Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed.” Today's episode is about God's healing. It also talks about how we need to accept the healing and the forgiveness that God is offering us. The healing and forgiveness that Jesus died on the cross to bring us. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
I Am Healed
Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed.”
I love talking about the Lord’s healing. I love talking about it because it is so amazing and also because I am not sure people believe He is still healing today. I was at the Encounter Ministries Boston Campus’ summer intensive Tuesday night. That night the topic was the Prophetic Word. Wednesday night was going to be all about physical healing. I was talking with a friend from the prayer group at this event and her neck was really bothering her. She mentioned she would have to have the girls from the prayer group pray over her the next night at the healing service. I told her we didn’t have to wait until tomorrow, let's do it now. Just then one of our teachers came up to us so she joined in as well. We prayed a few times with little change. Then my teacher asked my friend if she believed Jesus could heal her right now. My friend said absolutely! My teacher said, “Pain be gone now!” We were praying quietly for a minute and my friend said, “Wait a minute,” and she tried to move her neck all around in circles and side to side. She said the pain was all gone! Praise God.
God is still healing people today. He is miraculously healing people quickly and He is also miraculously healing people over time. For instance, someone Tony works with had a stroke and was not expected to recover. Now, 2-3 months later, he is leaving rehab and going home. Is he 100% healed yet? No, but I truly believe he will get there. Not every healing God does is instantaneous and also He does not heal everyone that we ask Him to heal. I am not sure why this is. When I ask Him He always tells me, “His ways are higher than my ways, and His thoughts higher than my thoughts.” We aren’t meant to understand everything He does in this world.
Aside from physical healing, what I feel the Lord wants me to remind you of today is that he heals us from our sins and our brokenness. Because of original sin, we had a brokenness about us. We live in a very broken world and yet we don’t have to be broken. God died for our sins so that we could be healed. God wants us to live in that light. He wants us to realize our identity in Christ and not continue to live with this idea that we are broken. Yes, the world is a broken place, there are many broken people, but we don't have to be one of those broken people. We know Christ, and we can be in relationship with Him. The verse above is very graphic. “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed.” He was pierced for our sins, take a minute and think about that. Picture the Roman soldiers hammering nails into his hands. Think about how much that must have hurt. Then it says He was crushed for our iniquity. Take a moment to think about the scourging. Think about how much that must have hurt. How much He must have wanted to scream out in pain. I wonder if he wanted to say, “But it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it?” He was not being scourged because of anything He did. He took on our sins, our broken relationship with the Father and died on that cross so we could be free.
What just came to my mind was that there is no way to repay Jesus for what He did for us. There is no way to repay the debt that He paid for our sins, and He doesn’t want us to. Jesus has forgiven that debt to Him. He saved us knowing we would still sin. He saved us knowing we would turn away probably 100 times before we got it right. I don’t think this bothers Him as much as it does when we don’t accept His forgiveness. When we don’t live in the freedom that He sacrificed to gain for us. Jesus died so you could be healed. You, yes, You!
You, who are going through an abusive relationship right now. You, who are living with or dealing with an addict right now, You, who are getting a divorce, You who can’t have children, You who are struggling to parent the children you do have. Jesus died for each one of us and He wants us to live in that freedom. He is there to help us through our circumstances. He is there to lift us up when we need Him too. All we need to do is to lean into Him.
He died to heal us, but we are the ones that need to accept that healing. It’s kinda like if we had an illness and there was a medicine that could cure our illness and yet we refused to take the medicine. The medicine is sitting right there on the counter, right next to the water and yet we refuse to take it because we don’t believe it will help. We believe that our illness is worse than the doctor said it was. We know that medicine can’t possibly help us because our case is too severe. Does that sound silly to you? Are you rolling your eyes and wondering why I think I know more than the doctor does?
The same is true for us and our forgiveness of sins. Jesus died so our sins could be forgiven, so we could be healed physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Jesus was repairing the relationship with our heavenly Father that original sin had broken. He died for you. Yes, he died for all of us, but He also died for each of us individually. If you were the only person on Earth, He still would have gone through all of that for you. Jesus knows what we have done. He knows what we will do. He did not die on the cross for some of our sins, He died on the cross for all of our sins. There is nothing you can do that He won’t forgive. There is nothing that has happened to you that He can’t heal.
When we do something and then we don’t accept forgiveness for it we are offending the Lord. We are telling Him that His sacrifice was not enough. Is this what you believe? Do you believe that Jesus dying on the cross was not a big enough sacrifice to cover whatever it was that you did or that was done to you? It does not make you greedy to accept God’s sacrifice. It does not make you greedy to accept the forgiveness that God offers. His forgiveness is freely given. You don’t have to do anything to deserve it or to earn it. It is already yours through your baptism. He had you and your sins, your troubles in mind when He was on that cross. Accept the healing. Accept the forgiveness of sins.
One thing that has helped me accept God’s Word into my heart is to personalize it to me. I will put my name in or switch words from “our” to “my”. Sometimes we believe scripture is true. We just don’t think it applies to us for some reason or another. Here is how I might read this scripture if I was struggling to believe it was for me personally. “But he was pierced for my sins, crushed for my iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes me whole, by his wounds I, Catherine, was healed.” If you struggle to believe you are healed. If you struggle to believe all your sins, yes, even that one, can be forgiven. If you struggle to believe Jesus died for you personally and individually, I ask you to write this scripture down on a sticky note and place it on your computer, your bathroom mirror, your shower, or wherever you will see it daily. Make it personal and put it in your own name. Even just changing the “our” to “my” will really change the feel of it. “But he was pierced for my sins, crushed for my iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes me whole, by his wounds I, Catherine, was healed.” You can add your name, or just take the name out. Whichever feels best for you. Jesus loves you, He died for you, don’t lessen that sacrifice by refusing to accept the healing that comes from it. You are healed, all you need to do is live into that healing!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you and we accept your forgiveness. We accept your healing. Please help us. Lord, we ask that you come into our hearts and minds and clear any blocks we might have in accepting your healing and forgiveness. Lord, we give you permission to work on our hearts please soften them. We love you Lord, we are so grateful you sent your son to heal us and we are sorry if we haven’t been accepting that healing. Lord we can do nothing without you and yet all things with you. Please help us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!