Jesus Purchased Our Physical Healing

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted – Isaiah 53:4 (KJV)

Let’s take this Scripture apart word by word and examine it closely. “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Isaac Leeser’s respected translation of the Old Testament--the only English translation of the Bible accepted by the Jewish council--translates the words griefs and sorrows as “sicknesses” and pains.”  So in the Hebrew, it actually says, “Surely He has borne our sicknesses [or our diseases], and carried our pains.” That puts a little different light on this scripture.

Of course, griefs and sorrows are really the same as sickness and disease because sickness and disease cause grief and sorrow. Anyone who says that sickness, disease and pain are blessings from God doesn’t understand God’s nature.

If we want an accurate translation of what this Scripture says, we can go to where it was fulfilled in the New Testament: Referring to Jesus’ healing the multitudes. Matthew 8:17 says, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.”

So Isaiah 53:4 was fulfilled during Jesus’ ministry as He healed people physically. Isaiah’s prophecy, therefore, looked ahead to the time when Jesus would purchase healing for our physical bodies.

CONFESSION:

Jesus took my sickness and disease and carried my pain. He paid the price so I could be well. I believe what the Word says, I am healed!

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

He Carried the Curse Away

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted – Isaiah 53:4 (KJV)

Isaiah is called “the Gospel of the Old Testament.” Hundreds of years before Jesus Christ ever took on flesh and dwelt among us, God gave the prophet Isaiah a vision. Isaiah saw into the future, when Jesus would go to the Cross and die for mankind. The prophet told us not only what the Crucifixion looked like, but he told us what Jesus purchased and why He went to the Cross.

Let’s look at this verse carefully, “ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” A lot of people think that means Jesus just helped us along with our burdens. But borne means to lift up, bear away, convey or remove to a distance.

When Jesus bore our sins, our sicknesses and our pains, He bore them away, or removed them. Both these words, borne and carried imply substitution, or bearing another’s load.

Now look at this: “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Jesus didn’t have any griefs or sorrows of His own. He didn’t have any sickness, pain, sin, iniquity or disease—we do.

We live in this world, we’re under the curse of the Law. But Jesus bore it all for us. He came in as our substitute and took the curse away from us. He didn’t have to do that. He chose to do it. He carried our sickness and pain on Himself, died on the Cross; paid the price; descended into the depths of hell, left the sin, sickness and disease there; and arose three days later. He knew we couldn’t carry that burden, but He could.

Jesus became sin for us, He became sickness for us. Jesus took our sickness, took our disease and carried our pain. We deserved the curse, but, as our substitute, Jesus carried it away.

CONFESSION:

Jesus, the perfect, sinless Lamb of God, took upon Himself my pain, sickness and disease because He loves me. By faith I receive the healing and divine health His sacrifice provides for me.

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

The Arm of the Lord Revealed

Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? – Isaiah 53:1

Did you ever wonder, To whom does God reveal His arm? In other words, to whom does God show His strength? For whom does He work miracles? People say, “Well, you never know for whom God will use His power. God works in mysterious ways.” But that isn’t the way it works.

If someone starts to reveal his arm—to roll up his sleeves—he is getting ready to use some strength.  If some big guy is rolling up his sleeves, you can know he is either about to work or he is getting ready to fight. Well, God reveals His arm—His strength and power—for His people.

For whom does God reveal His arm? Does He have favorite children, or are there some He doesn’t like? Does He look at some people and say, “I don’t know what it is, but something about you bothers me. I just don’t like you, and I don’t even know why. I think I will take all My blessings away from you and give them to someone else?”

No, God is no respecter of persons. God doesn’t have favorite children. What He does for one, He does for anyone. He loves the whole world equally. God loved us while we were yet sinners to the extent that He sent His own Son to die for us.

God doesn’t reveal His arm, use His strength, or exert His power for everyone. God’s arm, His power and His strength are revealed to people who will believe God’s report—His word. It’s so important to believe what God says.

So really, the choice isn’t God’s; it’s yours. If you want God’s power revealed to you, then you must believe His report.

CONFESSION:

God’s report says by Jesus’ stripes, I am healed. I choose to believe and receive that report. Therefore, God reveals His healing power to me, and His report comes to pass in my life.

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

“The Lord That Healeth Thee”

If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.” – Exodus 15:26

This was God’s first healing covenant with His people. Some Hebrew scholars say this verse should be translated in the permissive tense —“I will allow” instead of “I will put,” in which case it would read, “I will allow none of these diseases upon you, which I have allowed upon the Egyptians.”

