See Part One
Our foundation scripture:
Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”).
Redeemed from Sickness
Deuteronomy 28:58-62 “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,
59 then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues–great and prolonged plagues–and serious and prolonged sicknesses.
60 Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.
61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed.
62 You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
We repeat a section of Deuteronomy 28, the curse of the Law, to see what we are redeemed from. Every sickness and disease is included in the curse. Therefore every sickness and disease is included in the redemption.
The problem with many Christians is that they are ignorant or unsure of God’s will in the realm of healing. This produces insecurity and double mindedness. James 1:7 says that the double minded man will receive nothing from the Lord.
Some think that sickness is sent to teach us, that in some way it is a blessing from God. Deut 28 shows sickness for what it is – a curse.
There are three possibilities concerning God’s will in healing:
- It is never God’s will to heal; i.e., healing went out with the apostles.
- Sometimes it is God’s will to heal.
- It is always God’s will that you be in health.
I think we can rule out the first option immediately. People who believe that healing is no longer for today are just plain blind. There are too many documented cases of physical healing that disprove that thinking.
People who fall into the “sometimes” category can lean either way – most of the time it isn’t God’s will to heal and occasionally it is; or the opposite: most of the time it is God’s will to heal, with some exceptions.
Jesus, the Will of God in Action
How can we find out how God feels about healing? Examine His Word. Jesus is the Living Word; if we look at Jesus we can see the Father’s will in action. (John 5:30; 6:38)
Anyone who reads the gospels knows that Jesus went around healing people. Question: do we see Him healing a few, or everyone?
Matthew 4:23-24 23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.
Matthew 9:35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Luke 4:40 When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.
These scriptures say that Jesus healed them all. Jesus never refused anyone who came to Him for healing.
Most people have no trouble believing that God can heal, and that God does heal. The real question is: will He heal me?
Luke 5:12-13 And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
13 Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him.
Are there any incidents where Jesus didn’t heal people?
Mark 6:1-6 Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him.
2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!
3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” And they were offended at Him.
4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”
5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.
6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.
In Jesus home town no mighty works were done, only a few sickly (i.e., minor ailments) were healed. There were no lame walking, blind seeing, or deaf hearing. And it does not say he would not do any might works, it says that he could not do any mighty works. Why not?
The answer is in vs. 6 – and He marveled because of their unbelief. Unbelief stopped Jesus from healing people when He was there in the flesh. It will also block God’s will from being fulfilled in your life.
Here is an important principle: People will experience what they believe.
Those that don’t believe in healing don’t get healed, reinforcing their unbelief.
For those who believe that most of the time it’s God’s will to heal and sometimes not: It’s very suspicious that their present condition almost always seems to be one of those times when it’s not God’s will to heal them. At the very least it leaves the question in their mind, “Is this one of the times it’s God’s will to heal me, or one of the times it isn’t?” And that bit of doubt and wavering keeps them from having faith for healing.
Hebrews 6:11-12 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end,
12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Consider the outcome of the lives of the people who teach you – what results are they getting? Then imitate their faith. Imitate those who through their faith and patience inherit the promises.
Years ago I made some observations. I looked at the people who said that most of the time it was God’s will to heal but sometimes not, and the people who said it was always God’s will to heal. I observed that the people who said it was always God’s will to heal were healed much more often than those who believed that most of the time it was God’s will to heal. That small measure of doubt about God’s will caused them to get less results. What I saw was that most of the time they didn’t get healed, but occasionally they did.
I made the decision that I was going to imitate the faith of those who got the better results. Do I get healed every single time? No – but I get sick very seldom, and when I do, it doesn’t stay on me very long. I can count on one hand the number of times I have called in to work sick in the past three decades. Most of the time I walk in health. My kids have been healthier when compared to the world (and to a lot of Christians) also.
Luke 13:10-16 10 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.
12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”
13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”
15 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?
