Healing in the Christian Life 2

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Tonight I’d like to continue on talking about what the Bible says about sickness and death as they
apply to Christians, and begin with the overall general will of God for us as it’s explained there.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 says: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit
and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

That is God’s will for us. And there it is again in 1 Thessalonians 4:3: “For this is the will of
God, your sanctification,” — that is, your being made completely like him. Of course being made
completely like him means your spirit, and soul, and body will be kept sound and blameless at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So that’s God’s will for our bodies. We ought to see that plainly. That was not the state of our
bodies after we rebelled against God, you remember. We became independent of God and our bodies
suffered the same kind of death really that our souls and our spirits suffered. You find it there
in Genesis 3:19. As we rebelled against God, so we suffered death in our spirits, and death in our
souls, and death in our bodies. Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till
you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Death came into the world, and all that leads up to death in the way of sickness resulted from us
rebelling against God. It worked just this way. If we had followed God’s will we would have
received his approval continually on our lives. Our consciences would have been clean, we would
have sensed that the Father in the heaven above enjoys us and approves of us. There would have been
a freedom from any strain.

When we lacked that approval by rebelling against him, we began to try and justify ourselves. We
entered into all the strain of trying to justify ourselves and prove ourselves to everybody. That
brought all the strain and stress diseases that bring too much adrenaline and acid into the stomach
and bring the ulcers and create all the sicknesses that come from strain and stress.

If we had really obeyed God we would have enjoyed just doing what he wanted us to do. That would
have been all the enjoyment that we needed. But when we didn’t receive that enjoyment of operating
and exercising our personalities fully in the way he wanted us to, then we wanted to get enjoyment
for ourselves. So you remember we turned hunger into gluttony and we turned the desire to reproduce
ourselves into lust. And lust and gluttony brought a whole series of diseases and sicknesses within
— and our bodies became weak and out of shape.

If we had listened to God we would have had pure direction about how we should use the world.
Instead of that we misused the world and we perverted the world itself. We used it actually to harm
us and to bring other diseases to us. So you see, disease set in on top of sin and is a direct
result of sin.

No doubt even viruses and germs would not be in the world if we loved each other enough to keep
clean, and to keep pure, and to maintain the world under God’s will and in submission to his plan.
But because we didn’t listen to God and follow his plan, all these sicknesses followed and all these
diseases were the result. It was because of that that we read in Romans 8:20-22 what God did. The

whole world suffered this kind of fall.

Romans 8:20-22: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of
him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay
and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been
groaning in travail together until now.”

So the whole natural creation fell into that same kind of strain. That coupled with us men and us
woman resulted in us having minds that were impaired, emotions that were unbalanced, and bodies that
became very, very weak. So weak that we’re only a shadow of the great giants of people that we were
at the very beginning of creation.

Now, God himself always connects up sickness with this rebellion against him. He really does,
brothers and sisters. God always connects the two up together. You can see it there in Romans 8:2:
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.”

That’s the law of sin and death — that as we rebelled against God we lacked his approval, and we
fell into justifying ourselves. We created strain and stress in our bodies, resulting in all the
adrenaline pumping into the stomach and the acid and bringing the diseases that come with stress.

It resulted in a lack of direction, so that we perverted the world and misused it against ourselves.
It resulted in us seeking enjoyment through lust and gluttony which in its turn weakened and
destroyed our bodies. That’s the law of sin and death, and God always connects the two up together.
Death is the ultimate result of sickness and sin, and sickness God always sees as a result of us
rebelling against him.

Jesus always connected them both together in his ministry. He always said, “I oppose both — not
just sin but sickness also. They’re both a result of your rebellion against God.” You have it
there in Mark 1:15. You can really turn to any gospel that describes Jesus’ first day in his
ministry and you find that they all emphasize both these sides of his ministry.

The emphasis is on sin as an enemy of God and the emphasis is on sickness. He opposed both sin and
sickness. Mark 1:15: “’The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and
believe in the gospel.’”

Jesus first called men to turn from sin. And then verses 22-23 go on: “And they were astonished at
his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. And immediately
there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.” As soon as Jesus appears, sickness
exposed itself. Then you remember that Jesus deals with the sickness. Jesus always connected the
two together.

