Healing, Deliverance, and the Verdict of the Cross
Several years ago, a young lady and her husband came to me. She had been diagnosed with lupus. At the time they came, we were doing an extended fast. As a church, we were praying three times a day. We were meeting in prayer in the early morning, at noon, and then also in the evening. This lady called the offices and asked if she could make an appointment for me to pray for healing for the lupus with which she had been diagnosed. I suggested that she and her husband come to the noon prayer meeting.
They showed up right as the prayer meeting was ending. It ended up just being the two of them with my son Adam and me in the sanctuary, where we had been praying. I was very tired from the fast we were on and having just led the prayer meeting. I didn’t feel inspired or anointed. As the lady approached me, I laid my hand on her head and began to pray as best I could in my weakened state. I had prayed for just a short time when I heard this faint whisper in my spirit: “Rebuke the devil.” So I quietly said, “Satan, I rebuke you and command you to go.” The very moment I said this, the lady’s feet went straight up in the air. She landed on her back and shoulders with great force. Her eyes rolled back into her sockets, showing only murky white. A guttural voice came from the very petite woman. Speaking to me, it said, “I judge you.” I was instantly transformed from a weak, tired pastor to an energized warrior of God. I quickly repositioned myself on the floor beside the woman. Her husband was backing away in shock at what was happening to his wife. My son was standing, watching in dismay. As I hit the floor beside her, I said to the demon force clearly coming from her, “You judge me? I judge you by the blood of Jesus.” The thing in her suddenly went silent. I began the process of getting the demon out and her free. We did in fact do this, and she reported her condition as healed and restored.
I have never forgotten that encounter. I didn’t understand the Courts of Heaven then. As I developed an awareness of them, this incident came back to me. I realized this demon power was trying to use something legal to keep me from casting it out and getting this woman healed. Its problem was that I had a revelation of Jesus, His blood, and what He did on the cross! The cross of Jesus is at its core a legal transaction. In fact, it is the greatest legal transaction in history. When we function in the Courts of Heaven, we are operating from the finished work of Jesus on His cross. Jesus’ atoning work on the cross is the answer to any and every case the devil would try to use against us. If we are going to be successful in unlocking healing from the Courts of Heaven, we must understand the cross.Isaiah chapter 53, verses 1 through 6, provides a glimpse of what Jesus accomplished on the cross:
Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Prophetically looking through the centuries, Isaiah sees what Jesus would accomplish on the cross and declares a transaction and trade that would change the course of history. He observes the torment of the cross and speaks of Jesus being rejected by men. He sees mankind not understanding the price Jesus was paying on the cross for our sins. He says that we even thought God was smiting Him under His judgment. Yet Jesus’ work on the cross would allow the greatest legal transaction of history. It would grant God the legal right He needed to forgive and cleanse our sin forever. It would also release healing to us in every dimension of our lives. Furthermore, it would be the basis for all restoration. Not only would we as people be able to be legally reclaimed, but even creation would be restored. We can never underestimate the power of the cross!
