Embracing Abundant Life

By Bishop Keith A. Butler

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 10:10

To Jesus, the abundant life does not consist of things which kill, steal, and destroy. Sickness and disease kill individuals, and they steal husbands from wives, wives from husbands, and children from parents. They break up families, and they cause undue hardships.

Jesus drew the line of demarcation in this verse. He came so that you may be free from sickness and disease, free from poverty, and free from all the things that satan would try to bring against you.

God did not create sickness and disease. They are the results of evil. If you are sick or have a problem with your body, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have been involved in evil. Before Adam and Eve fell, sickness and disease did not reside in the earth. Adam lived in the Garden of Eden, and he had dominion over everything that crawled, swam, or flew in the air. Whatever Adam decided to do, he could do. Man was not poor in any sense of the word, and he received all this abundance from God.

Mankind only began to see things that kill, steal, and destroy after the fall of man, when sin came into the world and the curse came upon the earth. Poverty occurs because of the curse. Depression occurs because of the curse.

There is no sickness and disease in heaven. As choirs sometimes sing, "There will be no dying there. There will be no crying there." None of these things can exist where God is.

Prayer for Today

Father,
I claim the abundant life that you came to give me. I renounce the works of satan, and thank you for salvation from sin and disease, sickness and poverty. In Jesus' name, Amen!

Selah: Think on These Things

• 2 Corinthians 9:8
• Psalm 36:8