Today I believe I have come to a place of gaining some balance in areas where I had little understanding. We cannot corner God and say, “Lord, your Word says it; You have to do it.” I uttered those words in my heart right before my husband died and immediately was pricked in my heart. I knew I was wrong and quickly repented. Our Father’s Word is true, but there are “conditions” to receiving His promises, and the conditions are summarized in the three words mentioned earlier, “Repentance,” “Surrender” and “Obedience”— being willing to turn around, giving up your will for His and obeying His commands.

There Are Blessings

I feel compelled to give the following in Deuteronomy:

“If you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.

Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks…Blessed shall you be when you come in and when you go out…The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you…And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.”

Deuteronomy 28: 1-14

And There Are Curses

“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overcome you: Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl…

The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me…

The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab and with the itch from which you cannot be healed. The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart… Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you…If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plague—and serious and prolonged sicknesses.”

Deuteronomy 28:15-59

This is not to say you contract every disease because of sin. Jesus clearly told us that, but I believe your healing is totally dependent upon your heeding the voice of the Lord your God. And if there are areas of your life God is dealing with, obey Him that your life may not be cut off before your time.

Jesus also spoke this parable:

“A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’”

“But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’”

Luke 13:6-9

Alvis received this word only a couple of months before he died.