In the USA, at the declaration of independence, only 5% were Christians. By the Civil War, the figure rose to 12%. At the turn of the century, 1/4 of the people included Christians. Billy Graham told reporters in 1977 that 40% of Americans claim they have been born again, and 95% of young people believe in a personal God.¹ The number of people who claim to be religious is staggering. But there’s a difference between being religious and being divinely, supernaturally spiritual. Jesus was never religious. He didn’t act religious. He didn’t talk religious. He didn’t have a bumper sticker on His camel. He didn’t have rosary beads hanging from His donkey’s neck. He was not a pious prophet. He was uniquely spiritual and highly effective in His ministry to the sick. And here’s the marvelous truth. You can be just like Him.

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Spiritual Weapons from the Armories of Heaven

2 Corinthians 10:4 (KJV)
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;

• They are war weapons against sickness and disease.
• There are divine heaven-sent weapons at a believers’ disposal.
  • The Name of Jesus is one of these weapons.
  • The Word of God is another one of a believers piercingly effective weapons.
  • The gifts of the Spirit are another group of heaven-sent weapons.
• Revelation 12:11 gives us two more.

Revelation 12:11
11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

• They conquered the enemy how?
  • The Blood of the Lamb
  • The believer’s testimony
• We all have these weapons.
• The Body of Christ is loaded with these weapons.
• If the body of Christ has them, you have them.
• And these are not even all of them, there’s more.
• We are overflowing with superior serpent slaughtering tools.
• Romans 6:13 speaks to this overflowing with these words

Romans 6:13
13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

• The Greek word for instruments in Romans 6:13 means tool or weapon.
• Your body is a weapon for righteousness.
• You are a weapon for God and for good.
• Believe what the Bible says about you, that you are loaded with God’s nuclear weapons against sickness and disease.

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Are You Effectively Using Your Weapons?

• We have our weapons stuck in our pockets.
• Instead of pulling out the Name and using it, we pull out our contact list and call somebody and ask them to pray for us.
• Would you do that if a burglar tries to break into your house would you?
• What would do, you would grab your weapon and run that turkey out of your house?
• Do the devil the same way.
• Use your weapons.
• Now, you may say we used the Name and nothing happened.
  • Is it the Name or did we miss something?
• We quote the Word and nothing happens.
  • Is it the Word or did we miss something?
• You may have had the experience of shooting blanks with these weapons but have you ever stopped to ask why?
• Well, right here in 2 Corinthians 10:4, a verse which references our weapons, we have one possible answer to that question.
• The weapons of our warfare are mighty THROUGH GOD to the pulling down of strongholds.
• If you desire to use the Name of Jesus to heal the sick, it has to come through God.
• The effective use of the Name of Jesus is through God.
• You should never, not one time, use the Name of Jesus without getting results.
• How do you do it?

Acts 3:16 (KJV)
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

• See that faith connection, through faith in His Name?
• The Name, which is above every name, when properly employed in faith works. And, it works every single time.
• But, ‘mighty through God’ doesn’t just mean faith, it also means direction.
• That is, direction or the inspiration for the use of these weapons, must come from Him.
• Him meaning especially, the Holy Spirit.
• It’s important to be led by Him.
• This was the case in Jesus ministry.
• There were twenty-three individual cases of healing in the ministry of Jesus.
• You check it out. Jesus didn’t minister to any two cases the same way.
• He always worked through God.
• And, He always had results.
• If you want to minister like Jesus did, then you have to do it like Jesus did it.
• Mark it down. God is one hundred percent all out against sickness and disease.
• And, He wants to use you to prove it.
• What Jesus did, you can do.

Why You Shouldn’t Auto-Pilot Your Walk

John 5:1–6 (KJV)
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

• These verses are packed with healing material.
• Let’s start with verse one.

John 5:1 (KJV)
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

• Notice, the name of the Feast is not mentioned.
• It was either the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Dedication also known as Hanukkah.
• So, here’s this feast and the scripture says Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
• There was a feast alright but, where did Jesus actually go?
  • Jesus didn’t go to the Feast, He went to the Pool.
• Every self-respecting religious Jew in Jerusalem went to the feast.
  • You can see them in your mind’s eye lining up on the Temple steps.
  • But, Jesus is not among them.
  • Why not?
  • Isn’t Jesus Jewish?
  • Shouldn’t the Jewish Jesus celebrate the Jewish feast along with his Jewish brethren?
  • That’s what the law said he should do, didn’t it?
• So, here’s a tremendous reality concerning Spirit-led living.
• While all the Jews were on their way to the Temple to be some place spiritual, Jesus went instead to do something spiritual.
  • He went to heal a man.
• We have to ask the question, “What happened Jesus?”
• What flipped the switch for Jesus from feast goer to pool goer?
• Can you see, that the Spirit of God had something to do with this?
• Can you see, the Spirit of God led him?
• You know what the concept of auto-pilot is?
• You understand how cruise control works naturally?
• You can travel a thousand miles and never adjust.
• What is Christian cruise control?
• It’s all those people lined up to go the Feast when the will of God for that day was to heal that one man at the Pool.
• If you eliminate the leading of the Spirit of God from the equation, Christianity becomes just another auto-pilot religion.
• Just pull out your rug and pray seven times a day.
• How many believers cruise-control going to church and leave their hearts back at home?
• You can auto-pilot any part of your spiritual life.
• Jesus addressed the error of this.

Matthew 15:8 (KJV)
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

• …. but their heart is on auto-pilot.
• Real effective Christianity is more than just going to church religiously.
  • It’s more than being nice.
  • It’s even more than not kicking the cat or shooting the dog.
• All those Jerusalem Feast goers never checked their hearts to see what God wanted to do that day.
• They just stuck it in cruise-control and headed to the Feast.
• It’s time to put the brakes on cruise-control Christianity.
• It’s time to get unstuck and rise up and be led.

Romans 8:14 (KJV)
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

• Jesus followed a simple rule for Spirit led living.
• Wouldn’t you like to know what it is?
• He found out which way His Father was moving and He moved the same direction.
• Find out which way God is moving and move with God.
• Don’t just ‘autopilot show up’ to things.
• Get the plan.
  • Ask God about it.
  • And, bug God until He gives it to you.
• Jesus wasn’t religious.
• He was Spirit led.

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Healing, God’s Will, and Old Age

John 5:2 (KJV)
2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.

• According to the Bible Knowledge Commentary, the Pool of Bethesda was just north of the Temple right outside the wall. ²
• Excavations of a pool near the Sheep’s Gate have uncovered five porches, confirming the accuracy of the description given here in the Fourth Gospel.
• The pool was actually two pools next to each other which is why it was named Bethesda.
• Bethesda means ‘House of Twins.’
• Try to get a mental picture of what happened here.
• Jesus walked through five porches full of sick people.
• Five porches full.
• That’s a lot of sick people.
• That means there were bandages everywhere.
• Crutches littered the ground.
• The very smell of sickness wafted through the air.
• Sickness has a scent, an odor about it.
• Think about the scene there.
• In the midst of that human infirmary stood the Healer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
• What did He do?
• He heals one man.
• Let’s take a look at this particular man and see what we can learn about him.

John 5:5 (KJV)
5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

• This man was sick thirty-eight years.
• Do you understand how long thirty-eight years is?
• Thirty-eight years is almost as long as Israel wandered around in the wilderness.
• But there’s another even more telling Bible Background fact.
  • This man was sick almost as long as the average lifespan for that day.
  • People lived, in the first century, an average of 40 years.
  • This man was sick for thirty-eight years.
  • That’s like a person today being around 80-85 years of age.
• Basically, he was considered an old man for his day.
• Nobody wanted to help this old man.
• That is until Jesus came by.
• Jesus had the nerve to heal an old man.
• What does this fact reveal to you?
• That’s it’s just as much God’s will to heal the elderly as it is to heal the young.
• It’s just as much Gods will to heal an eighty year old man as it is His will to heal a twenty year old man.
• Twenty or eighty makes no difference to God.
• The reckless worn out lie of the devil is that “You have to die of something, so what does it matter if you get a disease?”
• What does it matter if you get cancer?
• It matters a great deal because you don’t have to have it.
• God does not need cancer to get you from earth to heaven.
• He doesn’t need heart disease to get you from earth to heaven.
• Young or old, it’s the will of God for you to be well.
• It is not scriptural to believe you have to have be sick.
• The healing of this man at the Pool of Bethesda proves it.
• It’s the will of God that you live your whole entire life free from sickness and disease.
• Faith works at any age.

Call to Action:

Rise up and receive your healing in Jesus Name. It’s God’s will for you to be well no matter what your age or your condition may be.

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