By Pr Sam Namatiiti and Pr Michael Kintu
Immediately after the end of the initial creation period, there came God’s prophetical declaration following the fall of man.
It was so precise to our enemy, the devil, whose plot is always to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).
God said to the devil: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).
Within God’s prophetical declaration, was laid a fact that diseases and suffering had then entered the world, and were going to continue harassing mankind.
Therefore, God found a solution to rescue man as this cruel monster set out to harass mankind with diseases and afflictions.
In Malachi 4:2, a blessed prophecy was declared: “But to you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.”
However, even during his powerful messages, Prophet Isaiah declared: “For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace” (Isaiah9:6).
Prophet Isaiah continued to declare this seed of a woman, destined to come and bruise the head of the causer of diseases, was, first of all, going through extreme suffering to finally open the door for our healing.
He declared: “But He was pierced for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed” (Isaiah 53: 4).
A blessed season has come on us, as is always the fact every year for the whole world to celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
He who did put on the human body to be able to associate with mankind for a supernatural connection between God and man.
Jesus, the promised seed, was 100 per cent God and man. He was Christ, the Son of God from everlasting given to us.
He was born of a woman with no connection to Adamic judgment that caused the world we live in to be cursed (Genesis 3:17, 18).
Jesus the Healer
This Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate every year on December 25, came with ‘healing in His wings’ just as Malachi declared.
Our adversary, Satan, is always determined to occupy us with the argument of whether December 25 is the actual day when Jesus was born or not.
It does not matter whether Jesus was born on that day or not. The irrefutable fact is: Jesus was born and walked on this Earth, in the currently disputed land of Israel.
Apostle Peter clearly states it: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
In the four beginning books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we can clearly see Jesus Christ performing many kinds of miracles, including healing the sick. We see him healing the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:13), Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-34), the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48), Jairus’ daughter (Matthew 9:18-26), among others.
The Great Commission to evangelize to the whole world included the sent ones being healed and themselves also healing the sick.
On the Great Commission, Jesus said: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16; 17, 18).
Miracles in early Church
The evangelical wave of the 60th was immersed in lots of spiritual and physical healings.
In my (Samuel Namatiiti) book, The Nation Shakers, I write: “The Gospel of power was so powerful that people came from many parts of the country, from near and far, to hear the good news of salvation for the first time.
“These first crusades were staged on the outskirts of Kampala City, just near the Palace of the King of Buganda. Many miracles were witnessed by all that attended the week-long crusade. Sick people were healed and many of us believed on the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Earlier prophecy
Isaiah 53:3-4: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
“Surely he hath borne our grief, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”.
Isaiah gives us a glimpse of what was in the heart of God for His people in the dispensation to come.
He begins this prophecy by asking who has believed our report and to whom has the hand of the Lord been revealed.
Not many people Isaiah was talking to believed the prophecy of the coming Messiah.
The nation that Isaiah was directly addressing at the time completely failed to recognize the time of their visitation.
The promised Messiah was to be born in a manger, very far removed from the king of Kings Israel was expecting.
There was no pomp, no lights or spot lights at that; not in the Heavens above. You needed no effort to miss him.
A deeper look into Isaiah’s prophecy reveals that the coming Messiah would bear the consequences of the sins of all men.
“He was wounded for our transgressions,” is the phrase Isaiah uses to denote a form of substitution.
He was not going to suffer for His own sins because He was sinless as presented in 1John 2:2 and 2Corinthians 5:21.
Nevertheless, in God laying iniquity up on Him, Jesus was treated as though He was responsible for all the sins committed by each individual who would ever believe.
God did this to Him so that wrath, having been spent and justice satisfied, He would legally accord to every believer the righteousness of Christ.
This implies the believer would be as free as they have never sinned.
The scripture further declares: “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed.”
The same vein that bore our sin and transgression purchased our peace with God and in the end brought us salvation and healing.
The scripture declares in Malachi 4: 2: “But to you who fear the Lord, the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings”.
Jesus who was the Messiah to come was not only going to save His people from sin and the wrath to come. He was purchasing their healing as well.
The word used for salvation “Sozo” can be translated to mean healing and wholeness.
We also see the scripture in 2Peter 2:24: “Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we having died to our sins might live for righteousness; by whose stripes were healed.”
Clearly, the end of our forgiveness was the blessedness of physical healing.
As we celebrate this season, therefore, may this fact become more real in our lives, and may we receive grace for healing in every area of our lives!
May we find Grace to lift up every member of our family and every friend around us to believe and find healing in Jesus’ name.
I cannot help but remember one of my favorite hymns, “What a healing Jesus I have found in you”.
As we celebrate this 2022 Christmas, let us choose to receive Jesus Christ as our healer and Savior. Amen.
Merry Christmas.
