We know that God's goal today is for "Your will [to] be done, as in heaven, so also on earth" (Matt. 6:10). The will of God is done in heaven, but is there sickness in heaven? Based on this, sickness is absolutely not compatible with God's will. Today a great number of believers pray for healing for a short period of time. When God does not seem to answer their prayers and they have lost all hope, they say, "May the Lord's will be done," as if the Lord's will is synonymous with sickness and death. This is a great mistake. God's will for His children is not sickness. Although sometimes His permissive will allows them to become sick, it is for their profit; His ordained will is always for them to be healthy. There is no sickness in heaven. This proves that God never intends for His children to be sick.

If we consider where sickness actually comes from, we will realize that it is right for us to seek healing. Acts 10:38 tells us that all sickness is due to the oppression of the devil. When the Lord Jesus spoke of the woman who was bent double, He said that she had been "bound" by Satan (Luke 13:16). When He healed Peter's mother-in-law, He "rebuked the fever" (4:39) as if He were rebuking the devil. If we read the book of Job, we will see that it was the devil who caused Job to become sick (chapters one and two), and it was God who healed Job (chapter forty-two). The thorn that caused the apostle Paul to be weakened was "a messenger of Satan" (2 Cor. 12:7), but the One who made him strong was God. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that the one who has the might of death is the devil. When sickness ripens, it brings forth death. Sickness is only an indication of death. If Satan has the power of death, he also has the power of sickness; death is simply a further step of sickness, while sickness is the first step to death.

After reading all these verses, we have to conclude that the source of sickness is the devil. Because there are some defects in the believers, God allows Satan to attack His children. If God's children (1) refuse to yield to God's demands and allow sickness to remain in their bodies, or (2) if they have forsaken what God has commanded and still allow sickness to remain in their bodies, they are voluntarily putting themselves under the oppression of Satan. After we have obeyed God's revelation, we should refuse the sickness and reckon that it is from Satan. Therefore, there is no reason for us to be under his bondage anymore. We must clearly understand that sickness belongs to our enemy, and that we should not welcome it. The Son of God has come to free us and not to bind us.

Many people may ask: when there is no need for believers to be sick, why does God not remove the sickness? We have to realize that God accomplishes things according to our faith (Matt. 8:13). This is an unchanging principle by which God deals with us. Many times, God is willing to heal His children. But since they do not believe and do not pray, God has to allow the sickness to remain. If a believer allows himself to be sick, or worse still, welcomes sickness, thinking that it will make him more unworldly and holy, the Lord can do nothing except give him what he wishes. God often deals with His children according to what they can take. God may want very much to heal them, but because they do not have the faith to ask, they never receive this gift.