Redemption Revealed - VII
Sin is one thing and one thing only—unbelief in the revealed Word of God. There is no forgiveness for rejecting the grace of God. We read in Titus 3:10-11, "A man who is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that heretics are subverted, in sin and self-condemned." (Also see Matthew 18:10-20).
Sin brought death, and sin is the substance of death. Sin is unbelief in the revealed Word of God (or faith). If God's Word is Spirit and eternal Life, Its rejection must produce death; first comes the sin, the wages of sin follow after.
Sin brought sickness. Without sin there could have been no sickness. Without sin Lucifer wouldn't have become the Devil; and without sin there would be no fallen angels and no demons. Sickness is of the Devil.
The Bible calls these things "spirits".
Mark 9:14-29, "When Jesus came to His disciples, He saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning them. When the people saw Jesus they were awestruck, and ran to salute Him. And He asked the scribes, "What's this argument about"? And one of the crowd answered and said, Master, "I have brought You my son, who has a dumb spirit; And whenever it takes control, it tears him, making him foam at the mouth, grind his teeth, and fall in a stupor: I begged Your disciples to cast him out, and they could not".
Jesus answered, and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him to Me. So they brought him, and when the spirit saw Jesus, it convulsed the boy, who fell on the ground, rolling about and foaming at the mouth.
And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he been this way?" And the father replied, "Since he was a little boy. It has thrown him both into the fire, and into water, intending to kill him: but if You can do anything, please show compassion and help us".
Jesus said to him, "It's not if I can, but if YOU can believe, all things are possible to he who believes". And the father cried out with tears, saying, "Lord, I believe; add to my faith".
When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I charge you, come out of him, and never go into him again." Then the spirit screamed terribly and convulsed the boy again, and left him: and he lay as still as a corpse, so the crowd murmured, "He is dead".
But Jesus took him by the hand, and helped him to his feet, and he arose.
Afterwards, when Jesus was alone in the house with His disciples, they asked Him, "Why couldn't we cast it out"? And he replied, "This kind cannot driven out by anything but prayer and fasting." What Jesus was saying is that the disciples were not sufficiently consecrated for this task. Notice, when commanded by the authority of faith in God's Word, Jesus told the father, "all things are possible if YOU have faith." The demon had to obey. The boy could have no faith in his condition, so the Lord Jesus had to lift the father into a condition of faith in behalf of the lad.
Let's not think we are going to fool spirits. They know if you're a make-believer. That's why Jesus told His disciples they couldn't cast out this type of demon because they were not fully sanctified. Not as detached from worldly things as they should have been, and as Satan is the god of this world, they were in no condition to exercise the authority of God's Word over his demons.
Can you see that? Notice that this was a spirit that manifested in deafness and dumbness. Jesus called it an "unclean" spirit.
Mark 1:23-27, "And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and the spirit cried out, Saying, "Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know Who you are, the Holy One of God".
Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Hold your peace, and come out of him". And the unclean spirit threw him into convulsions, and screaming with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed, and began discussing what had happened, saying, "What is this? What new doctrine is this? With authority He gives orders and even unclean spirits obey Him!"
Jesus called these spirits "unclean." Nothing ceremonially unclean can come into the Presence of God. Clearly physical healing in response to faith is also forgiveness. The account of legion in Mark 5:1-8 follows the same pattern. Jesus squarely told the spirit it was unclean, and could not exercise authority over it unless He Himself was clean or "sanctified".
Each of the three examples demonstrates that once the evil spirit had departed the patient was perfectly sound. This establishes quite clearly that modern medical science is many times not about curing the ailment so much as suppressing the symptoms. And what are symptoms of blood pressure, fever, aches, dizziness, etc., but nature's way of warning that something is out of balance.
The doctor can't "see" the spirits. He can only feel a growth or lump, take your pulse or temperature, inspect a wound, test your reflexes—your physical or mental faculties. But he doesn't know why the limbs or organs of a healthy-looking individual ceased to function—as if the nerves were dead.
Spirits can't be seen. Before the doctor can attend to cure, he must find the cause. And disease is often spirit. Disease 'germs' are a manifestation of life, and all life is spirit.
A sperm is life. We start from a germ. According to the dictionary a "germ" is "the portion of an organism capable of becoming a new organism, the rudiment of an animal or plant." So it can reproduce or multiply cells in which to live. As spirits don't have bodies they set up house in an injured body, perverting its cells to form a tumor, cancer or some other growth.
We began life as a germ that fertilized our mother's ovum and took human form according to God's law of reproduction (Genesis 1:11). Our form was foreknown of God as revealed in Genesis 1:27-28.
