Level Up

This week I’m responding to feedback I received from my post Prove Me Wrong. Some feedback came in via text message, email, and social media comments. I usually include full scripture passages, but in an effort to keep my word count down, I have simply listed them for you and ask that you look it up, read, it, and let God speak to you through them.

Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17 NASB

The women’s ministry at my church has a motto: Reach up, reach out, reach back. Reach up: find a spiritual mentor, someone who guides, challenges, and teaches. Reach out: just what it sounds like. We’re to reach out to our community to help spread the good news of Jesus. Reach back: be someone who can be a reach up for someone else. The Holy Spirit speaks to each individual in different ways, at different times in their life, and is always wanting us to tune in. That’s why it’s so important for us to share these revelations, not out of competition, but out of love.

It’s just as important for us to remain open to instruction regardless of age or education. There have been several times that I’ve been on the phone with my adult daughter, and she’s said something that sank into my heart that I’d never understood the same way before. Age and formal education do not dictate how God speaks and who He speaks to.

Last week I posted a challenge, partly to find out where people are regarding healing, but also because I grew up with a serious misunderstanding of who God is and I flat out did not trust Him because of it. It wasn’t until I was in my late twenties that I started searching out His truths. What I discovered, and am continuing to discover, is that God does not fit in the box that most religions have tried to squish Him into. I caution that we should not lower His Word to the level of our experiences, rather we should strive to experience the truths found in His Word.

For any who might have missed the post, I believe – based on God’s Word – that it is God’s will to heal 100% of the time and that He provided healing when Jesus died on the cross. I firmly believe that God does not give us sickness and disease (or disabilities or injuries, etc.) for any reason. And finally, I believe that God’s Word is true.

I received several personal insights and questions, but also some challenges on what scripture means. One was the context of scriptures I used (Isaiah 53:4-5 and I Peter 2:24) – the reader challenged that the context was for spiritual healing and not physical healing, but that our physical healing comes when Jesus returns and makes all things new. The thorn that Paul had asked God to remove and was denied was brought up as well (II Corinthians 12:7-10). Some of the personal insights and questions were concerning the healing of the man at the Pool of Bethesda – what about all the others there that Jesus did not heal? Also, the lame beggar at the temple (Acts 3:1-10) – why didn’t Jesus heal him when He must have passed by him several times throughout His ministry? Let’s jump right in.

• Isaiah 53:4-5 – portion of the prophesy of Christ’s sufferings.
• I Peter 2:24 – reminder of Christ’s sacrifice and what it provided.

Those are the passages I used in my post last week. I’m including another passage that I cited last week regarding Jesus healing all our diseases (this was not included in the contextual challenge):

• Psalm 103:1-3 – description of the grace and mercy of God to His children.

A reader challenged the context of our healing being spiritual and not physical. From Psalm 103, the word diseases is found in the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, word #8463, which literally means a malady, disease, a sickness. It has a primitive root (#2456) which means to be sick – diseased. That would be in the physical context. If you were to continue reading, you would also see that God satisfies our years with good things so that our youth is renewed (Psalm 103:5). I would be remiss if I didn’t include a certain passage from the book of Matthew:

• Matthew 8:16-17 – fulfilling what was said by the prophet, Isaiah.

Matthew 8:16-17 solidifies the context as physical healing. There are many who believe that the context does not include physical healing, but scripture does not contradict scripture. Infirmities, the word used in the Matthew passage, means disease, suffering, sorrow, weakness, sickness, menstruation, and grief (ref. Holman Bible Dictionary). This was right after Jesus cast out a demon and also physically healed someone. Some might give the common response of healing being something Jesus did, but that it’s not for today the way it was during Jesus’ time on earth. Scripture though clearly states that we are to do what Jesus did and even greater miracles (John 14:12-14). Physical healing was provided for us and is still for us today. But I’ll save some for another post when I go into the authority we have as God’s children.

I was also challenged regarding Paul’s thorn in the flesh. Let’s look at that passage together to make sure we get the right context:

• II Corinthians 12:7-10 – Paul’s thorn 

Verse 7 shows a clear explanation of what the thorn in the flesh was. It was a demonic spirit and not a physical infirmity such as a sickness or disease. Before anyone says it (I’ve heard it before), God does not give us demonic spirits; this was a spirit of persecution that followed Paul during his ministry. Let’s look at a corresponding passage from the book of Numbers regarding what a thorn in the flesh was:

• Numbers 33:55 – warning about pricks in the side and a thorn to prick the eyes.

