Andrew Wommack: God Wants You Well - Week 2 - Session 5

welcome to gospel truth with Andrew Wommack a teaching ministry that focuses on God's unconditional love and grace and now here's Andrew today is the end of my second week teaching on God wants you well and I've covered a lot of good materials we've also had some DVDs where we've had some testimonies about how God miraculously healed people in this day in which we live I was raised to believe that God didn't do miracles anymore and you know before I really came into the truth I often wondered about well you know why did God stop and it just didn't make sense I mean like where was the line drawn and I tell you I am so thrilled that Jesus is moving by his power and that people are being set free today and I know that there's a lot of people that have other doctrines and they believe contrary to that but I'm telling you this is my testimony you're either going to have to just call me a liar and a deceiver or you're going to have to reevaluate something because I have seen blind eyes open deaf ears open I've seen my own son raised from the dead after being dead for nearly five hours and there was no brain damage no more than before I tell you what God is alive and doing well and that's my testimony that's I'm sticking with it and we see a lot of miracles happen and so I've been trying to share these things so that you could experience God's best and God loves you and wants you to live in health just because he loves you but also healing is a stepping stone to even greater things with the Lord I know that when I first got really excited about the Lord and started believing God and I started seeing miracles of healing the very first person I think I ever saw healed was a little girl that was in one of my Sunday School classes and she was healed and I tell you what it was just like getting a shot of adrenaline to that whole Sunday School class when they saw this girl miraculously healed in their faith level went up and they started believing God and it affected their relationship with the Lord God wants you well God is concerned about every part the way that the body of Christ has segmented what Jesus has done and they haven't said it in these words but it leaves the impression that God is he is concerned about your eternal destiny about the forgiveness of your sins he wants to deal with these spiritual emotional things but he doesn't care about your body he's he's distant he's not involved people are struggling and going through cancer and terrible tragedy and and it's but basically the church has been saying that God doesn't care or that even God put this on you to teach you something that turns people away from the Lord you know I'm not going to mention a name here but I've got a specific individual in mind that my wife has heard this over a television talk show and then I've read it in a publication that one of the leaders in the United States today a very influential man was raised in a Presbyterian Church and believed in God probably wasn't born again but believed that God existed and as a young boy his sister got sick and died and the church came over and said it was God's will that she died and this man responded to that by saying if there is a god I hate him but then he he really has come to a place where he's somewhere between an agnostic and an atheist and he is now very influential in media and different things and by his own admission he is trying to turn people away from this Jay judeo-christian ethic because he hates the concept of God and all of this and it all stems back to when somebody said God was the one that killed his sister and he said if there is a God I hate him for doing that you know I recently was reading on one of the internet things something about the Haitian earthquakes that they had and there there was something that caught my attention because the headline was some see God in quake and I read this and it talked about how that the voodoo doctors in Haiti were saying that this was a sign from God they quoted Christian leaders who were saying that this was the judgment of God in God's punishment because people hadn't been doing things and then at the end of the article they were talking about how that there were all of these bodies just piled up and they were burning them because you know trying to get rid of the bodies in the decay and the disease and infection and stuff and they were burning these bodies and this reporter said that as he sat there and watched these bodies being burned there was a woman walked by and she took a Bible out of her person threw it on that fire and you know what there's a lot of people that are turning against God or saying certainly there can't be a God because they see this tragedy on epic scales like these earthquakes or it could be down to a personal level like your sickness in your pain and the suffering and things that you go through and as a whole the church has been saying that God wills it to be this way and I am Telling You that God wills you to be well but it doesn't come to pass automatically you got to believe so the very first point I've been trying to get across is it is always God's will to heal you it's a part of the atonement and this week I started talking about Paul's thorn in the flesh and people see religious people have twisted this and turned it to say that God put sickness on Paul and that he besought the Lord three times that this sickness would be removed from him and God wouldn't do it and said you're better off with the sickness that is not what the scripture saved that's again go back and read these verses I'm not going to read the entirety of what I did before but in verse 7 this is 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 he says unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan above at me lest I should be exalted above measure for this thing I besought the Lord thrice three times that it might depart from me and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christ's sake for when am weak then am i strong and people have taken this and I made this point the last time I was talking about this but in verse 7 Paul says just very clear that this thorn in the flesh was kama the messenger of Satan to buffett me he credited this to the devil it did not come from God and yet 99% of people that read this will talk about why did God give Paul this lorne in the flesh God did not give this to him it was the messenger of Satan and see again its religious doctrine that makes the word of none effect because religious doctrine has come along