BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

The Apostle Peter, looking back at that same event wrote, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Were healed! That’s past tense. Jesus finished your healing on the cross. He paid the price for you to be whole. He bought righteousness for your spirit, peace for your mind and healing for your body. As far as Jesus is concerned, you’re not the sick trying to get healed. You’re the healed and Satan is trying to steal your health. I remember when Ken and I realized that, it changed everything for us. We quit trying to talk God into healing us and began instead to resist sickness and disease the way we resisted sin. No Third Story Once you understand God’s will really is for you to live in divine health, you can’t help but question why so many believers live sick. It seems puzzling at first. But the answer is very simple. Many of them just aren’t willing to do what it takes to be well. People want to be well. No one wants to be sick. But to be well, you have to make choices. How often have you seen someone with a hacking cough still smoking a cigarette? Or an overweight person eating an ice cream cone? Our fleshly nature likes to take the easy way. And it’s much easier to give in to habits than to break them. It’s easier to give in to your flesh and watch television every night like the rest of the world, than to spend your time putting God’s healing Word into your heart. I once heard Charles Capps say that some people try to build the third story of a building on a vacant lot. That sounds funny, but spiritually speaking it’s true. A lot of people want to enjoy the benefits of healing without building the foundation for it from the Word of God. It can’t be done. If you want a building, you have to start below ground level. If you want a harvest, you’re going to have to plant something first. Everything in the natural world works that way. Ken calls it the law of genesis. This law of planting and reaping works in the spirit realm, too. It governs health, prosperity—in fact, everything in God’s kingdom is governed by the law of planting and reaping. Jesus taught about it in Mark 4:26-29. There, He said: “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” According to the law of sowing and reaping, if you want health, you need to do more than just want it. You even need to do more than believe in healing. You need to plant seed that will eventually grow up and yield a harvest of health. What kind of seed produces physical health? Proverbs 4:20-22 tells us: “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” That word health in Hebrew means medicine. God’s Word has life in it. It is actually spirit food. As you feed on it, you become strong spiritually and physically. “Let them not depart from thine eyes....” Read the Word. Meditate on the Word. That’s taking God’s medicine. If you will be faithful to take it continually, it eventually will be as hard for you to get sick as it ever was for you to get well. But it’s a process. You can’t just read the healing scriptures once and then go on about your business. You must continually feed on the Word of God to keep the crop of healing coming up in your life. What Did You Say? Isaiah 55:11 says the Word of God prospers (or succeeds) in the thing for which it is sent. That means His Word about healing will produce healing. It may not produce it right away, but the more you let the Word work in you, the greater your results will be. In other words, the size of your harvest will depend on how much seed you plant. How much time and attention you give to the Word of God will determine how much crop you will yield. You see, your heart is actually your spirit. Its capacity is unlimited. You can plant as much seed in your heart as you have hours in a day. If you’ll build your life around the Word, you can have a full return. Jesus called it a hundredfold return (Mark 4:20). BVOV : 19

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