2.02. Instructions to the Sick
CHAPTER 2 INSTRUCTIONS TO THE SICK Proverbs 4:13 "Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go; keep her; for SHE IS THY LIFE." Your healing, yes, even your very life, may depend entirely upon the way you take hold of the instruction in this and the following chapters. No doubt countless thousands who are now in their graves would be enjoying perfect health if they could have received proper instruction about divine healing. There are perhaps millions this very moment whose lives are wasting away with disease that will never be healed unless they receive proper instruction.
Lack of instruction can result in lack of faith. At Nazareth, even Christ Himself "could do no mighty work." Mark 6:5. All that He was able to do was to lay His hands upon a FEW sick folk and heal them. He MARVELLED because of their unbelief. No doubt the reason for their unbelief was their need of proper instruction. Christ saw their need. The sixth verse declares that "He went round about the villages, teaching."
Although one of the ministry gifts that God has placed in the church is "teachers" (1 Corinthians 12:28) few people are interested in instruction, or teaching. Many people who travel for miles to attend a divine healing campaign become indignant when they are told they must attend an afternoon or morning meeting in order to receive instruction before they can receive a card so that they can get into the healing line. Under these circumstances, many do attend the instruction meetings, but not so much for instruction which they really need and should receive, but only because they are determined to get one of the cards. The instruction is given, but their hearts are closed to it. It can readily be seen that these people do not realize the value of instruction before they enter the healing line. It has been my experience in dealing with those who have little faith that they have not received the proper instruction, either because it has not been given or because they had failed to heed the instruction when it was given. On the other hand, almost without exception, the ones in the healing line who exercise real faith and actually believe Gods promise and receive healing, are the ones who have TAKEN TIME for the INSTRUCTION.
Proverbs 8:33 "Hear instruction, and be wise and, refuse it not."
I have dealt personally with numbers of people in the healing line who have been afflicted for years and have had many outstanding men of God lay hands upon them and pray for their healing, yet they report they have not as yet received healing. These people seem to have the idea that all they need is to get into the healing line and have someone else lay hands upon them, and perhaps this might be their lucky day. Healing is not a matter of luck. It is a matter of faith. Faith in the unchanging and unchangeable Word of God.
Romans 10:17 "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Without question, what these people really need is instruction. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for.. instruction..." 2 Timothy 3:16. Those who desire healing should attend every instruction service possible. Not just as a means of receiving a card to get them into the line, but in order to build up their faith to the point where they can receive of God the things which He said should be theirs. Without faith it is impossible to please God. When the tide of your faith has risen and remains unwavering, then it is time to enter the healing line, for then, and then only, can you receive healing.
You will find a chapter in this book entitled, "Hindrances to Faith." Read and re-read this chapter carefully and prayerfully, until every hindrance has been removed. Search the Word of God. God will speak to the sincere, honest, open-hearted individual through His Word. As new light is shed upon your pathway, God expects you to walk in that light, for with new light comes new responsibility. One must be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only, deceiving himself. Search your heart and see if there be any wicked way in you. If God reveals to you that there is sin in your life, that sin must be repented of immediately. Turn loose of it! Drop is as though it were hot iron! Do not be satisfied merely to prune off the big ones. Prune off every little sin along with the big ones.
Prayer and fasting should have an important part in your preparations for healing. Through both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible we find that the great men of God, in whose lives Gods power was manifested, who worked miracles and healed the sick, were men of prayer and men who fasted.
Christ Himself taught not only prayer, but fasting as well. When the disciples failed to heal a boy who was possessed with a demon, Jesus said to them, Mark 9:29 "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting."
Yet fasting is not a "charm" by which healing can be purchased. Do not boast of the length of your fast, for Jesus was careful to give instruction in this matter.
Matthew 6:16-18 "Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fasteth, anoint thy head, and wash they face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father, which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."
If a persons fasting is directed to God, he will not go around boasting that this is a certain day of his fast, or that he still has a certain number of days before his fast will be completed. People who make such boasts will receive little or nothing from their sacrifice!
God has chosen a fast. It is described in Isaiah 58:6.
Isaiah 58:6 "Is not this the fact that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?" The reward of this fast is seen in verse eight of the same chapter.
Isaiah 58:8 "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine HEALTH shall spring forth speedily."
