Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

I Wound And I Heal Pt.2

I have to get me one of those harmonicas. Scripture says weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning, amen? Thank God for that promise. Those that endure till the end shall be saved, praise God, and as the song was just sharing, it's a time of waiting in the Lord, and He's promised to deliver us. He's faithful; every promise of God is yea and amen to the glory of God by us. Let's turn this morning to the book of Acts chapter 10. We want to continue our study now on the doctrine of divine healing and understanding the great promises of God to us. We took all last session and dealt with the importance of our body and how God is concerned with our physical man. One of the great hindrances to Christianity in the first century was the spirit of gnosticism which said man's spirit was pure, but the body was evil, that anything that was material was evil, and so it didn't really matter what you did with your body. You could join it to a harlot, you could overeat, you could do anything you wanted. The body was evil innately, and it was going to die and cease to be—contrary to, of course, true biblical doctrine. We saw that the body was the Lord's, that it was bought with a price, and therefore we're to glorify God in our spirit and our bodies, which are the Lord's. We saw that our bodies are the temple, then, of the Holy Spirit and how important it is to keep our bodies pure and to keep them strong and to keep them separate unto to the Lord. So God is concerned about this physical man. A lot of the ministry of Jesus in His earthly ministry was not only the preaching of the kingdom of God, but the manifestation of the kingdom benefits, and some of that was the healing of the physical man.

Jesus performed I believe it was like twenty-seven distinct physical miracles—healing personally to individuals in addition to all of the mass healings that we read about, and He cares about us this morning. He cares about your physical being. It was part of His ministry then, and of course the Bible says concerning the Lord, He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. The fact that He's ascended into heaven to the right hand of God the Father doesn't make Him less involved in our lives; it actually makes Him more involved in our physical lives through the person of the Holy Spirit. So let's see what God says about that in the ministry of Jesus and then how it relates to you and I.

We looked at the aspects in our last study concerning whether or not this doctrine of divine healing could be vindicated, whether it was valid or not. We saw that it was, in light of the importance of the physical man. We saw also that sickness was a consequence of sin. We want to look at that this morning—that the origin of sickness is found in sin. We'll look at it in depth as we go into our study, but sickness came about as the consequence of original sin, and sickness today is always the consequence of original sin. We're going to see this morning that it can also be the consequence of specific or personal sin, things that we get involved in. Sin in our lives gives place to satanic oppression and attack and that which would affect us as the result of our disobedience. We see in Deuteronomy that sin is part of the curse of the law, and so through man's rebellion to the Lord's sovereignty and His lordship, that under the curse of Deuteronomy 28 we realize that disobedience to God can bring about the consequence of sickness in our lives. We see that the ultimate agent then of sickness is the god of this world, the god of the kingdom of darkness, the angel of light, Lucifer. Satan is the primary agent of sickness. Once we begin to understand that, then we realize that sickness is our enemy. Sickness is part of the kingdom of darkness; it's not something that belongs to the children of light. It's one of the curses of Deuteronomy 28, and Jesus has redeemed us, the Scripture says, from the curse of the law, amen?

Acts 10, let's look at it this morning, and it will be an interesting time for us. In this 10th chapter of Acts, we begin to see the ministry of Jesus, I believe, capsulated in a way that's probably the clearest reference to His ministry of opposition to the kingdom of darkness, especially as it pertains to sickness and oppression in our lives. When we talk about the word "oppression"—you might want to get this for your notes—the word "oppression" just means to be under the constant dominion or control of the oppressor. It's not someone that's just making you feel bad, or it's just kind of a bummer of a day, I feel depressed. It's not depression. Oppression is to be held under the power or held down by a dominant power. I want to tell you something this morning: sickness is not to be a dominant power in our lives. Jesus' lordship is to be the dominant power in our lives. Sin shall not have dominion over you, amen?

