I Wound And I Heal Pt.3

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Pastor Scott

April 2, 2000 Sun PM

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Amen! The Lord is good. Let's turn back to Acts, chapter 10, and pick up where we left off this morning. When we're studying the actual doctrine of divine healing, it's a little different than just going into the scriptures and finding a couple of examples of healing and trying to stir our faith up with some of the recorded miracles. We're looking to build a foundation that your faith can be built on, and to look at the revealed truth of the word of God in a way that's a little more systematic, and understanding the purpose, the origin, and the solution to the problem.

As we're looking at this, we saw that what we're dealing with, as we approach sickness, is the fact that it's the consequence of sin, that it's Satan's method to bring about oppression on God's creation. We saw in step one the fact of the value, or the importance, of the body; that this body was created in the image of God. So every time Satan can destroy a physical body, what is it that he's really attacking? The image of God, the glory of God. Man being created in God's image and Satan being able to come and destroy God's great creation, man, is something that he delights in. It's a personal hatred for our Father that causes these attacks on the human race.

We saw that not only is God concerned with our bodies and us preserving them for His glory, and not only is He personally involved in the welfare of our bodies, but we saw that there was an importance of understanding that the source of sickness is really something that's involved not just externally, but also internally. Our bodies are frail. Our bodies, because of sin¾ our bodies were created to last forever. Can you imagine? This physical body was created to last forever. We've talked about that before: how right now every seven years every cell in our body is cycled and replaced with an inferior cell. That's what we call aging. The cells come in every seven years, and some of us seven years later are shocked when we look in the mirror at that new set. The one thing I've noticed about the new set of cells is that they always have a tendency to sag. There's something about new cells that sag. It comes with the seven year itch, of the sagging. In that particular process, we realize that the physical body was created to last forever¾ until sin entered in. When sin entered in, just as our spirit was corrupted and defiled and sin became the nature of man, so frailty and death became the nature of man. Sickness is very normal, now, to the natural body. It's a consequence of universal sin. When a child is born, they're born into this frailty. We've got to assume, then, that not only is sickness something outside that is trying to get us, but it is something that is internal because of sin that is very-has in common with the sin factor, the fact that it's natural to get sick. We're all going to be sick; we're all eventually going to die. We forget that there's a solution to this problem.

When it becomes perverted, you end up in the teachings with some of the spirit filled people like the Manifest Sons of God. What they'll say is that we can have faith, and if we have enough faith we'll never ever get sick and we'll never die. That's contrary to scripture. What was it, do you think, that caused these people to get off doctrinally into a false doctrine like that? They were tired of being sick. They realized that Satan didn't have a right to dominate their lives and oppress them that way. So they took those truths and did what? Perverted them and made that the ultimate doctrine. In the process, they lost sight of one thing that's bigger. What is that? The sovereignty of God, the eternal purpose of God, the declaration of the word of God that it's appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. You can't take any of these doctrines and pervert them, and take them out so far that they don't fit in the overall plan of God. You can't take the healing doctrine and negate the fatherhood of God, the chastening of the Lord, the sovereign use of Satan¾ whether it's to bring an oppression upon a nation, such as the children of Israel in Egypt; or whether it could possibly be allowing the enemy to bring a temptation in the life of an individual like Job. You can't take one doctrine and hold it against another one. What we're looking at is the fact that it's God's common purpose, His will generally, for you and I to be healed.

Because of that, Acts 10:38, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing [how many?] all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." We understand that this was the purpose and the ministry of the Lord Jesus in our midst. We saw in this morning's teaching that the enemy was Satan. He was the source of sickness. Sin is the origin of sickness. Satan is the source. Sin is the origin. We are combating these powers on a daily basis. We get up in the morning, and the devil's trying to make us sick; the devil's trying to make us sin. We saw the need to arm ourselves with the full armor of God and to take the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit. We saw the need of resisting the devil and having him flee from us. It's not that we get up and we have this hedge built around us and we just kind of go through life stumbling along and whenever God feels like it, the hedge falls down and the devil makes us sick, and then God rebukes him and the hedge comes up and we're well for a while. We saw the need for you and I to prepare ourselves to walk in righteousness and in the power of God, and that we're dealing with a tangible enemy, an personal being who's trying to afflict us on a daily basis.

We're going to spend a good period of time in a couple of sessions down the road in dealing with the ability to use our faith for healing and the authority of the name of Jesus. It all ties together. It's difficult to completely dissect these principles one from another. That's why we refer to them in these stages.

What we're looking at for this evening is, again in the origin of sickness, that we see Satan as the source. We saw that universal sin is what we're combating on a daily basis. We left off in the disobedience factor out of Deuteronomy. We saw that there are certain principles that we have to live by; and if we disobey those, God's going to allow these curses to come upon us just like they'll come upon anybody else.

I'm not going to give a lot of time to one of these subjects. In fact, I think I'll stick it right in this disobedience category. We have Satan, sin, disobedience. This is part of the origin of sickness, and how sickness affects our lives through the source, Satan. The source: Satan. One of the things about disobedience that I don't want to spend a lot of time on is the fact that when we disobey and abuse this body¾ that we saw was bought with a price; we're not our own¾ there is going to be consequences.

