Your Healing in
The Lord's Supper

Colin Melbourne

© 05-08 Born-Again-Christian.info

Sickness is no more for the Body of Christ than sin.

Just as Christ has broken the power of sin over believers, He has delivered them from the power of disease.

Why do Christians fall sick?

Simple: Ignorance of the Gospel, and failing to recognize the Body of Christ in the Lord's Supper.

God's Word Comes to You

God's Word comes to you with Good News, asking, Do you want to get well? Jn. 5:6b Holy Bible NIV

Sick one! You've languished long enough in pain and despair. Your Saviour has come with deliverance and healing for you today. He sent forth his Word and healed them. Ps. 107:20

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Mtt. 4:4

Sickness is from Satan. Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil. God wants you well, only your enemy wants you to suffer. Disease does not glorify God: accepting Christ's healing does.

Are you ready to receive your healing from the LORD Jesus Christ?

God does not heal His children using doctors, pills, and drugs: He heals by His Word empowered by His Spirit. It is enough, and never fails. Put your whole trust in Christ, accept His Word concerning your condition, understand what He's already done for you, and say what God says about your health.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Pe. 2:24

Say, 'By His wounds I have been healed.'

Why Are So Many Christians Sick?

Sickness is no more for the Body of Christ than sin. Just as Christ has broken the power of sin over believers, He has delivered them from the power of disease. Why then do Christians fall sick? Simple: Ignorance of the Gospel, and failing to recognize the Body of Christ in the Lord's Supper.

Most preachers teach only part of the Good News. They proclaim the power in the Blood to cleanse from sin, but neglect to tell you that His Body was broken for your physical healing.

God rebuked the Corinthian church, and told them why they were weak, diseased, and dying. They were failing to recognize Christ's Body in the Lord's Supper.

Anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 1 Co. 11: 29-30 Holy Bible NIV

Salvation Includes Healing

I thank God for using Drs. T.L. and Daisy Osborn to open my eyes to the healing part of the Gospel.

When first saved, I'd weep my way through Communion thanking God for His Blood that took away all my sins. And, like you, could barely swallow the emblem of bread, symbolizing His Body broken for me. How wonderful of Christ to leave these simple reminders of what He's accomplished for us.

But I always felt there was something missing from the teaching on the Lord's Supper, even in the 'Full Gospel' Spirit-filled fellowships I attended. What a thrill it was to receive Healing the Sick as a gift from Dr. Daisy Osborn. T.L. wrote it in 1951, and it is still the best book on healing outside of the Bible.

It contains a revelatory chapter on the significance of the bread in Communion. Dr. Osborn explains clearly why at the Last Supper Christ broke bread and said,

Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 1 Co. 11-24 KJV

Once you fully comprehend what Christ meant you will refuse to allow sickness to dominate you again. Just as you refuse to let sin control you. You will partake of the Lord's Supper rightly discerning the Body of Christ, and receive all the blessings Christ died to give you.

Healing in the Passover

Remember; the Last Supper occurred during the annual Jewish celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread when the Passover Lamb was eaten.

It recalled Israel held captive in Egypt because of their sin and rebellion. When they cried out for mercy God raised up Moses to deliver them, and lead them to the Promised Land. You know the story, but here's the significance of eating the Passover Lamb.

God told them to kill a lamb and paint its blood on their door-posts so that the Destroyer would pass over them on seeing the blood. It was a 'type' of Christ's Blood, through which New Covenant believers receive remission of sins.

God also told them to eat the lamb in preparation for their flight to freedom through Sinai. That single meal should have been sufficient to get them through the desert, but instead of a journey of a few days, their unbelief spun it out 40 years. Most perished without entering the Promised Land, but that's another story.

They ate the lamb; it was assimilated into their bodies to strengthen them for their journey. The lamb's flesh became part of their body. God tells us the effect of this blessing. Amongst 3 million Jews there was not a single sick or weak person.