So here we are, and we look at the promise of God to us, and so we see that the dominant power then is not sin—sickness—but the dominant power in our lives is the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. We have rights, and it keeps us from the oppression of the evil one. So here in Acts chapter 10, verse 38 the Scripture says this—one of the great passages, something that I'm sure many of you have memorized. If you haven't, you should. The purpose of Jesus' ministry, verse 38, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and," say it with me, "with power." With the Holy Ghost and power. If we're going to be successful over sickness in this world that we're living in, we're going to have to tap into the power of God—not a doctrine. Learning all of these biblical principles that we're going to learn here in the next weeks isn't going to help you if you've not tapped into a personal relationship with the Lord, if you're not full of the Holy Spirit, if you're not moving in biblical faith—all of the knowledge isn't going to help you. It's going to be based upon relationship. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power. The power comes from the obedience. Jesus said, I didn't come to do My will, but I came to do the will of He that sent me. I didn't come to speak My words, but I came to speak the words of He that sent Me.

We're going to tap the power of God when we're about the purpose of God, when we're living for the kingdom and not for ourselves, when we're more concerned with God being glorified than we are just getting rid of the pain in our bodies or being thrilled by some kind of a miracle. It's neat to see signs and wonders, and we've seen some fabulous ones. Some of the greatest miracles in the twentieth century we've been privy to over the years. It's exciting, but that's not what it's all about. It's about bringing glory and honor to God, and the power comes with the obedience. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power, and He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." It's going to continue in our lives. The Scripture says Jesus in His great commission says, Go into all the world and preach the gospel. He said, I'll confirm the word that you speak with signs following, and the Scripture tells us then that they went and proclaimed the word of God, and Jesus went with them in the spirit confirming the words that were spoken. Don't ever see yourself as the source, see yourself as the representative of the kingdom of God's great power. We're messengers. But beloved, we have a message that's going to set people free. We have a message that's going to make a difference in the kingdom of light and in the ranks of the oppressed. If we'll go out with humility and we'll go out with compassion, God will confirm His word with signs following. If we'll just listen to what the Master said when He said, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, they're white unto harvest, and be able to go out and preach this gospel of deliverance and begin to lay hands on the sick and see them recover, cast out devils, God will confirm His word with signs following. How's it going to happen? There needs to be an anointing, there needs to be an obedience, there needs to be an awareness of the fact that what we're doing is the work of God, and it's a good work. This is God's desire for man—that there's a wholeness that's manifested.

Now for this morning, what we want to emphasis in this passage of Scripture is we're talking about the origin of sickness, the agent of sickness which is Satan. The Scripture says Jesus was healing those that were oppressed of who? The devil. Say it again, oppressed of who? The devil. Now we need to understand then that sickness, our enemy, comes from a personal being that we're in conflict with and in warfare with. I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself but I'll just make a statement here that will help us in understanding this. That's why Paul says in Ephesians that we're to put on the whole armor of God that we might be able to stand. One of Satan's greatest fiery darts is physical affliction that he hurls at us to try to destroy our resolve, to try to somehow bring confusion and doubt of Father's care and love for us. There's nothing that's more confusing to a child of God than to be laying on a sick bed, to be chronically sick for their lives, and wondering does God really care? Surely God can, so the question becomes does He want to? Why doesn't God heal me? It's that dart of affliction that causes people many times to doubt God. The thing that we have to understand is this though, that our heavenly Father knows what we have need of, that He's the giver of every good and perfect gift, and that He's not the source of our problems, Satan is. If God can, why doesn't He? We probably won't answer that for another couple of weeks in this study.

What we're looking at this morning is the fact that God can, last week's study, He is the sovereign God, and that He's not the source of your troubles, Satan is. The ministry of Jesus was delivering His people from this oppression or dominion of the evil one. It was, of course, God working with Him. Now let's see this in the Scriptures. Turn to the book of Job for just a second, and in the book of Job, of course, we get to get clear picture of this conflict of the two kingdoms. A lot of what you and I are affected with in our physical man is, as we shared before, that we're involved in this conflict. Job chapter 2 makes it very clear that everything that occurs in our lives isn't just about us; it doesn't just involve us. There's a spiritual war that's taking place between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. We're representatives now of this kingdom of light, and it's bringing pain and destruction to the kingdom of darkness, and Satan's not going to just lay down and let this happen. People have a misconception about Satan and his role on this planet. Surely Satan knows that he's defeated. If he's a defeated being, if God is omnipotent, as we know He is, if God is in His eternal state the creator of all things, and we know He is, then surely Satan would know this. Surely somehow, in our thinking, he would know that he doesn't stand a chance. Don't you know that he would have known that before he tried to overthrow the throne of God? Don't you think that the creature would surely know that the creator had dominion and sovereign rule? Don't you think that somehow there was a lesson in creation that this great, mighty archangel would have been in on? Don't you realize this is the most powerful creature that God ever made, knowing that on the brink of nothingness God stood one time and decreed light be and light was, all that was in existence including Lucifer himself was spoken into being by the power of God? And then this power called pride, this perversion called selfness, brings about a delusion, an insanity, that somehow makes this being think that he can prevail even at this juncture.

