| Do You Know? |
|
Divine
Healing By
Andrew Murray (Answers to your questions about Sickness, Healing, Anointing etc. by a
saint mightily used of God to edify His Church) Preface �The publication of this
work may be regarded as a testimony of my faith in divine healing. After being
stopped for more than two years in the exercise of my ministry, I was healed by
the mercy of God in answer to the prayer of those who see in Him �the Lord that
healeth thee� (Ex. 15:26). �This healing, granted
to faith, has been the source of rich spiritual blessing to me. I have clearly
seen that the Church possesses in Jesus, our Divine Healer, an
inestimable treasure, which she does not yet know how to appreciate. I have
been convinced anew of that which the Word of God teaches us in this matter,
and of what the Lord expects of us; and I am sure that if Christians learned to
realize practically the presence of the Lord that healeth,
their spiritual life would thereby be developed and sanctified. I can therefore
no longer keep silence, and I publish here a series of meditations, with the
view of showing, according to the Word of God, that �the prayer of faith�
(James 5:15) is the means appointed by God for the cure of the sick, that this
truth is in perfect accord with Holy Scripture, and that the study of this
truth is essential for everyone who would see the Lord manifest His power and
His glory in the midst of His children.� - ANDREW MURRAY CHAPTER 1 Pardon and Healing �But that ye may know
that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (then saith he to the sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed
and go unto thine house� (Matt. 9:6). In man two natures are
combined. He is at the same time spirit and matter, heaven and earth, soul and
body. For this reason, on one side he is the son of God, and on the other he is
doomed to destruction because of the Fall; sin in his
soul and sickness in his body bear witness to the right which death has over
him. It is the twofold nature which has been redeemed by divine grace. When the
Psalmist calls upon all that is within him to bless the Lord for His benefits,
he cries, �Bless the Lord, O my soul, who . . . forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth
all thy diseases� (Ps. 103: 3). When Isaiah foretells the deliverance of his
people, he adds, �The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that
dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity� (Isa.
33:24). This prediction was
accomplished beyond all anticipation when Jesus the Redeemer came down to this
earth. How numerous were the healings wrought by Him who was come to establish
upon earth the kingdom of heaven! Whether by His own acts or whether afterwards
by the commands which He left for His disciples, does He not show us clearly
that the preaching of the Gospel and the healing of the sick went together in
the salvation which He came to bring? Both are given as evident proof of His
mission as the Messiah: �The blind receive their sight and the lame walk.., and
the poor have the Gospel preached to them� (Matt. 11: 5). Jesus, who took upon
Him the soul and body of man, delivers both in equal measure from the
consequences of sin. This truth is nowhere
more evident or better demonstrated than in the history of the paralytic. The
Lord Jesus begins by saying to him, �Thy sins be forgiven thee,� after which He
adds, �Arise and walk.� The pardon of sin and the healing of sickness complete
one the other, for in the eyes of God, who sees our entire nature, sin and
sickness are as closely united as the body and the soul. In accordance with the
Scriptures, our Lord Jesus has regarded sin and sickness in another light than
we have. With us sin belongs to the spiritual domain; we recognize that it is
under God�s just displeasure, justly condemned by Him, while sickness, on the
contrary, seems only a part of the present condition of our nature, and to have
nothing to do with God�s condemnation and His righteousness. Some go so far as
to say that sickness is a proof of the love and grace of God. But neither the
Scripture nor yet Jesus Christ Himself ever spoke of sickness in this light,
nor do they ever present sickness as a blessing, as a proof of God�s love which
should be borne with patience. The Lord spoke to the disciples of divers sufferings which they should have to bear, but when
He speaks of sickness, it is always as of an evil caused by sin and Satan, and
from which we should be delivered. Very solemnly He declared that every
disciple of His would have to bear his cross (Matt. 16:24), but He never taught
one sick person to resign himself to be sick. Everywhere Jesus healed the sick,
everywhere He dealt with healing as one of the graces belonging to the kingdom
of heaven. Sin in the soul and sickness in the body both bear witness to the
power of Satan, and �the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the
works of the devil� (I John 3:8). Jesus came to deliver men
from sin and sickness that He might make known the love of the Father. In His
actions, in His teaching of the disciples, in the work of the apostles, pardon
and healing are always to be found together. Either the one or the other may
doubtless appear more in relief, according to the development or the faith of
those to whom they spoke. Sometimes it was healing which prepared the way for
the acceptance of forgiveness, sometimes it was
forgiveness which preceded the healing, which, coming afterwards, became a seal
to it. In the early part of His ministry, Jesus cured many of the sick, finding
them ready to believe in the possibility of their healing. In this way He
sought to influence hearts to receive Himself as He who is able to pardon sin.
When He saw that the paralytic could receive pardon at once, He began by that
which was of the greatest importance; after which came the healing which put a
seal on the pardon which had been accorded to him. We see, by the accounts
given in the Gospels, that it was more difficult for the Jews at that time to
believe in the pardon of their sins than in divine healing. Now it is just the
contrary. The Christian Church has heard so much of the preaching of the
forgiveness of sins that the thirsty soul easily receives this message of
grace; but it is not the same with divine healing; that is rarely spoken of;
the believers who have experienced it are not many. It is true that healing is
not given in this day as in those times, to the multitudes whom
Christ healed without any previous conversion. In order to receive it, it is
necessary to begin by confession of sin and the purpose to live a holy life.
This is without doubt the reason why people find more difficulty to believe in
healing than in forgiveness; and this is also why those who receive healing
receive at the same time new spiritual blessing, feel more closely united to
the Lord Jesus, and learn to love and serve Him better. Unbelief may attempt to
separate these two gifts, but they are always united in Christ. He is always
the same Savior both of the soul and of the body,
equally ready to grant pardon and healing. The redeemed may always cry: �Bless
the Lord, 0 my soul.., who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all
thy diseases� (Ps. 103:3). CHAPTER 2 Because of Your Unbelief �Then came the disciples
to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him
out? �And Jesus said unto
them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as
a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to
yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you~~
(Matt. 17:19, 20). When the Lord Jesus sent
His disciples into different parts of In our days divine
healing is very little believed in, because it has almost entirely disappeared
from the Christian Church. One may ask the reason, and here are the two answers
which have been given. The greater number think that miracles, the gift of
healing included, should be limited to the time of the primitive Church, that
their object was to establish the first foundation of Christianity, but that
from that time circumstances have altered. Other believers say unhesitatingly
that if the Church has lost these gifts, it is by her own fault; it is because
she has become worldly that the Spirit acts but feebly in her; it is because
she has not remained in direct and habitual relation with the full power of the
unseen world; but that if she were to see anew springing up within her men and
women who live the life of faith and of the Holy Spirit, entirely consecrated
to their God, she would see again the manifestation of the same gifts as in
former times. Which of these two opinions coincides
the most with the Word of God? Is it by the will of God that the �gifts of
healing� have been suppressed, or is it rather man who is responsible for it?
Is it the will of God that miracles should not take place? Will He in
consequence of this no longer give the faith which produces them? Or again, is
it the Church which has been guilty of lacking faith? What Saith the Scripture? The Bible does not authorize us, either by the words of the
Lord or His apostles, to believe that the gifts of healing were granted only to
the early times of the Church; on the contrary, the promises which Jesus made
to the apostles when He gave them instructions concerning their mission,
shortly before His ascension, appear to us applicable to all times (Mark
16:15�18). Paul places the gift of healing among the operations of the Holy
Spirit. James gives a precise command on this matter without any restriction of
time. The entire Scriptures declare that these graces will be granted according
to the measure of the Spirit and of faith. It is also alleged that
at the outset of each new dispensation God works miracles, that it is His
ordinary course of action; but it is nothing of the kind. Think of the people
of God in the former dispensation, in the time of Abraham, all through the life
of Moses, in the exodus from But, it is said,
miracles were much more necessary in the early days of Christianity than later.
But what about the power of heathenism even in this day, wherever the Gospel
seeks to combat it? It is impossible to admit that miracles should have been
more needful for the heathen in In order to prove that
it is the Church�s unbelief which has lost the gift of healing, let us see what
the Bible says about it. Does it not often put us on our guard against
unbelief, against all which can estrange and turn us from our God? Does not the
history of the Church show us the necessity of these warnings? Does it not
furnish us with numerous examples of backward steps, of world pleasing, in
which faith grew weak in the exact measure in which the spirit of the world
took the upper hand? For such faith is only possible to him who lives in the
world invisible. Until the third century the healings by faith in Christ were
numerous, but in the centuries following they became more infrequent. Do we not
know from the Bible that it is always unbelief which hinders the mighty working
of God? Oh, that we could learn
to believe in the promises of God! God has not gone back from His promises;
Jesus is still He who heals both soul and body; salvation offers us even now
healing and holiness, and the Holy Spirit is always ready to give us some
manifestations of His power. Even when we ask why this divine power is not more
often seen, He answers us: �Because of your unbelief� The more we give ourselves
to experience personally sanctification by faith, the more we shall also
experience healing by faith. These two doctrines walk abreast. The more the
Spirit of God lives and acts in the soul of believers, the more will the
miracles multiply by which He works in the body. Thereby the world can
recognize what redemption means. CHAPTER 3 Jesus and the Doctors Mark 5
:25�34 We may be thankful to
God for having given us doctors. Their vocation is one of the most noble, for a
large number of them seek truly to do, with love and compassion, all they are
able to alleviate the evils and sufferings which burden humanity as a result of
sin. There are even some who are zealous servants of Jesus Christ, and who seek
also the good of their patients� souls. Nevertheless it is Jesus Himself who is
always the first, the best, the greatest Physician. Jesus heals diseases in
which earthly physicians can do nothing, for the Father gave Him this power
when He charged Him with the work of our redemption. Jesus, in taking upon Him
our human body, delivered it from the dominion of sin and Satan; He has made
our bodies temples of the Holy Ghost and members of His own body (I Cor. 6:15, 19), and even in our day how many have been
given up by the doctors as incurable, how many cases of tuberculosis, of
gangrene, of paralysis, of dropsy, of blindness and of deafness, have been
healed by Him! Is it not then astonishing that so
small a number of the sick apply to Him? The method of Jesus is
quite another than that of earthly physicians. They seek to serve God in making
use of remedies which are found in the natural world, and God makes use of
these remedies according to natural law, according to the natural properties of
each, while the healing which proceeds from Jesus is of a totally different
order; it is by divine power, the power of the Holy Ghost, that Jesus heals.
Thus the difference between these two modes of healing is very marked. That we
may understand it better, let us take an example; here is a physician who is an
unbeliever, but extremely clever in his profession; many sick people owe their
healing to him. God gives this result by means of the prescribed remedies, and
the physician�s knowledge of them. Here is another physician who is a believer,
and who prays God�s blessing on the remedies which he employs. In this case
also a large number are healed, but neither in the one case nor the other does
the healing bring with it any spiritual blessing. They will be preoccupied,
even the believing among them, with the remedies which they use, much more than
with what the Lord may be doing with them, and in such a case their healing
will be more hurtful than beneficial. On the contrary, when it is Jesus only to
whom the sick person applies for healing, he learns to reckon no longer upon remedies,
but to put himself into direct relation with His love and His almightiness. In
order to obtain such healing, he must commence by confessing and renouncing his
sins, and exercising a living faith. Then healing will come directly from the
Lord, who takes possession of the sick body, and it thus becomes a blessing for
the soul as well as for the body. �But is it not God who
has given remedies to man?� it is asked. �Does not their power come from Him?�
Without doubt; but on the other hand, is it not God who has given us His Son
with all power to heal? Shall we follow the way of natural law with all those
who do not yet know Christ, and also with those of His children whose faith is
still too weak to abandon themselves to His almightiness; or rather do we
choose the way of faith, receiving healing from the Lord and from the Holy
Spirit, seeing therein the result and the proof of our redemption? The healing which is
wrought by our Lord Jesus brings with it and leaves behind it more real
blessing than the healing which is obtained through physicians. Healing has
been a misfortune to more persons than one. On a bed of sickness serious
thoughts had taken possession, but from the time of his healing how often has a
sick man been found anew far from the Lord! It is not thus when it is Jesus who
heals. Healing is granted after confession of sin; therefore it brings the
sufferer nearer to Jesus, and establishes a new link between him and the Lord,
it causes him to experience His love and power, it begins within him a new life
of faith and holiness. When the woman who had touched the hem of Christ�s
garment felt that she was healed, she learned something of what divine love
means. She went away with the words: �Daughter, thy faith hath saved thee: go
in peace.� O you
who are suffering from some sickness, know that Jesus the sovereign Healer is
yet in our midst. He is close to us, and He is giving anew to His Church
manifest proofs of His presence. Are you ready to break with the world, to
abandon yourself to Him with faith and confidence? Then fear not, remember that
divine healing is a part of the life of faith. If nobody around you can help
you in prayer, if no �elder� is at hand to pray the prayer of faith, fear not
to go yourself to the Lord in the silence of solitude, like the woman who
touched the hem of His garment. Commit to Him the care of your body. Get quiet
before Him and like the poor woman say, �I will be healed.� Perhaps it may take
some time to break the chains of your unbelief, but assuredly none that wait on
Him shall be ashamed (Ps. 25: 3) CHAPTER 4 Health and Salvation by
the Name of Jesus Acts 3:16; 4:10, 12 When after Pentecost,
the paralytic was healed through Peter and John at the gate of the temple, it
was �in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth� that they said to him, �Rise up
and walk,� and as soon as the people in their amazement ran together to them,
Peter declared that it was the name of Jesus which had so completely healed the
man. As the result of this
miracle and of Peter�s discourse, many people who had heard the Word believed
(Acts 4: 4). On the morrow Peter repeated these words before the Sanhedrin, �By
the name of Jesus Christ of We see that healing and
health form part of Christ�s salvation. Does not Peter clearly state this in
his discourse to the Sanhedrin where, having spoken of healing, he immediately
goes on to speak of salvation by Christ? (Acts 4:10, 12).
In heaven even our bodies will have their part in salvation; salvation will not
be complete for us until our bodies shall enjoy the full redemption of Christ.
Why then should we not believe in this work of redemption here below? Even
already here on earth, the health of our bodies is a fruit of the salvation
which Jesus has acquired for us. We see also that health
as well as salvation is to be obtained by faith. The tendency of man by nature
is to bring about his salvation by his works, and it is only with difficulty
that he comes to receive it by faith; but when it is a question of the healing
of the body, he has still more difficulty in seizing it. As to salvation, he
ends it by accepting it because by no other means can he open the door of
heaven; while for the body, he makes use of well-known remedies. Why then
should he seek for divine healing? Happy is he who comes to understand that it
is the will of God; that God wills to manifest the power of Jesus, and also to
reveal to us His Fatherly love; to exercise and to confirm our faith, and to
make us prove the power of redemption in the body as well as in the soul. The
body is part of our being; even the body has been saved by Christ; therefore it
is in our body that our Father wills to manifest the power of redemption, and
to let men see that Jesus lives. Oh, let us believe in the name of Jesus! Was
it not in the name of Jesus that perfect health was given to the impotent man?
And were not these words: �Thy faith hath saved thee,� pronounced when the body
was healed? Let us seek then to obtain divine healing. Wherever the Spirit acts
with power, there He works divine healings. Would it not seem that if ever
miracles Were superfluous, it was at Pentecost, for
then the word of the apostles worked mightily, and the pouring out of the Holy
Spirit was abundant? Well, it is precisely because the Spirit acted powerfully
that His working must needs be Visible in the body. If
divine healing is seen but rarely in our day, we can
attribute it to no other cause than that the Spirit does not act with power.
The unbelief of worldlings and the want of zeal among
believers stop His working. The healings which God is giving here and there are
the precursory signs of all the spiritual graces which are promised to us, and
it is only the Holy Spirit who reveals the almightiness of the name of Jesus to
operate such healings. Let us pray earnestly for the Holy Spirit, let us place
ourselves unreservedly under His direction, and let us seek to be firm in our
faith in the name of Jesus, whether for preaching salvation or for the work of
healing. God
grants healing to glorify the name of Jesus.
Let us seek to be healed by Jesus that His name may be glorified. It is sad to
see how little the power of His name is recognized, how little it is the end of
preaching and of prayer. Treasures of divine grace, of which Christians deprive
themselves by their lack of faith and zeal, are hidden in the name of Jesus. It
is the will of God to glorify His Son in the Church; and He will do it wherever
He finds faith. Whether among believers, or whether among the heathen, He is
ready with virtue from on high to awaken consciences, and to bring hearts to
obedience. God is ready to manifest the all-power of His Son, and to do it in a
striking way in body as well as in soul. Let us believe it for ourselves, let
us believe it for others, for the circle of believers around us, and also for
the Church in the whole world. Let us give ourselves to believe with firm faith
in the power of the name of Jesus, let us ask great things in His name,
counting on His promise, and we shall see God still do wonders by the name of
His holy Son. CHAPTER 5 Not by Our Own Power �And when Peter saw it
he answered unto the people, Ye men of As soon as the impotent
man had been healed at the gate of the temple through Peter and John, the
people ran together unto them. Peter, seeing this miracle was attributed to their
power and holiness, loses no time in setting them right by telling them that
all the glory of this miracle belongs to Jesus, and that it is He in whom we
must believe. Peter and John were
undoubtedly full of faith and of holiness; perhaps even they may have been the
most holy and zealous servants of God in their time, otherwise God might not
have chosen them as instruments in this case of healing. But they knew that
their holiness of life was not of themselves, that it
was of God through the Holy Spirit. They think so little of themselves that
they ignore their own holiness and know only one thing�that all power belongs
to their Master. They hasten, then, to declare that in this thing they count
for nothing, that it is the work of the Lord alone. This is the object of
divine healing: to be a proof of the power of Jesus, a witness in the eyes of
men of what He is, proclaiming His divine intervention, and attracting hearts
to Him. �Not by our own power or holiness.� Thus is becomes those to speak whom
the Lord is pleased to use in helping others by their faith. It is necessary to
insist on this because of the tendency of believers to think the contrary.
