In this enlightening episode, we delve into the profound questions surrounding the source of sickness and the role of divine healing. Is illness always a result of evil, or does God occasionally use it as a tool for greater purposes? Through scriptural examples and personal anecdotes, we explore God’s eternal nature as a healer and discuss whether reliance on modern medicine aligns or conflicts with faith.
Where does sickness come from? Does it always come from the devil? Or does God himself sometimes cause sickness? The nature of the subject we’re going to cover today is deeply personal. Most of us at some time in our life are going to face a health challenge. And some of these health challenges, you’ll go to a physician to find healing and to find a cure for or a remedy, and the physicians aren’t able to do anything or even to tell you what the source of the illness is. The questions we’re going to be looking at today are this, does God still heal physical sickness? And if he does, why is everybody not healed? If God does heal today supernaturally, should we still use doctors and should we take medicines? Where does sickness come from? Does it always come from the devil? Or does God himself sometimes cause sickness? We’re going to be answering those questions from the Word of God. God, by nature, is a healer. Healing flows from God because he is a healer. It’s part of his essential nature. We see this, for example, in creation. When creation suffers some type of massive forest fire, the forest that was burned begins to repopulate itself and begins to bring forth new vegetation. Nature itself heals itself, and we see this perhaps most astutely in the human body. You think about you and I that have been made in God’s image and think about the healing capacity in our own bodies, right? When we break a bone, the body naturally begins to heal itself and fuse the bone back together. certain organs like the liver will regenerate itself. In other words, if there’s a portion of the liver that dies, the liver literally can regenerate itself and heal itself. Think of wounds. I just recently was doing some work for my wife, and as I was doing some work for her, I had a big gash on my arm, you know, big lines of bleeding blood. But you know what? Five days later, they’re scarred over, and within a week, it was completely healed. The healing nature and capacity of the human bodies. And perhaps most mysterious is the creation of antibodies, that when our body gets intruded upon by a foreign virus or a bacteria, if we get an infection or a virus, what does our body do? It creates antibodies that immediately attack the alien intruder and keep us strong and keep us healthy. Our immune system built in divine intelligence from the creator who is a healer so that the body has within it the capacity to heal itself. God is by nature a healer which should help us to be able to look to him to receive from him health and healing and the sustaining of our health in our bodies because our God that we’re receiving is healing by nature. Think about Jesus. Think about Yeshua himself. The Bible tells us in the book of Colossians, chapter 1, verse 15, this about who Jesus is. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Think about this. Yeshua is God in the flesh. He’s the visible image of the invisible God. This is why Yeshua said to Philip, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. Yeshua is God clothed in human nature. So we’re talking about the fact that God is by nature a healer. We looked at the healing properties of creation. Now we’re looking at Yeshua, who’s God incarnate. And what do we see in the life and ministry of Yeshua? Everywhere he went, beloved, he healed the sick. Yeshua, who is God in the flesh, demonstrated that God’s a healer because every place that he went, he healed the sick. I love the gospel of Luke. Luke was a historian and a physician, and Luke chronicled all the events surrounding the life and ministry of King Yeshua. And this is what Luke writes in his gospel in the fourth chapter of the 40th verse. While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, to Yeshua. And laying his hands on each one of them, he, Jesus, was healing them. So Yeshua is demonstrating here that God is a healer, that healing flows from God to you and I because it is part of his essential and eternal nature. Yeshua demonstrated this by healing a paralyzed man. He brought back to life a dead man. He cleansed a leper. He healed a crippled man. He told the man with the withered hand to stretch forth his hand, and as he did, it was healed. He healed the blind man. He healed the mute. Everywhere Yeshua went, He did three things. He preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. He healed the sick and he cleansed people of demons and defiled spirits. He is by nature a healing God. And if he’s by nature a healing God, that means that you and I should be connecting to him bringing him into our soul so that we can live in supernatural power and in the power of healing, both that is being evident from our own bodies so that we’re healthy, as well as being able, beloved ones, to minister healing to other people because the healing creator lives in his people and he has empowered us to release healing to others. He sent out his disciples to heal the sick and to preach the gospel. God by nature is healing. a healer. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has not changed. He’s also, to add to this foundation, not only is he a healer, but beloved one, he’s compassionate towards you and I. He’s compassionate towards those of us that he’s made in his own likeness. So that sometimes what we read in scripture is that healing flowed Because Yeshua felt compassion for the people he was ministering to. For example, we read this in Mark 1. A leper came to Yeshua and was asking Yeshua to heal him. So listen to what the account says. Move with compassion. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I am willing. Be cleansed. Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. So Yeshua’s healing, God’s healing flows to us because of the way he feels about us. He’s touched by our pain. He’s touched when we’re sick. He’s touched when we’re ill. He’s touched when we’re in situations that are causing us sadness and sorrow. And he’s moved with compassion and extends himself towards us through his son to release healing, beloved ones, into our body and into our lives. We read the same foundational truth that God is not only healing, but he’s compassionate. We read this. When he went ashore, when Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd, get it now, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. I want to encourage you today, God’s children, to look to him to be your healer. We’re gonna see in a little bit here that God uses medicine, he uses doctors. Luke himself, that wrote the Gospel of Luke, was a physician. God uses doctors, he uses medicine. But the challenge is that for many of us, especially in the Western world, where doctors and medicine is so available, we’ve taken our eyes off the main healer. We’ve taken our eyes off the Lord. We’re not looking to him to heal us. Instead, we’re looking to the doctors and to the physicians and to the medicines. And this is a message to restore the church, to restore us, beloved, away from looking to the world for our answer, to look instead to him to the answer. He may heal us directly. He may use an agent. We’re going to get to this. But if you’re looking to the agent rather than to the Lord, you’re short-circuiting your ability to receive from God all that he wants to be to you.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Discovering the Jewish Jesus and Rabbi Schneider will be right back. But first, we have a free gift for you. If you’re battling heaviness or patterns that you just can’t shake, it may be spiritual oppression. Don’t wait for others to deliver you. Rabbi’s free self-deliverance bundle, it includes a step-by-step PDF with scripture and an MP3 guide. to help you close every door to the enemy and live free in Jesus. Get yours at discoveringthejewishjesus.com forward slash gift. Matthew 25, it reminds us to care for people in need. So we’re making Rabbi’s teaching available to men and women in prison each and every day through a special app. And last year, thousands of inmates clicked the button on this app, telling us they were surrendering their lives to Christ. And if you wanna help us in this mission, would you please support us? Give or become a monthly partner at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Now, back to Rabbi.
SPEAKER 03 :
Healing flows through the sacrificial death that was given to us of God’s Son. By His stripes, we are healed. God is able to release healing to us because Jesus offered Himself up as a sacrifice, taking our sickness and our sin in His own body on the tree, paying the penalty that we should have paid by himself, dying in our place, and as a result of what he’s done, God is able to release his healing to us despite our sin. Isn’t that an awesome thing that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us? So I want you to understand, receiving your healing It’s not just a matter of believing enough for your healing, but rather it’s an understanding that healing comes to you out of God’s compassion and love for you, and it flows to you through the blood of Jesus and because of his sacrificial life that was given on your behalf. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter seven and chapter eight, Jesus is finishing up his most important sermon recorded for us in the New Testament. It’s called, as many of you know, the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount the Beatitudes, and all that was within the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ longest sermon. Jesus concludes his sermon from on top of the mountain as he begins to walk down the mountain. After finishing his longest sermon recorded in the Word of God, immediately people are coming to him wanting to be healed by him. And we have the record. On his way down from the mountain, as soon as the sermon is over, he’s healing people. He ends up cleansing a leper, healing a paralyzed man. Then he healed Peter’s mother-in-law. Healing, healing, healing, healing, healing. And finally, we read the climactic account of all these healings in Matthew chapter 8, verse 16 and 17. The grass withers and the flowers fade. Hear the word of God. When evening came, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed, and he cast out the spirits with the word and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill. what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet. And then Matthew quotes a portion from the book of Isaiah, which Matthew claims is the reason that Jesus is healing all these people. So once again, Jesus is healing them in mass. They brought to him people that were suffering with every kind of sickness, every kind of disease. Jesus healed them all. And Matthew says this was in accordance of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. And then Matthew quotes Isaiah chapter 53. surely our holy our grief he himself bore and our sorrows he carried That Hebrew word in Isaiah 53 for grief, surely our grief is the Hebrew word holi. And it literally means sickness. So once again, Matthew is saying Jesus is healing all these people as a fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 53 verse five. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him And by his scourging, we are healed. Why are we healed? Because Jesus took our sickness in his own body on the tree, released his blood and healed us all. Now, of course, the question is, if we’re all healed by the blood of Jesus, why are we sometimes still struggling with physical challenges? And I’m going to get to this crucial question today. But let me just continue laying the foundation, and we’re going to answer this question that we just raised. If Jesus’ sacrificial death purchased healing for everybody, then why are many sincere believers struggling with sickness still, even though they’re looking for healing? We’re going to get into that. But the atonement is the foundation. Now think about this. Remember Isaiah 53. Isaiah is teaching that when Yeshua died on the cross, the atonement, this is what Jesus’ death on the cross was. It’s called a sacrificial atonement. substitutionary atonement, that the innocent one died in the place of the guilty, that the innocent one took our sin and sickness in his own body on the tree, and by his scourging, we are healed. Now get this, watch this really incredible demonstration in the New Testament of the concept that I just shared with you. We’re going to the book of Luke chapter five. In Luke chapter five, Yeshua was in a building. He was in a house or a building, and he was teaching. and their crowds had so flocked to hear him teach that there was no way to still get in. It was like it was a packed house and you couldn’t get in. But there was somebody that was sick, and what the friends of the sick one did is they lowered him through the tiles on the roof. They couldn’t get to Jesus because the crowd was so thick and so deep