Healing School 2019 – Part 6
More times than not, the road to divine healing is not an expressway.
It is often littered with roadblocks by the devil to keep us from being able to receive our healing. (WAZE GPS APP)
These roadblocks wear subtle disguises and come from many sources based in tradition, superstition, and wrong teaching from the Scriptures.
Roadblock #1 – God sends sickness upon people
From: The Permissive Sense: Hints and Helps to Bible Interpretation by Troy J. Edwards
The foundation of all faith in the Bible is really based on God’s character and our understanding of it.
People are not angry at God… They are angry at a false representation of God.
Too often theologians attributed Satan’s works to God and have led many people to hate the wrong person.
One can easily understand why the enemy would seek to integrate these wrong theological ideas into the Church. It is thinking such as this that causes agnostics and atheists to hate God. Doctrines that denigrate God’s character are responsible for numerous lost souls and passive Christians.
(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.”
(Isaiah 45:7 NKJV) I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.’
(Isaiah 45:7 KJV) I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
(Micah 1:12 NKJV) For the inhabitant of Maroth pined for good, But disaster came down from the LORD To the gate of Jerusalem.
(Micah 1:12 KJV) For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem.
We know that evil does not come down from Heaven. God only permits evil; He does not create it.
What about the plagues that struck Egypt? Especially when the Bible says this:
(Exodus 11:1 NKJV) And the LORD said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether.
(Exodus 12:29-32 NKJV) And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. (30) So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. (31) Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the LORD as you have said. (32) Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”
And yet we see in the Scriptures:
(Hebrews 2:14 NKJV) Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
Saul and the evil spirit from God:
(1 Samuel 18:6-14 NKJV) Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. (7) So the women sang as they danced, and said: “Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands.” (8) Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” (9) So Saul eyed David from that day forward. (10) And it happened on the next day that the distressing (KJV: “evil”) spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. So David played music with his hand, as at other times; but there was a spear in Saul’s hand. (11) And Saul cast the spear, for he said, “I will pin David to the wall!” But David escaped his presence twice. (12) Now Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, but had departed from Saul. (13) Therefore Saul removed him from his presence, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people. (14) And David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the LORD was with him.
This seems to fly in the face of verses from the New Testament:
(James 1:17 NKJV) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
(James 1:17 MSG) Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.
We see other Scriptures that speak of God’s goodness:
(Exodus 34:6-7 NKJV) And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, (7) keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
(Numbers 14:17-20 NKJV) And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, (18) ‘The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.‘ (19) Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” (20) Then the LORD said: “I have pardoned, according to your word;
(Psalms 86:5 NKJV) For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.
(Psalms 34:6-10 NKJV) This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. (7) The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them. (8) Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! (9) Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. (10) The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.
Most Christians would easily concur with these Scriptures however, many believe it is impossible to believe or understand God’s definition of “goodness.”
(Isaiah 55:8 NKJV) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
To this group, God is allowed to do, decree, or at the very least permit (as in the sense of desiring) evil while still remaining good.
God is light.
(1 John 1:5 NKJV) This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
Jesus never did what men would call evil.
(Acts 10:38 NKJV) how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
And as our High Priest, He never will do us harm.
(Hebrews 7:25-26 NKJV) Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (26) For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;
God and Jesus are exactly like each other in every way.
(2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV) whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
(Hebrews 1:1-3 NKJV) God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, (2) has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; (3) who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
(John 14:8-11 NKJV) Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” (9) Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (10) Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. (11) Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
All of the sin and death, destruction, sickness, poverty, crime and every other harmful thing in this world that sin produces is not of the Father.
(James 1:17 NKJV) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
One does not have to read very far in the Bible for people to discover that this loving, caring and good God also does the following:
- God hardens people’s hearts
- God put lying spirits in the mouths of false prophets.
- God personally deceived prophets.
- God blinded people to the truth.
- God inflicted sickness.
- God sent natural disasters.
- God moved people to sin.
- God tempted men.
- God intentionally gave men unrighteous laws.
- God created evil.
- And so on…
This leads people to accept one of two possibly answers:
Marcionism or Liberalism
Liberalism is the leaning to question the divine inspiration or infallibility of Scriptures.
Marcionism comes from Marcion of Sinope (a son of a church leader in the first century). He completely rejected the Old Testament because of the incompatibility of the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. He went on to create his own Bible with the Epistles of Paul and the Gospel of Luke.
(We see that even Jesus taught from the Old Testament and said that the Old Testament is the Word of God.)
Thankfully, there is another option.
In his book Redeemed from Poverty, Sickness and Spiritual Death, Rev. Kenneth Hagin notes that the curses in Deuteronomy 28:
Dr. Robert Young, author of Hints to Bible Interpretation, points out that in the original Hebrew, the verb is in the permissive rather than the causative sense. Actually, it should have been translated something like this: “The Lord will allow you to be smitten… The Lord will allow these plagues to be brought up you…”
The only problem was that this article by Dr. Young was a part of the larger Young’s Analytical Concordance and really does not offer a large amount of detail.
What is the “permissive sense”?
The permissive sense is God allowing circumstances that He would normally protect and individual or nation from. This usually happens when an individual or nation refuses to repent (from sin) and continues in disobedience. This leaves God with no choice but to remove His protection from them.
God will let a person suffer from the inevitable consequences of their sin, as the punishment for the sin is in the seed of sin itself. He allows the person to reap what they have sown.
God respects the freedom of choice that He created people with. God will permit a person to sin without restraint when there is no integrity of their heart (as in Abimilech’s case in Genesis 20:1-7) This is exactly what is meant when God is said to harden someone’s heart. It only means that He did not restrain them or prevent from hardening themselves.
God exercises this permission of sin and circumstances by departing from and forsaking an individual or nation and allowing whatever forces, both spiritual and physical that desired to destroy them but could not due to His presence, to have their way.
Nothing can ever harm us when we have God’s protective presence (Psalm 91) but, if He ever withdraws from us then woe be unto us.
(Hosea 9:12 NKJV) Though they bring up their children, Yet I will bereave them to the last man. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
These things that God permits are NOT His will and His DESIGN!
What we see is a good God who has been pushed away by His creation because they prefer the temporary pleasures of sin more than a gracious God who wants to protect them from sin’s destructive power.