Those who have recovered their health in answer to �the prayer of faith,� �the
supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its
working� (James 5:16, R.V.), are in danger of being
too much occupied with the human instrument which God is pleased to employ, and
to think that the power lies in man�s piety. Doubtless the prayer of
faith is the result of real godliness, but those who possess it will be the
first to acknowledge that it does not come from themselves, nor
from any effort of their own. They fear to rob the Lord of the least particle
of the glory which belongs to Him, and they know that if they do so, they will
compel Him to withdraw His grace from them. It is their great desire to see the souls which God has blessed through them enter
into a direct and increasingly intimate communion with the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, since that is the result which their healing should produce. Thus they
insist that it is not caused by their own power or holiness. Such testimony on their
part is necessary to reply to the erroneous accusations of unbelievers. The
Church of Christ needs to hear clearly announced that it is on account of her
worldliness and unbelief that she has lost these spiritual gifts of healing (I Cor. 12: 9) and that the Lord restores to those who, with
faith and obedience, have consecrated their lives to Him. This grace cannot
reappear without being preceded by a renewal of faith and of holiness. But
then, says the world, and with it a large number of Christians, �You are laying
claim to the possession of a higher order of faith and holiness, you consider
yourselves holier than others.� To such accusations this word of Peter is the
only reply before God and man, confirmed by a life of deep and real humility:
�Not by our own power or holiness.� �Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth�s sake� (Ps. 115:1). Such
a testimony is also necessary in view of our own heart and of the wiles of
Satan. As long as, through the Church�s unfaithfulness, the gifts of healing
are but rarely given, those children of God who have received these gifts are
in danger of priding themselves upon them, and of imagining that they have in
themselves something exceptionally meritorious. The enemy does not forget to
persecute them by such insinuations, and woe unto them
if they listen to him. They are not ignorant of his Y devices; therefore they
need to pray continually to the Lord to keep them in humility, the true means
of obtaining continually more grace. If they persevere in humility, they will
recognize that the more God makes use of them, the more also will they be penetrated
with the conviction that it is God alone who works by them, and that all the
glory belongs to Him. �Not I, but the grace of God which was with me� (I Cor. 15: 10). Such is their watchword. Finally, this
testimony is useful for the feeble ones who long for salvation, and who desire
to receive Christ as their Healer. They hear of full consecration and entire
obedience, but they form a false idea of it. They think they must in themselves
attain to a high degree of knowledge and of perfection, and they fall a prey to
discouragement. No, no; it is not by our own power or holiness that we obtain
these graces, but by a faith quite simple, a childlike faith, which knows that
it has no power nor holiness of its own, and which commits itself completely to
Him who is faithful, and whose almightiness can fulfill
His promise. Oh, let us not seek to do or to be anything of ourselves! It is
only as we feel our own powerlessness, and expect all from God and His Word
that we realize the glorious way in which the Lord heals sickness �by faith in
his name.� CHAPTER 6 According to the Measure
of Faith �And Jesus said unto the
centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And
his servant was healed in the selfsame hour� (Matt. 8:13). This passage of
Scripture brings before us one of the principal laws of the kingdom of heaven.
In order to understand God�s ways with His people, and our relations with the
Lord, it is needful to understand this law thoroughly and not to deviate from
it. Not only does God give or withhold His gifts according to the faith or
unbelief of each, but they are granted in greater or lesser measure, only in
proportion to the faith which receives them. God respects the right to decide
which He has conferred on man. Therefore He can only bless us in the measure in
which each yields himself up to His divine working, and opens all his heart to
Him. Faith in God is nothing else than the full opening of the heart to receive
everything from God; therefore man can only receive divine grace according to
his faith; and this applies as much to divine healing as to any other grace of
God. This truth is confirmed
by the spiritual blessings which may result from sickness. Two questions are
often asked: (1) Is it not God�s will that His
children should sometimes remain in a prolonged state of sickness? (2) Since it
is a recognized thing that dine healing brings with it greater spiritual
blessing than the sickness itself, why does God allow certain of His children
to continue sick through many years, and while in this condition give them
blessing in sanctification, and in communion with Himself? The answer to these
two questions is that God gives to His children according to their faith. We
have already had occasion to remark that in the same degree in which the Church
has become worldly, her faith in divine healing has diminished until at last it
has disappeared. Believers do not seem to be aware that they may ask God for
the healing of their sick-ness, and that thereby they may be sanctified and
fitted for His service. They have come to seek only submission to His will and
to regard sickness as a means to be separate from the world. In such conditions
the Lord gives them what they ask. He would have been ready to give them yet
more, to grant them healing in answer to the prayer of faith, but they lacked
the faith to receive it. God always meets His children where they are,
howsoever weak they may be. The sick ones, therefore, who have desired to
receive Him with their whole heart, will have received from Him the fruit of
the sickness in their desire that their will should be conformed to the will of
God. They might have been able to receive healing, in addition, as a proof that
God accepted their submission; if this has not been so, it is because faith has
failed them to ask for it. �As thou hast believed
so be it done unto thee.� These words give the reply to yet another question:
How can you say that divine healing brings with it so much of spiritual
blessing, when one sees that the greater number of those who were healed by the
Lord Jesus received nothing more than a deliverance from their present
sufferings, without giving any proof that they were also spiritually blessed?
Here again, as they believed, so was it done unto them. A good number of sick
people, having witnessed the healing of others, gained confidence in Jesus just
far enough to be healed, and Jesus granted them their request, without adding
other blessings for their souls. Before His ascension the Lord had not as free
an entrance as He now has into the heart of man, because �the Holy Ghost was
not yet given� (John 7:39). The healing of the sick was then hardly more than a
blessing for the body. It was only later, in the dispensation of the Spirit,
that the conviction and confession of sin have become for the believer the
first grace to be received, the essential condition for obtaining healing, as
St. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Corinthians, and James in his to the
twelve tribes scattered abroad (I Cor. 11:31, 32;
James 5:16). Thus the degree of spiritual grace which it is possible for us to
receive depends upon the measure of our faith, whether it be
for its external manifestation, or especially whether for its influence upon
our inner life. We recommend for every
suffering one who is looking for healing, and who seeks to know Jesus as his
divine Healer, not to let himself be hindered by his unbelief, not to doubt the
promises of God, and thus to be �strong in faith giving glory to God� as is His
due. �As thou hast believed so be it done unto thee.� If with all your heart
you trust in the living God you will be abundantly blessed; do not doubt it. The part of faith is
always to lay hold on just that which appears impossible or strange to human
eyes. Let us be willing to be considered fools for Christ�s sake (I Cor. 4:10). Let us not fear to pass for weak-minded in the
eyes of the world and of such Christians as are ignorant of these things,
because, on the authority of the Word of God, we believe that which others
cannot yet admit. Do not, then, let yourself be discouraged in your expectation
even though God should delay to answer you, or if your sickness be aggravated.
Once having placed your foot firmly on the immovable rock of God�s own Word,
and having prayed the Lord to manifest His almightiness in your body because
you are one of the members of His Body, and the temple of the Holy Ghost,
persevere in believing in Him with the firm assurance that He has undertaken
for you, that He has made Himself responsible for your body, and that His
healing virtue will come to glorify Him in you. CHAPTER 7 The Way of Faith �And straightway the
father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou
mine unbelief� (Mark 9:24). These words have been a
help and strength to thousands of souls in their pursuit of salvation and the
gifts of God. Notice that it is in relation to an afflicted child that they
were pronounced, in the fight of faith when seeking healing from the Lord
Jesus. In them we see that in one and the same soul there can arise a struggle between faith and unbelief, and that it is
not without a struggle that we come to believe in Jesus and in His all-power to
heal the sick. In this we find the needful encouragement for realizing the Savior�s power. I speak here especially
to sufferers who do not doubt the power or the will of the Lord Jesus to heal
in this day without the use of earthly remedies, but who lack the boldness to
accept healing for themselves. They believe in the
divine power of Christ, they believe in a general manner His good will to heal;
they have acquired, either by the Scriptures, or by facts of healings by the
Lord alone which have taken place in our days, the intellectual persuasion that
the Lord can help even them, but they shrink back from accepting healing, and
from saying with faith, �The Lord has heard me, I know that He is healing me.� Take notice first that
without faith no one can be healed. When the father of the afflicted child said
to Jesus, �If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us,�
Jesus replied: �If thou canst believe.� Jesus had the power to heal and He was
ready to do it, but He casts responsibility on the man. �If
thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth� (R.V.). In order to obtain your healing from Jesus, it is
not enough to pray. Prayer without faith is powerless. It is �the prayer of
faith� which saves the sick (James 5:15). If you have already asked for healing
from the Lord, or if others have asked it for you, you must, before you are
conscious of any change, be able to say with faith, �On the authority of God�s
Word I have the assurance that He hears me and that I shall be healed.� To have
faith means in your case to surrender your body absolutely into the Lord�s
hands, and to leave yourself entirely to Him. Faith receives healing as a
spiritual grace which proceeds from the Lord even while there is no conscious
change in the body. Faith can glorify God and say, �Bless the Lord, 0 my soul. . . which healeth all my
diseases� (Ps. 103:1�3). The Lord requires this faith that He may heal. But how is such faith to
be obtained? Tell your God the unbelief which you find in your heart,. and count on Him for deliverance
from it. Faith is not money by which your healing can be purchased from the
Lord. It is He who desires to awaken and develop in you the necessary faith.
�Help my unbelief,� cried the father of the child. It was his ardent desire
that his faith should not come short. Confess to the Lord all the difficulty
you have to believe Him on the ground of His Word; tell Him you want to be rid
of this unbelief, that you bring it to Him with a will
to hearken only to His Word. Do not lose time in deploring your unbelief, but
look to Jesus. The light of His countenance will enable you to find the power
to believe in Him (Ps. 44: 3). He calls on you to trust in Him; listen to Him,
and by His grace faith will triumph in you. Say to Him, �Lord, I am still aware
of the unbelief which is in me. I find it difficult to believe that I am sure
of my healing because I possess Him who works it. And, nevertheless, I want to
conquer this unbelief. Thou, Lord, wilt give me the victory. I desire to
believe, I will believe, by Thy grace I dare to say I can believe. Yes, Lord, I
believe, for Thou comest to the help of my unbelief.�
It is when we are in intimate communion with the Lord, and when our heart
responds to His, that unbelief is overcome and conquered. It is needful also to
testify to the faith one has. Be resolved to believe that which the Lord says
to you, to believe, above all, that which He is. Lean wholly upon His promises.
�The prayer of faith shall save the sick.� �I am the Lord that healeth thee� (Ex. 15:26). Look to Jesus, who �bare our
sickness� (Matt. 8:17), and who healed all who came to Him; count on the Holy
Spirit to manifest in your heart the presence of Jesus who is also now in
heaven, and to work also in your body the power of His grace. Praise the Lord
without waiting to feel better, or to have more faith. Praise Him, and say with
David, �O Lord, my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me� (Ps. 30:2).
Divine healing is a spiritual grace which can only be received spiritually and
by faith, before feeling its effect on the body. Accept it, then, and give
glory to God. When the Lord Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out
of the child, he rent him sore, so that he was as one dead, inasmuch as many
said, �He is dead.� If, therefore, your sickness does not yield at once, if
Satan and your own unbelief attempt to get the upper hand, do not heed them,
cling closely to Jesus your Healer, and He will surely heal you. CHAPTER 8 Your Body Is the I Corinthians 6:15, 19,
20 The Bible teaches us
that the Body of Christ is the company of the faithful. These words are taken
generally in their spiritual sense, while the Bible asks us positively whether
we know not that our bodies are the members of Christ. In the same way, when
the Bible speaks of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit or of Christ, we limit Their presence to the spiritual part of our being�our soul,
or our heart. Nevertheless the Bible says expressly, �Know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?� When the Church
understands that the body also has part in the redemption which is by Christ,
by which it ought to be brought back to its original destiny, to be the
dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, to serve as His instrument, to be sanctified
by His presence, she will also recognize all the place which divine healing has
in the Bible and in the counsels of God. The account of the
creation tells us that man is composed of three parts. God first formed the
body from the dust of the earth, after which He breathed into it �the breath of
life.� He caused His own life, His Spirit, to enter into it. By this union of
Spirit with matter, the man became a �living soul.� The soul, which is
essentially the man, finds its place between the body and the spirit; it is the
link which binds them together. By the body the soul finds itself in relation
to the external world; by the spirit, with the world invisible and with God. By
means of the soul, the spirit can subject the body to the action of the
heavenly powers and thus spiritualize it; by means of the soul, the body also
can act upon the spirit and attract it earthwards. The soul, subject to the
solicitations of both spirit and body, is in a position to choose between the
voice of God, speaking by the Spirit, or the voice of
the world, speaking through the senses. This union of spirit and
body forms a combination which is unique in the creation~ it makes man to be
the jewel of God�s work. Other creatures had existed already; some, like
angels, were all spirit, without any material body, and others, like the
animals, were only flesh, possessing a body animated with a living soul, but
devoid of spirit. Man was destined to show that the material body, governed by
the spirit, was capable of being transformed by the power of the Spirit of God,
and of being thus led to participate of heavenly glory. We know what sin and
Satan have done with this possibility of gradual transformation. By means of
the body, the spirit was tempted, seduced, and became a slave of sense. We know
also what God has done to destroy the work of Satan and to accomplish the
purpose of creation. �The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the
works of the devil� (I John 3:8). God prepared a body for His Son (Heb. 10: 5).
�The word was made flesh� (John 1:14). �In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily� (Col. 2:9). �Who his own self bare our sins in
his own body on the tree� (I Pet. 2:24). And now Jesus, raised up from the dead with a body as free from sin as His
spirit and His soul, communicates to our body the virtue of His glorified body.
The Lord�s Supper is �the communion of the body of Christ�; and our bodies are
�the members of Christ� (I Cor. 10:16; 6:15; 12: 27). Faith puts us in
possession of all that the death of Christ and His resurrection have procured
for us, and it is not only in our spirit and our soul that the life of the
risen Jesus manifests its presence here below; it is in the body also that it
would act according to the measure of our faith. �Know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?� Many believers represent
to themselves that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our body as we dwell in a
house. Nothing of the kind. I can dwell in a house
without its becoming part of my being. I may leave it without suffering; no
vital union exists between my house and me. It is not thus with the presence of
our soul and spirit in our body. The life of a plant lives in and pervades
every part of it; and our soul is not limited to dwell in such or such part of
the body, the heart or the head, for instance, but penetrates throughout, even
to the end of the lowest members. The life of the soul pervades the whole body;
the life throughout proves the presence of the soul. It is in like manner that
the Holy Ghost comes to dwell in our body. He penetrates its entirety. He
animates and possesses us infinitely more than we can imagine. In the same way in which
the Holy Spirit brings to our soul and spirit the life of Jesus, His holiness,
His joy, His strength, He comes also to impart to the sick body all the
vigorous vitality of Christ as soon as the hand of faith is stretched out to
receive it. When the body is fully
subject to Christ, crucified with Him, renouncing all self-will and
independence, desiring nothing but to be the Lord�s temple, it is then that the
Holy Spirit manifests the power of the risen Savior
in the body. Then only can we glorify God in our body, leaving Him full freedom
to manifest therein His power, to show that He knows how to set His temple free
from the domination of sickness, sin, and Satan. CHAPTER 9 The Body for the Lord I Corinthians 6:13 One of the most learned of theologians has said that
corporeity is the end of the ways of God. As we have already seen, this is
indeed what God has accomplished in creating man. It is this which makes the
inhabitants of heaven wonder and admire when they contemplate the glory of the
Son. Clothed with a human body, Jesus has taken His place forever upon the
throne of God, to partake of His glory. It is this which God has willed. It
shall be recognized in that day when regenerated humanity, forming the body of
Christ, shall be truly and visibly the temple of the living God (II Cor. 6:16), and when all
creation in the new heavens and new earth shall share the glory of the children
of God. The material body shall then be wholly sanctified, glorified by the
Spirit; and this body, thus spiritualized, shall be the highest glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ and of His redeemed. It is in anticipation of
this new condition of things that the Lord attaches a great importance to the
indwelling and sanctification of our bodies, down here, by His Spirit. So
little is this truth understood by believers that less still do they seek for
the power of the Holy Spirit in their bodies. Many of them also, believing that
this body belongs to them, use it as it pleases them. Not understanding how
much the sanctification of the soul and spirit depends upon the body, they do
not grasp all the meaning of the words, �The body is for the Lord,� in such a
way as to receive them in obedience. �The body is for the
Lord.� What does this mean? The apostle has just said, �Meats for the belly,
and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them.� Eating and
drinking afford the Christian an opportunity of carrying out this truth, �The
body is for the Lord.� He must indeed learn to eat and drink to the glory of
God. By eating, sin and the Fall came about. It was
also through eating that the devil sought to tempt our Lord. Thus Jesus Himself
sanctified His body in eating only according to the will of His Father (Matt.
