It was 10 years ago this week in September that I took a radicle turn in my life’s journey at the age of 63. At the time I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and was slowly losing my health.
I was calling out to the Lord in the middle of the night and heard Him say that I needed to trust Him completely. He said that I could do it with His help. At the time I was on medication for my heart (my father had died at 61 with heart problems). I was also on medication for depression, that had dogged me on and off for years. I was also on medication for gout and high cholesterol and the big one was my prostate that was giving a reading of 27psa with prostatitis. You older men would know how serious that can be and what it can lead too.
I felt the Lord say that He was still in the healing business, for ‘Yesterday, today and forever Jesus is the same.’ Hebrews 13:8
I am convinced that Jesus wants us well and proved it to us during His ministry on earth by healing everyone who came to Him for help.
“And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Acts 10:38
I felt Him say that time was running out and if I wanted to fulfil my destiny, then I needed to redeem the time starting now. I know God uses doctors and medicine, but there can be so many side affects from this, and it makes us more and more dependent on man for help. I felt the Lord say that there was a better way than the path I was on, but it required faith.
I started listening to messages on faith by Charles Capps, Andrew Wommack, and Bill Johnson, morning, noon and night. As I did my faith grew exceedingly and I felt to stop medication in all areas and dose myself with the word constantly. (I felt directed by God to do this, and wouldn’t advise others to do the same unless you have the faith to do so.)
‘According to your faith so be it unto you.’ Matthew 9:29
This word in Proverbs really spoke to me.
“Listen carefully, my dear child, to everything that I teach you, and pay attention to all that I have to say. Fill your thoughts with my words until they penetrate deep into your spirit. Then, as you unwrap my words, they will impart true life and radiant health into the very core of your being. So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:20-23
What it is saying here is that eating, sleeping and drinking God’s word will give life and health to your body. One translation says that it will be medicine to all your flesh. With most medicines, we are to take them 3 times a day. Therefore, I would stop what I was doing and dose myself in His word at least 3 times a day.
A little later I listened to a message by Joseph Prince on the benefits of communion and how we need to ‘discern’ His body when taking the Lord’s Supper. This word ‘discern’ means to make a difference. We need to make a difference between the blood and the body. It specifies that we need to discern His body, not His blood if we want to be well. We need to realise that the shedding of His blood was for our forgiveness and breaking of His body was for our healing. His body was broken that we might be made whole. I never realised that communion has a double cure – forgiveness and healing. If we don’t understand this truth it can cause sickness in our lives and many can end up dying before their time. I began having communion every day and studied and memorized verses like Isaiah 53:4-5. There are 3 references to physical healing in these verses.
“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]. 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.” Amplified classic edition.
The reference to Him being chastised that we might have peace means healing for the word peace is ‘shalom’ which means health and well being.
This change in my way of life wasn’t an easy transition for I came under such attack in all areas. The Devil didn’t want to let me go that easily, for He wanted me to keep my trust in the world’s system rather than in the Lord life. I felt so depressed, but I praised my way out. I then had such a bad attacks of gout that I ended up on crutches, but kept saturating myself in the word declaring that Jesus was my healer and eventually overcame it all.
As time went by I was able to resist any symptoms that came upon me and stand on His word. It’s now been 10 years since that night and I know that God has done something amazing in me and I’m now walking in divine health like never before.
I still get attacked physically but I’m fully persuaded that Christ wants me well and resist them instantly. It says of Abraham in Romans 4.
“Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:19-22
Note that Abraham was ‘fully persuaded’ of the promise. He wasn’t going to let his age or his wife’s condition deter him from believing. We need to get to the place where we too are fully persuaded. God is no respecter of persons, and what He did for others He can do for us too. Acts 10:28
I am beginning to see something that I believe God wants all His children to understand. Not only does He want us to ‘know’ that He wants us well, but to be fully persuaded of the fact.
So often symptoms come on us and we consider them more than the promises of God. Abraham didn’t allow that to happen because he was fully persuaded. This way of thinking doesn’t happen overnight, and takes time. We need our minds renewed.
It says of Jesus that ‘The word became flesh.’ John 1.14
God wants His word to become flesh in us too. He wants it to become cellular so that we can constantly declare that Jesus the Healer is inside us. He is part of us and has taken up residence in our lives.
A verse that has gripped my attention is “The Father of life sent me, and he is my life. In the same way, the one who feeds upon me, I will become his life.” John 6:57
As I partake of communion, I meditate on this truth and remember that in the spirit I am feeding on Christ and that He is in me. I pray that I might know that Jesus is my life. He lives in me and that His life is mine.
Galatians 2:20 says that the essence of my new life is no longer mine for the anointed one lives His life in me.
God wants us to come to the place where we know that we know that Jesus is in us as our lives and do not doubt in our hearts. We have everything when we have Christ. I have looked up what everything means in Greek and it means everything. It is the word ‘pleroo,’ which means to fill up to the top with nothing wanting.
We have been given as a gift, forgiveness, health and wholeness. All of this is in Christ who is our Healer and Miracle worker and He lives in us. I believe the Spirit wants us to be fully persuaded of this truth. It needs to become part of us, to become part of our flesh. Its getting to that place spoken of in Mark 11:23-24 where we do not doubt in our hearts anymore concerning the matter.
Again I would like to reiterate that God wants us well whether its by doctors or medicine, but there is a better way that has no side effects and causes us to really lean upon the Lord. It’s not easy in this Laodicean Age but I know it can be done. The promise to the Laodicean Church was.
“To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Revelation 3:21
It is in knowing that you are in Christ and He is in you that enables you to reign in this life and do the works that He did. John 14:12. It’s worth aiming for.