Why Christians Sometimes Feel Sick.

So far we’ve said that God is interested in having His children stay physically healed and He made adequate provision for this.

Secondly, healing is first spiritual but should manifest physically.

Thirdly, Jesus’ pain, agony and death wasn’t just a spiritual experience, he took it all in His body.

We ended the last part with a promise to search the scriptures for answers to this question: ‘Grace, I am a Child of God, but I still have symptoms of sickness and disease in my body, where is my healing?

The answer to this question is actually the thrust of this series. I am as interested in it as you are.

But before we get into that, I believe it is pertinent to first answer the question of; ‘Why do Christians experience sickness at all? We are Children of God, saved, righteous, filled with the Holy Ghost, healed by His Stripes, why do we still fall sick?’

Well, I searched the scriptures, and found 5 possible reasons why a Christian may fall ill.

1. We live in a physical body which becomes worn and torn from use:

We are spirit beings but communicate with the world around us through our body. Our hands, feet, brain, eyes, ears, etc are various parts of our body which help us function on earth. God told Adam, ‘I give you the earth and all that is in it, use it for your good and remember to ‘tend and keep it’. We must make efforts to tend and keep our physical bodies. We should give more attention to ensuring it stays protected and preserved. We should eat right; God recommends more of plant-based food (Genesis 1:29 & 2:16), get some exercise, take advantage of the ‘little’ profit exercise gives the body (1 Timothy 4:8), manage your emotions (longstanding anger and bitterness can be detrimental to health) and get good rest.

Talking about Rest, I believe Christians need to give more time to rest. God Almighty rested on the 7th day, the whole day. He created the world in six days and rested on the 7th. Simple arithmetic just tells you that for the 144 hours God worked, He got 24 hours rest. And I mean rest from all work (whether secular or kingdom work). God is wise, spirituality is His domain. So do not confuse the need for rest with not being spiritual or not maximizing grace. I have come to see that sometimes, the remedy for some illnesses is sleep….Long deep sleep! It gives your body time to recover from tear and wear then you can work again. Get your 7th day rest 🙂

2. Sin brought sickness:

Deuteronomy 28 lists sickness as one of the curses of the law, a penalty for not keeping The Lord’s commands. There is a link between sin and sickness.

In John 9:3-4 Jesus told His disciples this;

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him…….” NKJV.

And if we remember well, almost every time Jesus healed someone he leaves them with an admonishment ‘go and sin no more‘. The good news for us as Christians is that we are carriers of the righteousness of God {through Christ} and we have the Whole Armor of God to keep well kitted at all times.

3. The devil is on a mission to keep Christians oppressed and depressed;

John 10:10a tells us this much

“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy..” NKJV

Thank God Jesus stripped him of all powers and gave all power to us. Our victory is in the name of Jesus Christ through faith in God’s Word.

4. Set up for God’s glory:

Going by Jesus’ response in John 9:3-4 above, some challenges can come to us (from the enemy) but end up as a set up for God’s glory; revealing the power of God to heal, save and deliver to, the us and other brethren.

5. Misuse of the Lord’s Supper;

“For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” I Corinthians 11:29‭-‬30 NKJV.

I never understand how Christians comfortably harbor unforgiveness for so long. Truth is; feelings of anger, hurts and even envy come to everyone irrespective of level of spirituality, question is; ‘how do you handle them? That’s one way to measure the depth of your spirituality. Do you push them aside quickly or do they continue to define your relationships?

Jesus discourages service in His name while there is unsettled dispute between brethren. He says keep your service and sacrifice; I don’t need it. It is more important to Me that you’re living at peace with all men:

“leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
Matthew 5:24 NKJV

Clearly, Jesus gives higher priority to mercy, forgiveness and love than giving, service and sacrifice (Luke 11:42).

Remember the 2 greatest commandments?

“Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Matthew 22:37‭-‬39 NKJV

And 1 Corinthians 13 says all spiritual giftings and manifestations amount to nothing without love.

Love is the greatest of all!

Loving God is actually much easier than loving man. God is love Himself. He gave His Son to die for sin even before we knew we were sinners. He supplies all our needs. He protects us, etc etc. So we shouldn’t only be boasting about our love and reverence for God, we should boast more our love walk.