He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Ps. 105:37 KJV

Christ's Superior Covenant Blessing

Each one was healed, strong, and healthy. That was the result of God's blessing under the Old Covenant when they ate the Passover Lamb. How much greater is the blessing when Christians under the New Covenant symbolically eat THE Passover Lamb: Jesus Christ, represented in the Lord's Supper.

Healing was included under the Old Covenant. During the Exodus, God promised that obedience would ensure perfect health:

Ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee... I will put none of these diseases upon thee... I am the LORD that healeth thee. Ex. 23:25, 16:26b KJV

Remember: God says the New Covenant is superior:

The ministry Jesus has received is as much superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. Heb. 8:6

If the inferior covenant included the blessing of perfect health, the superior one certainly does too.

Discerning The Body of Christ

Eating the Passover Lamb healed 3 million Jews. Properly discerning the Body of Christ in the Lord's Supper ensures Christians enjoy perfect health. Not that the emblem has mystical healing power, but that it reminds Christians Christ bore their sickness and infirmity on His Body at Calvary.

Christ bore your sin to set you free from guilt and God's wrath. He carried your diseases so you do not have to suffer them, but be healed.

King David sang of God's healing covenant:

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Ps. 103:2-3

Isaiah prophesied that healing would be included under the New Covenant Is. 53:4, as Matthew reminds us:

He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases. Mtt. 8:17

Christ healed every sick person who came to Him for healing, every one. He turned nobody away; all of them were healed. Mtt. 8:16

On the Cross Jesus bore your sins. He also carried your sicknesses and infirmities, all of them. He was whipped at the Praetorium, wounded and striped in your place. The Judgment of God came upon Him, in your stead, so that you can be forgiven and healed.

Can you see how appalling it is not to accept that Gospel fact, and so deny what He did for you?

No wonder if believers partake in the Lord's Supper not believing that Jesus suffered their illnesses, they bring judgment on themselves, fall ill, and die prematurely.

God spells it out:

Whoever eats of the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 1 Co. 11:27

The Corinthians were eating it simply to get their fill, ignoring its true significance. Many Christians partake of it as part of a religious routine, not recognizing it symbolizes both forgiveness of their sins and healing of their bodies. They are inadvertently sinning against Christ, through ignorance and false teaching.

Judgment or Blessing

A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 1 Co. 11:28-29

Isn't that beautifully clear?

Those who fail to accept what God offers; forgiveness and healing, bear the consequences. They get ill and often die early. God doesn't put the illness on them; they allow Satan to do so because of their unbelief in what Christ has accomplished for them.

That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are being judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. 1 Co. 11:30-32

Note, God says many in the Corinthian fellowship were sick and diseased simply because they did not recognize the Body of Christ broken for them. 'Fallen asleep' means they died.

That is why we are to judge ourselves, and examine our hearts before the Lord's Supper, accepting what God says about it in His Word. It symbolizes complete forgiveness of sins and perfect healing through Christ. Failure to believe this in your heart results in discipline, not blessing. You permit Satan to hold a circus in your body because you do not believe God's Word about your healing.

You won't do that now you've discovered the truth, will you?

Understand that the Bread of Communion is to remind you that Jesus' Body was broken for your healing.

Believer! He has already healed you.

Next time you take your place at the Lord's Supper, do it worthily, recognizing His Body was broken for your perfect healing. Eat and assimilate the Word of The Passover Lamb so that it becomes your strength, and His Spirit will bring His Life and health to your mortal flesh. Ro. 8:11

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Pe. 2:24

Hear Him whisper to your heart: This is my body broken for you.

Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 1 Co. 11-24 KJV

End Note: Some object to this Good News, pointing out that Paul, whom God used to write some of the Scriptures above, fell ill himself. Indeed he did, and God healed him through his faith in Christ's redemption, so I exhort you to follow Paul as he followed Christ. Paul knew and taught that the Lord's Supper meant perfect forgiveness of sins, and total healing for your body now.

'Was Paul's 'thorn in the flesh' a sickness or eye-disease of some kind?'