While it’s true that as human beings you and I are constantly subjected to change in the situations and people around us, the wonderful thing about God is that He never changes. He’s always the same!
Let’s look at what God says about Himself in His Word.
In Malachi 3:6, God clearly said, “I am the Lord, I do not change.” Numbers 23:19 niv says that “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.” So not only does God not change in His character, He never even changes His mind. And He has never changed His mind about you! He knows what you’re going through, and He wants you to be healed.
When you read the accounts of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you can see that He was almost constantly in the process of healing someone, He had just finished healing someone, or He was on His way to heal someone else. Matthew 9:35 tells us that “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”
Matthew doesn’t tell us that Jesus healed only people with certain qualifications, or that He healed only certain diseases or conditions, or that He healed only some of the illnesses that people came to Him with. It says that Jesus healed them ALL. Acts 10:38 in the Amplified version of the Bible puts it this way, that Jesus “went about doing good and, in particular, curing all who were harassed and oppressed by [the power of] the devil.”
Jesus never turned away anyone who came to Him for healing…and that includes you, my friend. Jesus not only knows what you’re going through and has compassion toward you—or as Hebrews 4:15 kjv puts it, He is “touched with the feeling of [your] infirmities”—but He has the power to bring healing to your situation!
If you’ve ever wondered if it was God who put sickness, or disease, or some other kind of tragedy on you to begin with, let me assure you that He didn’t! In fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth, according to God’s own Word, is that it’s the devil—the arch-enemy of our souls—who wants to make you sick, and depressed, and isolated from God in your hurting. It’s the devil who comes to “steal, kill, and destroy” your life, according to John 10:10. Jesus is the One who came to this earth to bring you LIFE…a life that is “more abundant”—meaning full of God’s blessings. And He suffered and died on the Cross—taking the punishment that was meant for our sin, and taking on Himself all of our shame, sorrows, sicknesses, and griefs—to make sure you had access to His more abundant life. “He [Jesus] was pierced for our transgressions,” Isaiah 53:5 niv tells us. “He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
If you wonder whether sickness is from God or the devil, just ask yourself this question: Is this situation I’m dealing with, something that’s giving me life….or is it stealing from my life? Is it making my life better…or is it trying to destroy my life? Is it making me strong spiritually, physically, emotionally and in every way…or is it ultimately trying to kill me?
Once you answer those questions, it’s obvious, isn’t it, that sickness is not from God. And, if you have accepted what Jesus did on the Cross for you and you have a personal relationship with Him, that sickness has no “right” to do what it’s doing to you—physically, financially, emotionally, in your relationships, or in other areas of your life.
God wants to heal you and make you whole, and He has put His compassion for you inside of me. In just a moment, I want to pray with you and give you perhaps the greatest opportunity you have ever had to really know the One who made you and who has the power to set you free.
But it’s important to remember that God will never do anything to violate the free will He has given you. That’s why I want to ask you a question that He often asked people who came seeking His healing power. He said, “Will you be made whole?”
You’re Part of the Answer
You see, no matter what God wants for us, He’s only one part of the equation in our healing process. The other part of the equation is us. Sometimes we’ve gotten so used to the situation we’re in that we may never have really made the decision that we want out of it.
I remember my dad telling about a man who came to one of his crusades years ago. As Dad talked to him and found out all the things that were wrong in his life, the man said to him, “Brother Roberts, I’ve been down so long that the thought of getting up has never crossed my mind.”
The wonderful thing was that after my dad prayed for him and ministered the love of God to him, the man made the decision that he wanted to have a better life than the one he had been living. And by the end of the crusade, he had not only accepted Christ as his personal Lord and Savior, he had reached out in faith and received healing for his physical body as well.
The first step for his recovery was giving his heart to Jesus and asking Him to save his soul and give him a new start in life. Second Corinthians 5:17 says that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Let’s Take the First Step Toward Your Total Healing
Did you know that the greatest healing miracle of all is the salvation of a human soul? Why? Because in one moment’s time, God can wipe away the sins and failures of our past and give us a brand-new start in Him. It’s as if we are born all over again. We’re given a clean, new slate, and a new heart with new desires. We enter into a personal relationship with God as our loving heavenly Father, one in which our spirits have been born anew and come alive to Him. Now we have the ability to open our minds and hearts to receiving all that He has for our lives.
If you’ve never taken that first step toward your total recovery… if you’ve never asked Jesus to come into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior and given Him control of your life, I want to help you do that now. It’s not difficult to do; in fact, it’s very simple. You can do it where you are right now. It just requires a heart that’s sincere before God.
Romans 10:9 nlt says, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
I encourage you to pray this prayer out loud with me right now, and let God open your heart to all He has for you:
Lord Jesus, I invite You into my heart today to become my Lord and my Savior. Thank You for dying for me on the Cross at Calvary. I give You my life and ask You to forgive my faults and failures…every sin I’ve ever committed. I renounce the devil and I turn away from any evil influence I’ve allowed him to have in my life—whether knowingly or unknowingly. Thank You for loving me and forgiving me. Right now, I receive Your Holy Spirit and Your healing power in my life. Thank You for taking all of my weaknesses on Yourself on the Cross, which includes all my sickness and disease, and for defeating the devil more than two thousand years ago so that I can live in Your abundant life today. Help me to live for You and to be an example of Christ to all those You send across my path. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Salvation…Just the Beginning
I want to tell you about a wonderful testimony that was shared with me many years ago from a man who needed not only salvation, but a multitude of healings in his life. The man’s name is Jerry. You may have even heard me mention him on occasion on one of my television programs through the years.
Jerry was a heroin addict and had been in and out of jail for 20 years. One day, he was walking through his apartment on his way outside to find his drug dealer and buy more drugs. He noticed his television set was on. It was tuned to our program…and I happened to be preaching.
As he put on his coat to go out and buy his heroin, I was at the point in my message where I was ready to pray. Through the TV he heard me saying, “Whatever you’re doing, stop right now, and let me pray with you.”
And though he didn’t