Since "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17), it would be well for many people seeking healing to read, and even memorize, as many as possible of the promises of God concerning healing. Read the chapters in the Bible that will build your faith. The book of Acts, the Gospel of Mark. Study each of the mighty miracles of healing related in these books, and note how your faith rises.
If you have not yet been filled with the Holy Spirit, begin now to seek God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is a possibility that the thing that has prevented you from being filled with the Holy Ghost might also be preventing you form receiving healing. It is evident that those who are filled with the Spirit touch God more quickly than those who have not been filled.
If your are unable to attend one of these great healing campaigns, don’t be discouraged. God has made proper provision for those who are bed-ridden, or can not get into the healing line.
Acts 19:11-12 "God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought to the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them."
If you should be one of these unfortunate ones who cannot personally be in one of these great campaigns conducted near you, the author will be happy to send you a handkerchief over which he has prayed. In making request for this bit of cloth, please send a self-addressed envelope and plainly state your disease or sickness. I will pray over the bit of cloth personally, and will send it to you with full assurance that when it comes in contact with your body the disease will depart, and every evil spirit shall go. Be sure and read chapter 13 in this book, "Special Miracles by Handkerchiefs or Aprons."
Follow instructions carefully.
Mark 11:25 "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." An unforgiving spirit, a rebellious heart, refusing to walk in the light of Gods Word, is the murderer of faith, which John calls "confidence". It is extremely important which John calls "confidence." It is extremely important that people desiring real confidence toward God, or living faith in His promises, walk in the full light of God’s Word and in obedience to Gods Word, which alone can bring real confidence. To have confidence in God, one must have real fellowship with God. One cannot have real fellowship with God unless he walks in the light of Gods Word. The person who walks in darkness cannot have fellowship with God. In fact, he cannot even be sure that the blood of Christ cleanseth him form sin.
1 John 1:5-7 "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
We can only have real fellowship with Christ as we are doers of the word and not hearers only.
You will readily agree that the person who has the greatest fellowship with God is the person who has the greatest faith. Those who have the least fellowship with Him are those who have little or no faith. Our faith, perhaps without exception, is in exact proportion to the fellowship which we have with God. No little wonder that many today are low in faith. They have very little fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, many have NO FELLOWSHIP with Him because of a rebellious spirit, or self-will. They refuse to walk in the light of Gods Word as it is shield upon their pathway, either through reading and studying Gods Word for themselves, or through hearing it preached by full gospel ministers who believe and teach the Word in its entirety.
Without real fellowship with God there can be no real faith in Him. Then, one can readily see from these verses of Scripture, that continuing on in darkness after the light of Gods Word has shown upon our pathway will break that fellowship and, according to verse seven, the blood of Jesus Christ no longer even continues to cleanse us from sin. Then rebellion or self-will can close the door of your heart to real faith, at the same time opening the door to doubt and unbelief.
Christ himself, speaking of the very day in which we live, asked the question, Luke 18:8 "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"
He knew that faith could not live in the atmosphere of Modernism, unbelief, doubt, coldness, indifference and skepticism that prevails today. Is it necessary to ask the question, "Why do we not see more people healed today?" Instead of faith in the hearts of men, we find "Mens hearts failing them for fear." Paul, speaking of these last days and the condition of the apostate church, said 2 Timothy 3:5 "Having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY."
2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall thy heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." Would you expect to find faith in such an atmosphere? Never!
Thousands today are attending churches whose pulpits are filled by modernist preachers who declare that the day of miracles is past, that Christ does not heal today - who no longer believe in the supernatural, the signs following, the miraculous gifts of the Spirit for the church today. They preach beautiful sermons that have an appeal to the intellect but never touch the heart. They tell the people that if Christ heals today, He heals through medical science. Ask one of these modernist preachers if he believe the Bible, and he will say, "Yes, part of it." He will explain that the part he does not believe is the part that borders on the supernatural. They believe all that corresponds with reason, but refuse to believe that which they cannot reason out. They reject anything super-natural. They refuse the baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, super-natural gifts of healing and miracles. Modernists they are to the core. Many of them deny the deity of Christ, the inherent wickedness of man, the blood atonement, and the inspiration of the Bible. Instead of preaching a direct creation, they teach that man is a product of evolution.
