Causes I

Malachi 4:² “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.

Yesterday, we began to talk about causes of sickness and the first we highlighted was Sin. Sin by Jesus’ definition is getting out of sync with God. Secondly, sicknesses happen simply because God wants to show off His glory, not in a bad way but in a good way. In John 9, the disciples saw the man that was born blind and they asked Jesus, “Who sinned – was it the man or his parents?” It is because the religious mind concludes that when there is a health situation or when there is sickness and disease, it must be Sin. John 9:³ “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”

Let us stay on this a little; this man was born blind, he lived blind for many years until Jesus came, just because the power of God was to be seen in him. Be careful when you pray for God’s power to be revealed in you. Sometimes we do not know or fully understand the weight of what we are praying for. Am I saying it is a bad thing to pray for the power of God to be seen in you? Not at all. In fact, it is a good thing. I am just showing you that God’s ways are not our ways. The way He thinks is not the way we think. We think that when everything is smooth, rosy and easy, then God’s power is shown. But God sometimes will take you through a path where you lose your friends, everyone turns their back on you, you lose your job, or you lose your health. A path where everything seems to go down and it is because God wants to use you to show off.

However, when people begin to experience this kind of down time, they get worried. They fill their minds with thoughts such as; what have I done? who have I offended? what is my sin? Those people succeeded at this same thing so how come mine is different? It is because you have prayed, ‘God, let your power be seen in me!’ The beauty of it is that at the end of the day your life will bring glory to God just like the man’s life in John 9 brought glory to God (say Amen).

The third cause of sickness is because of the brokenness in the world. Gen. 3:²³ “So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.” Man fell (sinned, missed the mark, disobeyed God) and God drove man away from the ideal condition. The world became broken and all sorts of strange illnesses and diseases exist today purely because the world is broken. Yet, God’s desire for us is healing.

Prayer (song): My hope is built on nothing less. Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the Solid Rock… Amen!