You've got to understand the devil doesn't know he's whipped. The question this morning is, do you? Now we can't deny his power. A lot of people just try to blow the devil off and think well, he's some kind of myth and this little "being" running around in pajamas with a horn and a pointed tail and a pitchfork, and he is not. He is the most mighty being that God had ever created. He was the preeminent of the archangels; the two mighty angels that continue to stand—Michael and Gabriel. You're no match for him; I'm no match for him not only in his cunning guile but in his absolute power as he controls heads of state and nations. The consequence of his very being is universal sin that holds a whole species in dominion to its power. He's the source of sin. We deal with that power of sin; he's the object of that. All of those lusts and the powers of sin that we war and that hold humanity in bondage, he's the source of all of that power. He's a mighty being. But everything that he touches is perverted, and because of that sickness then is just the perversion of eternal life. Death, the antithesis of "zoe," the life more abundantly. So this power of sickness, this power of sin, it's very real, it's supernatural, and it dominates everything but the blood of Jesus and the name of Jesus and the shield of faith and the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation, and without that we don't stand a chance. If you're going to go out into the world on a daily basis, you don't stand a chance without the armor of God. You don't stand a chance without the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now sickness is also primarily encountered by you and I, not because of our specific sin, but sickness is encountered by you and I because of the source that we want to talk about this morning primarily, and that's universal sin—the fact that sin is universally affecting all of creation, humanity, and nature, as we know it.

The Bible tells us, regardless of Mr. Gore and the other tree huggers, they're not going to save this planet. The Bible says that this planet is reeling now like a drunk man waiting the day of its redemption. This planet is under a curse. This planet is under the judgment of God. This planet, according to the book of Revelation, must be purged by the presence and the power, the fire, of God to be reconciled back into an acceptable state. Sin, sickness, is a fact of life. So when we go out into society and people are out there, we're coming out of flu season into allergy season. You look at all the things that we're having to deal with, and people are going to be sniffing and snorting for a while, and all of this that goes on, and the coughing, and now there's all kinds of new diseases that are coming around. We're coming off of a generation, I'm getting a little off course here, but we're coming off a generation that has grown up on antibiotics, and thanks to all of these people who so readily love to go down and take their antibiotics so that they can hurriedly go on about their ways and their lifestyle not be inconvenienced. You know, back even as young as I am—don't laugh, you're getting older too—as young as I am, when we got sick as kids we didn't get antibiotics. You have a fever; what do you do with a fever? You don't pop all kinds of aspirins and go down and get an antibiotic and all of this kind of stuff. What happened is if you got a fever, if things got rough, they'd put a cold cloth on your head, and then if you got hotter than that, they'd take your clothes off and put you in the bathtub and slosh you around a little bit.

