HEALED BY HIS STRIPES

Read: 1 John 5:6

In the opening chapters of scripture we are told of a
river that flowed through the garden of Eden to water it
and give it life. At the end of scripture (Revelation 22),

we read,

 

And he showed me a pure river of water of

life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of

the throne of God and of the Lamb.

The whole Bible is nothing other than the story of that
River and what it had to go through to keep the human
race from being lost forever.

After Adam was expelled from the Garden, that River
changed. It was not like it was in Eden or will be in
Paradise, but it was still there. Somewhere nearby
every human being on earth, that River is still flowing.

There is a River, the streams whereof
shall make glad the City of God, the
holy place of the tabernacles of the
Most High.

One drink from that River, and your mind clears and you
know that God is there.

One drink from that River and this wasting body of flesh
and blood is quickened supernaturally with life that
restores it to health.

But now the River is not just water as it was in Eden
and will be in Paradise, it's water and blood.

The streams whereof (two streams) shall
make glad the City of God.

When after generations of bondage and dryness that River
broke out over the earth in Moses. The Holy God set
Israel free not just by means of water (the Red Sea,
water from the rock), but by water and blood, the
Pascal Lamb, sacrificed animals.

They were hardly settled in the Promised Land before they
began to dry up again until the River broke out in Samuel
and David. These men ministered not only God's Spirit
but atoning blood.

         "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean."

More years of drought until the River of God broke forth

again in Isaiah and Jeremiah - again you will find water

and blood.

The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Then came the Babylonian Captivity. Just when things
looked hopeless for the people of Israel, the River
started flowing again through Ezekial, Daniel, Ezra, and
Nehemiah.

More long years of emptiness. Then, when the nation of
Israel was rotting in bitterness under Roman occupation,
Jesus appeared on the scene.

Jesus was different from all the prophets and kings who
brought life to Israel in the past. Jesus didn't point
to that River as if it were something outside Himself.
Jesus pointed to Himself, for He was that River - He was
it's source.

"Woman, if you knew the gift of God and who

it is who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink',
you would have asked Him, and He would have
given you living water."

"If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink."

The people who drew near to Jesus received not just some

new point of view, not some psychological adjustment that

made them feel better, but life,

 

- life for the withered body
- life for the desolate mind
- life for the blind eye

- life for the deaf ear.

Things happened to these people that nobody could explain
or deny.

- What can you say when a man, blind from
   birth, washes in a pool at the command
   of Jesus and comes back seeing?

- What can you say when a woman who has been
   bent over for eighteen years stands up
   straight at the touch of Jesus?

- If the skin of your own hands is decaying
   with leprosy, and at the word of Jesus
   you look down and they're as clean and
   whole as they were at birth?

Yet, many who experienced healing in their bodies and
minds at the command of Jesus never took the trouble to
find out what this meant - never bothered to follow the
signs Jesus performed to the source - that River of water
and blood.

That River is flowing like a torrent over the reader at
this moment, bringing healing for you in whatever way

you need it. There is no less healing with you now,
than there was in Nazareth 20 centuries ago.

But when healing comes to you or to your brother or
sister, don't just look at the sign, follow the sign.

Get to the source of this thing.

- Find out what God is really saying to you
  through that outpouring of His life,

- Get down to the root of it and ask yourself,
  "Who is this man who can do these things?".

Many of us still think, "It was easy for Jesus to heal.
Jesus was God". Yes, Jesus was God. But Jesus never
healed as God. He healed as the Son of Man. God the
Son had given up His power and glory and had become a
man.

If He is a man, how come He can heal the
sick by a word or by touch?

Can a man walk up to a  blind person, touch

his eyes and say, "Be healed?", and expect

it to happen?

Can a man take the hand of a cripple, lift
him up and expect the twisted, withered
limb to suddenly be whole?

Can a man speak to the demons that hold a

living soul in bondage and expect them to

get up and run away?

This man can, because His blood is innocent and He is
going to shed it.

This man can heal, because He is taking all disease
and all death into His innocent body and paying for it.

This man can heal, because He is going to die for the
guilt that gave Satan the legal right to put these
diseases on us.

Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows.

Yet we did esteem Him stricken,

Smitten of God and afflicted.

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 when Jesus saw their faith, He said to
the paralytic, "Take heart, my son, your sins
are forgiven". And behold some of the scribes
said within themselves, "This man is blaspheming".

