HAVE YE ANY THAT ARE SICK AMONG YOU?
As I have noted on many occasions, Jesus loved to use the word “all”. He healed all manner of afflictions. Not only him, but his disciples also. He gave them power to heal “all manner” of afflictions.
Matt 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Matt 10:1 And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
These healings happened among all people, no matter their past sins, their state of readiness or the lessons that needed to be learned. The only condition was that they come unto him, that they exercise enough faith and belief to seek him.
It is also important to note that he gave the same power to others, those that were true followers. He shared this power and the same miracles were performed by imperfect men.
One of the most beautiful and awe inspiring accounts of the mercy, compassion and power of the Savior, is manifested when he came to the Americas, as follows:
7 Have ye any that are asick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or bleprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will cheal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.
8 For I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your afaith is bsufficient that I should heal you.
9 And it came to pass that when he had thus spoken, all the multitude, with one accord, did go forth with their sick and their afflicted, and their lame, and with their ablind, and with their dumb, and with all them that were afflicted in any manner; and he did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto him.
10 And they did all, both they who had been healed and they who were whole, bow down at his feet, and did worship him; and as many as could come for the multitude did akiss his feet, insomuch that they did bathe his feet with their tears.
Now, fast forward to today, where we don’t enjoy the same level of miracles that were enjoyed in Jesus’ time. Is it because Jesus doesn’t care about us, or because he is no longer with us or is it because we have blocked him and his power by our false traditions and our unbelief?
Under our present day way of thinking, the Savior would say to the Nephites and the Jerusalmites as follows,
“Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither and I will review their case to see if I can heal them. Please line up over here and I will review each case, one by one. Some of the criteria I will be using to evaluate your case for possible healing, are as follows:
1. Have you exhausted all other remedies? I only help those who help themselves.
a. Have you fully availed yourself of the many technologies and medical miracles conceived by the mind of man? Have you been to the Huntsman cancer center or the Mayo clinic? Have you consulted many different specialists and done all you can to be healed through them? Is there no drug or medicine that can help you?
b. If 1a fails, have you exhausted all natural and alternative methods? Have you tried herbs? Have you tried raw food? Have you abstained from meat and dairy products? Have you kept the Word of Wisdom?
2. Have you avoided the very appearance of evil and have you exercised any degree of unrighteousness? For example:
a. Inappropriate thoughts or sexual fantasies?
b. Yelled too much at your spouse or your children?
c. Failed to have family home evening or daily family prayer?
d. Failed to fully confess your sins to your church leader?
e. Partaken of the sacrament unworthily by thinking about what you will be eating for dinner after church?
f. Too many piercings in the ear or tattoos or hemlines too many inches above the knee?
g. ETC., ETC., ETC.
3. Have you failed to learn the lessons you needed to learn? For example,
a. Have you synchronized your watch with my time table?
b. Do you really prize the sweet after tasting the bitterness of your affliction?
c. Have you been sufficiently purified in the refiner’s fire?
d. Have you learned patience in the crucible of adversity?
e. Have you endured pain until you found joy in spite of your pain?
f. Do you count your blessings enough?
g. Do you complain too much about your affliction and fail to be grateful for “all” things, good or bad?
h. Do you fail to accept your chastisement well, like a child accepts chastisement from their parent?
i. Are you grouchy, depressed or in a bad mood often instead of being cheerful and a good example to others?
j. Have you failed to weary me with your pleadings, have your prayers been fervent enough?
k. ETC, ETC, ETC
4. Are you interfering with another’s free agency? Remember, free agency is what separates me from Satan.
a. Is your affliction a consequence of another’s actions? For example, do you have an abusive spouse who is making you miserable?
b. If you are healed will that impinge on another’s right to exercise their free agency at your expense?
c. Do you recall that you agreed to come to this world of risk and risk is based on free agency?
5. Are you being reasonable? Do you have profound genetic defects such as Down’s Syndrome, extreme deformities or other extreme systemic and dysfunctional defects such that it is not realistic to ask to be healed? Also, reasonable means not troubling me with things that “mattereth not”. For example, the loss of your hamster, your acne problem, your overweight problem and any other affliction that really doesn’t matter.
“So, based on this and other criteria, who do you have to blame if you are not healed? You must do your part before I can heal you. The good news is that you may be free of your affliction after you die and go to the spirit world, I will see you there. Next in line please.”
Imagine the Savior saying this to either the Nephites or the Jerusalemites! Would they have been inclined to bathe his feet in tears afterwards? This is a subject of such great import that all must face it.
