Taking God’s Word as Medicine
The work of the cross is “perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect.” It matters not from what point of view you look at the cross. It is perfect. Nothing has been omitted. “All things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3)—and that covers just about everything!—are provided for in the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Everything you will ever need, in time and eternity, whether spiritual or physical, financial or material, emotional or relational, has been provided by that one sacrifice. “He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Notice again that word perfected.
So I set myself to understand what God did for me through Jesus on the cross. I began to see that on the cross Jesus bore not only my sins but also my sicknesses and pains, so that by His wounds I was healed. The message of Isaiah 53:4–5 was inescapable:
Surely He has borne our griefs [literally, sicknesses] and carried our sorrows [literally, pains]; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes [or wounds] we are healed.
My mind, trained to analyze, was able to see that there was no avoiding this conclusion: Jesus bore our sicknesses, our pains and our infirmities on the cross, and by His wounds we were healed.
I tried in every way, given my philosophical turn of mind, to set aside the implications of Isaiah 53:4–5. I considered every possible way to interpret it without including physical healing. In the next few weeks the devil brought to my mind probably every objection that has ever been raised against divine healing. I don’t think he left out one! Yet every time when I went back to the Word of God, it said the same thing. I remembered my blue Bible. All the way through, starting in Genesis and ending in Revelation, I saw the promise of healing, health, physical strength and long life.
For some reason I had formed the conclusion that, as a Christian, you had to be prepared to be miserable for the rest of your life. Every time I read the promises and statements of healing in Scripture, I would say, “That’s too good to be true. It couldn’t really mean that. Could God really want me to be healthy, successful and long-lived? It couldn’t be—that’s not my picture of religion.”
While I was arguing this way, the Lord spoke to me inaudibly but very clearly: Tell Me, who is the teacher and who is the pupil?
“Lord,” I answered, “You’re the teacher and I’m the pupil.”
Well, would you mind letting Me teach you?
I got the message.
Then the Holy Spirit directed me to the Scripture that got me out of the hospital:
My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.
Proverbs 4:20–22
“My son . . .” I realized God was talking to me as His child. This passage is not addressed to unbelievers; it is addressed to God’s people. When I came to the phrase all their flesh, I said, “That settles it!” Not even a philosopher could make flesh mean anything but flesh! “All my flesh” means my whole physical body. God has provided through His Word that which will impart health to my whole physical body.
I looked at the margin translation for health and it was “medicine,” so the Hebrew word can be rendered either health or medicine.
This is wonderful! I said to myself. I am sick and I need medicine. God has provided the medicine that will bring health to my whole body.
One of my jobs as a medical orderly in the British Army was giving out medicine when I myself was not sick. Now I said, “That’s it. I’m going to take God’s Word as medicine.”
When I said this, God spoke to me again inaudibly but clearly: When the doctor gives a person medicine, the directions for taking it are on the bottle. Proverbs 4:20–22 is My medicine bottle and the directions are on it. You had better study them.
I went back and saw that there were four directions.
Number one: Give attention to my words. We must give undivided attention to what God is saying.
Number two: Incline your ear. We must bow those stiff necks of ours and become teachable. We do not know it all, and some of the traditions we have inherited from our church backgrounds are not biblical.
The third direction: Do not let [my words] depart from your eyes. We must keep our focus unwavering on the Word of God.
And finally: Keep them in the midst of your heart.
The next verse of Proverbs says this:
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23
Whatever you keep in your heart, in other words, will determine the course of your life. You cannot hold the wrong attitude in your heart and live right, nor can you have the right attitude in your heart and live wrong. The course of your life is determined by what fills your heart. God was saying to me, If you will receive My Word through your ear gate, through your eye gate and admit it to your heart, it will do everything I have claimed.
I made up my mind that I would take God’s Word as my medicine. I went to the doctor and thanked him for trying to help me. “But from now on,” I told him, “I’m going to trust God. I don’t want any more medication.”
I narrowly escaped being sent to a psychiatric hospital, and was discharged on my own responsibility.
Bought with Blood: The Divine Exchange at the Cross " Taking God’s Word as Medicine"
https://biblia.com/books/dacc0d731caf342744cb42c33844ceea
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