Musings on divine health

1 Corinthians 6: 15-20 :

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,”He says, “shall become one flesh.”^[ 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

¹⁸ Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

I would like to list some key points from this passage for your edification –

1. vs 15 – Our physical bodies are members of Christ. Our physical bodies are plugged in to the spiritual body of Jesus. Therefore his life must flow into our physical bodies. What is the implication of this fact? Should we expect to be in divine health because of the fact that the life of Jesus saturates our physical bodies?
2. vs 17 – He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Upon salvation, we are joined to the Lord and become one spirit with Him. My spirit is “dissolved” in Christ’s spirit and we are indistinguishably, inseparably united. John Sandford says that our spirit fills the body as water does a sponge not as water fills a glass container. Therefore, should I expect to live in divine health because the sprit of Jesus fills my body as water does a sponge?
3. vs 19 – Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In the light of the explanation in point number 2 above, our bodies are saturated with the Holy Spirit, every fibre, organ, muscle, ligament, tissue and cell is saturated with the Holy Spirit. Should I expect to be healed of every sickness and live in divine health as a result?
4. vs 20 – For you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. Our bodies were bought with a price, the blood of Jesus. It is not just our spirits that were bought with the blood of Jesus, our bodies were too. Jesus’ life was given up so that our bodies could be purchased by God, that God might own our bodies and make them His dwelling place. Should’nt every cell come alive as a result? The Word asks me to glorify God with my body. Was’nt it the healing of the blind man in John 9 and not his blindness that glorified God? Would a sick body glorify God? Certainly not. It is only an undefiled body and a  sickness free body that will glorify God. Hence, should’nt I expect to live in divine health?

Look at God’s purpose for our bodies – he bought them at the price of the blood of Jesus, made them His dwelling place, saturated them with His Holy Spirit, made them part of Christs’ body and desires that our bodies glorify Him through holy living and sickness free living.

Think about it.

Use the name of Jesus to repeatedly command healing to the members of your body that “did’nt get the message” of Christ’s salvation.

 

Salvation – 1

To the contemporary Christian, salvation is about Jesus Christ saving the soul from sin and eternal death. This limited view has kept believers the world over in a state of perennial mediocrity. The one who dares to believe the Bible will see that it is much more – it is not only about being saved from sin and eternal death, but about being saved from sickness, Satan and the curse as well. It does not end there – it also includes being placed in a divine union with Jesus Christ when we were baptized (Rom 6:3). There is more good news – Salvation is Christ Jesus living in me, transforming me into his likeness, expressing himself through me and bearing fruit through me.

When I received Christ, I was instantly delivered from the dominion of darkness and transferred to the dominion of Jesus, who exercises that dominion by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has dominion over my spirit, soul and body. Therefore, sin cannot have dominion over me. Sickness, disease or pain cannot have dominion over me. Satan cannot have dominion over me. The curse cannot have dominion over me. Death cannot have dominion over me.

Through the Holy Spirit, I exercise dominion over sin, sickness, Satan and the curse.

The temple of God

Scripture Declarations

My body has been bought with a price – the blood of Jesus.

My body belongs to God. I am not free to do with my body as I please because my body belongs to God.

My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

My body is for the Lord.

My body is a member (part) of Christ (member of Christ’s body).

The fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in Christ. Christ dwells in my body in his fullness. Sickness cannot co-exist with Christ in my body. Sickness, disease and pain must leave; they have no place in my body.

My body is presented as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable. This is my act of worship.

I do not allow sin to reign in my body.

I present my body to God and the members of my body as instruments of righteousness to Him.

I present the members of my body as slaves if righteousness.

The Spirit of God gives life to my body and keeps me in divine health.

I am the expression of God’s glory. The glory of the vine is in the branch. Christ’s glory is manifested through me.

By the stripes of Jesus, my body has been healed of all sicknesses, diseases and pains.

My body has been delivered from the dominion of darkness and brought under the dominion of Jesus Christ through his Spirit.

My body is under the dominion of the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit of God brings life and health to my body.

The effects of sin in my body are eliminated since my sins have been forgiven.

Jesus Christ is God’s salvation for my spirit, soul and body.

Christ lives in me.

I have one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom I live.

Stumbling blocks

Stumbling blocks are that which cause a person to stumble while he is walking along a path. While on the pathway of life, we could, at times find ourselves forced to suspend our pursuits due to issues such as accidents, illnesses, sudden financial setbacks or other problems. Once the problem or issue at hand has been dealt with, we return to pursuing life until another event occurs that diverts our attention again. Often these events are marked by grief and pain and tend to be long drawn out affairs that result in much weariness and brokenness.

