What is the Purpose of Your Sickness?

June 10, 2007

What is the Purpose of Your Sickness?

The Last Supper by Fritz von Uhde (1886). Image source.

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:29-32)

The “Lord’s Supper” was something Jesus himself had set up to commemorate his death on the cross, and the beginning of the New Covenant where the bread and wine symbolized his body and blood: the bread symbolizes his broken body and the wine symbolizes the blood he shed for us for the forgiveness of sins.

But in the city of Corinth some participants were not acting like believers at all. They were acting like carnal people still walking in the kingdom of darkness.

Gluttony and drunkenness were being observed in some of these celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, and the result was that some of them had become weak and sick, and some of them had even died as a result of their “eating the bread or drinking the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner.” They were “guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord,” and their sickness was a result of God’s judgment on their sin. They did not take the Lord’s Supper seriously, and suffered as a result.

Paul then states this very important principle: “But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”

Sickness is often a way that God is judging us to try and get our attention; to get us to repent and start moving in a different direction. It is the discipline of a loving heavenly father who wants us to enjoy his blessings, and not the judgments he needs to carry out against the kingdom of darkness and those walking in that darkness.

When we are reborn into God’s kingdom, we become children of God and can walk in the light of that kingdom. But if we choose to continue walking in the darkness even after we have become God’s children, we will often suffer many of the same consequences that those who are not God’s children suffer in the kingdom of darkness. God disciplines us as his children:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:1-13)

I realize that the idea of our sickness being a result of our sins is not a popular message today, because our humanistic culture is built upon the foundation of Darwinian evolution, and it has taught us to believe that all sickness is a result of natural causes that we can control in our environment.

The drug companies have developed a medicine or vaccine for just about every problem now with this belief system. If they cannot find a cause for the sickness in the natural realm, they usually just cite the cause as “stress” (or some other psychological “disease”) and give a pill for that too.

The spiritual realm, including sin, is usually not even acknowledged. While it is certainly true that our environment, the physical realm, can cause us to be sick, we should first examine ourselves and see if there is a spiritual cause.

Sin is very real, and it has very real consequences in our physical bodies. If God is disciplining us through our sickness, then physical remedies (natural or medical) will probably not work:

Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain you have used many medicines; there is no healing for you. (Jeremiah 46:11)

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? (Jeremiah 8:22)

Are you properly evaluating your sickness and its causes? There can be many causes of sickness, including physical causes and spiritual causes. The spiritual causes are most often related to sin, as we read above in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. If the cause of our sickness is spiritual, the solution is also spiritual:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord… (Acts 3:19)

If you are one of God’s adopted children and have been granted access into his kingdom, do not ignore the discipline of your loving heavenly father! His goal and purpose in your struggles is to draw you closer to him and to be separated from the kingdom of darkness which will experience his condemnation and judgment.

So when you experience sickness, do you trust in a humanistic culture and their solutions, or are you like King David who knew who to trust in when he faced sickness?

O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. (Psalms 30:2)

The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health. (Psalms 41:3)

Who do You Run to When You are Sick?

What is Your Attitude towards Sickness?

Who is Responsible for Providing Healthcare?

Medicine: Idolatry in the Twenty First Century

The Authority to Heal

The subject of “authority” and health is one that affects every living person on the planet today, and everyone reading this article. Here in the 21st Century, various government agencies regulate “health” and operate under laws and regulations as to just who has the authority to practice healing. This would include the World Health Organization (WHO) internationally, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States.

“Health” of course is generally defined today as “practicing medicine,” and the authority given by government to “practice medicine” is tightly controlled through government licensing. Someone not licensed, or using unapproved products for healing, face arrest and imprisonment.

A similar situation existed during the First Century. Jesus and his disciples did not follow the laws set forth by the government body of their day, and their system of healing was far superior. When common people outside the educated ruling class dared to oppose their authority and implement healing in Jesus name, they faced arrest and even execution in the First Century.

The authority of Jesus is still in place today, as is his healthcare plan. Just as there was during the days and times of Jesus’ earthly life and immediately afterward, there is a competing health care system in place today that denies the authority of Jesus, and would feel threatened if enough people started being healed through Christ’s healthcare plan. To oppose the authority of today’s medical system and their approved cures is to risk punishment and even imprisonment.

The current healthcare system is not a “healthcare” system at all, but a “medical” system designed to bring great profit to the pharmaceutical companies and others who profit from treating sick people. If enough people started exercising the authority of Jesus to see cures without having to pay for medical care, it would threaten their business, and opposition would be just as fierce as it was during the days of Jesus and the early disciples. But will that ever happen?