There are certain Levitical principles that God gave and the Levitical law was for a reason. Do you know what it was? It was to be able to keep us from being defiled; not only with sin, but also with sickness. So God gave some wisdom and He told us how to conduct ourselves in everything from laws of sanitation to food preparation-certain foods to eat and not eat. We have all kinds of people in our country sick today for one reason. Do you want to know what it is? Eating pig flesh. You may be one of those guys that stops in every morning for whatever they make at McDonalds. You say, "Give me all those eggs, and make sure you slap some pig on it." You want to get ham and bacon and sausage¾ and that's all on the same sandwich. In a nation, we grew up as a people and this was a lot of what we ate. As soon as you get that sandwich and you take a bite of it, your arteries will just slam closed. KAWAM! Then we wonder why we have heart disease and some of these things. I think God had a reason through these dietary laws. I think you can get nuts and get too fearful. The Bible says you can receive everything with what? Thanksgiving. So we're eating it as unto the Lord; we're honoring God. But He was talking about the fact that there were certain things that are not good for you, especially in abundance. To disobey many of the Levitical ordinances that have to do with dietary principles, there is going to be a consequence to disobedience. People are sick for that reason. It's important to understand that sickness isn't always a personal, Satanic attack on you. It can be the consequence of our disobedience to the ordinances of God-whether it be the Deuteronomy 28 principle or other consequences such as the denial in application of the Levitical ordinances.

What I want to deal with a little bit right now¾ we left off this morning talking about the personalization of Satan's attack, and how some sickness that comes upon us is of the spiritual, or demonic, nature. It's important for us to understand that because I want you to realize something right now: Satan nor demons respond to Bayer aspirin. You can have a dump truck load of Bayer aspirin or any other medicine you want. You can take it from Bayer aspirin to chemotherapy. If it's a demon, it will respond to one thing. Do you want to know what it is? The name of Jesus. You can throw every drug at it you want. There are certain sicknesses that have physiological symptoms that are spiritual in nature. What happens? Some people see a principle like this in the Bible and they go nuts. Everything is a demon, then. "You hangnail demon, in the name of Jesus..." Just cut the thing off. We want to cast that demon out. "Come out!" If you had authority, you'd speak and your finger would probably fall off. "I bind you!" and you'd get gangrene. "I loose you!" and you'd get diarrhea. Not knowing how to use all of these different things. God frees us from that by not allowing us to be in charge. We have to understand that though the spiritual is a very real part of it, you can get squirrelly, thinking that every thing is demonic and it's not; though some physiological problems that you and I face are. Case in point, turn to Matthew 12. This is actually where we left off this morning, so we'll pick back up here, that being enough review.

Matthew chapter 12, and we understand from the ministry of Jesus. One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is how we stand here in twentieth century, no, twenty-first century America¾ that's going to be tough getting used to¾ and here we are in the twenty-first century and we look back two thousand years ago into Palestine. Of course, in our thinking these people are primitives. We almost visualize them as some type of caveman, they're so primitive-Cro-Magnon and all of these that people are trying to dig up and relate to somebody. The Neanderthal man. A lot of people say, "You are mispronouncing that. It's not 'nee-an-der-thal;' it's 'nee-an-der-tal.'" Okay, next time I see one, I'll address him properly. They almost visualize first century Palestine being of that particular vein in their philosophy, in their culture, in their civilization. They had a very good understanding of physiology. Not as good as we have today. They didn't have the technology that we have today with our CAT scans and our MRIs. But they understood the physical body. They had medical science that was very advanced. Even from the time of the Egyptians, in through the culture of Greece to where a lot of time had been spent studying the anatomy. They had a working knowledge. They had medicines; they had surgery. They would do brain surgery. Most of them died; but they would do it. They were very aware of the physiological, and yet spoke often of the spiritual afflictions. We stand here in the twenty-first century and we almost laugh at them. We think, "The reason they called it a spirit is because they really didn't understand the physiology." I don't believe that's the case. I think you can go back and historically prove that they had a working knowledge of the anatomy. Were they a simpler people than we? In many ways. But where you and I have to put our trust and our faith is in, of course, the word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the person of Jesus.

In Matthew chapter 12, verse 22, as the ministry of Jesus is going forth and we find Him responding to an obvious physiological need-and of course the question of the day being that which we addressed earlier this morning from the hypocrisy of the Pharisees: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?" Jesus brings them the same reproof of the care for their livestock. How much more, then, is God concerned with our needs? It's not an issue of Sabbath; it's an issue of priority. The Sabbath was to bring rest. These people are at dis-ease, and God wants to bring them peace into their bodies. He says in verse 13 of this twelfth chapter, it says¾ after bringing revelation to the hypocrites-"Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other." We see the healing power manifesting. "Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed [who?] them all." We see that the healing ministry was the heart of God, and Jesus would manifest this heart's desire of Father every time opportunity arose. Every time it could bring the most glory to God, Jesus would provide this healing. Then en masse He heals all of those that were following Him. An obvious physiological healing. What it was that caused the crippling of that man's hand, we're not sure; but we know that it was made whole, and they marveled at it and wanted to destroy Jesus because of this demonstration of power on the Sabbath day. I think it's interesting that throughout the scriptures¾ you have a lot of people here in the twenty-first century looking back and saying, "This ministry and these healings were a hoax. They were psychosomatic healings that manifested. People were just imagining that people had these ailments. They weren't really healings." Isn't it interesting to look at the historical accounts, to look at the biblical account and nowhere see anybody opposing the authenticity of the healings. They were just opposing the source, the method: faith in the name of Jesus. They didn't doubt in demons. In fact, they said that Jesus¾ I'm talking about the Pharisees, those that were the religious leaders of the day¾ they just said that He was doing these things by the power of Beelzebub. They believed in demonic power. They believed in miracles. They just didn't accept the source, Jesus; His name; and faith in His name.

