Fire On Your Head

There are many people in the body of Christ who are asking God these two questions:

“WHY? Why have I been prayed for to be healed, and yet, I’m still suffering?”

“WHEN? When, Lord, will I be healed?”

Perhaps some of you reading this have asked these two questions.
You have requested prayer. The pastor or a visiting evangelist laid hands on you for healing, but you stayed the same as before. You cannot help but wonder, “Why?”
You see in the scriptures that “…Jesus… went about doing good: healing ALL who were oppressed of the devil…” – Acts 10:38
You believe it is God’s will for you to be healed, based on the promises and provisions of the New Testament….and you are CORRECT!
So, now you ask, “When, Lord?”

I asked these same questions myself. You see, several years ago, I received a revelation about healing from Luke 4:18 and Matthew 10. I began to see multitudes healed on a regular basis OUTSIDE THE 4 WALLS OF THE CHURCH! But…inside the church, it was a completely different story.

This perplexed me and caused me much anguish. I spent much time of the next few years, praying, fasting and asking Father about it. Then, I received another great revelation from Scripture. As a result, I now see as many healed inside the Church as I do outside the Church.

The answer is found in several passages of scripture. We’ll look first at James 5:14-16:

“Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

A great part of my failure INSIDE the Church, among BELIEVERS, was that I was trying to apply the same principles there as I was using in the “…As you go,…” area.

You see, our Lord Jesus, in the days of His flesh, healed ALL that were sick…BUT…NOT ONE OF THEM WAS A CHRISTIAN when He healed them! Many times, after healing them He would warn, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto you!”

All Jesus required of these sinners to GET HEALED was enough faith to ALLOW Him to touch them and say, BE HEALED!…or RISE AND WALK!…

Now that Jesus has gone to the cross, died, been buried and has risen again from death, He has born-again children of God who sometimes need healing. We, as followers of Jesus Christ are no longer ignorant sinners. We are born of God! We Know Him! We have His words and we read them (or at least, we should). “To whom MUCH is given, Much is required”.

Notice verse 14 of James 5, “Is ANY sick AMONG YOU?” Then, in verse 16, “…confess your faults (sins) one to another, and pray one for another THAT YOU MAY BE HEALED…”

You see, my dear brother/sister, the Father requires something MORE of us!
As we will see in future articles on this subject as we go over a number of passages of scripture in detail, the primary hindrances to healing inside the Church, are bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness.

The Church at Corinth, in the days of the Apostle Paul, was faced with this same situation. Some of them had become sick and were not healed. Others became sick and actually died as a result. This brought up the inevitable question, “WHY?”

Paul endeavored to answer it in his first letter to the Corinthians. In 1Cor. 11:17-18(AMP):

“But in what I instruct [you] next I do not commend [you], because when you meet together, it is not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you assemble as a congregation, I hear that there are cliques (divisions and factions) among you; and I in part believe it”.

Also, in verses 27-31(AMP),we read this concerning the taking of communion:

So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in a way that is unworthy [of Him] will be guilty of [profaning and sinning against] the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man [thoroughly] examine himself, and [only when he has done] so should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discriminating and recognizing with due appreciation that [it is Christ's] body, eats and drinks a sentence (a verdict of judgment) upon himself. That [careless and unworthy participation] is the reason many of you are weak and sickly, and quite enough of you have fallen into the sleep of death. For if we searchingly examined ourselves [detecting our shortcomings and recognizing our own condition], we should not be judged and penalty decreed [by the divine judgment].

Brothers and sisters in Christ, THERE IS HEALING IN THE ATONEMENT, and that is what communion represents. We can be healed as we partake, UNLESS WE PARTAKE UNWORTHILY, NOT DISCERNING THE LORD’S BODY!

We are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ to WALK IN LOVE, PERIOD!  We are even exhorted to “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven. For He makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what thanks do you have…? And if you greet your brothers only, How are you different…? Be ye therefore perfect (mature, walking in love), even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect (loves His enemies).” – Matt. 5:44-48.

WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST!

Communion is a representation of His body. The bread represents His body. He took stripes on His body to provide for our healing. Are you beginning to get the picture here? Communion means “common-union”.  When we allow bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, envy, strife, jealousy, slander, etc… to have a place in us, we divide the body of Christ. These things hinder your faith and cause your heart to condemn you.

1 John 3:18-23:

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.  And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.  For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.  And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.  And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

Perhaps you are thinking, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY DID!”

The greater the offense – the greater the opportunity to exercise the God kind of love, and FORGIVE!

Remember the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis? His brothers did him wrong, and THEY WERE THE PEOPLE OF GOD!!! Did he hold it against them? No, and he wasn’t even born-again!

DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?  Forgive those who’ve wronged you.

Your servant-brother,

Joel Crumpton

If you would like to hear more on this subject and go further in depth with both *being* healed, and ministering healing you may want to listen to our two part series of our Fire On Your Head Podcast

“Are Any Among You sick?”

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“As you Go, Heal the Sick!”

Download this episode (right click and save)