will of God to heal all. Nearly everyone knows that God does heal some, but there is much in modern theology that keeps people from knowing what the Bible clearly teaches – that healing is provided for all. It is impossible to boldly claim, by faith, a blessing that we are not sure God offers.

The power of God can be claimed only when the will of God is known….Faith begins where the will of God is known. If it is God’s will to heal only some of those who need healing, then none have any basis for faith unless they have some special revelation that they are among the favored ones. Faith must rest on the will of God alone, not on our desires or wishes. Appropriating faith is not believing that God can, but that God will. Because of not knowing it to be a redemptive privilege for all, most of those in our day, when seeking healing, add to their petition the phrase, “If it be thy will.” (p.49-40).

Once we accept the position that we cannot have faith for what God does not promise all of his people, we are then compelled to dig through the Word to see if those promises are truly there for all of God’s people and, especially, for us. So, I want to begin that search in this blog and then continue it for another blog or two so that you may have a stronger foundation on which to stand if you are trying to believe God for healing.

Let me raise this question: What if healing is as much a promise of the gospel as the forgiveness of sins? When Jesus established “the Lord’s supper,” he offered two parts. One is found in the cup, which represents his blood. The blood of Christ brings forgiveness. The writer of Hebrews makes this point when he says, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb.9:22). At the first Passover, it was the blood of the lamb that was placed on the doors that released them from the judgment of God. So…the cup in communion represents his shed blood and that is what brings forgiveness of sins. So what is the bread for? What does the body of Christ, broken for us, bring to the table if the forgiveness of sins is already provided by the blood? Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet. 2:24 ). Jesus incurred wounds in his body that was broken for us. Why? So that we may be healed as well as forgiven.

Many will argue that the healing Peter speaks of is spiritual healing, not physical healing. Then why did Jesus heal everyone who came to him instead of simply taking away their emotional pain? Undoubtedly, one of his major goals is to take away emotional pain from his people since both Isaiah 61 and Luke 4 tell us that he came to heal the broken-hearted. But, he also came to heal bodies in bondage to disease and infirmity. In Luke 13, a woman came to Jesus who had been crippled with a bad back for nearly twenty years. Jesus healed her on the Sabbath and as the Pharisees objected he said, “Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” (Lk.13:16). Jesus spoke of physical infirmity as bondage and set her free. In Isaiah 61 and Luke 4, we are told that Messiah Jesus would not only came to heal broken hearts but also to set captives free.

In Psalm 103, David speaks of the benefits God provides for his people. He says, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.” (Ps.103:2-4). Now, as Christians who live under an even better Covenant than David, we easily and quickly claim that God’s forgiveness is for all, along with his love and compassion and his involvement in our lives to pull us out of any pit. So…why do we exclude from that promise that God also heals all our diseases? Didn’t Jesus do both over and over again in his ministry as he preached the Kingdom of God and then demonstrated it?

In scripture, healing is a physical manifestation of forgiveness since sickness is part of the curse of the Law for those who are unforgiven. In Exodus 23, God tells Israel that when they serve him faithfully, “I will take sickness away from your midst and the number of your days will be fulfilled” (Ex. 23:25-26). A few chapters earlier, God had already revealed himself as Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals you. (Ex.15:26). If it is the name of God to heal, then it is the nature of God to heal. Jesus came as the exact representation of the Father and demonstrated his will to both forgive and heal over and over. So…why would God withdraw that covenant benefit from those who love him today and live under a better covenant – a covenant through which he gave gifts of healing to his church?

We will pick up on that thought in Part 2 in my next blog.

I’m currently reading a book by F.F. Bosworth written in 1924. It is entitled, Christ the Healer. The interesting thing about old books that open up the scriptures is that they still speak to us because God’s truth does not change. Bosworth had a phenomenal healing ministry and has some great insights into praying for healing and how to receive healing. I found one analogy really interesting and insightful.

