DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

COMMON SENSE AND DIVINE HEALING

                    By C.W. Wood                                                                   AUGUST 2014

    Is it always God’s Will to heal when we believe, or not?  If it is not His Will, then we need to stop praying for His People.  What does His word say?  Who are His People?  Jesus asked the question, “Who is my mother?”

    Matt.  12:47-50, “Then one said unto him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.

    48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?

    49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren.

    50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

    Healing from Jesus Christ, our Creator, for our physical bodies is a priceless blessing that is ignored by the world, generally speaking!  This is understandable that the lost world is blind to God’s great desire to heal people, but it is much harder to understand when those in the churches also fail to see this glorious and lifesaving truth!

    Having studied the scriptures for forty-five years concerning God’s will to heal all who will simply believe He wants to, and having studied the ministry of men like Br.William Branham, F.F. Bosworth, John A. Dowie, John G.Lake, E.W. Kenyon, A.A. Allen, Oral Roberts and others, I would like to set forth some facts that I pray will win some over to God’s side in the matter.  In this sermon, I will be remembering that there are also people who are in what we call the End-Time Message who are in desperate need of God’s Divine Healing.

    No one ever preached Divine Healing anymore clearly and positive than Br. William Branham.  We will be repeating some things that he said, as well as what some of the other men we mentioned preached about it.  The great need that we see all around us and in myself also, has prompted this review.

    One of the greatest hindrances to faith in Christ for healing is the wrong teaching that God is the author of disease, and that He wills the sickness of some of His worshippers!  This is a tradition of men that even some of those who preach Divine Healing have had wrong.  The truth, as this writer sees it, is that God is the Controller of all sickness, just as He is the Controller of all that He has created.  But, He does not send sickness on us, not only does He not send it on us, but He clearly tells us to resist it when it comes and do not receive it.  When it comes, He tells us to pray for each other and get rid of it, and believe He wants us well!  We know that our Lord uses sickness in His dealings with us, just as He uses all that the Devil does, and turns it around so that it makes “wrath to praise Him.”

    Ps.   76:10, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain (stop).”

    But to say, or teach and preach, that God wants His Children to be sick is to sadly misconstrue His Word.

    Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil: for God was with Him.”

    If this was the only scripture we had, we should know that Jesus Christ was not going around doing something that God didn’t want to be done!  For three years, Jesus went about healing all that were oppressed by the Devil, or that is all that come to Him and asked for it.  The Scripture in Acts 10:38 tells us why He did that, and by what authority!  It says clearly, “For God was with Him.”!  God was in it.  God was anointing Him to do it.  It was God’s will and God’s loving, merciful Plan!  If God wanted us to be sick sometimes, why did he tell us to “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.”?  (James 5:16)  Did God tell us to pray for something that is not His will to do?  Surely not!  He said, “Pray that my will be done and I will hear and answer.”

    Our Father, knowing we would get sick at times because of our disobedience which causes doubts, fear and unbelief, told us to bring our problems to Him and ask for mercy.  He will show us mercy, forgive our sins and heal our bodies and our minds and soul.  Then He says, “Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come on you.”  (John 5:14)  He told us to “resist the Devil (that brings sickness) and he will flee from us.”  (James 4:7)  But if we let him in and make him welcome with our testimony, he will build a nest in us.

    If sickness is God’s will for His Children, then Jesus was a lawbreaker, for He went about healing all that were oppressed of the Devil1  If sickness is God’s will for His worshippers, then every doctor and every nurse is a lawbreaker because they are working against God’s will.  If it is God’s will for us to be sick, then every hospital is a place of rebellion against God’s plan to make us sick!  If God wants us to be sick sometimes, then it is a sin to want to be well and pray to be well because we are to pray for the will of God to be done in our lives.

    Here is another tradition of men we need to address.  Some say we glorify God more by remaining sick and being patient about it than we can by being healed and up about His business.  Now, hear God’s balance.  We are to be patient when a sickness comes on us, but never to the point of believing that God wants us to be that way.  We know some that teach that we glorify God by staying sick more than by being healed.  Let’s examine that teaching by the Word (We have that teaching in churches in DeWitt.)  If this teaching is true, then Jesus robbed God of all the glory He could, because He healed those who came believing!  Also, the Holy Ghost that was working did not hesitate to rob God of all the glory He could in Acts 5:15-16, “Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.