But man? he is inherently and desperately wicked ?. Having a preference to retaliate, cause harm, etc. (Jeremiah 17:9). That’s the natural man!

The rebirthed man is different because He has God alive in him. He reflects the life and Love of God.

He can love the unlovable man just the way God loves. That is agape.

I love how Galatians sums up the entire commandment of God;

“For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is fulfilled in one precept, “You shall love your neighbor’ as yourself [that is, you shall have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit].” But if you bite and devour one another [in bickering and strife], watch out that you [along with your entire fellowship] are not consumed by one another.”
GALATIANS 5:14‭-15.

If it still takes you a long time to push hurts and bitterness aside, work on it. But while you sort these out, steer clear of The Lord’s Table. Why eat yourself to weakness, sickness or death? 🙂

So, these are some of the reasons Christians become sick.

The good news is; you may become sick but you don’t have any reason to stay or remain sick because Jesus Christ paid the eternal price for sickness and disease. We are/were healed by His Stripes. That healing is available and accessible always

We should constantly work at taking care of our physical bodies, stay clothed in the whole armor of God, remain conscious of our righteousness in Christ and steer clear of The Lord’s Table if we have to.

In the next part, we’ll answer the question of ‘where is my healing?’ 🙂

Get My Book On Healing; “When The Doctor Says No”

To learn more about our healing benefits in Christ Jesus, follow this link to my book, “When The Doctor Says No” available online at

https://www.amazon.com/When-Doctor-Says-No-Word/dp/1704859166/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7

The Book is available in two formats; kindle and paperback. It is also available for order online from all amazon market places, meaning that the Amazon shop in your neighborhood should be able to supply you.

Stay Blessed & My love always.

Welcome back! Trust you had a good week…. 🙂

This is the second part of this series. As a way of introduction, I am providing answers to some fundamental questions about healing and salvation.

God is interested in having His children stay physically healed and He made adequate provision for this. Secondly, salvation is not only spiritual; a spiritually born person who feeds well {on the Word} eventually exhibits traits of the spirit physically. In the same vein, and because healing and salvation come as one package, healing is first spiritual but should manifest physically.

We have 2 reference scriptures for this series;

1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV)

“who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness- by whose stripes you were healed.”

Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV)

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

To formally commence our learning on the subject ‘By His Stripes‘, we first provide some basic definitions; look again at the Isaiah 53:5; we see ‘bruised’, ‘wounded’ ‘stripes’.

As used in the reference scripture, ‘stripes‘ mean; a bruise, a wound from a stripe, to beat to pieces, crush, smite, humble, oppress.

‘Wound’ is an injury to a living tissue caused by a cut, blow, or impart, which typically cuts or breaks the skin.

‘Bruise‘ is an injury that appears as a discolored area of skin on the body.

What do we see here?

These descriptions point to a physical, bodily experience. Yes, Jesus definitely felt the spiritual and emotional weight of crucifixion, but reality remains that He was physically tortured.

His body was cut. The stripes were not imaginary; he was lashed so much that His skin broke. The nails pierced His skin as they passed through His hands, and the spear certainly pierced his skin.

1 Peter 2:24 says; He bore our sins in His own body.

Jesus’ pain and agony wasn’t just a spiritual one. He took it all in His body, so that my body can stay healed, intact, unbroken.

Sickness was part of the curse. Jesus paid the price and bought my eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12). I shouldn’t be thrown into prison for the same offence more than once.

Sickness came as punishment for sin. Jesus paid fully for it. I needn’t pay again.

My healing was bought complete

My healing is spiritual

My healing manifests physically in my body.

Someone asks; ‘Grace, I am a Child of God, but I still have symptoms of sickness and disease in my body, where is my healing?

Let’s search the scriptures together for answers….

Join me next time.

Get My Book On Healing; “When The Doctor Says No”

To learn more about our healing benefits in Christ Jesus, follow this link to my book, “When The Doctor Says No” available online at https://www.amazon.com/When-Doctor-Says-No-Word/dp/1704859166/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7

The Book is available in two formats; kindle and paperback. It is also available for order online from all amazon market places, meaning that the Amazon shop in your neighborhood should be able to supply you.

