Day after day I deal with Christians who link their sickness or their lack of healing to their individual sin. They go through many processes to uncover that one unrepented sin. Or they spend hours upon hours forgiving everyone that ever offended them, and yet they aren’t healed. As a result, many end up confused and frustrated wondering why God has not healed them yet. Eventually, most conclude that God simply does not want to heal them so it is best that they accept their lot in life and learn how to best live with their condition. In their minds, they prove the fact that it is not God's will to heal everyone, themselves included. In this article, I will discuss why this approach to healing seldom works and show you the God-prescribed path to receive your healing.
A couple came to me one day, the husband had cancer, they had been told that it was because they had sexual relations with each other prior to their marriage. They had spent hours repenting of it, the cancer was still there. They mentioned more than once that he was being punished by God because they had sexual intercourse before marriage. I asked the wife, "do you have cancer?" They both looked at me like I was insane for asking that question. I quickly stated “God is no respecter of persons, therefore if God is punishing him with cancer, then you should have cancer as well. You both committed the same sin, so If the cancer were punishment from God, justice would dictate that you both have the same type of cancer.” With that statement, there was a burden that was lifted off of them. I spoke life over him, immediately all the pain left his body and his complexion changed from pale to a healthy color. Two weeks later they called to let me know there were no longer any signs of cancer.
Similarly, I’ve had conversations with Christians who feel they have a fatal disease because they gave the devil the legal right through sin to give them an illness. When I ask them if they have since repented and changed their ways, “Yes, I have” or “I don’t know what sin I committed” is usually their answer. I then ask them, “whose temple are you?” “I’m the temple of the Holy Spirit” they answer. “Then if you are God’s and not your own, how can your actions give 'the devil' a right to trespass onto God’s property, and cause damage?” Once again, after speaking life over the person, they are then often healed.
None of this is condoning sin. However, Christians relate sickness to personal sin and that is just not true as I will prove by scripture. Christians also point to individual sin, as a reason a person isn’t healed. If the cause for disease is not your individual sin, then your sin cannot block your healing. First, let me address the number one objection to this. That is the fact that some people get healed after they repent. This, however, is because of a personal belief or functional truth, not because it is spiritually true. A functional truth is a lie that a person mistakenly believes to be true and because they believe it, they are bound to its consequences. For spiritual truth, what applies to one person must apply to all. If one person gets healed without repenting first, then it isn’t the spiritual truth that we need to repent of all sin in order to be healed.
We do not have even one instance where Jesus made a person repent before healing them. Remember our righteous position is given to us freely by God through Jesus, not earned by our actions, but by his sacrifice. If healing requires any action from us other than faith, then Jesus didn’t acquire our healing, we did. Let's look at some scriptures to establish this fact.
Our faith in Jesus transfers God’s righteousness to us and he now declares us flawless in his eyes. This means we can now enjoy true and lasting peace with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, has done for us. Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvelous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God. If God declares us flawless in his eyes, then how can we grant the devil permission to give us sickness by an action on our part? Romans 5:1-2
And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others. Mark 7:13
Paul shows us why there is sickness on the earth. It is because of the disobedience of one man, Adam. Individual sin had nothing to do with the causes of death entering this world, one of which is disease. Rather, it was through the sin of one individual that death and its causes entered into the world.
When Adam sinned, the entire world was affected. Sin entered human experience, and death was the result. And so, death followed this sin, casting its shadow over all humanity, because all have sinned. Sin was in the world before Moses gave the written law, but it was not charged against them where no law existed. Yet death reigned as king from Adam to Moses even though they hadn’t broken a command the way Adam had. The first man, Adam, was a picture of the Messiah, who was to come. Romans 5:12-14
Let’s consider the gentiles for a moment. They were never given the law of Moses. They weren’t the ones that stood at Mount Sinai and said that they could fulfil all of God’s Commands. The gentiles, therefore, were never under the Law of Moses, yet they still got sick and died, but not due to any unlawful actions on their part; because where there is no law, there is no infraction. This carried on for the gentiles, even after the Law of Moses was given, because they were never under that Covenant; Moses was only representing the children of Israel and no other human beings.
Therefore, it is one hundred percent correct to say that individual sin was never the cause of disease for the gentiles. I want you to ponder that for a moment. With gentiles, the cause of death was always because of the sin of Adam, never personal sin. This being the case, how can we claim that individual sin is the cause of disease, or that our sin can block healing? I am not talking against repenting; it is essential to recognize the error and change your direction. The problem lies in how unattainable religion has made healing.
Now, there is no comparison between Adam’s transgression and the gracious gift that we experience. For the magnitude of the gift far outweighs the crime. It’s true that many died because of one man’s transgression, but how much greater will God’s grace and his gracious gift of acceptance overflow to many because of what one man, Jesus, the Messiah, did for us! Romans 5:15
For the Jews, the sacrifice of Jesus absolved them of their individual sins and the sin of Adam. For gentiles, His sacrifice brought us into the covenant between the Father and the Son, by absolving us of the sin of Adam. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, all those who believe in Jesus are now one people-group brought together by the second Adam, Jesus Christ. The Law of Moses had to be fulfilled by Christ, because it was that Covenant which separated the Jews from the Gentiles, which now allows us to enter into the Kingdom of God.
