BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Not One Feeble Among Millions Another thing the Bible says about healing is that, no matter what the circumstances, God has more than enough power to get the job done. Just look at what He did for the Israelites in the book of Exodus, for example. When He delivered them from the bondage of Egypt there were several million of them, and He healed them all at the same time. He brought them out of captivity, as Psalm 105:37 says, with “not one feeble person among their tribes.” Isn’t that amazing? Those people had been living for years as slaves. They’d been underfed, overworked and mistreated. Yet, after God poured out His healing power on them, every single person, from the oldest grandma to the tiniest newborn, was well and strong. If God could heal a whole nation under those conditions in Old Testament times, before people were even born again, He can certainly heal us, as believers, today. His power has not diminished. He isn’t wringing His hands, wondering what to do about whatever new disease currently has the experts in an uproar. For anything and everything, God still has the cure. I think sometimes we as believers forget this! We get so wrapped up in natural facts and medical diagnoses that we lose sight of who God actually is. He’s not only our Great Physician, He’s Almighty God. He’s the Omniscient, Omnipotent Creator of heaven and earth—and it’s His power that backs every healing scripture in the Bible. It’s His infinite ability that’s behind scriptures like: • “Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” (Exodus 23:25) • “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” (Psalm 103:2-4) • “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.” (Proverbs 4:20-22) As Much Satan’s Handiwork as Sin Itself “But Gloria, those verses are all in the Old Testament. Are you sure they still apply to us today?” Of course they do. God wouldn’t make a way for His people to be healed for thousands of years under the Old Covenant and then, after sending Jesus to pay the price for our sins, cut off healing under the New Covenant. That would be absurd! What’s more, it would be impossible because, as we’ve already established, God never changes. With Him there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). So if He was ever the healer, He still is. God always has been and always will be an enemy of sickness and disease because it originated with the devil. It’s part of the curse that came into the world when Adam fell. It’s evil and destructive and it’s as much Satan’s handiwork as sin itself. Man-made religions have gotten this wrong. They’ve told people that God is sometimes the author of sickness. But that’s totally untrue. God is the author of righteousness and goodness. He’s “gracious, and full of compassion…and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psalm 145:8-9). God doesn’t go around stealing people’s health. He doesn’t go around putting diseases on them. It’s the thief who does that, and the thief is Satan, not God. As Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes…to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)” ("The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition"). The whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry was to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8)! That’s why, when He was on earth, He dominated the devil at every turn: He made crooked bodies straight that Satan had bent over. He cast out demons. He raised from the dead people the devil had killed. He made “the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see” so that people “glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:31). For three solid years during His earthly ministry, Jesus was the devil’s worst nightmare—and that was just the beginning! Once He finished His work on earth, He went to the Cross, purchased our complete Redemption, and got back everything the devil had gained through Adam’s Fall. He didn’t just destroy the work of sin to leave sickness and disease in dominion. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus liberated us completely—spirit, soul and body. “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” (Isaiah 53:5). Or as 1 Peter 2:24 puts it, “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.” 30 : BVOV

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