“I Am Healed!” By Pastor Tim Burt
Isaiah 53:5 (NLT) “But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! “
When I had awakened this morning, I was still feeling like I had felt for the last several days - very sick. The symptoms of the flu hit me hard, fast, and furious Thursday night and I was bed bound for the next few days. It made me mad. I hadn’t had the flu in many, many years. The symptoms may have tried to come upon me a couple of different times over the years, but I resisted them and rebuked them in Jesus name and they never did fully come upon me. This time that was not the case. I hurt so bad all I wanted to do was lay still and sleep. When I was awake, it was painful.
I didn’t know if I was going to get Fresh Manna out today but I had never missed a day (except on vacation) since I started writing it almost nine year ago. Then about 4:00pm today I started to feel better. Halleluiah! Now I will make the devil pay!
Our faith can get confused when you see all the sickness and pain in the world. The question is always asked, “Why God? Why do you allow it?” There are theological answers that will not fit in the space I have today. But it’s not so much about God allowing it as it is Satan hating us and all of God’s creation – that includes every human being. We won’t all be theologians and won’t all have the insight to the Word of God that helps us to understand deep truths, but we can know great things just by knowing God’s character and will. Jesus actually summed it up in His own words in John 10:10 saying, “The thief (Satan) comes not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I (Jesus) am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” That pretty much sums up God’s will. He wants us to experience an abundant life – not a life stuck in bed sicker than a dog over the course of a week. I never forget that truth the entire time I am resisting sickness.
In Matthew chapter 8, we read about Jesus healing lepers, healing a centurions servant, and then after a long day, going home to His disciple Peter’s house to rest. Peter’s mother-in-law had been sick with a fever. (I can relate!) He ministered to her and then to more people that came to their house knowing Jesus the Healer was staying there. We read what happened and WHY it happened. Pay attention to both. Matthew 8:14-17 “When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases."
This verse comes from Isaiah 53. This chapter is Isaiah describing the Messiah to come and the attributes of His. It describes Jesus carrying our sins upon Himself and taking our punishment so we don’t have to. When Jesus was physically healing these people, He was fulfilling what Isaiah prophesied all those years ago. Jesus healed to fulfill the purpose of the Messiah foretold by Isaiah the prophet hundreds of years before Jesus was every born. Isaiah told of the Messiah that would come and what he would do. Isaiah 53:5 “But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!
Satan may try to beat us down but at those times but it’s important to let faith arise in our heart and say, “Jesus, you bore my sins and sicknesses. By your stripes, we were healed. If I was, then I am healed. I receive and thank you for what you bore upon the cross for me, In Jesus name I pray.”
As you all know, when you are under attack, you don’t feel much like doing anything. That is the point of sickness or any attack of Satan – to make us feel helpless, abandoned and hopeless, and to get us to isolate and want to give up, curl up and want to die. Jesus wants us to remember that He is the healer in those times and that He paid the price for us to be healed.
When you are under any kind of attack from the enemy you may feel like a piece of gum on the bottom of a shoe, but it’s always time thank Jesus for being our Healer and never stop looking to Him as the author and finisher of our faith. He hates what the devil does in this earth. This is why He came – to pave the way for our salvation, our restoration in every area of our life, and to pay the price for our healing. 1 John 3:8 “…For this purpose Jesus was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”
I feel so much better just proclaiming it to you all! “He is my healer!”