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January 17, 2025

Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Story Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Friday, January 17, 2025, and this is episode #1 in Series 2025. This episode is titled “The Truth about Healing—Part 2.”

Wherever we turn, people are sick. And, it seems, getting sicker. Perhaps you are one of them.

If so, you need to listen to this podcast or read this blog post to the very end. It is the second in a series on healing I started last year.

So, what’s the deal with sickness? Where does it come from? Why does it come? And are we doomed just to live with it?

Let’s start with the first question: What’s the deal with sickness? The deal is that it’s a raw deal. A bad deal. Not a deal anyone wants to engage in. So why is there sickness?

There’s sickness because there’s sin. Sickness has its roots in sin. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the sick person has personally sinned. It means that when sin entered the world through the rebellion and fall of Adam and Eve, sickness was not far behind.

Sickness is the offspring of sin, as is every evil thing in the world today. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, there would be no sickness. In fact, when God created them and placed them in the Garden of Eden, they were perfectly healthy in spirit, soul, and body. They were in perfect alignment with God.

That’s what health is, really. Alignment with God. When sin came into the world, this alignment was not only skewed; it was completely shattered. As descendants of Adam and Eve, we now share in that awful misalignment.

You may ask why? Because we inherited Adam’s sin nature. When Adam sinned, his nature became corrupted. Misaligned. Out of sync with God. So when Adam and Eve had children, that’s all they could pass on to future generations. A sin nature. Adam and Eve’s perfect, healthful nature had been destroyed by disobedience to God. All that was now left was a corrupted nature.

So here we are today, still experiencing the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin. And sickness is one of those consequences.

But lest you fall into despair, dear friend, let me now give you the good news. The good news is that Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection, overcame the consequences of Adam’s sin and restored to mankind Adam’s original, uncorrupted nature. Is that something to shout about, or what?

But, there’s a catch. The only way man can now experience Adam’s original, uncorrupted nature is by being born again. In other words, by accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. When you are born again, you instantly receive the nature of Christ which is incorruptible. The nature of Christ is also perfectly healthy. This new nature comes to reside on the inside of you and to make you what the Bible calls “a new creation.”

The born again person, therefore, has a new nature on the inside of him. The nature of Christ. And Christ is not sick!

“Well, then, Dr. MaryAnn, “you may be asking, “why are so many Christians sick?” Fair question! The reason is found in the Bible in Hosea 4: 6 where God says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” In other words, Christians are sick because they don’t know they’re supposed to be well!

Now before you turn off this podcast or stop reading this blog post, do yourself a favor and get all the facts.

Because God is God, He cannot lie. So when He says something in His Word, He means it, right?

Okay. Let’s look at some of the things God has said in the Bible about healing:

___Exodus 15: 26 NIV – “I am the LORD, who heals you.”
___ Jeremiah 30: 17 NASB – “For I will restore you to health And I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the LORD.”
___Psalm 41: 3 – “The LORD will sustain him upon his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health.
___Matthew 12: 15 NASB – “Many followed Him, and He healed them all . . . .”
___Matthew 8: 17 NLT – ““He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”

I could go on and on with verses proving that God hates sickness and wants us well. Not only that, He has made provision for our healing and health. How? When He sent Jesus His only begotten Son to pay the price for sin and sickness on Calvary in what is aptly called “The Great Exchange.”

During this Great Exchange, or Great Transfer, Jesus took our sickness and gave us His health in exchange. He took our sin and gave us His righteousness in exchange. In other words, the punishment for sin and the sickness that rightfully belonged to us because of our sin, Jesus took upon Himself and in exchange gave us total freedom of spirit, soul, and body. He gave us eternal life, mental clarity, and physical health.

No greater love than this exists!

Now the question remains: What are you going to do with that love? Are you going to spurn it, or are you going to return it? I hope you will return it.

To do so, just pray this simple prayer with me now:

Lord Jesus, thank You for the Great Exchange in which you took my sin and sickness and gave me Your righteousness and health. I want to express my love and gratitude to You for doing that for me. So I ask You now to come into my life. I acknowledge that I am a sinner in need of Your mercy and grace. So I receive You now as my personal Savior and as the Lord of my life. Make of me all that You created me to be. Amen.

If you sincerely prayed this prayer from your heart, you are now a born-again child of God. Write to me at drmaryannn@maryanndiorio.com, and I will send you a free PDF e-booklet titled After You’re Born Again.

In case you are not aware, I write heart-mending fiction that deals with the deepest issues of life. In my stories you will find characters just like you who struggle with what look like impossible problems. Check out my books at my online bookstore at maryanndiorio.com. That’s maryanndiorio.com.

Winning with the Word is available on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast venues as well as on YouTube. Check out my YouTube channel at youtube.com/drmaryanndiorio.

Until next time, remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are, and that He will help you to keep on winning with the Word.

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Copyright 2025 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved.