Healing School 2019 – Part 5
The Children of Israel did not operate with an understanding of being God’s sons and daughters like we do in the New Testament. This was a line of thinking introduced by Jesus in the New Testament that comes about as a result of being Born Again.
They saw themselves as sons and daughters of Abraham and because of the covenant relationship that Abraham had with God, they were partakers of that covenant and its rights and privileges.
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 NKJV (1) “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. (2) And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
Fourteen verses follow these verses and give us what will happen when they would listen and obey the Word of God.
After this is way more verses (54) that show us what would happen negatively if they did not listen and obey. Why would God talk more about the negative results? The positive things are always easier and simpler when there is obedience. Things get really complicated when there is disobedience.
When you walk in obedience to God, your life gets really simple. When you choose to disobey the Scriptures, your life gets really complicated.
The following are the curses that would come on people who disobeyed:
Deuteronomy 28:21-22 NKJV (21) The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. (22) The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.
Deuteronomy 28:27-29 NKJV (27) The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. (28) The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. (29) And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
Deuteronomy 28:35 NKJV (35) The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
Deuteronomy 28:59-61 NKJV (59) then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues–great and prolonged plagues–and serious and prolonged sicknesses. (60) Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. (61) Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed.
How come it sounds like God is doing all of this stuff?
Isaiah 54:14-17 NKJV (14) In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. (15) Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. (16) “Behold, I have created the blacksmith Who blows the coals in the fire, Who brings forth an instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy. (17) No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the LORD.
Ancient people did not have much knowledge of science or technology. They were very superstitious.
People worshipped both the good gods and the evil gods. The way that they would deal with the evil gods is they would buy them off by gifts and sacrifices.
What God did not want to do is to call any unnecessary attention to the devil in the Old Testament. Oftentimes, He would prefer everyone to just deal with Him and He would deal with it all later.
In the Old Testament (Deut. 28) there is not one mention or association of all those sicknesses with the devil but the moment we get to the New Testament we see in Jesus’ ministry instance after instance of the sicknesses that Jesus healed being associated with the devil.
The change is because people are able to do something that they were not able to do before and that is be Born Again and have authority over the devil and are able to deal with him without fear.
What is a Promise?
Dictionary – A declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified.
The key is that something WILL happen.
Redemption and salvation as we know it was a promise in the Old Testament. The promise always looked to the future.
Ezekiel 11:19-20 NKJV Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, (20) that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Joel 2:28-29 NKJV “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. (29) And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Acts 2:14-21 NKJV But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. (15) For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. (16) But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: (17) ‘AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THE LAST DAYS, SAYS GOD, THAT I WILL POUR OUT OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS. (18) AND ON MY MENSERVANTS AND ON MY MAIDSERVANTS I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT IN THOSE DAYS; AND THEY SHALL PROPHESY. (19) I WILL SHOW WONDERS IN HEAVEN ABOVE AND SIGNS IN THE EARTH BENEATH: BLOOD AND FIRE AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. (20) THE SUN SHALL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS, AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE COMING OF THE GREAT AND AWESOME DAY OF THE LORD. (21) AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED.’
We must understand the difference between a promise of redemption and the fact that redemption has already taken place.
A promise of something means that it has not yet happened but it will at some time.
The work of redemption was begun by Jesus at the Cross and completed at His resurrection.
Salvation is no longer a promise. It is a fact of the completed work of redemption.
In order to be saved, we don’t receive the promise of salvation. We put our faith in the completed work of Jesus for our salvation.
Romans 10:9-10 NKJV (9) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
We can clearly see the promise of healing in the Old Testament.
Exodus 15:26 NKJV and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
Exodus 23:25 NKJV (25) “So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.
Psalms 91:1-6 NKJV He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (2) I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” (3) Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. (4) He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. (5) You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, (6) Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
Psalms 103:1-5 NKJV (1) A Psalm Of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! (2) Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: (3) Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, (4) Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, (5) Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Proverbs 4:20-22 NKJV (20) My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. (21) Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; (22) For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.
In the Old Testament, healing was a conditional promise of something that God would do for His people.
But then we see the Lord begin to talk about a work that was going to take place in the future.
Isaiah 53:3 NKJV (3) He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isaiah 53:6 NKJV (6) All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
But sandwiched in the prophecy about the payment for our sins and iniquities, we something else about this work.
Isaiah 53:4-5 NKJV (4) Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses) And carried our sorrows (pains); Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. (5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:4-5 AMP (4) Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. [Matt. 8:17.] (5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
Isaiah lets us know that there will be more to the work of redemption than just the purchasing of our spiritual salvation.
On this side of the cross, we see that the work spoken about has happened and is completed for us.
1 Peter 2:24 NKJV (24) who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.
In his book Sparkling Gems from the Greek, Rick Renner says,
In First Peter 2:24, the apostle Peter quoted Isaiah 53:5. He told his readers, “By whose stripes ye were healed.” The word “stripes” used in this verse is molopsi, which describes a full- body bruise. It refers to a terrible lashing that draws blood and that produces discoloration and swelling of the entire body. When Peter wrote this verse, he wasn’t speaking by revelation but by memory, for he vividly remembered what happened to Jesus that night and what His physical appearance looked like after His scourging.
After graphically reminding us of the beating, bleeding, and bruising that Jesus endured, Peter jubilantly declared that it was by these same stripes that we are “healed.” The word “healed” is the Greek word iaomai — a word that clearly refers to physical healing, as it is a word borrowed from the medical term to describe the physical healing or curing of the human body.
For those who think this promise refers to spiritual healing only, the Greek word emphatically speaks of the healing of a physical condition. This is a real promise of bodily healing that belongs to all who have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ!
Healing is something already purchased and the work is already done.
It is received in the same way that salvation is received; by faith.
1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV (12) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
In the fight of faith, we need to learn to “hold” what is ours.
You have to have a position in your mind if you are going to win. (Example – buying a car, you must be willing to walk away if necessary, to possibly get the deal you want.) Satan loves to get people out of their position in their minds in what they are doing.
Very often, we see ourselves as people who don’t have something, and we are trying to get it. The fight of faith is just the opposite.
Healing is already yours and the enemy would like to keep you from receiving it or take from you what is already yours.
The devil comes to my mind and tells me I am not going to get it. He actually should be saying, “You have it and I want to take it…”
1 Peter 2:24 NKJV (24) who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.
Begin to see yourself as someone who was healed and if you were healed then you are healed.