Last Saturday night my family and I went down to a rodeo in Yuma. On our way back, my stomach started to hurt, and from the time we got home, to early Tuesday morning I was sick. Because Marika got sick at roughly the same time, we didn’t know if it was food poisoning, because we’re the only ones who ate the carne asada fries, or it was from our daughter who was sick on Thursday. Either way, there was no way we were going to make it to church on Sunday and Jim graciously, and from what I heard, wonderfully, filled in for me.
But before I called Jim to ask him to fill in, I spoke to God and said, “Hey I’m supposed to speak on healing tomorrow, what a wonderful thing to be able to share how you healed this so quickly.” And the response I got was, silence. So throughout the time I was sick, I was asking God to allow the sickness to quickly run it’s course and by Monday night, I was mostly over it. Then Tuesday came around. I was tired of sitting and laying around, so I got up, got dressed and started to hang sheetrock. That helped me get over the residual effects of being sick and I thought, okay, well I’m good. Then after I was done, I took a shower and when I got out, I felt a pain in my knee. I hobbled around, got dressed and then just sat. I had twisted my knee some how and now it was swollen.
And all I could think about was, I’m never speaking on healing ever again. The next day, as I was speaking with God, about healing my knee, this thought was communicated to me, “Do you trust me in heal?” It was a simple question. And the reality is I do, I believe that God heals, I have seen it. I have prayed for people that left healed. I have prayed for people over the phone, and through text that have been healed. So I do believe God heals, but at that moment, I needed a quick reminder of a central aspect of God’s healing, trusting his purpose for the hurt.
And it’s the topic of God’s healing that brings us back into our Fourfold Gospel series, where we’re looking at the four pillars of what drives the Alliance.
In the first week we talked about Jesus the Savior. We looked through the Scriptures and saw that humanity is lost in the corruption of sin and so God looks to save us. This is done by God the Son coming down to the earth, taking on human flesh, walking in the obedient life we were meant to, then dying on behalf of humanity as a sacrifice that breaks the power of sin and death. Anyone who puts their trust into Jesus as Savior recognizes this truth and accepts it, and then seeks to follow the Savior.
Following that, in our second week we looked at Jesus the Sanctifier. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, our sin is immediately washed away from God’s sight. Yet while we remain in this life, Jesus moves us out of habits of sin and into his holiness. It’s a life long process that has it’s starts and stumbles, but it’s God’s work in us to transform us into the people we were created to be.
Within that process of sanctification, there is access to perks, if you will, of coming closer to God. But we must always realize what Romans 5:12 states, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”
This world is a dying place; sin has corrupted it in every possible way. With sin, comes death, and that death happens in a myriad of ways. Natural deaths such as diseases, cancers, and disasters such as earthquakes and famines are linked to sin’s corruption in this world. There is a connection between humanity’s sin and the natural world being a hostile place to live in. Then there are unnatural deaths through things such as war, man made chemicals, and violence.
But within the sanctification process, the holiness of God sets us a part from not only sin, but infirmities as well. And so in a corrupted world, where we need the Holy Savior God, we see that he is active in healing people in temporary ways as well.
In the Old Testament we see in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, God being the first one who is mentioned to be healer. In Genesis 20:17 we read, “Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again…” The women under Abimelek’s rule were not able to have children because of the sin of Abraham, but once it was exposed, God brought healing to the woman.
From here on out, out of the sixty-two (62) times healing is mentioned, thirty-four (34) of them are connected with God. The other twenty-eight (28) speak of trying and failing to find healing outside of God.
But the healings we see in the Old Testament are connected with obedience. Exodus 15:25 tells us, “He said, ‘If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.’”
And there are a lot of things to be healed from. When we think of healing we think of physical fixes, but there’s more than just that. In Psalm 103:2-3, the psalmist says, “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…” The forgiveness of sins is the greatest healing that we could ever have. This is a healing of our relationship with God. And if that is the only healing we ever receive, then we have all the healing we need. But there is also the land that can be healed. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 we read, “…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” There’s that link between forgiveness of sin and healing again. But what does the land need healing from? War, famines, disease, strife. But there’s even more than that, there’s healing on an emotional level. The psalmist states about God in Psalm 147:3 that, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
There is so much emotional pain and heartbreak in this world that needs healing. The unseen scares that plague so many, God has the power to heal those as well. And sometimes these unseen hurts need to be dealt with before the seen ones can be addressed.
But there’s not just the physical or the emotional that gets healed, in the book of Hosea chapter 14, verse 4, God states, “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.” This brings us full circle into God’s desire to bring us back to himself which is what we truly need. Our sin and rebellion drives all hurt, pain, suffering and sickness in this world, and the only healer is the Holy Savior.
