If you need healing and have faith, take time to read and ponder this

Speaking about our Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah 53:4–5 declares (Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible):

Surely our sicknesses He hath borne, And our pains — He hath carried them, And we — we have esteemed Him plagued, Smitten of God, and afflicted.

And He is pierced for our transgressions, Bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace is on Him, and by His bruise there is healing to us.

I am sure many reading this are familiar with this passage from Christian Scriptures. What I aim to do in this post is discuss as succinctly as possible how to apply this passage. Note, however, that if you are holding on to hatred, unforgiveness, malice etc. in your heart towards anyone, holding on to what Jesus died so He could take away from you, the promise above never will work. You cannot choose to hold on to your sins, yet expect Jesus to take away your sicknesses and give you healing.

First, Jesus already carried our sicknesses in His body on the Cross, meaning while you acknowledge symptoms in your body, while you do not argue with doctors about their diagnosis, while you take drugs prescribed by doctors, you personally never ever accept in your spirit, in your heart that you are sick or ill. If Jesus already took upon Himself your sicknesses, every bad symptom in your body is the devil trying to get you to abandon your faith in Jesus’ promise, the reality of what Jesus already achieved for you. Jesus never said you will not experience symptoms of illness. What He says is He already has taken away your sicknesses or illnesses. If He has taken them away you no longer have them. But if you yourself give your symptoms a name you contradict His word concerning you. So who will you believe? The doctors or Jesus Christ?

Consider that while an enemy is bombarding a city, the city is not necessarily already taken over by the enemy. But if a city under bombardment stops fighting it definitely will be taken over. What the devil wants you to do is to stop fighting by giving your symptoms a name. Resist this inclination with all of your might. Treat yourself as under bombardment not a city taken over. How to resist being taken over? Committing yourself to confessing what God has said concerning you — no sickness in your body, and healing whenever necessary — not what your body or doctors are saying.

At some point in time in history, the City of Constantinople was under siege for 10 years, survived, won the war. When your body is under siege, choose to believe Jesus Christ, choose not to give up, choose to confess victory (healing) not illness or sickness.

You see there is a dichotomy between the brain, which enables mental assent, and the spirit or heart, which functions independent of the brain. This is why we believe with the heart, and acquire knowledge with the mind. This is why we believe with the heart, but need our minds renewed with knowledge to understand God better. It is possible to give mental assent with the brain to whatever doctors are saying, yet maintain in the heart and confess with the mouth promises of Jesus Christ concerning our health.

Sounds strange? This is exactly how we are supposed to function as human beings, with caveat that the mind is subjugated to the heart or spirit. It is the reason we are to be careful what we believe. What we believe, what we love is more important than our mental assent, more important than what we know.

For illustration, consider that you can read something with which you disagree in a book, be mulling it over in your mind yet continue to live by what you currently believe that may run totally contradictory to whatever it is you are reading in a book. This capacity for dichotomy between mental assent and the heart or spirit is part of our endowment from God as tripartite beings made up of spirit, which enables connection with God, soul, which houses the mind and brain, and thirdly the body. We need to learn how to apply this tripartite endowment towards practical Christian living. The goal of Christian living is for both the soul and the body to be under the direction of the spirit, with the spirit infused with and connected to the life of God via infilling of the Holy Spirit.

In the same vein, consider that drugs treat your symptoms not the root cause of what is causing your symptoms, which in fact Doctors sometimes do not really know. I am sure someone out there has heard of misdiagnoses of symptoms by Doctors. Consider cancer. Doctors primarily attempt to kill off bad cells. Jesus, however, can turn bad cells into good cells. Not only that, He can make your cells like new.

From a Christian perspective, drugs give you relief from symptoms, help keep you more comfortable while you trust Jesus Christ for healing of the root cause of your symptoms. Accept your Doctor’s diagnosis but never ever tell it to yourself. Always call it the Doctor’s diagnosis, not your declaration concerning your condition. There is a difference. If you call it yourself, accept the diagnosis in your spirit, your heart, you cannot speak with conviction the words of faith you need to hear for your healing.

What you say to yourself about your condition is more important than what the doctors say.

Say “Doctors say I have …, have prescribed …, drugs are helping me feel better”

“I am confident, however, that by the bruise of my Lord Jesus Christ I have healing for the root cause of this condition, healing for the root cause of these symptoms.”

You are not looking for healing for cancer say. You are looking for healing for whatever is causing your body to fight itself. Seems subtle? Yes. But in one case you are focusing on a disease. In the other, focusing on your body. Did God promise healing for cancer or healing for your body? Subtle, yet a huge difference.

Second, in light of the fact that you never accept that you are sick, you always confess that by the bruise of Jesus Christ you have found healing for your body. This word may not manifest on day one, or day two, or week two, or week three but eventually it will manifest. Do not look for commiseration. When you wake up in the morning, in your spirit and heart act like someone who believes they are healed. No matter the status of your symptoms, confess your healing continuously.

Either the Holy Spirit will tell you in your spirit like Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you,” or the word will bring healing to your body. I am not the one guaranteeing this, it is the promise of Jesus Christ that guarantees this outcome. Consider that by his own admission Paul was ill yet look what he achieved. Without his decision to commit the gospel to writing in his epistles, neither of James, John, or Peter might have realized importance of committing the gospel into writing.

If the Holy Spirit gives you the grace to continue to achieve in midst of an illness, it can be the case that God is saying, “My grace is sufficient for you.” No matter what never stop rejoicing in the salvation made possible by Jesus Christ.

Finally, if you are not sure you have the Holy Spirit, you need to pray for infilling of the Holy Spirit because Romans 8:11 (NIV) declares as follows:

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

Ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit who gives life to our mortal bodies as our spirits connect with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Ask for the Holy Spirit, Believe you receive, then learn how to allow Him give life to your spirit, soul, and body. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit is the practical everyday antidote to sickness or illness. The surety of healing for our bodies.

The grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you in Jesus Name. Amen.