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.