I will quote a bit from the book. His grammar is dated but not his understanding. “We will now endeavor to make plain how to appropriate healing. Getting things from God is like playing checkers. After one person moves, he has nothing to do until the other player moves. Each man moves in his own turn. So when God has provided healing, or any other blessing, and sent us his Word, it is our move before he will move again. Our move is to expect what he promises when we pray. This will cause us to act our faith before we see the healing. The healing comes in the next move, which is God’s move…. By expectation I do not mean hope. One writer has well said, ‘We hope for what may be possible, but we expect what must be possible…with the expectancy that shuts out doubt or fear of failure, and shows unshakeable confidence. Faith never waits to see before it believes…all that a man of faith needs to know is that God has spoken’” (F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer, p.103, Baker Publishing Group).

Bosworth is very clear that God has promised healing for all believers through the sacrifice of his Son. In fact, Jehovah Rapha is one of seven covenant names of God in scripture and means, “ I am the God who heals you.” The present tense “am” reveals that the nature of God is unchanging. It is always present tense. Therefore, God was, is, and shall always be the God who heals you. Once God has provided healing through the cross and established in his word that it is always his will to heal, then our move is to take him at his word with a rock-solid conviction that God does not lie and his word is true. He will do what he says he will do. So, when we pray, we pray with the firm expectation that God is going to heal or meet any other need and then, having prayed, wait expectantly to see God move.

That sounds simple, but most of us know that faith resides in the heart not in the head and that we often have an intellectual conviction about some biblical truth or promise but, deep in our hearts, the expectation is still more of a hope than a certainty. The key, then, to receiving from God is to grow in our expectation that God will always do what he said he will do regardless of the circumstances or what we see with our eyes. But how do we grow in that expectation? Here are a few approaches to that growth that I am employing now in my effort to increase the expectation in my heart for healing and several other things.

First, all the men who had amazing healing ministries in the past insist that getting God’s truth in us about the thing we want to fully believe for is essential. The idea is that you cannot have faith for something until you have studied it and know that the Bible absolutely teaches that not only is God able but he is willing to do what you ask. You begin with an intellectual certainty based on the Word of God that what you are praying for is God’s will.

Secondly, if there are conditions attached to the blessing, you will need to be clear about the conditions. God’s love is unconditional, but his blessings often have conditions attached such as repentance, confession, forgiveness, generosity, etc. For instance, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” Healing is an expression of God’s mercy and the condition is that we must extend mercy to receive mercy. “Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed.” Confession is a condition for healing. “Judge not, or you will be judged.” Illness can be a judgment, so if we want the judgment lifted, we must repent of our judgmental attitudes.

Thirdly, we can ask the Holy Spirit to increase our faith and expectation for whatever promise we are seeking. Faith is a spiritual gift that comes from the Spirit. We have permission to ask for more. At the same time, the Word of God is living and active and does its work in us when we activate it. We activate it by speaking it or declaring it. As you find confirmation of the promise you desire in the scriptures, you should list the most compelling scriptures you find and speak them daily because doing so helps to write them on your heart. When the Word gets down in our hearts, it produces faith.

Fourthly, put yourself in places or around people where you see the promise of God you are looking for being fulfilled. For instance, if you want to believe God for healing, go on an evangelism mission in a third world country with a ministry that preaches the gospel, heals the sick, and casts out demons – New Testament stuff. God heals more people in third world nations because they run to God rather than running to doctors. Seeing miracles of healing will increase your expectation. You can also find God moving in healing in the U.S. You may need to go where God is moving to increase your expectation. Whatever you are praying for, find a place or some people where God is making good on that promise. Jesus didn’t expect the apostles to have faith for healing until they had seen him heal on numerous occasions.

Each of those actions constitutes a move that you can make, so that God can move next. Perhaps, you have been believing God for someone’s salvation. It may be that it is your move, and that move would be sharing the gospel with them. Perhaps, you have been praying for financial blessing and your move would be to begin to tithe, believing that God will give the increase. If you have been praying for a healing gift, your next move might be to begin to pray for strangers at Wal-Mart, choosing to believe that God will heal just as he has said.