At this point, I want to direct you to read my article, “Biblical suffering” in this blog as this will give you a clear idea of what suffering is according to the Scriptures. As a Christian, we may face persecution or trials of various kinds (James 1), but these will result in spiritual growth ONLY IF they are not caused by our mistakes or sins. Peter says that we should not suffer as murderers, thieves, evildoers or as busybodies. He was saying that our suffering should not be the result of our sins (1Peter 4:15).

In the Old Testament, we see that as long as Israel walked with God, they experienced great peace and prosperity. Once they began to turn away from God to idols, God tried to draw their attention by sending them prophets. When they rejected the prophets, God had no other option but to remove his hedge of protection from them which allowed their enemies to attack and cause destruction. God was trying to draw their attention and turn their hearts back to himself. When they persisted in their rejection of God, he allowed them to be taken captive from Israel and to dwell as second class citizens in foreign lands. Even here, He desired that they would return to Him. In other instances, He permitted famine, withheld rain and permitted pests to destroy their crops hoping that these stumbling blocks would cause them to stop, consider their lives, repent and return to Him. The storm that Jonah passed through is a good example of a stumbling block.

Lets look at some causes of stumbling blocks in our lives –

1. God places stumbling blocks in our path – Jeremiah 6:21, Ezekiel 3:20, James 4:6. God places stumbling blocks in our path when we persistently sin and turn away from him. James says that God resists the proud. The proud will find his path blocked by God Himself. If we understand that it is God that has placed the stumbling block in our path, we ought to just fall to our knees in repentance and in re-dedicating our lives to him. When we are called to pray for others, we need to discern whether their problems have been caused by their own sin. In those cases, it would not be wise to pray for the problem to go away but for God to complete his work of turning them to himself. Often we short circuit God’s discipline in a person’s life due to our lack of discernment.

2. Satan places stumbling blocks – 1Thess 2:18, 2 Cor 12:7, 1 Pet 5:8,9 We find that Satan hindered Paul. He also causes persecution to rise against us and sends his messengers to buffet us. When we discern that the problem has been caused by Satan, we ought to take authority over the power of the enemy and destroy what has been sent against us. Too few Christians have been taught to wage spiritual warfare with discernment. We beg and plead when we ought to be using our spiritual authority and we command when we ought to be repenting for our sins.

3. We place stumbling blocks in our own paths – Ezekiel 14:1-11. In this instance, God was grieved that the people had set up idols in their hearts and those idols had caused them to stumble. The idols of the heart – not physical idols. Most of us would never dream of worshipping idols – we are not so careful when it comes to the idols of the heart. Paul calls covetousness idolatry in Colossians 3:5. Anything that takes God’s place could be categorised under idolatry. Placing idols in our hearts can erect stumbling blocks in our paths – it is a law. Ezekiel 7:19 speaks of silver and gold becoming the people’s stumbling block of iniquity. Indeed, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is an idol of the heart. Fear could also be an idol of the heart and create stumbling blocks in our lives – Job said that what he greatly feared came upon him (Job 3:25)The only way out is to deal with these idols ruthlessly. We ought to throw Jonah out, not the cargo. In these days of the sugar-coated gospel, it is rare to find sin spoken against and rarer to find calls to repentance.

In closing, whenever we find ourselves faced with a stumbling block while along life’s path, let us pause, take some time to examine our lives – find out whether it has been placed there by God or Satan or by the idols of our hearts. Let us deal with it appropriately so that we do not get diverted from our purpose in life. After all, we only live once.

 

Healing

How could it ever be that Jesus Christ left the glory of heaven and came down to earth only to save man’s spirit?
Would he have gone to such a great length just to save the spirit and not the soul and body?
I believe that he came to earth, lived, died, was buried, resurrected and ascended to heaven to provide salvation for man’s spirit, soul and body. Salvation for the body here primarily refers to healing of sicknesses and living in divine health.
Yet some would say – if he did provide salvation for the body, how is it that good Christian people struggle with sicknesses?
Well, I look at it this way –
Jesus did come to save us from our sins and to free us from the power of sin. Do people still sin? Yes.
Galatians 2:17 says that if while we seek to be declared righteous by Christ, it becomes apparent that we are sinners, does that make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not!
Similarly, if while we seek to live in divine health in Christ, it becomes apparent that some struggle with sicknesses, does it mean that Christ’s sacrifice did not provide for bodily healing? Certainly not!
What is more difficult? Saying “Your sins are forgiven” or “Arise, take up your mat”? Obviously it is more difficult to say “Arise, take up your mat”. Jesus did say that and healed the paralytic.
If Jesus could leave heaven to provide salvation for mankind, would he have stopped short of providing for salvation of the body? Certainly not!
Jesus Christ is the Savior of man’s spirit, soul and body.
So, take heart, those of you who are struggling with sickness. The Savior, Jesus, is the Savior of the body as well as of the spirit and soul. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.