Our
Three-fold Redemption:
Maybe
everyone already knows this:
Most of us know that Jesus died for our sins. There is so
much more. How many know that He also died so that we might have health in our
physical bodies? And in our souls? Matt. 8:16-17 says Jesus healed all that
were ______ that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying Himself took our infirmities and bore our __________. Does this verse
indicate Jesus healed spiritual or physical illness (or both?) as a fulfillment
of Isa. 53:5. The Isaiah prophecy states, with His stripes we are
______________. Does
“we” include you and me?
In the Garden of Gethsemane,
Jesus began to reverse the curse which happened in Eden's Garden. We know
that Jesus became "exceedingly sorrowful," so that blood ran from his
pours like sweat. This was not a natural sorrow. It was not born of fear for
what He knew He must suffer. Yes, He dreaded being separated from His Father
for the first time ever. However, He also was bearing the sorrows of the world.
Every grief, heartache, disappointment, discouragement, He took on Himself in
fulfillment of Isa. 53:5.
When He suffered the cruel whip lashes from a cat-o-nine tails embedded with barbs, He was
taking on every sickness and disease so that believers could have physical healing by those stripes on his flayed
flesh. Prv. 20:30, "Blows and wounds cleanse away evil and stripes scour
evil which reaches the innermost parts."
When He hung on the cross and cried out, "My God," He did not use the word, Father,
because He was now separated from the Father. He was taking on the sins of the
world into His own sinless spirit.
When He cried out, "I thirst," doubtless He was suffering the body's pangs for physical
water, but even more so the spirit's thirst for the Source of Living Water from
which He had been cut off, so that by that sacrifice, we can have living water
in our inmost being for the purpose of refreshing others.
When He refused the sour wine, He was fulfilling His own
prophecy, "I will drink wine no more until I drink it new with you in the
Kingdom." This is the promise of the best wine at the wedding feast of the Lamb and His bride.
On the cross, Jesus also suffered actual mental torment
from Satan. He suffered in our place!
I have met Patricia Parks of Harrison Arkansas and found
her vision of Christ's suffering to be scripturally accurate. She was walking
in a beautiful valley surrounded by high mountains. She noticed the clouds
changing shape, taking on the appearance of ferocious beasts—a lion, a big cat,
a bull, or a bear.
In Patricia’s vision, the cloud beasts looked as if they
were going to attack Jesus; however, she saw they were made only of mist.
She heard the Lord say, “The beasts were satanic
illusions. If I had believed satan’s lies while I was on the cross, I would
have been defeated, instead of victorious.” She wrote down the following words
which He spoke to her spirit:
My people have forgotten what I did for them on Calvary.
I have a victorious people, but they do not live it. Nor do their countenances
show it. It grieves my heart that they do not realize what I did for them. My
people are a victorious people and they know it not. You are already
victorious, and you do not even know it. I have already wrought the victory for
you (I Cor. 15: 57).
Let the reader note: I do not give serious credence to any claim that a
message is directly from the Lord, until I find scriptural support. The spirits
of the prophets are subject to the prophets and must be judged by scripture. In
the gospels, there are no threatening cloud beasts described surrounding the
cross. However, I asked the Lord to show me the truth, because the vision rang
true in my spirit.
A few days later, I read a prophetic description of
Christ’s death on the cross, written by King David some 700 years before it
came to pass. David described beasts, strong
bulls of Bashan besetting around and gaping upon the Lord as a ravening and
roaring lion (Psa.
22:13).
This passage confirms exactly what Patricia saw in her
vision.
Perhaps we will never fully understand what horrors our
Lord endured as He hung on that cross, however I see His struggle in an
entirely new dimension.
Our redemption is threefold. He suffered in body, soul,
and spirit, in order to redeem the complete triune nature of man I
Thess. 5:23.
We need only to believe we receive.
It is not a lack of faith to go to a doctor. Jesus
said the sick need a physician. Mark 2: 17.
He is also the Great Physician, our Passover Lamb, and He
came to redeem us spirit, soul, and body, from sin and sin's illnesses.
Some Foundational truths about healing from the Lord, which
the Lord impresses on my heart:
1. Healing is provided in the Atonement, which
includes healing for all three parts of man--spirit, soul, and body.
Psa. 103: 1-5; Matt. 8: 16-17; Isa. 53:5, I Pet. 2:24. (See page three.)
2. Healing is always God's will in the New
Testament. We are under a new and better covenant. We do not need to beg
God to heal us. Although we often do and it's not necessarily wrong, just wrong
theology. Thank God He doesn't require perfect theology. Heb. 8:13.
Luke 5:13; Acts 10: 38; John 8: 28
3. Healing can be limited by unbelief: Never tell
someone they don't have enough faith. Honest doubt is not the same as
unbelief, which appears to be a choice in the face of Jesus' miracles. The
scribes said He cast out demons by the prince of demons' power. That's
unbelief.
Mark 6: 5; Matt.13: 58
4. Healing, like salvation, is NOT automatic. Both
are God's will, and both must be received.
