The Basics: Twelve Points on Healing

The Basics: Twelve Points on Healing

(Acts 3:16 NASB) "And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.

For the first twenty years of my Christian life I prayed for healing without seeing any tangible and immediate results whatsoever. I read innumerable books on healing, believed in healing and prayed for healing, I even started a healing service and yet I saw no results. I used to say to people "Don't ask me to pray for your healing, you will probably drop dead if I do, it just doesn't work for me". I had about 27 good reasons why "not everyone was healed". I had all of the excuses and none of the results. I knew all of the Greek verbs but no-one was healed by my knowledge. Finally after two friends of mine died of cancer I got angry and started seeking an answer. I faced the fact that I did not have authority over sickness, I was powerless. Theology could not beat cancer.

As I started to seek for an answer God showed me that all of the healing prayers in the new Testament were in command form "Be healed", "Rise up and walk", :Be made whole". Not a single one was "Father, if it be thy will heal Joe". I mentioned this fact as an aside during a sermon I was preaching in a small Anglican church. To my astonishment the entire congregation came forward for healing prayer and because of what I had said I was trapped into using "commands" and I did. And as I did people started getting healed with about a third of the service receiving some kind of definite and immediate healing. This was a lot better than zero percent! I then went back and looked at the NT and concepts such as "he gave them authority to heal" and "power was on Jesus to heal" and I began to realise that healing depended on a complex of things. Firstly the healer had to be given the power and authority to heal and be willing to exercise it. Secondly the sick person had to cry out for healing in some way either by coming to Jesus or calling for the elders of the church and thirdly that healing could be obstructed by unbelief and hardness of heart (see the article on mercy and healing).

The following twelve points are a very condensed summary of my beliefs regarding healing in the New Testament and in the life of God's church. They start of with the ideal - Jesus healing all who came to Him of all their diseases and then moves on to the question of whether we can expect to be healed today and finally how we can go about it with a measure of power and authority and with "ever-increasing faith". They are not meant to make you feel guilty or for me to show off my theological knowledge. They are meant to empower you to start healing people and to move from zero percent or ten percent healed to maybe thirty or forty percent healed. If you see 100% healed praise the Lord! I'm aiming at improving things for you and mostly improving things for those who are sick in the body of Christ.

