8. Suppose You Lose Your Healing

After writing the last chapter on how to keep your healing, I had completed writing down my thoughts under the title “Jehovah Rapha”. But I am compelled to write this chapter also due to certain circumstances. We are treasuring the healing which we have received after a lot of yearning and craving. We are going on with our routine life praising God each day. Then suddenly in happens! You have become ill again. A thousand bees are humming through your mind. A flood of doubts and questions to which you can find no answer, is running through your mind. Where did I go wrong? Did I break my commitment? Some of the so called “spiritual” people might pronounce their opinions and judgments on you which will sink you further in despair. These opinions and judgments might seem to haunt you more in your current mental state than your physical disease. Are they correct? We may ask ourselves whether this happened because of that. I am going to handle this topic authoritatively because I have gone through all these experiences I have listed above. Let me share my thoughts with you. Please read further. What does the Word of God say? Let us look at Psalms 11:3. “When the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do?” (NIV) When did the foundations get destroyed? The second verse says, “For look, the wicked bend their ways, they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.” Even though you are upright in heart, you may have to go through the experience of a shadow. Psalm 64: 3-4 says, “They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows. They shoot from ambush at the innocent man, they shoot at the innocent man; they shoot at him suddenly without fear.”(NIV) There only one remedy for a situation like this. We read that in Psalms 11:4. “The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord is on His throne. He observes the sons of men, his eyes examine all them.”(NIV) God is examining how we are reacting to all this. Our only hope is that we have a God who is enthroned in heaven. We have a great and faithful God who weighs our heart (Proverbs 11: 4), our motives (Proverbs 16:2) and works (Daniel 5: 27). That is our hope. Though we had witnessed God when we have received our healing, our present condition is more painful than we can comprehend. Only the people who have gone through the pain of being ill before the same people to whom they had witnessed their healing can understand the pain of it. God will never put us to shame. His great name is glorious. For His name’s God will restore us in His mercy and grace. Our God still lives, who promised us that he will repay us for the years the locust, the cankerworm and the caterpiller and the palmerworm have eaten. (Joel 2: 25 KJV) If a plant is attacked together by locusts, cankerworm, caterpiller and palmerworm, will anything be left of the plant? God promises that he will take and this people out of such a situation and give them abundant prosperity. (Joel.2: 23-24) And the Word of God adds, “My people shall never be ashamed.” (Joel 2: 27 KJV) He is a God of restoration. He has prepared for us an overflowing of blessings. Let us correct our part. Frightening thoughts are weapons of Satan. Satan was waiting for an opportunity like this. Without losing the opportunity he has got, Satan is shooting hundreds of fearful thoughts into your mind. Cover and hide yourself in the blood of Jesus and resist him with courage. He will flee from us. Let us repair any gaps in our fortress of prayer. Let us renew our commitment. Examine our lives. Correct whatever the Holy Spirit is showing us. Let us spend time with God alone. Let us return to the Lord with a broken heart. (Hosea 6: 1-2) Let us look at the promise given in that scripture. (1) He will heal us. (2) He will bind up our wounds. (3) He will revive us. (4) He will restore us. (5) We will live in His presence. The same scripture reminds us that he will appear in our lives as surely as the sun rises. (Hosea 6: 3 NIV) Even when we are groping in the darkness of midnight, one thing is sure for the children of God. We have the promise of a wonderfully prepared morning. What a wonderful promise has He given us! He restores us step by step. Raises up and makes us walk in His presence with life. It will never be enough even if we gives praises to our God our whole life. Let us look at Psalms 91: 14-15. “Because he has set His love upon me, therefore I will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honour him”(NIV) All these are promises of him who “dwells in the secret place of the most high and abides under the shadow of the Almighty.” Even though he was in such a secure place he had to go through severe test. But God promises that He will deliver him, set him up and honour him. In Acts 11: 22 we see Barnabas exhorting the people that “with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord”. (KJV) Many people cleaved to God and received a wonderful blessing. Ruth cleaved. God blessed her beyond her imagination. Caleb was able to enter the promised land because he cleaved to God. (Joshua 14:9) So he was able to drive out the Anakims at the age of eighty five and occupy Hebron. Though David had many shortcomings he cleaved unto God. It is written about him that “he was a man after God’s own heart who will do all My will” (Acts 13: 27 NKJV) and that “David served his own generation by the will of God”. (Acts 13: 36 NKJV) Because Jonathan cleaved unto David Mephiboseth was exalted to the table of the king. In short, God plans not only to deliver those who cleave unto him, but also to honour and raise them up. In the day of your trouble look unto Lord’s face alone. Close your ears to the opinions and advices of men. The faithful God who said He will answer us when we call unto Him will definitely answer us. The arm of the Lord has not become too short to save even today. That arm is still stretched out and open. The same arm spreads out, heals and blesses unconditionally. Praise the Lord! The Word of God teaches us that if our heart do not condemn us we have confidence before God. (1 John 3: 21) Then why did this happen? Let me encourage you from the Word of God. Think about how Jesus was put into the prison. He had been leading a life full of God’s grace and presence. Even when the temptation to sin was acute, he said “…..How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”(NIV) The severe suffering he went through is portrayed in Psalms. 