Tag Archives: sick

The Devil Is Making You Sick, Not God

I have heard the example that Jesus is the type of shepherd who breaks the legs of a straying sheep, to keep it from straying. This might sound compassionate in teachings found in eastern paganism, but it is nowhere found in the bible.

Some have this idea that God’s out there playing orthopedic surgeon with sheep, breaking legs to teach ’em a lesson, right? Well, not in my Bible. Rather, the bible flips the script, telling us it’s not God playing the cosmic chiropractor; it’s Satan who’s out there handing out sickness like it’s candy on Halloween.

Let me ask a simple question. When Paul handed the man who was sleeping with his mother-in-law, who did he hand him to? Paul said he handed this man over, to have his flesh destroyed so that his spirit might be preserved. Paul was handing him over to have his legs broken. But who did Paul hand him over to? Who was the one breaking this man’s legs? Who was ministering sickness? Was it God or Satan? Paul handed him over to Satan. The devil was the one breaking his legs and making him sick, not God.  The sickness on the human level was therefore, the will of Satan, not the will of God.

And so, Paul handed a guy over to Satan for some serious family drama, letting Satan do the dirty work. The point? God’s not your sickness Santa; that’s Satan’s gig.

This is an interesting example, because it involves an extreme type of sin a believer could do. It is not normal; it is an exception. Another example was the same Corinthians dishonoring the blood of Jesus by dishonoring the Lord’s supper. Paul was “disciplining” the man, and you could say God was disciplining him through Paul, for a severe sin, and yet, God was not the one giving the sickness. It was the devil.

God is sovereign over all things, so much so that He is the metaphysical author of sin and evil. God controls our thoughts and He predestines all things in the same absolute and direct way, whether it is faith or unbelief, reprobation or election. God controls all things, even Satan, more than a programmer controls how and what his program does. However, the bible denies pantheism and the bible mostly deals with us on the human or relative level.  Thus, Jesus would say, “it was God’s will, that healed this boy or blind man.” No, that is not what Jesus said. He said, “Your faith saved you from your sins, and your faith healed you.” We will do the same.

Even in the story of Job, who did not have the New Contract or Abraham’s blessing, God was not the one who ministered sickness and destruction. It was Satan. God is sovereign, in that He was the one who mentioned Job to Satan, in essence enticing Satan to go after Job. God orchestrated the whole thing. But it was Satan who ministered the sickness, not God. Thus, the sickness was the will of Satan, not the will of God. A similar situation with king David. The scripture says it was both God and Satan who caused David to sin by taking a census. These are addressing two different categories. God is the only real cause, but on the human level, it was Satan who ministered the sin, not God.

Therefore, even in Job’s case, where God’s like the director of a reality show called “Temptation Island,” it’s still Satan swinging the wrecking ball. And Jesus? He’s not going around saying, “Here’s a cold for your sins,” nope, he’s all about, “Your faith got you covered, now walk it off!”

The woman who was bent over for 18 years, who did it? Jesus Christ says it was the will of God, right? No. Jesus said it was, the will of Satan. Satan ministered the sickness, and God being faithful to the promise He made to Abraham, was ministering the healing. In fact, in Acts 10:38, Peter says it was the devil who was ministering the sickness to all the sick people, in the gospels, and Jesus was the one ministering the healing. The devil is a priest to the darkness; and so his ministry is one of sin and sickness. Jesus is a high priest to God, and so His ministry is righteousness, wealth and healing. He does not minister sin or minister sickness. He ministers healing and miracles. If you are an insider to Jesus, He ministers good things, not evil things.

Some might bark up and say, “But God does sometimes give sickness.” This is true, as far as it goes, but there is an important context. What category of people does God give sickness to? The answer is God’s enemies. God did not send Satan to kill the first born of Egypt, no, He sent His angel.  Why the sudden change? The category is different. Egypt is not a Contract insider to God. Egypt is God’s enemy and He is there for condemnation and judgment. It is personal for Him. He wants to destroy them Himself, and not use something like the devil.  God cursed the Philistines with cancerous tumors when they took the Ark of the Contract. They were not insiders; they were outsiders and enemies. Thus, God cursed them Himself.  Their sickness was not the will of the devil, it was the will of God.

This is significant because if you claim God, and not Satan, gave you a sickness, then you are identifying yourself as a reprobate Egyptian or Philistine. If you say your sickness, is the will of God, then you are claiming you are God’s enemy. You are identifying yourself as under the curse of God. You are identifying yourself as God’s enemy. If God is giving you sickness, then indeed, God is your enemy not savior. He is attacking you, not saving you. Your immediate concern is to be saved from hell, not healed.  