Read:

The Authority to Heal

Free Shipping Available!

Published on June 10, 2007

Tags: sickness, sin|

4 Comments

Elizabeth Carter July 7, 2017 at 4:05 pm - Reply

7/6/2017

Thank you for your prayers. I woke up the morning of 7/4/17 with this verse from the article strongly on my mind.

I thought a lot about it and wondered if I was not walking straight. I was thinking about it from a purely physical standpoint. Then I decided to look at some commentaries on that verse. I found several that made this point:

Heinrich Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

Hebrews 12:13. καὶ τροχιὰς ὀρθὰς ποιήσατε τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν] and make straight tracks with your feet, i.e. advance with straight course upon the Christian path of life you have once entered upon, without bending aside to the right or to the left; that is to say, without mingling up that which is Jewish with that which is Christian, or suffering yourselves to be enticed to a relapse into Judaism. Incorrectly do Ebrard, Delitzsch, Riehm (Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 789), Alford, Kluge, Moll, Kurtz, Ewald, M‘Caul, Hofmann, and others explain τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν: for your feet. For, apart from the fact that this interpretation destroys the harmony with the figure employed at Hebrews 12:12, that of the παρειμέναι χεῖρες and παραλελυμένα γόνατα, the author cannot possibly intend to say that the readers themselves have first to prepare the way for themselves. The way has already been prepared for them by Christ (Hebrews 10:20), and it is now only a question of their making advance upon the same in the right way.

For the expression, which accidentally forms a hexameter⁽¹¹⁸⁾ (see Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 595), comp. LXX. Proverbs 4:26 : ὀρθὰς τροχιὰς ποίει σοῖς ποσί.

ἵνα μὴ τὸ χωλὸν ἐκτρπῇ, ἰαθῇ δὲ μᾶλλον] that not (even) that which is lame may turn aside from the way, but rather he healed. τὸ χωλόν denotes not the suffering member in an individual, but within the larger community, thus the member of the Christian communion who is lame or halting, i.e. who makes only a tottering progress in Christianity, and falls away from the same if he does not gain a support in the rest of the community advancing in a straight course [Galatians 2:14]. On τὸ χωλόν, as figurative designation of the wavering between two different bents of belief, comp. LXX. 1 Kings 18:21 : ἕως πότε ὑμεῖς χωλανεῖτε ἐπʼ ἀμφωτέραις ταῖς ἰγνύαις; how long do ye halt upon both knee-joints (sides), i.e. do ye hesitate between the service of Jehovah and that of Baal?

To the verb ἐκτρέπεσθαι, Fr. Junius, Grotius, Wolf, Carpzov, Heinrichs, and many others, finally Bleek, de Wette, Ebrard, Kurtz, Ewald, on account of the opposition ἰαθῇ δὲ μᾶλλον, assign the passive signification: to be dislocated. But justified by the usage of the language (see Wetstein at 1 Timothy 1:6) is the middle signification alone: bend aside (from the way), turn aside. This signification is therefore to be maintained here also, and ἰαθῇ δὲ μᾶλλον continues in an abbreviated form the figure employed, in that its meaning is: but rather through the animating example given by the whole body, may he cured of his wavering, and briskly advance with the rest.

https://www.studylight.org/commentary/hebrews/12-1…

These ideas immediately made perfect sense to me. Our medicine is primarily Jewish.

When I limp or am in pain, people will ask if I have had an x-ray or considered surgery or shots, etc. I just say no and don’t make an issue of it. I know that Jesus can heal me and do not go to doctors, but I have taken aspirin or used a knee brace or Biofreeze sometimes. I have been on a LCHF diet since June 2015 and that has helped me a great deal in many ways including weight loss and reducing inflammation.

I keep praying for Jesus to heal me and I have been healed of many things over the years with no medical intervention. One of the things that would come to mind sometimes would be about Jacob wrestling with God and his hip being injured. I didn’t know how that would apply really. I took care of all the people I loved while they went to doctors and hospitals and eventually died. But I would not go. I couldn’t see that the doctors were actually doing anything I would consider "healing". As I studied Hebrews 12:13 and prayed about it, I realized that I was being double minded about this problem. It was not life threatening and I was sometimes using worldly methods to try to heal myself. I stopped wavering and I am already much better. I will keep my focus on Jesus Christ of Nazareth and trust Him alone. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:13)

It seems that as I have grown in Christ over the years, I get very firm in my understanding and faith in an area but I still have others that are in process. I think this will take care of my "limb which is lame".