16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound–think of it–for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
Here we see a woman who had a sickness caused by a spirit. Now not all sickness is caused by direct demonic action, but sometimes it is. And when it is, the demon has to be dealt with to get rid of the sickness.
This woman was probably a regular attender of that synagogue, and had had that condition for 18 years. Jesus said she should have been loosed from her affliction because she was a daughter of Abraham – she had a covenant with God.
The rabbi was more concerned with the day than with the woman. Even according to his reckoning, there should have been 5616 days (6 days a week times 52 weeks per year times 18 years) when she could have been healed. But she never got it, because that old unbelieving rabbi wasn’t teaching that part of the Abrahamic covenant – that healing belonged to God’s people. And the woman suffered for it, because like most people, she believed what she was taught (and didn’t believe what she wasn’t taught).
Be careful who you listen to. It will have an effect on your life.
Healing in the Redemption
Healing is part and parcel of our redemption in Jesus Christ, part of our covenant – the new covenant – with God. There are many many verses that mention the forgiveness of sins and the healing of the body in the same breath. For example:
Psalm 103:2-3 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
3Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases
Many people have forgotten some of His benefits. “But that’s Old Testament”. Yes, it is, the Old Covenant. Heb 8:6 says that Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant founded on better promises. To be better, it would have to include those benefits of the Old Covenant and add some more.
Matthew 9:2-6 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
3 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”
4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?
5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?
6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”–then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
Isaiah 53 is a tremendous chapter that describes the substitutionary work of the Messiah in our redemption. He bore our sins, suffered our punishment. But it also talks about healing
Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
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.
Matthew quotes Isaiah:
Matthew 8:16-17 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick,
17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmitiesAnd bore our sicknesses.”
Peter, looking back in time to the cross, also quotes Isaiah:
1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
Why is it important that healing is part of our redemption? Then it makes it a covenant right, and not just a whim of God to decide who He will heal and who He won’t. Whereas God could have done it that way, He chose to make it a promise to all. And once His word is spoken, He never turns back on it.
Receiving Healing by Faith
Another group of Christians do believe in the healing power of God, that God wants His people well. They will make prayer requests, and sometimes great miracles of healing occur. But sometimes they don’t, and so they go up in the prayer line again, or turn their prayer request in again, week after week. They do this because “God hasn’t healed them yet”.
What are they using to determine whether they are healed or not? How they feel. So if they don’t feel better, if the symptoms are still all there, they’ll go get prayed for again because they weren’t healed yet.
That isn’t faith, that is what is called walking by sight – i.e., letting what your physical senses tell you determine what you believe. Most people who do this for the simple reason that they have never been taught any different.
A common theme in people who believe this way is that they are waiting for God to do something – i.e., their healing is totally up to God. Now you didn’t think that way about salvation, did you? “Well, I believe that God wants me to be saved, and in His own good time and according to His own purpose He’ll save me”. No!
1 Pet 2:24 says by His stripes we were healed – so if we were healed, then we are healed. God’s already done something about our healing. So the next step is ours.
Like salvation, we need to receive our healing. In the NT there is a Grrek work lambano which in the KJV is translated receive 133 times, and translated take 106 times. To receive literally means to take what is offered, to obtain.
If someone comes by with a great big plate of cookies and offers you one, what do you do? You say “Thank you”, reach out, and take what is offered. You received a cookie. But if you approached it the way a lot of people treat healing, you’d be waiting for the person to open your mouth, put the cookie in it, then move your jaws up and down to chew it. And if that didn’t happen, you’d be say the timing wasn’t right for you to have a cookie yet.
You can claim – and that’s just another word that means take or obtain – the healing that already belongs to you by thanking God for healing you – even before you feel a bit different in your body. It is based on His promise, not how you feel. And once you have done that, you don’t need to be asking people to pray for you to be healed again. That means you didn’t believe He heard you the first time. I’m not saying you can’t have people pray with you again, but that the request should be different. Acknowledge that you’ve already been prayed for, and have them agree with you that God would fini
