Sacred Stripes That Heal

Praying for the sick and Divine Healing has always been a part of a Church where the fire of the Spirit is burning. When Divine Healing no longer exists among the saints of God, something is missing. Many voices have always found excuses for the absence of miracles in the Church. There really is no excuse except the truth. To say that miracles are no longer available by the work of His Spirit is to deny the Word of God.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). Isaiah, the Statesman Prophet, left no question of the purpose of Christ’s great suffering. The bodily healing of God’s people was a great truth in the First Testament. Isaiah established the sufferings of Christ as the source of that fact. The virtue of Jesus Christ to heal reaches backward as well as forward. He was called Jehovah-Rapha to the children of Israel as they were passing out of Egypt into Canaan.

God spoke to Moses during a crisis of murmuring by the great host he was leading to the Promise Land. “And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26). The very words in this promise translate to “Jehovah-Rapha, The Lord our Healer.” Isaiah wanted Israel to know that this Healer would pay the price of these miracles when He appeared to take away sin. The hidden presence of the pre-incarnate Son was not so hidden when we look back to His miracles. The Psalmist knew His glory as he walked in the shadow of the coming promise. He said, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases” (Psalm 103:3).

The powerful words by Isaiah are like a rock to stand upon. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). This prophet of God did not use words that could be altered. He was taking us into the hour of Christ’s great suffering and showing us not the gore but the glory. The Savior’s body was mutilated and beaten within the scant margin from death. Every wound was a supernatural opposite of a Divine miracle. We must grasp this beautiful truth.

The Son of God was divine; yet, incarnated in flesh. This was His power over our sins and sicknesses. The Divine could not walk into our realm of sin and redeem or heal us. Neither could the flesh transcend the barriers from our fallen state. But, the Divine — by laying aside the expression of His God-likeness — could embody Himself in the flesh. By His sacrifice of that sanctified flesh, He could break every power that held us in bondage. That’s what He did.

Demons knew Him when many others could not recognize His Divinity. One demon-possessed man in the Synagogue at Capernaum cried, “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34). That demon had seen Him before His incarnation. The Son of God was fully God in the flesh. At any moment it was His choice to be hidden or to be manifest. On the Mount of Transfiguration the three chosen disciples saw Him briefly as He revealed His glory.

That Divine Son – fully incarnated in flesh – began His redeeming moment in the Garden of Gethsemane. He allowed His flesh to become a vicarious offering to His Father. In the period from the garden until He said, “It is finished,” the flesh was allowed to be as utterly weak and fearful as any man. He cried, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Those were not words to be taken lightly. An angel was dispatched from Heaven to strengthen Him. The Bible said, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared” (Hebrews 5:7).

The courtyard, where they beat Him with a traditional “cat of nine tails with thirty-nine lashes,” was the location of the redeeming act of His Healing Stripes. Because of His deep wounds by these brutal stripes, virtue was released or manifested for the healing of our bodies. When by faith any person stands unflinchingly in complete trust, that healing virtue cannot be denied. That healing is as sure to one and all as is saving virtue.

Our Lord is calling us back to the glory of His suffering and death, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14).

There is nothing less than supernatural power in the glory of His Divine union with a fleshly body. Every stripe is full of Divine healing and every drop of blood is full of Divine cleansing. The perfect sacrifice has defeated everything that Satan has done to kill, steal, and destroy. “BE THOU MADE WHOLE IN BODY AND SOUL.”