There is one other category for sickness. Sicknesses come as a curse from the Fall of Adam and as a curse from the law of Moses. However, in Jesus Christ, Paul says in Galatians chapter 3 that Jesus became a curse for us, so that in substitutionary exchange we get miracles and the baptism of the Spirit. We do not bear curses; rather, we bear the blessing of Abraham. Just as with forgiveness of sins, you receive blessings in exchange for sin, by faith. If you doubt it, then do not expect to receive this exchange, as both Jesus Christ and James teach us.  If you claim to have cancers and arthritis as curses from God, you are identifying yourself as still under God’s curses and not under Jesus’ atonement. If you are under the atonement, then you have been removed from being under curses.

If you’re on team Jesus, you’re in the healing line, not the disease queue. Claiming God gave you the flu is like saying you’re on God’s naughty list, which, let’s be honest, is not where you want to be unless you’re auditioning for a role in a divine drama.

This brings us back to the beginning. As a Contract insider, God does not minister sickness, He ministers healing and miracles. Sickness only comes to me in two ways: one is by Satan and the other is by curses. I have been redeemed and rescued from both.

This is important because if you realize sickness is Satan’s will, not God’s, and is from Satan, not God, you are not only freed to fight it, but are commanded to fight it. When Jesus says cast out demons, it is not a suggestion from a spiritual guru. It is a command. When the bible says to resist Satan and make him flee, it is not a suggestion, but a command.  Even if the sickness is from Satan, as a discipline from God, as James says in chapter 5, with faith I will be healed, and I will be forgiven. Because it is Satan’s will, not God, even if it was in the context of discipline, the command to cast out Satan and to resist him and make him flee is a standing command from God. You are to always do this.

Therefore, you do not have the freedom to allow Satan to bulldoze over you with sickness, no matter the context. You always have the standing command to make Satan and the sickness to go away. You are commanded to be victorious over the kingdom of darkness. You do not have the right, as a soldier of God’s kingdom, to allow the kingdom of Satan to beat you. You are commanded to expand God’s kingdom with truth and power. They are the ones who back up from attacks, not you. The only way to do this is with faith and power. You must take the authority and power of God and expand His kingdom by healing the sick, casting out demons and commanding mountains to get out of your way.

In conclusion, if you’re sick, blame Satan, for he is your unwanted health advisor. As a card-carrying member of the Jesus Club, you’re commanded to kick Satan to the curb, to resist like you’re in a cosmic tug-of-war, and to heal like you’ve got divine health insurance. Remember, in this divine comedy, you’re strengthened to be the victor, not the victim![1]

[1] Grok AI (fun mode) personal communication 2024, helped with summaries.

Sickness Is Satan’s Glory, Not God’s

The Arminians are wrong about God’s sovereignty. God does directly and absolutely control and predestine all things. However, this is about ultimate metaphysics, which the Bible only mentions a little, while it mostly talks about the human level. That is the level where God commands us, relates to us, and where we deal with things day-to-day; it is how the Bible mainly speaks to us. We will follow that pattern here. Not talking this way most of the time means not talking like the Bible.

God says in Isaiah 54:15, “They will surely gather against you, but not by Me.” He quietly assumes His own sovereignty but speaks straight to us on our level. God is more God-centered than anyone, and He has no problem saying, “I didn’t cause them to gather.” Jesus, the most God-centered man ever, said about both healing and forgiveness, “Your faith saved you.” In Acts 10:38, Peter says all the sick people Jesus healed were “victimized” or oppressed “by the devil.” So, the Bible has no issue saying sickness isn’t from God; it is from Satan or the curse.

This matters because if we think sickness comes from God, we won’t fight it. That is one reason Jesus battled sickness so hard while tradition doesn’t. Jesus saw sickness as Satan’s direct attack on Him, His Father, and His people. So, He smashed it wherever He found it. The only time He didn’t stomp out sickness—which Satan was causing—was when unbelief blocked Him. Think about that: unbelief stopped Jesus, but Satan couldn’t. Jesus was a one-man wrecking crew against all the sickness the devil threw around.

So, sickness is Satan flipping the bird at Jesus’ atonement. Healing is Jesus slamming His fist into Satan’s face, again and again. There’s a real war here. As Jesus said, if you’re not with Him, you’re against Him (Isaiah 53:4-5, Luke 13:16, Acts 10:38).

In the substitutionary atonement, Jesus took 39 stripes in exchange for our healing. It is already done. In the Father’s mind, He decided our sicknesses were taken off us and put on Jesus as those 39 stripes. Jesus carried our sickness in our place. The verse before, as the Spirit explains through Matthew, says He “bore” (nasa) or took our sicknesses and diseases away. It is the same word used in verse 12 for Jesus bearing our sins, and in Leviticus 16 for the scapegoat, when the high priest transferred the people’s sins to it, and it carried them off into the desert. It is a word for substitutionary atonement, and Isaiah 53 applies it to our sickness and healing.

