Contributor: Ayomide Oladipo

INTRODUCTION
Last study we learnt about God’s faithfulness relative to our commitment as believers to fulfil God’s divine purpose for our lives. One of the things we were taught are the two sides to God’s faithfulness. The first side is God’s faithfulness of His fatherhood to us, and His commitment to His Word. 1 Corinthians 1:9: “God is faithful He is reliable, trustworthy, and ever true to His Promise He can be depended on, and through Him, you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The second side is our own path, where God expect us to be faithful to Him so we can attain His promises to us as demonstrated in the life of Abraham when God commanded him to walk before
Him faithfully and blamelessly.

Today we would be looking at the subject ‘Divine Healing’ by the Word of God. Divine healing is healing from God Himself through His written or spoken Word.
Psalm 107:20 “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”

For someone to need healing, it means the part of them they need healing in is defective. Sickness is defined as a deviation from, an interruption, a cessation or a disorder of a body, system, organ structure or function (Medical dictionary), characterised by symptoms and exhibitions.
Healing on the other hand is the reversal of a sick body, system or organ back to normal. As believers, God desires for us is that we be in perfect health 3 John 1: 2 “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospered.”

Today relative to us as believers, we would look at what sickness means, what causes it and how the Word of God can heal us.

WHO NEEDS HEALING?
Anyone or any part of our spirit, soul and body that is sick. Someone will say well am physically healthy, what about your spiritual health? What about your soul’s health? Are they healthy too? In 3 John 1: 2 God expressed His desire for our health that He wishes they all prosper. This means that God does not desire for us to be healthy is one area of our life and be defective in another. As children of God, we should not look at health from a physical point of view alone but from a holistic point of view of physical and spiritual health.

REASONS A BELIEVER CAN BE SICK
1. When a believer falls into sin: Psalm 107: 17- 18 “Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. 18 Their soul abhors all manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death.”
This passage shows us that one of the ways a believer can open him/herself to affliction is through transgression and iniquity (sin). Why would sin cause me affliction you may ask, bible says in 1 John 3:8 “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

The Bible says the soul that sinneth shall die Ezek.18: 20. Now sickness is no other thing but a representative of death. When a believer commits and remains in sin, he forfeits his right to life, in John 3:16 “for God so love the word that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life”
Either physically or spiritually, sin kills!! As explicitly written in Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

This Bible verse explains to us that a sinner is the one that bears the brunt of his sin while a righteous person is the one that reaps the reward of his righteousness.

2. For the glory of God: - John 9: 1-3 “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3. Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

Based on this passage, we can establish God sometimes manifest His glory through situations such as sickness. The disciples based on their knowledge knew that for a man to be afflicted as such as being blind from birth, sin must have entered through him or his parents, however Jesus told them that sin was not the cause of this man’s affliction, it is for God to manifest in him, and we could see that Jesus went on to heal the man by His Word in the later part of that scripture.

Remember the story of Lazarus in John 11:1-44. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus; it is safe to assume that the man was not a sinful natured man for him to be God’s friend. But he became very sick that his sisters sent message to Jesus to quickly come and heal him before he dies, but Jesus responded in vs 4 “But when Jesus heard about it, he said, Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this 5. So, although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6 he stayed where he was for the next two days.”

This explains to us that as believers sometimes we may have sickness and affliction, sickness and affliction does not have us! Lazarus tasted death, but death could not hold him, even Jesus saw death, but death could not hold him. This is because, as righteous children of God, we are of God not of the devil, and it is the will of God that we prosper in health, meaning God will never afflict His children without a cause.

DIVINE HEALING BY THE WORD
1. Physical healing by the Word: Romans 8:10-11 “But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”

As earlier established that sin kill the body, the word of God provides a remedy for this illness, ‘righteousness’. The Word of God provides healing to a sick sinner when such sinner repents of his sin and adopts righteousness through the finished work of Jesus. Now the same Spirit that made Jesus taste death, yet death could not hold Him, will recover such repentant individual from death to life.
Again, God’s desire is that we be in health, but when a person choses to forfeit a chance at life and health through righteousness, and instead choses death and affliction through sin, God’s hands are tied sort of.

Isaiah 59:1-4 “Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, that he will not hear.”
God already provided a remedy for an afflicted soul which is everlasting life, and this life can only me ours when we chose to accept Christ and remain in Christ.

Psalm 107: 19-20 “Then they [Afflicted cause of sin] cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he[Lord] saved them out of their distresses. 20. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
Jesus already bore our burden and paid the price for our healing - Isaiah 53:5 “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”, all we need do is to accept Him and remain in Him.

2. Spiritual Healing by the Word

Isa.40: 31 “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. 31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary and they shall walk, and not faint.”

The passage describes the symptoms of a sickened spirit ‘fainting and weariness’, and even ‘fall’, but did provide a remedy to this spiritual illness ‘waiting on the Lord’. As believers it is equally important to pay attention to our spiritual health. There is no physical health without spiritual health.

James 2:26 “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Our spiritual health reflects on our physical health. Romans 8:11 “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”
The Word of God here guarantees that if our spiritual life is healthy, our mortal (physical) health will simultaneously be too. How? The Spirit of God living in us is the power of God within us, when we invest in our spiritual health, we are simultaneously releasing the power of God into our mortal body.

CONCLUSION
Medical practitioners would advise good diet, exercise, regular checkup among other precautions as steps we can take to keep our body in good health.
Our great physician also advises us to feed our spirit with good diet which is the Word of God

Pro 3:1&8 “My son does not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands. 8. It will be healthy to your flesh, and strength to your bones.” God’s Word, spoken or written has the power to bring healing and deliverance from affliction, restoring wholeness to body and soul.

James 5:14-16 “14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he shall be forgiven.”
He also advises us to exercise our spirit
Jude 1:20 “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost”. Another method our great physician advised us to keep our spirit in health is to pray in the Holy Ghost to edify our spirit.

Regular visit to Him in retreat, prayer and fasting Mark 4:35 “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”
Divine health is our God given right administered to us through His Word, therefore it doesn't matter how weak or sick you may be, if you accept His Word and believe, you will be made whole.