“I Am Whole” Part II

Rev. Sudha Mehta©

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Exodus 15: 25b There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them, 26 saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”(BLB)

There is much misinformation out there on the topic of healing. All information is in the Bible, nothing is new, but often it is new and eye opening to my students. Often I find the teaching of the Church is what keeps people bound. Whole denominations espouse a gospel without power for living today. Whether it is for healing, provision, protection, or any other need, if the gospel you are being taught is merely ritualistic, you will not live life to the fullest. There are whole denominations that do not believe that healing is for today, or that God speaks to His people, even though they present no proof from the Bible that these things were only temporary.

Perhaps I am just a simpleton. My simple mind says the Bible is as true today as it was when it was written. Did you know . . .

2 Timothy 3: Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,(BLB)

Did you know that the Bible was written as God spoke over the course of 1500 + years and has forty authors? Yet it is a work that is entirely without error in the original, and nothing in the Bible contradicts itself. A little study will show that the Bible confirms itself every time. The sixty-six books in the Bible form one cohesive unit that works together to bring us humans the whole counsel of God.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.(BSB)

I know this Word was Jesus, so I understand that He, Jesus was God and was with the Father and that ALL things were made through Him. I get that He contained life, therefore He is the Life-source, and the Light for all of us.

This Life-source is the same who chose to sacrifice His life for us, and in His suffering He covered our healing as well. Isaiah wrote this Scripture about 700 years before Jesus actually arrived on the scene. In prophetic terms he writes it as a done deal that by His stripes/wounding/scourging we are healed. It is in present tense.

Isaiah 53: 5 But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.(BSB)

Then when Peter addresses the same Scripture he states it as having been accomplished already.

1 Peter 2: 24 Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having been dead to sins, we might live to righteousness. “By whose scourge marks you have been healed.”(BLB)

Now if I have been healed already, when did I stop being healed? My salvation was paid for 2000 years before I was. My healing was also paid for! I believe that and so should you if you know Him! You and I were twinkles in His eye when He was on the cross!

Think about it! You believe in an unseen God, for an unseen salvation, and trust you will go to an unseen heaven, where you will live for an unseen eternity. You have no trouble with that! Yet when you need a healing you cannot bring yourself to look past the visible to believe in a yet unseen result; even though He promised and paid for it. Jesus said:

Mark 11: 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.(BSB)

The ‘whatever’ includes healing, does it not?! Faith requires that you trust God who does not lie. If you believe before you see it, He says you will have it. Think about how little your problem is compared to the ability and promise of the Most High God!

You have probably heard it said “When we are in heaven we will all be healed.” Why would I need healing in heaven where there is no sickness anyway? Isn’t it reasonable that the healing He provided is for this mortal body here on earth where there is the curse of sickness and disease? This is where I need the help. What Jesus did when He was on earth, still happens today.

Jesus healed all that came to him. It is true that not all were healed, but all that came to Him were. If one wanted to be made whole, one had to come to Him, then and now!

He gave His disciples the power to heal when He sent them out:

Matthew 10: 1 Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.(NASB)

He trained them to feel confident that the word they spoke would carry the same weight as if He spoke it Himself. Is that not incredible? Then He gave the Great Commission:

Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.” . . . 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked through them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it.(BSB)

He gave the same authority to all His disciples. They were not only to bring the gospel message, this message was confirmed by signs and wonders that followed. It was not a hollow faith, there was an authority, a power that went with it so that people would have the evidence of it being more than just words.

Where does it say in the Bible that it had to stop with the death of the apostles? It doesn’t!

The truth is, faithless men and women with their own erroneous filters have and will teach error. False teachers will always be there. Here is the caution for you. You are not to take them at their word, nor ME!

God has given each one of us the responsibility to read the Word and be informed ourselves.

James 3:1 Not many of you should be teachers my brothers, knowing that we will receive greater judgment.(BLB)

This applies to me and every teacher, pastor, evangelist, speaker et al. I must be very cautious to teach the Truth, for I will answer to God. Yet this in no way removes the responsibility from you to learn for yourself the Word of God. Everything you are taught, you must verify with the Word for yourself.

If I do not speak the truth, you must not follow me or my counsel. Paul the apostle said:

1 Corinthians 11: 1 Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. 2 Now I commend you that you have remembered me in all things, and you are keeping the teachings as I delivered to you.(BLB)

Paul was a master teacher, yet implicit in this statement was that if Paul taught something wrong, we were not to imitate him. For the exhortation was to imitate/follow him AS he imitated Christ. How would you know if he was teaching error? You would only know that if you were familiar with the Word yourself!

Luke reports of this same Paul preaching to the people of Berea in:

Acts 17: 10 And the brothers sent away both Paul and Silas immediately by night to Berea, who having arrived, went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these, who were more noble than those in Thessalonica, received the word with all readiness, on every day examining the Scriptures, whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them indeed believed, and not a few of the prominent Grecian women and men.(BLB)

Note, the Bereans were more noble than the Jews of Thessalonica. Why . . . because they read up for themselves and confirmed from the Scriptures that which Paul spoke.