WORD OF POWER

The power of His words. God says: My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh (Proverbs 4:20-22, NKJV). Do you want life? Do you want healing and health? God’s says that His words provide both. In the above passage, this is what God says about healing and its relationship to His Word. But note His related instructions. • Give attention… • Incline your ear… • Do not let them depart … • Keep them… There is power in God’s words! Therefore, “Keep them in the midst of your heart.” Jesus is alive! And this is a fact beyond debate: The Lord Jesus Christ not only healed people when on the earth, He still heals people today! God revealed Himself in the Bible as “I am,” not “I was” (Exodus 3:14). He wants you to know that He not only “did,” but He “still does.” He is in the now, always in the present. He lives in timelessness and is not bound by our calendars and clocks. What He did 2,000 or 4,000 years ago, He stills does today. In eternity, it is the same moment. His words and promises written in His holy Word 2,000-3,500 years ago are alive and valid today. God says, “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). He has not changed and will not change. Healing was, and still is, a part of His gospel, or “good news.” That is one reason it is good news! This good news of God’s love is much more than forgiveness and saving one’s soul for eternity, as wonderful as that is. Physical healing is one of the benefits of the atonement (at-one-ment) of the God-man, Jesus Christ, bridging the gap between a holy God and sinful man, which He provided by His substitutionary suffering and death in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago. His great sacrifice provided reconciliation with and access to God for all those who believe in and put their trust in Him. The several benefits of Christ’s atonement are actually listed in two prophetic Old Testament (Covenant) passages written hundreds of years before He was even born: Psalm 103:3-6 and Isaiah 53:4-5. Physical healing is included in both of these passages! Here are two of the promises in the very first verse: Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases (Psalm 103:3). Do you know what the word “all” means? While some politicians may be uncertain about the meaning of “is,” there is no doubt about the meaning of “all.” It means all! God does not say “some” of your diseases, nor “half” of your diseases, or a few, but all of your diseases! Strangely, most modern-day Christians readily accept the first part of that verse but will not accept the second part of the very same verse! Here is the second passage from the Old Testament, speaking prophetically about Christ’s future coming: Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 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 wounds (stripes) we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).