Friday, January 14, 2011

Does God Allow Sickness for His Glory?

"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Luke 12:32

Not convinced? Try this verse:

"If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?" Luke 12:28
Or...
"If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?" Luke 11:11
Would I allow sickness to come upon my son for my glory? I certainly would not. And mind you I am a normal human father, one who is not the Creator of this universe. Do you think our Heavenly Father, who has made all the mountains and the valleys, the seas and the fields, and the 100 billion galaxies; and most importantly the Father who gave His Son Jesus as a sacrifice to pay for our sins - would such a loving and great God be glorified and be happy watching His creation - including His born again children - writhe in pain?
On December 30, 2009, I lost my cousin brother to leukaemia. The side effects of the chemotherapy - hair fall, weakness, galloping infection…do you think God rejoiced in his suffering? My uncle spent his fortune behind the treatment - 4 million Indian Rupees - close to US$ 85000 (which is quite a lot of money here in India). I don't think my cousin's suffering brought God any glory. You might ask, "What about John 9:3 and John 11:4?" Well, at that point of time, Jesus had not yet sacrificed his life. The event in that verse took place in between Isaiah 53:5 ("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.") and 1 Peter 2:24 ("Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."). As you read this, Jesus has already died, been buried, been resurrected, presented his blood in Heaven before the Father, come back to Earth and ascended to Heaven. It is really finished! In fact, it is almost time for his return for the Rapture!
True, unsaved people cannot command sicknesses to go away as their sins are not yet forgiven. But we as believers can pray for them - in fact, we are commanded to lay hands on the sick and they shall recover - and thereby prove that what we preach is the Truth. The Old Testament says in Isaiah 54:17, that the heritage of the servants of the LORD is such that "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn." Jesus said (in the New Testament - John 10:10) that "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." If no weapon formed against Old Testament saints would prosper, do you think God would allow anyone to form a weapon against New Covenant Christians and then allow it to prosper too - so that He would (?) be glorified…?
Well, I could possibly go on for many more pages. I will…but we will split these up into a few more posts. So do keep commenting. I can gain greater insight and do my bit so that the Body of Christ (of which I am a part) is built up and strengthened by the Word of God and by praise and worship that are done in Spirit and in Truth.

12 comments:

  1. Keep blogging for His glory!
    Your blog has been awarded at
    http://bestchristianblogoftheweek.blogspot.com/

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  2. Thank you for choosing my blog as the best Christian blog of the week! God bless you and use you as a blessing for His Kingdom and purpose.

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  3. I agree fully. It just is not consistent with the "nature of God" to put sickness on us for his glory. He too often proves just the opposite throughout the bible. Trials come as a result of our actions but WE are the ones acting and bring the trials instead of God suddenly choosing to make an example of us for no good reason. He even warns us as well as those in the bible of the consequence of our action before it happens. If he wanted it to happen he's just sit and wait and then reap his "glory" from bringing us out of our persecution or by our "being strong" through adversity and dying in a christian manner. Sorry I just don't buy that God wants any of us to die by the hands of sickness or being old an feeble. When Moses died there is no conversation of sickness instead he died and his eyesight had not faded. This tells me he was so healthy he even had good eyesight.

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  4. Les you expressed it really well - the improbability of God watching us suffer and then reaping His glory by healing us. No doubt in every divine healing, God is glorified; but it seems highly unlikely that a loving God would put or allow sickness so he could heal us. It would be like the police allowing a criminal to rob us so that they can catch the thief and get laurels.

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  5. i found your blog on a "best christian blogs" site. it's very good! i was in india last summmer.. as a missionary in hyderabad. feel free to check out my blog too :) take care!

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  6. Sir,
    God does not put sickness on Christians,it's the devil.satan had access to God till the BLOOD was shed and put on the mercy seat to make atonement for us.Rev 12 says they overcame him by the BLOOD of the LAMB and satan was cast down to earth
    Please also read Isiah 53-JESUS bore not only our sins but also our sickness

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  7. Great point there, William. Many people cite the example of Job and say satan could access God's throne and took permission from God to inflict Job. But with the Atonement, his access to God's throne actually ended. If it did not, God would probably be really unjust - born again believers who are joint heirs with Christ (seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus) - being allowed by God to be sick, but satan - who was a thief from the beginning, being allowed to access God's throne. O how absurd it sounds!

    Our God is a good God. Either we can access God's throne of grace in Jesus' name, or the devil can access it. Both cannot - or else Jesus' atonement was in vain. Think about it, dear folks.

    Those who believe God allows sickness for His glory may be well-meaning, Heaven-bound people, but they are missing out on a whole lot of blessings. And also the opportunity to BE a blessing for people who God wants saved and healed and delivered (remember: God wants that none should perish).

    Even as I type, the Holy Spirit keeps putting these finer nuances (or angles) into my heart and mind and I just don't feel like getting my hands off the keyboard!!! God bless you all!

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  8. I struggle with this issue in my current church. I believe as you do--that God's will for us is to be in good health and prosper. My church fasts and prays for healing for people, then turns around and teaches that sickness is God's will for His glory. I get frustrated by this, and I know my church is not the only one. My former pastor used to say, "if you think sickness is God's will, pray for more of it!"
    :-) Puts the issue in perspective for sure.

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  9. I believe that in our sickness if we are Christians we come to know Him better cause we depend on Him for comfort and understanding during that time. Depending on Him , He gives back to us in many ways some we do not understand and don't need to . But give us sickness NO..In our sickness we do show our faith more if we walk in faith cause many are watching to see how we handle it. If we don't lean on Him in our weakest times then we won't in our strongest..Its all a walk of faith. And out of all bad good comes..Walk in faith daily and He leads us...

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  10. We live under a new covenant, a new testament, the old testament has examples of people getting sick and God allowing Satan to test Job, however Jesus Christ has made all things new , we live under a new covenant, part of our salvation is our ability to heal every time Jesus healed someone he said "Your faith has Healed you" GOd loves us he does not want us to suffer He came and spilled His blood for our salvation we are saved in Jesus name and that includes sickness.

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  11. This is in response to the Anonymous comment written on June 24, 2011...

    You say well, that God does not GIVE sickness, but I still believe that God does not even allow sickness. As our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God (1st Cor. 6:19), we do not have a right to tolerate its getting defiled or broken in any way - neither in the form of accident, injury etc. nor sickness etc. As we are seated in heavenly places with Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:6), we cannot be sick, simply because there is no sickness neither any pain in Heaven. So how can God allow something (actively; i.e. other than the law of sowing and reaping) that is contradictory to His own Word? The Bible says His Word is forever settled in Heaven (Psalm 119:89). We should take these verses as good news and assert ourselves against sickness and disease.

    Just a few days ago, I went up to my father-in-law who was in the ICU...laid my hand on him and commanded sickness to leave his body in Jesus' name. I commanded his body to regain full consciousness by 3 p.m. the next day. He smiled at my mother-in-law at 11:30 a.m.! I merely obeyed God's command and God backed it up with His Word in action - healing manifested.

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  12. Excellent post Ketan, and good comments! God bless you for promoting the New Life we have in Christ. There is a lot of wrong mindsets that have crept into believers that are robbing us of the power given to us not only to preach the gospel but to heal the sick, raise the dead etc.

    I have been listening to Curry Blake teaching on this subject and has caused a revolution in my understanding of the scriptures.

    I am now teaching the same to others and already seeing God working in amazing ways!

    You can check Curry out in jglm.org

    God bless and keep you!

    Rev Moss
    2revmoss@gmail.com

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