Yet, many pin sickness on God—not just in the ultimate metaphysical or decree sense, but on the human, relational level. That is wrong. In our New Covenant with God, sealed by oath and blood, God promises to always deal with us in certain ways. We are promised forgiveness, imputed righteousness, but also healing, the blessing of Abraham, and constant good—like a fish for a fish, healing for healing. If Jesus is my High Priest and mediator forever, He doesn’t switch in and out of that role. If He gave me sickness, He would be a minister of sickness in His ministry to me. If Jesus gives sickness, then His gospel ministry is one of pain and torment. But Jesus is only a minister of healing—He takes sickness away; He doesn’t hand it out.

This last point stands out in one example. Jesus sometimes told certain Jews or crowds they weren’t Abraham’s children because they refused to believe—proof they did not belong. So, it’s a big deal when He calls someone a child of Abraham. Take the woman bent over for 18 years. Jesus said she was a child of Abraham—not an outsider, but part of the blessings in God’s covenant with Abraham. In that context, He said Satan made her sick, not God. God’s covenant with Abraham included supernatural healing, not sickness—it was the opposite. So, in God’s relationship with her, Satan delivered the sickness, not God. Jesus used the Abraham covenant as the reason she had to be healed, saying it was necessary—not just a nice idea, but a must. God keeps covenants; He doesn’t break them. The covenant with Abraham must include healing, or it wouldn’t be necessary for Jesus to heal her.

Because she had a standing covenant with God for healing, and because Satan gave her sickness as a curse and middle finger against God’s kingdom, Jesus wiped it out. Unless we see things like Jesus did, we won’t hit sickness hard with God’s healing power. If someone doesn’t get their insider status with God—or that sickness is Satan’s attack to ruin them and, by extension, a middle finger to God’s kingdom—they will let Satan roll right over them. They will accept his attack, slap a “for God’s glory” label on it, and call it a day. That’s demonic.

When Satan attacks someone with sickness, it sidelines a Christian and stalls God’s kingdom. As with warfare, an injured soldier also takes other soldiers away from the front lines to help carry and tend to the injured one. This is why in war it’s often better to injure more than to kill. Satan plays the same war game tactics with Christians by attacking them with sickness. Just as injuries in our army are the glory of the enemy, sickness in Christians is Satan’s glory, not God’s.

A person’s mind is seriously broken when they can’t tell good from evil, God’s glory from Satan’s. When a so-called Christian doesn’t attack sickness with God’s healing power, they’re letting Satan hammer God’s kingdom—and they’re okay with it.

Sickness is not God’s autograph—it’s Satan’s victory lap. Jesus did not just patch up boo-boos; He threw haymakers at the devil’s disease factory. If you are calling it “God’s will” while Satan’s racking up points, you are not just off-script—you’re cheering for the wrong team in this cosmic cage match.

My Power My Choice

Acts 3:4-6 NIV

Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 

….what I do have I give you.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

First. Peter said, “look at us.”  I thought we were to direct attention away from us and point to Christ? Why is Peter so focused on himself?

Second. Peter says “what “I,” have, “I,” give to you.” I thought it was, “what God has, He will sovereignly will or choose to give?” I thought it was God’s power, and God’s choice, not Peter’s power and Peter’s choice?

Peter said it was Peter’s power, “what I have,” and it was his choice, “I give.” Peter claims it was his power and his will. Why does Peter pray in a contradictory way as compared to the theologians? Who is right?

The Bible rejects pantheism. God is not what He creates; He absolutely and directly controls all things, but He is not what He controls. God gave his followers the power to heal the sick, and cast out demons. He did not give this power to Himself. Jesus commanded both the apostles and followers to heal the sick. Jesus commanded both is disciples and 77 others to “heal the sick and cast out demons.” Some stop at Matthew 10:7 when Jesus command them to “preach the kingdom of heaven.”  Jesus is commanding them, and us by extension, to preach the gospel. So far, so good. But Jesus continues by saying, “heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead.” Jesus was not going to do this; He was commanding them to do it. If someone was going to get healed, it was up to their power and choice.  Thus to heal the sick and raise the dead is as much as a command as it is to preach the gospel. If it was not clear enough Jesus after His resurrection, commanded them to receive power, Acts 1:8. Most of them were not apostles, because it had nothing to do with the apostles, but Jesus sitting as the right hand of the Power.  Not only did they have the power, it was their will or choice to administer it. It was not up to God’s power and will to heal, it was their power and will.

This is how Jesus spoke on this topic and it was how Peter spoke on it. However if I spoke like Jesus and Peter in most American churches I would be labeled a heretic.