With that in mind, we're looking here and we're seeing that there's a distinction in the scriptures between the physiological and the spiritual. We're talking about the origin of sickness. We're talking about the fact that a lot of it is demonic. What is the source? Satan. What is the ultimate source? Sin's power. But the agents, again, can become demonic. As you look down, it says, "...and he healed them all; And charged them that they should not make him known: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles." Interesting. Judgment against the household of Satan; judgment against the kingdom of darkness. Much of what we're doing in healing, beloved, is not, as I said this morning, just for us to feel better; it's to bring down the kingdom of darkness, to show the judgment of God against the power of Satan; that he no longer has a right to bring dominion upon mankind. And healing all that were what? Oppressed of the devil. There's a war going on. We need to get involved and realize there's an enemy that's mocking our Father and wanting to destroy our families.

We're going to look a little more in depth at this passage out of Isaiah when we look into the healing covenant, and the rights that we have of healing being in redemption. As we're looking right now, we see that Satan is using every means to oppose the kingdom of God. It says ultimately, then, that the healing power and the judgment being manifested was, verse 21, that "...in his name shall the Gentiles trust." Can I ask you tonight, do you trust in that name? All of this was done that you and I, twenty-one centuries later, might not trust in medical science, the different faith healers of our day-whether they be those that are preaching a gospel in a tent somewhere or whether it's some of the different organizations that are out that are proponents of the metaphysical.

You'll see that in a lot of our society there will be those¾ there was a situation that I saw just the other day as I was watching something on The Learning Channel. I watch all of the different things that have to deal with anthropology. They were dealing with physical man and showing that sickness was not just physiological. They were trying to determine whether or not certain people had healing powers. There was one person that was pretty famous, from Russia. He was a person that would lay hands upon the sick and that within him, innate within him, was some power that would deal with the tumors that these people had. They claimed great results and there were great testimonies and people talked about their ability to discern and see into the spirit realm and all of these different things, their disciples giving great testimony of their ability. But these things have to be verifiable. They began to run some other tests on these individuals and saw that in fact, yes there was some kind of a physiological response, but it was attributed back to the psychological because when they put these people in another environment and no hands being laid upon them but, in fact, they just began to play soothing music and different areas. They would have the same physiological responses that they had from this person putting their hands on them. It was a psychological belief. It was an accepting of this supposed force that made them somewhat better temporarily.

It's always been around; it's around today. You can find faith healers. You can find all different types of methods of healing that are out there that people are propagating. The mind is a powerful thing. There is the reality of psychosomatic symptoms; and psychosomatically, then, dissipation; and it's called a miracle. We're not talking about those things when we talk about the healings of Jesus. But we'd be naïve if we didn't know that these things exist. We'd be naïve if we got caught up in people who were performing miracles that can, in fact, be attributed to power of suggestion. Hypnosis, if you please. Psychosomatic inner-healing. Whatever label you want to attach to it, they're there and we need to make a clear distinction that the healing ministry of Jesus, verse 21, was that His name would cause the Gentiles to trust in Him. That it was His name and faith in His name that caused this man to be made whole in your midst. I want you to understand something: when somebody's been crippled for forty years and they get up and walk, it's not psychosomatic. I want you to understand that when the dead are raised, it's not psychosomatic. When leprosy instantaneously leaves an individual's body, it's not psychosomatic. It's not some wonder drug. Then God receives the glory¾ and His name and faith in His name¾ and the glorying of the name is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah so that in Him the Gentiles could trust. It's about God getting His glory. It's about a people that will trust Him.

The bottom line, you're going to see as we go on in this study, is this: it's going to come down to personal faith. It's all going to come down to¾ this whole study's going to come down to this: God has made a provision¾ it's just like redemption, salvation. God has made a provision, and for you and I to receive it, those that come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. The healing isn't something that is just going to manifest because we're professed Christians. The hedge is not always going to be there to hold off the enemy just because we're professed Christians. Our disobedience, as we saw earlier, is going to give access to the enemy. Our lack of righteousness¾ the shield of faith, the breastplate, the helmet of salvation¾ will give access to the fiery darts. Though it's a promise given us and it's a fact accomplished, it's a benefit appropriated by faith; and it's appropriated daily. "And in his name shall the Gentiles trust." I think that maybe we've not trusted daily in that name. I think we've taken a lot of things for granted. I think we've lost sight of the daily warfare, and because of that the enemy has gotten advantage of us.

