bethesdapoolIn the last post, we looked at healing at the Pool of Bethesda, described below;

John 5:14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

From this, we saw that sin can lead to sickness. Worry or drugs or sexual sin, among other sins, can lead to sickness of the body and mind. In case you were wondering, worry is a sin, as in Philippians 4:6;

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Note that this is not a suggestion, it is a command—primarily for our own good. Physiologically, worry and stress raise cortisol levels in the body and can affect blood pressure, sleep patterns and so on. Anxiety and worry cannot coexist with faith.  Once they arrive, trust and faith in God departs.

So then, is all sickness the result of sin? Thank God, it is not, or some would be sick every day or week. In Jesus’ day, many believed that sickness was the result of a person’s sin or that of his parents, but Jesus debunked that very quickly:

John 9:1-3 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

So this sickness was not the result of sin by either the man or his parents. Some sickness comes from our being in a fallen world, others from our unwise choices and lifestyles, and yet others by demonic attack. Also, the actions of sinful or malicious people can cause sickness in others, such as parents who smoke.

Note that I didn’t mention God here. He is not the source of sickness. I find it strange that the obituaries of worldly people state that “after a yearlong fight against cancer….”, whereas Christians point to God or “God’s will” for their sickness. Many non-Christians recognize sickness as an enemy of all that is good, an evil that must be fought, while many Christians go on about God’s supposed will ‘permitting’ or causing them to be sick.

If you think this way, tell me this: If it was God’s will for you to be sick, why do you visit the doctor to escape “God’s will”? If it was His desire that your character be perfected in sickness, why do you ask for your name to be placed on the prayer chain to avoid this perfecting? If God wanted you ravaged by illness, why not ask the brethren to pray for you to become more sick, so as to enter His will more deeply? The faith-sapping myths we propagate in the church today are a tragedy.

Why is it that wise Christians cannot tell God’s will until after the event? The person died of sickness, ergo, it was God’s will that they died. The person recovered from sickness, thus it was God’s will that they recover. This is a “que sera, sera” Christianity, a lazy spirituality that tries to infer God’s will after the fact. It has more in common with fatalistic Mid-Eastern and Eastern religions than Christianity. If you know God’s will, tell me before we pray, so if it is not His will, we won’t bother. However, not one of these wise ones ever knows until afterwards—going by sight and not by faith.

I can tell you God’s will for the very sick young man with a heartbroken wife and three young children all crying out to Him. It is for him to be healed, period. That is His will before I pray and that is His will after I pray, whether he gets up or stays down. God’s will for that sick child? The same, of course. Why? Because healing is in His Word and His Word is His will.

Why do tragedies occur then, you ask? There are many reasons, but why on earth wouldn’t they occur when we continue teaching unbelief throughout our churches….because we, as a church do not believe all of the Atonement. As a pastor, you doth protest too much that you believe. It doesn’t matter what you profess in conversation. Do you preach healing? Do you regularly pray for the sick? No? Why not? Because you don’t believe it. I learned a long time ago that people do what they believe and avoid what they don’t believe. Most pastor/teachers don’t believe in the full Atonement. If they want to argue about healing being in the Atonement, fine, we don’t have to bring that up.  They just don’t believe in the many healing promises in the Word or in doing the works Jesus said we would do.

Finally, some will argue “why the undue focus on healing?  There are other things to preach about, aren’t there?” Yes there are.  But let’s look at Jesus, in Matthew 4:23:

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Jesus focused on healing quite a bit, didn’t He?  He didn’t have other things to preach about?  Somehow though, our gospel has been transformed into a shadow of that which Jesus and the Apostles preached.  It has changed from the Full Gospel to the “Part-Gospel”.

If you are one of few who preach and minister healing regularly, God bless you. May He strengthen you, embolden you, impart spiritual gifts to you, infuse you with the power of the Holy Spirit and may signs and wonders accompany your ministry. Amen.

…to be concluded…