Smith Wigglesworth- Healing is the Children’s Bread
In Matthew chapter fifteen, we see the story of a Gentile mother who sought to healing for her daughter.
“Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.; But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she cries out after us.’ But He answered and said, ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ Then she came and worshipped Him saying, Lord, help me!’ But He answered and said, ‘It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.; And she said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered and said to her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”
Matthew 15: 21-28
Stop and think about this woman for a moment and how she should have been offended and quit several times! But she was a mother, and she was more moved by love for her daughter than being offended. She came to Jesus on the authority, love, and boldness of a mother determined to get her answer.
Smith said, quoting from the account given in Mark…
Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (Mark 7:27). Note that healing and deliverance are here spoken of by the Master as “the children’s bread”; therefore, if you are a child of God, you can surely press in for your portion.
Healing and deliverance were part and parcel of the ministry of Jesus because, as Jesus explained, they are the children’s bread. He was referring to the Children of Israel. Remember when Jesus healed the woman bent over for eighteen years and when the rulers attacked Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, His response was:
“The Lord then answered him and said, ‘Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound- think of it- for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
Luke 13: 15
As a daughter of Abraham, this woman had a right to be healed! Now also remember that the Lord had revealed to them that He was the Lord their healer and that He would heal all their diseases. But miracles were for the ancient times and not the modern times when Jesus walked the earth. Just as healings are for the times of Jesus and not modern days. This lady who suffered for eighteen years could have bowed to the voice of the leaders and failed to receive and keep her healing, but even though it came at a cost, she got her healing. Will we allow the voices of those we respect or our circumstances to steal our healing?
This Gentile had no covenant right to healing at that time, but she had a greater understanding of who Jesus was and faith in Him than the educated leaders of the hour. Smith explained-
The Syro-Phoenician woman purposed to get from the Lord what she was after, and she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs” (v. 28). Jesus was stirred as He saw the faith of this woman, and He told her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter”
This lady cried out and pursued Jesus even though Jesus ignored her. Think about that! The disciples felt the stress of her crying, Jesus was unmoved. Even when Jesus responded and offered more discouragement, she didn’t quit. There is an authority in faith that presses through and receives. True faith gets results, and true faith always brings glory to Jesus!
Smith explained:
“Today many children of God are refusing their blood-purchased purchased portion of health in Christ and throwing it away.”
We are not taught that healing is the children’s bread and our blood-bought is right. We need to learn how to touch Heaven and change the earth. Instead, we allow the things of earth to touch us and change how we see Heaven.
Smith added something-
“The just shall live by faith,. You cannot talk about things that you have never experienced. It seems to me that God has a process of training us. You cannot take people into the depths of God unless you have been broken yourself. I have been broken and broken and broken.”
We have mental strongholds of wrong thinking that need to be brought down. He desires to bring us into the deeper waters so that we might know Him, His ways, and His heart. Even Jesus’ disciples didn’t get it, and their compassion for this lady failed. The Lord so desired to touch this lady if He could just get her desperate enough and bold of faith.
Smith said-
“We fail to realize the largeness of our Father’s measure, and we forget that He has a measure which cannot be exhausted.”
Listen to these verses-
“For with the HEART one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth CONFESSION is made unto SALVATION. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the SAME LORD over all is RICH to all who CALL upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the NAME of the Lord shall be saved.’ “
Romans 10: 10-13
As believers, we now stand as children of Abraham and heirs to the Promise, which means healing and deliverance belong to us. Going back to the original story, we can see that if the mother had of quit, she would have walked away ashamed, but she refused because she first knew who Jesus was and secondly, she knew who she was!
The Lord always has an abundance, and we will never come and find the shelves of His pantry and supply empty! He is rich, as Paul explained. Whatever the need, Jesus always met it during His earthly ministry and He is still the same Jesus. Smith said-
“I see that God has a plan of healing. The confidence comes not from our much speaking, but it comes because of our fellowship with Him. There is a wonderful fellowship with Jesus that is life…”
This mother heard about Jesus and clearly had given much time in thought until she concluded He was the Messiah. She didn’t come wondering or hoping but with absolute expectation. She was not leaving until she had her daughter’s healing. We can walk in the confidence of our opinions, feelings, and circumstances, or we can come and be broken to know His ways. Are we willing to stand even when our flesh feels offended? Do we know, and are we fully persuaded by who He is? Do we know who we now are in Him? Do we hold these revelations as persuasions of the heart?
Faith comes from what we hear in our spirit as truth. Are we conditioned to hear the truth by the Word so that His Word speaks louder in the storm than our circumstances or symptoms?
We must come to the Word and allow the Word to be the light in our lives and not our opinions, the opinions of others, our circumstances, the inabilities, but what His Word declares. He is who the Word says He is, and we are whom the Word says we are, regardless of our current circumstances. We must not be moved by sickness, disease, lack, or need. We are to look to Him. This mother didn’t allow her feelings to distract her, but she stayed focused on Jesus. When Jesus first speaks to her, and His Word cut like a knife, she presses forward and worshipped Him!
“God made the Word in his hand a two-edged sword to me, and I used to say, ‘Yes, Lord.’ If the sword ever comes to you, never straighten yourselves up against it, but let it pierce you. You must be yielded to the Word of God. The Word will work out love in our hearts, and when practical love is in our hearts there is no room to vaunt ourselves. We see ourselves as nothing when we get lost in this divine love.”
The Word will always come and prune and purge us as we surrender to it. The Word will make known to us any door we have opened that allowed the sickness in or hindered the Word working, for faith working with and by love.
We must get our eyes off of ourselves and off of our circumstances.
“You can never pray ‘the prayer of faith’ if you look at the person who is needing it; there is only one place to look and that is to Jesus.”
Smith also said-
“Oh, beloved, may God help us this afternoon to get our eyes off the conditions and symptoms, no matter how bad they may be, and get them fastened upon Him, and then we shall be able to pray the prayer of faith.”
Going back again to the mother who had so many opportunities to be offended and quit understanding the power and importance of worship. She allowed herself to be broken because she recognized Jesus as the Messiah and the Healer.
Smith said-
The Word can drive every disease away from your body. Healing is your portion in Christ, who Himself is our bread, our life, our health, our all in all. Though you may be deep in sin, you can come to Him in repentance, and He will forgive and cleanse and heal you. His words are spirit and life to those who will receive them (John 6:63).
Let us press deeper into the Secret Place until we are all consumed by Him. When the storm rages, may we worship Him and have a boldness that refuses to quit. Such confidence of faith comes by taking the time to know Him, who He is (His Name), and who you are in Him.