Love always.

Scripture References:

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness- by whose stripes you were healed.” I Peter 2:24 NKJV.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 NKJV

Sometimes Christians want to provide a comfortable explanation for 1 Peter 2:24, it’s wisdom to be careful with doing that. Scripture should not be interpreted in the light of one’s feelings, emotions or experience. If someone tried to apply the Word on healing to themselves but failed, this shouldn’t make for a twisted interpretation of scripture. God’s word is the Truth, the Way and the Life. God’s Word doesn’t change with circumstances but remains the same yesterday, today and forever.

I ventured on a “Christian” blog not too long ago where there was a heated debate on the meaning of ‘healed‘ in ‘By His stripes you were (are) healed‘ as seen in our reference scriptures. A good number of persons supported the idea that these scriptures speaks only of a spiritual healing experience with no physical manifestation. Their assertion as I understand it, stems from their understanding that healing and salvation come as one package. They further infer that since salvation is spiritual (referring to man’s spiritual rebirth necessitated by the fall of Adam) then the healing mentioned in 1 Peter 2:24 is also spiritual.

I agree/disagree.

I agree, as recorded in Genesis chapter 3, that as a result of Adam’s sin, sin and death were introduced into the world and sadly, both spread to all men (Romans 5:12).

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Romans 5:12 NLT.

The good news however is that in Jesus Christ, God made provision for every spiritually dead descendant of Adam to become spiritually alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
I Corinthians 15:22 NKJV

This is the spiritual rebirth spoken of by Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3: 1-17. As soon as someone becomes born again by confessing Jesus as Lord and Saviour, he becomes a brand new creation, a new spirit is birthed and the old sinful nature done away with.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
II Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

The argument for ‘1 Peter 2:24 healing’ being spiritual (and not physical) is often posited to support the fact that in Christ we have been healed from the illness of sin. Again, I agree that we have been delivered from sin (and its consequent death), but I disagree that ‘1 Peter 2:24’ is only spiritual. Sin was not an illness but a part of the curse. The curse (sin, sickness and death) came through Adam.

Below, I share my thoughts on 1 Peter 2:24 by working through a few questions.

Question #1 : Did God only plan a spiritual healing for man? Has He no interest in man being physically healed?

Let’s see some scriptures below;

“Beloved, I pray that in every way you may succeed and prosper and be in good health (physically) just as (I know) your soul prospers (spiritually).” 3 John 1:2. AMP.

“..for they are life to those who find them and healing and health to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4:22 AMP.

“when evening came, they brought to Him under the power of demons; and He cast out the evil spirits with a word, and restored to health all those who were sick (exhibiting His authority as Messiah).” Matthew 8:16

So from 3 John 1:2; we should enjoy good health physically, from Proverbs 4:22; God made a provision for healing (through His word), and from Matthew 8:16; Jesus healed all that came to Him with phy sickness.

God is interested in having His children stay physically healed and He made adequate provision for that. God’s Word is health to All our flesh.

Question #2 :Is salvation really only a spiritual event?

The newbirth is a spiritual experience. The day you got born again, there was no obvious change in your physical appearance. Your skin color didn’t change, there was no change in any part of your body. However, you received a brand new spirit; you received the nature of God- you are a creation, you are righteous, you are holy, you received all the attributes of the Spirit in your spirit. You were born of the Spirit of God. And when you get receive the baptism of the Spirit, you become filled with the Holy Spirit.

As the mind is renewed continually with the Word, physical expressions of the fruit of the Spirit are experienced and expressed.

I am yet to see an event and experience that so powerfully transforms, remolds, and positively changes a life as a daily walk with Jesus Christ. That’s why people could tell that the disciples have been with Jesus post resurrection.

Divine healing is divine! It is first spiritual (you have to see it, believe it and receive it) then it becomes evident in your physical body.

So, yes! salvation and healing came as one package, both are spiritual encounters and surely both manifest physically to be appreciated by others.

Please join me again soon in the next part.

My love always.