If you look at Matthew 9:5 he connected the two up together. Matthew 9:5: “For which is easier, to
say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk?’”

Jesus obviously saw a connection between the sickness and the sin because he mentioned that both or
either of those would deal with the case at hand. Last Sunday we suggested that why he so often
dealt with sickness was that the Jews and the Gentiles at that time found it easier to believe in
healing than they did in forgiveness of sins. Now in our day it’s almost the other way around.
Then he entrusted to us really the job of removing both when he sent out the apostles and said, “You

are to preach the gospel of the kingdom and you are to heal all diseases.”

Now that is why we say that sin and sickness are connected up together. Now, why did God allow
sickness to continue if it wasn’t his will? Why did he not come down after the fall of mankind and
simply clean up the whole earth and wipe out cancer, and wipe out gonorrhea, and wipe out leprosy?
Why did God not just come down and clean up all sicknesses?

Well, the first reason, dear ones, is in Genesis 2:16-17: “And the Lord God commanded the man,
saying, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’” The very fact that God
gave a commandment to man proves that he gave him free will. God had to allow man to choose what he
wanted.

You can see that if man chooses rebellion against God and therefore sickness, really God is
cancelling out man’s free will if he comes down and wipes out sickness. Or if God came down and
wiped out sin in every generation he would really be saying, “No, you can only choose it as long as
you want, but I come down and cancel it out as soon as you die.” In other words, the first reason
God had to allow sickness to continue was because man had chosen it and God was determined most of
all to make man be like himself. He himself had a free will, so he was committed to preserving
man’s free will even if he had to let sickness run rampant.

The second reason you’ll see is in Genesis 3:4: “But the serpent,” Satan, “said to the woman, ‘You
will not die.’” The devil persuaded man that they wouldn’t die. They could rebel against God —
live independently of him — and they wouldn’t die. God had to leave sickness in the world to show
man that he would die.

Sickness is one of God’s ways of showing man that all is not right in creation. You know that the
whole world is bent on making it normal and natural to live as if there’s no creator. In great
parts of the world that has become almost possible. There are many people who don’t think there is
a creator at all.

Do you see that Satan’s job was to persuade us that we’d never die? And God’s job was to leave some
signs in the earth that we would die — indeed, that we were in the process of death. That
explains that verse that we read, that God subjected the creation to futility. He subjected it in
hope. He allowed disease and sickness to come as the natural consequences of our sin so that we
ourselves would see that all is not right. That’s the second reason why God allowed sickness to
continue.

And the third reason really is an extension of that last one. It’s in 1 Corinthians 11:30-32: “That
is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we
should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be
condemned along with the world.”

God left sickness in the world as a sign to us to at least judge ourselves and see if there is any
sin present. So sickness really can be a friend — something like the law. I think many of us say,
“Oh well now, what about what it says in John 9:3?” And we say, “They ask Jesus, ‘What about this
man? Has this man sinned or his parents?’ And Jesus said, ‘No, this man has not sinned nor have
his parents sinned.’” It is very important for us to see that all God was saying was — because you
are sick it does not necessarily mean you individually have sinned.

Moreover, some of you have been born with a congenital sickness that is there because of your
parents’ sin, or your grandparents’ sin, or because way back Adam himself sinned. So every time you
see someone who is sick, you don’t automatically say, “They’ve sinned and that’s what Jesus was
saying.” The man in John Chapter 9 was one who had been born blind. All that Jesus means there is
that not everyone who is sick has sinned and brought it upon themselves. Some people are born with
congenital sickness because the sins of their fathers have been visited on the third and fourth
generation. But that is very different, brothers and sisters, as we said last day, from saying that
sickness has no connection with sin.

Sickness is there, allowed by God as a consequence of sin, to ask us to examine ourselves and see if
things are right. Now why do we say that? Because the normal state of God’s children is expressed
in Exodus 15:26: “’If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that
which is right in his eyes, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put
none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord, your healer.’”

In other words, here is a world torn with sin and sickness, and God says, “You are my people, and if
you avoid sin then I will put none of the sicknesses upon you that have been put upon the
Egyptians.” Now, if you know your grammar well enough, you’ll know what I mean: if the apodosis is
not true then one ought to examine if the hypothesis is not true. And if the apodosis is true, then
one ought to examine if the hypothesis is true.