    16 There came also a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed everyone.”

    Here the Holy Ghost (Jesus) healed all (everyone) that was brought into the streets of Jerusalem so that all who had been made sick by the Devil (vexed with unclean spirits) were healed.  God gets glory when the world sees His healing power raising people up, not by casting them down.  In Acts 28:9 where Paul prayed and God healed all the sick on the Island of Melita, he was doing contrary to God’s will (that is if God wanted some of them to stay sick).  Friends, if we don’t get well, it is never God’s fault, something is wrong down here or else the Lord is testing our faith.  It is wrong to suppose that it is not God’s will to heal all who need it!

    Let’s apply some Holy Ghost enlightened horse sense to that teaching.  Truth is, God will heal anyone that will simply believe it.  If it is only God’s will  to heal some that are sick, then how do we know that we are in that group that He wants to heal?  No!  It is for everybody that will believe it!  We do not need a special, personal revelation from the Holy Ghost to know that God will heal anyone that will believe it.  Why not? Why don’t we have to have a personal revelation that God wants to heal William Wood?  Because we have already been told in His Word that He does!  Are we supposed to close our Bibles and wait for a special revelation that God wants all to be in health?  (See 111 John  1:2)  No!  We are duty bound to read the bible which is His Will and Plan, and there we see where He healed them all that would believe.  To say that God does not want to heal everyone that needs it, is like saying that He does not want to save everyone that’s lost!  Of course, He knows who will come to Him for salvation believing and who won’t come.  But that does never change His written word that says healing and salvation is for all!  If healing was not paid for (for all) how did the multitude in the Bible get from God what He didn’t want them to have?  Does the scripture say that Jesus was a respecter of persons?  No!  It says He was not partial to any but loved us all and would not that any be lost!

    Ezekiel   33:11, “Say unto  them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;  but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die O House of Israel?”

    Matt.  4:23, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching and preaching the Gospel, and healing all manner  of sickness and all manner of disease.”

    Matt.  9:35, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching and preaching and healing every sickness and every disease.”

    Matt. 12:15,”But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence and great multitude followed Him and He healed them all.”

    Matt. 14:14, “And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them and healed their sick.”

    Matt. 14:24-36, “……they sent out into all that country roundabout and brought unto Him all that were diseased….and as many as touched Him were made perfectly whole.”

    Luke 6:17-19, “And a great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to  hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.  And the whole multitude sought to touch Him: for there went virtue out of Him and healed them all.”

    In these scriptures, and many more we see that they brought all that were sick and Jesus healed them all!  Were all these multitudes of people out of the cities and villages Christians?  No!  He said to some, “Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come on you.”  The sick and the lost just heard that there was a man passing through that was healing all kind of sickness and all kinds of disease and they came to check it out.  When they saw it, they went to Him and got what they needed also!  Didn’t we see in the ministry of our Prophet that same Jesus heal everyone in the prayer lines that would believe He wanted to?  Don’t we believe that He has not changed?  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!  Then, who has changed?  We have.  We have failed to believe like we should in His never changing promises.  And look around us, we are paying a terrible price for it, but it is not our Lord’s fault.  He is knocking on the hearts door, and asking to be let in, but the door latch to the heart is on the inside.  He does not come in with His revealed life-saving Word until we open the door.  Do we want to get well physically?  Then turn our lives over to him all the way!  Walk in the light.  Repent when we fail and keep walking.  There is no other formula!  This is it, take it or leave it.  It’s up to us and it’s up to the people we pray for.  They have to believe it with us.  Scripture says, “If any two of you will come to Him and believe.”  The Elder and the sick person both believing!

    In closing, we will make this all important point again.  It is not

God’s will for His Children to be sick.  Jesus said in Matt. 15:26, “Healing is the Children’s bread.”

    Come and dine, the table is spread!  We now have a full seven course meal spread out before us.  The Seven Seals are open.  But although the spiritual food is on the table, we have to go to the table, take it on our plate and get it down in our soul.

    God does not put sickness on His people.  He allows what we allow.  It shall be unto us according to our individual faith (Matt. 9:29) Do you believe the Lord wants you sick sometimes?  You can have it!  Do you believe He wants to make you well from every disease that comes to you?  You can have your healing!  The scripture says of Jesus, that He came to do the Father’s Will (John 4:34) then was not the healing of all that came to Him believing, the Will of the Father for their bodies, and for ours, since He changes not?

    1 John 3:8 says that, “Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil.”  Certainly it is a finished work for all who will believe it.  Look up and be healed Bride of Christ!  Amen.

DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

COMMON SENSE AND DIVINE HEALING

                    By C.W. Wood                                                                   AUGUST 2014

    Is it always God’s Will to heal when we believe, or not?  If it is not His Will, then we need to stop praying for His People.  What does His word say?  Who are His People?  Jesus asked the question, “Who is my mother?”

    Matt.  12:47-50, “Then one said unto him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.

    48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?

    49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren.

    50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

    Healing from Jesus Christ, our Creator, for our physical bodies is a priceless blessing that is ignored by the world, generally speaking!  This is understandable that the lost world is blind to God’s great desire to heal people, but it is much harder to understand when those in the churches also fail to see this glorious and lifesaving truth!

    Having studied the scriptures for forty-five years concerning God’s will to heal all who will simply believe He wants to, and having studied the ministry of men like Br.William Branham, F.F. Bosworth, John A. Dowie, John G.Lake, E.W. Kenyon, A.A. Allen, Oral Roberts and others, I would like to set forth some facts that I pray will win some over to God’s side in the matter.  In this sermon, I will be remembering that there are also people who are in what we call the End-Time Message who are in desperate need of God’s Divine Healing.

    No one ever preached Divine Healing anymore clearly and positive than Br. William Branham.  We will be repeating some things that he said, as well as what some of the other men we mentioned preached about it.  The great need that we see all around us and in myself also, has prompted this review.

    One of the greatest hindrances to faith in Christ for healing is the wrong teaching that God is the author of disease, and that He wills the sickness of some of His worshippers!  This is a tradition of men that even some of those who preach Divine Healing have had wrong.  The truth, as this writer sees it, is that God is the Controller of all sickness, just as He is the Controller of all that He has created.  But, He does not send sickness on us, not only does He not send it on us, but He clearly tells us to resist it when it comes and do not receive it.  When it comes, He tells us to pray for each other and get rid of it, and believe He wants us well!  We know that our Lord uses sickness in His dealings with us, just as He uses all that the Devil does, and turns it around so that it makes “wrath to praise Him.”

    Ps.   76:10, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain (stop).”

    But to say, or teach and preach, that God wants His Children to be sick is to sadly misconstrue His Word.

    Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil: for God was with Him.”

    If this was the only scripture we had, we should know that Jesus Christ was not going around doing something that God didn’t want to be done!  For three years, Jesus went about healing all that were oppressed by the Devil, or that is all that come to Him and asked for it.  The Scripture in Acts 10:38 tells us why He did that, and by what authority!  It says clearly, “For God was with Him.”!  God was in it.  God was anointing Him to do it.  It was God’s will and God’s loving, merciful Plan!  If God wanted us to be sick sometimes, why did he tell us to “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.”?  (James 5:16)  Did God tell us to pray for something that is not His will to do?  Surely not!  He said, “Pray that my will be done and I will hear and answer.”

    Our Father, knowing we would get sick at times because of our disobedience which causes doubts, fear and unbelief, told us to bring our problems to Him and ask for mercy.  He will show us mercy, forgive our sins and heal our bodies and our minds and soul.  Then He says, “Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come on you.”  (John 5:14)  He told us to “resist the Devil (that brings sickness) and he will flee from us.”  (James 4:7)  But if we let him in and make him welcome with our testimony, he will build a nest in us.

    If sickness is God’s will for His Children, then Jesus was a lawbreaker, for He went about healing all that were oppressed of the Devil1  If sickness is God’s will for His worshippers, then every doctor and every nurse is a lawbreaker because they are working against God’s will.  If it is God’s will for us to be sick, then every hospital is a place of rebellion against God’s plan to make us sick!  If God wants us to be sick sometimes, then it is a sin to want to be well and pray to be well because we are to pray for the will of God to be done in our lives.

    Here is another tradition of men we need to address.  Some say we glorify God more by remaining sick and being patient about it than we can by being healed and up about His business.  Now, hear God’s balance.  We are to be patient when a sickness comes on us, but never to the point of believing that God wants us to be that way.  We know some that teach that we glorify God by staying sick more than by being healed.  Let’s examine that teaching by the Word (We have that teaching in churches in DeWitt.)  If this teaching is true, then Jesus robbed God of all the glory He could, because He healed those who came believing!  Also, the Holy Ghost that was working did not hesitate to rob God of all the glory He could in Acts 5:15-16, “Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.

