Billy Joe Daugherty - How to Overcome a Life-Threatening Illness

Contents

No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling...

With long life I will satisfy him....

Psalm 91:10 ,16

* Read the entire 91st Psalm

Chapter One

God's Will Is Health and Wholeness

God wants you to be whole in spirit, soul (which includes your mind, will and emotions) and body. Our goal should be whole person healing.

Many people are healthy physically, but their mind is messed up. Or their heart is hardened towards the things of God. What good does it do to be well physically, yet die and go to hell? Or what good is a person to the Kingdom of God if he or she knows the Lord, believes in Him, is physically well but is of no benefit spiritually to anyone else? God wants us to be well so we can complete His purpose for us upon the earth and be carriers of His abundant life to others.

When faced with a life-threatening illness or disease, and you have been told that without a miracle you will die, you need to establish, first of all, "It is God's will for me to be healed."

Healing, preservation and miracles took place before Jesus showed up in Bethlehem. God is the I am God of both the Old and New Testaments.

God spoke to the nation of Israel, living under the old covenant, as they came out of Egypt:

So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.

Exodus 23:25 ,26

In Exodus 15:26 God said, "I am the Lord who heals you." He is Jehovah- Rapha or Rophe , the One Who heals.

In Psalm 103:2 ,3 David said:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.

The promises of forgiveness and healing are linked together as they are in 1 Peter 2:24:

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousnessby whose stripes you were healed.

Because of Jesus' sacrifice at Calvary, He became the "Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises"

(Hebrews 8:6). Anything that is better includes what was in the former, plus something additional.

Included in our new covenant is healing of sickness and disease, deliverance, preservation and eternal life. When we are born again we become new creations through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and we enter into the new covenant. The life of Jesus comes inside of us, our names are written in the Lamb's book of life and our bodies become the temple (or dwelling place) of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus' earthly ministry involved three primary outreaches: teaching, preaching and healing.

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.

Matthew 4:23 ,24

Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." If He healed during His earthly ministry, then He still heals today. Why? Because "He was moved with compassion" (Matthew 9:36), and "His compassions fail not. They are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22 ,23 ).

Jesus power has not diminished through the ages. He is just as loving and powerful as He ever was, and He is willing to heal you now.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

3 John 2

James gave an instruction that would carry on even after all the apostles died. He said:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

James 5:14 ,15

Again, we have the dual promise of healing and forgiveness in the same passage of Scripture. These same provisions are made in 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 in the great passage on communion where the Lord said, "...many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep" (v. 30), which means to die an untimely, premature death because of not discerning the Lord's body.

Not only is there forgiveness when we remember the blood and the body of the Lord, but there is healing. Again, this is verified in Isaiah 53:4 ,5 and repeated in Matthew 8:16,17:

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; 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 we are healed.

Isaiah 53:4 ,5

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."

Matthew 8:16 ,17

Our health, well-being and wholeness are further reinforced by Jesus' words in John 10:10: "I have come that [you] may have life, and that [you] may have it more abundantly."

God wants you to live out your days in health. Jesus didn't make anyone sick when He came to the earth. He didn't say, "Be thou blessed with cancer." Or "Be thou blessed with a bad heart." Instead, He healed those with infirmities and diseases.

If we are going to say that Jesus makes people sick today, we ought to be able to find it in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The fact that you can't find it is evidence that Jesus' will for you is that you would be well. Everywhere Jesus went, He healed, delivered and set people free. He has not changed!

Jesus came to show us the will of the Father. Some people have been misled by listening to people's opinions, thoughts and experiences, but the bottom line is, we must go back to the Bible. What did Jesus do, what did He say and what did He command His disciples to do?

Jesus' commission in Matthew 10:8 for all of His followers, which includes you and me, is, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."

His commission in Mark 16:17 ,18 is:

And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; ...they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

Jesus' commission to us in Luke 10:9 is, "Heal the sick." In verse 19 of Luke 10 Jesus said, "Behold, I give you [every believer] the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

It is time to remove all of the doubts concerning God's willingness to heal you. Once that is settled, you are in a position to get well and remain well. If you continue to question God's will concerning healing (or any other promise), you will remain in a twilight zone of confusion and turmoil.

Let the clouds be blown away and the light of God's Word shine in. The entrance of His Word gives light (Psalm 119:130).

Chapter Two

It's Time for a Spiritual Evaluation

Whenever someone receives a diagnosis that they have a life-threatening disease or illness, it is a signal that your whole life must change. I believe this point in the healing process is often overlooked by both medical professionals and ministerial leadership.

When a critical need for healing is faced, people will give you Scriptures, they will tell you how to release your faith and confess the Word. All of these things are good, but if your life is going the wrong direction, without a life change you will be sick again. An evaluation beyond the physical arena is needed.