Deliverance from Suffering and Sickness
by Jack Hayford

Most of us readily understand how Jesus, in dying, paid the price of our sin and provided the gifts of life and forgiveness. But few realize that His suffering was more than merely a preliminary to His death. His suffering was redemptive, too! And His suffering was substitutionary. He suffered in our stead, absorbing in Himself the horrible implications of sin's impact on the human frame.

The Rotherham translation, though clumsy in its technical rendition of the Hebrew text of Isaiah 53:4, 5, nonetheless conveys the biblical truth with power:

"Yet surely our sicknesses he carried, and as for our pains he bare the burden of them.  But we accounted him stricken, smitten of God and humbled. Yet was he pierced for transgressions that were ours, was crushed for iniquities that were ours. The chastisement for our well-being was upon him, and by his stripes there is healing for us."

Jesus' suffering holds a provision for our healing. The preceding passage from Isaiah, joined to Matthew 8:17 and I Peter 2:24, shows how completely biblical it is to reach out to the Lord Jesus Christ for deliverance from suffering and sickness. We can do this as surely as we can reach to Him for salvation from our sins.

Paul reminded early believers that their forgetfulness of the provisions of the Cross were even causing some to experience a premature death (I Cor. 11:24-30). We should not fear hearing the Holy Spirit's voice speaking to us through the Word of God: "Forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases" (Ps. 103:2, 3).

There is no question about the dimension of His promise. But there have been real questions at times with my own faith. Perhaps you, like I, find it easier to believe and receive forgiveness for your sins than to believer and receive healing for your body. Why that should be the case is beyond me, for it is clear that the greater miracle is the former: sin is a much greater problem than sickness!

It is marvelously joyous and precious to testify to the times when we have called upon the Lord for healing and then experienced it. But what about the times when faith seems weak, when healing seems remote—not because God is taunting or loveless, but because "healing faith" seems to elude us?  At such a point, we tend to resign to either philosophy or bitterness, to rationalize the situation as "God's will" or to become angry, saying He doesn't care. But Christ, in going all the way through His sufferings, has provided an alternative.

There is a force—a power—in Jesus' suffering to break the ability of pain, injury, or sorrow to dominate you, even when these things seem to persist beyond prayer. "For since he himself has now been through suffering...when we suffer...he is wonderfully able to help us" (Hebrews 2:18, TLB). Christ's suffering has a power to absorb the most hellish or human attack, the most tragic or traumatic pain, or whatever it is that seems about to exceed your capacity to endure.

Without Christ, suffering can grind people down until they're reduced to emotional pulp, forced to surrender or driven to nervous exhaustion or breakdown. Suffering can so debilitate resistance that one finally concedes to sin—not because of lust, unbelief, or rebellion, but simply because of weariness in battle.  But the transforming, revitalizing truth is that in His suffering, the Savior has penetrated the eye of the storm:  He has shattered the power of suffering to destroy us.

Jesus has broken the ability of suffering to reduce us to bitterness, faithlessness, or disobedience.  Hear Jesus whisper, "I want to fill you with the same life that brought Me through suffering; that kept Me from shrinking before the fires of hell's worst workings, that kept Me from wearying in well-doing and from becoming bitter or turning to animosity. When I was unthanked, I didn't retaliate. When people rejected Me, I didn't withdraw My availability to love and serve them."

His life power is yours. Take it!  Receive that part of your salvation that was purchased by His suffering for us! First, hear the Savior say, "Come to Me, I understand." Then hear Him add:  "I will penetrate your suffering with My life, and not only will you survive but you will be victorious in the midst of it all!"

Other Resources:
- Tape #2011 "The Covenant of Healing"
- Tape #2570  "How Jesus Heals People Today"
- #SC189 tape series  "Grounds for Living"
- Book:  Rebuilding the Real You