Read
John 5:1-24 I believe the word of God is so powerful that it can
transform any and every life. There is power in God's word to make
that, which does not appear to appear. There is executive power in
the word that proceeds from His lips. The psalmist tells us, "He
sent His word and healed them" (Ps. 107:20); and do you think
that word has diminished in its power? I tell you nay, but God's word
can bring things to pass today as of old.
The
psalmist said, "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now
have I kept Thy word." And again, "It is good for me that I
have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes" (Ps.
119:67,71). And if our afflictions will bring us to the place where
we see that we cannot live by bread alone, but must partake of every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, they will have served a
blessed purpose. But I want you to realize that there is a life of
purity, a life made clean through the word He has spoken, in which,
through faith, you can glorify God with a body that is free from
sickness, as well as with a spirit set free from the bondage of
Satan. Here they lay, a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind,
halt, withered, around the pool, waiting for the moving of the
water. Did Jesus heal everybody? He left many around that pool
unhealed. There were doubtless many who had their eyes on the pool
and who had no eyes for Jesus. There are many today who have their
confidence all the time in things seen. If they would only get their
eyes on God instead of on natural things, how quickly they would be
helped.
The
question arises, is salvation and healing for all? It is for all who
will press right in and get their portion. You remember the case of
that Syrophenician woman who wanted the devil cast out of her
daughter. Jesus said to her, "Let the children first be filled:
for it is not me to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto
the dogs." Note, healing, and deliverance are here spoken of by
the Master as "the children's bread"; so, if you are a
child of God, you can surely press in for your portion.
The
Syrophenician woman (Mark 7:24-30) purposed to get from the Lord what
she was after, and she said, "Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the
table eat of the children's crumbs." Jesus was stirred as He saw
the faith of this woman, and He told her, "For this saying go
thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter." Today there are
many children of God refusing their blood-purchased portion of health
in Christ and are throwing it away, while sinners are pressing
through and picking it up from under the table, as it were, and are
finding the cure not only for their bodies, but for their spirits and
souls as well. The Syrophenician woman went home and found that the
devil had indeed gone out of her daughter. Today there is bread,
there is life, and there is health for every child of God through his
all-powerful Word.
The
Word can drive every disease away from your body. It is your portion
in Christ, Him who is our bread, our life, our health, our all in
all. And though you may be deep in sin, you can come to Him in
repentance, and he will forgive and cleanse and will receive them.
There is a promise in the last verse in Joel, "I will cleanse
their blood that I have not cleansed." This is as much as to say
He will provide new life within. The life of Jesus Christ, God's Son,
can so purify men's hearts and minds that they become entirely
transformed, spirit, soul and body."
There
they are round the pool; and this man had been there a long time. His
infirmity was of thirty-eight years standing. Now and again an
opportunity would come, as the angel stirred the waters, but his
heart would be made sick as he saw another step in and be healed
before him. But one day Jesus was passing that way, and seeing him
lying there in that sad condition, enquired, "Wilt thou be made
whole?" Jesus said it, and His word is from everlasting to
everlasting. This is His word to you, poor, tried and tested one
today. You may say, like this poor impotent man, "I have missed
every opportunity up till now." Never mind about that -- Wilt
thou be made whole?
I
visited a woman who had been suffering for many years. She was all
twisted up with rheumatism and had been two years in bed. I said to
her, "What makes you lie here?" She said, "I've come
to the conclusion that I have a thorn in the flesh." I said, "To
what wonderful degree of righteousness have you attained that you
have to have a thorn in the flesh? Have you had such an abundance of
divine revelations that there is danger of your being exalted above
measure?" She said, "I believe it is the Lord who is
causing me to suffer." I said, "You believe it is the
Lord's will for you to suffer, and you are trying to get out of it as
quickly as you can. There are doctor's bottles all over the place.
Get out of your hiding
place
and confess that you are a sinner. If you'll get rid of your self-
righteousness, God will do something for you. Drop the idea that you
are so holy that God has got to afflict you. Sin is the cause of your
sickness and not righteousness. Disease is not caused by
righteousness, but by sin." There is healing through the blood
of Christ and deliverance for every captive. God never intended His
children to live in misery because of some affliction that comes
directly from the devil. A perfect atonement was made at Calvary. I
believe that Jesus bore my sins, and I am free from them all. I am
justified from all things if I dare believe. He Himself took our
infirmities and bare our sicknesses; and if I dare believe, I can be
healed.
See
this poor, helpless man at the pool. "Wilt thou be made whole?"
But there is a difficulty in the way. The man has one eye on the pool
and one eye on Jesus. There are many people getting cross-eyed this
way these days; they have one eye on the doctor and one on Jesus. If
you will only look to Christ and put both your eyes on Him you can be
made every whit whole, spirit, soul and body. It is the word of the
living God that they that believe should be justified, made free from
all things. And whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
You
say, "Oh, if I only could believe!" He understands. Jesus
knew he had been a long time in that case. He is full of compassion.