4:4). Many believers fail to watch over their bodies�fail to observe a holy
sobriety so as to avoid rendering their bodies unfit for the service of God.
Eating and drinking should never impede communion with God; their purpose is,
rather, to facilitate communion by maintaining the body in its normal
condition. The apostle speaks also
of fornication, this sin which defiles the body, and which is in direct
opposition to the words, �The body is for the Lord.� It is not simply
incontinence outside the married state, but in that state also, which is meant
here; all voluptuousness, all want of sobriety of whatsoever kind is condemned
in these words: �Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost� (I Cor. 6:19). In the same way, all of what goes to maintain
the body�to clothe it, strengthen it, rest it in sleep, or afford it
enjoyment�should be placed under the control of the Holy Spirit. As under the
Old Covenant, the temple was constructed solely for God, and for His service,
even so our body has been created for the Lord and for Him alone. One of the chief
benefits then of divine healing will be to teach us that our body ought to be
set free from the yoke of our own will to become the Lord�s property. God does
not grant healing to our prayers until He has attained the end for which He has
permitted the sickness. He wills that this discipline should bring us into a
more intimate communion with Him; He would make us understand that we have
regarded our body as our own property, while it belonged to the Lord; and that
the Holy Spirit seeks to sanctify all its actions. He leads us to understand
that if we yield our body unreservedly to the influence of the Holy Spirit, we
shall experience His power in us, and He will heal us by bringing into our body
the very life of Jesus; He leads us, in short, to say with full conviction,
�The body is for the Lord.� There are believers who
seek after holiness, but only for the soul and spirit. In their ignorance they
forget that the body and all its systems of nerves�that the hand, the ear, the
eyes, the mouth� are called to testify directly to the presence and the grace
of God in them. They have not sufficiently taken in these words: �Your bodies
are the members of Christ.� �If by the Spirit ye make to die the deeds of the
body, ye shall live� (I Cor. 6:15; Rom. 8:13, R.V., margin). �The God of peace himself
sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire,
without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ� (I Thess. 5:23, R.V.). Oh, what a renewing takes place in us when, by His own
touch, the Lord heals our bodies, when He takes possession of them, and when by
His Spirit He becomes life and health to them! It is with an indescribable
consciousness of holiness, of fear and of joy that the believer can then offer
his body a living sacrifice to receive healing, and to have for his motto these
words: �The body is for the Lord.� CHAPTER 10 The Lord for the Body I Corinthians 6:13 There is reciprocity in
God�s relations with man. That which God has been for me, I ought in my turn to
be for Him. And that which I am for Him, He desires again to be for me. If, in
His love, He gives Himself fully to me, it is in order that I may lovingly give
myself fully to Him. In the measure in which I more or less really surrender to
Him all my being, in that measure also He gives Himself more really to me. God thus
leads the believer to understand that this abandonment of Himself
involves the body, and the more our life bears witness that the body is for the
Lord, the more also we experience that the Lord is for the body. In saying,
�The body is for the Lord,� we express the desire to regard our body as wholly
consecrated, offered in sacrifice to the Lord, and sanctified by Him. In
saying, �The Lord is for the body,� we express the precious certainty that our
offering has been accepted, and that, by His Spirit, the Lord will impart to
our body His own strength and holiness, and that henceforth He will strengthen
and keep us. This is a matter of
faith. Our body is material, weak, feeble, sinful, mortal.
Therefore it is difficult to grasp all at once the full extent of the words,
�The Lord is for the body.� It is the Word of God which explains to us the way
to assimilate. The body was created by the Lord and for the Lord. Jesus took
upon Him an earthly body. In His body He bore our sins on the cross, and
thereby set our body free from the power of sin. In Christ the body has been
raised again, and seated on the throne of God. The body is the habitation of
the Holy Spirit; it is called to eternal partnership in the glory of heaven.
Therefore, with certainty, and in a wide and universal sense, we can say, �Yes,
the Lord Jesus, our Savior, is for the body.� This
truth has many applications. In the first place, it is a great help in
practical holiness. More than one sin derives its strength from some physical
tendency. The converted drunkard has a horror for intoxicating drinks, but,
notwithstanding, his appetites are sometimes a snare to him, gaining victory
over his new convictions. If, however, in the conflict he
gives over his body with confidence to the Lord, all physical appetite, all
desire to drink will be overcome. Our temper also often results from our
physical constitution. A nervous, irritable system produces words which are
sharp, harsh, and wanting in love. But let the body with this physical tendency
be taken to the Lord, and it will soon be experienced that the Holy Spirit can
mortify the risings of impatience, and sanctify the body, rendering it
blameless. These words, �The Lord
is for the body,� are applicable also to the physical strength which the Lord�s
service demands of us. When David cries, �It is God that girdeth
me with strength,� he means physical strength, for he adds: �He maketh my feet like hinds� feet... mine arms do bend a bow
of brass� (Ps. 18:33, 34, R.V.). Again in these
words: �The Lord is the
strength of my life� (Ps. 27:1), it does not mean only the spiritual man but
the entire man. Many believers have experienced that the promise, �They that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength� (Isa.
40:31), touches the body, and that the Holy Spirit increases the physical
strength. But it is especially in
divine healing that we see the truth of these words: �The Lord is for the
body.� Yes, Jesus, the sovereign and merciful Healer,
is always ready to save and cure. There was in Dear sick one, the Lord has shown thee by sickness what
power sin has over the body. By thy healing He would
also show thee the power of redemption of the body. He calls thee to show that
which thou hast not understood hitherto, that �the body is for the Lord.�
Therefore give Him thy body. Give it Him with thy sickness and with the sin,
which is the original source of sickness. Believe always that the Lord has
taken charge of this body, and He will manifest with power that He really is
the Lord, who is for the body. The Lord, who has Himself taken upon Him a body
here on earth and regenerated it, from the highest heaven, where He now is,
clothed with His glorified body, sends us His divine strength, willing thus to
manifest His power in our body. CHAPTER 11 Do Not Consider Your
Body Romans 4:19�2 1 When God promised to give Abraham a son, the patriarch
would never have been able to believe in this promise if he had considered his
own body, already aged and worn out. However, he would see nothing but God and
His promise, the power and faithfulness of God who guaranteed him the fulfillment of His promise. This enables us to lay
hold of all the difference there is between the healing which is expected from
earthly remedies and the healing which is looked for from God only. When we
have recourse to remedies for healing, all the attention of the sick one is
upon the body, considering the body, while divine healing calls us to turn away
our attention from the body, and to abandon ourselves, soul and body, to the
Lord�s care, occupying ourselves with Him alone. This truth equally
enables us to see the difference between the sickness retained for blessing and
the healing received from the Lord. Some are afraid to take the promise in
James 5 in its literal sense, because they say sickness is more profitable to
the soul than health. It is true that in the case of healing obtained by earthly
remedies, many people would be more blessed in remaining ill than in recovering
health, but it is quite otherwise when healing comes directly from the hand of
God. In order to receive divine healing, sin must be so truly confessed and
renounced, one must be so completely surrendered to the Lord, self must be so
really yielded up to be wholly in His hands, and the will of Jesus to take
charge of the body must be so firmly counted on that the healing becomes the
commencement of a new life of intimate communion with the Lord. Thus we learn to give up
to Him entirely the care of the health, and the smallest indication of the
return of the evil is regarded as a warning not to consider our body, but to be
occupied with the Lord only. What a contrast this is
from the greater number of sick people who look for healing from remedies. If
some few of them have been sanctified by the sickness, having learned to lose
sight of themselves, how many more are there who are drawn by the sickness
itself to be constantly occupied with themselves and with the condition of
their body. What infinite care they exercise in observing the least symptom, favorable or unfavorable! What a
constant preoccupation to them is their eating and drinking, the anxiety to
avoid this or that! How much they are taken up with what they consider due to
them from others, whether they are sufficiently thought of, whether well enough
nursed, whether visited often enough! How much time is thus devoted to
considering the body and what it exacts, rather than the Lord and the relations
which He seeks to establish with their souls! Oh, how
many are they who, through sickness, are occupied almost exclusively with
themselves! All this is totally
different when healing is looked for in faith from the loving God. Then the
first thing to learn is: Cease to be anxious about the state of your body, you
have trusted it to the Lord and He has taken the responsibility. If you do not
see a rapid improvement immediately, but on the contrary the symptoms appear to
be more serious, remember that you have entered on a path of faith, and
therefore you ought not to consider the body, but cling only to the living God.
The commandment of Christ, �Be not anxious . . . for your body� (Matt. 6:25, R.V.), appears here in a new light. When God called Abraham
not to consider his own body, it was that He might call him to the greatest
exercise of faith which could be, that he might learn to see only God and His
promise. Sustained by his faith, he gave glory to God, convinced that God would
do what He had promised. Divine healing is a marvelous
tie to bind us to the Lord. At first one may fear to believe that the Lord will
stretch forth His mighty hand and touch the body; but in studying the Word of
God the soul takes courage and confidence. At last one decides, saying, I yield
up my body into the hands of God; and I leave the care of it to Him. Then the
body and its sensations are lost sight of, and only the Lord and His promise
are in view. Dear reader, wilt thou
also enter upon this way of faith, very superior to that which it is the habit
to call natural? Walk in the steps of Abraham. Learn from him not to consider thine own body, and not to doubt through unbelief. To
consider the body gives birth to doubts, while clinging to the promise of God
and being occupied with Him alone gives entrance into the way of faith, the way
of divine healing, which glorifies God. CHAPTER 12 Discipline and
Sanctification �God chasteneth
us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness� (Heb. 12:10). �If
a man... purge himself.., he shall be a vessel unto honor,
sanctified and meet for the Master�s use, prepared unto every good work� (II
Tim. 2:21). To sanctify anything is to set apart, to consecrate, to God
and to His service. The temple at When the people of Again in this day, God
is forming for Himself a holy people, and it is that we may torn
part of them that Jesus sets us free. He �gave himself for us that he might
redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own
possession, zealous of good works� (Titus 2:14, R.V.).
It is the Lord who breaks the chains by which Satan would hold us in bondage.
He would have us free, wholly free to serve Him. He wills to save us, to
deliver both the soul and the body, that each of the members of the body may be
consecrated to Him and placed unreservedly at His disposal. A large number of
Christians do not yet understand all this, they do not
know how to take in that the purpose of their deliverance is that they may be
sanctified, prepared to serve their God. They make use of their life and their
members to procure their own satisfaction; consequently they do not feel at
liberty to ask for healing with faith. It is therefore to chasten them�that
they may be brought to desire sanctification�that the Lord permits Satan to
inflict sickness upon them and by it keep them chained and prisoners (Luke
13:11, 16). God chastens us �for our profit, that we may be partakers of his
holiness,� and that we may be sanctified, �meet for the Master�s use� (Heb.
12:10, R.V.; II Tim. 2: 21). The discipline which
inflicts the sickness brings great blessings with it. It is a call to the sick
one to reflect; it leads him to see that God is occupied with him, and seeks to
show him what there is which still separates him from Himself. God speaks to him, He calls him to examine his ways, to acknowledge that
he has lacked holiness, and that the purpose of the chastisement is to make him
partaker of His holiness. He awakens within him the desire to be enlightened by
the Holy Spirit down into the inmost recesses of his heart, that he may be
enabled to get a clear idea of what his life has been up to the present time, a
life of self-will, very unlike the holy life which God requires of him. He
leads him to confess his sins, to entrust them to the Lord Jesus, to believe
that the Savior can deliver him from them. He urges
him to yield to Him, to consecrate his life to Him, to die to himself that he
may be able to live unto God. Sanctification is not
something which you can accomplish yourself; it cannot even be produced by God
in you as something which you can possess and contemplate in yourself. No, it
is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of holiness alone who can communicate His
holiness to you and renew it continually. Therefore it
is by faith you can become �partakers of his holiness.� Having understood that
Jesus has been made unto you of God sanctification (I Cor.
1:30), and that it is the Holy Spirit�s work to impart to you His holiness
which was manifested in His life on earth, surrender yourself to Him by faith
that He may enable you to live that life from hour to hour. Believe that the
Lord will by His Spirit lead you into, and keep you in this life of holiness and
of consecration to God�s service. Live thus in the obedience of faith, always
attentive to His voice, and the guidance of His Spirit. From the time that this
Fatherly discipline has led the sick one to a life of holiness, God has
attained His purpose, and He will heal him who asks it in faith. Our earthly
parents �for a few days chastened us.... All chastening seemeth
for the present to be not joyous, but grievous: yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised
thereby, even the fruit of righteousness� (Heb. 12:10, 11, R.V.).
Yes, it is when the believer realizes this peaceable fruit of righteousness
that he is in a condition to be delivered from the chastisement. Oh, it is because
believers still understand so little that sanctification means an entire
consecration to God that they cannot really believe that healing will quickly
follow the sanctification of the sick one. Good health is too often for them
only a matter of personal comfort and enjoyment which they may dispose of at
their will, but God cannot thus minister to their selfishness. If they
understood better that God requires of His children that they should be
�sanctified and meet for the Master�s use,� they would not be surprised to see
Him giving healing and renewed strength to those who have learned to place all
their members at His disposal, willing to be sanctified and employed in His
service by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of healing is also the Spirit of
sanctification. CHAPTER 13 Sickness and Death Psalm 91:3, 6, 16; Psalm 92:14 This objection is often made to the words of the apostle
James, �The prayer of faith shall save the sick�: If we have the promise of
being always healed in answer to prayer, how can it be possible to die? And
some add: How can a sick person know whether God, who fixes the time of our
life, has not decided that we shall die by such a sickness? In such a case,
would not prayer be useless, and would it not be a sin to ask for healing? Before replying, we
would remark that this objection touches not such as believe in Jesus as the
Healer of the sick, but the Word of God itself, and the promise so clearly
declared in the epistle of James and elsewhere. We are not at liberty to change
or to limit the promises of God whenever they present some difficulty to us;
neither can we insist that they shall be clearly explained to us before we can
bring ourselves to believe what they state. It is for us to begin by receiving
them without resistance; then only can the Spirit of God find us in the state
of mind in which we can be taught and enlightened. Furthermore, we would
remark that in considering a divine truth which has been for a long time
neglected in the Church, it can hardly be understood at the outset. It is only
little by little that its importance and bearing are discerned. In measure as
it revives, after it has been accepted by faith, the Holy Spirit will accompany
it with new light. Let us remember that it is by the unbelief of the Church
that divine healing has left her. It is not on the answers of such or such a
one that faith in Bible truths should be made to depend. �There arises light in
the darkness� (Ps. 112: 4) for the �upright� who are
ready to submit themselves to the Word of God. To the first objection
it is easy to reply. Scripture fixes seventy or eighty years as the ordinary
measure of human life. The believer who receives Jesus as the Healer of the
sick will rest satisfied then with the declaration of the Word of God. He will
feel at liberty to expect a life of seventy years, but not longer. Besides, the
man of faith places himself under the direction of the Spirit, which will
enable him to discern the will of God if something should prevent his attaining
the age of seventy. Every rule has its exceptions, in the things of heaven as
in the things of earth. Of this, therefore, we are sure according to the Word
of God, whether by the words of Jesus or by those of James,
that our heavenly Father wills, as a rule, to see His children in good
health that they may labor in His service. For the same reason He
wills to set them free from sickness as soon as they have made confession of
sin and prayed with faith for their healing. For the believer who has walked
with his Savior, strong with the strength which
proceeds from divine healing, and whose body is consequently under the
influence of the Holy Spirit, it is not necessary that when his time comes to
die, he should die of sickness. To �fall asleep in Jesus Christ,� such is the
death of the believer when the end of his life is come. For him death is only
sleep after fatigue, the entering into rest. The promise, �That it may be well
with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth�
(Eph. 6: 3), is addressed to us who live under the New Covenant. The more the
believer has learned to see in the Savior Him who
�took our infirmities� the more he has the liberty to claim the literal fulfillment of the promises: �With long life will I satisfy
him�; �They shall bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and
flourishing.� The same text applies to
the second objection. The sick one sees in God�s Word that it is His will to
heal His children after the confession of their sins, and in answer to the
prayer of faith. It does not follow that they shall be exempt from other
trials; but as for sickness, they are healed of it because it attacks the body,
which is become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. The sick one should then
desire healing that the power of God may be made manifest in him, and that he
may serve Him in accomplishing His will. In this he clings to the revealed will
of God, and for that which is not revealed he knows that God will make known
His mind to His servants who walk with Him. We would insist here that faith is
not a logical reasoning which ought in some way to oblige God to act according
to His promises. It is rather the confiding attitude of the child who honors his Father, who counts upon His love to see Him
fulfilling His promises, and who knows that He is faithful to communicate to
the body as well as to the soul the new strength which flows from the
redemption, until the moment of departure is come. CHAPTER 14 The Holy Spirit the
Spirit of Healing I Corinthians 12:4, 9,
11 What is it that
distinguishes the children of God? What is their glory? It is that God dwells
in the midst of them and reveals Himself to them in power (Ex. 33: 16; 34:9,
10). Under the New Covenant this dwelling of God in the believer is still more
manifest than in former times. God sends the Holy Spirit to His Church, which
is the Body of Christ, to act in her with power, and her life and her
prosperity depend on Him. The Spirit must find in her unreserved, full liberty,
that she may be recognized as the The Spirit operates
variously in such or such a member of the Church. It is possible to be filled
with the Spirit for one special work and not for another. There are also times
in the history of the Church when certain gifts of the Spirit are given with
power, while at the same time ignorance or unbelief may hinder other gifts.
