People that are born with birth defects are often troubled by the question ... "Why?" Even though I myself was not born with a birth defect, I did have polio when I was only five years old. I must admit, I can still remember wondering if God had placed some kind of judgment upon me because of His displeasure with me, even at that tender age.

Those born with birth defects sometimes ask me whether it was because of some innate character flaw that God saw in them before they were even born. Sometimes they have asked if they were born under judgment because of the sins of their parents.

All such questions stem from one basic misunderstanding concerning God ... bad things do not come from Him! God our Father is not the source of sickness nor birth defects. All of these things occur because of the fall of man and the effects that sin [in the whole species] has had on man's spirit, soul and body during all of the generations since Adam. Jesus said to Phillip,

John 14:9   Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?

If you want to know what the Father is like, LOOK AT JESUS in the four gospels. If you see Jesus doing it, God our Father does it. If you do not see Jesus doing it, God our Father does not do it.

Can you, in the wildest stretch of your imagination, picture Jesus placing birth defects upon little babies? Of course not! Can you see Him putting sickness upon anybody? Of course not! Jesus was telling Phillip, "If you want to see the Father, LOOK AT ME! I DO ONLY HIS WILL!" Concerning birth defects, Jesus was asked directly by His disciples the same question that people today ask me,

John 9:1   And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth [BIRTH DEFECT].
John 9:2-7   And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

Notice that this man was BORN BLIND! Jesus plainly declares that it was not because this man had sinned, nor his parents. Please, if you were born with a birth defect, take comfort in that. IT WAS NOT YOU FAULT NOR THE FAULT OF YOUR PARENTS! It was a result of the fall of man and the damage that was done in the genetic structure of man when the motions of death entered into the human race. Never let the devil put condemnation on you again in this regard. Get free in your spirit and soul first. Understand that you are not under some kind of judgment, nor a curse. You were simply born into a sin sick world that is a far cry from the perfect world that the Father originally created. God loves you. He did not cause you to be born with a birth defect.

Notice also that Jesus did not go into any great elaboration on this. Why not? BECAUSE HE WAS TOO EAGER THAT THE "WORKS OF THE FATHER" BE DONE IN THIS MAN. Remember, Jesus said that He did nothing of His own accord, but rather did only those things which He saw His Father do. The Father in Him did the works;

John 5:19   Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

John 14:10   Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Getting back to the man born blind, it is difficult to understand John 9:3-4 without knowing that in the original Greek language, from which our modern New Testaments were translated, there were no punctuation marks. All of the commas, periods, colons and semi-colons that we see in our bibles were added at the discretion of the translators. They were not in the original. The problem is, you can change the meaning of an entire sentence by changing the punctuation marks. Here are those two verses again,

John 9:3   Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
John 9:4   I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Because of the way that this verse is punctuated in our English bibles, many have come to the erroneous conclusion, "Well, God allowed this man to be born blind and live that way for forty years just so Jesus could work the works of the Father in him." Jesus never said any such thing. They "assume" He meant that from the way the verse has been punctuated by the translators. All Jesus did was first, answer their direct question by saying; "Neither this man nor his parents have sinned." Then, He is simply telling them, "I have come in order that the works of the Father can be demonstrated in the earth." He then DEMONSTRATES the work of the Father by CURING THE BIRTH DEFECT! The correct punctuation of the verse should be,

John 9:3-4   Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents. But that the works of God should be made manifest in him, I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

By the way, just so the enemy won't tell you that this period we are living in now is the "night when no man can work," the night Jesus was talking about was the period of time from the cross until the day of Pentecost. No miraculous healings were done during that time span. But immediately after the Holy Spirit came into the believers in the upper room, miraculous healings began again. By the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Name of Jesus, the Father was once again able to "do the works" through the disciples of Jesus. It is still going on today where the gospel is preached "in demonstration of the Spirit and in power." (1 Cor 2:4)

In fact, the very first healing miracle that was performed after the day of Pentecost was the CURING OF A BIRTH DEFECT! Read it for yourself in Acts 3:1-12. In verse two it says the man had been lame FROM HIS MOTHER'S WOMB! A BIRTH DEFECT! Another case of a birth defect that was cured after the day of Pentecost is found in the ministry of Paul,

Acts 14:8-10 And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked: The same heard Paul speak: who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.

Here we see God the Father "doing the works" again by the anointing of Christ within Paul. Paul was not hand trained by Jesus during His earthly ministry like the original twelve, yet there is no difference between Christ's ability to manifest healing through Paul's ministry than through Peter and John's. Paul did not get saved nor enter the ministry until after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is an example for all true ministers of the gospel today.

Heb 13:8   Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Christ lives on the earth within the Holy of Holies of the reborn spirits of saved human beings. If you are a child of God, this same Christ lives in you. (Col 1:27). His healing power will cure your birth defect if you will begin BELIEVING that He is your miracle worker and begin SAYING that your body is normal. The purpose of this lesson has been to answer the question;

"Does God cause people to be born with birth defects?"

Resoundingly, the answer is NO! God our Father cures birth defects, He does not cause them. He cures them by the anointing of Christ that dwells in every believer by the power of the Holy Spirit. That power is released in a person as they BELIEVE IN THEIR HEART and continually CONFESS WITH THEIR MOUTH that they are healed, in the Name of Jesus. This requires a complete transformation of the soul and does not come overnight. But it is possible!

Mark 9:23   Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

However, there is no condemnation even if a person born with a birth defect does not desire to "fight the good fight of faith" to receive their miracle. Just being free from the torment of always wondering if they were born under judgment or some kind of curse is a great blessing to many. God is your helper. He is never your problem.

Know that God loves you. He has never, at any time, done you any harm. God is love. With a birth defect or without one, He loves you just the same. If you have put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are born again and you will live forever in the glory of His presence. You will certainly have no birth defects then. Thank God for that.

Your fellow servant for Christ,

Gary Carpenter