The Hebrew Word for Health Is Medicine: The Word Is Medicine to Your Flesh

Sermon outline

God's word is medicine to all your flesh, so give it first place and undivided attention, stand on it in faith, forgiveness and thanksgiving, and eat from the table the Lord has prepared for you in the presence of your enemies.

1. Attend and incline: the word is medicine to your flesh

   To attend to God's words means two things: putting them first, and giving them undivided attention. To incline means staying focused on the word, never failing and never relenting. We should hold God's word with the same certainty as the facts of our lives, such as our name and our bank balance. People who come for a healing and leave straight afterwards are seeking the creation rather than the Creator, the healing rather than the Healer.

   Illustration: Our facts are certain: I am a man, my surname is Sing, I am of a certain descent, I have a certain amount in the bank. That is how we should look at the word of God.

   “The Word of God is medicine to my flesh.”

   • Proverbs 4:20-22
   • Psalm 119:130

2. The Giver does not need to justify Himself

   There are different gifts but the same Spirit, who decides which gift each person has. Sometimes God works in a particular way only once, and we should not set expectations about how, when or with whom He acts. Our part is to listen carefully to the truth, not drift from it, and stand firm.

   Illustration: Kenneth Hagin played worship and teaching on a loop through headphones to a man in an induced coma, and after thirty days the man woke and was well. Benny Hinn told of a Muslim woman healed on the roadside outside one of his crusades before she even walked in. A father giving his son a gift does not have to justify it to his daughter.

   “The giver of the gift doesn't need to justify.”

   • 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
   • Acts 5:15
   • Hebrews 2:1-4

3. Keep a clean slate: walk in forgiveness

   Sometimes we hold on to the hate more than we hold on to the promise, and so reap the hate and are robbed of the promise. Keep a short account with the Lord and walk in love, mercy and grace in the family, the church and the workplace.

   Illustration: Kenneth Copeland was called to pray for a woman dying of cancer. The Lord told him she had something to release, and the heavily medicated woman sat up and said she would never forgive her husband for what he had done years before.

   “Sometimes we hold onto the hate more than we hold onto the promise.”

4. Stand in faith and give thanks

   When you have done all you can, start thanking the Lord instead of calling one prophet after another to pray. If two agree on anything it will be established, and you are the prophet and priest of your own home. Praying the identical prayer day after day is unbelief; God heard the first time, so thank Him for the victory. Answers may come quickly, slowly or over many years, but the common denominator is you, the believer.

   Illustration: Telling your wife you love her once does not become more true by repeating the identical conversation every day.

   “God heard you the first time.”

   • Matthew 18:19

5. Be like Stephen: full of the Spirit, wisdom and faith

   When the early church chose seven to serve tables, the requirements were to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Stephen alone was also described as full of faith, and though he was only a worker, not an apostle, he went on to work miracle after miracle. He asks the church to be Stephens rather than unbelieving believers.

   “Holy Spirit, wisdom, and full of faith. That's the requirement.”

   • Acts 6:1-5
   • Acts 6:8

6. In my kingdom: take authority over your life

   Are we in authority over our own lives, or are situations and people dictating our government? Rejoice in the Lord, be anxious for nothing, bring everything with thanksgiving, and fix your thoughts on what is true, honourable and of good report rather than on the news, the people making life a misery, or what the teachers say about our children.

   Illustration: He describes the Queen, after her husband's death, opening Parliament without any introduction or thanks for prayers, simply declaring for twenty minutes what her government would do in her kingdom. In my kingdom, he says, I shall serve the Lord, I will not miss church, and sickness, doubt and unbelief are out the door.

   “We are in charge of our government.”

   • Philippians 4:4-9

7. Eat from the table

   The table runs through Scripture as a place of blessing, belonging, forgiveness and offering. Healing is the children's bread, and the Lord prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies, so we prosper and are promoted even while they remain. Wealth is not only what money buys but healing and protection. The table is also a place of sacrifice, as for Abraham with Isaac, and Jonah shows the cost of running. We are made to the Manufacturer's specification, so repurpose your pain, betrayal and past for His kingdom.

   Illustration: He says he has eaten from the dish of forgiveness more than his fair share. At birth doctors said he would be brain dead; he had eczema and asthma so severe in the 1980s that his father took him for nebulisers and steroid injections every few days; he has survived car accidents and house robberies, and God healed and protected him. You do not put a BMW engine in a Mercedes or another operating system on a Windows computer; why replace the word of God?

   “Wealth is healing. Wealth is protection. Wealth is not going through certain things.”

   • Isaiah 25:6
   • Matthew 15:21-28
   • Psalm 23
   • Genesis 22:7-8
   • Mark 16:15

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