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Thread: Divine health and a corporate anointing

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    Divine health and a corporate anointing

    (In case someone is suspicious, the following is entirely my own work, nothing except Bible verses have been copied from anywhere and I wrote it all down today during one sitting)

    Speaking of the restoration of the things of the early Church, there are some things that we see very little of today.

    Mat 8:16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick,
    17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
    “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."

    1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

    We are used to people being healed including by faith for healing. That is, whenever they get sick. Both verses are in the past tense, he bore our sicknesses and by his stripes we were healed. He doesn't rise to the occasion to heal our sicknesses every time we get sick. The healing is there as a done deal before we ever get sick. That means divine health is available, by accessing that provision continually by faith. Health through the atonement is a done deal, not merely a reoccurring event.

    Does that mean that someone living in divine health will never die physically ? Nope, the body's aging process ensures that it shuts down after 70-120 years or so. We have no promises to the effect that we are exempt from physical mortality.

    Personal faith for healing/health is one way of accessing this but the early Church experienced something more than just that. Note that health at the time of Jesus was a very different situation compared to now. People were likely to contract any among a large number of diseases at any point during their lives and there typically was no remedy. Diseases that are seen as annoyances today could be fatal. Bearing children was hazardous, the probability of dying during childbirth was substantial every time. The probability of the child dying during its first years was substantial. Getting and remaining sick or crippled or just dying was likely to happen at any age.

    Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
    Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
    2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
    My God, in Him I will trust.”
    3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    And from the perilous pestilence.
    4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
    And under His wings you shall take refuge;
    ***
    9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
    Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
    10 No evil shall befall you,
    Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;

    Many think that Psalm 91 talks merely about walking righteously before God in faith but it talks as much about dwelling in his actual presence. The result is protection from disease, not just healing after the fact.

    1 Tim 2:15 Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.

    That's protection from illness and death, not just healing after the fact. A specific promise related to a problem that killed many women in their youth, especially those who had many children.

    What about the corporate anointing mentioned in the heading ? It can be gleaned from the epistles.

    1 Cor 11:30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

    Recall that the norm during that time was that many were weak and sick and many died young. But according to Paul, the norm for the church was entirely different. What does "for this reason" point back to ? What was it that disturbed their collective experience of divine health and longevity ?

    1 Cor 11:27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
    28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
    29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

    Is he telling them that since many of them live in various sins therefore they are brought out from God's protection and cannot experience divine health ? Nope, he is being very specific about a tendency to take the Lord's supper irreverently. Instead of finding health corporately in God's presence, in his secret dwelling place, they found themselves exposed to the elements as if they were outside of the presence of God found in the church when they assembled and their experience became that of the non-believers around them.

    Which leads us to something Paul said earlier in the same letter :

    1 Cor 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
    5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

    The man in question wasn't taking the Lord's supper irreverently, he wasn't sinning specifically in God's manifested presence as they assembled. But he was living in severe sin, sleeping with his father's wife. So they decided to expel him. Not to Satan personally I'm sure, but from the corporate anointing and protection of the church that assembled in God's manifested presence regularly. That meant that the man was now in the presence of the spirit of this world instead, exposed to the elements so to speak. His flesh would naturally find destruction in that, at least in time. This judgment would naturally lead him to seek back to the protection found in the corporate anointing that he had been expelled from and that would in that case mean that his spirit would be saved in the end which was more important than his remaining healthy just because they let him both live in severe sin and also enjoy the protection of the corporate anointing of the local church.

    The next letter tells us that the man repented and things didn't go that far. It did go that far in an other case :

    1 Tim 1:20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

    If you are a pastor and are reading this - don't try that unless your church has a very tangible protection that can be ascribed to its corporate anointing.

    Does this protection work in reverse ? An account in the book of Acts suggests that it can do so.

    Acts 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.
    2 And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
    3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?
    4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”
    5 Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things

    Why does Peter tell him that he is lying not to men but to God, in fact to the Holy Spirit as such ? Because Ananias was standing in the very tangible presence of God, in the corporate anointing of the local church assembling when he did that. The result was the exact opposite of the protection that it would naturally produce. Maybe Ananias found himself given over to Satan whom he had let fill his heart, maybe it was the presence of God as such that struck him down.

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