Let's get back to the spiritual aspect of this. We see as we go on in this passage that Jesus, after having brought forth this ministry, it says, "Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil; [Interesting.].blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed..." Of course, the hypocrites, the Pharisees, said that He does this by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus' response to that was that a kingdom divided against itself can't stand. That works both ways. Satan running around delivering people from devils would not be good for his kingdom; and God going around making all of His followers sick would not be good for His kingdom. What the kingdom is comprised of is what will manifest itself in abundance. I want you to understand something: our kingdom is comprised of life, and healing, and victory. We need to see that as God's purpose and will for us. In the interim all of these fiery darts are being hurled at us. In these demonic demonstrations, whether it's here in Matthew 12¾

You can look over very quickly at Mark 9. I want you to see something in Mark 9 that speaks, again, toward this demonic influence in our lives. How do I know if it's a demon? How do I know whether it's totally physiological or whether it's spiritual with a physiological manifestation? Let me ask you this question: Does it really matter if the remedy is the same? We'd only have to ask that question if I were planning on treating one with drugs and the other with the name of Jesus and the blood of Jesus. "The physiological one, I'm going to treat with penicillin, an aspirin; but if it's really serious, I'm going to pray. If it's something that aspirin won't take care of, penicillin won't take care of, surgery won't take care of, then I'm going to have to trust God." Beloved, I want you to understand that God only has one method, and it takes care of every symptom, every sickness. It's Jesus' name, and faith in His name; it's the power and the authority of the blood; it's the covenant of healing that's declared that His obedience has purchased us the right to not be oppressed of the devil. If you're going to say, "How do I know? Here's a symptom and I really need to know if this is a demon or whether it's physiological." Case in point, blindness; the guy's blind. "What do you think it is?" "He's got a big stick in his eye, so I'm assuming it's physiological. Come out, you stick, in the name of Jesus." It's not a demon. The guy's eye has been poked out; it's physiological. "What about the other one?" "Somewhere in the back, there's a demon and he's got a hold of this optic nerve and he's squeezing it off. He's laughing: Ha, Ha, Ha!" How are we going to deal with that? "A surgeon is going in there and he's going to see this little thing and he's going to cut on the optic nerve and work around it and free it." You're not going to cut demons out. Two extreme, obvious examples. What does it matter? The name of Jesus takes care of both of them. That's what we need to focus on: not trying to discern the intricacies of the cause, but being able to appropriate the power and the benefits of the solution-the healing covenant of Jesus.

Mark 9, verses 17 through 26, Master, I have brought my son to your disciples and they weren't able to deal with him. Verse 15 says, "And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;" I know what you're thinking: "My son has a dumb spirit, too." It could be that he doesn't have dumb spirit; it could be that he had a dumb father. But, that being aside and not the point of this study, it says, "And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away [stiffens out]; and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not." Jesus' response was what? "Maybe it's not God's will. Maybe it's not a spirit. Maybe it's a physiological problem. Maybe it has to do with the brainwaves. Maybe it has to do with something else that's physiological." He doesn't respond to any of that. He just says, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?" He doesn't give any diagnosis. He doesn't give any prognosis. He just says, "...bring him unto me." "You've tried other means; bring him to me." "And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming." We all know the story; it's quite dramatic. He responds to the father and says, "How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child....but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." How many of you believe that tonight? That's the bottom line of this whole teaching. All things are possible to he that believeth. God wants us whole. Jesus wants us healed. Jesus wants Satan bruised beneath our feet with speed. Jesus wants us to be more than conquerors. By His stripes, we are healed. Yes, we're going to be oppressed; yes, we're going to be attacked; yes, we're living in a world that universally is reeling and rocking with sin and sickness and disease and perversion, and there are germs everywhere and there are all kinds of things that can affect you. I want you to understand something: His name and faith in His name is what makes us whole. Not only heals us, but makes us whole. When you eat whatever that junk is that they're preparing out there, if you receive it with thanksgiving it is sanctified, praise God! You can even eat at McDonalds…if you have enough faith.

These are things that we have to apply practically. It's not enough just to have a systematic theology. "Lord, help us if you can." "If you can believe, all things are possible." We're going to spend more time with this passage down the road, but Jesus' response was revealing of the heart of God. His response was revealing of his own personal heart, and we need to come to this place: "…Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Do you want to know the reason that many of us don't get healed supernaturally? It's because we have too much pride to admit that we believe but don't believe; that we believe, but we need some help with our unbelief; that we believe, but it's obvious that we need sufficient grace to make up the difference. "We believe, but Father, we're not fully prepared; and we ask you to forgive us for that and help us to give ourselves to more diligent pursuit of Your promises and a greater application of our righteousness; and a desire to honor You and not ourselves. Lord, we believe; help our unbelief."