and said oh but Satan can't do anything without God's permission it's like they envision this huge desk in heaven and either God has to write out the work order and originate whatever happens or it at least has to cross his dis and he has to stamp approved on it that is not so God does not approve of the things that Satan is doing God doesn't have Satan on a leash and only lets him do what he thinks would be appropriate for him to do no we have an adversary of the devil who goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and the scripture tells us to resist him steadfast in the faith that's out of first Peter chapter 5 and if God was the one that was loosing the devil on us then he would be wrong to tell us to resist him because then we would be resisting God if God had the ultimate responsibility for it no Satan is out to steal kill him to destroy God is not the one who is doing these things and God is not the one who gave Paul his thorn in the flesh it was the messenger of Satan to buff at him lest he should be exalted above measure now the scripture here doesn't say what this thorn in the flesh is but let me just continue reading and I'm going to make some points and you're going to have to again be open to a different understanding than what probably most of you have been taught on this in verse 8 it says for this thing the thorn in the flesh I have sought the Lord thrice three times that it might depart from me and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness now I've heard this interpreted a couple of ways some people will say that God here was basically saying Paul you got Authority you've got my grace you've got my power you use your authority you get rid of this thorn in the flesh and so some people will interpret it that way and basically say that Paul lived was something that he didn't have to live with this was God telling him that he could have overcome it now personally I don't think that that's what it is because right after the Lord said in verse 9 he said my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness he goes on to say most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities at the power of Christ may rest upon me it looks like that after Paul had asked these three times and got this reply that he quit beseeching the Lord and there is no mention of the form being gone or this problem being over with it sounds like he just embraced it and learned to live with it and so if the Lord was telling him you've got to thority use your authority and do well then it looks like Paul didn't respond properly to it so therefore I don't think that's exactly what this is here's here's the key for me I think that a thorn in the flesh here is not talking about a sickness now some people just jump to that conclusion because in verse 9 he says most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me verse 10 therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches etc and so the word infirmities is used twice in association with this thorn in the flesh and so people just automatically think that this is talking about a sickness you know the word infirmity the way that we use it today is nearly used exclusively to describe some kind of a sickness or disease some problem that you have in your physical body and so I can understand why people would jump to that conclusion but if you take the word infirmity what it means if you look it up in a dictionary it literally means a lack or inadequacy and if you take it in context you got to remember that the Bible was not written in chapters and verses these were added so that we could reference and and come to the same place and reading there's nothing wrong with that but you've got to remember that chapter 11 is not separated from chapter 12 this is the same author it's the same context it's just a few sentences before this that the Apostle Paul talked about his infirmities as a matter of fact let me read this verse in verse 30 this is 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 verse 30 he says if I must needs glory I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities and if you were to back up he had just listed all of the hardships that he had gone through the point was that people were saying you aren't qualified and he says who's more qualified than me look what I've been through he says I have suffered more than anybody I've been shipwrecked I've been beaten I've been put in prison I've been whipped I've been beaten with rods he says besides all the things that are without all of the cares of the churches and he talked about all of these hardships not a single mention in here about a sickness of disease nothing and after he had listed all of these hardships then he says if I must need glory I will glory of the things concerning my infirmities so he used the word infirmity in the context right here talking about hardships problems sufferings persecutions that was the context that's the way that he's using this word infirmity and if you just keep reading I read that portion of the scripture in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9 the last part says most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me in verse 10 he says therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in de-stresses he lists five things now the first one he list is infirmities but then the other four things look at this he says in reproaches that's talking about being reproached for Christ he was persecuted he was slandered they just accused him of everything that you can imagine necessities is talking about that because he was a missionary and he went out and you didn't take money from everybody often he had make tents and supply his own finances for himself and the people that were with him so he suffered hardships in the financial realm in persecutions he was beaten stoned shipwrecked put into prison he spent years and years in prisons and in de-stresses and distress --is that can include financial physical emotional all kinds of things but notice there's five things listed four of them are very clearly not sickness and so by just association here it would lead you to believe that this word infirmities isn't limited to or talking about some physical sickness or disease and when you put it into the context and realize it just a couple of verses before this he had said I am glorying in the things concerning my infirmities and everything he mentioned was talking about persecution hardship rejection all of these kind of things so the reason that I believe people jump to the conclusion that this is