Many times I have heard a preacher invite people to come forward and have prayer said for their physical illness with the comment, “God may want to heal someone today!” It saddens me when those appointed as shepherds are so unfamiliar with the Word of God that they make such statements. In many instances such comments are simply made out of ignorance by those who attended bible schools and seminaries that promote heretical teachings such as denying that spiritual gifts like divine healing and the miraculous are still active in the present Church age.
Years ago the Holy Spirit began to manifest His power with frequent gifts of healing for people with a variety of diseases in my medical practice. Some were medically incurable using available treatment and yet instant and complete healings took place. It was then that certain verses of Scripture became even more alive and vibrant than ever within the depth of my soul, verses such as the following by King David: “Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit” (Ps 103:2-4).
This verse was like a spiritual lightning bolt for me! Almighty God was listing benefits for His people: forgiveness of sins, healing of diseases, and the gift of restoration as well as eternal life. Using a Hebrew-English dictionary, I sought the meaning of the word “all” that applied not only to having our sins forgiven but also to having diseases healed. The Hebrew kol translated as “all” was found to mean all, everyone, everything, completely, continually, and the totality of a matter. In short, use of the word kol did not make any allowance for frequent exceptions to a general rule.
The churches attended during those years of my life had no difficulty teaching about the blood of Jesus shed as an atoning sacrifice and complete payment for all my sins. That portion of Psalm 103 was never once heard contested by anyone occupying the pulpit. Neither was the matter of having any person redeemed from the pit of any circumstance or living hell on earth contested. Only that portion about the LORD who “heals all your diseases” seemed to elicit a variety of excuses if not unbelief from the mouths of those ministers given the great privilege of occupying a pulpit.
I soon came to a place where ‘cherry-picking’ only those passages in Scripture with which one was comfortable was no longer acceptable. Other passages were found which were consistent with the healing provisions of God in Psalm 103. Speaking of the coming Suffering Servant, the prophet was seen to have prophesied about Jesus, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted…..the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (see Isaiah 53:4,5).
Peter later wrote, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (2 Pe 2:24). Note that dying to sins and living for righteousness precedes being healed in this verse. And the Greek translated as “healed” is the identical word used by James when he wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about the sick going to their elders for anointing with oil and prayer. But regarding the latter, I often find repentance of sins as a condition for healing being ignored today. “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (see Jas 5:14-16).
Speaking by a prophet, God tells us, “My people are destroyed [or die] from lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). This is tragically the case when the Church is not taught about the earnest desire of God to heal our physical afflictions today. On the other hand, one must be careful to not ignore the biblical conditions required for healing to take place as is too often done: “My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body” (Pr 4:20-22).
Both Old and New Testaments bear unequivocal witness to the compassion of God in healing those afflicted with physical suffering. A prominent aspect of Jesus’ ministry as given to the disciples involved healing and He made provision for healing to continue in the church He left behind. Such is the testimony of the early Church as recorded in Acts and should be a testimony of the hurch in our day. “And these signs will accompany those who believe. In my name they will drive out demons…they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mk 16:17,18).
Many in ministry do not believe the words of Jesus when He speaks about His miracles and healing of sickness:“Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing” (Jn 14:12). Even when confronted by examples, their minds are blinded in refusing to recognize healings are taking place through gifts of healing placed in the church by God. Such leaders are groomed in schools and seminaries where ministry training has fallen under the influence of “deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” as prophesied two thousand years ago by Paul (1 Tim 4:1).
No other explanation is available for spiritual blindness found in certain denominations. Satan has succeeded in keeping the full provision of Calvary from being appropriated. It should not surprise us that those churches which fail to recognize the desire of God to heal through “gifts of healing” (1 Cor 12:9) are the very same which deny the possibility of demonic influence on a “born again” believer. They dismiss multiple warnings in the Scriptures concerning need to resist the devil and to be aware of his schemes (2 Cor 2:11). That believers struggle not against flesh and blood but against forces of evil seems totally lost to their way of thinking (Eph 6:10-18).
Little did I know how keeping the words of God in my heart would apply to my own life until I developed incurable prostate cancer twenty years ago. God’s words are “life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body,” So I’ve cherished promises that have permitted me to continue sharing the full gospel with the lost and to be a testimony of God’s healing power to the sick over these intervening years. Such was especially true years ago when back pain was diagnosed as spread of cancer to my spine and God saw fit to completely relieve the pain without treatment.
The apostles realized that preaching with wise and persuasive words was insufficient and that a demonstration of God’s power was needed (1 Cor 2:4,5). So it is that they prayed for God to manifest His presence in their midst by confirming His Word through signs and wonders in the name of Jesus (Ac 4:30). In the next lesson we’ll examine what I have long labeled as Principles from the Farm regarding the subject of divine healing. Each of these principles is firmly based on Holy Scripture and consists of very elementary steps: (a) killing weeds of unbelief and doubt, (b) plowing up polluted soil in the heart, and (c) being certain to use the right seed when planting.
