Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

I have heard many people over the years, explain the multitude of reasons why God allows sickness, disease, and death, ranging from, He uses sickness to get our attention, to God allows sickness to come upon us to teach us lessons and compassion,” to hearing a Pastor say God allowed this young lawyer to die because He needed a good attorney in Heaven.”

I have never seen people comforted by statements that confuse them, that make God seem cruel, or that make no sense whatsoever. If anything, I’ve seen that kind of foolish reasoning drive people from their belief and faith in God. God hates sickness and disease more than you and I do. If you don’t believe that, read the gospels and look at Jesus’ mission on earth. His mission included revealing God’s mercy and goodness through His life and death, the forgiveness of sin, His gift of righteousness and eternal life, the promise of His Holy Spirit to lead and guide us through life, the equipping of His power over the devil and sin, and healing the sick. The devil, the world, Hollywood, and the mockers have tried to make us feel foolish for having faith in God’s healing power. Yet, even the medical world sees miracles of healing every day. 

Jesus demonstrated all these things throughout His life and ministry and you see the Father’s will through Jesus’ actions. Jesus came to forgive and heal, and He came to destroy the works of the devil. We see this in Acts 10:38. It says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” We also see this in 1 John 3:8 “…The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

Psalm 103:2-3 says, “Praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget now all His benefits, who forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.” Healing is a benefit that God says we should not forget. It’s a benefit that we must seek God by faith. We don’t seek Him wondering if it’s His will. Jesus already demonstrated that it is. We ask in faith and then thank Him for the provision of healing every time it comes to mind. When someone gets a report of cancer or some disease, they want to hear and believe that God heals. The devil knows this and wants to nip it in the bud. He wants to make divine healing sound like the most foolish thing in the world, after all, isn’t the world filled with sick people? It is, just as it was in the days of Jesus, yet it was God’s will to heal then, and it is His will to heal now!

You could never believe in healing without being attacked with unbelief. Those attacks will include your own doubts and being mocked for believing such a thing. If you can understand this, it will help you. Don’t think for a second that Satan would let you believe God’s promises of salvation or healing, or that God wants to help you without throwing every contrary circumstance in your face. That is how he operates. God’s word says we shouldn’t be ignorant of how He operates. When we hear the Word of God (which is God’s will) on a subject that produces faith, Satan comes immediately in a diversity of ways to steal that truth and make it seem foolish. Remember how he came and lied to Adam and Eve to destroy their relationship with God in the garden? Nothing has changed since then. Satan attacks your faith immediately! Mark 4:15 reveals this truth saying, “Some people are like seed along the path, where the word (of God) is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes immediately to steal the Word that was sown in their heart.”

Jesus called Satan “the father of lies.” John 8:44 “…for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s master propagandist said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it…” This is precisely Satan’s supreme strategy concerning God. His plan is to:  a) blame God for all that is painful and hurtful on this earth, framing God as an uncaring and uncompassionate God of the universe, b) fill the earth with lies of every kind, confusing people over the truth of God and His love and care and concern, and c) steal any hope for tangible deliverance from the evils of this world seemingly making God out as cruel and uncaring. Satan’s goal is to lead people to believe that Christianity and God are nothing more than foolish myths.
This leaves us with questions such as: Is it God’s will to heal everyone? Does God use sickness and disease to teach us lessons? Why are some people healed and others are not? If it is God’s will to heal, why are so many Christians still sick? Is sickness an opportunity for us to glorify God?

If you’ve been in good health, you may not have bothered thinking about these questions. People that suffer from sickness do think about them all the time. It’s compassionate to answer them! The answer is: IT IS GOD’S WILL TO HEAL! As Acts 10:38 says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” God isn’t making people sick and then having Jesus heal them. They are one in Spirit.

If you are suffering from sickness and disease, you don’t need to understand everything. You just need to know it’s not from God. Read the Gospels. Go look in the mirror and say and pray, “Father, I thank you for the benefit of my sins forgiven and my diseases healed. I believe that healing is your will and that Satan is the author of sickness and disease. I reject infirmity and thank you for healing me in Jesus’y name. Amen.” How long should you believe and have this attitude? Forever!

Oh yes, and just in case the devil tells you that you don’t deserve to be healed by God, remember what the Lord reveals to you in Psalm 103:10-13. “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.”

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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