We have been commanded to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Who is Jesus Christ? What are his criteria for healing ALL MANNER OF AFFLICTIONS?
Jesus requires the following:
1. Believing in and on him. Since believe actually means to love him, he only requires that we love him.
2. Believing on his word and in the power of his name, always remembering him. This requires awaking and arising. Shaking off false traditions, teachings and beliefs that may block us from laying claim to his gift of healing.
3. Having sufficient faith. What is sufficient? Coming to him, seeking him. In the Nephite example above, they manifested their faith in Jesus by already having their sick and afflicted present at the time of the invitation. Jesus perceived their faith because the sick were already there, waiting to be healed. Most likely, everybody there was afflicted in one way or another. If they were not already there, he would have lovingly waited for them.
4. Obeying his commandments. What are his commandments? The two great ones on which all of the law and prophets hang. As you obey the two great commandments, you will be living by every word that proceeds forth from the Savior’s mouth. You will hear the still, small voice in all matters that pertain to your salvation.
5. How much belief, faith and obedience? Whatever you have! Two mites worth, a mustard seed’s worth, but even if small, it must be all.
“But, Jesus is not among us today, how do I have the same miracle in my life?”
Jesus has always had disciples, true followers of him, who are empowered to do what he would do. They are among us. You must seek them, pray for them, and they will come. You have the right to call upon Jesus directly, through the power of his name. The same miracles are available to us today. The healing of “all manner of afflictions” is not common because of the hardness of our hearts, the blindness that comes from false traditions and unbelief.
His bowels are full of mercy. Mercy paid the price for the fall. He redeemed us from the fall and all of its effects. We are free forever from the fall, now, in this life. The Law of Moses and all of its requirements were swallowed up in his atonement. Jesus has said, he who will lose himself for my sake, will find himself.
I say, he who finds him/herself through Jesus loves him/herself. He/she who loves him/herself, will love others and will love the Lord their God. All of the unlimited afflictions that beset us, large or small, will be healed through this process. The man who goes to inappropriate internet sites, will find that it is swallowed up in his overwhelming love for the Savior and his love for himself. He is too busy doing good, to want to even go to those sites. He is taken over by a desire to do good continually.
But, it is important to emphasize, Jesus does not require that he stop going to the inappropriate internet sites to be healed. His healing is conditional on that person coming to him. The best way to comprehend this principle is to think of yourself as a parent. You have a teenage child who is sexually promiscuous and contracts a sexually transmitted disease. He comes to you seeking assistance. Would you not do all that you can to help him? Would his sinful lifestyle restrict you from helping him? If you were able to heal him, would you not do so based on the intense love you have for that child? So it is with the Savior.
Sin hurts us in our ability to obtain sanctification and eternal life. We must repent of all ungodliness if we are to be sanctified. But, sin does not prevent us from being healed. His healing power is available to anybody who seeks him, even if the faith and belief are weak. The Savior has said that the sick are in need of a physician.
“They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
If we are not sinning, if we are not struggling with the temptations of the world, if we don’t struggle with unbelief and lack of faith, then we are not sick. The master physician stands ready to heal those of us who are sick, in both body and spirit, if we but would come unto him.
The adulteress was caught in the act of adultery. Jesus protected her from the unrighteous exercise of free agency by evil men. Her sins, no matter how scarlet, did not stop Jesus’ divine intervention. Jesus perceived her heart and the evil in the hearts of the others, although forced into the presence of Jesus by these evil men, her heart came unto him on her own volition.
If we are not careful, we might exclude the adulteress (or anybody living an unchaste life) from access to the healing power of Jesus on the premise that she is breaking a law, the law of chastity. Yes, obedience to that law brings blessings and disobedience may deny her of some of the higher blessings. But she is not denied healing if she comes unto him.
Jesus doesn’t require us to be sin free, but Jesus knows that as we keep his commandments, his easy yoke and light burden, that all things will be added unto us, including the desire to “take up” (Greek for put away) our crosses and we will desire to do good continually. Our desire to sin will simply fade away.
Satan, through false teachings mingled with scripture, keeps us from seeking the healing power of the Savior through feelings of unworthiness. He seeks to keep us miserable like him. We feed Satan’s power by being miserable.
The person who has any problem, will find that whatever issues that contribute to their affliction, big or small, are swallowed up by the overwhelming love for the Savior. This person will have access to the Holy Ghost who will teach them the truth of all things, including how to overcome their issue.
And so it goes. All things are possible to him/her who believeth. Believest thou this?
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