September 21, 2015 Page 1 of 5 There is a distinct difference between receiving a miracle and walking in Redemption. Miracles are based on something God may do for us in the future but Redemption is based on something God has already done. Miracles happen as God wills whereas anything in redemption can be received at any time. Living in Redemption is God s highest and best because what you receive can be maintained the same way it is received by faith in God s Word. Some that receive by way of the miraculous are not able to maintain what they have obtained because they don t know how. When the returning attack comes, they don t know how to stand in faith for what Jesus has already purchased for them. Redemption and salvation as we know it was a promise in the Old Testament. The promise always looked to the future. Ezekiel 11:19-20 NKJV (19) Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, (20) that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV (26) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. We must understand the difference between a promise of redemption and the fact that redemption has already taken place.
September 21, 2015 Page 2 of 5 A promise of something means that it has not yet happened but it will at some time. The work of redemption was begun by Jesus at the Cross and completed at His resurrection. Salvation is no longer a promise. It is a fact of the completed work of redemption. In order to be saved, we don t receive the promise of salvation. We put our faith in the completed work of Jesus for our salvation. Romans 10:9-10 NKJV (9) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. We can clearly see the promise of healing in the Old Testament. Exodus 23:25 NKJV (25) "So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. Psalms 103:1-5 NKJV (1) A Psalm Of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! (2) Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: (3) Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, (4) Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, (5) Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. Proverbs 4:20-22 NKJV (20) My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. (21) Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;
September 21, 2015 Page 3 of 5 (22) For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. In the Old Testament, healing was a conditional promise of something that God would do for His people. But then we see the Lord begin to talk about a work that was going to take place in the future. Isaiah 53:3 NKJV (3) He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Isaiah 53:6 NKJV (6) All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. But sandwiched in the prophecy about the payment for our sins and iniquities, we something else about this work. Isaiah 53:4-5 NKJV (4) Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses) And carried our sorrows (pains); Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. (5) 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 53:4-5 AMP (4) Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. [Matt. 8:17.] (5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and wellbeing for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
September 21, 2015 Page 4 of 5 Isaiah lets us know that there will be more to the work of redemption than just the purchasing of our spiritual salvation. On this side of the cross, we see that the work spoken about has happened and is completed for us. 1 Peter 2:24 NKJV (24) 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. In his book Sparkling Gems from the Greek, Rick Renner says, In First Peter 2:24, the apostle Peter quoted Isaiah 53:5. He told his readers, "By whose stripes ye were healed." The word "stripes" used in this verse is molopsi, which describes a full- body bruise. It refers to a terrible lashing that draws blood and that produces discoloration and swelling of the entire body. When Peter wrote this verse, he wasn't speaking by revelation but by memory, for he vividly remembered what happened to Jesus that night and what His physical appearance looked like after His scourging. After graphically reminding us of the beating, bleeding, and bruising that Jesus endured, Peter jubilantly declared that it was by these same stripes that we are "healed." The word "healed" is the Greek word iaomai a word that clearly refers to physical healing, as it is a word borrowed from the medical term to describe the physical healing or curing of the human body. For those who think this promise refers to spiritual healing only, the Greek word emphatically speaks of the healing of a physical condition. This is a real promise of bodily healing that belongs to all who have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ! Healing is something already purchased and the work is already done. It is received in the same way that salvation is received; by faith.
September 21, 2015 Page 5 of 5 1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV (12) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the fight of faith, we need to learn to hold what is ours. You have to have a position in your mind if you are going to win. (Example buying a car, you must be willing to walk away if necessary, to possibly get the deal you want.) Satan loves to get people out of their position in their minds in what they are doing. Very often, we see ourselves as people who don t have something and we are trying to get it. The fight of faith is just the opposite. Healing is already yours and the enemy would like to keep you from receiving it or take from you what is already yours. The devil comes to my mind and tells me I am not going to get it. He actually should be saying, You have it and I want to take it 1 Peter 2:24 NKJV (24) 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. Begin to see yourself as someone who was healed and if you were healed then you are healed.