Dr. Jay Snell Newsletter Feed and Free BonusesChapter Five
Dr. Jay Snell Newsletter Feed and Free Bonuses
Since Jesus' death ratified the Abrahamic covenant which contains our healing, does healing occur automatically for us Christians, the present day membership of the Abrahamic Seed Group? Does it just happen because it is contained in our covenant, or do we have to do some things to activate the healing contained in this covenant?
Healing is not automatic unless it is performed by the anointing. But, this is just one of God's eight Healing Delivery Vehicles. The other seven all require you to do something to activate the healing guaranteed to us in the Abrahamic covenant. First, we shall look at Mark 16: 17-18.
Mark 16:17-20
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. (KJV)
Notice the expression, "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." That is simple enough. However, I want to give the background of this passage and make some comments about it. These are the last words that Jesus said while He was on this planet just prior to going back into heaven. Right after He said this, Jesus' physical body began to defy the law of gravity. As those people standing there on the Mount of Olives watched, His physical body suddenly, with no visible means of support, lifted off this planet. His body slowly rose and disappeared in a cloud.
That's the setting, and these are the words that Jesus said before that memorable event. This is the great commission as recorded by Mark. He said that we are to preach the gospel, and as we preach it, there are some signs that are to follow those preaching it. Furthermore, these signs are supposed to follow every believer, for the Bible says in verse 17 that these signs shall follow them who believe. Do you believe? Are you a believer? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior? Have you been born again? Are you a Christian? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? If that's the case, this scripture is addressed to you. It says there will be some signs follow "them that believe."
Our interest, here, is the sign that pertains to physical healing, the sign of laying hands on the sick and their subsequent recovery. Notice what Jesus said: "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." Do you see the word perhaps anywhere in that passage? Do you see the expression maybe? Do you see the expression, it seems like they ought to recover? These expressions aren't there. Jesus simply said, "They shall recover."
When Jesus used the expression shall recover, He used the Greek indicative mood, which describes reality, the actual, the real. The indicative is the mood of what is. "It describes what is actual. If shall recover had any potentiality or contingencies attached to it, Jesus would have used the Greek subjunctive mood, but He did not. This means there are no ifs, buts, ands or maybes involved with shall recover. By using the indicative mood, Jesus meant that they shall really recover. He meant this is exactly what will happen. There are no contingencies. There are no conditions. There is no perhaps. There are no seems like. There are no probabilities. There is no I thought maybe, brother. They shall! They shall! "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
So, the first thing you do when you have a sick loved one is act on this portion of the Word of God by laying hands on them. The Bible says that when you do this, a sign will follow you; namely, they shall recover.
Somebody says, "I have never done that. I don't believe that I could do that." Well, you don't know that until you try. I want to say this to you. You aren't responsible for healing people, but you are responsible for laying hands on people. The healing is God's part. The laying on of the hands is your part. God will not heal through this process until the point of contact has been made with your hands, for when your hands are laid on, something supernatural and spiritual happens. Power passes from God through you into that person and changes take place whether they feel it at that point or not. Changes take place whether or not they are even aware of it at that point. But things begin to happen because the Word of God goes into gear immediately. The sign of healing follows automatically. It may be in an instant. It may be in an hour. It may be over night. It may be in a week. That is not your responsibility. Your responsibility is laying your hands on the sick. And when you do your part, God goes into gear immediately and does His part. "They shall recover." Now, look at the next verses below.
Acts 3:12-13
12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. (KJV)
Again, somebody says, "I just don't believe that I could do that." When I ask people why they don't believe they could do that, they always give two basic reasons.
We are going to overcome your two main doubts that you can't lay hands on the sick and watch them recover. You will see that the devil's very reasons why you cannot do this have already been listed in Acts chapter 3. If you will think about it, there are only two reasons the devil has ever given you why you can't do this. But what I want you to see today is this: You can do what the Bible says you can do.
One of the hardest things that Christians have to learn is that we can actually do what the Word of God says we can do. When called upon to actually do what the Bible says we can do, we shrink back with fear and trembling. There are two main reasons for this.
We say, "Now that applies to Jesus, to the apostles, and to some of these big-name preachers we see on TV. They have the power to lay hands on the sick and see them recover. But I don't have that kind of power." We have all felt that, haven't we? That's one reason. But there is also another reason.
We say, "That applies to Jesus, it applies to the apostles, it applies to the great men of God down through the centuries, it applies to the great names in the television ministry, but I am just not holy enough. God would not do that for me, because I am not worthy enough, I am not holy enough." We have all been there, haven't we? These same two reasons are given in Acts 3. Let's find out what Peter had to say about them. First, however, we need to know some background about Acts 3.
Here's the background. Peter and John came to the Beautiful gate of the temple. A man lay there begging. As Peter and John walked by, Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee." Then he said to the man, "In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk." He reached down, grabbed the man by the right hand, helped him up and the man walked at that point. Having seen this, the crowd went wild. They knew the man. They knew this was not a phony healing. They knew that whatever happened to him was real, and they were staggered, amazed and overjoyed by it. Peter saw their amazement.
Acts 3:12
12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? (KJV)
In other words, Peter said that neither his power nor his holiness had anything to do with this. You see, there is not a dime's worth of difference in Peter's power and the power of anybody reading this page. Also, there is not a dime's worth of difference between Peter's holiness and the holiness of every person reading this page. Peter was just like you are by the grace of God. Just because God has matured one person more than another does not change the fact one bit that his power and his holiness, or your power and your holiness, have anything to do with this healing business.
Somebody will challenge me right here. They will say, "Well, I still don't have enough power or holiness." Dear friend, what you lack is not power or holiness, but obedience. When Jesus said, "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover", He is describing an act to be performed by you with no conditions. For had there been any conditions, Jesus would have listed them. He does not say that those who have a certain level of power and a certain level of holiness will lay hands on the sick, but the rest of you have to go home and forget it. He said those that believe. These are the only qualifications, believing on the one hand, and guts enough to do it on the other. These are the only conditions.
The first time I laid hands on the sick, I had an alter call, and three people came for healing. One of them was instantly healed. She had had asthma for years. She wheezed so badly you could hear her all over that little auditorium. I laid hands on her, and the wheezing stopped. This was many years ago and she still has no asthma. I was grappling with fear and trembling because I was new at it. The devil had injected the same conditions into my brain that he sticks into yours (not enough power and holiness). I said, "Lord, I don't have power to do this. I am sure not holy enough to do this." But do you know what I did? I did it anyway. I began to say, "If you say I can do that, Lord, I can do it. Therefore, I am going to do it and not only am I going to do it, I am doing it." Wham! Brother, my hands went on them.
Where does it say that only those who have enough power and only those that are holy enough shall lay hands on the sick? I want to tell you something. If it was up to power, nobody, including the heavy-weight champion of the world, would be strong enough to do it. If it was up to holiness, nobody would be able to do it. So let's get this nonsense out of our minds. The devil always has a rationalization of why you can't do what the Bible says you can do.
The devil will always put thoughts into your brain, giving you reasons why you can't do what God says you can do, and when you buy it, the people are not healed that you are responsible for getting healed. That is your fault because you listened to thoughts that were put into your head by the devil.
Let's get rid of these negatives. The Bible says, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Who? Just plain, ordinary believers who are not worried about a certain level of power nor worried about a certain level of holiness. They just do what Jesus told them to do, which is laying hands on the sick.
There is something else here. What actually did the work? What actually got the man healed in Acts 3? It was the name of Jesus. It was not our power. We don't have any. It was not our holiness. We have even less of that. Isaiah says that all our righteousness is as filthy rags in the mind of God. The book of Romans, chapter 3 (quoting the Old Testament) says that none is good, no, not one.
Rom 3:10-18
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. (KJV)
Get it out of your mind that you must have a certain level of holiness. You don't. Neither must you have a certain amount of power. You don't. What you must have is obedience, backed up with some raw courage. Reach out! Lay hands on the sick! Use the name of Jesus over that person! Say, "In Jesus Name, heal!" Watch what happens. It was the name that did it in Acts 3. It was the laying on of hands in Mark 16. You must see this. The next time you have a sick loved one, you will know exactly what to do. Let me list them again before we continue:
(1) You lay hands on them.
(2) You use the name of Jesus over them.
Remember! Don't let the devil sell you a bill of goods by throwing into the mix a bunch of stipulations and conditions that are not in Scripture. Get it out of your mind that you are not powerful enough, or that you are not holy enough. You have the name of Jesus. Use it, and you have all the power in the universe. You have as much power as Peter had. All he had was the Holy Ghost and the name of Jesus. You have the same Holy Ghost and the name of Jesus right now. He had no more weapons than you have, but he had courage enough to use them.
Once you have laid hands on them and used Jesus' name, you must bring them into a place of agreement, not only with yourself, but with God. Matthew teaches this to us.
Matt 18:18-20
18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (KJV)
There is something in the above passage (in the Greek text) that just does not translate. It is not the fault of the translators, it just doesn't translate. This verse actually says that things have already been bound in heaven and that you have the authority to bind on this earth everything that God has already bound in heaven. The translation, however, makes it look just the opposite. It makes it appear as though we bind something here, and then God follows our lead and binds it also in heaven. This is the exact opposite of what the Greek text says. God has already bound some things in heaven. Now, He is waiting for you to agree with Him and bind, here on earth, the same things He has already bound up there. When you bind them here, His binding becomes actual and real for you here. In other words, when I bind or loose here on earth what God has already bound or loosed in heaven, then I make real in my circumstances, those things which God has already bound or loosed in heaven.
So then, I have the authority to bind or loose whatever God has already bound or loosed in heaven. God gave the right and the power to Christians to bind and loose sickness. Therefore, it is most definitely the will of God to heal every single Christian, without exception. Scripture after Scripture after Scripture demonstrates this. The authority to heal the sick began with Jesus. He transmitted it to the twelve. He then transmitted it to the seventy. Then He transmitted it to every believer in Mark 16. And in James chapter 5, He transmitted the same power to the church by authorizing the elders to anoint with oil. See my book How To Obtain Abraham's Blessings for complete instructions on getting the healing and prosperity God promised you in the Abrahamic covenant.
God already established (bound and loosed) this healing business in advance in heaven. That is actually what Matthew 18: 18 means. So if I bind what God has already bound (sickness), I make it happen in my circumstances. He's bound that sickness, and He has transmitted to us the power to bind it. So when I agree with God, things happen. In other words, when I bind a sickness here, since God has it bound already in heaven, He stops that sickness upon my agreement with Him. Remember, my agreement with Him is demonstrated by my binding. Now look at verse 19.
Not only must there be an agreement between our binding and what God has already bound, but in verse 19, the power to get things done becomes even stronger, if more than one of us binds and looses (in agreement with each other) what God has already bound in heaven. Look at what he said: "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my Father in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." So then, there must be an agreement between ourselves concerning what we bind, loose, and ask. We must be sure that our asking, binding and loosing is what God has already set up and bound and loosed in advance in heaven. Once you know this, get a prayer warrior to agree with you concerning the sickness and healing in question.
We need to get our sick loved one to agree with us concerning what we are binding and loosing. There needs to be an agreement between the two of us. Again, both of us must, not only agree together, but we need to be in agreement with what the Word says God has already bound or loosed in heaven.
Look at the expression shall agree. This translates one Greek word which combines two Greek words; PHONE, which means voice, combined with the Greek proposition SOON, which means together with. The combination, then, means voice together. Our English word symphony, comes from this Greek word. A symphony is a myriad of instruments that play in harmony. Therefore, when Jesus said agree together, He is saying make a voice symphony. He is saying voice together in harmony the same thing. What same thing? We are to voice together with our sick loved one that God's will is that they be healed because hands were laid on them. In so doing, we are binding or loosing, here on earth, together, what God has already bound or loosed in heaven.