Disease, cancer, tumours, rashes and growths have no form because God didn't create any such bodies, and they manifest the life of a spirit that has no form. It is disembodied, as its material form is in the grave and its soul imprisoned awaiting the judgment. It may be imitated by a craftsman inspired by that spirit to fashion an idol or totem in its likeness. That inspiration does not come from God.
Where did the life of that disease or growth come from? It's not your life; it's a parasite living in and on your life. His master is Death, and his job is to take your life.
Tumour, cataract and other diseases began as a germ just like you did. Before there can be a body, there has to be a life from which to form more cells. The demons don't have a body of their own and nothing can have life without a spirit. That cancer or growth is a body perverted from the cells of your body, but with its own life.
The demon attaches his life to a damaged cell and begins to multiply cells; deformed perverted cells. He's building a body just like babies begin in the womb of a mother. Cell on top of cell, but they develop no particular form—just multiply cells at random.
God never "spoke" them any form, and they can't even hybridize an independent body, but remain parasitic, living in and feeding from your body.
All sickness comes from Satan. But God may permit him to put sickness upon you as chastisement. King Hezekiah had septicaemia (blood poisoning) from a boil, and God said, "Prepare to die." Now where did that sickness come from?
God may permit Satan to put sickness upon a man for testing like He did to Job. God declared Job to be a clean man, undefiled by the world because of his faith; upright, god-fearing, perfect, hating evil. And Satan said, "Job is only like this because You've given him special protection and abundant blessings. In other words, it's not Job's faith, but the special privileges he enjoys. "Take away his material blessings, and he'll curse you to your face".
So God said, "OK Satan, the bet's on! Do whatever you choose to the things that are Job's. But don't harm his person." Satan took the lives of his children, destroyed his cattle and possessions as well as his social standing. Poor Job is sitting by the fire all covered with boils, scratching between them with a piece of broken crockery, rejected by his wife who tells him to curse God and die.
Now where did the life in those boils come from?
Some spirits (demons) enter your body as physical disease, feeding on your healthy tissue. Others enter your soul and torment your spirit, perhaps endangering the body through epileptic fits.
God is the only Healer. Not medicines, doctors, drugs or therapy. These can only aid . . . or hinder the healing process. Modern medicine excises the physical cells. The Lord excises the foreign life from those cells. This is why a patient becomes sick after divine healing: the spirit or life from the growth is gone. The growth is dead, but it is still inside or attached to the body and the blood stream must purge away the toxins from that rotting flesh. It's like the municipal sewer only it' s your body that must be cleansed.
The doctor on the other hand, by his God-given skill will have cut out the growth, and with 'luck' the life will be in it and not in you. Do you see what the doctor is trying to do? You can't remove spirits with a scalpel. If only he was a man of faith and instructed in the faith, and could get the patient to have faith the demon would be cast out and nature would heal the body.
Let's type this with the natural. Suppose you were run over by a vehicle and killed. Your life would depart—the mortal spirit would break up and your soul would go to its destination, but your body would still be on the roadside to be removed by some authority, or by the slow process of decay. Either way, decay will set in. Now the removal of your dead body from the roadside types what must happen to that dead tumour or growth in your body, once the Word of God and prayer has cast out the life it begins to decay and putrefy, polluting or poisoning your blood which is the only sanctifying stream there is. That's why the patient often develops a fever after divine healing.
After the Lord has healed a person, their body has to pass the bad cells. That sickness or fever in the next two or three days is the best sign that they have their healing. So rejoice and accept that God has answered your prayer. And while I think of it, a healing is the same as forgiveness of sin. Your slate is clean, so you are under obligation to God to seek the revelation of the true oneness of the godhead, repent and be baptized in water in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of past sins. Just as certain as faith has healed you, your unbelief expressed in disobedience to God's Word will bring it back (Matthew 12:45).
When medical science removes the diseased part of a body, it kills not only the disease but also a part of the patient.
God's worst enemies in divine healing are "sight" and "time." In other words, the natural experience of our ten senses. We must believe beyond our physical senses that contact this world to the mind of Christ, or faith, which reaches within the veil and touches God.
Luke 15:8-10, "What woman having ten pieces of silver and losing one doesn't light a candle, sweep the house, and seek diligently till she finds it? And when it's found, call her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost."
SFThe woman was becoming desperate. What if her husband returned to find one of her tokens was missing. The tokens represented her virtue. Like this woman, the Church has to restore the missing token lost in the world whilst our Husband was away interceding in behalf of the Church Age saints who had only part-Word. The church sure lost a lot of its virtue in the past 2,000 years. It's possible to have all nine fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance without that tenth token, the Life of Christ. Unless that token is present and on display, there is no reason to believe you are born-again. "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents".
