FIRST DEAL WITH SIN – Tuesday January 17th 2017
Memorise: When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Mark 2:5
1 And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.
2 And
straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no
room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached
the word unto them.
3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.
4 And
when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered
the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the
bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
6 But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
8 And
immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned
within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your
hearts?
9 Whether
is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven
thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
12 And
immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all;
insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never
saw it on this fashion.
Bible in one year: Mark 5-6, Isaiah 13:17-14:11, Hymn: Sing hymn 5
In Romans 6:23,
the Bible establishes that there is a relationship between sin and
death. From observation, we know that sickness is an agent of death. For
the discerning mind, it follows that there is also a relationship
between sin and sickness. In 1st Kings 17:17-18, when the son of the widow of Zarephath died, she cried out to God’s servant saying,
“What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?”
1st Kings 17:18b
What
was she really saying? She had the understanding the death could come
as a result of sin, and that sickness is an agent or forerunner of
death. If you want to enjoy the long life that God has promised His
children, you must therefore keep a safe distance from sin. Open heaven
devotional. If you are still living in sin after confessing Christ as
your Lord and Saviour, and at the same time you expect God to keep death
far away from you, you must be joking. Every act of sin you wilfully
engage in exposes you to the agents of death. You shall not destroy
yourself before your God-ordained appointment with death in Jesus’ Name!
Similarly, in Mark 2:1-12,
when a man who was paralysed from the neck down was brought to Jesus,
as bad as his condition was, the Lord simply ignored what every other
person cared about and forgave him his sins first. Nobody thought this
was relevant. The Lord did this because He could see that this man’s
spiritual condition was far worse than his physical state of health. For
this reason, I often marvel when some ministers focus on healing the
sick before preaching salvation to them. Open Heavens Devotional Tuesday
17 January 2017:- first deal with sin. Several prayers for the sick are
unanswered because of the presence of sin in their lives. It is wisdom
to first deal with the sin in the life of the sinner before asking God
to heal the fellow. If the sick sinner is healed before being asked to
surrender to Jesus, he may refuse to surrender at all after receiving
the healing. He may think his healing was by chance and not from your
prayer, and if he returns to his sin, the sickness may come back. If he
then dies in his sin, his soul will go to hell. But if the fellow is
first made to receive Jesus Christ before being healed, there is a
greater chance of him following the Lord. Even if the healing is not
manifested, if he dies, his soul is saved from eternal hell. Always deal
with sin first!
Key point’
When
confronted with the problems of sin and sickness, it is wisdom to deal
first with sin because it could be the root cause of the sickness.
Open Heavens Daily Devotional, written by Pastor E.A Adeboye,
The
General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the
largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ
the Redeemer's Ministries.
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