698 The Spiritual Man
things are possible to him who believes. In sickness, the question is
not whether I can or cannot but whether you believe or not.”
The initial step for a child of God to take in sickness therefore is
to raise up his head and say “Lord, you cant” You remember, do you
not, the first instance of the Lord’s healing of a paralytic? He asked
the Pharisees, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are
forgiven,’ or to say, “Rise, take up your pallet and walk’?” (Mark
2.9) The Pharisees naturally thought it easier to say your sins are
forgiven, for who could actually prove it is or is not so? But the
Lord’s words and their results showed them that He could heal
sickness as well as forgive sins. He did not ask which was more
difficult, but which was easier. For Him, both were equally easy. It
was as easy for the Lord to bid the paralytic rise and walk as to
forgive the latter’s sins. For the Pharisees, both were as difficult.
b) The Will of the Lord: “God will.” Yes, He indeed can, but how
do I know if He wills? I do not know His will; perhaps He does not
want to heal me. This is another story in Mark again. “And a leper
came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will,
you can make me clean. Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand
and touched him, and said to him, “I will; be clean’ “ (1.40-41).
However great the power of God is, if He has no wish to heal, His
power shall not help me. The problem to be solved at the outset is:
Can God?; the second is: Will God? There is no sickness as unclean
as leprosy. It is so unclean that according to law whoever touches a
leper becomes himself unclean. Yet the Lord Jesus touched the leper
and said to him, “I will.” If He would heal the leper, how much more
wills He to cure our diseases. We can proclaim boldly, “God can”
and “God will.”
c) The Act of the Lord: “God has.” One more thing must God do.
“Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be
thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart,