When Sickness Strikes

When Sickness Strikes (2 Kings 5:1-5, 8-16) Namaan The bible is clear. Pride goes before destruction. Pride acts as a barrier between you and God, between your will and His will. Pride can lead to stubbornness. In the book of Proverbs God gives a list of things He hates, and the first one on the list is pride. Over and over in the bible, we are warned that if we exalt ourselves, God will bring us down. God in His sovereignty may allow us to experience adversity in order to accomplish some Kingdom purpose or to prove an eternal truth in His chosen time. (John 9:1-3) Sickness is often one of the most humbling and distressing trials that can come upon a person. The young Israelite servant girl What was the basis of her faith? She wasn’t bitter that she had been enslaved by the Syrians. She wasn’t overawed by the boss and his wife. She desired his health, not his harm. (Matt. 5:43-48) Namaan and his wife listened to her Possibly out of desperation, but perhaps based upon respect for her integrity Sickness strikes people in all countries, cultures and classes. In the Scriptures, Gods sometime uses sickness: To humble, chasten, warn or discipline people and/or nations for their arrogance or disobedience in order to encourage them unto repentance.

To punish people and/or nations for their sin. To keep us from depending on our own insight, power, skills, ability or knowledge. To draw us into a closer more intimate relationship with Him. To demonstrate the divine nature and power of Jesus (John 9:1-6) As an opportunity to demonstrate His power and love for us through healing. God is the “Great Physician” who applies no deductible and demands no co-payments. God allows sickness to test/prove a person’s faithfulness (e.g. Job) or lack thereof (Luke 16:10) Pray for healing John 16:23-24 “I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Matthew 18:19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.” James 5:14 “Is anyone among you sick? 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.” The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. There is a connection between faith and healing (Luke 8:45-48) Still, whether healing takes place, and for what purpose, is left to the sovereign will of God. Remember that God told Moses, "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal and no-one can deliver out of my hand." (Deut. 32:29) and “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (Rom 9:15) When we pray for healing … Sometimes God says “Yes”

God sometimes confounds our expectations Faith, not always reason, must satisfy us. Once we really decide to listen to and trust God He will totally change our perspective God still works miracles today. Sometimes God says “Wait” Sometimes God says “No” (2 Cor. 12:7-10, Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”) Reminding us that His “grace is sufficient” for us as His power is “made perfect in weakness." Some have been gift the gift of healing (1 Cor. 12:9; Mark 16:17-18) The connection between cleansing from sin and healing All sickness is a by-product of man’s original sin. There is a natural occurring of disease caused by either sinful habits or sinful lifestyles. Cirrhosis of the liver is often caused by alcohol consumption, whereas hardening of the arteries result from gluttony. Smoking can cause lung and vascular problems leading to sickness and death. There are also sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and different forms of venereal diseases that are the results of sinful lifestyles. Basketball star Magic Johnson, who contracted HIV, confessed: "I am certain that I was infected by having unprotected sex with a woman who has the virus. The problem is that I can’t pinpoint the time, the place of the woman. It’s a matter of numbers. Before I was married, I truly lived the bachelor’s life... as I traveled around National Basketball Association cities, I was never at a loss for female companionship... I confess that after I arrived in Los Angeles, in 1979, I did my best to accommodate as many women as I could - most of them through unprotected sex." His habitual fornication caught up with him. He deliberately and recklessly played a game of Russian roulette with his own life and the lives of the women he had sexual relations with. Today, he is suffering the consequences of his lustful desires. The same is true with people who are risking their mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health through adulterous relationships.

Yes, confession cleanses us from unrighteousness as I John 1:9 tells us, but it will not erase the consequences of our deeds. Many today pretend that there are no consequences for sinning. In Isaiah 53:5 we see the disease we are healed from is the sickness of sin in our lives. “But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” The man at the poolside (John 5:1-7): This certain man had laid by the “healing” pool with false hope in thinking that someday he would be able to slip into the pool and find healing. Typically, the pool represents what the law could do. The only problem was that he was unable to obtain and meet the requirements of the law. He may have gotten very close to the healing pool, but he always seemed to come up short. Many today are like that man in that they are trying to achieve the righteousness of God by their own efforts, yet miserably fall short. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Satan the deceiver will continue to "move the waters" giving you false hope while at the same time watching you struggle. When the Lord approached him he first asked, "Do you want to get well?"(John 5:6) When the man affirmed that he did, Jesus then made him whole and added “sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." (John 5:8-15)