I appreciate your prayers. I very seldom ask anyone to pray for me because they believe in doctors and I don’t. I don’t know how to pray for the people I love who believe in doctors because it feels wrong to me so I pray that their faith in the Lord will grow stronger and they will not need doctors and that He will heal them in a way that they can see that the doctor could not have done it and will give glory to God. Sometimes they were healed in that way and it helped their spiritual growth and not just their physical problem.

I just came back to this site and found that you had prayed for me and I thought about the process I went through the next day. I believe your prayers helped me to see this problem in a different way and put me on the road to permanent healing. Thank you for that.

I will be even more careful of being double minded from now on and that will be one of the first things I pray about.

Elizabeth Carter July 7, 2017 at 4:05 pm - Reply

@Brian said:

Elizabeth-Carter said:

I turned 75 September 7th, 2016. I do not go to doctors anymore. The last time I went was 1993 and it was for a physical to get insurance. I was making a lot of money that year and did not want the doctors to take it from me if I got sick. I passed the physical and did not get the insurance because I decided I would rather trust God. Before that, I had had good company insurance and hardly ever used it. I went to a doctor in 1986 and never went again until 1993. I have Medicare now of course but I have never used it and have no intention of using it.
Sometimes, I get sick and when I do, I pray. So far Jesus has managed to heal me. I totally rely on Him.
I am Protestant and have studied Scripture since I was saved at 11 years old. I have tried various churches but the ones I have gone to find it offensive that I do not go to doctors. I lost my parents, brother, husband and both children to various medical problems. I simply have NO faith in doctors. They believed in doctors and so I took them and took care of them when they were sick and they all died. I have no family left to take care of me but I am not afraid. Jesus takes care of me and He is more than sufficient.
I found your website a couple of days ago and have been reading your articles and books. They resonate with me. In June, 2015, the Lord directed me to LCHF and lost 50 pounds and it has stayed off and has greatly improved my health. That was how I found you and I knew that was a sign from the Lord. I read your article about how you became a Christian and I understood.
When I get sick, the first thing I do is check to see what I think I will get out of it, if I have sinned, and whether I am afraid of something. I pray, put it all before the Lord, and so far I have been healed. I do understand that someday I will get to go home and be with the Lord and I am not afraid.
I believe that I still have work to do here and that He will take me home in His timing.
Since my son died, I have had many instances of pain in my left hip and knee. My daughter died in 1992 and my son died in 2004. They were 33 and 42. I carried my children on my left hip when they were babies. I have wondered if that is why this happens. If is very painful and I limp for days sometimes. I have not dated since 12,1991 and have taken care of all the people that I love for these last 25 years. I work, support myself and live alone. I do not really understand why this is happening to me. It is not incapacitating but it is very painful when it happens. I have my own real estate company so it is important that I can walk. I am wondering if you have any thoughts about what I might need to pray for or if you might pray for me since I know no one who would do that. They all tell me to go to the doctor but I have no belief that is what I should do and so I wait on the Lord. Now, here you are and you actually believe what I believe. It is nice to have some reinforcement. Thank you.
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth,
I am blessed by your testimony! Trusting in Jesus is absolutely the best "insurance" we can have, and I agree with you fully.
If your pain is the result of inflammation, you might want to look at some natural foods or diets or even supplements that can naturally reduce inflammation without the side effects so often associated with certain drugs.
I will certainly pray for you! God bless you!

7/6/2017

Thank you for your prayers. I woke up the morning of 7/4/17 with this verse from the article strongly on my mind.

Heinrich Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

For the expression, which accidentally forms a hexameter⁽¹¹⁸⁾ (see Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 595), comp. LXX. Proverbs 4:26 : ὀρθὰς τροχιὰς ποίει σοῖς ποσί.

https://www.studylight.org/commentary/hebrews/12-1…

These ideas immediately made perfect sense to me. Our medicine is primarily Jewish.

I will be even more careful of being double minded from now on and that will be one of the first things I pray about.