Paul saying that the messenger of Satan was a thorn in his side, God telling His people that any inhabitants left in the land they were to take over would be a prick in the side or a thorn to prick the eyes is the equivalent to saying that they’re going to experience a pain in the butt. They would have trouble. It’s metaphorical and means that Paul was bothered by, troubled by, irritated by – persecuted by – a messenger of Satan. The thorn in his side is referencing all of the ways he was being persecuted that are listed in the previous chapter.

• II Corinthians 11:24-30 – ways that Paul was persecuted.

We are warned, multiple times, that we will suffer persecution because of our ministry, because we have placed our faith in God and strive to walk with Him. Persecution is not sickness and disease or disabilities. Did Paul suffer physically from being beaten and whipped and stoned (as well as the other many ways he was persecuted)? Absolutely! But God assuring Paul that His grace was sufficient for him was not withholding healing for a sickness or disease, but rather a reassuring to Paul that God loved him.

• II Timothy 3:12 – we will be persecuted.
• John 15:18-27 – we will be hated by the world because the world hated Jesus.

People of grace operate in grace. That means we’re able to love those who persecute us, and Paul knew this. He wrote the chapter known as the love chapter (I Corinthians 13) and went on to reiterate that throughout his entire ministry. He was dubbed the chief sinners and was known as the apostle of the Gentiles. He knew more than many what it was like to receive the gift of God’s grace. He writes (and I’m paraphrasing here) that he would rather brag about his weaknesses because it would shine a spotlight on just how awesome Christ was to live in and work through him.

One of my readers asked why Jesus only healed the one person at the Pool of Bethesda and why the beggar at the temple gates wasn’t healed during Jesus’ ministry.

• John 5:1-17 – man healed at the Pool of Bethesda
• Acts 3:1-10 – man healed by Peter (John was with him) at the temple gates.

It’s a bit difficult to draw a conclusion regarding God’s will to heal on these two instances because so much of it is not recorded in scripture. I will say that Jesus was fully God while also being fully man. He didn’t just see in the physical but was able to see the heart of those who sought Him and those He was near. We don’t know if Jesus came in contact with the lame beggar – it’s not in scripture. We don’t know what Jesus saw in the hearts of the others at the Pool of Bethesda.

There’s quite the debate about the Pool of Bethesda – was it a pool of healing based on the pagan god, Asclepius? Other scholars state that it might have been a mikveh, a Jewish bath used for spiritual cleansing. Interesting that Jesus, our living water, cleansed the man who was lame for 38 years instead of helping him into the pool of water that so many had put their last hope in. Perhaps Jesus saw in the man’s heart something that wasn’t seen in the others there. Or perhaps Jesus healed him so that others would seek Him out for their own healing. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1-14).

There is no account where Jesus did not heal those who came to Him for healing. Again, I caution that we should not diminish the truth of God’s Word based on our experiences but seek to experience the truths found in God’s Word. I know it’s a sensitive topic when some who are reading this have lost loved ones to sickness or disease – I know of a young mother who lost the physical battle to cancer – she was a friend, a wife, a mother, a sister, and a daughter. I also lost my stepmother to cancer. I prayed for both of these people and fully believe that it was God’s will to heal them even though they did not receive their physical healing. But God’s Word is true – always – regardless of my earthly experiences. It is God’s will that all come to salvation (II Peter 3:9) but we know that not all will accept Jesus’ sacrifice. Does that mean it’s no longer God’s will?

I’m all about having my experiences level up to the truths found in God’s Word and not continuing through life trying to explain away why something God said must not be true. I want to not just read about these truths, but I want to experience them first-hand. Anyone else interested in taking hold of what Jesus’ sacrifice paid for?

Again, in an effort to keep my word-count down, here are some passages for further reading:

• Galatians 3:13 – Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. (Check out the curses we’ve been redeemed from in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.)
• Colossians 1:13-14 – we’re delivered from the domain of darkness.
• Psalm 91 – He delivers us from sickness, disease, and enemies. He satisfies us with a long life.
• Ephesians 1:7-9 – forgiveness according to the riches of His grace / good intentions towards us.
• Jeremiah 29:11 – He has good plans for us / prosperity, hope, and a future.
• Matthew 7:11 – God gives good gifts to all who ask.
• Psalm 84:11 – God does not withhold good things from His children.
• John 10:10 – came to give us abundant life.
• Psalm 92:12-14 – we are to be strong, vibrant, and fruitful even in old age.
• Isaiah 54:9-10 – God’s covenant of peace will not be shaken.
• Luke 5:17-25 – forgiveness of sins and healing from sickness and disease go hand in hand.
• Romans 8:11 – the Holy Spirit gives our mortal bodies life.
• I John 4:17-18 – as Jesus is, so are we in this world.