Saints who minister between the times, with the Cross behind us and the Snatching Away ahead, recognize there is a mystery between the brokenness of a fallen world and the in-breaking of God’s future redemption into our now. Like the first rays of morning sun break upon the horizon, foretelling of the glorious brilliance to come, so God’s Kingdom invades our life circumstances with glimpses and hints of what our eternal future holds. Restoration of God’s creation, including restorative healing of the physical body, is, as with every good gift from God, mediated to mankind by virtue of Christ’s atoning work on the Cross. This is the true meaning of the word “healed”, the Hebrew rapha, used in Is. 53:5: To restore something to its original wholeness. God’s salvation plan is not truncated, but breathtaking in scope... cosmic in nature... the complete restoration of all creation to its original blue-print and purpose. In this divine interim, saints are called upon to move against disease and suffering, even though “we see through a glass darkly”, even though healing does not restore us to our glorified-body nature, even though healing, in this life, can never be anything but a Band-Aid... a temporary fix of part of the problem, we are, none the less, to move against disease and suffering in prayer. That God does not always heal our physical bodies of disease should come as no surprise, for He does not always protect us from the accidents, dangers and natural disasters of life... all of which can devastate our mortal life in an instant. These are mysteries, the why of which is hidden in the God who takes no council... the secret things of God known only to Himself. Physical healing is only a foretaste some receive to remind us all of Christ’s triumph on the Cross and the ultimate transformation all creation awaits... a powerful reminder of the purposeful God’s grand restoration plans. Saint’s will always die from disease, for not every saint is healed no matter how effectual and fervent the prayers, and we fail to recognize the worse disease of all... the insidious disease of aging that lays havoc to one and all... which is truly no respecter of persons. Death is still the destiny of all living beings until the Lord comes to Snatch Away His jewels. And earth-life is still a mere heartbeat of time in the vast expansive timelessness of eternal life, if that... a nanosecond we really worry too much about. Isn’t it time we began to believe this? Isn’t the prayer of relinquishment that petitions grace to allow one to step through the mystery of suffering into the loving arms of our Daddy... isn’t that the greatest petition we saints can pray... to release a suffering loved one into God’s hands? The vehicle we use to exit life, be it cancer, old-age, auto accident, heart attack, tornado or whatever... is of little consequence. One second into eternity we will never think of it again, for the enemy is defeated... death cannot hold us down. To be KNOWN of God is all that truly matters. So saints, whether we die or fly... whether we step through the grand portal of death into eternity or change in a twinkling of an eye and fly home, we will all be restored... we will all have a glorified-body... we will all be truly healed! “And the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Maybe we should clap too!
DEATH HAS NO STING... GOD HAS THE VICTORY
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