That’s why God allowed sickness to continue. You see, the hypothesis is, “if you will gently
hearken to the voice of the Lord your God.” That’s the hypothesis in a conditional statement and
the apodosis is, “I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians.”

Now that’s why God has allowed sickness to continue in the world, so that when we see sickness we
may at least suspect that perhaps there is sin somewhere around — or perhaps God is trying to say
something to us about our relationship with him. In other words, sickness is a bit like the law.
You remember the law, as it’s outlined in Exodus 20: “If you receive the Spirit of my uncreated life
in you, you’ll have no other gods before me. You will not commit adultery. You will not steal.
You will not bear false witness.” Those are promises that are true if you’re receiving the Spirit
of God’s uncreated life.

Now sickness is a little like the law. God is saying, “If you’re receiving all of the life that
flows from my right hand from my Son Jesus from the tree of life, then really you’ll be well. I
will put no sicknesses upon you.” Now if you find yourself with some sicknesses, at least be fair
and loving enough to ask yourself, “Am I receiving all of the life that God can give me?” And
that’s part of the purpose of sickness, and it can be used by God in that way. It’s not that God
sends sickness. It’s that he allows Satan to work this work upon us.

Now I think some of us have a danger here. We say, “You mean, every time I have a sickness I have
sinned?” No. It could be that God wants you to come into more Christ-likeness. It could be that
you haven’t sinned at all but that God is anxious for you to come into a new Christ-likeness. Now
you can see this if you look at the teaching that you receive in Hebrews 12:10 about Jesus’ own
position. Here God is talking about ordinary fathers and how they discipline. Hebrews 12:10: “For
they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we
may share his holiness.”

God at times allows hard things to come upon us so that we might share his holiness. Now, do you
see sharing his holiness is both a negative thing and a positive thing? It’s first of all being
cleared of sins, and secondly it’s growing in Christ-likeness. That’s why at times God can allow
sickness to come upon us. It’s either because there is sin in our life of some kind and he wants to
draw attention to it in as loving a way as possible — or because there’s a new position in Jesus
into which he wants us to come. Now I think it’s important, brothers and sisters, to see the two
sides — otherwise you won’t understand what Jesus meant when he said, “Just because these Gentiles
are suffering it doesn’t mean they’ve sinned.”

So some of us may come into a real deep sickness. It’s very important for the rest of us to see
that doesn’t mean necessarily that that person has sinned. It can mean that that person is far away
beyond the stage at which we are with Jesus, and God is allowing that person to come into a new
place with Jesus.

That ties up with Jesus’ own experience which is described in Hebrews 5:8: “Although he was a Son,
he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of
eternal salvation to all who obey him.” You see that even Jesus suffered — and obviously he didn’t
sin. Obviously it wasn’t because of sin that he suffered. Yet he did suffer so that he would learn
perfect obedience.

Now at times God allows sickness to come upon us because there is sin there. At other times he
allows sickness to come upon us because he wants us to come into a new place in his Son Jesus, a new
place of growth in Christ-likeness. I think we have to see both those sides.

Maybe you can share a little bit in questions at the end about that. Do you see then that sickness
is really a symptom of a disease that we have with God? Sickness is not God’s perfect will for us.
So whenever sickness comes upon us we should regard it as a symptom. “Now Lord, why has this
sickness come upon me?” God is faithful, and he will reveal to us what the real disease is. God
has promised that.

He’s promised for instance in Exodus 15:26 that he’ll prevent sickness as far as his children are
concerned. He will prevent sickness. He says, “I will put none of the diseases upon you which I
put upon the Egyptians.” And secondly he says, “If ever sickness comes upon you I’ll cure
sickness.” You remember he said that in James 5:16. It’s the promise given to us if we are ever
sick. “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.”

God says, “If you confess your sins — if you get rid of whatever it is that I’m trying to draw
attention to — then as soon as that’s removed your sickness will be healed. Also — if I’m trying
to show you how to come into a greater place of faith in my Son Jesus — as soon as you come into
it, as soon as you confess your lack of Christ-likeness and you see it plainly — then the sickness
will be removed.”