God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:20
Let’s take a closer look at Jesus’ earthly ministry. As stated earlier, we have zero examples of Jesus having a person repent of their sin before, or as part of their healing process. He healed thousands of people at a time, never telling anyone he couldn’t heal them until they repented of some individual sin.
The belief that disease was God’s way of punishing individual sin has existed for thousands of years, yet there is absolutely no indication that there is any truth to this belief. In fact, all the scriptural evidence points to the contrary. Observe the disciples asking Jesus whose sin it was that caused a man to be born blind; the man’s or the parents’ sin.
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. John 9:1 - 3
His response says it all, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” With that short answer, Jesus debunked the myth perpetuated for thousands of years that disease is given to those who have incurred God’s wrath by committing sin.
Leprosy, birth defects, being deaf and mute were all considered to be a direct judgement from God, therefore no one in Israel was ever healed of them prior to Jesus’ ministry. By healing the man born blind, Jesus proved the traditions of men wrong. If these conditions were judgements from God, then Jesus himself would have been rebelling against his Father.
Another big lie that is continually taught is that of generational curses. We as ministers need to stop teaching that generational curses need to be broken. This is the teaching that we have to pay for sins committed by our ancestors. Many people die because they are taught this false teaching. By believing this lie, many are then unable to have their healing. First, there is no Christian alive today that is under the Law of Moses or the Old Covenant. Second, God opposed this belief among the children of Israel.
Then another message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Why do you quote this proverb concerning the land of Israel: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste’? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, you will not quote this proverb anymore in Israel. For all people are mine to judge—both parents and children alike. And this is my rule: The person who sins is the one who will die. Ezekiel 18: 1-4
“‘What?’ you ask. ‘Doesn’t the child pay for the parent’s sins?’ No! For if the child does what is just and right and keeps my decrees, that child will surely live. The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness. Ezekiel 18:19 - 20
“Parents must not be put to death for the sins of their children, nor children for the sins of their parents. Those deserving to die must be put to death for their own crimes. Deuteronomy 24:16
Even if you somehow find reason to object to these scriptural references, there is one final reference you cannot reject unless you choose the Law of Moses over the redeeming gift of Jesus Christ.
But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrong doing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Galatians 3:13
Believing a lie certainly can and will hurt you. Linking individual sin to disease has cost many people their lives, which is why I am passionately against it.
Above everything else guard your heart, because from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23 ISV
At this point, many people who agree to the truth I just shared regarding sin and sickness will ask, "What about individual actions that may not be sinful, but which lead to sickness?" Based on our human experience, it seems an obvious truth that certain factors such as diet and exercise affect our health. My response is we cannot base spiritual truth, solely on our life experiences. We haven’t reached our full potential in Christ, so our human experience is still flawed.
Cause and effect became an earthly consequence because of the sin of Adam. But the magnitude of the gift far outweighs the crime (Romans 5:15). The original sin brought cause and effect into the world, the gift of right standing with God then is the solution. We already have the solution, now we just have to believe it, and recognize righteousness affects our life in this physical world.
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3
Notice we have been raised to a new life with Christ and are to set our sights on the realities of heaven. In doing so, we are bringing heaven to earth. Just as the Lord’s Prayer states, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Physical limitations no longer have rule over us, because of who we are in Christ. This is where many will argue from human experience. Tony if you eat too much then you will gain weight. Tony if you don’t eat you will die. See cause and effect is unstoppable. My reply is "Not true." I went six months without any sustenance of any kind, yet here I am alive and well! And to this very day, I stay at one hundred and thirty five pounds whether I eat like a horse or fast for thirty days. In addition, how about people that are junk food junkies that live to be a hundred years old, with an unhealthy diet.
Heredity then comes up; this is the secular version of generational curses. People will point to this to invalidate that being in right standing with God will affect our physical bodies in this life. We are not supposed to walk by sight or life experience but by faith. The reason that the majority of our experiences seem to prove cause and effect and heredity is because we believe them to be incontrovertible truths. Make the spiritual truth greater than the physical reality, then your experience will change to match the spiritual truth.
Each one of us is subject to what we believe. If we believe a lie we are bound to that lie. This teaching is not to make light of sin, or to teach against repentance of sin. By all means, recognize the areas of life where you’ve missed the mark, and change your thoughts and actions surrounding that area of your life; that’s how we move forward.
With the understanding that true righteousness is not earned but that it is God's free gift to us, we can then start experiencing freedom from this world’s corruption, which includes disease. When we understand what the free gift of righteousness truly is then it will reflect in every area of our life, including our health.
When we know we’re already a sanctified temple, without any effort on our part, then the supernatural can flow uninterrupted out of us. It will even happen unintentionally, almost without a thought. One day I was on the phone with a friend as she was fixing herself a tuna sandwich. She made a remark about how it didn’t look or smell right. Without thinking about it I simply stated “tuna be fresh and delicious now”. My friend gasped and said, “Tony everything about it just changed. This is the best tuna I’ve ever eaten.”
Healing and divine health can and should be just as automatic when we grasp the truth about righteousness. You are the sacred and purified temple of God, kept that way by the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. The more aware of his righteousness you are, the more you will live out the supernatural kingdom lifestyle!
Be Blessed,
Be Healed,
Be a Blessing!
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