Wherever the life more abundant of the Spirit is to be found, we may expect Him
to manifest all His gifts. The gift of healing is
one of the most beautiful manifestations of the Spirit. It is recorded of
Jesus, �how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth... who went about doing good, and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil� (Acts 10: 38). The Holy Spirit in
Him was a healing Spirit, and He was the same in the disciples after Pentecost.
Thus the words of our text express what was the continuous experience of the
early Church (compare attentively Acts 3: 7; 4:30; 5:12,15, 16; 6:8; 8:7; 9:41;
14:9, 10; 16:18, 19; 19:12; 28: 8, 9). The abundant pouring out of the Spirit
produced abundant healings. What a lesson for the Church in our days! Divine healing is the
work of the Holy Spirit. Christ�s redemption extends it~ powerful working to
the body, and the Holy Spirit is responsible both to
transmit it to and maintain it in us. Our body shares in the benefit of the
redemption, and even now it can receive the pledge of it by divine healing. It
is Jesus who heals, Jesus who anoints and baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Jesus,
who baptized His disciples with the same Spirit, is He who sends us the Holy
Spirit here on earth�either to keep sickness away from us, or to restore us to
health when sickness has taken hold upon us. Divine healing
accompanies the sanctification by the Spirit. It is to make us holy that the
Holy Spirit makes us partakers of Christ�s redemption. Hence
His name �Holy.� Therefore the healing which He works is an intrinsic
part of His divine mission, and He bestows it either to lead the sick one to be
converted and to believe (Acts 4: 29, 30; 5:12, 14; 6: 7, 8; 8: 6�8) or to
confirm his faith if he is already converted, He constrains him thus to
renounce sin, and to consecrate himself entirely to God and to His service (I Cor. 10:31; James 5:15, 16; Heb. 12:10). Divine healing tends to
glorify Jesus. It is God�s will that His Son should be glorified, and the Holy
Spirit does this when He comes to show us what the redemption of Christ does
for us. The redemption of the mortal body appears almost more marvelous than that of the immortal soul. In these two ways
God wills to dwell in us through Christ, and thus to triumph over the flesh. As
soon as our body becomes the Divine healing takes
place wherever the Spirit of God works in power. Proofs of this are to be found
in the lives of the Reformers, and in those of certain
Moravians in their best times. But there are yet other promises touching the
pouring out of the Holy Spirit which have not been fulfilled up to this time.
Let us live in a holy expectation, praying the Lord to accomplish them in us. CHAPTER 15 Persevering Prayer Luke 18:1�8 The necessity of praying
with perseverance is the secret of all spiritual life. What a blessing to be
able to ask the Lord for such and such a grace until He gives it, knowing with
certainty that it is His will to answer prayer, but what a mystery for us in
the call to persevere in prayer, to knock in faith at His door, to remind Him
of His promises, and to do so without wearying until He arises and grants us
our petition! Is not the assurance that our prayer can obtain from the Lord
that which He would not otherwise give the evident proof that man has been
created in the image of God, that he is His friend, that he is His fellow
worker, and that the believers who together form the Body of Christ participate
in this manner in His intercessory work? It is to Christ�s intercession that
the Father responds, and to which He grants His divine favors. More than once the Bible
explains to us the need for persevering prayer. There are many grounds, the
chief of which is the justice of God. God has declared that sin must bear its
consequences; sin therefore has rights over a world which welcomes and remains
enslaved by it. When the child of God seeks to quit this order of things, it is
necessary that the justice of God should consent to this; time therefore is
needed that the privileges which Christ has procured for the believers should
weigh before God�s tribunal. Besides this, the opposition of Satan, who always
seeks to prevent the answer to prayer, is a reason for it (Dan. 10:12, 13). The
only means by which this unseen enemy can be conquered is faith. Standing
firmly on the promises of God, faith refuses to yield, and continues to pray
and wait for the answer, even when it is delayed, knowing that the victory is
sure (Eph. 6:12�18). Finally, perseverance in
prayer is needful for ourselves. Delay in the answer
is intended to prove and strengthen our faith; it ought to develop in us the
steadfast will which will no longer let go the promises of God, but which
renounces its own side of things to trust in God alone. It is then that God,
seeing our faith, finds us ready to receive His favor
and grants it to us. He will avenge speedily, even though He tarry. Yes,
notwithstanding all the needful delays, He will not make us wait a moment too
long. If we cry unto Hun day and night, He will avenge us speedily. This perseverance in
prayer will become easy to us as soon as we fully understand what faith is.
Jesus teaches us in these words, �All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,
believing, ye shall receive� (Matt. 21:22). When the Word of God authorizes us
to ask anything, we ought at once to believe that we receive it. God gives it
to us; this we know by faith, and we can say between God and us that we have
received it, although it might be only later that we are permitted to realize
the effects here on earth. It is before having seen or experienced anything
whatsoever that faith rejoices in having received, perseveres in praying, and
waits until the answer is manifest. But even after having believed that we are
heard, it is good to persevere until it has become an accomplished fact. This is of great
importance in obtaining divine healing. Sometimes, it is true, the healing is
immediate and complete; but it may happen that we have to wait, even when a
sick person has been able to ask for it in faith. Sometimes also the first
symptoms of healing are immediately manifest; but afterwards the progress is
slow, and interrupted by times when it is arrested or when the evil returns. In
such cases it is important for both the sick person and those who pray with him
to believe in the efficacy of persevering prayer, even though they may not understand
the mystery of it. That which God appears at first to refuse, He grants later
to the prayer of the Canaanitish woman, to the prayer
of the �widow,� to that of the friend who knocks at midnight (Matt. 15:22; Luke
18: 3; 11: 5). Without regarding either change or answer, the faith which is
grounded on the Word of God, and which continues to pray with importunity, ends
by gaining the victory. �Shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and
night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell
you he will avenge them speedily.� God knows how to delay all the time which is
necessary, and nevertheless to act speedily without
waiting more than is needful. The same two things should belong to our faith.
Let us lay hold with a holy promptitude of the grace which is promised us, as
if we had already received it; let us await with untiring patience the answer
which is slow to come. Such faith belongs to living in Him. It is in order to
produce in us this faith that sickness is sent to us, and that the healing is
granted to us, for such faith above all glorifies God. CHAPTER 16 Let Him That Is Healed
Glorify God It is a prevalent idea that piety is easier in sickness than
in health; that silence and suffering incline the soul to seek the Lord and
enter into communion with Him better than the distractions of active life;
that, in fact, sickness throws us more upon God. For these reasons sick people
hesitate to ask for healing from the Lord; for they say to themselves, �How can
we know whether sickness may not be better for us than health?� To think thus
is to ignore that the healing and its fruits are divine. Let us. try to
understand that though a healing through ordinary means may at times run the
risk of making God relax His hand, divine healing, on the contrary, binds us
more closely to Him. Thus it comes to pass that in our day, as in the time of
the early ministry of Jesus Christ, the believer who has been healed by Him can
glorify Him far better than the one who remains sick. Sickness can only glorify
God in the measure in which it gives occasion to manifest His power (John 9:3;
11:4). The sufferer
who is led by his sufferings to give glory to God, does it, so to speak, by
constraint. If he had health and liberty to choose, it is quite possible that
his heart would turn back to the world. In such a case the Lord must keep him
on one side; his piety depends on his sickly condition. This
is why the world supposes that religion is hardly efficacious anywhere but in
sick chambers or death beds, and for such as have no need to enter into
the noise and stir of ordinary life. In order that the world may be convinced
of the power of religion against temptation, it must see the believer who is in
good health walking in calmness and holiness even in the midst of work and of
active life. Doubtless very many sick people have glorified God by their
patience in suffering, but He can be still more glorified by a health which He
has sanctified. �Why then,� we are
asked, �should those who have been healed in answer to the prayer of faith
glorify the Lord more than such as have been healed through earthly remedies?�
Here is the reason. Healing by means of remedies shows us the power of God in
nature; but it does not bring us into living and direct contact with Him; while
divine healing is an act proceeding from God, without anything but the Holy
Spirit. In this latter, contact
with God is the thing which is essential, and it is for this reason that examination
of the conscience and the confession of sins should be the preparation for it
(I Cor. 11: 30�32; .James 5:15, 16). One who is so
healed is called to consecrate himself quite anew and entirely to the Lord (I Cor. 6:13, 19). All this depends upon the act of faith
which lays hold of the Lord�s promise, which yields to Him, and which does not
doubt that the Lord at once takes possession of what is consecrated to Him.
This is why the continuance of health received depends on the holiness of the
life, and the obedience in seeking always the good pleasure of the divine
Healer (Ex. 15:26). Health obtained under
such conditions ensures spiritual blessings. The mere restoration to health by
ordinary means does not. When the Lord heals the body it is that He may take
possession of it and make it a temple that He may dwell in. The joy which then
fills the soul is indescribable. It is not only the joy of being healed; it is
joy mingled with humility, and a holy enthusiasm which recognizes the touch of
the Lord and receives a new life from Him. In the exuberance of his joy the
healed one exalts the Lord, he glorifies Him by word and deed, and all his life
is consecrated to his God. It is evident that these
fruits of healing are not the same for all, and that sometimes there are steps
made backwards. The life of the healed one has a solidarity
with the life of believers around him. Their doubts and their inconsistencies
may in time tend to make his steps totter, although this generally results in a
new beginning. Each day he discovers and recognizes afresh that his life is the
Lord�s life; he enters into a more intimate and more joyous communion with Him;
he learns to live in habitual dependence upon Jesus, and receives from Him that
strength which results from a more complete consecration. Oh, what may not the
Church become when she lives in this faith, when every sick person shall
recognize in sickness a call to be holy, and to expect from the Lord a
manifestation of His presence, when healings shall be multiplied, producing in
each a witness of the power of God, all ready to cry with the Psalmist, �Bless
the Lord, 0 my soul.... Who healeth all thy diseases.� CHAPTER 17 The Need for a
Manifestation of God�s Power Acts 4:29�3 1 Is it permissible to
pray in this way now, to ask he Lord, �Grant unto thy servants to speak thy
word with all boldness while thou stretchest forth
thy hand to heal� (R.V.)? Let us look into this
question. Does not the Word of God
meet with as many difficulties in our days as then, and are not the needs now
equally pressing? Let us picture to ourselves the apostles in the midst of Is not the help of God
as necessary now as then? The apostles knew well that it was not the eloquence
of their preaching which caused the truth to triumph, but they knew the
necessity for the Holy Spirit to manifest His presence by miracles. It was
needful that the living God should stretch forth His hand, that there might be
healings, miracles, and signs in the name of His holy Son Jesus. It was only
thus that His servants rejoiced, and, strengthened by His presence, could speak
His Word with boldness and teach the world to fear His
name. Do not the divine
promises concern us also? The apostles counted on these words of the Lord
before He ascended, �Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature.., and these signs shall follow them which
believe.., they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover� (Mark
16:15, 17, 18). This charge indicates the divine vocation of the Church; the
promise which follows it shows us what is her armor, and proves to us that the Lord acts in concert with
her. It was because the apostles counted on this promise that they prayed the
Lord to grant them this proof of His presence. They had been filled with the
Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost, but they still needed the supernatural
signs which His power works. The same promise is as much for us, for the
command to preach the Gospel cannot be severed from the promise of divine
healing with which it is accompanied. It is nowhere to be found in the Bible
that this promise was not for future times. In all ages God�s people greatly
need to know that the Lord is with them, and to possess the irrefutable proof
of it. Therefore this promise is for us; let us pray for its fulfillment. Ought we to reckon on
the same grace? We read in the Acts when the apostles had prayed, �they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word
of God with boldness.� �And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and
w6nders wrought among the people... and believers were the more added to the
Lord, multitudes both of men and women� (Acts 4:31; 5:12�15). Oh, what joy and
what new strength would God�s people receive today if anew the Lord should thus
stretch forth His hand! How many wearied and discouraged laborers
grieve that they do not see more results, more blessings on their labors! What life would come into their faith if signs of
this kind should arise to prove to them that God is with them! Many who are
indifferent would be led to reflect, more than one doubter would regain
confidence, and all unbelievers would be reduced to silence. And the poor
heathen! How he would awake if he saw by facts that which words had not enabled
him to lay hold of, if he were forced to acknowledge that the Christian�s God
is the living God who doeth wonders, the God of love who blesses! Awake, awake, put on thy
strength, �Awake, awake, put on strength, 0 arm of the Lord. Awake
as in the ancient days� (Isa.
51:9). CHAPTER 18 Sin and Sickness �The prayer of faith
shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess
your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed�
(James 5:15, 16). Here, as in other
Scriptures, the pardon of sins and the healing of sickness are closely united.
James declares that pardon of sins will be granted with the healing; and for
this reason he desires to see confession of sin accompany the prayer which
claims healing. We know that confession of sin is indispensable to obtain from
God the pardon of sin: it is not less so to obtain healing. Un- confessed sin
presents an obstacle to the prayer of faith; in any case, the sickness may soon
reappear, and for this reason. The first care of a physician,
when he is called to treat a patient, is to diagnose the cause of the disease.
If he succeeds he stands a better chance to combat it. Our God also goes back
to the primary cause of all sickness�that is, sin. It is our part to confess
and God�s to grant the pardon which removes this first cause, so that healing
can take place. In seeking for healing by means of earthly remedies, the first
thing to do is to find a clever physician, and then to follow his prescriptions
exactly; but in having recourse to the prayer of faith, it is needful to fix
our eyes, above all, upon the Lord, and to ascertain how we stand with Him.
James therefore points out to us a condition which is essential to the recovery
of our health; namely, that we confess and forsake sin. Sickness is a
consequence of sin. It is because of sin that God permits it; it is in order to
show us our faults, to chasten us, and purify us from them. Sickness is
therefore a visible sign of God�s judgment upon sin. It is not that the one who
is sick is necessarily a greater sinner than another who is in health. On the
contrary, it is often the most holy among the children of God whom He chastens,
as we see from the example of Job. Neither is it always to check some fault
which we can easily determine: it is especially to draw the attention of the
sick one to that which remains in him of the egotism of the �old man� and of
all which hinders him from a life entirely consecrated to his God. The first
step which the sick one has to take in the path of divine healing will be
therefore to let the Holy Spirit of God probe his heart and convince him of
sin. After which will come, also, humiliation, decision to
break with sin, and confession. To confess our sins is to lay them down
before God as in Achan�s case (Josh. 7:23), to
subject them to His judgment, with the fixed purpose to fall into them no more.
A sincere confession will be followed by a new assurance of pardon. �If he has committed
sins they shall be forgiven him.� When we have confessed our sins, we must
receive also the promised pardon, believing that God gives it in very deed.
Faith in God�s pardon is often vague in the child of God. Either he is
uncertain, or he returns to old impressions, to the time when he first received
pardon; but the pardon which he now receives with confidence, in answer to the
prayer of faith, will bring him new life and strength. The soul then rests
under the efficacy of the blood of Christ, receives from the Holy Spirit the
certainty of the pardon of sin, and that therefore nothing remains to hinder
the Savior from filling him with His love and with
His grace. God�s pardon brings with it a divine life which acts powerfully upon
him who receives it. When the soul has
consented to make a sincere confession and has obtained pardon, it is ready to
lay hold of the promise of God; it is no longer difficult to believe that the
Lord will raise up His sick one. It is when we keep
far from God that it is difficult to believe; confession and pardon bring us
quite near to Him. As soon as the cause of the sickness has been removed, the
sickness itself can be arrested. Now it is easy for the sick one to believe
that if the Lord necessarily subjected the body to the chastisement of the sins
committed, He also wills that, the sin being pardoned, this same body should
receive the grace which manifests His love. His presence is revealed, a ray of
life, of His divine life, comes to quicken the body, and the sick one proves
that as soon as he is no longer separated from the Lord, the prayer of faith
does save the sick. CHAPTER 19 Jesus Bore Our Sickness �Surely he hath borne
our sicknesses and carried our sorrows.... My righteous servant shall justify
many; for he shall bear their iniquities... . He shall
divide the spoil with the strong, because. . . he bare
the sin of many� (Isa. 53:4, 11, 12, R.V.). Do you know this
beautiful chapter, the fifty-third of Isaiah, which has been called the fifth
Gospel? In the light of the Spirit of God, Isaiah describes beforehand the
sufferings of the Lamb of God, as well as the divine graces which would result
from them. The _expression �to
bear� could not but appear in this prophecy. It is, in fact, the word which
must accompany the mention of sin, whether as committed directly by the sinner,
or whether as transmitted to a substitute. The transgressor, the priest, and
the expiatory victim must all bear the sin. In the same way, it is because the
Lamb of God has borne our sins that God smote Him for the iniquity of us all.
