Many of us have been taught that sickness is essentially the errand boy of God, delivering a particular message for your life that will bring you to a new opportunity or a higher walk with God. I want us to look at this, because this to me is one of the most insidious lies that we can find.

If God is the One sending sickness to make you captive, and then takes it away and turns you from your captivity, I would submit to you that God is a little bit confused.  If Jesus is the One who sees our sicknesses and releases us, the children of God, the children of Abraham, the daughter of Abraham, from the spirit of infirmity as He did in Luke 13:12, then is Jesus in direct opposition to God, the One who supposedly offered and desired and sent the messenger of sickness and disease?

Matthew 7:11 says, “If you then being evil know how to give goods unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good gifts to them that ask Him?” If we believe that God is sending sickness and disease as a tool in His hand to teach us something, if we believe that it is the will of our Father’s heart to bruise us, to beat us, to harm us through sickness and disease, then we have a conflict of understanding. Because in fact, we see from scripture that it is God’s desire to answer our prayers for healing and every other area of our lives!

Religion is a “got to” way of life. Redemption is a “get to” way of life!

Religion is a door you must pass through in order to get into God’s presence.  Redemption is a door held open by Jesus that no man can shut!

Religion is man’s attempt to satisfy a holy God.  Redemption is God’s attempt to make us holy by the sacrifice of a holy substitute!

Religion is a shadow of the things to come—it has no substance or power.  Redemption is the reality of things to come—in the substance of our flesh and words.

Religion is form, ritual, tradition; an empty shell. It contains no life or revelation within.  Redemption is the inner reality of the kingdom of God in a temple of flesh. It needs no form, ritual, or tradition because the King Himself resides within!

Many people lose the manifestation of healing already in operation by turning their attention from Christ and the Word of God, to their feelings.

To the religious leaders of Jesus’ day healing was easier, even acceptable. To the religious in our day, forgiveness of sin is easier and acceptable. But, by one sacrifice Jesus Christ made both forgiveness and healing available to us!

The Word of God is the truth, the Word is our standard—there is a big difference between the natural facts and the reality that God’s Word is the final truth on the situation!

If Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed, who was oppressing them? Were they oppressed of sickness sent by the hand of God? No! Acts 10:38 clearly shows us that they were oppressed of the devil: “…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

The message of the Gospel is spreading all over the world, but it is sad that not all who accept salvation also believe in healing—even though it is the same thing! In the time of Jesus and his disciples it was as natural to pray for healing as it was to pray for salvation. People believed and were healed!

The Bible says that Jesus took our diseases and infirmities upon Himself. If this happened 2,000 years ago, it means I am already healed! You might ask, “How is this possible? I am still in pain! Leslie, you’re saying that I am healed, but I don’t feel healed.”

The fact is that God has already healed us. However, sometimes it takes time to accept your healing. What you must do is believe and expect to start feeling healed!

On which day of creation did God create sicknesses and diseases? Everything was good in the Garden of Eden. There was no death, no pain, and no destruction. God did not create illness; therefore, it is not His will for you to be ill!

Very often Christians pray against the devil as if he had some power. But the devil only has tricks, wiles and deception! He tries to allure people into his trap, getting them to believe something contrary to the Word of God. “…the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).