On May 2nd I was lying in bed at 2 A.M. unable to sleep, and so I got up to pray.  There’s always a reason when the LORD won’t let me sleep, and it didn’t take but a few seconds to get my answer, for He spoke very clearly to me, saying MARK 13:35.
Well, right off hand, I didn’t know that verse by memory, so grabbing my Bible, it reads,
Mar 13:35  Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
Mar 13:36  Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
Mar 13:37  And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
OK, then, is it a warning to me alone?  No, in verse 37, the LORD is saying to ALL of us…WATCH!  Are we all sleeping?  Maybe yes, maybe no, but the warning is urgent to all of us: WATCH!

I sent this Word to a few close friends in the middle of the night.  If the LORD thought it important enough to bring it to my attention when others are sound asleep, then I’m going to pay attention.  Many years ago while reading the Book of Ezekiel, chapters three and thirty three literally jumped off the page to me, the LORD telling me that I was to warn the people from Him.  And so I have been.  Some people appreciate it, but most don’t.  But I keep doing it anyway, day in, day out, warning people to repent from their sins, for the LORD is not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance.  The Lord Jesus paid the price in full to ransom us from our sins, PAID IN FULL!  Why would anyone turn down that free offer of salvation from God?
Well, by the same sacrifice, Christ Jesus paid in full for our healing.  Why would anyone turn down that free offer of healing from God?  For the same reason they turn down salvation; they just don’t believe.  There’s an old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is…” But not every “too good to be true” thing is a lie.  These promises of God are the real deal, folks!  If you are alive and breathing, and you take God’s Word for them, you can HAVE them!

The warning of repentance is real: God will not tolerate our sinful condition forever, and when we die, we WILL face judgment.  If we receive His free gift of salvation by receiving His Son’s sacrifice in our behalf, we are still judged, but the verdict will be NOT GUILTY.

But what does that have to do with healing?  EVERYTHING!  Like salvation, it is not automatically applied to us, we must ask for it, and we must BELIEVE.  Healing has been made available to us by the same sacrifice that was made for salvation, but it does not automatically happen just because we may be sick.  Again, we must ask the LORD for our healing, and then BELIEVE it is done.  You must do both, for salvation and healing is on God’s terms, not YOURS.

By that I mean, God spells out in His Word how to be saved and how to be healed.  He provided salvation and healing, so that gives Him the right to set the rules as to how we can receive them, right?  But many people want to be saved and/or healed on THEIR terms.  A prime example of wanting healing on your own terms is demonstrated in 2 Kings 5:1-14,

2Ki 5:1  Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
2Ki 5:2  And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
2Ki 5:3  And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.
2Ki 5:4  And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
2Ki 5:5  And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
2Ki 5:6  And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
2Ki 5:7  And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
2Ki 5:8  And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
2Ki 5:9  So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
2Ki 5:10  And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
2Ki 5:11  But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
2Ki 5:12  Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
2Ki 5:13  And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
2Ki 5:14  Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

You see, the LORD didn’t have a problem healing Naaman, but He had a problem with Naaman telling Him where and how to do it.  Many are like Naaman, they tell the LORD where they want to go to be healed, who they want to do it, and when.  News flash:  GOD IS GOD, AND HE MAKES THE RULES!  If you want to be healed, do it God’s way or forget it.  Naaman almost missed his healing because he wanted it on his own terms.  Thank God, his servant talked some sense into Naaman, and he listened and did it God’s way, and was healed.

Healing is EASY, friends, if you do it God’s way.  I’ve ministered to thousands in the past twenty three years for healing, some are healed, some are not.  I don’t like it when I drive hundreds or thousands of miles to minister healing to someone, and they just don’t want to listen.  Oh, they want to be healed, alright, they just want it THEIR way.  They already know they want God to do it such-and-such way.  And it never happens that way.  I said IT NEVER HAPPENS THAT WAY!  And if they’re not healed, they can’t say I didn’t teach them how, for I spend hours and hours preparing them to receive from God.  I’ve learned by my own experience that God is quick to forgive sins, and quick to heal, but it’s His way or no way.

So if He is so quick to forgive and heal, why not just let Him do it HIS WAY, and be done with it?  It’s because we are stiffnecked and stubborn, that’s why.  It’s because we have grown up having free will, and let me tell you, we know how to exercise that free will, don’t we?  I’ve seen “Freewill ______ Church” signs all over the country.  But I have yet to see a church sign that says “GOD’S WILL CHURCH” We want it OUR way, using OUR FREE WILL.

It’s when we come to God saying, “YOUR WILL BE DONE, YOUR WAY”, that we give God the freedom to work in our lives.  Now, I’m not saying to pray, “Lord, if it’s your will, heal”, because the Lord Jesus clearly demonstrated it is ALWAYS God’s will to heal.  The Lord Jesus said He always did what pleases the Father, and also said, I and My Father are One. That leaves absolutely no doubt that it is the Father’s will for us to be healed, one and all.  Jesus didn’t always heal people by the same method: Jesus put mud in one blind man’s eyes, told lepers to go show themselves to the Priest and give a sacrifice that Moses prescribed.  He told one man to look up, told a lame man to take up his bed and go home, told a man with a withered arm to stretch it forth.  Each time the person obeyed what Jesus told them to do, they were healed. There is not one single time someone told Jesus how He would heal them. But yet WE try to do that!

For example, one lady I ministered to told me the LORD told her to come to me to be healed when she first got sick, but instead she went to several other healing ministers who were famous.  And nothing happened, and she got an attitude toward God because she was not healed.  Finally after suffering for a long time, she gave in and called me.  Before telling me any of the details, I had a Word from the LORD for her, that if she was going to be healed, it would be on God’s terms, not hers.  Then she told me about all the others she decided to go to, instead of me, because I’m pretty much an unknown.  Long story short, when she did it God’s way, she was healed immediately.  It really had nothing to do with me, it was about her obedience.  It’s ALWAYS about our obedience.

God puts certain people in each of our paths for a reason.  Some are to warn us, some are to help us, some are to teach us, some are to help us with provision, some we are to give to in order to be their answer to prayer. Nothing is ever an accident to God.  Right now, I’m in your path to help you be healed, and to warn you to get right with God, to live holy before Him, for He is a Holy God, and He tells us in 1 Peter 1:13-16,
1Pe 1:13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1Pe 1:14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
1Pe 1:15  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
1Pe 1:16  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

The Lord Jesus is coming back for His Bride, and He is telling us in no uncertain terms, WATCH AND BE READY, for you don’t know when I’m coming! We may deceive ourselves into thinking we can be saved and healed OUR way, but just thinking that doesn’t make it so.  None of us know when OUR life is over, but the LORD.  And when He says we’re done, then it’s too late to GET READY.  I tell people, I’m like lunchmeat, I’m always ready. Make sure YOU are, too! WATCH!