And this is all done through the cross. God gives us a glimpse of this in Isaiah 53:5, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” This man who is talked boat here, will be pierced and crushed for us , and will bringing healing through it on every level that humanity needs it. From the disease of sin and waywardness, to the seen and unseen hurts that plague us.
So when we fast forward to Jesus what do we see in his life? Healings abound. Out of the fifty-two (52) times healing is mentioned in the Gospels, Jesus is referenced fifty-two (52) of those times. And Jesus heals in all sorts of ways. In Matthew 8:7-13, Jesus meets a centurion and we get this interaction, “7 Jesus said to him, ‘Shall I come and heal him?’ 8 The centurion replied, 'Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” In response we’re told, “Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.’ And his servant was healed at that moment.”
So we see Jesus doesn’t need anything but a word to heal. But he also uses, mud and spit (Mark 7:33; 8:23; John 9:6-15) to heal the eyes and tongues. His cloak healed a woman (Luke 8:47), and time and time again he healed with a touch.
But people are not passive in these healings. Just like in the Old Testament were obedience is linked to healing, there is an element of faith in the New Testament healings as well. Jesus says to people, like the woman in Mathew 15:28, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.” But was it her faith that healed her, or her trust in the one who did the healing? A misconception that we can have is, I just need more faith to be healed, as faith is what heals us. But in reality, it’s Jesus himself, the Holy Savior who heals. They trusted Jesus to heal, not their own faith, and the Holy Savior healed. This is why in John 12:40, Jesus, quoting from Isaiah 44:8, speaks of himself as the Healing God, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”
And it’s this same connection of Jesus being the Holy Healing Savior that Peters links in Acts 4:10 when he himself was the instrument God used to heal and he tells the people, “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.”
And so the instruments that Jesus uses to heal are varied and never formulaic, but they’re always from the same place, the Holy Healing Savior God. And so we don’t even see the name of Jesus being used in healing until Acts 9:34, when Peter says,“…Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.’ And immediately he rose.”
Because it’s not a formula that we can learn to make God heal, he heals in accordance with his purposes. This was actually the insight we get with the question the disciples raised to Jesus when a crippled man came before him in John 9:2-3, “2 And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3 Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”
So healings are done by the will of God for the purposes of God, and there’s nothing that guarantees healing, and so we must trust God in all things, which is what our faith is based on. So when we seek healings, our primary desire is for the will and purposes of God to be displayed in us. If the healing brings God glory we should desire it; if not being healed brings God glory, we should desire that.
This is the point of Jesus’ interaction with the ten lepers in Luke 17. Jesus heals ten men of leprosy with just a word and yet, only one came back to praise God (v.11-19). God is worthy of our praise, and whether he heals or not, he is still deserves it.
But there is instruction that we are given in a broad sense of seeking healing from God within the Church. James 5:13-16 states, “13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? 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. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
As believers, if we are desiring healing from God, there is confession that we need to make, so that we are in a right place with God. Because, a right relationship with God is the most important thing that God wants for us. This means that we are okay with whatever God has for us, whether healing or not. Secondly we need the prayer of righteous people, and the Elders of a local body of believers is the place to start.
Don’t take this as a formula though, but rather as a place to start walking in obedience, which as we saw in the Old Testament was what God called his people to do if they wanted healing. Obedience, trusting God, and healing walk closely together. But even if you have all the obedience in the world, all the faith, and you trust God with all your heart, sometimes God gives no healing, because there is purpose within the hurt, especially for his people. This is one of the points of Job’s story.
Finally the last place in the Bible that mentions healing is Revelation 22:2-5, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
The ultimate healing is still ahead. It happens when all the corruption of sin in this world is done away with and in it’s place is the new heavens and new earth, and we enter into eternity with the Holy Healing Saving God. So when a believer passes away, they have entered into perfect healing. So at the passing of a believer, we sorrow for our lost of their presence, but were rejoice that they have a perfect healing and their pain as ceased. And that perfect healing awaits the entire creation when the Holy Saving God returns for his people. But more on that next week.
My challenge for you this week is to walk in obedience. If you are desiring a healing from God I implore you to follow God’s instruction. First confess. There tends to be sins that we know we struggle with that we allow to go unchecked in our lives, let’s be honest with them and seek God’s work in those areas. That’s the sanctification aspect of our relationship. We should be seeking his sanctifying work first and foremost. Then once you have confessed, ask the elders to pray over you and anoint you with oil. We are always willing to do so, because that’s one of the things God has called us to.
But let us not seek healing for healing sake, but that our God would be gloried through it. Amen.
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