105: 18-19. They bruised his feet with shackles; his neck was put in irons”. But God had kept a time limit as we see in the following verse “till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him through” (NIV). We know that after that period was over God exalted him in such a way that all his sufferings seemed like a dream. When he was in the midst of the suffering, he must have agonized and anguished a lot. It was not because of his own mistake or sin that he fell into that circumstance. If we look at the context in which Moses was forced to run away into the desert, we can see that it happened when he had committed himself totally for God’s will. We see this in Hebrews 11: 24-26. When Moses grew up he was in the midst of all kinds of pleasures and comfort in the king’s palace. But he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin. He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. This was not an accidental happening. He chose it with his complete understanding. As a result of that he spent long forty years in the desert tending the sheep. Many thoughts might have tormented him. He must have thought in his human intellect that he who had received the greatest education and training of the day to become a king had reached this situation because of his commitment. God who was watching him intently throughout those forty years called him at the right time and lifted him up. He became a great man of God privileged to be called "God’s friend”. Hagar was a foolish girl. When she became pregnant from her master Abraham, she forgot who she was. When Sarah mistreated Hagar, she fled to the desert. The merciful Lord sent his angel to her. He did not condemn her. Instead he encouraged her. He gave her good promises regarding the child to be born and sent her back to her mistress. According to God’s leading she and her child spent years safely back with her mistress. It was then that Abraham sent her away empty handed again with God’s leading. Hagar must have wept, “Why did my God send me back here that day?” Just think how beautifully that story progresses. Once God sent her to a secure place. The same God allowed her to be thrown out of the security. But God did not forsake her. God again sent his angel to her and opened a well of water in the desert just for that thirsty boy. God also gave her the promise that He will make Him a great nation. The rich Arabs we see in the Middle East today is the fulfillment of that promise Lord made to the poor Hagar. God’s faithfulness remains the same even after centuries. Look at Job. The Lord Himself said about Job that he is blameless and upright and that there is no one on the earth like him and that he is a man who fears God and shuns evil. Still he sorrowed a lot in his suffering. But God came down to him. God honoured him and lifted him up before all who despised him. We can find many instances like these in the Word of God. Though terrible things happened in the lives of Shadrach, Meshach, Abed Nego and Daniel, God miraculously helped them. Think about this and draw courage. This God is great and unchanging. Listen to what the Word of God clearly says. Deuteronomy 33: 26 says, “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in His Majesty. The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.” That God will remove the disease which is breaking you apart and will lead you victoriously over every circumstance. Can you believe this? Can you take this up? Then you will definitely experience it. In 2 Samuel 24, we see that during David’s reign in Israel, he once committed the sin of counting the people. God sent Gad the prophet to him who gave him three options of punishment. All the three options were equally severe. David’s reply is very beautiful. “Let us fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercy is great”. Yes, that is the way which we have in front of us too. God performs great things in our lives because of grace and His mercy which never change. His goodness endures continually (Psalm 52:1). His kindness is everlasting.(Isaiah 54:8) His mercy is as high as the heaven. (Psalm 103:11) His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22) His loving kindness is better than life. (Psalm 63:3) The earth is full of His mercy. (Psalms.119:64) This big God in His mercy and kindness towards us made us His children and inheritors. Let us fall into the arms of this great grace. He has promised that He will never forsake those who come to him. Let us commit ourselves into those great arms. Our Lord will come down to help us. He will restore us. He will rebuild us as we were before. (Jeremiah 33: 7) He will make us prosperous again. (Job 42:10) Though He has made us see many bitter troubles He will restore our life again from the depths of the earth and will bring us up again. (Psalms 71:20) He will increase our honour and comfort us once again. (Psalms. 71:21) He will revive us again so that His people will rejoice in Him. (Psalms 85:6) Yes be courageous. Let your heart be strong. ` To store a treasure, gold or silver vessels are used normally. But God has chosen jars of clay to store His excellent power. (2Corinthians4:7) Jars of clay which have no beauty or attractiveness to boast about! Jars of clay are baked in the furnace. God likes and uses jars of clay which become stronger and more beautiful when the heat of the furnace increases. Can we question His wisdom? Let us look at 2 Corinthians 4:8-10. We can see God’s intensive care in the midst of suffering. 1. We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed 2. Perplexed but not in despair 3. Persecuted but not abandoned 4. Struck down but not destroyed. How beautiful! Many times we fall into situations where we are hardpressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted and struck down. But God takes care of us and makes sure with His surpassing power that we are not crushed, in despair, abandoned and destroyed. Praise the Lord! I think that the reason why God allows us to go through these situations is mystery known only to him. But if we read 2 Corinthians 4: 15, we see a purpose that “…..so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to the glory of God”(NIV). The KJV translation says “….that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God” God should increase in many. The name of the Lord should be glorified. Thanksgiving should increase. Let us gracefully praise the Lord that we got an opportunity to be part of this big plan of God. It is an undisputed fact that only those who go through suffering can understand the value of blessings of God. ” Who satisfies thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s”(Psalms 103:5) Those who have experienced and known the Lord praise the Lord from the bottom of their hearts. God will do miracles for them. Our creator can never make a mistake. He can never make a blunder. Believe that everything He “allows” in our lives is for our good. This God will surely bless us, keep us and strengthen us more and more.