How do I know what God has bound or loosed? God has already bound and loosed what the Word says. So when two of you agree together concerning what God said in his Word, attack that sickness and bind or loose it. It will be done according to Scripture. There must be a three-way agreement between you, your loved one, and the Word of God. Two of you must say the same thing God says in His Word concerning your loved ones illness. When all three line up with no contradiction, that sickness has got to give. It cannot stand when the name of Jesus is thrown right at it by two people in full agreement, based on the Word of God. So then the forth thing is to agree together between yourselves after both of you have agreed with God. Then, go for it and get rid of the sickness.
Here is another place where the devil will bomb you. You know our society. This is a quick-fix society. We watch thirty minute television programs, or an hour television program. There is always a quick, fast solution. They always work out the solution in no more than thirty minutes or an hour, less commercials. Consequently, we are geared to a quick fix. We are accustomed to things being resolved and settled in one hour, less commercials. We are geared to that. Sometimes, we will lay hands on the sick, and if they are not healed in "thirty minutes or sixty minutes less commercials," our faith gets shaky.
When Jesus said in Mark 16 that they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, the word "recover" is not necessarily instantaneous, although it can be. Usually, it is a process. The anointing for healing, however, is usually instantaneous. Healing by the other seven Healing Delivery Vehicles, usually involves a process.
There is so much misunderstanding today concerning Bible healing. So many folk have equated it with a "quick fix." That's a deadly mistake, because Bible healing is not necessarily a quick fix. Acting on what God's Word says, may produce an instantaneous healing, but more often than not, it involves a process. Or, if somebody says so and so recovered, that might mean it took thirty minutes or thirty days. The point is, the Bible says they shall recover. The time frame is left up to the sovereignty of God, because He is the Great Physician. He knows how strong a dose of medicine to pump into a person then and there to make a healing happen.
When the instant, quick-fix does not occur, many people lose their faith right there. This is a deadly mistake, because most things in Scripture come to pass as a result of faith, and not as a result of the miraculous anointing. Many have equated all healing with the instantaneous miracle. Consequently, they have lumped all their hopes for healing into the anointing. They think that if it is not instantaneous, there must be something wrong, and they will not be healed. This is the reason many Christians die, who should not. This unscriptural, quick-fix theology concerning Bible healing, based on a misunderstanding that the anointing is the only way, is a very deadly thing.
Oral Roberts and T. L Osborn both say that you cannot always depend on the anointing, because the anointing is sovereign. The anointing picks some to heal, but leaves a vast number of others not healed. Because of this ridiculous, quick-fix view about the anointing, and the desire for the television solution of sixty minutes, less commercials, there are Christians who die who shouldn't. They do not understand that the anointing is only one of eight ways that God will heal His children. If the anointing does not sovereignly touch a person, there are seven other ways those people can touch God by faith for their healing. We have done a grave injustice and disservice to the Christian community by continuously overemphasizing the anointing, because in so doing, we have left a solid impression that the anointing is all there is. But the anointing is not all there is. This view is deadly. I am not knocking the anointing, please! I am only pointing out a flaw in our approach. I am addressing our lack of balance.
Because of a quick-fix theology (which is absolutely false) that has developed about the anointing, people die, because nobody takes the time to say, "Hey, wait a minute! You don't have to depend soley on the anointing, like it's a magic wand that somebody waves. There are seven more ways you can be healed!" This takes time, and it isn't a quick fix. It takes time and work, but it doesn't matter how much time and work it takes. The important thing is those people can still be healed!
Do not exclude God's other seven Healing Delivery Vehicles. Teach the whole counsel of God. See to it that God's people are getting the healing God promised to them. This is work, but this is God's way. I appeal to the pastors and leaders in this movement. Give equal time to God's other seven Healing Delivery Vehicles, since more people will probably be healed utilizing them than will be healed if we continue pushing the anointing almost exclusively.
We have said that most healings involve a process. Then, what do we do while the process is taking place, while we are waiting to be healed? Verse 35 of Hebrews 10 answers this question
Heb 10:35-36
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. (KJV)
There is a will of God that I am to do for healing. After I do it and my healing is not a quick fix, that doesn't mean it isn't going to happen. The Word of God is not about to be broken, regardless of somebody's goof-ball theology. The will of God is this: They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Therefore, when our hands have been laid on the sick, they shall recover. If they don't get the quick-fix, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans. They are still going to recover.
