Never consider sickness to be something dreadful. The “knife” is not in just anyone’s hand. If the one who shaves my hair is my brother, I would not be scared even if he used a big knife. But it would be very frightening indeed if I allowed my enemy to cut my hair. We have to ask in whose hand is the knife. I would be scared if the surgeon who operated on me happened to be my enemy. But I would not be scared if the scalpel was in my brother’s hand. Please bear in mind that all sicknesses are in God’s hand. Many sick brothers and sisters who are so anxious about their health seem to believe that their sicknesses are in the enemy’s hand.
Please remember that every sickness has been measured by God’s hand. Satan is the creator of sickness, and I believe that Satan can make people sick. But everyone who has read the book of Job knows that sickness happens only with God’s permission. Every sickness is under God’s limitation. Job shows us clearly that Satan cannot make a person sick without God’s permission and limitation. God’s permission and limitation are the abiding factors. Consider Job’s case: God allowed him to be sick, but He did not allow his life to be harmed. Whenever we are sick, we should not feel hopeless and we should not worry. Do not insist on being healed. Do not complain that the sickness has continued too long and that you are afraid of death.
Please bear in mind that sickness is in the hand of God. It is measured by Him and under His limitation. After Job’s trials ran their course, the illness went away; the illness accomplished God’s purpose in him. In Job’s story we see an end to God’s discipline (James 5:11). I would like to say that many people’s sicknesses do not have a proper ending; they have not learned the lesson. We must realize that all illnesses are in God’s hand; they are all measured by the Lord. Often all we have to do is confess our sins, and the matter is over.
God allows many illnesses to remain in us in order for us to learn a lesson. The sooner we learn the lesson, the sooner the illness leaves. Many people love themselves too much. Let me say a frank word to them: The only reason many of them are sick is that they love themselves too much. Many people love themselves to the extent that sickness becomes inevitable. We are of little use to God if He does not purge us of our self-love. We have to learn to not love ourselves.
Some people think only of themselves all day long. They think the whole world revolves around them and that they are the center of the universe. They think that everyone should live for them. Their thoughts are occupied with nothing but themselves day and night; in their view everything revolves around them. God in heaven is for them, and God on earth is for them as well. Christ is for them, and the church is for them. In fact, the whole world is for them. God has no alternative but to tear down this center. Many people are not easily healed because they expect sympathy from others. I know that some sisters have experienced this. When they reject the sympathy of others, their sicknesses leave.
Perhaps many are ill because they like to be ill. They are loved only when they are ill, so they like to be ill. No one loves them when they are not ill, so they always try to be sick in order to be loved. In fact, they want to be sick forever so that they can be loved forever. I have seen such cases. Sometimes it takes someone to rebuke them strongly, saying, “You are sick because you love yourself too much. You want others to love you and to pay attention to you in your illness. You want others to visit you and to sympathize with you. This is why you are always sick.” As soon as they accept God’s dealing and acknowledge the cause of their illness, they are healed immediately.
I can report hundreds of cases that I have witnessed during the past twenty or more years of my life. They all prove that many people are sick for specific reasons. Their illnesses are healed immediately when they identify the causes, deal with them, and remove them. As long as the causes remain, they cannot be healed.
I know of a brother who always desired affection from others. He wanted to be loved, to be spoken to nicely, to receive visits, and to be treated in a gentle way. If anyone asked how he was doing, he immediately would relate everything that had happened the previous night or that morning in a detailed way. He could tell others almost the exact time of his fever, from what hour to what hour, and the kind of headache he experienced, from what hour to what hour. He could tell you exactly how many times he breathed and how many times his heart beat a minute. He was always feeling ill, and he always liked to tell others about his illness. He wanted the warm sympathy of others. If you talked to him, he would have nothing to talk about except his illness. Every day he talked about his illness, and he wondered why he was never healed.
It is not an easy thing to speak an honest word to others. One must pay a price to speak the truth. One day I gathered enough strength within myself to speak to this one. I said, “The only reason you have been sick so long is that you like to be sick.” He denied it. I said, “Do you not love your illness? You are afraid that this illness will leave you. You love your illness.” He denied it again. But I said, “You like others to sympathize with you and to love you. You like others to take care of you and to treat you nicely. You cannot have it by other means, so you try to get it by becoming ill. If you want to be healed by the Lord, you must rid yourself of this thought! When others ask how you are doing, you need to learn to say, ‘I am fine.’ See what will happen if you do that! When others ask how you were doing the night before, you should say, ‘Fine!’” He said, “My heart is sincere. I cannot lie. I feel that I am not fine. What should I do if I truly was not well the night before?” I said, “Let me read you a verse. The son of the Shunammite woman was lying on the bed already dead. She went to see Elisha, and he asked, ‘Is it well with you?...Is it well with the child? And she said, It is well’ (2 Kings 4:26). Actually, her son was lying on the bed already dead. Why did she say that it was well? She said it because she believed. She believed that God would save her son. Today you can believe, too. When others ask, ‘How were you last night?’ You should say, ‘Fine.’ It is fine even if you died the night before. You have to believe that it was fine.” He had nothing to say after these words. As soon as he denied his self-love, rejected sympathy, and dropped his expectation for consolation, his illness went away.
We must realize that many illnesses have internal causes as well as external causes. A man must learn to believe in God. When God’s purpose is achieved, the sickness goes away. Once God achieves His spiritual goal in us, our sickness is over.