God finishes by saying, “For I am the Lord that heals you.” The Hebrew says, “I am Jehovah Rapha.”

Two or three million children of Israel had left Egypt believing God. They went out of Egypt with silver and gold, and the Bible says there wasn’t one feeble person among them. (Ps. 105:37.)

But God put a few conditions on this covenant between Himself and His people: “If you will diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes…” You see, even back then in the first healing covenant, there was a correlation between hearing and being healed. One of the conditions for receiving the healing benefits of Jehovah Rapha is giving ear to His commandments. There is a direct connection between hearing and being healed.

Also notice God didn’t say, “I will be the Lord that heals you, or “I was the Lord that healed you,” He said, “I am the Lord that heals you.”

We find in James 1:17 that God never changes, James said there is “No variableness, neither shadow of turning” with God. If He was the Lord who healed His people back then, He is the Lord who still heals His people today. He is still saying, “I am the Lord who heals you. I am Jehovah Rapha.”

CONFESSION:

I am in covenant with Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals me. Therefore, I live in divine health!

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

Be Loosed!

“So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” -Luke 13:16

We’ve learned from this Scripture that sickness is bondage. Next, we saw that sickness came from Satan. Now let’s look at Jesus’ question: “Ought not this woman…be loosed?”

Satan had kept this woman in bondage for eighteen years. But thank God, Jesus said she ought to be loosed!

Jesus was also saying that any person whom Satan has bound with sickness and disease ought to be loosed. And Jesus is in the business of loosing people.

What qualified this woman to be loosed from this satanic bondage? Was she a real saint? Had she done something special? No, Jesus said she ought to be loosed because she was “a daughter of Abraham.”

“Well, where does that leave me?” you may ask. Galatians 3:7 says, “Know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” According to this Scripture, we are sons and daughters of Abraham. We have been grafted into his family through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:29 says, “If you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” What is that promise? Well, one of the promises is that we can be loosed from every bondage of the enemy!

CONFESSION:

Because I’m a child of Abraham, I am loosed from every satanic bondage. I not only enjoy the same rights and privileges as Abraham did, but I also live under a new and better covenant, established on better promises – including the promise that by Jesus’ stripes I am healed!

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999

 

Satan Is the Author of Sickness

“So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” -Luke 13:16

We see from this scripture that (1) sickness is a bondage and (2) Satan is the author of sickness.

For years, I’ve heard people say, “God chose to have me sick.” But Jesus said Satan bound the woman; God didn’t.

The truth is that God detests sickness as much as He detests sin, because sickness is a result of the original sin. Sickness didn’t come into the world until sin did. When God ruled and reigned on the earth through Adam, there was no sickness on the earth. But Adam gave Satan his authority and a long-term lease on creation, and Satan brought sickness with him.

Yet people still blame God for sickness. God had nothing to do with it! It just doesn’t make any sense to call God the author of sickness.

For instance, 1 John 3:8 says, “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” But if God made anyone sick under Jesus’ ministry, then Jesus was destroying the works of God when He healed people! If Jesus destroyed God’s works, then we’re in trouble because the Bible says a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. (Matt. 12:25)

No, Jesus never destroyed one work of God. He only “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38).

CONFESSION:

Any sickness that attacks my body is a bondage of Satan. No sickness is from God. Jesus came to set me free from every sickness and disease, so I accept my healing now!

 

Sickness – Bondage or Blessing?

“So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” -Luke 13:16

Let’s see what we can learn from this verse. First, Jesus called sickness bondage. We don’t know the specific disease this woman had. It could have been crippling arthritis. The Bible called it a spirit of infirmity. But whatever it was, Jesus never called her sickness a blessing. Nor did He say, “Ought not this woman whom Satan has blessed these eighteen years be loosed?” He also didn’t say, “Whom God has blessed these eighteen years.” No, God’s blessing was in sending Jesus to loose the woman from her infirmity.

God never had anything good to say about sickness. In fact, He detested it so much that He sent His own Son to bear all the sickness of the world upon Himself. Sickness was never called a blessing in the Bible, and anyone who calls it a blessing today doesn’t know what the Bible says.

If sickness and disease are from God, then Jesus was fighting against God when He healed people. If sickness and disease are from God, then Jesus robbed God of His glory when He called sickness a bondage of Satan.

Thank God, the Bible sets us free from wrong thinking and wrong believing so we can enjoy the blessings of healing and health!

CONFESSION:

I’m not confused about where sickness came from. Sickness is a bondage from Satan. God wants me to live free of sickness and pain, so I choose to walk in health today.

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999