    16 There came also a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed everyone.”

    Here the Holy Ghost (Jesus) healed all (everyone) that was brought into the streets of Jerusalem so that all who had been made sick by the Devil (vexed with unclean spirits) were healed.  God gets glory when the world sees His healing power raising people up, not by casting them down.  In Acts 28:9 where Paul prayed and God healed all the sick on the Island of Melita, he was doing contrary to God’s will (that is if God wanted some of them to stay sick).  Friends, if we don’t get well, it is never God’s fault, something is wrong down here or else the Lord is testing our faith.  It is wrong to suppose that it is not God’s will to heal all who need it!

    Let’s apply some Holy Ghost enlightened horse sense to that teaching.  Truth is, God will heal anyone that will simply believe it.  If it is only God’s will  to heal some that are sick, then how do we know that we are in that group that He wants to heal?  No!  It is for everybody that will believe it!  We do not need a special, personal revelation from the Holy Ghost to know that God will heal anyone that will believe it.  Why not? Why don’t we have to have a personal revelation that God wants to heal William Wood?  Because we have already been told in His Word that He does!  Are we supposed to close our Bibles and wait for a special revelation that God wants all to be in health?  (See 111 John  1:2)  No!  We are duty bound to read the bible which is His Will and Plan, and there we see where He healed them all that would believe.  To say that God does not want to heal everyone that needs it, is like saying that He does not want to save everyone that’s lost!  Of course, He knows who will come to Him for salvation believing and who won’t come.  But that does never change His written word that says healing and salvation is for all!  If healing was not paid for (for all) how did the multitude in the Bible get from God what He didn’t want them to have?  Does the scripture say that Jesus was a respecter of persons?  No!  It says He was not partial to any but loved us all and would not that any be lost!

    Ezekiel   33:11, “Say unto  them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;  but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die O House of Israel?”

    Matt.  4:23, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching and preaching the Gospel, and healing all manner  of sickness and all manner of disease.”

    Matt.  9:35, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching and preaching and healing every sickness and every disease.”

    Matt. 12:15,”But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence and great multitude followed Him and He healed them all.”

    Matt. 14:14, “And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them and healed their sick.”

    Matt. 14:24-36, “……they sent out into all that country roundabout and brought unto Him all that were diseased….and as many as touched Him were made perfectly whole.”

    Luke 6:17-19, “And a great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to  hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.  And the whole multitude sought to touch Him: for there went virtue out of Him and healed them all.”

    In these scriptures, and many more we see that they brought all that were sick and Jesus healed them all!  Were all these multitudes of people out of the cities and villages Christians?  No!  He said to some, “Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come on you.”  The sick and the lost just heard that there was a man passing through that was healing all kind of sickness and all kinds of disease and they came to check it out.  When they saw it, they went to Him and got what they needed also!  Didn’t we see in the ministry of our Prophet that same Jesus heal everyone in the prayer lines that would believe He wanted to?  Don’t we believe that He has not changed?  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!  Then, who has changed?  We have.  We have failed to believe like we should in His never changing promises.  And look around us, we are paying a terrible price for it, but it is not our Lord’s fault.  He is knocking on the hearts door, and asking to be let in, but the door latch to the heart is on the inside.  He does not come in with His revealed life-saving Word until we open the door.  Do we want to get well physically?  Then turn our lives over to him all the way!  Walk in the light.  Repent when we fail and keep walking.  There is no other formula!  This is it, take it or leave it.  It’s up to us and it’s up to the people we pray for.  They have to believe it with us.  Scripture says, “If any two of you will come to Him and believe.”  The Elder and the sick person both believing!

    In closing, we will make this all important point again.  It is not

God’s will for His Children to be sick.  Jesus said in Matt. 15:26, “Healing is the Children’s bread.”

    Come and dine, the table is spread!  We now have a full seven course meal spread out before us.  The Seven Seals are open.  But although the spiritual food is on the table, we have to go to the table, take it on our plate and get it down in our soul.

    God does not put sickness on His people.  He allows what we allow.  It shall be unto us according to our individual faith (Matt. 9:29) Do you believe the Lord wants you sick sometimes?  You can have it!  Do you believe He wants to make you well from every disease that comes to you?  You can have your healing!  The scripture says of Jesus, that He came to do the Father’s Will (John 4:34) then was not the healing of all that came to Him believing, the Will of the Father for their bodies, and for ours, since He changes not?

    1 John 3:8 says that, “Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil.”  Certainly it is a finished work for all who will believe it.  Look up and be healed Bride of Christ!  Amen.