Sin was not found in Him, but it was put upon Him; He took it voluntarily upon
Him. And it is because He bore it�and that, in bearing it, He put an end to
it�that He has the power to save us. �My righteous servant shall justify many;
for he shall bear their iniquities . . . he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because . . . he bare the sin of many� (Isa. 53:11, 12). It is, therefore, because our sins have
been borne by Jesus Christ that we are delivered from them as soon as we
believe this truth; consequently we need no longer bear them ourselves. In this same chapter
(Isaiah 53) the _expression �to bear� occurs twice, but in relation to two
different things. It is said not only that the Lord�s righteous Servant has
borne our sins (vs. 12), but also that He has borne our sicknesses (vs. 4, R.V., margin). Thus His bearing our sicknesses forms an
integral part of the Redeemer�s work as well as bearing our sins. Although Himself without sin He has borne our sins, and He has done
as much for our sicknesses. The human nature of Jesus could not be
touched by sickness because it remained holy. We never find in the account of
His life any mention of sickness. Participating in all the weaknesses of our
human nature, hunger, thirst, fatigue and sleep, because all these things are
not the consequence of sin, He still had no trace of sickness. As He was
without sin, sickness had no hold on Him, and He could die only a violent death
and that by His voluntary consent. Thus it is not in Him but on Him that we see
sickness as well as sin; He took them upon Him and bore them of His own free
will. In bearing them and taking them upon Him, He has by this very fact
triumphed over them, and has acquired the right of delivering His children from
them. Sin had attacked and
ruined equally the soul and the body. Jesus came to save both. Having taken
upon Him sickness as well as sin, He is in a position to set us free from the
one as well as the other, and that He may accomplish this double deliverance He
expects from us only one thing: our faith. As soon as a sick
believer understands the purport of the words, �Jesus has borne my sins,� he
does not fear to say also: �I need no longer bear my sins,
they are upon me no longer.� In the same way as soon as he has fully taken in
and believed for himself that Jesus has borne our sicknesses, he does not fear
to say: �I need no longer bear my sickness; Jesus in bearing sin bore also
sickness which is its consequence; for both He has made propitiation, and He
delivers me from both.� I have myself witnessed
the blessed influence which this truth exercised one day upon a sick woman. For
seven years she had been almost continually bedfast. A sufferer from
tuberculosis, epilepsy, and other sicknesses, she had been assured that no hope
of cure remained for her. She was carried into the room where the late Mr. W.
E. Boardman was holding a Sunday evening service for the sick, and was laid in
a half-fainting condition on the sofa. She was too little conscious to remember
anything of what took place until she heard the words, �Himself took our
infirmities and bare our sicknesses� (Matt. 8:17), and then she seemed to hear
the words, �If He has borne your sicknesses, why then bear them yourself? Get
up.� But she thought�if I attempt to get up, and fall upon the ground, what
will they think of me? But the inward voice began again: �If He has borne my
sins, why should I have to bear them?� To the astonishment of all who were
present, she arose, and, although still feeble, sat down in a chair by the
table. From that moment her healing made rapid progress. At the end of a few
weeks she had no longer the appearance of an invalid, and later on her strength
was such that she could spend many hours a day in visiting the poor. With what
joy and love she could then speak of Him who was �the strength of her life�
(Ps. 27:1). She had believed that Jesus had borne her sicknesses as well as her
sins, and her faith was not put to confusion. It is thus that Jesus reveals
Himself as a perfect Savior to all those who will
trust themselves unreservedly to Him. CHAPTER 20 Is Sickness a
Chastisement? �For this cause many
among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned
ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of
the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world� (I Cor.
11:30�32, R.V.). In writing to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul must needs reprove them for the manner in which they
observed the Lord�s Supper, drawing upon themselves the chastisements of God.
Here, therefore, we see sickness as a judgment of God, a chastisement for sin.
Paul sees it to be a real chastisement since he afterwards says: �chastened by
the Lord,� and he adds that it is in order to hinder them from falling yet
deeper into sin, to prevent them from being �condemned with the world,� that
they are thus afflicted. He warns them that if they would be neither judged nor
chastened by the Lord, that if by such examination they discovered the cause of
the sickness and condemned their sins, the Lord would no longer need to
exercise severity. Is it not evident that here sickness is a judgment of God, a
chastisement of sin, and that we may avoid it in examining and condemning
ourselves? Yes, sickness is, more
often than we believe it, a judgment, a chastisement
for sin. God �doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men� (Lam.
3:33). It is not without a cause that He deprives us of health. Perhaps it may
be to render us attentive to some sin which we can recognize: �Sin no more,
lest a worse thing come unto thee� (John 5:14); perhaps because God�s child has
become entangled in pride and worldliness; or it may be that self-confidence or
caprice have been mixed with his service for God. It
is again quite possible that the chastisement may not be directed against any
particular sin, but that it may be the result of the preponderance of sin which
weighs upon the entire human race. When (John 9:3), in the case of the man born
blind, the disciples asked the Lord, �Who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?� and He answered, �Neither hath this man sinned nor his
parents,� He does not by any means say that there is no relation between sin
and sickness, but He teaches us not to accuse every sick person of sin. In any case, sickness is always a discipline which ought to
awaken our attention to sin, and turn us from it. Therefore a sick person
should begin by condemning, or discerning himself (I Cor.
11:31), by placing himself before his heavenly Father
with a sincere desire to see anything which could have grieved Him, or could
have rendered the chastisement necessary. So doing he may count assuredly on
the Holy Spirit�s light, who will clearly show him his
failure. Let him be ready at once to renounce what he may discern, and to place
himself at the Lord�s disposal to serve Him with perfect obedience, but let him
not imagine that he can conquer sin by his own efforts. No, that is impossible
to him. But let him, with all his power of will, be on God�s side in renouncing
what is sin in His sight, and let him believe that he is accepted of Him. So
doing he will be yielding himself, consecrating himself anew to God, willing to
do only His holy will in all things. Scripture assures us
that if we thus examine ourselves the Lord will not judge us. Our Father only
chastens His child as far as needful. God seeks to deliver us from sin and
self; as soon as we understand Him and break with these, sickness may cease; it
has done its work. We must come to see what the sickness means, and recognize
in it the discipline of God. One may recognize vaguely that he commits sins
while scarcely attempting to define what they are; or if he does, he may not
believe it is possible to give them up; and if he decides to renounce them, he
may fail to count on God that He will put an end to the chastisement. And yet,
how glorious is the assurance which Paul�s words here give us! Dear sick one, dost thou
understand that thy heavenly Father has something to reprove in thee? He would
have thy sickness help thee to discover it, and the Holy Spirit will guide thee
in the search. Then renounce at once what He may point out to thee. Thou
wouldst not have the smallest shade remain between thy Father and thee. It is
His will to pardon thy sin and to heal thy sickness. In Jesus we have both
pardon and healing; they are two sides of His redemptive work. He calls thee to
live a life of dependence upon Him in a greater degree than hitherto. Abandon thyself then to Him in a complete obedience, and walk
henceforth as a little child in following His steps. It is with joy that thy
heavenly Father will deliver thee from chastisement, that He will reveal
Himself to thee as thy Healer, that He will bring thee
nearer to Him by this new tie of His love, that He will make thee obedient and
faithful in serving Him. If, as a wise and faithful Father, He has been obliged
to chasten thee, it is also as a Father that He wills thy healing, and that He
desires to bless and keep thee henceforth. CHAPTER 21 God�s Prescription for
the Sick �Is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall
save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven him� (James 5:14, 15). This text, above all
others, is that which most clearly declares to the sick what they have to do in
order to be healed. Sickness and its consequences abound in the world. What
joy, then, for the believer to learn from the Word of God the way of healing
for the sick! The Bible teaches us that it is the will of God to see His
children in good health. The Apostle James has no hesitation in saying that
�the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.� May
the Lord teach us to hearken and to receive with simplicity what His Word tells
us! Notice, first, that
James here makes a distinction between affliction (or
suffering) and sickness. He says (vs. 13): �Is any among you afflicted? let him pray� (R.V.). He does not
specify what shall be requested in such a case; still less does he say that
deliverance from suffering shall be asked. No; suffering which may arise from
various exterior causes is the portion of every Christian. Let us therefore
understand that the object of James is to lead the tried believer to ask for
deliverance only with a spirit of submission to the will of God, and, above
all, to ask the patience which he considers to be the privilege of the believer
(James 1: 2�4, 12; 5: 7, 8). But in dealing with the
words, �Is any sick among you?� James replies in quite another manner. Now he
says with assurance that the sick one may ask for healing with confidence that
he shall obtain it, and the Lord will hear him. There is therefore a great difference
between suffering and sickness. The Lord Jesus spoke of suffering as being
necessary, as being willed and blessed of God; while He says of sickness that
it ought to be cured. All other suffering comes to us from without, and will
only cease when Jesus shall triumph over the sin and evil which are in the
world; while sickness is an evil in the body itself, in this body saved by
Christ that it may become the temple of the Holy Spirit, and which,
consequently, ought to be healed as soon as the sick believer receives by faith
the working of the Holy Spirit, the very life of Jesus in him. What is the direction here given to the sick? Let him call
for the elders of the church, and let the elders pray for him. In the time of
James there were physicians, but it is not to them the sick believer must turn.
The elders then were the pastors and leaders of the churches, called to the
ministry not because they had passed through schools of theology, but because
they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and well known for their piety and for
their faith. Why should their presence be needed by the sick one? Could not his
friends have prayed? Yes; but it is not so easy for everybody to exercise the
faith which obtains healing, and, doubtless, that is one reason why James
desired that men should be called whose faith was firm and sure. Besides this,
they were representatives to the sick one of the Church, the collective body of
Christ, for it is the communion of believers which invites the Spirit to act
with power. In short, they should, after the pattern of the great Shepherd of
the sheep, care for the flock as He does, identify themselves
with the sick one, understand his trouble, receive from God the necessary
discernment to instruct him and encourage him to persevere in faith. It is,
then, to the elders of the Church that the healing of the sick is committed,
and it is they, the servants of the God who pardons iniquities and heals
diseases (Ps. 103), who are called to transmit to others the Lord�s graces for
soul and body. Finally, there is a promise still more direct� that of
healing; the apostle speaks of it as the certain consequence of the prayer of
faith. �The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him
up.� This promise ought to stimulate in every believer the desire and
expectation of healing. Receiving these words with simplicity and as they are
written, ought we not to see in them an unlimited promise,
offering healing to whomsoever shall pray in faith? The Lord teach
us to study His Word with the faith of a truly believing heart! CHAPTER 22 The Lord That Healeth Thee �I will put none of
these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the
Lord that healeth thee� (Ex. 15:26). How often have we read these words, without daring to take
them for ourselves, and without expectation that the Lord would fulfill them to us! We have seen in them that the people of
God ought to be exempt from the diseases inflicted upon the Egyptians, and we
have believed that this promise applied only to the Old Testament, and that we
who live under the economy of the New Testament cannot expect to be kept from
or healed of sickness by the direct intervention of the Lord! As, however, we
were obliged to recognize the superiority of the New Covenant, we have come, in
our ignorance, to allege that sickness often brings great blessings, and that
consequently God had done well to withdraw what He had formerly promised, and
to be no longer for us what He was for Israel, �The Lord that healeth thee.� But in our day we see
the Church awakening and acknowledging her mistake. She sees that it is under
the New Covenant that the Lord Jesus passed on His power of healing to His
disciples. She is beginning to see that in charging His Church to preach the
Gospel to every creature, He has promised to be with her �always, even unto the
end of the world� (Matt. 28:20), and as the proof of His presence, His
disciples should have the power to lay hands on the sick, and they should be
healed (Mark 16:15�18). She sees, moreover, that in the days following
Pentecost, the miraculous pouring out of the Holy Spirit was accompanied by
miraculous healings, which were evident proof of the blessings brought about by
the power from on high (Acts 3:16; 5:12; 9:40). There is nothing in the Bible
to make her believe that the promise made to Israel has been since retracted,
and she hears from the mouth of the Apostle James this new promise: �The prayer of faith
shall save [or heal] the sick� (James 5:15). She knows that at all times it has
been unbelief which has limited (or set bounds to) the Holy One of Israel (Ps.
78:41), and she asks herself if it is not unbelief which hinders in these days this
manifestation of the power of God. Who can doubt it? It is not God or His Word
which are to blame here; it is our unbelief which prevents the miraculous power
of the Lord, and which holds Him back from healing as in past times. Let our
faith awake, let it recognize and adore in Christ the all-power of Him who
says, �I am the Lord which healeth thee.� It is by
the works of God that we can best understand what His Word tells us; the
healings which again are responding to the prayer of faith confirm, by gloriously
illustrating, the truth of His promise. Let us learn to see in
the risen Jesus the divine Healer, and let us receive Him as such. In order
that I may recognize in Jesus my justification, my strength, and my wisdom, I
must grasp by faith that He is really all this to me; and equally when the
Bible tells me that Jesus is the sovereign Healer, I must myself appropriate
this truth, and say, �Yes, Lord, it is Thou who art my Healer.� And why may I
hold Him as such? It is because He gives Himself to me, that I am �one plant
with him� (Rom. 6:5, French ver.), and that,
inseparably united to Him, I thus possess His healing power; it is because His
love is pleased to load His beloved with His favors,
to communicate Himself with all His heart to all who desire to receive Him. Let
us believe that He is ready to extend the treasure of blessing, contained in
the name, �The Lord that healeth thee,� to all who
know and who can trust in this divine name. This is the treatment for the sick
indicated by the law of His kingdom. When I bring my sickness to the Lord, I do
not depend on what I see, on what I feel or what I think, but on what He says.
Even when everything appears contrary to the expected healing, even if it
should not take place at the time or in the way that I had thought I should
receive it, even when the symptoms seem only to be aggravated, my faith,
strengthened by the very waiting, should cling immovably to this word which has
gone out of the mouth of God, �I am the Lord that healeth
thee.� God is ever seeking to make us true believers. Healing and health are of
little value if they do not glorify God, and serve to unite us more closely
with Him; thus in the matter of healing our faith must always be put to the
proof. He who counts on the name of his God, who can hear Jesus saying to him,
�Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe
thou shouldest see the glory of God?� (John 11:40),
will have the joy of receiving from God Himself the healing of the body, and of
seeing it take place in a manner worthy of God, and conformably to His
promises. When we read these words, �I am the Lord that healeth
thee,� let us not fear to answer eagerly, �Yes, Lord,
Thou art the Lord that healeth me.� CHAPTER 23 Jesus Heals the Sick �He healed all that were
sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias
the prophet, saying: Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses�
(Matt. 8:16, 17). In a preceding chapter we have studied the words of the
prophet Isaiah. If the reader has still any doubt as to the interpretation of
it which has been given, we remind him of that which the Holy Spirit caused the
evangelist St. Matthew to write about it. It is expressly said regarding all
the sick ones whom Jesus healed, �That it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by Esaias the prophet.� It was because Jesus had
taken on Him our sicknesses that He could, that He ought to heal them. If He
had not done so, one part of His work of redemption would have remained
powerless and fruitless. This text of the Word of
God is not generally understood in this way. It is the generally accepted view
that the miraculous healings done by the Lord Jesus are to be looked upon only
as the proof of His mercy, or as being the symbol of
spiritual graces. They are not seen to be a necessary consequence of
redemption, although that is what the Bible declares. The body and the soul
have been created to serve together as a habitation of God; the sickly
condition of the body is, as well as that of the soul, a consequence of sin,
and that is what Jesus came to bear, to expiate and to conquer. When the Lord Jesus was
on earth, it was not in the character of the Son of God that He cured the sick,
but as the Mediator who had taken upon Him and borne sickness, and this enables
us to understand why Jesus gave so much time to His healing work, and why also
the evangelists speak of it in a manner so detailed. Read for example what
Matthew says about it: �Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues, and preaching the good tidings of the kingdom, and healing all
manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame
went throughout all Syria; and they brought unto him all sick people that were
taken with divers diseases and torments, and those that were possessed with
devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he
healed them� (Matt. 4:23, 24). �And Jesus went about all the cities and
villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom,
and healing every sickness and every disease among the people� (Matt. 9:35).
�And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power
against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness,
and all manner of disease� (10:1). When the disciples of John the Baptist came
to ask Jesus if He were the Messiah, that He might prove it to them, He
replied: �The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the
Gospel preached to them� (11: 5). After the cure of the withered hand, and the
opposition of the Pharisees who sought to destroy Him, we read that �great
multitudes followed him, and he healed them all� (12:15). When later, the
multitude had followed Him into a desert place, it is said, �And Jesus went
forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and
he healed their sick� (14:14). Farther on: �They sent out into all that country
round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased; and besought him that
they might only touch the hem of his garment; and as many as touched were made
perfectly whole� (14: 35, 36). It is said also of the sick which were among the
multitudes that they �cast them down at Jesus� feet and he healed them,� and
Matthew adds: �Insomuch that the multitudes wondered when they saw the dumb to
speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see; and they
glorified the God of Israel� (15:30, 31). And finally when He came into the
coasts of Judea beyond Jordan, �Great multitudes followed him, and he healed
them there� (19:2). Let us add to these many
texts those which give us in detail the account of healings wrought by Jesus,
and let us ask ourselves if these healings afford us only the proof of His
power during His life here on earth, or if they are not much rather the
undoubted and continual result of His work of mercy and of love, the
manifestation of His power of redemption which delivers the soul and body from
the dominion of sin? Yes; that was in very deed the purpose of God. If, then,
Jesus bore our sicknesses as an integral part of the redemption, if He has
healed the sick �that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias,� and if His Savior-heart
is always full of mercy and of love, we can believe with certainty that to this
very day it is the will of Jesus to heal the sick in answer to the prayer of
faith. CHAPTER 24 Fervent and Effectual
Prayer �Pray for one another
that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elijah was a man of like passions (or
nature] with us and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and it rained,
not on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again; and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit� (James 5:16�18). James knew that a faith which obtains healing is not the
fruit of human nature; therefore he adds that the prayer must be �fervent.�
Only such can be efficacious. In this he stands upon the example of Elijah, a
man of the same nature (�subject to like passions�) as we are, drawing
therefore the inference that our prayer can be and ought to be of the same
nature as his. How then did Elijah pray? This will throw some light upon what
the prayer of faith should be. Elijah had received from
God the promise that rain was about to fall upon the earth (I Kings 18:1), and
he had declared this to Ahab. Strong in the promise of his God, he mounts
Carmel to pray (I Kings 18:42; James 5:18). He knows,
he believes that God�s will is to send rain, and nevertheless he must pray, or
the rain will not come. His prayer is no empty form; it is a real power, the
efficacy of which is about to make itself felt in heaven. God wills that it
shall rain, but the rain will only come at Elijah�s request, a request repeated
with faith and perseverance until the appearance of the first cloud in the sky.