They do not preach the fall of man, nor that mans heart is depraved.
Instead, they insist that man is getting better and better. When they should be preaching salvation by the blood of Christ, they talk of works and character. Instead of preaching the Bible as the inspired Word of God, they teach the theories of science.
These modern preachers make a mere teacher of our Savior. They do not believe nor do they preach supernatural regeneration. They teach, rather, "natural development." When they should preach divine sanctification, they talk about "education." Instead of supernatural grace, they lecture on natural "morality." Could a person exposed to this kind of doctrine week after week have much faith in the supernatural doctrine of healing? Positively not! If a person is to receive healing, it will be because he has faith in the supernatural power of God - not because he doubts it. God’s advice under these circumstances is, "FROM SUCH TURN AWAY!" 2 Timothy 3:5. If you want real faith, attend where faith is taught and exercised! If you want healing, turn away from those who oppose it and identify yourself with people who believe it. Go to church where people are encouraged to believe all the promises of God and NOT where they are told, "It is not for today."
1 Corinthians 12:8-10 "For to one is given by the Spirit - the gifts of healing -; to another the working of miracles."
It is well for those seeking healing to understand that there is a difference between the gifts of healing and the gift of miracles. Ordinarily, the gifts of healing remove the cause of the disease that is injuring the body, with the result that the person regains his health. In some cases relief will be complete and instant, but many times a state of convalescence begins. This is not a theory, but is thoroughly scriptural, as many of the healings of Christ were accomplished in just this way. As an example, not the healing of the noblemans son, in John 4:46-52. The gifts of healing do not ordinarily replace a missing organ that has been removed by surgery or lost in an accident. Healing will restore sight to a blind eye, but if the eye ball is missing, then only a miracle could bring sight again. An eye ball would have to be created. Only a miracle could bring about such a new creation. The gift of healing will restore hearing to deaf ears, but in the case where there are no ear drums, only a miracle would recreate new ear drums. A miracle is setting aside of the ordinary laws of God governing a specific case, such as the sun being made to stand still at the command of Joshua. Healing is Gods promised provision for ALL the sick among His people. A miracle covers only a specific case. God, who created a universe by His Word, CAN and sometimes does, recreate missing organs, where there is sufficient faith. God can do anything. All things are possible with God, yet one must understand that the gifts of healing were not intended to take the place of the gift of miracles in the church. If this were so, the gift of miracles would be unnecessary. The gifts of healing were not intended to make an old person young again. As a person gets older, his body shows age. The face becomes wrinkled, hair turns gray or may fall out, energy is diminished, and the bodily processes become slower. More rest is needed, as well as more care in selecting the proper diet, in order to maintain health. This does not mean that the aged must suffer from disease. God’s promises to His people are good to the end of life. The gifts of healing do not eliminate death. Until Hebrews 9:27 "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."... 1 Corinthians 15:26. However, death need not be accompanied by horrible suffering from disease which God has promised to heal.
Healing was not intended to take the place of the natural processes of life, such as development of mind or stature. Some time ago, a young man twenty-four years of age came into the healing line. He was not over four feet tall, had the voice of a child, and there was no sign of whiskers on his face. Very apparently, his condition was abnormal, as both his parents were above the average height and build. Healing would not grow this man a beard in a moment, nor would healing make him a six-footer in the twinkle of an eye. However, healing would strike at the root of the trouble, and after a while that fellow would have to buy himself a razor and some larger clothes.
Healing will not cause the person who has been deaf and dumb from birth to immediately understand and speak a language which he has never heard, but rather he must learn to speak very much as he would have learned to speak as a child. The process may be more rapid due to more mature mental development, though he may never speak the language as perfectly as he would had he learned to speak at the normal time in life. Do not be discouraged, or accuse God of failure, or refusal to heal you simply because your healing is not immediately manifested in completion or as a miracle.
Take God at His word. Accept your healing as an accomplished fact. Accomplished not today, nor last week, but at the whipping post in Jerusalem, on the day that He atoned for your sins. Not accomplished today BUT ACCEPTED TODAY, and effective in your life, you follow the instructions of the Word of God for your deliverance. Working now, and continuing to work in your life until you are in perfect health, fully delivered from sickness as well as from sin by the atoning work of Christ!