KEYS TO OUR HEALING.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY FIFTEEN.

ISAIAH 53:5.   But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace was  upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
This verse out of Isaiah 53 is part of the prophecy concerning the coming Messiah. He would pay the supreme price for our salvation, All that He would go through would pay for our sins, for our rebellion. He would take the punishment that we deserved so that we could have our relationship restored back to God, so that we could have peace, spiritually and emotionally and so that we could also receive healing in every part of our lives. Isaiah looked forward to what was going to take place, If the children of Israel walked in God's word and honoured the covenants that God had made with Abraham and then Moses they could claim the promises that Isaiah spoke of. The law and the sacrifices that were instituted through Moses were given as a sign pointing to the promised Messiah, as the animals were offered up as a sacrifice the children of Israel were meant to look beyond the animal to the promised Messiah, knowing that the blood of the bulls and goats only covered their sins. It would only be the blood of the promised Lamb of God that would ultimately remove their sin. Through the promised Messiah they could also claim God's healing and protection from sickness. In Exodus 15:26 God promised them that if they walked in obedience to His word and kept the covenants that He had established with them they would not suffer any of the diseases that they had seen in Egypt. So the Messiah comes, Jesus is that promised Messiah, He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one that Isaiah looked forward to, 1 Peter 2:24 says this; "Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness; by Whose stripes you were healed." So, Peter is now looking back to the finished work of the cross. Jesus has bore all our sins in His own body, the debt is now paid in full, as it says in Romans 6:6-7 The old man or old nature was crucified with Christ that we should no longer be a slave to sin, for if we have died then we have been set free from the power of sin, it no longer should have dominion over us, but note what Peter says, "By His stripes we were healed" Our healing, the same as our salvation, is now an accomplished fact. There is nothing more that Jesus can do for our salvation or our healing. On the same day, on the same cross, at  the same time that Jesus purchased our salvation, He also paid for our healing. So how do we appropriate our healing, same as our salvation, by faith, through grace. Romans 10:10 says, For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the tongue confession is made unto salvation. Salvation covers every aspect of our lives, spirit, soul and body. So if we are praying for healing for ourselves or someone else we must first realise that, like our salvation, it is an accomplished fact. In Mark 11;22-24 Jesus shows us a major key, the first thing He says is; "Have faith in God." That is a pretty good place to start. He then goes on to say that we can speak to the mountains, or obstacles in our lives and cast them into the sea, if we don't doubt in our hearts and finally He says says that when we do pray, we need to receive the thing that we are praying for there and then. Hebrews 11:1 says that Now faith is, so faith is always in the present, it is never past tense or future tense, it always operates in the now, in the moment that we are praying. It goes on to say that faith is the substance of things hoped for. Hope is the key here, Biblical hope is not the same as worldly hope, worldly hope is based in fear, Hope my kids don't end up on drugs, hope is doesn't rain tomorrow, hope I win lotto. The fear of what could happen or what might not happen if certain things do or don't happen. Biblical hope is based on the inner assurance that we have that God's word is totally dependable, that all His promises are Yes and Amen in Jesus. The hope for healing is the inner knowledge that we have that "By His stripes we WERE healed" Faith then takes a hold of that hope or inner assurance and causes it to manifest from the realm of the Spirit into our physical world, and healing takes place in either our body or the person we are praying for. So, here is the challenge, next time you are praying for healing, ask yourself this question; "Am I saved because I have prayed and believed in Jesus, or am I waiting to be saved," Your answer should be, "No I am not waiting to be saved, I know that I am saved." So why don't we apply the same principle to our healing, seeing that it was on the same cross, on the same day, at the same time that Jesus purchased our salvation, and paid for our healing.