If it had been any other man who forgave sins in his own
name, it would indeed have been blasphemy. But this man
can do it because the weight of the sins of the whole
world is being laid on Him.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We
have turned every one to his own way.

And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity
of us all.

The power of the Cross is upon Him in that house so He
can forgive that man's sins. And the proof that Jesus
can forgive that man's sins is that He can tell him to
step forth from the prison of disease in which human sin
has held us bound.

"Rise, take up your bed and go home."

Follow the sign of whatever healing God has been pleased
to give you and it will always bring you to Calvary -
and there you will see blood and water.   You will meet a
God who is holy - who doesn't play games with sin.   Where
there is sin, there must be an atonement - there must be
a shedding of blood. God doesn't smile and say, "That's
all right, you're only human".

Who may abide the Day of His coming?
And who shall stand when He appeareth?
For He is like refiner's fire and like
fuller's soap.

So; the sky turned dark,
and the earth shook,
and the Innocent One bowed His head and died.

 

And, you will meet a God who is love - who in order to

redeem this stubborn race gave up His only begotten to

become sin for us and to suffer the God-forsaken death

that should have been ours and then raised Him from

death by His Spirit (water),

When the soldier jabbed the spear into Jesus' side to
make sure He was dead, two distinct streams flowed out -
blood and water.

- The blood is for our forgiveness.

- The water is for our healing.,

In this world, until the Kingdom has come in its fullness,
these two streams belong together; forgiveness
and healing, blood and water. Together they are the
River of God.

Satan will try to split them apart from each other in

your thinking and experience. Don't let him do it, or

you'll lose them both.

 

When Jesus sent the disciples forth, He told them to

preach the gospel - forgiveness - and to heal the sick.

"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,

who healeth all thy diseases,"

1. Wherever there is healing in the name of Jesus
(water), there is forgiveness through the blood.
Don't stop at the healing - get to the forgiveness.

Ten lepers were healed, but only one followed the sign
that Jesus worked in their bodies to the place where he
could find real peace with God. Of all the people Jesus
healed, only a small percentage found their way through
that door of blood-bought forgiveness --- into the Kingdom.

If you have seen signs of God's power, yet you know that
you are incomplete, that the life of God is still absent
from your inmost soul, follow the sign to the Cross and
receive the forgiveness of your sin. You're still trying to

carry the weight of your iniquities yourself.

And no matter how many times you've been healed, they're
going to go right on making you sick.

 

The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of
us all.

Take heart, child, your sins are forgiven.

- Believe it.

- Look up at that Cross and see the river of
  blood flowing from His side and believe it.

2.   But it's also true that wherever there is forgiveness
in the name of Jesus, there is healing in that Living
water.

If you have heard the gospel of forgiveness, yet your mind
and soul and body are as oppressed as ever, something is
wrong.

When Jesus tells you that your sins are forgiven, and you

really believe Him, it's got to do more for you than tem-

porarily make you feel better.

 

- It's got to deliver you from bondage.

- It's got to heal you.

 

- It's got to transform your life.

 

If you have heard the gospel of forgiveness and yet have
had no healing, go back and listen to that gospel again.
Stand before Calvary and see that stream of crystal water
flowing from the wound in your Lord's side, hear His
Spirit saying to you,

"I have seen his ways and will heal him.

I will lead him also, and restore comforts
to him and to his mourners.

I create the fruit of the lips.

Peace, peace to him that is far off and to
him that is near, saith the Lord. And I
will heal him.”

One more thing: When we go out into the world we're not
going out to be respectable. We are going out to minister
to those who have never tasted God's grace or have tasted
and forgotten.

These two streams that flow from our Lord's side are now
flowing through us: forgiveness - healing.

And He sent them to preach the Kingdom of
God and to heal.

And they departed and went through the
villages preaching the gospel and healing
everywhere.

They went out with nothing but these two things: the
blood and the water.

- They didn't preach church.
- They didn't preach doctrine.

- They didn't get bogged down in a lot of
   fancy equipment.

 

- They proclaimed God's forgiveness.

- They manifested God's healing and God
  was with them.

And God will be with us in power such as many of us have
never seen if we will let go of the side issues and get
out there and do what our Lord is sending us to do.

There is a River, the streams whereof shall
make glad the City of God.

That River is in us! It is a river of blood and water.
Jesus blood - Jesus Spirit. And it does mighty things
when those two streams are kept together.