“That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet, saying, himself took our infirmities, and bare our sickness”—Matthew 8:17
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and BE IN HEALTH, even as thy soul prospereth”—3John2
For the sake of this discuss, two scriptural texts from two Apostles (Matthew and John) have been provided. Because a matter must be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. In the first opening text, Matthew by the Spirit tells us that Jesus’ healing acts in the preceding verses were a fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Jesus’ Atonement for our healing and health.
It says “himself took our infirmities, and bare our sickness”. And of course, if Jesus took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses, then our infirmities and sicknesses are gone.
Then for the second opening text from John, the scripture is also very straight-forward. John by the Spirit says “He wish above all things that we may prosper and be in health, even as our soul prospers”. The word ‘wish’ as used by John in the above scriptural quote, is from the Greek word, ‘euchomai’ meaning ‘to wish’. Which by implication means: to pray to God or to will.
And since these John wishes or prayers were motivated by the Holy Ghost, it means John was praying the topmost will of God for us believers. And amongst these topmost will of God that John prayed for, is health. So we can safely again assert that divine health (amongst others) is God’s topmost desire for his children.
With the above two scriptures, every believer can confidently trust God for their perfect health and healing at all times. And of course, this becomes the rule.
So Can a Believer Be Sick?
Having established from the two opening text above, that perfect health and healing is the believer’s heritage in Christ Jesus, the very next question that quickly comes to mind is ‘can a believer be sick?’ The answer to the above question is yes. A believer in Christ Jesus can be sick or challenged in his health. And that is why part of the health providence of Jesus is called ‘healing’. Of course, your health has to be challenged for you to get healed.
But in as much as a believer’s health can be challenged. The believer can by his faith in the healing atonement of Christ, as we have discussed earlier, deny the fact that he is sick. Even when the symptoms are very glaring…
When he does that, he is walking by faith and scriptural understanding. The believer who denies being sick even with symptoms of sickness, is not to be judged as a liar. Any more than the believer who confesses that he is righteous, even though he fails sometimes and repents would be called a liar.
To call a person talking by faith a liar, is to be judging from a very high level of spiritual parochialism.
When a believer is having a health challenge but says he is not sick or he is strong, he is simply speaking in line with the scripture that says, when I am weak, then am I strong (2 Corinthians 12:10).
The person may be lying on hospital bed and yet still maintain his confession of divine health, looking up to God for intervention. And of course, most of the time, God does intervene in response to such faith. Testimonies of such divine interventions abound so much to deny.
What About Those That Die Saying They Are Not Sick?
A major attack brought against divine healing is the fact that many a believer had said they are not sick. And even confessed they can never be sick. Yet they ended up dying with some ailments. People ask; is that not deception? Well, from scriptures their words and acts can never in any way be called deception.
The proper classification of their words and acts is simply faith. Now most of these folks that actually made such confessions actually enjoyed undeniable divine health and healing from God through their faith in God for years. Then eventually some of them couldn’t recover from their health challenges before their death. The reason for such occurrences can vary. Especially, it may be a call home time for them by God…
This may be the reason, for the exceptional overriding of their faith by God. And that does not in any way make their profession and earnestness of faith a deception like many call it.
Even when they die like that, they can also be counted as heroes of faith. Including those who refuse medication for the sake of their faith. Hebrews 11:35 tells us that some of the heroes of faith, were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.
So to die in one’s earnest faith in God’s word, is never a deception; but rather, a righteous act in commitment to God’s faithfulness.
And like I always tell people, we have a better hope of a believer that dies in his earnest faith, than the ones who die in unbelief and doubt.
Yes, it’s true that many have died believing absolutely in God for their healing and health. But many more have died in unbelief and doubt.
What About The Unbelieving Believers?
Most of the attacks and criticism against those who believe in divine healing even unto death come from the group of believers who don’t believe in divine healing. Most of them once believed in divine healing and health. But like the folks with stony hearts in Jesus’ parable, when they faced some tribulations and persecution, concerning their faith in divine healing, they were offended.
Then consequently, they begin to bring up one baseless attack after the other against the healing gospel. They say, ‘Many believe in divine health and healing yet they get sick and die; so the healing and health doctrine is false’. And yet with the massive failure of medical science, they still have great confidence in it…
Even much more than God’s word. When they or someone gets any health challenge, it never occur to them to look up to God first for divine healing. Instead, they first run to the hospital. And when medical science eventually fails them, in self-justification, they claim the sickness is their thorn in the flesh.
They claim such things just to attract pity from people. Instead of repenting of their unbelief so God can heal them…
They say their ailments are thorns from God, yet they keep on investing a larger share of their income in medicine. But I find that absurd. If someone claims his ailment is God’s will, why then fight the ailment with much assiduousness with medicine?
Some even get off medical science to witchcraft science. Some run to self-help materials to help themselves. Some to hypnotherapy. While some others run to one of the many new-age healing practices for relief. A cousin of mine told me of how a sick Pastor died in the hand of a witch doctor while he went to him for treatment…
Instead of believing solely in the healing and health provision of God unto death. I have often told people. I live above sickness and diseases. Because Christ had taken them away from me. And I will keep on confessing that even if I am lying down on the basis of health challenge. And I will keep on with that confession even when I’m about to take my last breath on the basis of health challenge…
Anyone that wants to mock is very welcome. But I will believe and confess the Lord’s word unto death. I will never twist scriptures to align with my experiences or failures instead of the undiluted word of God.
In conclusion… God’s desire for all his children is perfect health and healing. And he had already sufficiently provided for it through the stripes of Jesus. As such, divine health and healing for every believer, is the rule. And that being so, for other reasons, the believers health can be challenged…
And of course, this becomes the exception to the rule of divine health. Then even when this exception occur in the life of a believer, the believer can resist the health challenge by faith and divine wisdom even unto death to the honour and glory of God.
Remain Blessed!
Emeke Odili.
