In this month of August, we are starting a new series titled ‘In shape’. Everyone wants to be in shape but sometimes, you can be sound in your body but sick in your mind or soul or you can be sound in your spirit or soul and be sick in your body. So this month, we will be talking about being in shape; spirit, soul and body. In 3rd John: 2, the bible says “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers” God wants us to prosper in all things and for us to be in good health. This prayer covers our material prosperity, it covers physical or health prosperity, and it also covers our soul prosperity. This is the state that we all desire; we want to prosper materially, to have capacity to be a blessing to others, we all want to be fit in our body so that we can enjoy the fruit of our labour. We also want to be emotionally stable. The first thing I want us to recognise is that all what we listed above are God’s desire for us. It is interesting to also note that when God desires something for us, He does not leave it at desire stage, He makes it happen. So when you think about your health, soul or material prosperity; God does not only want us to have it, He has made provisions for it. A lot of us desire wholeness (a complete and harmonious state of being both in spirit, soul and body). When our health is challenged, it threatens everything else around us and it becomes a major distraction and God does not want us to be in that state. In Mark 5:25, the woman with the issue of blood has suffered many things from the hands of many physicians but she never gave up, she touched Jesus garment and was make whole. The power of God terminated something that has been long continuing in her life. And so the will of God to heal us is not in question at all. The bottom line is that God wants us to be whole spirit soul and body Psalm 103:1-3. Don’t ever get to a point in your life when you feel that God wants you to tolerate sickness in your body. In Isaiah 53vs1-5, God put Jesus in this place where he organised spiritual exchange. He was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him. The punishment that was required to secure our peace was put upon Him and by His stripe, we were healed. We have access to that healing by covenant with God; He has made arrangement for us to be healed and has paid the price to secure it for us 1 Peter 2. And it is available to us, it is accessible and it is our entitlement. There is a difference between when something is available or legally yours and when you actually take possession of it. What the covenant does is that it give you access, it give you the right so when you get born again and give your life to Christ, you are in covenant with God and you have access to the blessing of Abraham. But it is important for you to take possession of it. It is just like when you get employed in an organization, there are certain benefits that you will enjoy as a staff of the organization, although you have access to it, but you cannot experience it unless you demand for it. You have to place a request for it and it cannot be denied you because it is your right. God is a spirit and the kingdom of God is not a physical kingdom, it is a spiritual kingdom and the currency in the realm of the spirit is faith; that is what is used for transaction. Faith is what we use to connect ourselves to experience the things that God has made available. It is by faith that we live, the bible says that the just shall live by faith. When you are born again, how you experience the fullness of the covenant of God is by faith.
Therefore, if you understand that you live by faith; all you need to do is to be in faith so as to walk in the fullness of the blessing of the covenant. Faith gives you access to what the covenant has made available. Legally, you have the right and the access to the covenant, but in other to experience it; you need to exercise that right with understanding. There is a difference between you being entitled to something and for you to experience what you are entitled to. There must be that hand shake between God’s provisions and your possession and this is where faith comes in. The good news is that God is also the one that supplies the faith; the bible says faith is a gift from God Ephesians 2:8-9. So, God has made the provisions and He has also given you the tools (faith) that you need to receive that gift. It is the same power of God that forgives sin that also heals; if that power could save you, that power can heal you. So if you can believe that you have been forgiven, then you can also believe that you can be healed.
How to take delivery of what God has provided
- When the symptoms that you are having cause you to accept your state, faith is defeated but when your faith helps you to reject the symptoms; disease is defeated. The bible says in Roman 4:19 that Abraham chose to ignore the signs. You cannot be in faith and be paying attention to the symptom. So in terms of receiving your healing, you need to understand the simplicity of the gospel, follow God’s instruction; when He says rise, rise! There is always a corresponding faith action that delivers our healings into our hands.
- You need to be mindful of your disposition, because your disposition is always what affects how your faith delivers. Faith calleth those things that be not as though they were Romans 4:17. Faith says that you should call in what you desire. The right disposition enables our faith to deliver result.
- Be completely independent of the past. Some people are very skilled at importing what happened yesterday, they are very good at living in the past. You need to take a break and start each day afresh. Some people are emotionally burdened because they keep exporting and importing issues of the past.
- You must be able to differentiate between the fact and the truth. When you focus on the fact, it becomes extremely difficult for you to experience your healing; the fact is usually the data that is available, the fact is how you are feeling or what the doctor is saying. The Truth on the other hand is completely different from the fact; the Truth is not information, the Truth is a person! John 14:6. When you treat the Truth as information, you will be weighing the Truth and the fact and you can be swinging between the two. The Truth has no regard for the fact because the Truth is not information; the Truth is a person and what He says overcomes everything else. So if you want to know the Truth, go into God’s word. The bible says that everything is subject to Him I Corinthians 15:27. When He takes a position, there is no force in this universe that exists that can counter His position. That is why He is called Almighty and at the mention of His name every knee shall bow. So if the Truth says to you ‘you are healed’, it does not matter what the doctors says or what the scanner is saying; those are facts. What is the Truth saying? We must focus on the Truth because when we focus on the Truth, everything changes. When we focus on the Truth, we break free from the grips and the deception of the enemy and then we can flourish in our health.
Finally, in our faith journey, we need to understand the place and concept of time. When we declare what God has said concerning us and by faith lay claim on what we have access to via the covenant, that the manifestation does not happen immediately is irrelevant because in the realm of the spirit, there is no time. Jesus said whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received and you shall have it Mark 11:24. So your job is to believe you have received even though it has not physically manifested. The time of the manifestation of your healing is not for you to bother about. The reason why many Christians faith fails is because they are clock watching. What you should do between the time that you declare or believe that you are healed and the time that you experience the manifestation of the healing is to continue to give glory to God. The bottom line is that God has made healing available, believe that you have access to it, receive it by faith and begin to thank God for it. Halleluyah!