So that is God’s promise to us — that he will prevent sickness, and that if ever we come into a
place where he needs to allow sickness to come upon us, once we have seen whatever he’s been trying
to point out, he will remove the sickness from us.

That’s God’s will for us in regard to sickness. Now where does this put the whole business of
medicine? What is the place of medicine in the sickness of Christians? Probably the place of

medicine in the world is the same position as the law. Do you remember why God gave us the law? It
wasn’t to make us like Jesus. Let’s look at the reason why in Galatians 3:23: “Now before faith
came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed.” The
purpose of the law was to keep us under restraint until faith should be revealed.

God gave the law to keep us men and woman from blowing apart the world before his redeeming Spirit
could get to work among us. Now that was the purpose of the law. You know that you could try to
obey the law perfectly in every way and yet it would never make you like Jesus. The law is there
only to keep back sin and to keep back sin from destroying the world.

You remember that Luther put it this way: “There’s the power of the sword and there’s the power of
the spirit.” The power of the sword is the power of law, of police officers, of courts, and of
everything connected with our judicial system. The purpose of the power of the sword is to control
the world and keep men from blowing it apart — while the power of the Holy Spirit gets to work
through Jesus to redeem men.

Now that’s probably the same purpose of medicine. It’s to keep sickness from running rampant
throughout the world and destroying the whole world before the Spirit of Jesus can really come into
people and make them whole as he is.

What then should Christians do about medicine? First of all, if you get sick you shouldn’t
immediately start running for a cure. Your first question should not be, “Where can I find the
cure?” Just the same way if you had trouble with some brother or sister in the body, who was really
sinning against you in some way, you wouldn’t hand them over to the police. You wouldn’t say, “I
must get rid of this nuisance as soon as I can whatever way I can do it.”

So your first question in sickness should not be, “Where can I find a cure?” but, “Father, why have
you allowed this to come upon me? Is there something you’re trying to show me in this sickness? Is
there some sin that I have in my own life, or is there some new position in Christ that you want me
to enter into?”

This should be our first response to sickness. The issue isn’t: can Christians use medicine to get
healed? There’s no problem with that as long as you don’t object to what Paul called medicine.

Now maybe you’d look at it in 1 Timothy 5:23. A lot of you know it already. The issue isn’t
whether Christians can use medicine or not. The answer is obvious there in 1 Timothy 5:23: “No
longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent
ailments.” So obviously Paul advised Timothy, “Listen, there are good nourishing things that will
help your body. At times it’s good to use those.” That isn’t the issue – whether Christians should
use medicine or not.

You get into a legal bind and come under bondage if you begin to take the position, “No, Christians
should not use medicine if they want.” But do you see that with Jesus it is a higher thing? The
principle that we follow in regard to sickness is in 1 Corinthians 6:12: “’All things are lawful for
me’, but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me’, but I will not be enslaved by
anything.”

All things are lawful for us Christians, but there are some things that are lawful and there are
some things that are expedient. Really the question is, “Am I concerned to find out what God is

trying to show me through this sickness? Or do I love myself so much that I have to get rid of this
pain and suffering at any cost? Do I have to use the normal methods that non-Christians use to be
healed of my sickness?”

And do you see brothers and sisters, there’s no question of whether Christians should be doctors or
not? Don’t you see that? It’s the same question about whether Christians should be lawyers or
policemen. Of course they should. As God guides them they should take part in part of the
preserving grace that he has shed throughout the world in the legal systems. Of course they should
take part in the whole medical work which is an attempt of God’s preserving grace to hold back
sickness in the world so that God’s Spirit can get to deal with men.

But the issue for Christians is not, “Is it legal to be a Christian? Is it right to be a
Christian?” It is not, “As a Christian is it right to use medicine?” But the issue is, “Is this
what God’s will is for me in this present situation?”

At times it may be God’s will for you. But there are several precautions now that we ought to share
with one another as Christians in regards to medicine. I’ll try to take them in what detail I can.

First of all, often our rush to man’s drugs is simply a compounding of the rebellion of our
self-love against God. God sees that we love ourselves in some way that is not according to his
will, and he allows sickness to come upon us. We rush to drugs to get rid of the sickness in order
to carry on without looking at what God was trying to show us.