a sickness is because number one they want to believe that because if the Apostle Paul who was so strong and so powerful and wrote half of the New Testament and if he had something that God wouldn't heal them on him I well then that makes them feel better about them not being healed and it takes away any sense that you know what I'm failing to realize all that God has for me and so they take comfort thinking that man this is really comforting to realize that God wouldn't heal Paul there's nothing here that says God wouldn't heal Paul again there is nothing here that says that this is sickness other than the word infirmities is used twice and if you take it in context then Paul wasn't using the word infirmity to refer to a physical sickness if you turn over to Romans chapter 8 verse 26 it says likewise the spirit also helpeth higher infirmities it uses this word infirmities again and then it has a colon and it says for we know not what we should pray for as we ought and it explains what the infirmity is that the Holy Spirit is helping us with it is the infirmity of having a lack of knowledge a lack of understanding about what to do so again infirmities in the Bible is not talking exclusively about sickness now there's an instance over in Galatians chapter 4 and I'm going to eventually get to that where I think that it is talking about a physical sickness but the word infirmity isn't limited to just describing some sickness or disease it means a lack are in inadequacy and you can have a sickness and that would be an infirmity but also not knowing how to pray as you should is an infirmity so I'm trying to say all of this to say that people I believe have turned Paul's thorn in the flesh into some sickness or disease because they are motivated to do that they want to believe that that's what it is because it gives them an out it gives them an excuse for not receiving healing themselves if the great Apostle Paul wasn't healed well then certainly it must be alright for them not to be healed and you know what that might Minister some comfort to you and keep you from being condemned but it's also going to keep you from being healed because you might think that well maybe I'm like Paul and I've got this sickness because that's my thorn in the flesh that is not what the Scriptures teach this thorn in the flesh came because of the abundance of the revelations until you get as much revelation as the Apostle Paul had quit hiding behind his thorn in the flesh it came not to keep him from being exalted through pride but he kept it was to keep him from being exalted in a godly manner lifted up on high because of his serving the Lord it says it was a messenger of Satan and the context shows that this word infirmity either verses in front of it he says I'm glorying of my infirmities talking about his hardships the verse right after he says this about I will take pleasure in my infirmities he starts listing five things and four of them very clearly are not talking about physical sickness so this word infirmity has thrown some people off to think that this was a sickness but it was so somebody says alright so what was his thorn in the flesh listen to these verses and remember that Paul was writing to people in that day who were steeped in the Jewish tradition they had to actually memorize the first five books of the Bible and I want to give you some scriptural terminology here out of numbers after 33 in verse 55 this was a command that God was speaking through Moses to the Israelites about you got to drive out all of the inhabitants get rid of men women children everything because if you don't they'll become a snare to you and he said this numbers 33 55 but if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you then it shall come to pass that those which you let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your side and shall vex you in the land wherein you dwell here's another verse Joshua chapter 23 in verse 13 he says know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of those nations from before you but they shall be snares and traps unto you and scourge 'as in your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off the good land which the Lord your God hath given you that was given as a rebuke because they've failed to follow the instructions about driving them out so he says alright they'll be there and there will be a problem to you and also here's another one Judges chapter 2 verse 3 says wherefore I also said I will not drive them out from before you but they shall be as thorns in your sides and there God shall be a snare unto you so here are three Old Testament examples where there's terminology about thorn in the flesh or a thorn in the side is talking about people and how they would persecute you and how they would give you a problem to you and this fits perfectly you know what I'm doing I'm letting scripture interpret scripture instead of finding a passage that's a thorn in the flesh which is very obvious that this isn't talking about some physical form that was sticking in his flesh it's not that he had a piece of thorn from some bush sticking in his flesh this was a symbolic thing it was it was symbolizing something and rather than me just picking and choosing coming up with whatever I want to I go to the context and he says that these are the things that I'm in a glory in my infirmities and he listed them and every one arm is talking about persecution there isn't a single thing there about a physical sickness or a need or are some kind of a disease you look at the context right after he uses this word infirmity and in verse 10 he talks about five things and four of them are very clearly talking about persecution then you go to these three Old Testament references that I gave you and the people that he was writing to they knew and understood that a thorn in the flesh or a thorn in the side was referring to people and how people treated you so here's what I believe the whole deal is with Paul's thorn in the flesh Paul's thorn in the flesh was not sickness it was not some disease you know what he was it was Satan it was a messenger of Satan and the word messenger right here is the exact same word that is translated angel a number of other times this is talking about a demonic power that was assigned to Paul that persecuted him wherever he went stirred up persecution now this is a new wrinkle in a lot of people's brains because they just don't realize what's going on behind the scene they think that everything that is happening is just all-natural but there are demons that stir