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.”

The Heavenly Father has written your biography even before you were born. He did not create the human family like a ship afloat at sea. We are individuals planned with a personal purpose. Every one of us has our own set of fingerprints. The iris of our eye is unique and special to every life. Our DNA is an absolute identification for each one of us. One hair of your head left at the scene of a crime can convict you in a court of law.

What a marvel each of us are — both to God and ourselves. Before all the above was scientifically understood, the psalmist said, "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee" (Psalm 139:14-18).

The Creator was not about to leave such a beautiful creation without a plan. Every living soul born to women is his design with a divine reason to be here. Nothing about our life was left to chance. To make sure of that he predestined us with a goal toward a splendid result. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30). "Foreknow" is a theological term that can be attributed to our sovereign God alone. It is clearly a broad terminology that spells out His divine purpose for each person. I love the statement, "Our Biography In Advance," because He has a great plan.

Please notice this "Biography In Advance" is first a plan of purity of life. His purpose and grace is to create in you the "Image of Christ." A shabby life cannot reach the goals He has planned. He calls every one of us; and, as we yield ourselves to His will, He justifies us and glorifies us. It is a work of grace that often takes time to grow.

Apostle Paul stated after considerable time in his walk with God, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12-14). Instant perfection in His design for us is not possible. There is a self to crucify and His Word to obey. As this occurs, we go on to His perfect will. I have studied the lives of some of His greatest saints and it was a joy to watch them grow in Him. Put behind your past failures and go forward with abandonm ent to this will of God. You must learn the life of obedience and sensitivity to the Spirit if you discover the great design He has planned.

Apostle Paul said to the Hebrews, "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God" (Hebrews 6:1). He is talking about discovering God’s perfect will in your life. Church history records the incredible results that an extremely small number of people have experience in the perfect will of God.

The Spirit said, "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him" (II Chronicles 16:9). The man or women that will surrender and be totally the Lord’s property will be blessed with a special life. Again, the Spirit promised, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

Every one of us will be judged on the basis of the plan that God has chosen for us. We are saved by grace and imputed with His righteousness. Our salvation has nothing to do with our works. A saved person will live a holy life, but we will be rewarded by our life service and surrender to His will. "Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour" (I Corinthians 3:8).

Today, start planning your life for Him alone. Let the words Jesus taught us become a lifestyle. The Lord said we should not plan anything without seeking His will. He stated that even planning a trip to town should be announced by saying, "If the Lord wills." "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:6).

Jerusalem would be one of the most loved cities in the world if the Jewish people could be eliminated. Yet Jerusalem without the Jews would cease to be anything more than just another city. It is "Israel and Jerusalem" together that creates love or hatred. Jerusalem was never called the Zion of God until it was taken by David and made the capitol of the Jewish nation. God actually called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans/Babylonians to make Him a Nation and to establish that nation in the Promise Land and Jerusalem as its center. God chose Jerusalem before Abraham or David was born and ordained it to become His beloved city and then called His chosen to establish it for His glory in the earth.

Anyone who attacks the Jewish people or the city of Jerusalem is sealing their fate to be judged by the Heavenly Father. What God has chosen or called Holy let no man despise. The earthly Jerusalem is named after the City of God in the sides of the North where the Mighty Creator sits on His Throne. His Son, glorified and exalted, sits on His Right Hand while the Holy Spirit manifests His glory in all His universe. The Lord Jesus promised that He would "prepare a place for us and come again to receive us unto Himself" (St. John 14:1-2). The place He has prepared is finished because John the Revelator saw it and gave us its name. It is called "New Jerusalem" and its glory will liberally outshine the sun. So, we have three cities all called Jerusalem–the City of God, the earthly city, and New City soon to descend down to the earth.

The name Jerusalem is so special and fixed in the Heart of God that even His invisible Church is called by that name. Apostle Paul said of the Saints of God, "But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel" (Hebrews 12:22-24).

His saints washed in the sacred Blood of His Son are His spiritual Jerusalem, rejoicing in all His favour while we wait His appearing to take us to His Heavenly Jerusalem. The city of Jersualem is still in bondage with her children the Je ws but will soon be free. "For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children" (Galatians 4:25).

Yet please remember that while we await for the city and her inhabitants to believe and receive the "returning King of Kings" we are already free. "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all" (Galatians 4:26).