“…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:20b NASB)

No one in Christendom will argue against Jesus’ ascension, but, as the Messiah offers the above Great Commission promise, neither should anyone deny Jesus’ presence among us.  From fifty days beyond the pre-crucifixion Passover, the Spirit of the Messiah has been with us.  Thus, I propose a new mindset:  Because Christ came to us and is still with us, let’s stop asking Christ to re-enter a world in which He already exists to smooth out our troubles and prohibit our deaths, and instead bring ourselves, our troubles, our circumstances, our sicknesses, our pains, our mortality to the Savior Who has already overcome all these things.  In Jesus’ beatings, humiliation, death, burial, and resurrection every sickness, death, and disease has been defeated, so each must remove his/her hands from the wounds the Messiah has already received and overcome.  We are only responsible for bearing the Messiah Who bears our wounds.

While we will always be in the throes of sickness, disease, hardship, and death, Messiah has provided an exit from the full force of their destructive effects.  As it pertains to sickness, disease, and hardship, Isaiah prophesies, saying, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4, 5 NASB)  And, as to death, Paul counsels Timothy, saying, “But now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, Who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” (2 Timothy 1:10 NASB)