In my book Understanding God’s Healing Power, I tried to examine some reasons why some Christians are not healed, while there are many probable reasons why this is so, this is a common reason; Christians are not healed because they do not take a strong stand against sickness.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you”. Ja. 4:7
How do you see sickness? Many of us will agree that sin in all its forms is of the devil, well, sickness and sin come from the same source – the devil, what sin is to the spirit, sickness is to the body, both will kill, one eternally and the other temporally, sin and sickness are Satan’s double blow against humanity.
Modern science offers many ‘reasonable’ explanations for why certain disease condition exists, but modern science cannot explain how these conditions were introduced into the earth in the first place. I’ll tell you…….
When God created man, He ( man) was the crowning piece of His creation.
“And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good”. Gen. 1:31
When Satan moved against humanity through Adam and Eve, what was very good became corrupted and that was the origin of the sin and death that came upon mankind.
“For by one man (Adam) sin came upon man and death by sin and death passed unto all men because all had sinned”. Ro.5:12.
Death here is the sum total of the effects of mankind losing his place, access and position before God.
Sin and Sickness took mankind prisoner and from that day till now, humanity has labored under the oppression of Satan using the instruments of death (ie Sin and Sickness) until Jesus came.
Jesus came to set the captives free, from what? From whatever held us in bondage, in this case sin and sickness.
“How God anointed Jesus Christ of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, Spirit and power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him” (Act 10:38)
We see it clearly, sickness is an oppression of the devil, it was so in the beginning and it is so now.
In His earthly ministry Jesus waged an unrelenting war against every form of satanic bondage, forgiving sins, healing the sick, delivering the oppressed, feeding the hungry, releasing multitudes to discover their true purposes in God.
“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people” Math. 4:23
Some people have said that Jesus did the miracles and healed the people just to prove that He was God, those people do not understand the heart of God, true, the miracles did confirm His divine origin , but He did the miracles because His ministry was to undo the works of the devil and begin the process of restoring man to God’s original purpose in creation, He came to destroy the works of the devil, to set the captives free, to proclaim healing to the poor and restoration to mankind.
When He went to the cross it was to make that deliverance eternally available to all.
This was the point that the apostle Peter was making in his epistle in 1 Peter 2:24
Who his own self bare our sins on His body on the tree, that we should be dead to sins and live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed, did you notice the tense? were, speaking as in the past tense, what Jesus did on the cross was to make salvation from sin and sickness available to all from that time till this day.
As you have received Jesus as your savior from sin by faith so you can receive as your savior from sickness by faith, your mouth declaring what your heart has most surely believed.
Jesus tells us to submit to God and then resist the devil and his attempts to bring you under the bondage of sin or sickness; it is time to fight for your health.
Notice this that it is your responsibility and business what you do with what Jesus has made possible, you can only resist the devil after you have submitted to God and you do this through your faith in Christ Jesus.
There are a number of things you must keep in mind if you must successfully resist the devil
(1) Satan is the author of your troubles not God.
(2) God through Christ is your salvation and healing
(3) You are the one who will determine whether God or Satan will have His way in your life.
(4) To submit to God is to recognize His work in your life through Christ and to commit to Him.
(5) Jesus has died on the cross and has been raised from the dead in order for you to have complete victory over sickness, He said by ‘My stripes you are healed’.
(6) You resist the devil by appropriating the healing truths of God’s word and taking a stand on them and speaking them over your life.
(7) Remember this, you have been redeemed with a price, you belong to God, His command to you is to glorify Him in your body and in your spirit (I Cor.6:11)
(8) God has established various channels through what you may rightfully appropriate what He has made available to you.
(9) Your healing just like your salvation is already an established deal, it is like cash in the bank, your faith is like drawing on that cash through the written promise of God.
(10) You can do what David did, when He was afflicted on His sick bed, He shouted with all his heart I will not die but declare the works of the Lord.
If you are in the place where sickness threatens to overrun you, take a stand for your health.
Do these,
• Find scriptures that pertain to your healing and health and begin to read and meditate upon them for as long as it takes to get them firmly established in your heart, remember with the heart man believeth.
• Begin to make a confession of faith concerning all the things that you have believed concerning your health based on the scriptures you have identified.
• Refuse to allow any contrary evidence change your confession of what you believe, remember this, confession does not change God, He already has made provision for your health, your confession helps you to RECEIVE what God has already made available to you through Jesus Christ.
• Continue to rebuke the condition in your body and command your body to line up with the word of God, speak healing and health to every member of your body and watch your health return.
• Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, He may lead you to do certain things, just obey.
• Avoid the things that hinder faith like unforgiveness, bitterness and unconfessed sin and repent of them where necessary.