In order that the will of God shall be accomplished, this will
must on one side be expressed by a promise, and on the other it must be
received and laid hold of by the believer who prays. He therefore must
persevere in prayer that he may show his God that his faith expects an answer,
and will not grow weary until it is obtained. This is how prayer must
be made for the sick. The promise of God, �The Lord will raise him up,� must be
rested on, and His will to heal recognized. Jesus Himself teaches us to pray
with faith which counts on the answer of God; He says to us: �All things
whatsoever ye pray for, and ask for, believe that ye have received them and ye
shall have them�~ (Mark 11:24, R.V.). After the
prayer of faith which receives beforehand that which God has promised, comes
the prayer of perseverance, which does not lose sight of that which has been
asked until God has fulfilled His promise (I Kings 18:43). There may be some
obstacle which hinders the fulfillment of the
promise; whether on the side of God and His righteousness (Deut. 9:18), or on
the side of Satan, and his constant opposition to the plans of God, something
which may still impede the answer to the prayer (Dan. 10:12, 13). It may be
also that our faith needs to be purified (Matt. 15:22�28). Whatever it may be,
our faith is called to persevere until the answer comes. He who prays six times
fervently and stops there, when he ought to have prayed seven times (II Kings
13:18, 19), deprives himself of the answer to his prayer. Perseverance in prayer,
a perseverance which strengthens the faith of the believer against all which
may seem opposed to the answer, is a real miracle; it is one of the
impenetrable mysteries of the life of faith. Does it not say to us that the Savior�s redeemed one is in very deed His friend, a member
of His body, and that the government of the world and the gifts of divine grace
depend in some sense upon his prayers? Prayer, therefore, is no vain form. It
is the work of the Holy Spirit, who intercedes here on earth in us and by us,
and as such, it is as efficacious, as indispensable as the work of the Son
interceding for us before the throne of God. It might seem strange that after
having prayed with the certainty of being heard, and having seen therein the
will of God, we should still need to continue in prayer. Nevertheless it is so.
In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed three times in succession. On Carmel Elijah prayed
seven times; and we, if we believe the promise of God without doubting, shall
pray until we receive the answer. Both the importunate friend at midnight and
the widow who besieged the unjust judge are examples of perseverance in seeking
the end in view. Let us learn from
Elijah�s prayer to humble ourselves, to recognize why the power of God cannot
be more manifested in the Church, whether in the healing of the sick, or in
conversion, or sanctification. �Ye have not because ye ask not� (James 4:2). Let
it also teach us patience. In the cases where healing is delayed, let us
remember that obstacles may exist over which only perseverance in prayer can
triumph. Faith which ceases to pray, or which is allowed to relax in its fervor, cannot appropriate that which God has nevertheless
given. Let not our faith in the promises of Scripture be
shaken by those things which are as yet beyond our reach. God�s promise remains
the same: �The prayer of faith shall save the sick.� May the prayer of Elijah
strengthen our faith. Let us remember that we have to
imitate them who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Heb. 6:12).
If we learn to persevere in prayer, its fruit will be always more abundant,
always more evident, and we shall obtain, as Jesus obtained when He was on
earth, healing of the sick, often immediate healing, which shall bring glory to
God. CHAPTER 25 Intercessory Prayer �Confess therefore your
sins one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The
supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its
working� (James 5:16, R.V.). James begins by speaking
to us of the prayers of the elders of the church; but here he addresses all
believers in saying: �Pray one for another that ye may be healed.� Having
already spoken of confession and pardon, he still adds: �Pray one for another.� This shows us that the
prayer of faith which asks for healing is not the prayer of one isolated
believer, but that it ought to unite the members of the body of Christ in the
communion of the Spirit. God certainly hears the prayer of each one of His
children as soon as it is presented to Him with living faith, but the sick one
does not always possess such faith as this. Therefore, that the Holy Spirit may
come to act with power, there must generally be the union of several members of
the body of Christ unitedly claiming His presence. This dependence on our
brethren should be exercised in two ways. First of all we must confess our
faults to any whom we may have wronged, and receive pardon from them. But
besides this, if one who is sick has been brought to see in such or such a sin
which he has committed the cause of his sickness, and to recognize in it a
chastening of God, he ought in such a case to acknowledge his sin before the
elders or brethren in Christ who pray for him, and who are thus enabled to do
so with more light and more faith. Such confession will be also a touchstone
which tests the sincerity of his repentance, for it is easier to confess our
sins to God than to man. Before he will do it, his humiliation must needs be real and his repentance sincere. The result
will be a closer communion between the sick one and those who intercede for
him, and their faith will be quickened anew. �Pray one for another
that ye may be healed.� Does not this clearly answer that which one so often
hears said: What is the use in going to M. Zeller in Switzerland, Dr. Cullis in America, or to Bethshan
in London? Does not the Lord hear prayer in whatsoever place it is offered?
Yes; without any doubt wherever a prayer in living faith rises up to God, it
finds Him ready to grant healing; but the Church has so neglected to believe in
this truth that it is a rare thing in the present day to find Christians
capable of praying in this manner. Thus we cannot be too grateful to the Lord
that He has inspired certain believers with the desire to consecrate their
lives, in part, to witness to the truth of divine healing. Their words and
their faith awaken faith in the heart of many sick ones who, without their
help, would never arrive at it. It is precisely these very people who always
say to everybody: �The Lord is everywhere
to be found.� Let Christians learn not to neglect the least part of the marvelous power of their God, and He will be able to
manifest to all that He is always the �Lord which healeth
thee� (Ex. 15:26). Let us take heed to obey the Word of God, to confess one to
another, and to pray one for another that we may be healed. James notes here still
another essential condition to successful prayer: it must be the prayer of the
righteous. �The supplication of a righteous man availeth
much in its working.� The Scripture tells us that �he that doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he [Jesus] is righteous� (I John 3: 7). James himself was
surnamed �The Just,� on account of his piety and the tenderness of his
conscience. Whether an �elder� or a simple believer, it is only after one is
wholly surrendered to God and living in obedience to His will
that one can pray effectually for the brethren. John says as much: �Whatsoever
we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do the things
which are pleasing in his sight� (I John 3:22). It is therefore the prayer of
one who lives in intimate communion with God which �availeth
much.� It is to such prayer that God will grant the answer, which He would not
be able to give to such other of His children. We often hear these
words quoted: �The prayer of a righteous man availeth
much,� but very rarely is it taken in connection with its context, or
remembered that it is most especially divine healing which is in question here.
Oh, may the Lord raise up in His Church many of these righteous men, animated
with living faith, whom He can use to glorify Jesus as
the divine Healer of the sick! CHAPTER 26 The Will of God �Thy will be done�
(Matt. 6:10). �If the Lord will� (James 4:15). In days of sickness, when doctors and medicines fail,
recourse is generally had to the words we have here quoted, and they may easily
become a stumbling-block in the way of divine healing. �How may I know,� it is
asked, �whether it is not God�s will that I should remain ill? And as long as
this is an open question, how can I believe for healing, how can I pray for it with
faith?� Here truth and error seem to touch. It is indeed impossible to pray
with faith when we are not sure that we are asking according to the will of
God. �I can,� one may say, ��pray fervently in asking God to do the best for
me, believing that He will cure me if it is possible.� As long as one prays
thus, one is indeed praying with submission, but this is not the prayer of
faith. That is only possible when we are certain that we are asking according
to the will of God. The question then resolves itself into making sure of what
is the will of God. It is a great mistake to think that the child of God cannot
know what is His will about healing. In order to know His
divine will, we must be guided by the Word of God. It is His Word which
promises us healing. The promise of James 5 is so absolute that it is
impossible to deny it. This promise only confirms other passages, equally
strong, which tell us that Jesus Christ has obtained for us the healing of our
diseases, because He has borne our sicknesses. According to this promise, we
have right to healing, because it is a part of the salvation which we have in
Christ, and therefore we may expect it with certainty. Scripture tells us that
sickness is, in God�s hands, the means of chastening His children for their
sins, but that this discipline ceases to be exercised as soon as His suffering
child acknowledges and turns from the sin. Is it not as much as to say clearly
that God desires only to make use of sickness to bring back His children when
they are straying? Sick Christian, open thy
Bible, study it and see in its pages that sickness is a warning to renounce
sin, but that whoever acknowledges and forsakes his sins finds in Jesus pardon
and healing. Such is God�s promise in His Word. If the Lord had in view some
other dispensation for such of His children whom He was about to call home to
Him, He would make known to them His will, giving them by the Holy Spirit a
desire to depart; in other special cases, He would awaken Some special conviction;
but as a general rule, the Word of God promises us healing in answer to the
prayer of faith. �Nevertheless,� some
might say, �is it not better in all things to leave it to the will of God?� And
they quote the instance of such and such Christians who would have, so to
speak, forced the hand of God by their praying without adding, �Thy will be
done,� and who would not have experienced blessing in the answer to their
prayers. And these would say, �How do we know whether sickness would not be
better for us than health?� Notice here that this is no case of forcing the
hand of God, since it is His Word which tells us that it is His will to heal
us. �The prayer of faith shall save the sick.� God wills that the health of the
soul should have a blessed reflex influence on the health of the body, that the
presence of Jesus in the soul should have its confirmation in the good
condition of the body. And when you know that such is His �will you cannot,
when speaking in such a way, say truthfully that you are in all things leaving
it to Him. It is not leaving it to Him when you make use of all possible
remedies to get healing, instead of laying hold of His promise. Your submission
is nothing else than spiritual sloth in view of that which God commands you to
do. As to knowing whether
sickness is not better than health, we do not hesitate to reply that the return
to health which is the fruit of giving up sin, of consecration to God, and of
an ultimate communion with God, is infinitely better than sickness. �This is
the will of God, even your sanctification� (I Thess.
4:3), and it is by healing that God confirms the reality of this. When Jesus
comes to take possession of our body, and cures it miraculously, when it
follows that the health received must be maintained from day to day by an
uninterrupted communion with Him, the experience which we thus gain of the Savior�s power and of His love is a result very superior to
any which sickness has to offer. Doubtless sickness may teach us submission,
but healing received direct from God makes us better acquainted with our Lord,
and teaches us to confide in Him better. Besides which it prepares the believer
to accomplish better the service of God. Christian, who art sick,
if thou wilt really seek to know what is the will of God in this thing, do not
let thyself be influenced by the opinions of others, nor by thy own former
prejudices, but listen to and study what the Word of God has to say. Examine
whether it does not tell thee that divine healing is a part of the redemption
of Jesus, and that God wills that every believer should have the right to claim
it; see whether it does not promise that the prayer of every child of God for
this thing shall be heard, and whether health restored by the power of the Holy
Spirit does not manifest the glory of God in the eyes of the Church and of the
world. Inquire of it; it will answer thee, that, according to the will of God,
sickness is a discipline occasioned by sin (or shortcoming), and that healing,
granted to the prayer of faith, bears witness to His grace which pardons, which
sanctifies, and which takes away sin. CHAPTER 27 Obedience and Health �There made he for them
a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, If thou wilt
diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is
right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his
statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon
the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee�
(Ex. 15:25, 26). It was at Marah that the Lord gave to His people this ordinance.
Israel was just released from the yoke of Egypt when their faith was put to the
proof in the desert by the waters of Marah. It was
after He had sweetened the bitter waters that the Lord promised He would not
put upon the children of Israel any of the diseases which He had brought upon
the Egyptians so long as they would obey Him. They would be exposed to other
trials, they might sometimes suffer the need of bread and of water, and
encounter great dangers; all these things might come upon them in spite of
their obedience, but sickness might not touch them. In a world still under the
power of Satan, they might be a butt for attacks coming from without, but their
bodies would not be oppressed with sickness, for God had delivered them from
it. Had He not said, �If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord
thy God... I will put none of these diseases upon thee
which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee�? Again elsewhere, �Ye shall serve the Lord
your God, ... and I will take sickness away from the
midst of thee� (Ex. 23:25; read also Lev. 26:14,16; Deut. 7:15, 23; 28:15�61). This calls our attention
to a truth of the greatest importance: the intimate relations which exist
between obedience and health, between sanctification which is the health of the
soul, and the divine healing which ensures the health of the body�both are
comprised in the salvation that comes from God. It is noteworthy that in
several languages these three words, salvation, healing, and sanctification,
are derived from the same root and present the same fundamental thought. (For instance, the German Heil, salvation; Heilung, healing; Heilichung, sanctification.) Salvation is the redemption which the Savior has obtained for us, health is the salvation of the
body which also comes to us from the Divine Healer, and lastly, sanctification
reminds us that true salvation and true health consist in being holy as God is
holy. Thus it is in giving health to the body and sanctification to the soul
that Jesus is really the Savior of His people. Our
text clearly declares the relation which exists between holiness of life and
the healing of the body. The expressions which bear this out seem to be
purposely multiplied: �If thou wilt diligently hearken.., if thou wilt do that
which is right.., if thou wilt give ear... if thou wilt keep all his statutes,
I will not send any sickness upon thee.� Here we have the key to
all true obedience and holiness. We often think we know well the will of God
revealed in His Word; but why does not this knowledge bring forth obedience? It
is because in order to obey we must begin by hearkening. �If thou wilt
diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God.., and give ear... .� As long as the will of God reaches me through the
voice of man, or through the reading of a book, it may have but little power
with me, while if I enter into direct communion with God, and listen to His
voice, His commandment is quickened with living power to facilitate its
accomplishment. Christ is the living Word and the Holy Spirit is His voice.
Listening to His voice means to renounce all our own will and wisdom, to close
the ear to every other voice so as to expect no other direction but that of the
Holy Spirit. One who is redeemed is like a servant or child, who needs to be
directed; he knows that he belongs entirely to God, and that all his being,
spirit, soul and body, ought to glorify God. But he is equally
conscious that this is above his strength, and that he needs to receive, hour
by hour, the direction which he needs. He knows also that the divine
commandment, as long as it is a dead letter to him, cannot impart to him
strength and wisdom, and that it is only as he attentively gives ear that he
will obtain the desired strength; therefore, he listens and learns thus to
observe the laws of God. This life of attention and action, of renouncement and
of crucifixion, constitutes a holy life. The Lord brings us to it in the first
place by sickness, and makes us understand that which we are lacking, and then
also by the healing which calls the soul to this life of continual attention to
the voice of God. Most Christians see
nothing more in divine healing than a temporal blessing for the body, while in
the promise of our holy God its end is to make us holy. The call to holiness
sounds daily stronger and more clearly in the Church. More and more believers
are coming to understand that God wants them to be like Christ; and the Lord is
beginning again to make use of His healing virtue, seeking thereby to show us
that still in our own days the Holy One of Israel is �the Lord that healeth thee,� and that it is His will to keep His people
both in health of body and in obedience. Let him who looks for
healing from the Lord receive it with joy. It is not a legal obedience which is
required of him, an obedience depending upon his own strength. No; God asks of
him, on the contrary, the abandonment of a little child, the attention which
hearkens and consents to be led. This is what God expects of him; and the
healing of the body will be the result of this childlike faith, for the Lord
will reveal Himself to him as the mighty Savior who
heals the body and sanctifies the soul. CHAPTER 28 Job�s Sickness and Healing �So went Satan forth
from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils, from the sole of
his foot unto his crown� (Job 2:7). The veil which hides
from us the unseen world is lifted for a moment in the mysterious history of
Job; it reveals to us heaven and hell busily occupied with God�s servants upon
earth. We see in it the temptations peculiar to sickness, and how Satan makes
use of them to dispute with God, and to seek the perdition of the soul of man,
while God, on the contrary, seeks to sanctify it by the very same trial. In the
case of Job, we see in God�s light the source from which sickness proceeds,
what is the result which it should have, and how it is possible to be delivered
from it. Whence comes sickness;
from God or from Satan? Opinions on this point vastly differ. Some hold that it
is sent of God, others see in it the work of the wicked one. Both are in error
as long as they hold their view to the exclusion of that held by the other
party, while both are in the right if they admit that there are two sides to
this question. Let us say then that sickness comes from Satan, but that it
cannot exist without the permission of God. On the one hand the power of Satan
is that of an oppressor who has not himself any right to pounce upon man and attack
him, and on the other hand the claims of Satan on man are legitimate in that
the righteousness of God decrees that he who yields himself to Satan places
himself under his domination. Satan is the prince of
the kingdom of darkness and of sin; sickness is the consequence of sin. Herein
is constituted the right of Satan over the body of sinful man. He is the prince
of this world, so recognized by God, until such time as he shall be legally
conquered and dethroned. Consequently he has a certain power over all those who
remain down here under his jurisdiction. He then it is who torments men with
sickness, and seeks thereby to turn them from God, and to work their ruin. But, we would hasten to
say, the power of Satan is far from being almighty; he can do nothing without
God�s authorization. God permits him to do all he does in tempting men, even
believers, but it is in order that the trial may bring forth in them the fruit
of holiness. It is also said that Satan has the power of death (Heb. 2:14),
that he is everywhere at work where death reigns, and nevertheless he has no
power to decide as to the death of God�s servants without the express will of
God. It is even so with sickness. Because of sin, sickness is the work of
Satan, but as the supreme direction of this world belongs to God, it can also
be regarded as the work of God. All who are acquainted with the Book of Job
know how very clearly this is brought out there. What ought to be the
result of sickness? The result will be good or evil according as God or Satan
shall have the victory in us. Under Satan�s influence, a sick person sinks
always deeper in sin. He does not recognize sin to be the cause of the
chastisement, and he occupies himself exclusively with himself and with his
sufferings. He desires nothing but to be healed, without dreaming of a desire
for deliverance from sin. On the contrary wherever God gains the victory,
sickness leads the sufferer to renounce himself, and to abandon himself to God.
The history of Job illustrates this. His friends accused him, unjustly, of
having committed sins of exceptional gravity, and by them to have drawn upon
himself his terrible sufferings. It was, however, no such thing, since God
Himself had borne him witness that he was �perfect and upright, one that feared
God and eschewed evil� (Job 2:3). But in defending himself Job went too far.
Instead of humbling himself in abasement before the Lord, and recognizing his
hidden sins, he sought in all self-righteousness to justify himself. It was not
until the Lord appeared to him that he came to say, �I abhor myself and repent
in dust and ashes� (Jdb 42:6). To him sickness became
a signal blessing in bringing him to know God in quite a new way, and to humble
himself more than ever before Him. This is the blessing which God desires that
we also may receive whenever He permits Satan to strike us with sickness, and
this end is attained by all sufferers who abandon themselves unreservedly to
Him. How are we to be
delivered from sickness? A father never prolongs the chastisement of his child
beyond the time necessary. God, also, who has His purpose in permitting
sickness, will not prolong the chastisement longer than is needful to attain
His end. As soon as Job had understood Him, from the time that he condemned
himself and repented in dust and ashes, through hearkening to what God had
revealed to him of Himself, the chastisement was at an end. God Himself
delivered him from Satan�s hand and healed him of his sickness. Would that the sick in
our day understood that God has a distinct purpose in permitting the
chastisement, and that as soon as it is attained, as soon as the Holy Spirit
shall have led them to confess and forsake their sins and to consecrate
themselves entirely to the service of the Lord, the chastisement will no longer
be needed�that the Lord could and would deliver them! God makes use of Satan as
a wise government makes use of a jailer. He only leaves His children in his
power for the given time; after which His good will is to associate us in the
redemption of Him who has conquered Satan, who has withdrawn us from his
domination in bearing in our stead our sins and our sicknesses. CHAPTER 29 The Prayer of Faith �The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall
raise him up� (James 5:15). The prayer of faith!
Only once does this _expression occur in the Bible, and it relates to the
healing of the sick. The Church has adopted this _expression, but she hardly
ever has recourse to the prayer of faith except for the sake of obtaining other
graces; while according to Scripture it is especially intended for the healing
of the sick. Does the Apostle expect
healing through the prayer of faith alone, or should it be accompanied by the
use of remedies? This is generally the question which is raised. It is easily
decided, if we take into consideration the power of the Church�s spiritual life
in the early ages: the gifts of healing bestowed on the Apostles by the Lord,
augmented by the subsequent pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:30; 5:15,
16), what Paul says of these gifts of healing by the same Spirit (I Cor. 12:9), what James here insists upon when, in order to
strengthen the reader in the expectation of faith, he recalls Elijah�s prayer
and God�s wonderful answer (James 5:14�17). Does not all this clearly show that
the believer is to look for healing in response to the prayer of faith alone,
and without the addition of remedies? Another question will
arise: Does the use of remedies exclude the prayer of faith? To this we believe
our reply should be: No, for the experience of a large number of believers
testifies that in answer to their prayers God has often blessed the use of
remedies, and made them a means of healing. We come here to a third
question: Which is then the line to follow, that we may prove with the greatest
certainty, and according to the will of God, the efficacy of the prayer of
faith? Is it, according to James, in setting aside all remedies or in using
remedies as believers do for the most part? In a word, is it with or without
remedies that the prayer of faith best obtains the grace of God? Which of these
two methods will be most directly to the glory of God and for blessing to the
sick one? Is it not perfectly simple to reply that if the prescription and the
promise in James apply to believers of our time, they will find blessing in
receiving them just as they were given to believers then, conforming to them on
all points, expecting healing only from the Lord Himself, without having any
recourse to remedies besides? It is, in fact, in this sense that Scripture
always speaks of effectual faith and of the prayer of faith. Both the laws of nature
and the witness of Scripture show us that God often makes use of intermediary
agencies to manifest His glory, but whether by experience or by Scripture, we
know also that under the power of the fall, and the empire of our senses, our
tendency is to attach more importance to the remedies than to the direct action
of God. It often happens that remedies so occupy us as to intercept the
presence of our God and turn us away from Him. Thus the laws and the properties
of nature, which were destined to bring us back to God, have the contrary
effect. This is why the Lord in calling Abraham to be the father of His chosen
people had not recourse to the laws of nature (Rom. 4:17�21). God would form
for Himself a people of faith, living more in the unseen than in the things
visible; and in order to lead them into this life it was necessary to take away
their confidence in ordinary means. We see therefore that it was not by the
ordinary ways which He has traced in nature that God led Abraham, Moses,
Joshua, Gideon, the Judges, David and many other kings of Israel. His object
was to teach them by this to confide only in Him, to know Him as He is: �Thou
art the God that doest wonders� (Ps. 77:14). God wills to act in a
similar way with us. It is when we seek to walk according to His prescription
in James 5, abandoning the things which are seen (II Cor.
4:18) to lay hold of the promise of God, and so receive directly from Him the
desired healing, that we discover how much importance we have attached to
earthly remedies. Doubtless there are Christians who can make use of remedies
without damage to their spiritual life, but the larger number
of them are apt to count much more on the remedies than on the power of
God. Now the purpose of God is to lead His children into a more intimate
communion with Christ, and this is just what does happen when by faith we
commit ourselves to Him as our sovereign Healer, counting solely on His
invisible presence. Renouncing remedies strengthens faith in an extraordinary
manner. Healing becomes, then, far more than sickness, a source of numberless
spiritual blessings. It makes real to us what faith can accomplish, it
establishes a new tie between God and the believer, and commences in him a life
of confidence and dependence. The body equally with the soul is placed under
the power of the Holy Spirit, and the prayer of faith, which saves the sick,
thus leads us to a life of faith, strengthened by the assurance that God
manifests His presence in our earthly life. CHAPTER 30 Anointing in the Name of
the Lord �Is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders of the church: and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord� (James 5:14). Anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord.�
These words have given rise to controversy. Some have sought to infer from them
that, very far from prescribing recourse to the prayer of faith alone, without
the use of remedies, St. James had, on the contrary, mentioned anointing with
oil as a remedy to be employed, and that to anoint in the name of the Lord had
no other signification than to rub the patient with oil. But as this
prescription applies to all kinds of sickness, this would be to attribute to
oil a miraculous virtue against all sickness. Let us see what the Scripture
tells us about anointing with oil, and what sense it attaches to these two
words. It was the custom of the
people in the East to anoint themselves with oil when
they came out of the bath; it was most refreshing in a hot climate. We see also
that all those who were called to the special service of God were to be
anointed with oil, as a token of their consecration to God, and of the grace
they should receive from Him to fulfill their
vocation. Thus the oil which was used to anoint the priests and the tabernacle
was looked upon as �most holy� (Ex. 30:22�32), and wherever the Bible speaks of
anointing with oil, it is an emblem of holiness and consecration. Nowhere in
the Bible do we find any proof that oil was used as a remedy. Once indeed the
anointing with oil is mentioned in connection with sickness, but its place
there was evidently as a religious ceremony and not as a remedy. In Mark 6:13
we read that the twelve �cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that
were sick, and healed them.� Here the healing of the sick runs parallel with
the casting out of devils: both the result of miraculous power. Such was the
kind of mission which Jesus commanded His disciples when He sent them two and
two: �He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal
all manner of sickness and all manner of disease� (Matt. 10:1). Thus it was the
same power which permitted them either to cast out devils or to heal the sick. But let us seek to
discover what was symbolized by the anointing administered by the twelve. In
the Old Testament, oil was the symbol of the gift of the Holy Spirit: �The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me,� etc. (Isa. 61:1). It is said of the Lord Jesus in the New
Testament: �God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power�
(Acts 10: 38), and it is said of believers: �Ye have an unction [anointing, R.V.] from the Holy One� (I John 2:20). Sometimes man feels
the need of a visible sign, appealing to his senses, which may come to his aid
to sustain his faith, and enable him to grasp the spiritual meaning. The
anointing therefore should symbolize to the sick one the action of the Holy
Spirit who gives the healing. Do we then need the
anointing as well as the prayer of faith? It is the Word of God which
prescribes it, and it is in order to follow out its teachings that most of
those who pray for healing receive the anointing; not that they regard it as indispensable,
but to show that they are ready to submit to the Word of God in all things. In
the last promise made by the Lord Jesus, He ordains the laying on of hands, not
the anointing, to accompany the communication of healing virtue (Mark 16:18).
When Paul circumcised Timothy, and when he took upon himself a special vow, it
was to prove that he had no objection to observing the institutions of the Old
Covenant so long as the liberty of the Gospel did not thereby suffer loss. In
the same way, James, the head of the Church of Jerusalem, faithful in
preserving as far as possible the institutions of his fathers, continued the
system of the Holy Spirit. And we also should regard it, not as a remedy, but
as a pledge of the mighty virtue of the Holy Spirit, as a means of
strengthening faith, a point of contact and of communion between the sick one
and the members of the Church who are called to anoint him with oil. �I am the Lord that healeth thee� (Ex. 15:26). CHAPTER 31 Full Salvation Our High
Privilege Luke 15:3 1 Please turn with me to
the 15th chapter of Luke, and read the thirty-first verse: the Father said,
�Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.� Some time ago, when at
Northfield, I was told by Mr. Moody that the best thing that he had heard at
Keswick two years ago was this verse�given by some parting minister as a
closing or parting text and Mr. Moody said to himself,
�Why did I not see that before?� We may talk a great
deal, and write a great deal, about the father�s love to the prodigal, but when
we think of the way he treated the elder brother, it brings to our hearts a
truer sense of the wonderful love of the father; therefore I want to speak on
this verse. I suppose there are not
a few Christians here who have got �full salvation�; but perhaps more than half
those present have not got it, and, if I were to ask you, �Have you got it?�
you would probably say, �I don�t understand what you mean by it, what is it?�
Well, the great object of our Convention is to bring you to see that full
salvation is waiting for you now, that God wants you to experience it, and, if
you feel you have not got it, we wish to show you how wrong it is to be without
it, and then to show you how to come out of the wrong life into the right one
here and now. Oh, may all who have not got the experience pray very humbly,
�Oh, my Father, bring me into the full enjoyment of Thy full salvation.� First,
the high privilege of God�s children. Second,
the low experience of many of them. Third,
the cause of this great discrepancy. Fourth,
the way of restoration, or how to get full salvation. First, then, the elder
son, being ever with his father, had, if he liked, the privilege of two things:
unceasing fellowship and unlimited partnership. But he was worse than the
prodigal, for, although always at home, yet he had never known, nor enjoyed,
nor understood the privileges that were his. All this fullness of fellowship
had been waiting for and offered to him, but not received. While the prodigal
was away from home in the far country, his elder brother was far from the
enjoyment of home, while he was at home. Unceasing
Fellowship. An earthly father loves his child,
and delights to make his child happy. �God is love,� and He delights to pour
out His own nature to His people. So many people talk about God hiding His
face; but there are only two things that ever caused God to do so�sin or
unbelief. Nothing else can. It is the very nature of the sun to shine, and it
can�t help shining on and on. �God is love,� and, speaking with all reverence,
He can�t help loving. We see His goodness toward the ungodly, and His
compassion on the erring, but His fatherly love is manifested toward all His
children. �Ever with me�; but, you say, �Is it possible to be always happy and
dwelling with God?� Yes, certainly, and there are many Scripture promises as to
this. Look at the Epistle to the Hebrews, where we read of �boldness to enter
within the veil�; how often, too, does David speak of hiding �in the secret of
his tabernacle,� and �dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty.� My message is that the
Lord your God desires to have you living continually in the light of His
countenance. Your business, your temper, your
circumstances, of which you complain as hindering, are they stronger than God?
If you come and ask God to shine in and upon you, you will see and prove that
He can do it, and that you as a believer may walk all the day and every day in
the light of His love. That is �full salvation.� ��Ever with Thee�; I never knew
it, Lord, and so J did not enjoy it, but I do now.� Unlimited
Partnership��All I have is thine.� The elder son
complained of the father�s gracious reception of the prodigal, of all the
feasting and rejoicing over his return, while to him had never been given a kid
that he might make merry with his friends. The father, in the tenderness of his
love, answers him, �Son, you were always in my house; you had only to ask and
you would have got all you desired and required.� And that is what our Father
says to all His children. But you are saying, �I am so weak, I cannot conquer
my sins, I can�t manage to keep right, I can�t do this and the other thing.�
No, but God can; and all the time He is saying to you: �All I have is thine; for in Christ I have given it to you. All the
Spirit�s power and wisdom, all the riches of Christ, all the love of the
Father; there is nothing that I have but is thine; I
as God am God, that I may love, keep, and bless thee.� Thus God speaks, but it
seems all a dream to some. Why are you so poor? God�s Word is sure, and does He
not promise all this? See in John, chapters 14 to 16, how He tells us that we
may have wonderful answers to prayer if we come in Jesus� name and abide in
Him. Do we really believe that it is possible for a Christian to live such a
life? Now, we have looked at
this high privilege which is for all, so we pass on to consider our second
point: The Low Experience of many of God�s dear children. What is it? Just living in poverty and starvation. The eider son, the
child of a rich man, living in utter poverty!��never had a kid,� while all that
was his father�s was his� just exactly the state of many a child of God. The
way He wants us to live is in the fullest fellowship of all His blessings, yet
what a contrast! Ask some if their lives
are full of joy; why, they don�t even believe it is possible to be always happy
and holy. �How could we get on thus in business?� they say; and they imagine
that the life of fullest blessing possible to them must be one of sighing and
sadness and sorrow. I asked a dear woman at
the Cape�a devoted Christian woman�how she was getting on. She answered that in
her experience it was sometimes light and sometimes darkness, and argued that,
as this was so in nature, the same thing held good in the kingdom of grace. So
she just gave herself up to a wretched experience. But I don�t read in the
Bible that there is to be any night or darkness in the believer�s experience;
on the contrary, I read, �thy sun shall no more go
down�; yet there are many who actually believe that there is nothing so good
for them. As I said already, nothing can hide God from us but sin and unbelief.
If you are in spiritual poverty, and there is no joy, no experience of victory
over sin, temper, wandering, why is it so? �Oh,� you say, �I�m too weak, I must
fall.� But does not the Scripture say that He is �able to keep you from falling
[stumbling]�? A minister once told me That, although
God is able, the verse does not say He is willing to do it. God does not mock
us, beloved; if He says He is �able,� then it is a proof of His willingness to
do it. Do let us believe God�s Word and examine our own experience in the light
of it. Again, are you working
and bearing much fruit for God, and do people by your life see and say, �God is
with that man, keeping him humble, pure, and heavenly minded�? Or are they
forced to confess that you are just a very ordinary Christian, easily provoked,
worldly, and not heavenly minded? That is not the life God wants us to live,
brethren. We have a rich Father, and as no true earthly father would like to
see his child in rags, or without shoes and proper clothing, etc., neither does
our God; but He wishes to fill up our life with richest and choicest blessings.