The children couldn't enter in because of unbelief, their lack of being persuaded that the promised land was not a guarantee given us without opposition, without walled cities, without giants. The promised land was not a life of ease, that we can walk down and as soon as we approach the Jordan all of the cities clear out and all the giants quake; but in fact, they stand behind their walled cities and laugh at us. We've got to find the strategy of God that causes us to walk around the walls seven times and shout and watch them come down; to understand that the covenant says that He's not going to drive your enemy out at one time lest the land overtake you, but little by little will He drive them out of your midst so that you can possess the land. God's not going to just give you instant victory every time you come up against opposition. It's not good for us. "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." With that becoming part of our approach, we can know the power of God.

What we're looking at here is the source of this. This child, of course, being oppressed by the spirit. This is a child that we understand is bound with this dumb spirit. The Scripture speaks to us and says that as this demon tore him, he became, verse 26, "…as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead." It doesn't matter to Jesus if it's a stubbed toe or if the dude is lying there dead. We're the ones that categorize miracles. We're the ones that make some things harder than others. It's not whether it's harder or easier; it's the fact that it's done. It has already been established. The price has been paid. The victory's been won, and we need to walk in trusting our Savior and making the boast in the finished work and boasting in His desire to deliver us from the oppression of the evil one.

"...and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." We see as we go on later in our study that there is personal preparation, there's personal integrity, many times, that is involved; there's motive behind why we're doing what we're doing. You can't get in a spiritual contest of wanting to see healing so that you could be the most spiritual guy in town, the most spiritual church in town, the greatest healing evangelist of all time. That's the kingdom of darkness; that's Satan's kingdom. It has nothing to do with personal recognition, who's the greatest. It has to do with realizing that God's the greatest and He deserves His praise, these spiritual forces.

Let me go on and finish these couple of other categories tonight, because Wednesday we want to deal with another aspect of the healing that's in the redemption. We see that Satan is one of the sources. We see that disobedience becomes one of the sources. We saw that general sin was one of those sources that's expressing itself in the oppression of our bodies. Then there was one other thing that we want to look at just before we close tonight¾ actually two others. I'll deal with the second one first.

We realize that sickness can come, not just because of a disobedience to covenant promises, but sickness can come because of personal sin. It's very important for us to realize that in our specific disobedience, there can be physiological consequences to that. One of those can be in the area of-and it's something that's prominent in the scriptures-disobedience to divine authority, or designated authority, spiritual leaders. We bring this up because it's so clear in the scriptures. You can see it in Numbers 12; you can see it in Numbers 16; you can see it in the book of Numbers, chapter 21. We're not necessarily going to go through all of those particular passages this evening, but get them in your notes and go back and do a little bit of study on this. The disobedience, the murmuring¾ now is it the fact that we're murmuring against a spiritual person like Moses? Or when we're murmuring, complaining, opposing this authority, who are we really opposing? Those that resist the ordinance are resisting who? God. This tells us real clearly then, that for you and I to start to second-guess God¾ we can personify that in the person of Moses; but we that know the scriptures know that it's not Moses that's the problem. When the people were having trouble and murmuring against Moses, they weren't really murmuring against Moses. Who were they murmuring against? God.

The moment we begin to second-guess why God is allowing these things to happen in our life; whether His wisdom is truly manifesting in the ordering of our course, the steps of our life, whatever it is¾ the minute we begin to second-guess, we become a candidate for sickness. Whenever you get into fear and doubt and questioning God's care for you¾ this has to do, beloved, I want to tell you something. This has to do with questioning God through questioning your spouse; questioning God through questioning your parents. Whenever we begin to fall into those areas of broken order, we've given access to the enemy to bring confusion. Many households are just one problem after another, and it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that God is allowing us to be tested because of our spirituality. It has to do with your house being out of order. Where there's bitter confusion, and bickering and strife, there's what? Every evil work. You need to understand that that environment breeds sickness. It's throughout the scriptures.

Let's look real quickly at the Numbers passages here. They're worth taking just a minute to look at. We'll start in Numbers 12. As we're looking into this twelfth chapter, of course, the obvious of Miriam and Aaron's sedition: "…Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses?" What's behind that spirit, that statement? Pride. What's the source of original sin? Pride. Where did sickness come from? The original sin. All you've done is say to Satan, "Here's an environment that you were birthed in and that you're able to excel in, and we're just going to give you that environment in our lives. We're going to be prideful and boast and try to usurp and force our will." The thing that's interesting is that it doesn't always mean that you're the one that's going to get sick. In this case, it did. It was Miriam and we know the story, don't we? The affliction came and Aaron said to Moses, verse 11, "Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee." You can pray all you want, but I want to tell you how you get rid of this kind of sickness: by repenting. You don't get rid of this kind of sickness by demanding your rights in the name of Jesus and "I resist you, devil." You get free from this kind of oppression, this kind of sickness, by repentance, by humbling yourself. It's very important for us to understand that our haughtiness, our pride, our self reliance, breeds an environment for Satan's oppression of our lives.

Numbers 16, verse 46, you read on and you begin to see again what we're battling, and the fact that sickness is not just a crapshoot that you happen to walk out and a guy sneezes, and one gets sick and the other one doesn't. There are things that give access in our lives. Of course, when you go out there and they sneeze, every one of us is exposed to all of those germs that come out. You're on the elevator and some guy just graciously, doesn't even cover himself and BLAUPH! and this big cloud comes out. You immediately try to hold your breath, but you've just pushed the button for the thirty-seventh floor. That's when you have on the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith. The elevator door opens, and a thousand have fallen, and ten thousand in the elevator at your right hand, but you walk off; it didn't come nigh you. There are no guarantees. If we've go this kind of an attitude in our hearts. We profess the name of Jesus. We say we believe in healing, yet there's bitterness and envy and strife. Numbers 16, verse 46. We see that in the midst of the judgment of God, and those that are mocking God's lordship, this rebellion of Korah and all of the elders and the accusation of Moses. Then Moses responds and says, verse 15, "Respect not thou their offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them." They have put themselves in a position where they're going to make God choose. You'd better be careful putting yourself into this kind of a situation. The consequence was not just the immediate judgment of Korah and Dathan and the ground opening and swallowing those up, but then the people began to murmur. Verse 41 says that they accused Moses of killing the people of the Lord, a people that God just judged. These people said that the ones that died were God's people. "They were blessed and they were precious people. They helped me out when I was in need. Moses, you killed them!" Moses didn't open the ground up, but the bitterness, the pride, the rebellion of their hearts. "And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared." His presence at the tabernacle was known. The Lord spoke to Moses in verse 45 and said, "Step back. I'm going to take them out. I'm going to consume them in a moment." Moses falls on his face to intercede and he tells Aaron to take a censor and put fire therein and take the coals from the altar and incense, the prayers of the people. Incense is symbolic of prayer and intercession of Moses. He begins to intercede for the people of God, that we might "…make an atonement for them…" verse 46 says. He runs out, and as the plague began, the scriptures tell us that the people were destroyed at the presence of God. He stands between the dead and the living, verse 48 says, and the plague was stayed. At that moment, there died in the plague, verse 49 says, "…fourteen thousand and seven hundred…" in a moment. Why? Because they knew better than God. They questioned the care of God. They questioned the order of God-always questioning parents' authority, husband's authority; the rebellion; the pride that's even evidenced in the secular realm of always wanting to second guess, backbite, bad mouth our bosses and those that are in authority. We're not talking about the ability to recognize obvious errors. We're talking about the vaunting of oneself. It gives place to the enemy.

Numbers 21. We want to get this finished up so we can deal with the last area this evening. Twenty-one, verse 5. Again, the people murmuring, and we're going to leave the detail of this for one of our other sessions. As you know that each has to do their own personal looking. It says that the people were "…discouraged because of the way." (Verse 4.) Have you ever been discouraged? Just kind of confused and beaten down? That leads itself to murmuring and questioning God, and that leads to things getting worse. "And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, verse 5 says] Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died." There are fiery serpents that are still injecting the superabundance of the venom of unbelief and hatred toward God and His methods. It's an overdose of self will that killed these people. That's what those fiery serpents were injecting into them. God sends the symbol of the brazen serpent. We know the story. Each one that looked, lived. Again, personal repentance. I want to encourage you that this is something that we understand as we're dealing not only in our lives but in others. There are so many of us that are moved and we see somebody that's physically afflicted and our hearts immediately go, "Oh Jesus, heal them. Lord, bless them." We don't realize that we're trying to ask God to bless something that He's in fact cursing. You'd better know what's taking place in the environment and how quick we're going to run around and lay hands on everybody. This doesn't mean that we have to just sit back and say, "I don't know if I ought to pray for this person. There might be a secret sin." I'm not talking about that, but I am talking about when there is known, there is known, sin in the camp; when there is known sin in your life or in the life of someone you're personally acquainted with. You not only need to begin to pray and intercede for them, you need to go and bring them this instruction and reproof so that they could be free from this thing. It's not just a matter of laying hands on them and praying. There needs to be repentance. Satan needs to be resisted and driven out of their midst.

Let me give you one of the last causes of sickness. We see that sickness comes becomes of rebellion against the authority of God. We've seen sickness coming because of sin, universal and specific. I can't get into all the specific sin tonight. Under specific sin just write down the passages John 5:14, John 9:2, and Psalm 31:10. Most of our sickness that we're experiencing isn't because of this reason. Most of us are in a position to where we are sensitive enough that when we blatantly sin the Spirit convicts us and our hearts are smitten and we repent. Many of it is these other areas, these peripheral things where it's not as obvious. It's not the fact that we just got mad and screamed and kicked the dog. It's that subtle pride and rebellion and all of those things that are in our lives that give access that we're not as aware of. They are personal sin, but they're not as occasional, as specific, as some of the obvious.

We talked about the misuse of the body and how we abuse ourselves through wrong diet and improper sleep and no exercise. "I need the Lord to heal me. I just don't seem to have any energy." "Really?" "Yeah." "Do you think it could be the fact that you're sleeping fourteen hours a day, eating six, and the rest of the time you're riding your Rascal around?" I'm tired of going places and almost getting run over by these four hundred pound people in their Rascals. Walk, you fat dog, and you won't have to ride that thing around. Get up and do some exercise, for crying out loud. I understand that there are physiological reasons why some of these people need this assisted mode of transportation, but have you noticed that most of those people are fat? They're not crippled; they're fat. You're fat-that's your problem! I want to give you a diagnosis: you're fat. I want to give you a prognosis: you're going to get fatter. Do you want a solution? Stop eating so much and start exercising. If you get the proper amount of rest, and you get the proper amount of exercise, and you get the proper nutrition, you'll feel better. That's enough for that. That's one of the causes¾ the misuse of our bodies.

Tragically in our society, there's the worship of our body. I believe that because so many people are worshiping their bodies that God is letting them be sick. Some of the sickest people around are some of the physiological best looking people, but they're not healthy. You watch some of the body building contests. There are guys sitting there and they're all ripped. They interview them afterwards and they ask, "What are you going to do?" The guy says, "I'm going to get some pizza." The dude has been starving himself. You don't look like that normally. If you do, if you stay that way too long you will die. It's called starvation. These guys can't wait. They are dehydrated. You're not to go walking around with all of that stuff sticking through your skin. It's not healthy. People have bought a bill of goods and we worship a certain look. I want to tell you something. If you worship the temple, you're putting it in jeopardy, because God will bring judgment on it.

Lastly, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, let's turn over there, verses 27 through 30 as we get ready to spend a little bit of time here at the Lord's table. We realize that sickness comes because we don't discern the Lord's body properly-failure to discern the Lord's body. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you…" Paul says, and some even die because of this failure to discern the Lord's body. Corinthians 11 verse 27, what does that have to do with you and I? How is this applied in our lives? Chapter 11, verses 27 through 30, it says there are people that become guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. That's quite a statement. It talks about the unworthy partaking as drinking damnation, verse 29, to yourself. Damnation is a very strong word: a judgment. Some of you are, because of the misuse and the misapplication of your relationship to the community, are "weak and sickly," and some are even dead. "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged [of God and this torment be upon our lives] But when we are judged [and we realize and we repent], we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." Wouldn't you rather be chastened of the Lord than to be condemned with the world?

A lot of this comes to bring to our attention that we're not properly discerning the Lord's body-the fact that He died for us, the fact that He died for us individually. And He died for us that we could corporately represent Him-a failure to recognize His lordship in others' lives; being too quick to be critical of other believers and too quick to just affiliate ourselves with the comely parts; too quick to think of ourselves more highly than we ought; too quick to question who's the greatest among us; too quick to move in and try to bring into our midst a balance and to provide all kinds of different supplements of comfort psychologically, physiologically, all of these different ways instead of pointing people to the headship of Jesus, His lordship in His church. We, because of our own physical infirmities, begin to rather than realize that God is dealing with us personally, try to propagate a gospel other than that which is a gospel of healing; not realizing how important it is for us to care for one another and esteem others better than ourselves and to walk in humility in the midst of the church to His lordship; not really believing in the doctrine of healing. Because we reject it, we just get sicker. "I didn't get healed, so it must not be God's will to heal" so I get sicker; instead of saying, "I didn't get healed, but I believe it's God's will for me and I'm going to stand fast. Though He slay me, I'm going to serve Him." That's your victory. Anything less than that is to fail to discern the Lord's body. To eat and drink of these emblems here this evening and believe that the work is finished and that as we partake of these tonight we're saying before the principalities and powers of the air, "I don't care what is evident. I don't care what's apparent of the dominion you have on society or even apparently what you've been able to do to me physically. I want you to know something: I believe by the stripes of Jesus I am healed. I believe that the price has been paid. I accept my healing in Jesus' name." When you partake, you partake in faith. To partake any other way is to eat and drink unworthily. It just compounds the sickness. The scripture says even for that reason, some die. To be critical, to be in strife with the body of Christ gives place to the enemy, making us sick just as it did in those passages in Numbers. We have to be very careful that there's not bitterness and hatred and envy and strife and critical spirit and judgment that's manifesting. Then we want to sit and eat the body and blood of the Lord. He didn't die for that environment. He died that we would prefer one another and esteem one another, and humble ourselves because the greatest among us is servant of all.

Father, we thank You tonight for the word of God. As we prepare ourselves now to sit at the table, we're believing, Lord, that Your power would manifest in our lives. Lord, there's nothing too small that You don't desire to cleanse tonight with Your blood-whether it's from the slightest allergy in this place to those things that have been spoken of as terminal-the provision for deliverance for each one is here in this blood that we recognize tonight being shed for us. You didn't allow Yourself to be beaten in Pilate's judgment hall, Lord, or to be mocked as You hung on that cross for anything less than our full deliverance here tonight. We come to celebrate. We come to rejoice in the victory won tonight in the name of Jesus. As the brethren come and the rest of us just worship the Lord and honor Him this evening, I want us to prepare our hearts to receive at His hands. I want us to prepare our hearts to deal with any access that may have been given to the enemy in our lives. The Scripture says that before we eat these emblems that there's a need in our lives to repent, to confess our sin and repent and then let us eat.

