The Word Drives Out Sickness

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. — Psalm 118:17

This verse brought me out of death’s grip. “ I shall not die, but live, and declare! What do I declare? I am saved, I am healed, I am delivered, I am protected, I am preserved, I am made whole. In the name of Jesus—And because Emmanuel lives, I expect victory every time. I certainly didn’t have this revelation of this decree then like I do now. This decree comes from a revelation from my Pastor Darlene Bishop Driscoll. The word believe means so much more to me today than it ever has.

These are the very works of the Lord through his atonement. Victory over sin and death, victory over the grave, victory over sickness and disease, victory over every mountain and obstacle the devil tries to throw at me.

But God who is rich in mercy and faithful unto His Word I am healed!

I didn’t come all the way to Rhema Bible Training Center to die. I didn’t give up everything, walk away from what I knew, and follow God’s voice just to roll over and let sickness take me out. I came to obey God, to walk in His Word, and to fulfill the call. Dying early wasn’t part of the assignment.

The devil hit me with something the doctors said I’d have to live with. They said it was Crohn’s disease. “It’s incurable,” they told me, “but it’s controllable.” But let me tell you right now—Jesus didn’t go to the cross to help me control disease. He went to the cross to remove it from me.

Crohn’s disease like a thief entered my body. It started stealing everything from me fast. I lost almost 40 pounds in just a few months. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t keep anything down. I was physically wasting away. I had just graduated from Bible school, and I looked like I wasn’t going into ministry but the grave. But I made a decision: I’m not going to sit here and die while the Word of God is sitting in my spirit.

That voice from the doctor tried to lodge in my thinking: “It’s incurable, but it’s controllable.” But right on the inside, the Spirit of God spoke up and said, “Why do you want to control this?” That stopped me in my tracks. I heard it again—“Why would you try to control something I already paid to remove?”

And then He said this: “Trying to control this disease is like trying to walk a wild dog on a leash. It’s going to wear you out. It’s going to drag you down. It wants to dominate and kill you.”

That’s when I knew I had to stop trying to live with something I was called to live without.

My wife—thank God for her—looked at me and said something that slapped that spirit of death in the face. She said, “You can lay there and die, or you can believe God and live.”

Right then I made the decision.
I chose life.
I chose the Word.
I chose to live and not die—even when I didn’t feel like it was healed. I want to tell you one thing— you must hold fast to your confession of faith.

Jesus bore my sickness. He carried my disease. And if He carried it, I don’t have to. If He paid for it, I’m not picking up the tab. That’s double payment, and I’m not doing it. Healing is mine—not because I earned it, but because Jesus gave it to me.

I didn’t try to get healed. I enforced the healing that was already bought and paid for.

I got in the Word. I spoke it out loud.

• “By His stripes I was healed.”
• “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
• “He sent His Word and healed me.”

I spoke it when I felt strong. I spoke it when I felt weak. I spoke it when nothing looked different. And I spoke it until everything lined up with the Word.

My healing didn’t start in the doctor’s office. It didn’t start in my body. It started the moment I put the Word of God in my mouth and refused to say anything else.

But let’s get it straight—my healing didn’t really begin when I felt better. It didn’t begin when the symptoms left. It didn’t even begin when I first believed.

My healing started the moment Jesus Christ took those stripes on His back and shed His blood on that cross.

That’s when the price was paid. That’s when healing was secured. That’s when the curse was broken.

So I just lined my mouth up with what was already finished.
And when I said what He said—healing showed up.

We must come to a place where we put our foot down and say “enough is enough!” We must get mad at the thief, mad at the curse and infuriated at the devil.

You don’t negotiate with the curse. You don’t compromise with it. You don’t say, “Well, if I can just get it under control…” No. You cast it out. You command it to go. You resist it with everything that’s in you, and you do it with the Word of God in your mouth and the blood of Jesus on your mind.

Crohn’s didn’t win. Jesus won.
The disease didn’t get the final say. The Word did.
And I didn’t come out to die—I came out to preach.

So don’t you dare back up just because something hits your body.
Don’t you change your theology because of a bad report.
You’ve got a blood covenant, and it covers every inch of your body.

I live today because I made a decision to stand on that covenant and refuse to let sickness tell me what I could or couldn’t do. I’m not the sick trying to get healed. I’m the healed enforcing what Jesus already gave me.

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Say it out loud:

I didn’t come this far to die. Jesus bore my sickness. I’m not controlling it. I’m not tolerating it. I resist it in Jesus’ Name. The healing power of God is working in me now. Sickness or disease has no place. It has no right. The Word drives it out. I live by faith in the blood of Jesus—and I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. And because Emmanuel lives, I expect victory every time!

—Joshua L Mullins