How many Sunday school teachers there are who teach, and teach, and hope for
the conversion of their scholars, but yet they can�t say God uses them to the
conversion of any of them. They enjoy no close fellowship with God, no victory
over sin, no power to convince the world. To which class do you belong? The low-level, or the fully possessed? Confess it today. These
two sons represent two classes of Christians: the prodigal�away backslidden;
the elder son�out of full fellowship with God. They were alike poor, and the
elder son needed as great a change as did the prodigal; he needed to repent and
confess and claim his full privileges; and so ought all low-level Christians to
repent, confess, and claim full salvation. Oh, both of you, come today and say,
�Father, I have sinned.� Now, we ask, What is the cause of this terrible discrepancy? Why the
great difference in the experience, I wonder? Ask yourself, �What is the reason
I am not enjoying this full blessing? God�s Word speaks of it, others speak of
it, and I see some who are living in it.� Oh, do ask the reason; come to God
and say: �Why is it I never live the life You want me
to live?� You will find the answer
in our story. The elder son had an un-childlike spirit, and entertained wrong
thoughts about his father; and, if you had known the real character of your
Father, your life would have been all right. You have, as it were, said, �I
never got a kid to make merry; my Father is rich, but He never gives. I have
prayed quite enough, but God does not answer me. I hear other people say that
God fills and satisfies them, but He never does that for me.� A dear minister told me
once that such a life was not for everybody, that it was of God�s sovereignty
to give this to whomsoever He pleased. Friends, there is no doubt as to God�s
sovereignty. He dispenses His gifts as He will; we are not all Pauls or Peters; places at the right and left hand of God
are prepared for whomsoever He will. But this is not a matter of divine
sovereignty; it is a question of child�s heritage. The Father�s love offers to
give to every child in actual experience His full salvation. Now look at an
earthly father. His children are of various ages, but all have equal right to
the joy of their father�s countenance. True, he gives to his son of twenty
years more money than to the son of five, and he has more to speak of to the
boy of fifteen than to the child of three; but, as regards his love toward
them, it is all the same, and in their privileges as children they are all
alike. And God�s love to His dear children is all the same. Oh, do not try to
throw the blame on God, but say, �I have had hard thoughts of Thee, 0 God, and
I have sinned. As a father I have done for my children what I did not believe
God was able and willing to do for me, and I have been lacking in childlike
faith.� Oh, do believe in the love, the willingness and power of God to give
you full salvation, and a change must surely come. Now let us consider the
Way of Restoration: how to get out of this poor experience. The prodigal
repented and so must those children of God who have been living within sight
of, but not enjoying, His promises. Conversion is generally sudden and a long
repentance is usually a long impenitence. Many in the Church of Christ think it
must take a long time to get into full salvation. Yes, it will take a long time
if you are to do it yourself�indeed, you never will. No, no, friend, if you
come and trust God it can be done in a moment. By God�s grace give yourself up
to Him. Don�t say, �What�s the use? It will do no good�; but put yourself, as you
are in sin and weakness, into the bosom of your Father. God will deliver you,
and you will find that it is only one step out of the darkness into the light.
Say, �Father, what a wretch I have been, in being with Thee and yet not
believing Thy love to me!� Yes, I come today with a
call to �repent�; addressed, not to the unsaved, but to those who know what it
is to be pardoned. For have you not sinned in the hard thoughts you have had of
God, and is there not a longing, a thirsting and hungering after something
better? Come, then, repent, and just believe that God does blot out the sin of
your unbelief. Do you believe it? Oh, do not dishonor
God by unbelief, but come today and confidently claim full salvation. Then
trust in Him to keep you. This seems difficult to some; but there is no
difficulty about it. God will shine His light upon you always, saying, �Son,
thou art ever with me�; and all you have to do is to dwell in and walk in that
light. I began by saying there
are two classes of Christians: those who enjoy full salvation, and those who do
not understand about it. Well, if it is not clear to you, ask God to make it
clear. But if you do understand about it, remember it is a definite act. Just
let yourself go into the arms of God; hear Him say, �All is thine�;
then you say, �Praise God, I believe, I accept, I give up myself to Him, and I
believe God gives Himself now to me!� CHAPTER 32 �Ye Are the Branches� �Ye are the branches�
(John 15:5). What a simple thing it
is to be a branch� the branch of a tree, or the branch of a vine! The branch
grows out of the vine, or out of the tree, and there it lives and in due time
bears fruit. It has no responsibility except just to receive from the root and
stem sap and nourishment. And if we only by the Holy Spirit knew our
relationship to Jesus Christ, our work would be changed into the brightest and
most heavenly thing upon earth. Instead of there ever being soul-weariness or
exhaustion, our work would be like a new experience, linking us to Jesus as
nothing else can. For, alas! is it not often true that
our work comes between us and Jesus? What folly! The very work He has to do in
me, and I for Him, I take up in such a way that it separates me from Christ.
Many a laborer in the vineyard has complained that he
has too much work, and no time for close communion with Jesus, and that his
usual work weakens his inclination for prayer, and that his too much
intercourse with men darkens the spiritual life. Sad thought, that the bearing
of fruit should separate the branch from the vine! That must be because we have
looked upon our work as something else than the branch bearing fruit. May God
deliver us from every false thought about the Christian life! Now, just a few thoughts
about this blessed branch-life. In the first place it is
a life of absolute dependence. The branch has nothing: it just depends upon the
vine for everything. That word, absolute dependence, is one of the most solemn
and large and precious of words. A great German theologian wrote two large
volumes some years ago, to show that the whole of Calvin�s theology is summed
up in that one principle of absolute dependence upon God; and he was right. If
you can learn every moment of the day to depend upon God, everything will come
right. You will get the higher life if you depend absolutely upon God. Must I understand that
when I have got to work, when I have to preach a sermon, or address a Bible
class, or go out and visit the poor neglected ones, that all the responsibility
of the work is on Christ? That is exactly what
Christ wants you to understand. Christ desires that in all your work the very
foundation should be the simple, blessed consciousness: Christ must care for
all. And how does He fulfill the trust of that dependence? He does it by sending
down the Holy Spirit�not now and then only as a special gift, for remember the
relation between the vine and the branches is such that hourly, daily,
unceasingly, there is the living connection maintained. The sap does not flow
for a time, and then stop, and then flow again, but from moment to moment the
sap flows from the vine to the branches. And just so, my Lord Jesus wants me to
take that blessed position as a worker, and, morning by morning and day by day
and hour by hour and step by step, in every work I have to go out to, just to
abide before Him in the simple, utter helplessness of one who knows nothing,
and is nothing, and can do nothing. Absolute dependence upon
God is the secret of all power in work. The branch has nothing but what it gets
from the vine, and you and I can have nothing but what we get from Jesus. But secondly, the life
of the branch is not only a life of entire dependence, but of deep restfulness.
Oh, that little branch, if it could think, and if it could feel, and if it
could speak�and if we could have a little branch today to talk to us, and if we
would say: �Come, branch of the vine, tell me, I want to learn from thee how I
can be a true branch of the living Vine,� what would it answer? The little
branch would whisper: �Man, I hear that you are wise, and I know that you can
do a great many wonderful things. I know you have much strength and wisdom
given to you, but I have one lesson for you. With all your hurry and effort in
Christ�s work you never prosper. The first thing you need is to come and rest
in your Lord Jesus. That is what I do. Since I grew out of that vine I have
spent years and years, and all I have done is just to rest in the vine. When
the time of spring came I had no anxious thought nor
care. The vine began to pour its� sap into me, and to give the bud and leaf.
And when the time of summer came I had no care, and in the great heat I trusted
the vine to bring moisture to keep me fresh. And in the time of harvest, when
the owner came to pluck the grapes, I had no care. If there was anything in the
grapes not good, the owner never blamed the branch; the blame was always on the
vine. And if you would be a true branch of Christ, the living Vine, just rest
on Him. Let Christ bear the responsibility.� You say: �Won�t that
make me slothful?� I tell you it will not. No one who learns to rest upon the
living Christ can become slothful, for the closer your contact with Christ the
more of the Spirit of His zeal and love will be borne in upon you. But, oh! begin to work in the midst of your entire dependence by
adding to it deep restfulness. A man sometimes tries and tries to be dependent
upon Christ, but he worries himself about this absolute dependence: he tries
and he cannot get it. But let him sink down into entire restfulness every day. Rest in Christ, who can give wisdom and strength, and you do not know how that
restfulness will often prove to be the very best part of your message. You
plead with people and you argue, and they get the idea: There is a man arguing
and striving with me. They only feel: Here are two men dealing with each other.
But if you will let the deep rest of God come over you, the rest in Christ
Jesus, the peace and rest and holiness of heaven, that restfulness will bring a
blessing to the heart, even more than the words you speak. But a third thought. The
branch teaches a lesson of much fruitfulness. You know the Lord Jesus repeated
that word �fruit� often in that parable; He spoke first of fruit, and then of
more fruit, and then of much fruit. Yes, you are ordained not only to bear
fruit, but to bear much fruit. �Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear
much fruit.� In the first place, Christ said: �I am the Vine, and My Father is
the Husbandman who has charge of Me and you.� He who
will watch over the connection between Christ and the branches is God; and it
is in the power of God, through Christ, that we are to bear fruit. O Christians! you know this world is perishing for the lack of workers.
And it needs not only more workers. The workers are saying, some more earnestly
than others, �We need not only more workers, but we need that our workers
should have a new power, a different life�that the workers should be able to
bring more blessing.� What is
wanting? There is wanting the close connection
between the worker and the heavenly Vine. Christ, the heavenly Vine, has
blessings that He could pour on tens of thousands who are perishing. Christ,
the, heavenly Vine, has power to provide the heavenly grapes. But �ye are the
branches,� and you cannot bear heavenly fruit unless you are in close
connection with Jesus Christ. Do not confound work and
fruit. There may be a good deal of work for Christ that is not the fruit of the
heavenly Vine. Do not seek for work only. Oh! study
this question of fruit-bearing. It means the very life and the very power and
the very Spirit and the very love within the heart of the Son of God�it means
the heavenly Vine Himself coming into your heart and mine. Stand in close
connection with the heavenly Vine and say: �Lord Jesus, nothing less than the
sap that flows through Thyself, nothing less than the
Spirit of Thy divine life is what we ask. Lord Jesus, I pray Thee let Thy
Spirit flow through me in all my work for Thee.� I tell you again that the sap
of the heavenly Vine is nothing but the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is nothing
but the life of the heavenly Vine, and what you must get from Christ is nothing
less than a strong inflow of the Holy Spirit. You need it exceedingly, and you
want nothing more than that. Remember that. Do not expect Christ to give a bit
of strength here, and a bit of blessing yonder, and a bit of help over there.
As the vine does its work in giving its own peculiar sap to the branch, so
expect Christ to give His own Holy Spirit into your heart, and then you will
bear much fruit. And if you have only begun to bear fruit, and are listening to
the word of Christ in the parable, �more fruit,� �much fruit,� remember that in
order that you should bear more fruit you just require more of Jesus in your
life and heart. A fourth thought. The
life of the branch is a life of close communion. Let us again ask: What has the
branch to do? You know that precious, inexhaustible word that Christ used:
Abide. Your life is to be an abiding life. And how is the abiding to be? It is
to be just like the branch in the vine, abiding every minute of the day. There
are the branches, in close communion, in unbroken communion, with the vine,
from January to December. And cannot I live every day�it is to me an almost
terrible thing that we should ask the question� cannot I live in abiding
communion with the heavenly Vine? You say, �But I am so much occupied with
other things.� You may have ten hours� hard work daily, during which your brain
has to be occupied with temporal things; God orders it so. But the abiding work
is the work of the heart, not of the brain, the work of the heart clinging to
and resting in Jesus, a work in which the Holy Spirit links us to Christ Jesus.
Oh, do believe that deeper down than the brain, deep down in the inner life,
you can abide in Christ, so that every moment you are free the consciousness
will come: Blessed Jesus, I am still in Thee. If you will learn for a time to
put aside other work and to get into this abiding contact with the heavenly
Vine, you will find that fruit will come. What is the application
to our life with regard to this abiding communion? What does it mean? It means
close fellowship with Christ in secret prayer. I am sure there are Christians
who do long for the higher life, and who sometimes have got a great blessing,
and have at times found a great inflow of heavenly joy and a great outflow of
heavenly gladness; and yet after a time it has passed away. They have not
understood that close, personal, actual communion with
Christ is an absolute necessity for daily life. Take time to be alone with
Christ. Nothing in heaven or earth can free you from the necessity for that, if
you are to be happy and holy Christians. Oh, how many Christians
look upon it as a burden, and a tax, and a duty, and a difficulty to get much
alone with God! That is the great hindrance to our Christian life everywhere.
We need more quiet fellowship with God, and I tell you in the name of the
heavenly Vine that you cannot be healthy branches, branches into which the
heavenly sap can flow, unless you take plenty of time for communion with God.
If you are not willing to sacrifice time to get alone with Him, and give Him
time every day to work in you, and to keep up the link of connection between you
and Himself, He cannot give you that blessing of His
unbroken fellowship. Jesus Christ asks you to live in close communion with Him.
Let every heart say: �0 Christ, it is this I long for, it is this I choose.�
And He will gladly give it to you. And then my last
thought. The life of the branch is a life of entire surrender. This word,
entire surrender, is a great and solemn word, and I believe we do not
understand its meaning. But yet the little branch preaches it. �Have you
anything to do, little branch, beside bearing grapes?�
�No, nothing.� �Are you fit for nothing?� �Fit for
nothing! The Bible says that a bit of vine cannot even be used as a pen; it is
fit for nothing but to be burned.� �And now, what do you understand, little
branch, about your relation to the vine?� �My relation is just this: I am
utterly given up to the vine, and the vine can give me as much or as little sap
as it chooses. Here I am at its disposal, and the vine can do with me what it
likes!� Oh, we need this entire
surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the most difficult points to
make clear, and one of the most important and needful points to explain�what
this entire surrender is. It is an easy thing for a man or a number of men to offer themselves
up to God for entire consecration, and to say, �Lord, it is my desire to give
up myself entirely to Thee.� That is of great value and often brings very rich
blessing. But the one question I ought to study quietly is: What is meant by
entire surrender? It means that just as literally as Christ was given up
entirely to God, I am given up entirely to Christ. Is that too strong? Some of
you think so. Some think that never can be; that just as entirely and
absolutely as Christ gave up His life to do nothing but seek the Father�s pleasure,
and depend on the Father absolutely and entirely, I am to do nothing but to
seek the pleasure of Christ. But that is actually true. Christ Jesus came to
breathe His own Spirit into us, to make us find our very highest happiness in
living entirely for God, just as He did. 0 beloved brethren, if that is the
case, then I ought to say: �Yes, as true as it is of that little branch of the
vine, so true, by God�s grace, I would have it be of me. I would live day by
day that Christ may be able to do with me what He will.� Ah! here
comes the terrible mistake that lies at the bottom of so much of our own
religion. A man thinks: �I have my business and family duties, and my relations
as a citizen, and all this I cannot change. And now alongside of all this I am
to take in religion and the service of God as something that will keep me from
sin. God help me to perform my duties properly!� That is not right. When Christ
came, He came and bought the sinner with His blood. If there was a slave market
here and I were to buy a slave, I should take that slave away to my own house
from his old surroundings, and he would live at my house as my personal
property, and I could order him about all the day. And if he were a faithful
slave he would live as having no will and no interests of his own, his one care
being to promote the well-being and honor of his
master. And in like manner I, who have been bought with the blood of Christ,
have been bought to live every day with the one thought�How
can I please my Master? Oh, we find the
Christian life so difficult because we seek for God�s blessing while we live in
our own will. We would be glad to live the Christian life according to our own
liking. We make our own plans and choose our own work, and then we ask the Lord
Jesus to come in and take care that sin shall not conquer us too much, and that
we shall not go too far wrong; we ask Him to come in and give us so much of His
blessing. But our relation to Jesus ought to be such that we are entirely at
His disposal, and every day come to Him humbly and straightforwardly, and say:
�Lord, is there anything in me that is not according to Thy will, that has not
been ordered by Thee, or that is not entirely given up to Thee?� Oh, if we
would wait and wait patiently, there would spring up a relationship between us
and Christ so close and so tender that we should afterwards be amazed how far
distant our intercourse with Him had previously been. I know there are a great
many difficulties about this question of holiness; I know that all do not think
exactly the same with regard to it. But that would be to me a matter of
comparative indifference if I could see that all are honestly longing to be
free from every sin. But I am afraid that unconsciously there are in hearts
often compromises with the idea: �We cannot be without sin; we must sin a
little every day�we cannot help it.� Oh, that people would actually cry to God:
�Lord, do keep me from sin!� Give yourself utterly to Jesus, and ask Him to do
His very utmost for you in keeping you from sin. In conclusion, let me
gather up all in one word. Christ Jesus said: �I am the vine, ye are the
branches.� In other words: �I, the living One who have so completely given Myself to you, am the Vine. You cannot trust Me too much. I am the Almighty Worker, full of a divine life
and power.� Christians, you are the branches of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there
is in your heart the consciousness: �I am not a strong, healthy, fruit-bearing
branch, I am not closely linked with Jesus, I am not living in Him as I should be��
then listen to Him saying: �I am the Vine, I will receive you, I will draw you
to Myself, I will bless you, I will strengthen you, I will fill you with My
Spirit. I, the Vine, have taken you to be My branches;
I have given Myself utterly to you; children, give yourselves utterly to Me. I
have surrendered Myself as God absolutely to you; I
became Man and died for you that I might be entirely yours. Come and surrender
yourselves entirely to be Mine.� What shall our answer
be? Oh, let it be a prayer from the depths of our heart, that the living Christ
may take each one of us and link us close to Himself. Let our prayer be that
He, the living Vine, shall so link each of us to Himself that we shall go on
our way with our hearts singing: �He is my Vine, and I am His branch; I want
nothing more� now I have the everlasting Vine.� Then when you get alone with
Him, worship and adore Him, praise and trust Him, love Him and wait for His
love. �Thou art my Vine, and I am Thy branch. It is enough, my soul is
satisfied.� Glory to His blessed name! |