John 1:12; Rom. 10: 8-10.
5. When healing does not come immediately, one
possible reason is that God is allowing the seed to take root so the healing
cannot be stolen by the fowls of the air. A longtime sick person often
needs the renewing of his mind so that when symptoms try to reappear, he can
resist and command them to leave. Mark 4: 4.
6. In the New Testament, healing comes by a prayer of
commanding authority, based on the authority Christ gave to believers, Mark
16:17. Jesus commanded. Rise and be healed. Stretch forth your hand. Little
Girl arise. Lazarus come forth. The apostles imitated his commanding
prayers by faith in His Name throughout the New Testament. "In the name of
Jesus Christ rise up and walk!" Acts 3: 6.
This is in stark contrast to Moses, who prayed, "Heal
her O God." Moses did not have the authority to command Marian's leprosy
to go. That authority is given to the believers after Christ's resurrection.
7. Healing does not have to be earned. Like
salvation, none of us can qualify with our own righteousness. We come to the
Savior who qualifies us.
WHY does everyone not get healed? There are factors that
block the blessing:
1. Unforgiveness in a person's heart can block
the blessing. Mark 11: 23-25; James 5: 16; Psa. 66:18;
2. Healing can be blocked at times because demonic
oppression is not addressed. Luke 13: 11-16.
3. Faith does not trump stupidity. If you
habitually abuse, neglect, or violate the natural laws of good hygiene,
nutrition, etc. you will likely reap natural consequences. Ex. 23: 25.
4. Fear and anxiety can be sources of illness. Prv.
3: 5-8.
5. Past disappointments that undermine
faith in the present can block the blessing: Mark 5:26; John 5: 5-7.
This requires a renewal of the mind, seeing yourself well, planning for a long
life (Psalm 91: 16) regardless of what the doctors say.
6. Unbiblical conclusions can block the blessing.
Blaming God for what the devil does, the thief who comes to steal, kill, and
destroy. Jesus came that we might have life and that more abundantly. Matt.
12:27. Also the whatever-will-be, if-it's-God's-will passive attitude, which is
spiritual laziness.
7. Eating and drinking unworthily without
recognizing what Jesus accomplished on Calvary can cause people to grow
sick and die before their time. I Cor. 11: 29-30. Obviously, if they are not
taught to expect redemption from sickness, they will not receive it. How can
they believe is they are not hearing. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
Word of God.
8. Sometimes, a believer just gets tired and wants to go
home to be with the Lord. Phil. 1:23.16.
9. There is also a time when physical death may be
a rescue from things to come. Isa. 57:1; Psa. 37:37.
10. Wrong speaking, or agreeing with negative reports,
can squelch faith. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Example: "Yes,
doctors diagnosed this condition, but God's Word says by His stripes I was
healed. I am redeemed from the curse of the law of sin and death. I believe I
receive my healing and resist lying symptoms." There are countless
testimonies of victories of illness, simply by the person speaking God's word
over their bodies and refusing to agree with any other report. Let God's Word
be true and every man a liar. Rom. 3: 4.
11. Failure to act on God's word. If the lame man did not obey the Lord's words to get up and walk, he would not have received. If we truly believe we receive when we pray for healing, we need to act on that. I'm not saying quit taking meds or stop using common sense. See yourself well and began to act and plan for wellness. Dodie Osteen got up, dressed and went about her normal activities, even though her body was weak and in pain from cancer. Within a few days, all symptoms left.
11. Failure to act on God's word. If the lame man did not obey the Lord's words to get up and walk, he would not have received. If we truly believe we receive when we pray for healing, we need to act on that. I'm not saying quit taking meds or stop using common sense. See yourself well and began to act and plan for wellness. Dodie Osteen got up, dressed and went about her normal activities, even though her body was weak and in pain from cancer. Within a few days, all symptoms left.
12. Some people are just too spiritually lazy to
SEEK God for their healing and learn how to fight a good fight of faith.
Even though we have a promise that those who seek Him with the whole heart will
find, lazy people want the doctors to do it, want others to pray the prayer of
faith, and would rather watch TV than turn the pages of the Bible. Jer. 29:13;
Matt. 7:7; John 4: 23-24.
Let all who seek Him rejoice and be glad! Psa. 40:16.
A good fight of faith is when you get hold of God's
word, you align yourself with it, and you do not let go, even if it means lying
on your belly and reading all the healing scriptures aloud to God throughout
the night and longer--however long it takes. (Two years in my case before
the symptoms left completely and stopped returning). You are not trying to
change God's mind. You are changing your own mental image of self
from one of illness to health. Gen. 2:19 credits evil people with achieving
whatever enters their imagination. If they can do it, how much more can God's
people have victory by aligning their imagination with His Word?! You are also
resisting the devil. He may not flee at once, but he will flee. And he always
returns to steal the Word, so the good fight continues even after the healing.
A good fight is one you can win. Arm yourself with the sword
of the Spirit (the Word). It will put the devil on the run.