When you have done what God says, then hang in there. You keep saying what God says. You get right in the face of that sickness and laugh. You say, "Ha Ha, tee hee! You may look like you are still there, sickness, but you are dead. The Word of God says that I am recovering because I laid on my hands and I used the name of Jesus. Sickness, you are through, and your time is limited." This is healing by faith. Most of you will be healed by faith, and not by the quick fix.
We have Christian people dying like flies because they don't understand how this stuff operates. Well-meaning folk have blown one of God's eight ways of healing completely out of proportion. The miraculous anointing is only one of eight ways God heals. These other seven all operate by faith. I will say this to you. Faith is the most important thing that we must learn in all the Scripture. When you understand faith and how to operate it, nothing is held back from you.
The great men of God all declare that you can't depend on the anointing because it is sovereign. It will touch some and miss others. In addition, they all say you can all be healed by faith. T. L. Osborn wrote a book, and he said, "Faith never fails." The anointing may pass you by, but faith never fails. God made me a teacher of faith. I will teach it, and I will preach it because I have learned what it is and how it works. I have learned it theologically. I am learning it more each day in my experience. I know more in my mind than I know with my experience. But, as I live my life, my experience is gradually catching up to what I know in my mind.
If you have the raw courage to take the Word of God and act on it by laying hands on the sick and using the name of Jesus over them, God will perform His Word. People will be healed under your ministry. It has not one thing to do with the amount of power you have or the level of holiness you feel like you have achieved. It has to do with two things; obedience and the raw courage to do what the Word of God says you must do, which is lay hands on the sick.
Some people always equate God with feeling. Many times when I begin to move out in faith, I don't feel a thing. When I begin to preach, I don't always feel the anointing or any thing else. But do you know what I have learned? I don't have to feel the anointing. I start by faith, and the first thing I know, I'm feeling something. I have read after great men of God. Everyone of them say the same thing. They say that when they start to minister, many times they may not feel one thing. Usually when they start out, they don't feel anything. But they start out anyway. Many times I don't feel anything either. But I start.
I asked a guy one time to help me pray for some people during an alter call. He said, "Well I have got to pray about praying for them at the altar." You have to what? What's the deal with that immature kid? Here's the deal with him. He is immature. He doesn't know the Scripture. He is going by his feelings. You don't pray about praying. To start with, the Bible said "Pray without ceasing." But he wants to feel something before he gets down on his knees to help somebody else. There are many, many flaws in his immature view. The Bible says, "Be instant in season and out of season". You should not be unprepared to pray for somebody else if they need it. Many times people say, "Jay, pray for me." Maybe I don't feel like praying for them. But I stop and pray. I see things happen. It doesn't matter how I feel. When the opportunity presents itself, go for it. The Bible says, "Be instant in season and out of season." Anything else is a sin.
When somebody says to you, "Pray for me," immediately, stop what you are doing, lay hands on that person, and start ministering the Word. "But I don't feel anything." Well, much of the time I don't either. So what! The validity and integrity of the Word of God is never conditioned upon how I feel or what I feel. I don't wait for feeling. I spring into gear. It is not a matter of feeling. It is a matter of obedience. If I am willing to obey, the feeling usually comes after the obedience.
Remember the little illustration of the choo-choo train? We want to rearrange the cars. The first car is fact - that's the engine. That's God's Word. Fact pulls the whole train. Next comes faith. Finally, comes feeling - that's the caboose. We want to take feeling and move it to the front because if we don't feel something, our train doesn't go. If I waited for feeling before my train began to move, you would never hear a sermon. Nobody would ever lead a song. Nobody would ever give any money in the offering. Nobody would ever do anything. We put feeling at the front, and that's the last the place you put it. Your loved ones can be healed if you will just get off your blessed assurance and start doing what God's Word says to do; lay hands on the sick, for they shall recover, whether you feel anything or not. Do it, and the Word of God will make reality of itself, and they will be healed.
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June 01, 2010
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