Here is a question I hear more often than you might think: why do some pastors who help people get healed end up getting sick themselves? Some even die from the sickness, or watch their family members struggle with their health. If they work in healing, why can't they help themselves?

It is a fair question, and an honest one. It deserves an honest answer from the Word of God, not a shrug.

God's Word is a respecter of nobody

The first thing I want you to see is this: the Word of God is a respecter of nobody. God has principles that He has set, and nobody can flout them. Peter learned this in the house of Cornelius: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34).

That cuts both ways. It means the Word works for anybody who applies it, whether you sit in the front row or stand behind the pulpit. It also means the Word will not work for a pastor automatically just because he is a pastor. A title does not move a mountain. Faith in God's Word does.

It is easy for us to look at ministers as masters of the Word of God, and to assume they apply it in every area of life every single day. But it really isn't like that. A minister may be strong in one area and simply not be applying the Word in another. The Word of God works all the time. It works for whoever applies it. How we apply it determines the results we get.

It is easier to pull someone out of a ditch from the outside

Think about it this way. It is much easier to pull someone out of a ditch when you are standing outside it. You are not in that environment. The fear, the worry and the hundred questions are not your reality in that moment.

The person inside the ditch is dealing with all of those feelings in real time.

When a pastor prays for a stranger, he is standing outside the ditch. When the symptoms are in his own body, or in his child's body, he is inside it. Now he has to do exactly what any other believer has to do: take the Word of God and apply it while his feelings are shouting the opposite.

So the same way a regular believer has to apply the Word, the pastor has to apply the Word. There is no shortcut and no special exemption. Paul told Timothy, a young minister, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee" (1 Timothy 4:16). Notice the order: thyself first.

We don't always know what someone believes in full

There is something else we often miss. We don't really know what another person believes in totality.

A minister may have tremendous faith to see the lame walk. He has seen it happen again and again, so he focuses on people with problems in their legs. But when it comes to other parts of the body, he is not so confident. Somewhere along the way he concluded that he has a gift just for legs.

Meanwhile, the name of Jesus works on anything. The name of Jesus can heal any sickness, any ailment, and cast out any demon. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2:9-10). Every sickness has a name, and every one of those names must bow to His.

That is why even a pastor has to keep renewing his mind. "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). The truth a minister actually applies in his own life is what will produce results in his own life. The truth he only preaches to others will not.

Sickness doesn't know who the pastor is

Here is a sobering thought. The devil doesn't know who the pastor is, and sickness doesn't respect anybody. It will attack the usher, the choir member and the senior pastor alike.

Likewise, the Word of God doesn't respect titles. It works because it is applied, not because of the office of the person holding it. The agent of change is the Word of God itself. "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions" (Psalm 107:20).

So when we see a minister struggle with sickness, the right conclusion is not "the Word failed." The right conclusion is that the Word, in that area, was not planted and held on to the way it needed to be. That is not a judgment on anyone. It is simply how God's kingdom works.

The farmer still has to plant his own seed

I like to picture it like a farmer.

Imagine a farmer who has helped hundreds of other farmers. He has taught them how to prepare the soil, when to plant and how to care for the crop. His neighbours have had great harvests because of his help.

But when he comes back to his own farm, none of that plants his field. He has to take his own seed, put it in his own ground and wait for his own harvest.

Jesus described the Word as seed: "The seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11). That seed has all the life it needs. It always works. But it will not produce a harvest if it is not planted. The farmer who taught everyone else still has to plant for himself.

That is the integrity of the Word of God we must always hold on to. We must not set the bar of God's Word at the level of a pastor's experience or any minister's results. God's Word stands above every experience. "Let God be true, but every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).

The Spirit that raised Jesus lives in you

Now here is the good news for you, whether you are a pastor or not.

"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:11).

The same Spirit who raised Jesus out of the grave lives inside every believer. He gives life to your mortal body, this body, right now. How you allow that Spirit to quicken your body determines the results you will get. It is not reserved for people with a title. It is for everyone in whom He dwells.

I want to be clear on one thing too: none of this is against medicine. Keep following your doctor's care. Faith and good care are not enemies. But don't let anyone tell you that God's healing power is only for the famous evangelist or only for other people. It is for you.

A practical takeaway for this week

Here is what I want you to do.

1. Stop measuring the Word by people. If you have seen a minister get sick, don't let that shake your faith. The Word didn't change.
2. Find the verses for your own situation. Write down two or three healing scriptures, such as Isaiah 53:5, Psalm 107:20, 1 Peter 2:24 and Romans 8:11.
3. Plant them daily. Read them aloud morning and evening. Speak them over your body and your family, especially when your feelings say otherwise.
4. Use the name of Jesus on everything. Not just the areas where you feel confident. His name is above every name.

You don't need a title for the Word to work for you. You need to plant it, believe it and hold on to it.

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God bless you,
Michael Adegoke