Dear friends:

The following article provides poignant insights from one of the giants of the faith, the highly respected and late A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

They are provided in an article by friend Christine Darg, long-time missionary to the Middle East and elsewhere, in her latest newsletter, Exploits.  You can get on her newsletter mailing list by writing exploitsministry@mac.com.  Her Web site is at www.exploits.tv .

Be blessed,

Jim
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Healing: ‘The Lord is for the Body’
 
By Christine Darg

 
        In Jude 1: 3 we are admonished earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints -- and part of that Gospel faith is certainly the healing message.  Are you contending for it?
 
        Sooner or later, we all will experience a faith battle.  Battles are part of becoming an overcomer.
 
        A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, determined that he must settle the matter of what he believed concerning divine healing.
 
        With his Bible open, he became convinced that healing is an integral part of Christ’s glorious Gospel.
 
        Hallelu-Yah, do you believe the same?
 
        Simpson felt that he dared not hold any truth in God’s Word as a mere theory or teach to others what he had not personally proven. Are you proving the healing Scriptures in your daily experiences?
 
        One day Simpson raised his right hand to heaven and made three solemn pledges to God (source: “The Gospel of Healing” by A. B. Simpson):
 
        1. He solemnly accepted the healing promises in Scripture as part of the Gospel of Christ, promising, “Thou helping me, I shall never question it until I meet Thee . . .”
 
        2.  He received the Lord Jesus as his physical life for all the needs of his body until his life work was completed. “Thou helping me, I shall never doubt that Thou dost so become my life and strength from this moment and wilt keep me under all circumstances until Thy blessed coming and until all Thy will for me is perfectly fulfilled.”
 
        3.  He solemnly vowed to use the healing promises and benefits for God’s glory and for the good of others.  “I agree to speak of it or minister in connection with it in any way in which Thou mayest call me or others may need me in the future.”
 
        You can be sure Simpson’s resolve was tested!  “I understood what a solemn and awful thing it was to keep faith with God. . . I saw that when a thing was settled with God, it was never to be unsettled. . . . I was as much helped by a holy fear of doubting God as by any of the joys and raptures of His presence or promises.” (Emphasis in red supplied by Bramlett.  This is beyond profound.)
 
         When I read the following sentence, it had a great impact upon my spirit and is still working deeply in me today:  “This little word often shone like a living fire in my Bible:  ‘If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.’ (Hebrews 10:38).”
 
          Simpson apprehended an important lesson that every believer must learn in order to live a victorious life: He appropriated how to live by the faith and by the very life of the Son of God!
 
        “I know not how to account for this unless it be the imparted life of the dear Lord Jesus in my body. . . I believe he is pleased in His great condescension to unite Himself with our bodies.  I am persuaded that His body, which is perfectly human and real, can somehow share its vital elements with our organic life and quicken us from his living heart and indwelling Spirit.
 
        “I have learned much from the fact that Samson’s physical strength was through ‘the Spirit of the Lord.’ (Judges 14:6)
 
        “I find that ‘the body is. . . for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.’” (1 Cor 6:13)
 
         “We are members of [Christ’s] body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (Ephesians 5: 30).
 
        The following statement by Simpson in his book is challenging.  Can we come up to it?
 
        “I have found the same divine help for my mind and brain as for my body.  Having much writing and speaking to do, I have given my pen and my tongue to Christ to possess. . . . He has enabled me to think much more rapidly and to accomplish much more work with greater facility than ever before.”