You Can Be Poor in Health, Not Just in Money

Sermon outline

Poor health is its own kind of poverty, and because salvation includes healing, a believer must honour the Word on healing, refuse sickness as their portion, and put action to faith against whatever runs in the bloodline.

1. Poor health is poverty too

   If your health is not where it should be, you are living in health poverty, and the enemy has come to steal your health. You may come from a generation of sick people and that poverty may have followed you into your salvation, but sickness is not your portion. Jesus left an inheritance, and by His stripes you are healed, so do not embrace or nurse sickness as though it is just the way it is.

   “We do not nurse sickness in our lives as if it is our portion.”

   • Isaiah 53:5
   • Psalm 107:20

2. Sozo and soteria: salvation reaches your body

   Sozo, the verb of salvation, means to be saved, kept safe and sound, and rescued from danger or destruction. Soteria is the act of a saviour who made provision for deliverance, restoration, preservation and salvation. When Jesus said "It is finished", the bonds of poverty in your health were broken.

   “So Jesus didn't just die. He said, "It is finished." That means the bonds of poverty in your health has been broken.”

   • John 19:30

3. The thief steals, Jesus came for full life

   The devil comes only to steal, kill and destroy, so when you hear a diagnosis and your first thought is death, recognise where that thought comes from. The religious idea that God is punishing you with sickness is a lie. Jesus came that you might have life to the full till it overflows, and a person who cannot breathe properly is not living that full life.

   “The enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus came that you might live life to the full till it overflows.”

   • John 10:10
   • 2 Corinthians 5:21
   • 2 Corinthians 1:20

4. Honour the Word on healing

   In John 8 Jesus tells the people they cannot understand Him because they cannot hear Him. She took that through six concordances and reads it as: you do not hear Me because you do not honour Me. People are so used to the counsel of the world that they do not respect God's Word. Honour means placing great importance on something, and you only embrace healing when you honour what Jesus said about it, which ignites your faith.

   “So the word healing needs to be honored.”

   • John 8:42-43
   • John 8:49
   • Proverbs 3:9

5. Your inheritance and your position

   Your sins are forgiven for His name's sake and you are released from the spiritual death that brought sickness from the old nature. Every believer who hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure, and God wishes above all things that you prosper and be in health. Your name, job, address and money do not define you; you are seated with Christ in heavenly places, transacting in two worlds, and faith and words bring what is in heaven down to earth.

   Illustration: No sick person will be in heaven, yet we are seated with Christ in heavenly places and accept sickness here.

   “Who Christ made you defines who you are positionally.”

   • 1 John 2:12
   • 1 John 3:2-3
   • 3 John 2
   • Ephesians 2:6

6. Find out what runs in the bloodline, then counteract it

   She tells of numbness in her hands that reminded her of a condition in her family line. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, she asked a relative for the name of it, not to accept it but to know what she was resisting, refused it, kept confessing the Word, went to the doctor and spoke to her hands. She also changed her eating and began training until her cholesterol came right. Faith without works is dead: if diabetes runs in the family, you cannot eat junk every day and think you will never get it.

   Illustration: She confesses to loving sweet things and passing the habit to her family, until the household had to change the way it ate. An inheritance of ten million will not last long with a great spender; faith needs action too. Wearing a mask during Covid is the same wisdom: you have authority over the disease, but you act responsibly to protect others.

   “You have to find ways to counteract it. You've gotta use your faith, and you've gotta put some action to your faith to get the desired result.”

   • 2 Corinthians 10:5
   • James 5:16
   • James 2:26
   • 1 Peter 2:2

7. Return to sender: speak to the thing

   The devil keeps dropping small thoughts into your head and fear magnifies them, so deal with the fear first and let faith override it. Sickness may come to visit, but it depends whether you put out the welcome mat. When a package arrives, check whether it comes from the Word or from the devil, and if not, send it back. You have authority to speak to your mountain and call those things that be not as though they are.

   Illustration: Growing up she bumped into everything and was always bruised, and her bicycle pedals scraped her legs, until she decided she was tired of it and spoke to the cupboards, the doors and the pedals. She says the things she used to bump into do not even bump into her any more.

   “When you see the package doesn't come from the word, you say, "Back to sender. Return to sender."”

   • Hebrews 11:6
   • Romans 12:3
   • Psalm 119:130
   • Romans 10:17
   • James 4:7
   • Mark 11:23
   • Romans 8:11
   • Romans 4:17

In this message