One of the cure-alls that we had, I was telling someone the other day, was cod-liver oil. How many of you remember taking cod-liver oil; let me see your hands? Okay. The worst thing about that—well, two of the worst things—one of the worst things was the look of the label. You remember when it would just kind of drip down the sides, and it was all stained, and you knew you were going to put that in your mouth. I want to tell you something. Fish smell bad on the outside, and when you get the inside—this oil out of their livers, and they would make you eat that as a kid—big tablespoons. Oil and water don't mix, and it wouldn't get out of your mouth. This stuff was in there and it was nasty, and it would just roll down the sides like this, and it was nasty, man! If you woke up in the morning and you didn't want to go to school, you would tell mom, I don't feel real good. She'd say, I'll get you some cod-liver oil. You'd say, I'm better, woo, I'm on my way to school! It was a cure-all. Now, I don't think it's still around, but, anyway, that was the miracle thing back when I was a kid growing up. As a child, I can remember getting one injection of penicillin. How did I get over here? Oh, I remember. What we've done is we've taken all these antibiotics, and now all of the germs have mutated, and they've bulked up—they're on steroids now. They say, Okay, we'll take of that. The antibiotics are getting stronger, and the bugs are getting stronger. So now we've got to get a stronger antibiotic, and you've got mutated viruses and all of this kind of thing. It's this war that's going on, and tragically, in the process even among Christians, the name of Jesus and the blood of Jesus have been set on the sideline, and I want to tell you—it's the only cure for everything! It works, and nothing, I don't care what kind of mutated virus it might be—I want to tell you, I don't care if it's Ebola, Aids—the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus is the supreme power on this planet, and nothing is to have dominion over us. Now with that in mind, and we see the oppressor that's trying to bring about destruction to humanity, we see a sick world and universal sin that you and I have to encounter that is not only there but it's getting stronger because of all of these mutations and I believe personally because of the judgment of God that's allowing this to come upon the world, and here we are as His representatives living in this environment. We are in the world, but we're not of the world.

So within the world God's preserving us. I want you to understand something, even those of you that are battling physical affliction—you would be sicker than you are if it wasn't for the blood of Jesus. There are a number of healthy people, but I want you to understand, just look around the world. If you've been able to travel the world like I have, I want you to understand that there are billions of very sick people on this planet. We as a nation are a healthy people. Because of all of our trust in science there's not the gravitating toward the gospel of healing like there used to be, but I want to tell you something. You go to India, and they'll come out and be healed. You go to Africa, and they'll come out and be healed. As we've preached in those nations and laid hands on the sick—you go to Korea like we have in some of those outlying areas, some of the great miracles that we saw in our Korean campaigns there; you go to Haiti, and you lay hands on the sick in Haiti, and you see them healed there. It's in America—it's because people are trusting in arm of the flesh. But the Scripture says to us clearly that we're not warring against flesh and blood; we're battling against principalities and powers, and so our weapons are to be mighty through, say it? God.

So this morning the question we need to ask is this: If Satan's the source, and he is as we're going to see, then our only hope is to battle with him with spiritual weapons. I want you to begin to ask yourself the question as we go on this morning: Am I trusting in the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of spirit, more than I am natural means? We'll deal with how the gospel of healing and medical science co-habitate somewhere else in our study, but for right now, the question I want to ask you is, where is your hope this morning? What are you preparing yourself for in this battle with Satan and his tool of oppression—sickness? Are you strengthening yourself on a daily basis with the word of God and with promises of God? Are you consciously aware when you go out by faith, and I don't just mean—don't think for a moment that the hedge that surrounds you is just there arbitrarily. Don't think that the hedge that surrounded Job was there just because he was Job. It's because he was a righteous man, the Scripture says. How righteous are we this morning in Jesus Christ? How much are we believing that righteousness to affect us on a daily basis? When we step out of the door in the morning are you believing that you're a representative of the kingdom of God and that God's power is there to sustain you throughout that particular day? Job chapter 2, you found it yet? In Job chapter 2, very interesting source, we looked at this in one of our other studies just recently. But that that's interesting is seeing that Satan went forth and smote Job, the Scripture says. The source of Job's problems was the devil. The Scripture tells us very clearly, verse 6, "And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. So [verse 7] went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown." Now we see two things here that are very interesting. Satan is the source of our trouble, not God, but God sovereignly allowed this to take place. Now go back to the 1st chapter for just a second and let's see what this is about. God, verse 7, called Satan into His presence and said, What have you been up to? Satan said, I've been going to and fro on the face of the earth. The Bible says he goes about seeking whom he may what? Devour. So that devouring, that destroying, is part of that oppression. It's the holding down and the consuming of another life, the dominion of it. It doesn't say that Satan can devour everybody; it says he's going around seeing who can devour.

I've got to tell the story; I've got to tell. I'm compelled; I cannot not tell this story. The roaring lion who goes up to the apes and let's out his mighty roar and asks, Who is the king of the jungle? They, trembling, say, You are. He goes up to the gazelles and roars and says, Who's the king of the jungle? They all tremble and say, You are. Then he goes up the elephant and lets out his roar and says, Who's the king of the jungle? The elephant reaches down with his trunk and grabs him and body slams him and slams him back again, and the lion gets up and his head's ringing and he looks at him and says, Well, you don't have to get upset because you don't know the answer! I love that story. That's who you're to send to answer the door when the devil comes seeking whom he may destroy. Send out the elephants, not the clowns. So we realize then that as Satan is coming and going to and fro on the earth, he's looking for a people that are weak. He's looking for those that have been separated from the unit, from the body, that he can destroy. He's looking for people that he can intimidate. He's looking for people that believe they're supposed to be sick and die instead of a people that believe that they have rights in Jesus Christ. He's looking for a people that will properly hold the doctrine but not know the power of God that they can pray the prayer of faith, and the Lord can raise them up. A people that in their doctrine acknowledge divine healing but are no longer laying their hands on the sick and seeing them recover. Where you been? Going up and down.

"And the Lord said unto Satan [verse 8], Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?" God's testimony about us through Jesus Christ is the same. I want you to understand this morning that Father sees you through Jesus, upright, perfect, an individual who eschews evil, a man about the business of the kingdom of God. That's how Father sees you this morning. Because He sees us that way in Jesus, if our trust is in Him, because of that we have built around us this hedge. Satan's trying to destroy you. The Bible says he's going about seeking whom he may devour. The Bible tells us, makes it very clear in John 10, keep your finger here in Job for a second and go over to John's gospel, chapter 10, and look what the Scripture says concerning this conflict, this warfare that we're involved in. John's gospel chapter 10. Jesus says in verse 9, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." But, verse 10, the thief comes not through the door, he climbs over the wall, but the thief comes to do what? Steal, kill, and destroy. But "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." Satan comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy. There's a hedge that's been built, and he tries to come over the wall. But this wall, this hedge that God's built around us, is invincible, impassable but through the door. If you want to see this in the spirit realm, don't see yourself this morning with the hedge collapsed around you. See yourself with the walls of God's protection still around you, and Satan came through by God's permission. I'm talking about those of us who are in right standing with God. I'm not talking about those who have defected and those who have apostatized, those who are in Satan's camp through a backslidden condition. I'm talking about those of us that are the children of God. Satan can only access us by the permission of God, and God can put him out anytime He wants. The fact that Satan may be working havoc in one area of our lives by the permission of God doesn't mean that we are unprotected to everything around us. God's grace is still in effect in our lives. The wall is up; God has just allowed temporary access for His own purposes and His own glory. Satan will be defeated, and God will turn your captivity just like He turned Job's if you're faithful and if you make the same judgment. Shall I receive good at the hands of the Lord and not evil? The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord. When you begin to know and have that kind of a confidence in Father, the hedge remains though access has temporarily been allowed.

Satan says, Yeah, look at him. He's an upright man. He's serving you, but it's for nothing. "Hast not thou made an hedge [verse 10] about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." That's what we ought to be experiencing today. How many of you have been able to rejoice in those benefits of the Lord? We're a blessed people to know the presence of God and to have this protection in our lives. I can't get to him. "But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." Just let life get a little tough, and he'll curse you. You see, that's the mentality of the kingdom of darkness. Tragically, that's how natural man thinks. As long as everything's going well, they'll serve God, they'll praise Him. Let things get a little tough, they'll begin to curse God, question God. Why, God, don't You heal me? Why, God, have You allowed this to happen? God's not on trial here, you are. So as we look at that and we understand that there's a conflict between two kingdoms, and as citizens of the kingdom of light we're under attack. If Satan can bring a reproach to God, it's only going to be through His children. You see, God's already come and proved Himself faithful. He was tempted in every way such as we are and without sin. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, I John says. So any hope of Satan bringing reproach on the kingdom of light is going to come through you and I. It's going to come through how you and I react to the adversities of life and the trials that we're going to face.