Whatever you have been hoping for, it may be time to convert hope to expectation. Ask God if it is your move. If it is, then make it. Blessings in Him.

Whenever we speak of God’s consistent willingness to heal because that is God’s heart and his nature, someone always brings up Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7) as an example of God leaving Paul with an illness to keep him humble after receiving amazing revelations. The argument goes that if Paul was afflicted with an illness (a thorn in the flesh) in order to facilitate his humility or his spiritual maturity, then why would God not send illnesses on others or, at least, leave us in that condition in order to mature us spiritually? It’s a fair question that needs to be answered.

First of all, the idiom Paul used – a thorn in the flesh – has equivalents in the Old Testament. Speaking of pagan tribes in Canaan, God told Moses, “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live” (Num.33:35). Speaking to Joshua, God said, “the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you” (Josh. 23:13). After the death of Joshua, an angel of the Lord told the disobedient Israelites, “Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you” (Judg.2:3).

In these texts, the idiom speaks of external forces (men from surrounding tribes) persecuting, afflicting, and harassing God’s people. In Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks about a group of men who had come to Corinth after his departure. These men were masquerading as apostles of Christ and were attempting to undermine his work there. He says that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light so it is no surprise that his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness (2 Cor.11:13-15).

According to Paul these men were attempting to enslave, exploit, and take advantage of the believers at Corinth and to exalt themselves while insulting the church. Paul says sarcastically, “we were too weak for that.” In other words, Paul and his companions did not press their authority or positions as apostles but took a position of weakness as servants. He then lists all the suffering he has experienced at the hands of the Jews and refers to his submission to that suffering as his weakness (2 Cor.11:30) and again refers to his submission and acceptance of persecution and hardship as his weaknesses in 2 Corinthians 12:5.

Paul goes on to speak of extraordinary revelations he had received and of a thorn in the flesh that he had been given (or that was allowed) in order to keep him from becoming conceited or exalted. He went to the Lord three times asking for the “thorn” to be removed but God said that his grace and power were perfected in Paul’s weaknesses. The weaknesses Paul listed in previous parts of the texts were sufferings from persecutions. Nowhere did he mention illnesses.

The idiom used in other parts of the Bible refers to men who were afflicting, persecuting, or harassing God’s people. Paul had just spoken of such a group who served Satan and masqueraded as ministers of righteousness. He also describes the thorn as a messenger of Satan. In the context, it seems that Paul was describing these men and others like them who seemed to follow the apostle wherever he went in an attempt to undermine his preaching of grace and draw new Christians back under the Law of Moses. These Judaizers were absolutely a thorn in Paul’s side wherever he went.

Christians are promised persecution in numerous places in the New Testament but never are they promised sickness. In fact, they are promised deliverance form sickness. James says, “Is anyone among you sick? 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 will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (Ja.5:14-15). He does not qualify this by saying, “Let him call the elders of the church unless God has given him an illness in order to purify his soul.” This promised healing is clearly for everyone. Even if the illness came through sin, James goes on to say, “and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (Ja.5:15). Our good Father, who is “the God who heals his people,” does not rejoice in the illness and suffering of his children any more than a loving, earthly father would. He gave gifts of healing to the church and gave elders in every congregation a healing ministry. Illness is not the Biblical norm for Christians and it is not God’s way of making us holy. I believe that Paul’s thorn was the persecution of those false apostles who followed him from town to town, not an illness that God would not heal. Anyway, these thoughts are for your consideration.

If Paul’s thorn has been a thorn in your flesh when seeking healing, I hope this is helpful. Blessings in Him, Jehovah Rophi, the God who heals his people.

After making a case in my last blog for God’s healing today and a case that it is always God’s heart to heal, the question has to be addressed, “Then, why isn’t everyone healed in response to our prayers?”