Elizabeth

Brian July 3, 2017 at 9:20 pm - Reply

Elizabeth-Carter said:

I turned 75 September 7th, 2016. I do not go to doctors anymore. The last time I went was 1993 and it was for a physical to get insurance. I was making a lot of money that year and did not want the doctors to take it from me if I got sick. I passed the physical and did not get the insurance because I decided I would rather trust God. Before that, I had had good company insurance and hardly ever used it. I went to a doctor in 1986 and never went again until 1993. I have Medicare now of course but I have never used it and have no intention of using it.
Sometimes, I get sick and when I do, I pray. So far Jesus has managed to heal me. I totally rely on Him.
I am Protestant and have studied Scripture since I was saved at 11 years old. I have tried various churches but the ones I have gone to find it offensive that I do not go to doctors. I lost my parents, brother, husband and both children to various medical problems. I simply have NO faith in doctors. They believed in doctors and so I took them and took care of them when they were sick and they all died. I have no family left to take care of me but I am not afraid. Jesus takes care of me and He is more than sufficient.
I found your website a couple of days ago and have been reading your articles and books. They resonate with me. In June, 2015, the Lord directed me to LCHF and lost 50 pounds and it has stayed off and has greatly improved my health. That was how I found you and I knew that was a sign from the Lord. I read your article about how you became a Christian and I understood.
When I get sick, the first thing I do is check to see what I think I will get out of it, if I have sinned, and whether I am afraid of something. I pray, put it all before the Lord, and so far I have been healed. I do understand that someday I will get to go home and be with the Lord and I am not afraid.
I believe that I still have work to do here and that He will take me home in His timing.
Since my son died, I have had many instances of pain in my left hip and knee. My daughter died in 1992 and my son died in 2004. They were 33 and 42. I carried my children on my left hip when they were babies. I have wondered if that is why this happens. If is very painful and I limp for days sometimes. I have not dated since 12,1991 and have taken care of all the people that I love for these last 25 years. I work, support myself and live alone. I do not really understand why this is happening to me. It is not incapacitating but it is very painful when it happens. I have my own real estate company so it is important that I can walk. I am wondering if you have any thoughts about what I might need to pray for or if you might pray for me since I know no one who would do that. They all tell me to go to the doctor but I have no belief that is what I should do and so I wait on the Lord. Now, here you are and you actually believe what I believe. It is nice to have some reinforcement. Thank you.
Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth,

I am blessed by your testimony! Trusting in Jesus is absolutely the best "insurance" we can have, and I agree with you fully.

If your pain is the result of inflammation, you might want to look at some natural foods or diets or even supplements that can naturally reduce inflammation without the side effects so often associated with certain drugs.

I will certainly pray for you! God bless you!

Elizabeth Carter July 3, 2017 at 9:03 pm - Reply

I turned 75 September 7th, 2016. I do not go to doctors anymore. The last time I went was 1993 and it was for a physical to get insurance. I was making a lot of money that year and did not want the doctors to take it from me if I got sick. I passed the physical and did not get the insurance because I decided I would rather trust God. Before that, I had had good company insurance and hardly ever used it. I went to a doctor in 1986 and never went again until 1993. I have Medicare now of course but I have never used it and have no intention of using it.

Sometimes, I get sick and when I do, I pray. So far Jesus has managed to heal me. I totally rely on Him.

I am Protestant and have studied Scripture since I was saved at 11 years old. I have tried various churches but the ones I have gone to find it offensive that I do not go to doctors. I lost my parents, brother, husband and both children to various medical problems. I simply have NO faith in doctors. They believed in doctors and so I took them and took care of them when they were sick and they all died. I have no family left to take care of me but I am not afraid. Jesus takes care of me and He is more than sufficient.

I found your website a couple of days ago and have been reading your articles and books. They resonate with me. In June, 2015, the Lord directed me to LCHF and lost 50 pounds and it has stayed off and has greatly improved my health. That was how I found you and I knew that was a sign from the Lord. I read your article about how you became a Christian and I understood.

When I get sick, the first thing I do is check to see what I think I will get out of it, if I have sinned, and whether I am afraid of something. I pray, put it all before the Lord, and so far I have been healed. I do understand that someday I will get to go home and be with the Lord and I am not afraid.

I believe that I still have work to do here and that He will take me home in His timing.

Since my son died, I have had many instances of pain in my left hip and knee. My daughter died in 1992 and my son died in 2004. They were 33 and 42. I carried my children on my left hip when they were babies. I have wondered if that is why this happens. If is very painful and I limp for days sometimes. I have not dated since 12,1991 and have taken care of all the people that I love for these last 25 years. I work, support myself and live alone. I do not really understand why this is happening to me. It is not incapacitating but it is very painful when it happens. I have my own real estate company so it is important that I can walk. I am wondering if you have any thoughts about what I might need to pray for or if you might pray for me since I know no one who would do that. They all tell me to go to the doctor but I have no belief that is what I should do and so I wait on the Lord. Now, here you are and you actually believe what I believe. It is nice to have some reinforcement. Thank you.

Elizabeth