Jesus warned his followers that there would be persecution and hard times for them (John 16:33).\u00a0 He walked this earth as a living example of enduring persecution.\u00a0 He suffered persecution, and so did those around him.\u00a0 When he encountered persecution, he endured it.<\/p>\n
He was slandered, shunned, and hated by his enemies, and he was eventually beaten and executed.\u00a0 He warned his disciples that that they too would encounter many trials, and we know from the bible and from history that this is indeed what happened.\u00a0 Many disciples were treated in the same way, including beatings, imprisonments, and executions.\u00a0 Many of His disciples are still treated this way.<\/p>\n
It is important to note, however, that the persecution and hard times were not physical ailments in His body.\u00a0 Jesus did not endure sickness and disease as part of his ministry, nor did he instruct his followers to do so.\u00a0 In fact, when Jesus encountered sickness and disease, he ministered healing to those that needed it.<\/p>\n
Acts 10:38\u201cGod anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
During his earthly ministry, Jesus encountered many people with health problems.\u00a0 When people came to him that were in need of healing, he healed them.\u00a0 This is the case in every example that we have in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.<\/p>\n
There is not a single example of someone coming to him for healing and going away with their condition unchanged.\u00a0 Rather, we see the exact opposite.\u00a0 From the examples we have available for us to read, Jesus was always willing to minister healing.<\/p>\n
We also see that every time he sent out anyone to represent him, he instructed them them to function in the same way.<\/p>\n
He did this when he sent out the 12:<\/p>\n
Luke 9:1 \u2013 \u201cThen He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He did this when we sent out the 70:<\/p>\n
Luke 10:1,9 \u2013 \u201cAfter these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go\u2026\u2026And heal the sick there, and say to them, \u2018The kingdom of God has come near to you.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He did this when he sent out everyone else(including you and me) at what we call \u201cthe great commission\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark 16:15-18 \u201cAnd He said to them, \u201cGo into all the world and preach the gospel\u2026And these signs will follow those who believe…they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I have heard people teach that sometimes God wants us to endure sickness and disease as part of the “many trials” that we face.\u00a0 That contradicts the life, words, and actions of Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus always did the Father’s will, and His days were filled with healing people and setting them free from ailments.\u00a0 There are many scriptures that say things like “He healed all that came to Him” or “they brought all the sick people to Him and He healed them all.”<\/p>\n
We have no account in the Gospels that He told anyone to remain in their sickness as part of His plan.\u00a0 If sickness was His plan, then He was fighting against His own plan every day with multitudes of people.<\/p>\n
His plan was to heal the people, and tell them that the Kingdom of God was at hand.\u00a0 Some people liked that message, and some people reacted violently.\u00a0 They all had the right to choose, and people still have the right to choose.\u00a0 Jesus did not override the choices of people, and He knew that there would be those that would react violently to the message of the Kingdom.\u00a0 And He told His followers not to be surprised if and when they encounter reactions like that.<\/p>\n
Those are the trials that Christians must endure, because they come as a result of the free-will choices of other people.\u00a0 Sickness, disease, and physical problems are not included in this.\u00a0 Jesus healed the sick people.\u00a0 He “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38)\u00a0 As His representatives, we should be doing the same thing.\u00a0 We shouldn’t be telling people that God wants them to stay in their sickness.\u00a0 We should be telling them that God wants to heal them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jesus warned his followers that there would be persecution and hard times for them (John 16:33).\u00a0 He walked this earth as a living example of enduring persecution.\u00a0 He suffered persecution, and so did those around him.\u00a0 When he encountered persecution, he endured it. He was slandered, shunned, and hated by his enemies, and he was eventually beaten and executed.\u00a0 He<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[12,13],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heal-the-sick","tag-healing","tag-trials"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4j58Y-aW","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}