He knows that kidney trouble, He knows those corns, and He knows that
neuralgia. There is nothing he does not know. He only wants a chance
to show Himself merciful and gracious to you. But He wants to
encourage you to believe Him. If thou canst only believe, thou canst
be saved and healed. Dare to believe that Jesus was wounded for your
transgressions, was bruised for your iniquities, was chastised that
you might have peace, and that by His stripes there is healing for
you right here and now. You have failed because you have not believed
Him. Cry out to Him even now, "Lord, I believe, help Thou mine
unbelief."
I
was in Long Beach, California one day, and with a friend, was passing
a hotel. He told me of a doctor there who had a diseased leg; that he
had been suffering from it for six years, and could not get out. We
went up to his room and found four doctors there. I said, "Well,
doctor, I see you have plenty on, I'll call again another day."
I was passing at another time, and the Holy Spirit said, "Go
join thyself to him." Poor doctor! He surely was in a bad
condition. He said, "I have been like this for six years, and
nothing human can help me." I said, "You need God
Almighty." People are trying to patch up their lives; but you
cannot do anything without God. I talked to him for a while about the
Lord, and then prayed for him. I cried, "Come out of him, in the
name of Jesus." The doctor cried, "It's all gone!"
At
that meeting there was an old man helping his son to the altar. He
said, "He has fits--many every day." Then there was a woman
with a cancer. Oh, what sin has done! We read that, when God brought
forth His people from Egypt, "there was not one feeble person
among their tribes" (Ps. 105:37). No disease! All healed by the
power of God! I believe that God wants a people like that today.
I
prayed for the sister who had the cancer and she said, "I know
I'm free and that God has delivered me." Then they brought the
boy with the fits, and I commanded the evil spirits to leave, in the
name of Jesus. Then I prayed for the doctor. At the next night's
meeting the house was full. I called out, "Now, doctor, what
about the diabetes?" He said, "It has gone." Then I
said to the old man, "What about your son?" He said, "He
hasn't had any fits since." We have a God who answers prayer.
Jesus
meant this man at the pool to be a testimony forever. When he had
both eyes on Jesus, He said to him, "Do the impossible thing.
Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." Jesus called on the man with
the withered hand to do the impossible--to stretch forth his hand.
The man did the impossible thing--he stretched out his hand, and it
was made every whit whole. And so with this impotent man--he began to
rise, and he found the power of God moving within. He wrapped up his
bed and began to walk off. It was the Sabbath day, and there were
some of those folks around who think much more of a day than they do
of the Lord; and they began to make a fuss. When the power of God is
in manifestation, a protest will always come from some hypocrites.
Jesus knew all about what the man was going through, and met him
again; and this time He said to him, "Behold, thou art made
whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." There
is a close relationship between sin and sickness.
How
many know that their sickness is a direct result of sin? I hope that
no one will come to be prayed for who is living in sin. But if you
will obey God and repent of your sin and quit it, God will meet you,
and neither your sickness nor your sin will remain. "The prayer
of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise Him up; and if
he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
Faith
is just the open door through which the Lord comes. Do not say, "I
was healed by faith." Faith does not save. God saves through
that open door. Healing comes the same way. You believe, and the
healing comes the same way. You believe, and the virtue of Christ
comes. Healing is for the glory of God. I am here because God healed
me when I was dying; and I have been all around the world preaching
this full redemption, doing all I can to bring the glory to the
wonderful name of Jesus, through whom I was healed.
"Sin
no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." The Lord told us in
one place about an evil spirit going out from a man. The house that
he left got all swept and garnished, but it received no new occupant.
And that evil spirit, with seven other spirits more wicked than
himself, went back to that unoccupied house, and the last stage of
the man was worse than the first. The Lord does not heal you to go to
a baseball game or to a race meet. He heals you for His glory and
that from henceforth your life shall glorify Him. But this man
remained stationary. He did not magnify God. He did not seek to be
filled with the Spirit. And his last state became worse than the
first.
The
Lord would so cleanse the motive and desires of our hearts that we
will seek but one thing only, and that is, His glory. I went to a
certain place one day and the Lord said, "This is for My glory."
A young man had been sick for a long time confined to his bed in an
utterly hopeless condition. He was fed only with a spoon, and was
never dressed. The weather was damp, and so I said to the people of
the house, "I wish you would put the young man's clothes by the
fire to air." At first they would not take any notice of my
request, but because I was persistent, they at last got out his
clothes, and, when they were aired, I took them into his room. The
Lord said to me, "You will have nothing to do with this;"
and I just lay out prostrate on the floor. The Lord showed me that He
was going to shake the place with His glory. The very bed shook. I
laid my hands on the young man in the name of Jesus, and the power
fell in such a way that I fell on my face to the floor. In about a
quarter of an hour the young man got up and walked up and down
praising God. He dressed himself and then went out to the room where
his father and mother were. He said, "God has healed me."
Both the father and mother fell prostate to the floor as the power of
God surged through that room. There was a woman in that house who had
been in an asylum for lunacy, and her condition was so bad that they
were about to take her back. But the power of God healed her, too.
The power of God is just the same today as of old. Men need to be
taken back to the old paths, to the old-time faith, to believe God's
Word and every "Thus saith the Lord" therein. The Spirit of
the Lord is moving in these days. God is coming forth. If you want to
be in the rising tide, you must accept all God has said.
"Wilt
thou be made whole?" It is Jesus who asks it. Give Him your
answer. He will hear and He will answer.
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