people up there is a spirit of Antichrist and it's abounding and alive in our world today and many people who are so against God and against the gospel it is demonic they are being inspired by demonic things well Paul had a demon assigned ium that everywhere he went stirred up persecution the Apostle Paul even said this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 he says it seems like us the Apostles are set forth last we are suffering persecution more than anybody else Paul said that he was more abundant in tribulation more abundant in stripes he had had more persecution when Paul went into a town he didn't go check with the Holiday Inn he went by the jail and said keep me a spot man get some fresh hay in there because I'm going to be in jail before I leave town the Apostle Paul was persecuted everywhere he went and he asked the Lord to remove this persecution from him this thorn in the flesh but see we aren't redeemed from persecution Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 12 yay all those who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution persecution is something we aren't redeemed from if we would have been redeemed from it we wouldn't have had an Apostle Paul because Saul at first was a persecutor and if God just like killed all of your persecutors that came out against you then Saul wouldn't have ever been converted wouldn't have become the Apostle Paul and we wouldn't have had half the New Testament no God hasn't redeemed us from persecution but he has redeemed us from sickness the Apostle Paul would have been wrong if he had some sickness in his body and if he just refused or didn't receive it that would have been a lack or inadequacy in his life he would have missed out but this wasn't a sickness that God gave him it was a persecution demonic power persecuting him that came directly from the devil he asked the Lord to remove it and God said Paul I'll just give you the grace to be able to bear it you know I've got more to share on this but I'm out of time so I'm going to have to continue this concluded on our program next Monday I encourage you to listen in I think that this will really help you and also you really need to get these materials even if you follow today and if you've received it I guarantee you you need to hear this again and you need to get this so you can share it with someone else so listen as our announcer gives you that information Andrews complete teaching titled God wants you well is available in a brand-new book for 8 pounds 50 request book number T 3:30 when you contact us you can also get this teaching in a companion study guide for 17 pounds fifty request study guide t 430 the entire series is also available on either CD or DVD as seen on our daily TV program each is available for 13 pounds request item T 1036 C for the CDs or item T 1036 D for the DVDs or you can receive the book study guide and album as part of the better health care package the package includes your choice of either the CD or DVD series the new Godwin see.well book along with the companion study guide plus healing journeys Volume one and volume two and the healing scripture CD the entire package has a catalog value of 68 pounds but today we'd like to offer it to you for fifty pounds to get the better health care package request item T 4505 be sure to specify CD or DVD the second teaching in the Godwin's you LCD series titled what about Paul's thorn in the flesh is available for three pounds but if you're simply unable to afford it Andrew and his partners will provide this second CD free of charge request teaching ti0 to see when you write or call and will be pleased to send it to you you can use your credit card to order resources by telephone our helpline number is zero one nine two two four seven three three hundred when calling from outside the UK you must dial your international calling code then forty four one nine two two four seven three three hundred or you can visit our website where you can order ministry materials 24 hours a day seven days a week and a WME net to write us use the address on your screen we hope to hear from you today I know that many have you been touched today and you realize that you have allowed something in your life thinking that this was God doing it are permitting it and now you realize that you don't have to put up with it that you've been redeemed from it and maybe you've received this truth and yet you don't know exactly how to get from where you are to where you need to be I'd like to encourage you to get these products and as you call to get the products also ask one of our prayer ministers to pray with you we have some powerful people matter of fact some of the people that are on our healing journeys volumes are answering the phone people that have had miraculous healings and they can pray with you and they can help you to receive so we have the number on your screen please call today we'd like to point out Andrews upcoming speaking schedule mark your calendars to come meet Andrew at one of these events and let the word of God transform your life you'll be in Warwickshire England for the grace and faith family camp May 28th through the 31st for those of you looking forward to our annual summer family Bible conference remember to mark your calendars and join us in Colorado Springs June 28th through July 2nd I'd like to give you a special invitation to join me on Friday the 28th of May through Monday the 31st of May this is the bank holiday in the UK and we are having our Grace and faith family camp at Stone Lee park in Warwickshire and I tell you I'm excited about this we're expecting a large turnout it's going to be four days over this bank holiday and I will have also Wendell Parr ministering with me I believe that David Hinton is six foot seven cowboy is going to be there ministering and music and it's going to be a great time there are accommodations Motel accommodations there's accommodations for caravans tents all kinds of things we have a website for this they have that address on the screen you can actually go to that website it will give you all kinds of information booking information of course you can contact our offices but remember these dates over the bank holiday May the 28th through the 31st at Stone Lee Park in Warrior

Channel: Andrew Wommack

Views: 18,675

Rating: 4.8391962 out of 5

Keywords: Andrew Wommack (Person), God (Deity), Jesus Christ (Deity), Holy Spirit (Deity), Scripture, Health, Wholeness

Id: PvtFBSuDUJs

Length: 28min 31sec (1711 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 01 2013