Most of you know I teach on a wide range of subjects.  But when it comes right down to it, HEALING is my real gift and calling.  Yes, other things are important, like faith or obedience, but the LORD has people who He has called to specialize in those areas.  There are those who teach faith almost exclusively, some teach on the blessings, or holiness, and the LORD has put a special anointing on those people to teach in those particular areas.  It seems we all have a certain area of anointing, but none of us operate in all the gifts all the time, except Christ Jesus of Nazareth.  Time and time again, I’m drawn back to healing.  Why?  Because there are so many sick people out there, and it isn’t the LORD’S will we be sick, any more than it is the LORD’S will we be living in sin.  The LORD has revealed much to me about healing over the years, for the purpose of showing people the love of God for them.

What better way to show love to someone than to ease their suffering?  The LORD was trying to get my attention since I was young, and perhaps He was calling me into the ministry way back then, but I was too busy doing my own thing to pay much attention to God.  But don’t you know, God has His ways of getting our attention when He is ready, and in July 1993, I was diagnosed with five melanomas and liver cancer and given less than a month to live.  Needless to say, that got my attention sufficiently that I called out to God for help.  I’m often reminded how powerfully and simply the LORD spoke to me that one day at church when it dawned on me that I’d better get serious about God.

Like some of you, I went to church, supposing I was doing God some special kind of favor by putting in my two hours at church each week.  Sometime back in the past I had asked the Lord Jesus to save me, but was I living like Jesus was my Lord?  No.  I lived like most every other “Christian”, doing my own thing most all the time.  Jesus was a “fire escape” from hell for me, but not much else, and He certainly wasn’t my LORD back then.

Fast forward to 1993 and I was sick and suffering, and life wasn’t much fun anymore, and it’s times like that when God seems to finally be able to get our attention, and he certainly had mine.  Nobody likes pain and suffering, and ministry was the last thing on my mind.  In fact, really all I wanted was to be well again so I could go back to “business as usual”.  However, that was not God’s plan for me, as I soon found out.

That day in July 1993 when I asked the Lord Jesus to forgive my sins, it was the most earnest prayer I had ever prayed up to that time.  There was no doubt in my mind that if I were to die, my soul was lost, and my church attendance record couldn’t save me.  Healing wasn’t what I was asking for, it was forgiveness of all my sins, and when I asked the Lord Jesus to forgive me, He told me go read Psalm 103:2-3, which is still to this day my favorite passage in the Bible, and it says:
Psa 103:2  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Psa 103:3  Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

I’ve meditated and spoke those verses so many thousands of times you could say I know them by heart.  And the part in those verses that sticks out in my mind the most is the word “ALL”.  How many of our sins does He forgive?  ALL.  How many of our diseases does He heal?  ALL.  What part of “all” is missing, then?  Time after time people tell me, God doesn’t heal everyone, right?  That’s a good question.  And it deserves a good answer.

Why, of all the verses in the Bible which relate to healing, did God choose to refer me to those two?  That passage enabled me to get a sudden grasp on healing, right from the start.  In fact, there are no other verses that so plainly come right out and tell us, God not only forgives our sins, but heals all our diseases, and it leaves no “conditions” or “loopholes” to search out.  It is a plain, simple and understandable statement if there ever was one in the Bible.  You will notice there is no “IF” in those verses, laying a condition “if you do this, I will do that”.  It is simply a statement of facts, no “interpretation” necessary.  A child can understand it.

Unfortunately, most people won’t come to God as a child in understanding.  No, they want to come with their conditions, loopholes, interpretations and about anything else they can come up with to negate God’s simple statement that He forgives all our sins, and heals all our diseases.  And then they have the nerve to say God isn’t keeping His Word when they don’t get their healing.  They try to BLAME GOD when they don’t receive their healing.  I said, they try to blame God when they don’t receive their healing.   And it isn’t God’s fault if we don’t receive it.  It’s OUR FAULT, and here’s why.

Those verses apply to whosoever will believe them, plain and simple.  If you believe, you receive.  If you don’t, then you won’t receive those “benefits.  And having your sins forgiven and your diseases healed are “benefits”, wouldn’t you say?  But there are “Special People” out there to deal with.  Let me explain.

Every time I get out on the road, there are “special people” driving over the speed limit who think the law does not apply to them, for whatever reason.  Even though the speed limit sign says 70, they think it’s just fine for them to drive 80, because they’re “special”, right?  They go through life doing what they want because they’re “special”, giving no regard to anything but their own free will.  And they think they’re “special” because they are getting away with it, or so it seems.

Well, sin happens because we think we’re “special” and we don’t have to obey God.  Sickness is a result of sin, whether it’s “inherited sin”, or our own.  Sin and sickness goes all the way back to the original sin in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve decided to eat of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden.  God told them DON’T DO THAT, and they did it anyway.   I guess they figured they were “special”, so they didn’t need to obey God.  So, can we blame sin on God?  No.  The resulting separation from God resulted in mankind’s death, both spiritually and physically.  Until they disobeyed God, there was no pain, no sickness, no sin, no suffering whatsoever in the earth.  After they disobeyed God, sin, sickness and death has been the way of life for all mankind.  So clearly, it’s our own fault.

Yet, in God’s mercy, He took steps immediately to restore that broken fellowship.  Notice it was GOD’S action to restore Adam and Eve, not THEIR action to be restored to Him.  Sickness and suffering has NEVER been God’s will for mankind.  But sin has caused it.  Psalm 103:2-3 was written to us out of God’s mercy for our suffering.  He has made a way through His Word for each and every one of us to be forgiven of ALL our sins and healed of ALL our diseases.  So tell me, what part of “ALL” IS MISSING?  Nothing whatsoever: it is ALL available to anyone who will believe.

Perhaps you’re one of those “special” people who think the promises don’t really apply to you.  Maybe you think your sins are so many, that even GOD Himself could not get past them.  Maybe you’re so sick, you’ve given up all hope of ever being well and healthy again.  There are all kinds of excuses we make because we’re a “special” case.  But let me tell you right now, you are NOT special.  No, the Word of God will work for you if you will simply take God at His Word, just like it will work for me or anyone else.  The Word of God has kept me forgiven and kept me well all these past twenty-three years, because I took Him at His Word, and if you will do the same, it will work for YOU, too.

Like I said, you’re not “special”.  BUT, you are PRECIOUS to God, and as it is written in 2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
You are so precious to God that He sent His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus of Nazareth to save you and heal you.  How about it? Will you let Him?