So, for the overall context of this morning's teaching, what we're seeing here is this. Acts 10, [verse 38] "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil," get it down. Secondly, we see that Satan went forth from the presence of God and smote Job—oppressed of the devil. Satan smote Job. So we see the devil, then, as the source, the agent of sickness and disease. He's the enemy of our souls. Luke chapter 13 speaks toward this very clearly, if you'll look over at that 13th chapter of Luke in verse 16. The story of this woman who knew specifically this oppression that Acts 10 speaks of. Luke 13, verse 16. Jesus' response was "ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" You see, the Pharisees were more concerned about the Sabbath day, and Jesus rebukes them for their hypocrisy. He says in verse 15, "Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?" On the Sabbath you can do those things that would pertain to the care of your animals, and here's one of God's covenant people bound by satanic power, and you don't want her loosed on the Sabbath day? What hypocrisy! This morning we want to talk about the rights of the covenant children of God to be freed from satanic bondage. Ought not this daughter of covenant whom Satan has bound? Now, the Lord doesn't just speak words without purpose. The fact that there's reference to the covenant of Abraham is for a purpose here. We begin to see that it has to do with that Deuteronomy passage. Turn back to Deuteronomy, and take a look there at Deuteronomy 28 for a minute. It would be good to spend some time, if you haven't, in this 28th chapter of Deuteronomy and see what the covenant blessings are to the obedient—to the obedient. Verse 1 tells us that that's the real criteria. "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do [how many?] all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God."

So we see that the blessings of the Lord are to overtake us. Now, this was to the nation Israel that these covenant promises were made. They were made under Moses, but they made because of the faith of Abraham prior to the law. These are not just covenant of Sinai; it's the covenant of Abraham—four hundred years that covenant was cut before the law. So the law, which was four hundred years later, cannot disannul that which took place, Galatians tells us. The Scripture says if we are in Christ, then we are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So all of these promises here belong to us, to you and I. Do you believe that? Do you believe for them? Do you believe, verse 3, to blessed in the city and in the field, blessed in the fruit of the body and the fruit of the ground, and the fruit of the cattle, (fruit of the loom)? Scripture says in verse 5, "Blessed shall thy basket be and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou come in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses." So we see all of these great blessings that belong to the obedient and to those that know that their rights are. We'll be the people that are blessed, that lend and not borrow. All of these promises, but then you read on and the Scripture says, "But it shall come to pass, [verse 15] if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee." Verse 18 says you shall be cursed in the fruit of your body. Verse 20, "The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke."

We see how tragic this is in the lives of those who are living disobedient and how God allows these curses to come. The good thing is this: that God never allows them to come for our destruction but always as chastisement to His children that we would be reconciled back to Him. So anything that you may be experiencing that's adverse because of disobedience, fall on your knees, repent, be broken. God will restore you, the Scripture says. As it pertains to the physical man, the Scripture says in verve 27, "The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed." You know, having an itch that you can't get, man, that is lousy. Scabs, emerods, the botch. "The Lord will smite you with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart. And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways." The Scripture goes on and says, verse 35, "The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head." Job was experiencing that kind of an oppression. The real issue at hand was: Was he going to remain faithful in adversity as he did in prosperity? Was he going to stand and believe that God was going to deliver him in His time? Verse 45 says, "Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God…" Look at verses 58 through 61. "If thou wilt not observe to do the words of this law that are written…; Then the Lord will make [verse 59] thy plagues wonderful…" That word "wonderful" just means you'll stand in amazement at how bad it is. "and the plague of thy seed…" Why? Because He loves you. The chastening of the Lord is because He loves us, and He wants us reconciled. It says that this plague will be "of long continuance, and sore sickness, and of long continuance. Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt…and they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness, [verse 61] and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law..." Dear Lord, if that wasn't bad enough, even those that aren't named will come upon you. Now we've gone through all of that to say, beloved, that you and I as Christians don't have any guarantees that we're not going to be affected by what's out there.

