Healing In The Bible
I am always skeptical about certain things. Maybe it is my nature, or perhaps it is because I am over 50 and have become much more cautious in my middle age.
Whatever the reason, the monetization and glamorization of healing turns my stomach and get’s my dander up. I cannot see why the guys in tuxes and toupees living like fat cats can’t see that they are hurting the full gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
They are encouraging skepticism and unbelief through their actions.
I don’t blame both sincere believers and unbelievers for throwing healing out with the bathwater. However, is that biblical? Is healing various diseases of sick people part of New Testament Christianity?
God and Divine Healing
It was God who first introduced the subject of healing in the Bible. It wasn’t man’s idea but God’s. Here is the first of many healing scriptures.
In Exodus 15:26
“If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
There was a whole set of regulations in the law that people had to observe when they were healed.
Now, these were for real conditions that they had no way to heal by medical science.
For example, leprosy in 2 Kings 5. That is just not in somebody’s head; it is toes and fingers falling off of you!
Why would God set up these regulations if this was not something that He both desired and brought to pass? It would have been a waste of time.
Divine Healing of the Soul and Spirit
David introduces and starts to pray for inner healing. Not just physical healing. In…
Psalm 41:4
I said, “LORD, be merciful to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
Now the soul is different from the spirit. The soul is where our will, emotions, and intellect lie. The spirit is the spiritual man on the inside of you, and there is a difference.
David was asking for healing because he had damaged his emotions and will with sin. When we sin, and when we are sinned against, there is damage done to our soul, and many times depending on the severity of the sin, it will damage us to the point that only God can heal.
Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
In Psalm 103:2-4, we see that forgiveness of sin is not the same as healing.
You cannot just lump the two together.
When the Bible talks about our healing, it is not just talking about spiritual healing or salvation. It is talking about physical healing.
Diseases are not spiritual conditions; they are physical ones.
The Case for Divine Healing of Physical Conditions In God’s Word
Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Here we see prophesied concerning the Lord Jesus Christ that there would be a three-fold redemption for humanity.
Not just our sins, although that is most important, but also for our souls, and for our physical bodies.
Peace is seated in the emotions. It is a feeling.
Moreover, the stripes Jesus took on His back, paid for our healing.
Now I could give you many many examples of the healings that Jesus of Nazareth did. However, instead, I encourage you to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and underline every time Jesus heals someone.
Then ask yourself the question, was there one person, who came and asked Jesus to heal them, that He didn’t? You might just be surprised at the answer.
Does Jesus Still Heal Today?
Ok, so Jesus healed when He was physically present on Earth, but what about after He went to heaven? (Read Acts 3:1, Acts 5:16, Acts 8:7 )
You see, I do not see where the Bible teaches that there was an age of the Apostles where the miraculous was done, but now we are in a different age called the church age, and the Bible is written, so we do not need the miraculous.
I just never bought into the philosophy of woe is me and woes the day, for all these things have passed away. Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God. He proclaimed the good news of the kingdom, also known as the gospel of the kingdom. And there is no sickness in God’s kingdom.
The same Jesus, the same Holy Spirit, the same message is being preached today with the same sinful humanity who needs God to move in miraculous ways in their life.
Jesus did not change Heb 13:8.
What Part Do We Play In Divine Healing Process?
So, in laying that foundation, I want to say this. If you are hurt, both inside and out, Jesus has the answer. You do not have to go to some guy selling healing in a traveling circus. You can go directly to Jesus!
Now be warned, He may ask you some pretty tough questions, or ask you to do some pretty tough things like…….
- What is the condition of your heart towards others? Like forgiveness, bitterness, anger, and jealousy to name a few. Moreover, you may have to deal with those before He deals with your need to be healed.
- Do you believe it? Not just think that He “can” do it, but believe that He “will” do it. Moreover, that takes hearing His voice in your inner man. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the “Word of God.” Jesus was the Word of God.
- Are you willing to put action to your belief? Many times He told the person being healed to get up, keep believing when bad news comes, or like in the little girl who was dead, He told her to arise. Response to the voice of God is part of the Christian faith.
- Are you willing to humble yourself and call for the elders of the church to pray for you? Are they willing to pray the prayer of faith?
- Are willing to bring Him glory with your healing? That means telling all the people you know how Jesus healed you.
Learning to Receive Divine Healing is a Process
These and many other things might be asked of you.
You see, Jesus wants to heal, but to do that, He first has to teach you how to receive. Moreover, that is a process.
Even He had to pray more than once for a guy that was blind.
So if it was sometimes a process for Him to heal, how much more at times may it be a process for us to receive healing power? It is one of the works of the Lord.
However I know, as someone who has received both emotional healing and physical healing. Jesus is still a healing God, and never once have I seen Him make it a show, a spectacle, or charge money for it, and I absolutely doubt from the bottom of my heart that He would be riding around in a Limo, wearing designer tuxes, and worrying about how good His hair looked.
Healing in the Bible is more than pleasant words or wonderful works in the past. It is something provided by God from His righteous right hand to bless people today. No matter what manner of disease you are dealing with today, whether it is physical pain, issues of life, a family member with cancer, a friend with a broken spirit or a crushed spirit, His tender mercies can bring you to good health in your own body.
The enemy has meant for you to fall into the pit of destruction but the prayer of a righteous person still works. Lay your burdens at Jesus’ feet. Whatever manner of sickness you may have, Jesus will heal it. And the peace of God will cause you to have a cheerful heart and do you good as a good medicine should.
Now that is something to think about!
Pastor Duke
