Divine Health

By His Wounds

When our bodies aren’t working properly and we’re looking for healing, we read that scripture and we tend to focus on the ‘were healed’ bit rather than the ‘by His wounds’ bit, which I think leaves us somehow trying to work up the faith or belief in his ability or willingness to heal. Then we get to feeling disappointed, as though we have failed somehow if we don’t see a healing manifest. 

But if we focus on the ‘by his wounds’ bit instead, perhaps it might help readjust our perspective. It puts the focus back on Jesus and what he accomplished that first Easter. It reminds us that his sacrificial death then, on our behalf, didn’t depend on our having enough faith now to believe that the event could occur. It went ahead without us because we weren’t even born then. But that doesn’t mean the benefits of it are no longer available today. The echoes of that one event continue to reverberate throughout history.

By being beaten and crucified, and then rising from the dead a few days later, the power of what Jesus accomplished through his payment for sin has not been ameliorated by time. It only took a tiny bit of faith (which God himself provided) for us to accept and believe that the event did occur, and that it was done once for our sakes and on our behalf. When we comprehend the depth of its meaning and value, and choose to accept and believe it, we become born again. We are then free to receive all the benefits that have been provided through it: redemption, forgiveness, and wholeness in both body and soul.

Incorruptible Seed

If you look at sin as a corruption of what is good, then when we accept Jesus, we are meant to understand that we have put on the incorruptible. Sin had corrupted what was good – in our minds, in our actions, and in our bodies. When we become born again, that incorruptible seed was planted within us. We became something new. So, if it was by his wounds we are able to put on the incorruptible, then why shouldn’t that include our bodies too? And not just on an as-needs basis (such as when we get sick), but rather as a permanent state? Shouldn’t that mean we can begin to live in a permanent state of divine health?

Once for all time

I don’t suppose most Christians would consider their salvation to be a something that can wax and wane – we understand it was done and paid for once, and only necessary for us to each receive it once for all time. We don’t usually pray for salvation one week, and then again the next week and the next. We know that praying to receive it once is enough because we have been prepared within ourselves to receive it, and trust that it’s a one-time, done-deal thing. Once we have prayed to receive it, we simply trust that it was done even if we don’t necessarily see or experience any immediate evidence that things have changed. If we do happen to think about our salvation after receiving it, then it’s more likely to be with an attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving. We are less likely to continue questioning any longer if it’s God’s will to save us.

And yet somehow, when it comes to receiving the benefits of salvation such as healing or divine health in our bodies, we struggle to extend that ability to trust and believe. We question if it’s God’s will to heal, or more particularly, if He’s willing to heal us. But if we pray one week for healing, and then again the next and the next, aren’t we effectively expressing our lack of trust and belief that it was all finished and done at that first Easter? If we trust and believe we are saved by one prayer, why is it we struggle so much to do the same when we need to experience healing – or more correctly, a restoration of our wholeness?

Fly Fishing

I wonder if it’s a question of the position we see ourselves standing in? If we think of it in terms of a fly fisherman, he will cast his line out into the water then reel the line back to where he is if the hook comes up empty. He will repeat this process until he gets lucky and hooks a fish, or he gives up and goes home empty-handed. And perhaps we have been like that fisherman with our prayers. We stand in the here and now where we might be feeling unwell, or in need, and cast our line in hopes of securing a healing. But perhaps we have things back to front. Perhaps rather standing in the here and now and hopefully casting our lines, we are meant to remember that the moment we accepted Jesus, we became joined with Him in that moment of redemption.

That was the moment when the incorruptible became available to us. That was the moment we became hidden in Christ and endued with His righteousness. That was the moment we received an eternal inheritance and were given ALL power and authority over evil. When we remember that, we can effectively force what is happening in the here and now to come into line with the truth of that moment. We are meant to be remembering that from the very moment we got born again, through no right of our own, we were endued with power over sin and all the powers of the enemy. When we remember to stand in that moment of redemption we effectively realign our perspective, and force what we’re experiencing in our today to come into subjection to the truth of what took place at the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The same passage in the Amplified bible says “…..we too might walk habitually in newness of life [abandoning our old ways].” I take ‘habitually’ to mean that we carry that moment of salvation forward with us into every day, so we will remember we are no longer subject to sin OR its effects. And that includes sickness. We are at liberty in our new lives to have new expectations. We no longer need to expect to get sick just because it’s winter, because someone we’ve been in contact with was sick, or because there’s a family history. The power of sin has been broken in our lives, and we are free to live in the joyous liberty of divine health; to expect not to even get sick.

Ill-health is an effect of corruption in our bodies. If we are born again of an incorruptible seed, then we have the liberty of choice not to accept corruption anymore. Think of it like this: if someone comes knocking at our front door, we get to decide whether or not we will let them in. Even if we invite them in and then realise we probably shouldn’t have, we also get to make them to leave. Because it’s our house. So just because a symptom knocks on our door, it doesn’t mean we have to invite it in; and we certainly don’t need to entertain it. When we can recognise symptoms of sickness as the corruption that they are, then we can exercise our born-again privilege and right to firmly send them packing! That is how I believe we can live in divine health.