The fourth was the Word, Itself. The Word made flesh, fruits of the proof of the resurrection sign that Christ after justification, sanctification and the baptism of the Holy Ghost have been planted, organizations died out, and Christ has again centred Himself like that cap of the pyramid. First line, justification; sanctification; baptism of the Holy Ghost; then coming of the Cap. What is it? That Holy Ghost bunch being honed out so that it can fit with the same kind of ministry He had when He went away, so when He comes back, it'll catch the whole thing in the Rapture, where they're justified, sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost. That pyramid will stand again. The House of God will live again. The Tree of Life is growing again (Restoration of the Bride Tree, p. 75:6 – 76:2).
God sent the prophet of Malachi 4:5-6, the late William Branham to "restore the heart of the children to the faith of their apostolic fathers" so that we will be ready to meet our Husband in the air. We had better be restoring.
All nine Gifts of the Spirit are in the Church, the Body, they're NOT in each individual (I Corinthians 12:8-10). The inexperienced believer is often looking for physical manifestations he can "do" himself, like speak in tongues or "see" like miraculous healing. But the manifestation of the Spirit is to benefit the whole Body. God is not a showman. Our comfort is to come from our faith, not psychology and senses. We draw our strength and security from understanding His Word. This is Spiritual communion wherein God is speaking with His elected. Our comfort comes through understanding the things which are to come to pass in our day so we are not anxious for tomorrow.
The symptoms of sickness are lying vanities. You don't have to accept them. Jesus is the high priest of our profession—if we hold it fast (Hebrews 3:1). That is, He intercedes for faith. And like the demons, He knows when you're able to hold the sword of the Word to the throat of the enemy.
Either the symptoms are right, or the promise of God's Word is true. Which do you want to accept?
When people ask a minister or Christian to pray for the healing of their child or some sick person and nothing happens, they say, "I knew God wouldn't heal them." But of course He couldn't. God can only honour faith. Their faith energizes His creative Word. Without faith His Word is just the dead letter of language. They must first appropriate faith.
It's the same with the new birth. All that Word you've learnt off by heart will be of none effect without faith. Once you're born-again all you'll ever need for life's journey is in you. Like the baby in a natural birth, you're complete. You just need to grow.
You've got to have confidence in God to turn it loose and let it go to work, because it is there. Healing's in there: discernment, prophecy, wisdom, love, joy, faith, temperance, patience, eternal Life and a glorified body.
One time a mother noticed her little boy was always trying to chew the pedals off his little dinky. He had a sulphur deficiency. His little body was craving to satisfy that lack. So there had to be a source of sulphur somewhere. And if your soul or body is calling out for healing, or love, gentleness, goodness, joy, forgiveness, peace or patience, then must be a source somewhere to answer that call.
Jesus is the High Priest of our profession: our expectations. He's not the high priest for our doubts. We have to be determined that our prayers are not wants but needs, and under expectation that as we're abiding in the Word, God will honour His Word.
Simeon was a man under expectation. He had a Word of prophecy that he would not die without seeing the Lord's Messiah (Luke 2:25-35).
When a demon recognizes he has to obey you, it's your expectation of God's Word manifested in your life that he honours. Not shouting or melodrama. In Matthew 17:14-20 we have another account of Jesus healing the possessed boy. Jesus told His disciples it was because of their unbelief that they couldn't cast out a demon whose father is the sum of wisdom and sophistry.
Don't think you're going to bluff the Devil. He is the father of deception. The sons of Sceva once tried to bluff an evil spirit by impersonating Christianity; they fled naked and wounded (Acts 19:13-20), and if we deceive we are subject to the father of it. Our faith has to be the real thing, and living through us.
When Christ cursed the fig tree in Matthew 21, the life immediately went out from the roots. And life departs from cancers by the authority of His Word. Cancer and disease is an attack from the fourth dimension where the two spirits are fighting for your soul. And they will occupy your body and drive your mind insane.
If we have faith and don't doubt, Jesus will speak through you and through me. We must have mustard seed faith. And that does not mean little faith, it means pure faith. A mustard seed although small is most notable in that it will not hybridize. It matters not how much faith or understanding we possess. What does matter is its purity.
During the Church Ages when the Bible was sealed with Seven Seals, Christ was a Mediator, interceding for the ignorance or errors of the saints. All they had was PART Word so their faith was impure. We now have the fullness of the Word, therefore Christ is no longer a Mediator (I Corinthians 13:10).
Not that any one of us has all of the faith, but what faith we possess is the unadulterated mind of God. We are the generation that will not see death, the people who will manifest that we are the Sons of God, and what we speak at that time, God will do. bb840430.htme-mail: ags@