Our Great Healer

This is the first part in a series on divine healing, in my 40 years of ministry I’ve seen blind eyes open, cancerous tumors fall off, people delivered of demons, cancer gone, hearts literally rebuilt. I cannot explain nor can anyone why healing doesn’t always happen, I don’t believe it is fair to say someone lacked faith, or it was a secret sin. Nor do I believe (obviously) that the age of miracles has passed.  I do strongly recommend never stop taking your medicine until a doctor tells you and have the doctor confirm your healing. Sometimes healing is instant, sometimes it comes slowly.

Healing is part of the Atonement, therefore divine healing is only for believers. I know you all heard stories of backsliders being healed, your unsaved granny got healed.  We will deal with that in one of our installments. Feel free to agree to disagree, no one has all the answers. Opinions on what the bible says are as numerous as the grains of sand. This page is written in grace and I ask that grace be given.

Both the Old and New Testaments speak of a God who is concerned for his children’s welfare and who desires their health and wholeness.  Christ came that we might have abundant life (John 10:10), and his earthly ministry included much healing.  He indicated that the healings were a sign that the Kingdom of God was being instituted.

Diseases and infirmities are universal afflictions.  Their presence is often unexplainable, though the Scriptures mention instances where illness is a punishment for sin (Deut. 28:61; Mic. 6:13; 1 Cor. 11:30).  Often, as with Job, illness has no connection with sin.  Whatever the cause, we know that God in his mercy desires our wholeness and desires that we act and pray to bring that wholeness about.  We also know that marvelous works of healing still occur, in spite of the skepticism of many who reject the possibility of miracles.

Steps to healing:

1. Believe and confess salvation (Rom. 10:10).

2. Agree in prayer with others (Matt. 18:19).

3. Take God at his word (Isa. 53:4,5).

4. Receive healing by faith (James 5:14-16).

5. Continue in the Lord, learning and growing (Exod. 15:26).

Agree together in prayer that God is going to answer. Counsel and pray in faith, reminding the each other to believe God’s Word rather than trust in symptoms (James 1:6-8).

Keep in mind that there are barriers to healing, such as harboring iniquity in the heart (Ps. 66:18), involvement in cult or occult activity (Deut. 18:10-13), not having a wholehearted desire to be healed (that is, using the illness as a security blanket), doubt, worry, anxiety, bitterness, and others.  These barriers need to be removed so the person can ask faithfully and confidently for God’s power to act.

You cannot guarantee that a healing will occur, even if it is a committed believer who has placed his confidence fully in God. You can provide assurance that God is merciful and just, and that all things-including both illness and health-work for good for those who love God.  If a person is healed, God is glorified. If a person patiently endures affliction and continues to confess faith in God, that also brings glory to God.

The biblical concept of healing means far more than relief from a set of physical symptoms.  It means wholeness of body and spirit.  The words healthy, whole, and holy all derive from the same old English root word.

Jesus questioned the man in John 5:6, “Wilt thou be made whole?”

Many medical scientist maintain that much of our sickness is due to emotional causes: tensions, fear, sorrow, envy, resentment, hatred, etc. Physical pains and problems may be real enough, but their causes are rooted in the emotions.

The lifelong smoker may develop a variety of illnesses such as emphysema, cancer, high blood pressure, etc., which affect the mouth, throat, esophagus, lungs, and heart.

Alcoholic consumption may lead to devastating consequences, both emotional and physical. Many of these are irreversible because of an ulcerated digestive tract, or a destroyed liver, or a damaged brain.

Overeating or nutritional deficiency over a long period of time will also result in bad health.

However, many illnesses are not the result of abuses, dissipation, or emotional problems.  Many people are just ill!  Jesus, referring to the man born blind, said: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:3). Think of those with birth defects or genetic illnesses, accident victims, casualties of someone’s carelessness or abuse, infectious and viral diseases, etc.

God heals through the new birth:

When a person becomes a “new creature” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), he finds that Jesus can meet every need.  Many testify that when they made things right spiritually, and began to live in proper perspective and relationship to God, their illnesses were taken away. The hymn writer, William B. Bradley, refers to this new perspective.

“Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;

Sight, riches, healing of the mind,

Yea, all I need in Thee I find,

O, Lamb of God, I come.”

God heals through the confession of sin:

Many Christians live miserable, weakened and often sickly lives because of disobedience and unconfessed sin.  Such persons can become completely well if they will deal with this sin.  The Psalmist said: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crownest thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. . .”  (Psalm 103:3,4).

God heals through miraculous intervention in keeping with His own sovereign will and purpose:

The Bible contains many such examples. There is present day evidence as well.  However, God does not heal all who call on Him or who are prayed for by others. “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34), but He heals some and not others with a divine selectivity which reflects His own ;eternal wisdom and divine will. “His ways are higher than our ways” (cf., Isaiah 55:8). This divine selectivity may be seen in the example of Paul who prayed long for the removal of an affliction (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). God didn’t heal Paul. He provided grace and strength- not that Paul might endure, but that he might learn the joy and glory of utter dependence!  God is trying to teach His own that in all instances we must learn the “the excellency of the power (is) of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). The glorious will and ways of God came into focus in Paul’s life when he learned “for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

None of this, however, should discourage us from praying in faith for the sick – or for anything else.  God may answer our prayer of faith in ways that will amaze us. “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5: 17) is His command.

“Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. . .Is any sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.  Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

                                                                                                                            James 5:15-16, KJV

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”                                                                                                                                                                  James 1:6, KJV

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”

                                                                                                                               Psalm 66:18, KJV

“And lest I (Paul) should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.  For this thing I besought the Lords thrice, that it might depart from me.  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”                         2 Corinthians 12:7-9, KJV

“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”                                        Matthew 18:19, KJV

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