What you and I need for safety is this: we need to know that the hedge is up around us. And how's that going to be? Through obedience to the covenant promises of God. Through our confidence in the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. That we stand and the hedge is up, and that all of those curses aren't going to come neigh us. How prepared are you going out into the world every day? Are you taking for granted the blessings of God? Are you taking for granted the fact that because we've made a profession of faith that God somehow is obligated to keep us safe? Beloved, you've got to put the armor on. You've got to be in right standing. The righteousness of God that's our breastplate must be a reality experientially every day of our lives. How many places daily are we giving place to the devil to hit us with some of these fiery darts? How many of these little small foxes do we give into on a daily basis in our actions, in our thoughts, that begin to allow some of those things of Deuteronomy 28 to have access to us—maybe not at this time dominating, but access? And how are we going to respond to those? Are we going to lay down under them and now begin to look to the world to relieve us from some of these judgments and curses, or are we at that time going to begin to seek God and begin to cry out and begin to adorn ourselves with the armor and begin to fall at the feet of God and say, I'm a covenant child; there's no reason for me to be under this bondage? "And ought not this…daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed…?" We're not talking about the fact that it was eighteen years; we're talking about the fact that Satan was binding her and that she had covenant rights. Eighteen years is terrible, but I want you to know something else, eighteen minutes is just a great a reproach on God if we're a covenant child that should be loosed. I'm not talking about divine discipline. I'm talking about the fact that we have covenant rights, and we need to access them for the glory of God.

Lord, who did sin that this man was born blind, he or his parents? Jesus answered, Neither one, but for the glory of God, I'm going to heal him. The healing, beloved, is to glorify God. The loosing of ourselves from the bondage of Satan isn't just to make us feel better; it's for the glory of God. You want to be free this morning? How about being free, how about your main motivation this morning being that God could be glorified, not that I'd feel better? I'd sure like this pain to go away. I'd sure like to get rid of the botch. It's about the glory of God. The whole argument that Jesus was having with the Pharisees here in this passage in Luke was about who's going to be glorified. The Jews were looking to glorify the religion, the Sabbath day. The whole purpose of the Sabbath was to give God's people a rest, a refreshing. It's not about our legal rights or responsibilities, it's about our literal rights as the children of God. God wants us whole; He wants us healed. Satan wants you bound. Satan wants you oppressed. Satan wants you to get used to living with less than God's promised you. I think it's time for that to stop. I think that God's people need to begin to understand what their rights are and begin to draw on those privileges for the glory of God. John's epistle, I John 3, turn over there for just a second. Tells us again of what these rights are, and what we should be experiencing in Jesus. We're going to finish with this one for this morning. In I John chapter 3, verse 8, the Scripture says, "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, [That's talking about His incarnation, His earthly ministry. It's why Jesus came in the flesh, to be made sin with our sin, to die on the cross, to rise again on the third day. That's what He came for. It says His manifestation, God being flesh and dwelling among us, was for this purpose. For this purpose was the Son of God manifested.] that he might destroy the works of the devil." Those works, beloved, are not limited to just the bondage of the spirit man in sin, but it has to do with the affliction of the physical man in healing. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, the oppression of the devil, the bondage of the covenant daughters of the devil, the smiting of the righteous servants of God by the devil. Jesus came for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. Let's let Him destroy your oppressor this morning.

Let's believe God to move among us this morning and to begin to drive away those that have our family bound here this morning. There's people that are battling physically among us, and Satan has no right to access them. Satan has no right. We just received a report from Carol Smith—an evil report as I saw the results of the heart exam. I'll just be very frank with you; the evidence doesn't get a whole lot worse. The blockage so bad that they said there's no way that even bypasses can be done; there's nothing to bypass to—everything's blocked. Now should this daughter of Abraham be loosed or not? As Becky went in and they got the results back from one of the world renowned gamma knife experts, and they were saying that she's not a candidate for that, that it's too massive, it's too defused, and that they can't do anything without surgery. But I want you to know something. Though Satan has gone forth and smote the righteous servant of God, there's a hedge that's still up, and when we resist the enemy, he will flee, praise God. The other needs that you have on our prayer list that are among us, you're very aware of those, as we continue to pray for Neil and Latasha, many of the others, and I'm not purposely leaving any off. I'm just not going to go through the whole list. That's why we're here Tuesday's and Thursday's as a body, to intercede and believe God. But this morning, beloved, I want you to see what it's all about. It's not just about these individuals; it's the glory of God. It's about the enemy trying to oppress the covenant children of God, and the fact is, he has no rights because Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Now, how's He going to do it? As we go on in the study, you're going to see that one of the ways He does it is through you and I. He's given us all power and all authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm us. He said, I want you go out in My name, and I want you to lay lands upon the sick, and they shall recover. These signs shall follow the believers: they will pray the prayer of faith, they'll lay hands on the sick, they shall recover. Now, that's our rights this morning.

