We Are Worthy To Receive Healing!
One of the things religion has done is put so much emphasis on our performance that most of us, quite frankly, doubt our right standing with God. What religion has in fact done, is cast doubt and unbelief on the work that Jesus did for us on the Cross. God's Word tells us that in Christ, we are not under any condemnation, but that our sins are totally forgiven! The scriptural fact is that we are created in Christ's righteousness and true holiness!
"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:24 KJV)
I like how Joseph Prince shared that He used to preach the things which will hinder a healing, until the Holy Spirit spoke to him and told him to stop disqualifying His people. Once he began to preach that we are worthy to receive our healing because of what Jesus has done for us, healings broke out everywhere in His church! This embraces the fact that what Jesus did determines our relationship with God and not our performance. If we continue to give in to sin and seek after the flesh, we will die spiritually (Romans 8:13), but for those of us who are seeking after the things of God in our lives (those of us walking after the Spirit, or seeking after the Spirit of God in our lives), we are worthy to receive all the promises of God because of the cleansing work of Christ in our lives. There is no condemnation in us!
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:1 KJV)
One of the biggest hindrances to receiving our healing or any other promise of the covenant we have with God, is whether or not we see ourselves as worthy to receive the promises of God. If we have been cleansed by the Blood of Christ, and yet still see ourselves as unworthy, we are in unbelief concerning the cleansing work of Christ where He has paid for the total forgiveness of all our sins! This kind of unbelief kills your faith and ability to believe God for the other promises of the covenant we share with Him. You won't have faith to believe God for a healing, if you don't feel worthy to receive the promise of healing that was included in the New Covenant. The promise of forgiveness of sins is the foundation we have to believe for all the other benefits of the New Covenant!
Our sufficiency (or our worthiness to receive) is ONLY because of Christ's work for us, and nothing that we have done can make us worthy for all the promises of God:
"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency [worthiness] is of God." (2 Corinthians 3:5 KJV)
The letter of the law disqualifies us, but the Spirit gives us life in Christ! The Ten Commandments were said to be the ministry of condemnation and death:
"Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory." (2 Corinthians 3:6-9 KJV)
We are justified through faith in the work of Christ, not by the works (or obedience to) the law. Our performance gets us nowhere in qualifying us to receive the promises of God!
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Galatians 2:16 KJV)
Religion and the law disqualifies those who Christ has qualified. If you want faith to receive the promises of the New Covenant, such as healing, then you're going to have to stop looking to your performance to make you worthy, and start looking to the finished work of the Cross. What happens when we hear the message of Christ's atoning work? Faith arises in our soul, because we begin to realize that He paid the price and made us worthy to receive all the good things that God has for us!
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17 KJV)
And if you look at the context, it is NOT talking about the Bible in general, but rather specially the gospel and finished work of Christ. Go read for yourself verses 3 through 16 and you'll realize that verse 17 has everything to do with the New Covenant and righteousness by faith in the Cross!