Let’s begin by saying that because of our free will, God’s will is not always done on earth. If God’s will were always done, there would be no need to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” For instance, we are told in Paul’s first letter to Timothy that, “God desires that all men should be saved” (1 Tim.2:4), but we know that all men will not be saved. Even though the heart of the Father is salvation for all, he allows us to choose whether we will meet the condition of that salvation – faith in Jesus Christ. Some will choose not to believe and will not be saved. Some will not meet God’s conditions for healing and will not be healed although that is his desire for them.

Secondly, healing is not experienced when a person does not want to be healed. God honors our desires. Our first impulse is to believe that anyone who could be healed would want to be healed. However, that is not always the case. John tells us about a lame man who was brought to the pool of Bethesda each day. “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” (Jn.5:6). There are many whose identity is so tied up in their condition or their illness that to be healed or set free is frightening. Who would they be without the illness, the condition, or the brokenness that has defined their life for years? The care and sympathy they have received from others because of their condition has become their source of comfort and affirmation and their condition gives them a pass on being responsible, productive, or mature. Not every sick person wants to be healed.

A third possible reason for a person not being healed is that he or she has no faith for it when by reason of time and opportunity, he or she should have sufficient faith to be healed. Many believers declare that they believe God heals, but the truth is that those believers simply believe that he can heal…not that he will. A mental conviction that God could heal if he chose to is not at all the same as a firm expectation in a person’s heart that God will heal. It is true that Jesus healed some who had no faith. He healed them on the basis of his faith because they had not had the opportunity to develop their own faith. To others he said, “May it be done to you according to your faith” and in Nazareth Jesus was able to heal only a few because of their unbelief. There comes a time when we should have sufficient faith for healing – not perfect faith, just sufficient faith. If we have no faith, then healing may not come our way.

Fourthly, all the way through scripture, sin is presented as a gateway for illness. A great number of illnesses, physical conditions, and emotional conditions are caused by spirits of infirmity. In the gospels we see demonic spirits as the cause of blindness, deafness, muteness, back trouble, seizures, depression, etc. Unless the demon was cast out, the symptoms remained. If we pray for healing for a person whose illness is caused by a spirit of infirmity, but do not cast out the demon, the symptoms will remain and no healing will occur. The majority of churches who pray for healing for their members every Sunday have no concept of demonic oppression and little expectation for supernatural healing. In that environment, only a few will be healed.

In addition, even if a person is aware of the possibility of a demon as the root cause of an illness and is commanding a spirit to leave, that spirit will not leave if he has a legal right to afflict the person because of unrepented sin or a curse operating in the life of that individual. Before ministering healing to a sick or disabled person, it is best to spend some time in conversation, diagnosing any unrepented sin, including unforgiveness, or a family history suggesting generational curses before praying. If there are any curses to be broken or sins to be repented of, that must happen before he demon is cast our and much healing will occur.

Another possible reason for a person not being healed is that he or she has slipped back under the bondage of law believing that he or she must earn God’s approval in order to be healed rather than totally trusting in his love and grace. When we are depending on ourselves, our efforts, our goodness, or our “meritorious works,” we will not receive healing because we are saved and healed by grace, not by works. If we find ourselves trying to convince God of our worthiness for healing because we have done so much or given so much, then we are trusting in ourselves and not in him. We are also maintaining a view that God is not willing to heal but must be convinced. That mindset will certainly hinder healing.

I also have to remind myself, at times, that healing is not always instantaneous. It often is a process that takes hours, days, or even weeks. Instantaneous healing really falls under the category of miracles, so if we do not see healing immediately it does not mean that God is not healing a person or ourselves in response to our prayers or declarations.

Having said all these things, it may seem that there are so many conditions for healing that no one can be healed. But actually, the conditions for healing are basic and the same as those for salvation – believe, repent, trust in the grace of God that comes to us through Jesus, and ask. When a demon is involved, send him packing. If healing has not come, ask the Father to show you what is in the way of that healing and then deal with it through Jesus – always remembering that it is the heart of God to heal. May you be richly blessed in Jesus today.