Moreover, some of us are so hurt by the pain of the sickness, and we love ourselves so much, and we
want to avoid suffering at any cost, that we are determined to take drugs or anything that will get
rid of the pain. Do you see that often when we rush to medicine – now remember what I said, that
accepting medicine is lawful to us — but it just is a fact that often we rush to medicine because
of our self-love — because we’re not really willing to wait to find out what God is trying to show
us.

Often we ignore the deeper benefits of the salvation that Jesus has wrought in his death for us by
rushing to medicine. Often we take the drugs to clear up the symptoms — and actually the disease
remains deep down there, and we ignore the depth of the salvation which is wrought in Jesus and
which is available to us — for a rather shallower, more superficial kind of removal of the
symptoms. Now often I think that is true, isn’t it?

We know the whole business about Contact {a decongestant drug} and the old tiny time capsules, you
know, and really they just work on the principle that they stop the secretions that God has put in
our bodies to clear away virus and germs, and they just stop them. They stop the nose running. They
stop all the secretions that really are used by God to take away the sickness. That’s just one very
clear example of the way we take drugs to suppress and repress symptoms rather than to deal with the
real sickness underneath.

Now very often, by running to man’s medicines we ignore and neglect the deeper health and healing
that Jesus can bring to us from the cross. Often, in other words, men’s medicines heal the physical
symptoms but really don’t deal at all with the spiritual sickness that was what God wanted to point
out to us. So, often we miss the whole purpose of the sickness. Often we say that doctors are
God’s intermediaries. We thank God for them, and that’s right because they are God’s

intermediaries. But we ourselves really end up trusting more in the doctors and the drugs than we
do in God.

Now that need not be you. It need not be. But isn’t it true that often that’s what happens? It’s
very important, brothers and sisters, that we see that I’m not saying to you, “Don’t use medicine,”
— because my wife would be out of a job if you did that. {Rev. O’Neill’s wife is a dentist.} So
I’m not saying don’t use medicine. But I’m saying to you that there are cautions that we need to
remember as we approach this whole question of sickness.

The first question we should ask is, “Lord, is there anything that you’re trying to draw my
attention to? I know you’re fully able to make me whole and well on your own as soon as the reason
for this sickness is removed. Now, is there anything you’re trying to draw my attention to?” That
should be our first question – instead of our first question being, “Where can I get a cure?” Often
that latter one is the first question we ask.

I think it’s true that though all medical knowledge is made possible by God’s Spirit — yet often
medical knowledge glorifies the cleverness of man rather than glorifying the death of Jesus on the
cross. That need not be, but often it is the case. Often you’ll find brothers and sisters who say,
“The doctor is God’s method of healing. So I take the healing as if it’s from God.” But deep down
they really know better. They know the healing comes from the doctor — really. They don’t believe
it comes primarily from the Father because they have tackled it in the wrong way.

In other words, it depends on the way you go for medical help. It depends on whether God has
directed you to go to that — whether you have waited long enough for him to see how he wants you to
proceed. Very many of us who run to medicine are so quick to get a cure that we cannot wait long
enough to ascertain what God’s will is for us. We can’t find out why he allowed the sickness to
come, and we certainly can’t find out whether he wants us to go to a doctor or not to go to a
doctor.

But what God wants when we come into a problem with sickness is to wait upon him — to draw closer
to him. That’s why he’s allowed the thing to come to us, so that we would draw closer and nearer to
him and understand him better. Instead many of us draw away from him and we actually get more
independent of him almost because of the sickness, rather than really drawing close to him.

God’s will for us in sickness is found there in Matthew 6:25: “’Therefore I tell you, do not be
anxious about your life.’” That’s God’s will. When we come into sickness he wants us not to get
away down under the symptoms and start being anxious and worried about our life.

He wants us to look up to him and say, “Father, I thank you for allowing this to come. I know
you’re trying to point something out to me because you have said that you will put none of these
diseases upon anyone who abides in your statutes. So Father, I’ll wait upon you and I’ll wait for
you to show me this.” And wait, brothers and sisters, long enough for God to show you this.

It says in James Chapter 1 verse 4, “Let steadfastness have its full effect.” Don’t opt out before
God has shown you what he wants to show you. He wants you to take that attitude. As the symptoms
bear down on you more and more heavily, he’s saying to you, “Do not love yourself. Do not love
yourself. Do not get all wrought up and desire sympathy from other people for your symptoms. Look
away from your symptoms and look up to me and wait upon me. Wait as long as I ask you to wait.”
And do you see dear ones, that God may ask you to wait a little while?