As Gary plays and we just celebrate the presence of the Lord, let Him speak to you tonight. One of the great sins that I think many of us are guilty of in this place here tonight is just casually going out and not recognizing Him; just taking for granted the blessings of God. For so long we were physically well and now all of a sudden there's this situation in our lives. Why did it come? Because of taking for granted the blessings of God. When you lose that health and that strength, it makes you appreciate what you had. Things that we take for granted many times, that's just one way of saying we're denying the Lord and despising privileges. We're all guilty of that from time to time. We need to repent of that and just recognize daily the good things that He's done for us by His broken body and His shed blood. Don't take it for granted. Go out and say, "Lord, I want you to know that I appreciate the health. I appreciate the strength, the energy. Lord, I am so thankful for what You're doing in my body." Those of us that are fighting different types of ailments, just say, "Lord, I just want to thank You that Your grace is sufficient in me right now. I thank you that things aren't worse. I just rejoice in that. I believe that You want me whole and I accept that tonight in the name of Jesus. Father, deal with all of these other areas of unbelief in my life, the pride and the envy and the strife¾ the bigger picture, Lord, the things that really matter. Jesus, forgive me." The scripture says that we're to pray one for another and forgive one another that we'd be healed. Is there unforgiveness in your life? There's no healing for you with unforgiveness. You don't dare partake of these emblems here tonight with unforgiveness: you'll be eating and drinking to yourself damnation. You need to be broken tonight and repent. Let God heal you, and then partake and be whole¾ not only spiritually refreshed, but physically refreshed and made whole.

Let's sing it as they serve us and hold. We'll all partake together tonight. Search me O God Even the secular today tries to tell us that, in their research psychologically-we have the physiological, the psychological, and the spiritual consequences. We are a triune being. They say a lot of sickness today is based on what we call "stress." Stress is something that's self induced, in all reality. It's not just the pace, it's not the pressures. We've by choice put ourselves in there because of our own prides and egos to excel. You need to take on the Jamaican philosophy, "No problem, Mon. I'll get around to it tomorrow." Then, of course, you get fired because our society doesn't live that way. But it's self induced; it's a choice to be in that environment. They go on and tell us that another great cause of sickness and disease in our society is hatred and unforgiveness, bitterness. They feel that they're about to be able to really verify that these do produce things such as arthritis and cancers. I believe there's truth to that. I don't know that they can specifically determine what type of consequences, but I do know that unforgiveness will bring sickness because the Lord speaks toward that. If you can't forgive, you'll never be forgiven, the scripture says; and you're under the curse, the judgment of God. It's no wonder you're sick, fearful, tormented, driven, perplexed. It's all pride. "Yeah, but I've been mistreated." Who hasn't? We just ask the Lord for the forgiveness, and forgive in the process and let Him make you whole tonight. Turn loose of the bitterness and the strife and let Him heal you tonight as you recognize His lordship and the healing that's in the blood of Jesus. It's not worth it. Lay down the false image of self and how smart you are and tough you are. Come to grips with the fact that we're in unbelief and we're in fear and we need His help tonight. Let Him heal you. "Oh, I can take care of this. I just need a little more exercise, take a few supplements here. I'll take care of it." In doing it, all you're doing is saying, "I don't need the blood of Jesus. I'll do it the natural way." There is a big emphasis on the natural today. Let me bump you up one step higher: let's do it the super-natural way. It works a lot better; it's cheaper; and God gets the glory.

There's a great phrase in this passage that we commemorate as Jesus spoke to His disciples, and I want to emphasize that tonight. I'm not going to say any more. All that we've spoken is toward the spirit of the hour. Here's what I want to emphasize. I want it to come into your heart with the force that it was delivered. Jesus said, "In remembrance of Me." That's what we're doing tonight. "Recognize Me beyond medical science. Recognize Me beyond your own wisdom and your own power. In remembrance of Me. My body was broken. My blood was shed. The price is paid. Are you going to remember Me?" Jesus, we just say tonight, "Thank You." With thanksgiving we receive Your bread, in Jesus' name. Hallelujah! In remembrance of Him tonight and that broken body, just be made whole in Jesus' name. Just receive the strength that's available to you in the name of Jesus. Celebrate that victory won. In His name and in remembrance of Him, Lord, with thanksgiving we receive this cup. Thank You. Let's take together. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Just celebrate in remembrance. Just celebrate in remembrance of Him tonight. Just begin to rejoice and stand where you are. Worship Him tonight. Glory to God! Celebrate His presence tonight. If you're physically well, thank God for it. If you're in need of a touch, rejoice in the goodness of God, the hedge that's still around you. It could be worse. We celebrate Your presence, Lord. In remembrance of You, we accept our healing. We celebrate our healing. Jesus, we thank You. We thank You, Lord. Lord, we thank You. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! In remembrance of You, Lord, we celebrate the victory. We declare that it's by Your stripes that we're a healed people. Lord, we need You tonight. Lord, we believe. Lord God, we believe. Hallelujah!

Let's sing that together. Lord, I believe. Let's thank Him for the victory tonight. Lord, I receive. Just take it now personally. Hallelujah! Just worship Him, just in remembrance of Him tonight, thank Him. Hallelujah!