Yes, on the ultimate level the power is God’s, just as the power in my hand to type this essay is ultimately God’s power and by His direct control. However, Jesus and the Bible rarely mention this ultimate level; they mostly speak on the human level. I will do the same.  Thus, it was not God who typed this, but it was I, who typed with my power and choice. Likewise , the sick are not healed by God’s power and choice, but my power and my choice.  Anyone who has a problem with this rejects a doctrine directly taught by Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Cut such a person out of your life. They are servants of demons.

Peter sums this up by saying faith in Jesus name brought the healing. It was a person’s will to have faith that brought the healing, not God’s will. For more on this topic see, Vincent Cheung, “Healing, The Will Of Man.”

Also, Peter did not even pray, at least not in the traditional way. He simply commanded the healing. This is what Jesus told us to do. “You heal the sick.” It was the same with Moses and the Red Sea. God said, “You divide it.” Many do not pray by commanding and this is why their prayers go unanswered. This is why many have died before their time by sickness and troubles. Jesus commanded us to do the healing, not God.

Jesus’ faith doctrine is extreme. He does not instruct us to pray to God and tell Him about our mountain; rather, Jesus tells us to move the mountain by using faith and commanding it to move.  Jesus said, “it will obey you.”

This is not a suggestion. It is a command from our God. Because of this, when many pray they are in rebellion against God. Jesus commands us to move and heal. However, many respond back saying, “No, God, You do it, if You are willing.” By praying like this, they have ensured their sickness has already gained victory over them. On rare occasions God might still heal such a prayer, out of extreme pity, but it would be an exception. If you are sick and pray like a beggar, asking God to heal, you have already lost. You are a dead man walking. Sickness has already defeated you for the glory of Satan.

When some pray, they pray confessing unbelief rather than faith. If you are born-again then you are not a worm, not a beggar, not a nobody and you are not a sinner. James says the prayer of a righteous person is very effective; however, if your prayer is confessing how pathetic you are, then of course you will not pray knowing how righteous you are, and thus, your prayers will not be effective.  Prayer is a good confession of faith in God’s truths and promises; and yet, people often pray confessing who they were, before they were born-again. They say, “I am a worn and sinful and nothing, but God is everything and powerful.” This takes no faith; it is a coward’s way out. It is a religious maneuver to remove you from God’s command and responsibility. If you are nothing and sinful then you need to get born-again so that you become righteous and have privileges that come from being a son of God.

To illustrate this think about asking God for the forgiveness of sins, or a salvation type prayer. Although, there is nothing wrong for a salvation prayer to “ask God into your heart,” yet there are more precise ways to describe it.  Peter in his Pentecost sermon gives direction for a salvation prayer. He instructs the audience to ““Repent and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ.” Notice Peter did not instruct them to “ask” God to forgive them; rather, he tells them to repent in Jesus’ Name to be saved. Why? Because Jesus already died and was resurrected. The forgiveness already happened. We are not asking God to crucify His Son again to forgive us, because it already happened.  We are not asking God to do anything in the present tense to forgive us, because Jesus already accomplished it. Because it has been accomplished all we do is repent.  In this context we do not ask or beg. It is when a person has confidence in Jesus’ finished atonement, they repent of their sins in Jesus’ Name. Salvation in this sense is a confession, and not asking and begging. We confess our sins and that is all it takes. Faith in this sense, is about God letting you know He has already forgiven you, and by repenting you are agreeing with God.  It is foundationally about agreeing and confessing and not asking.

Other gospel benefits such as a healing, and the authority to cast out demons and cast down mountains is the same. They have been accomplished by Jesus’ finished atonement. We do not ask and beg for them, because they have been accomplished by Jesus and given to us. It is irrational to beg for something that already belongs to you.  It was the stripes on Jesus’ back that healed us. And so, it is irrational to ask God to heal us, as if He needs to break out the whip again and start slashing Jesus in the throne room. God accomplished our healing in Jesus’ atonement. Thus, we don’t beg for it, because it is already ours.  As with salvation, we repent as a confession of confidence in Jesus finished atonement, rather than beg and ask forgiveness. The same with healing. We confess and agree with God, rather than beg and ask. This is why Jesus tells us to “heal the sick, and cast out demons.” When we command healing and command demons to leave, we are giving a confident confession in the finished atonement of Jesus, which has given us the healing and authority to do such things.

Some people are asking God to do things that He told us to do. They have it flipped upside down. And yes, we see examples of Jesus in John 14-16 telling us to ask in His name. However, in my experience it is only those who already know their authority in Jesus, who already are healing the sick, who are able to ask God for things in prayer, without asking as if they are a beggar or outsider.  Those how can heal the sick and cast out demons are better equipped to march boldly to God’s throne of grace and confidently ask for things as a son who belongs there.