Now that was true of Paul, where Paul describes what we think may have been a sickness in his eyes
as “a thorn in the flesh.” It’s 2 Corinthians 12:7, where he expresses plainly the belief that God
had allowed this to come upon him for a spiritual reason: “And to keep me from being too elated by
the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me,
to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave
me; but,” — here’s the important thing: he didn’t just go on hoping and hoping, he received an
answer from God– “but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect
in weakness.’” Then he said in verse 9: “’I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that
the power of Christ may rest upon me.’”

Now that is God’s will, that we should know what he intends in the sickness. In other words, it is
not his will that any of us should be under sickness for years and years and not know why it’s
there, and not be clear whether God wants to heal it or not. God’s normal attitude to sickness is,
“I want to heal all your sicknesses. I want to put none of them upon you that I’ve put upon the
Egyptians.” But you can see that at times, as in Paul’s situation, he allowed a thorn in the flesh
to remain and allowed Paul to glory actually in that weakness.

Now it’s important I think, to say last of all that some people go to the other extreme and some
people say, “I have drawn close to God in my sickness so really I’d rather be sick than well.” So
they accept sickness and welcome it, and never look for healing at all. Now do you see that that
kind of holiness will not last? If you’re only holy while you’re sick — that is certainly not the
Father’s will for you.

So it’s not right ever to accept sickness as something that is God’s will for you. Sickness is
never God’s will for you. God may, through his permissive will, allow sickness to come upon you —
but for a purpose and for a time — and then when the reason for that is removed, the sickness will
be removed. So it is a lie of Satan for us ever to accept sickness as God’s permanent will for us.
Yet some of us glory in sickness in that way.

Now it’s plain that sickness is not God’s will. You can look up many verses in the Bible, but John
9:3 is a plain reason why we should never accept sickness. In this verse, they asked, “Did this man
sin, or did his parents sin?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned or his parents but
that the works of God might be made manifest in him.” Now the reason the sickness came was that the
works of God might be made manifest in him.

That’s why God allows sickness to come upon you. Now if the sickness is not healed then God’s works
are not made manifest in you. So there’s no point if you accept sickness as a permanent part of
your life. Then God is not glorified by sickness. In fact, only one person is glorified by
sickness, and that is the one whom Jesus said really is the one that produces it. It’s Acts 10:38.
Peter is talking about Jesus and he talks about the works that Jesus did: “’How God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that
were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.’”

The reason we should never accept sickness is that sickness is oppression by the devil. We should
never accept anything from Satan as a permanent work in our lives. So it’s not right to say, “Oh, I
have grown closer to God during this sickness. So really, sickness is good and sickness will keep
me close to God.” No. God wants you to be rid of sickness because sickness is a work of Satan and
God cannot be glorified in the midst of it.

So brothers and sisters there are a lot of other things to say, and we’ll share a little more of
them next Sunday. But do you see that the basic attitude of Christians towards medicine should be
not that we cannot use it? But that God has a perfect way, and the perfect way is to receive all
healing and life from Jesus. Yet we have to deal individually with God about that. But if we ever
do use medicine, we have to see that there are many cautions to be observed in the use of it. We
have to at least ascertain: is it God’s will that we should use medicine?

Yet we ought to see that it is easily and obviously God’s will for many Christians to be in medicine
— because it’s a beautiful opportunity to deal with a work of Satan, and at the same time to have
the opportunity to explain to someone that there is a better way and a fuller way for dealing with
the sickness and for dealing with this enemy.

Now dear ones, would you like to ask questions? Because I think that the questions are the most
important part. We’ll share a little more next Sunday.

Question from someone in the audience: Christian Science healings — are they sometimes of the devil
or can they be of God?

Rev. O’Neill: I’m sure, sister, that there are many Christians in all denominations or sects, even
though we would think that no one could be a Christian Scientist and still be a Christian. I’m sure
there must be many dear souls who maybe don’t see all the finer points of doctrine and maybe are
real Christians in their own homes. So they may well experience real healing from Jesus .