That's what's at stake this morning. That's the real issue. "Can God?" is not an issue. Medical science would stand in amazement when they see the results of this answered prayer, but that's not the issue. The issue is we have rights, Satan doesn't; he won't receive or steal the glory of God. How jealous are you this morning for the glory of God? Let's stand, and I want those of you, again, that are around these that you know are warring in the physical, I want you to lay your hands on them, and let's just begin to pray and understand what your rights are as a believer. The Bible says you can lay your hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. You can lay your hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. Resist the devil; he will flee from you. Glory to God! Glory to God! Father, we come in the name of Jesus, and we come, Lord, not just so we can feel better, Lord, not just so our lives will be prolonged. We come that You might be gloried among Your people. We're asking You to be glorified in our midst and to show Yourself mighty, Father, as You bring healing into these bodies. Father, I ask You in the name of Jesus to open those arteries in Carol's heart. Father, I ask You in the name of Jesus to give her a new heart this morning that You would be glorified. Father, that those tumors would dissipate in the name of Jesus of Nazareth! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Lord, they said can't be that precise with their gamma rays, but the blood of Jesus is sufficient, the name of Jesus! The power, Lord, the power, the power of that name! At the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess! Lord, You've given us covenant! You are the Lord that heals us! You've sent Your Word and healed Your people! Oh, Father, we delight in Your presence; we delight in Your promises. Ought not this daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound be loosed in the name of Jesus? You deserve to be free this morning because of the blood of Jesus. Oh, Father, we receive the promises. Father, we receive the promises, and we ask You to make us strong, Lord, that we might live according to Your covenant. That we might glorify You through our obedience. Lord, that we might be bold in our declaration in the world of the Lord that heals us. Lord, that we would stand even though the world would mock us like those who saw the great miracle at Gate Beautiful and say, We can't help but speak the things that we've seen and heard.

Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord, the signs and wonders that were done at the hands of the apostles, still available to us today. For You're the Lord, and You change not. Jesus, You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. Lord, we're not saying we deserve these things; we're saying we have a right to them because of Your grace and Your mercy. We believe this morning that You want us healed and that all we're seeking is the will of God. We understand that the source of the evil against us is spiritual, it's satanic. The demonic sources that are behind these things, those spirits must bow. Jesus, as You rebuked the principalities and the powers, the blind saw, and the dumb spake. These are spiritual forces at work. Beloved, don't fall into the deception of thinking that this is all physiological, and don't think that every physiological thing is exclusively physiological or that every physiological thing has as a spiritual personality. I'm not talking about that. But it's very clear in the ministry of Jesus that much of what we're facing is demonic. They say, Well, you know, it's because they didn't have a knowledge of science like we do today and because those people were just so primitive that they would think that things were demons that were really physiological. It was a physiological problem, and they thought it was some demon. No, Jesus, the Word of God, says that He rebuked the devils, and they were able to see, they were able to hear, they were able to speak. Many times what we're opposing are physical consequences to a spiritual, personal oppression. We're at war; we're facing an enemy. We need to take it personal, and we need to see that it's for the glory of our Father. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

As we prepare to sing this chorus this morning, worship Him, thank Him for what He's done here in our midst this morning. Thank Him for the healings that have manifested. Thank Him for the power of His presence. For He is Jehovah Rapha. He is the Lord that heals us, and He deserves His glory this morning. Hallelujah. Let's sing it together; just worship Him. ["In Your presence"] Thank You, Jesus. Oh, we thank You, Lord, for that presence this morning. Thank You, Lord, for that joy. Rejoice in Him this morning. Just sing it one more time. It's His presence that breaks the yoke. Oh, Jesus, thank You this morning for breaking the yoke of bondage. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Just thank Him one more time; just rejoice in His goodness this morning. Thank You, Lord. Lord, make us ever mindful of Your presence and of Your glory and help us to praise You in the beauty of holiness. Hallelujah. We do thank You, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Turn to somebody and say, Jesus destroyed the works of the devil. Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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