Thursday, June 5, 2014

HEALING

The Covenant of Healing


If you live a long, full life—to be 100 plus years old—you’re going to have to overcome a lot between now and then, because your body is mortal. Even if you never have a physical problem, somebody you know is going to need this. Somebody is going to need this sooner than later. So you want to get this in you. It’s not an imaginary and fantastic theory. This is biblical reality. It will work for you. You can be healed. Your family can be healed. Your friends can be healed. Your coworkers can be healed, and you need to believe it so strongly that it just oozes out of your pores. People who don’t even believe it will hang around you for a bit and start believing it themselves. They will say, “Man! You really believe this stuff,” and you will say, “Yes, I do. I’ve seen it.”

In Exodus 15, the Israelites have been delivered from Egyptian bondage. They’ve come through the Red Sea, and they’ve gone a few days without finding water, so they’re all very thirsty. Verse 23 says, “And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.” Marah means “bitter” or “bitterness.” “And the people murmured…” They did what? That’s different from believing God. Murmuring is the incorrect response to challenges and difficulty. If you want to go down and stay down, just gripe and fuss when you have problems. That is what so many folks do. They don’t see a
miracle, or they don’t get answers because they complain, they gripe, and they fuss. That is unbelief. You can’t gripe in faith. You can’t complain in faith. Faith doesn’t complain, it gives thanks.

This is a phrase that has helped me: “Doubt despairs, complains, and is sad. But faith rejoices, gives thanks, and is glad.” What if you meet somebody and they’re griping and sad? What do you know? They are not in faith. They can’t be. What does faith do? Faith rejoices, gives thanks, and is glad.

You might ask, “What do I have to be glad about? I was given an evil report. I feel terrible. What do I have to be glad about?”

If you believed the Bible, you’d have something to be glad about because the Bible tells you, “By His stripes, you’ve been healed,” (1 Peter 2:24) and “With long life He will satisfy you.” (Psalm 91:16) If you’d believe that, you could be happy anyway. You could be glad in spite of your problems. If you believe you’re not perishing with this, then you’re coming out.

They complained, and they said to Moses, “What shall we drink?” They were putting pressure on him. “And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.” Can the bitterness be made sweet? Sickness is a bitter pill. Can malignancy be made healthy? Can toxicity be made clean and normal? Yes!

How was it made sweet? He showed him a tree. Have you read any other scriptures about the tree? Oh, this is prophetic. This is pointing toward the future. The Bible says that Jesus was hung on a tree. (Acts 5:30) He became accursed when He hung on that tree. Why? So that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:14) Was what Jesus took and dealt with on the Cross bitter? Did He deal withthe bitterness in our lives? It wasn’t for His sin, it was for our sin. It was the chastisement of our peace. The Bible says that He took our infirmities, He bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains (Matthew 8:17), and when they threw that tree in there, the bitter changed. How did He do that? It took a miracle, right? Molecules changed. The bitter became sweet, and it just happened like that. Could bitterness in your life become sweet?

You might say, “Boy, I’ve got a bitter pill in my marriage. Oh, it’s bitter… I’ve got bitterness with my kids… I’ve got bitterness on my job…”

Do you know what they might have thought when they first went up and tried to drink the water? They might have thought, “We need a new waterhole. This waterhole is bad, and we need a new one. This one is bitter. It can’t be fixed. We need a new waterhole.” There are a lot of folks who think that. “My marriage is bad. I need a new wife… I need a new husband… I need new kids; these are crazy… I need a new job. I need a new boss… This is terrible, this is bad. I just need a new one… That’s the only fix for this...” No, it’s not the only fix. We serve a God Who can make the bitter sweet. He did it. He does it.

Don’t be ready to throw things away. God put you in some of these situations. You might not have made the best of them. You might have made mistakes, and they might have made mistakes, but no matter how bitter and awful it is, you need to believe God that He can make it sweet. I’ve seen it again and again.

Now let’s keep looking at this. He did it, and the waters were made sweet, and, “There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.” Now this is covenant language. If you’ll study it, you’ll find that some of these words are used interchangeably with “covenant.” I’m going to show you other scriptures that actually use the word, but He established something. Can you tell this is not a fleeting thing? It says that He established something, that He made a statute and an ordinance. Note the language. They’re all lapping up the sweet water. Their thirst is quenched, they’re satisfied, and they know they’re in the presence of the miraculous. This water was impossible to drink just seconds ago. The Lord spoke to them and said, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight,
and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.” (Exodus 15:26)

This is big. This is one of those great “I Am” statements in the Word of God. Remember when Jesus said, “I Am” when they came to take Him? He said, “Who are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus,” and when He said, “I Am,” they all fell back on the ground. (John 18:6)

Remember when Moses at the burning bush said, “Who am I going to say sent me?” The Lord said, “You tell them ‘I Am’ sent you.” (Exodus 3:14)

“I Am” what? “I Am” too much to say. Actually, when He says, “I Am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26), the words make up one of those great compound Jehovah names. He said, “I am Jehovah-Rapha.” This is great! Do you believe God is great? Do you take His Name seriously? He said, “I am Jehovah.” What does “Jehovah” mean? “Jehovah” means “The Self-ExistentOne.” “The Great I Am.” What does “I Am” mean? “I exist. I Am.” Do you know why you exist? Because He Is. Before you were, He Is. Do you know why the earth is? He Is. Do you know why the sun is? Why the universe is? Because He Is. Notice this: He didn’t say, “I was.” He didn’t say, “I will be.” He said, “I Am.” What about 10 million years ago? He Is, not He was. Time with God is not like it is with us. The Bible says there is a time coming when time will be no more. Time is something we’re experiencing temporally.

But God Is, and He is not dependent on anyone or anything for His existence. He is Jehovah, the Great I Am, the Self-Existent One Who is not dependent on any other power source. Everything is dependent on Him being. Take a breath. Did your heart beat again? Do you know why? Because He Is. The reason this world turns around, and the reason the sun is still shining is because all things are upheld by the Word of His power, because “He Is.” That’s saying volumes that will fill the universe. When He says, “I Am,” fill in the blank. How would you say all that He is? Just say, “He Is.” He said, “I Am.”

This didn’t happen all of the time, but a handful of times, He takes another name, and He puts it with Jehovah. Oh, friend, this is important. He says, “I Am The Lord Who Heals You.” Now, when He says, “I Am The Lord Who Heals You,” who has the right to come along and say, “No, He changed. He used to be ‘The Lord Who Heals You,’ but the ‘Great I Am’ was?” Nobody has a right to say such a thing. “I Am” is, and “The God Who Heals You” is still “The God Who Heals You,” and will always be. As long as He is, He is “The God Who Heals You.” This is covenant. He established something here—an ordinance, a statute. This is established. “I am The Lord Who Heals You. I Am Jehovah-Rapha, The Lord Who Heals You.” The word “Rapha” literally means “to heal,” “to mend,” “to restore to normal


Authority Over Demons and Disease
In Luke 9:1-2, it says, “Then he [Jesus] called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils,” or demons, “and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.”

Disease, cancer, AIDS, heart problems, blood problems, every disease, every sickness,I rebuke you! You stop it! You stop now!

Get out of my body and loved ones! Leave my body and loved ones! Be gone in Jesus’ Name! Hallelujah! Glory to God!

“In the name of Jesus, Lord, we thank You. We thank You that disease has been rebuked. We thank You that the death has been rebuked. And now we ask You, let Your anointing come in to make whole what has been damaged. Let the power of God, the anointing come in to make whole and to make strong what has been damaged. Body, be made completely whole. Be made strong and healed and whole in Jesus’ holy Name.” Glory to God



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