and so backed up. So what they did is they went onto the roof of this building, they moved away the tile, And they lowered this sick one through the roof right in front of Yeshua where he was ministering. And Yeshua said to the sick one, your sins are forgiven. And all the people that were around, the Pharisees were aghast. Who is he that thinks he can forgive sin? Who does he think he is thinking he can forgive sin? But the scripture says, Yeshua, knowing what they were thinking, said to them, so that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, And he said to the sick one, take up your pallet, go home. And immediately the sick one was healed. And Jesus was demonstrating that the same one that died to forgive sins is the one that releases healing to his people today. So that you might know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Sometimes God causes sickness. Let me give you an example. I’m going to take you first of all to the New Testament, to the book of Revelation, chapter number 2, verse 22, where we read about the false prophetess Jezebel, who was seducing people into immorality and was pretending that she was a prophetess. And the Lord had already warned her to repent and stop, but she did not respond to his warning. So listen what happens next as we read the word of God in Revelation 2.22, Yeshua speaking about Jezebel. He said, behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent. There are many examples, especially in the Hebrew Bible, where God is using sickness as an administrative tool to accomplish His purpose. For example, in the book of 2 Kings, chapter 15, God caused a king to be struck with a skin disease. In God’s deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, the sixth plague is when He covered the bodies of Egypt with sores. And by the way, when the Lord revealed himself as our healer in Exodus 15, he said, if you will obey me, he said to the children of Israel, I will put none of the diseases and sicknesses upon you. And the Lord continues by saying, which I put. The Lord’s taking responsibility here. He said, which I put upon the Egyptians. You read it for yourself. Exodus 15, the Lord is taking responsibility for the sicknesses he put on the Egyptians. God is God. He’s God in heaven above. He’s God on the earth beneath. There is no God behind him. We don’t have to protect God. Okay, God takes responsibility in His Word for causing sickness at times. Again, it was the sixth plague in Egypt. We read in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 5 that God caused the Philistines to be struck with tumors. And the list goes on and on. So Satan seeks to torment and destroy, and he attacks God’s people with sickness. But sometimes the Lord will use sickness as a temporary administrative tool in the lives of God’s people to bring them into alignment with him so that he can bless them and so that they can walk in his healing. Ultimately, God’s purpose for all His children is that we would walk in perfect health. But sometimes the Lord, in His mercy and in His grace and His compassion, because He’s got a bigger picture in mind, will temporarily cause sickness in the life of the believer in order to bring that believer to their knees and to bring them into alignment with himself. And then he releases them of their sickness. And when we stand before Jesus face to face, there will no longer be any sickness or any disease. So ultimately, every believer will be perfectly healed. But on this side of glory, there’s an element, beloved, of mystery and balance to everything. In the Gospel of John chapter six, we read the story of how the 5,000 that had followed Jesus were hungry and needed something to eat. They began to ask, well, what do we have to feed so many? One of the disciples said, well, one young lad here has five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, bring them to me. Yeshua blessed the five loaves and the two fish. Supernaturally, all 5,000 were fed and there was even food left over. Beloved, I believe that when you and I give to Jesus what we have, He supernaturally multiplies it. Let’s be faithful to Him with our finances. He has promised that what we give to Him would come back to us pressed down good measure and running over into our lives. If the Lord is feeding you through discovering the Jewish Jesus, I would encourage you, present a financial offering to him through this ministry. I am confident, beloved, by the faith of God’s word that you’re going to be blessed as a result of obedience to him. This is Rabbi Schneider. God bless you. I love you and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. And as the Lord leads you to support Discovering the Jewish Jesus today, would you go online and give? Our website address is discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And you can also give a gift of any amount if you’d like instead by calling us at 800-777-7835. That’s 800-777-7835. And you know, your giving helps us reach people. Chad wrote to us and he said, for the last few years, I’ve been lukewarm in my commitment and faithfulness to the Lord. I was recently listening to Rabbi and began weeping as I confessed my sins and repented. And I asked for the relationship that I had with the Lord to be restored. Friends, I want you to know that it’s your giving that makes this happen. And the way that we share the gospel, it’s unique. It’s resonating with people like Chad. And like I said, it’s because of listeners like you who support this ministry. And when you do support this ministry, we want to send you our latest newsletter and you’ll receive testimonies just like this in it. And you’ll also receive Rabbi’s exclusive monthly teaching booklet. In the newsletter, you’ll also find out what’s happening with the ministry, our airing schedule, and so much more. So make sure to go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com and give today, or you can send your gift in the mail. Our address is discoveringthejewishjesusp.com. And now let’s wrap up today’s message with God’s sacred blessing. Rabbi…
SPEAKER 03 :
The Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers, chapter 6, is not a blessing that comes from an impersonal being out there somewhere in the heavens. This special blessing comes from a person, Yahweh, God Almighty, our Creator and Maker. So receive God’s blessing into your life right now.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Join us again next time when Rabbi Schneider shares his own struggle when faced with illness and faith. That’s coming up Tuesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