1. It is God's will that all the sick be healed of all their diseases and afflictions. I find four main reasons for this: (a) Jesus healed all who came to Him (Matthew 8:16, 12:15, Luke 4:40 6:19) and this was passed on to the ministry of the apostles. (Acts 5:16). (b) Jesus healed any and every different kind of affliction (Luke 4:40, Matthew 4:24) (c) Jesus' Kingdom is a Kingdom that has good health and great hospital care! In Heaven there will be no sickness or crying or pain. When we ask 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" we are, among other things, asking for a healed world. When we say "Thy Kingdom come" we are talking about a realm of healing, restoration and authority over disease, demons and afflictions. (Luke 10:1) (d) God is a loving heavenly Father and we are in His image. Any earthly father wants their child healed of any and every disease and affliction. This is implanted in all people and in all cultures and is thus part of the image of God and the heart of God, thus we can deduce that we have a compassionate, kind and merciful God whose natural tendency is to heal which was Jesus' (God in human flesh) response whenever He saw illness. (Matthew 14:14 NKJV) And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.
2. Jesus healed without reference to how good a person was. All who cam to him were healed. Many were later ungrateful (Luke 17:12-19) , disobedient (Mark 1:43-45) or even treacherous (John 5:1-15). Healing is for ALL not just for those who "deserve it". It was a matter of compassion just as we would help an orphan in Romania simply out of compassion and not asking if they had been good. Since our love and compassion is the "lesser" then God's love is "greater" then we can assume that God will heal out His nature and compassion without reference to our moral state.
3. Jesus never said "Not today, you need to learn more patience". He generally healed "in the instant" all who came to Him. The only deliberate delay was with Lazarus - and dead people don't need to learn patience! The Christian's cross that they bear is not sickness or suffering (otherwise we would lose our cross in Heaven) but innocence - the life of the Lamb to the slaughter, the suffering of the persecuted righteous. Your sickness is not your cross to be borne patiently. There is not a single verse in the NT that supports that view.
4. Healing is included in the proclamation of the Kingdom of God as evidence for its outbreaking in human existence. (Matthew 10:8, Luke 9:1, 10:9) and when revival occurs - that is when the Kingdom is most manifest, then healing follows. (Acts chapters 2-5). Church History clearly attests that when the Kingdom is most manifest then healings follow as well. Healings follow the authority of Jesus being realised over human hearts and bodies through the power of the Holy Spirit. 'He gave them authority to heal". Healing is thus the exercise of Jesus authority by those He has delegated it to (see above verses). Being an exercise of His authority it follows that it is a sign of His Lordship and His Messianic Presence - thus His reply to John The Baptist. (Matthew 11:1-6). Healing is thus an integral part of Jesus being Lord.
5. Since healing is embedded in the nature of God, the conditions of the heavenly realms and the Lordship of Jesus Christ in His Kingdom then we can expect healing whenever the kingdom of God is manifest today for Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) Jesus can heal, here, now, and today.
6. Its the name of Jesus that heals not Peter or John or Paul or the pastor. (Acts 3:12 NASB) But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? We have no problem with saying its "not our power" but "not our piety" really hurts!
7. The name of Jesus operates in combination with "the faith that comes through Him". (Acts 3:16, 14:9) Jesus (not us) is the source of healing faith as well as healing power. Faith is a gift that comes through humility (Luke 17:5-10) hearing God's word to us (Romans 10:17) and asking for it as a free gift. (Ephesians 2:8).
8. Healing is never prayed for it is commanded. "Take up your mat and walk", "Be healed", Be cleansed" "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.." etc. You never see a NT healing prayer in request format e.g. that goes "Dear Father if it be Thy will heal Joe Bloggs" . They are all commands. Healing is thus a matter of having authority "and He gave them authority to heal the sick, cast out demons.." etc.(Matthew 10:1, Luke 9:1) If you are not seeing healing it may be because you have not asked God for the authority to heal or understood that all authority (including the authority to heal) has been given to Jesus Christ to be exercised in His Kingdom, by His body, for the glory of His name. It is only as I have sought God for both authority and power in healing and exercised them by giving commands that I have seen any real healing at all. We can validly seek God for the pre-conditions but we must do the work (Acts 4:29-31) God "stretches forth His hand" extending the power and authority and the church proclaims and heals.
9. Healing commands are focused and powerful, generally brief, often less than ten words eg "Lazarus come forth" and are very "ordinary" without special words or the drama of magic formulas - for instance they are not poetic. They are simple clear faith-filled commands that are focussed on the envisioned end result e.g "be opened", "Take up your mat." "Rise up and walk" not on the symptom "blindness be reduced". Generally commands are addressed to the whole person not to the sickness (except for demons which are addressed and told to come out). So Jesus talking to a leper says "be cleansed" not "leprosy depart". Jesus is not reductionistic or clinical . He treats people as whole persons and is relational not magical.
10. The faith that heals is totally realistic and does not see disease as imaginary or to be ignored. Rather faith sees the whole of Reality - the person, the problem and the God who saves (and heals). Faith redefines Reality as including a loving, healing, kind and gracious God. My favourite verse on this is: (Romans 8:32 NASB) He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Reality includes a God who has already given us Jesus and with Him will give us "all things" including healing of body, mind and spirit. It can very difficult to grasp that Reality includes Jesus hence the "ye of little faith rebukes" e.g Peter on the water with Jesus. When the primary reality included a powerful Jesus then the wind was just a nuisance. When Peter "saw the wind" and Reality was what was in front of his nose and fear came in - Peter sank. Like Peter we sometimes get dunked learning faith.
11. Healing faith is often absolutely desperate and focussed. The Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:26-30) is a good example as is Blind Bartimaeus. (Mark 10:46-52) There seems to be a certain intensity to faith that breaks through and achieves things "the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much". (James 5:16 NKJV)
12. Faith is not a general thing. It is faith at various critical points and in various different situations. Like the disciples we can have strong faith in one situation and little faith in another. We can have faith for salvation but not for healing, or faith for healing but not faith for the Lord's supply. Our beliefs are complex and contradictory and contain both biblical faith and absolute unbelief. We can even simultaneously have faith and unbelief eg. the beliefs "I am sure God heals today" plus "but he wouldn't heal me, at least not now". Most unbelief is disguised as either "theology" or "common sense" or "what everyone thinks". Only a very small percentage of unbelief leaps out as "heresy" and it may even sound pious e.g. "I am unworthy to be healed" (did Jesus say that?) etc. Our beliefs are not just what we write in our bible college exams - they are what are written in our hearts - the things we say to ourselves about God, life, etc. We fence God out with our unbelief. His operation is "not here, not now, not in this dispensation, not me, only on the mission field etc". Nazareth saw few miracles because they thought "we know him and he is no Messiah." (Mark 6:1-6) These day to day ordinary whispers of our heart need to be repented of and rejected. I do NOT mean to imply that we have to get rid of all our wrong theology and unbelief before we can be healed. What we do have to do is get rid of our unbelief at that critical point e.g healing. We need to change "Jesus heals today but only emotionally and spiritually " to "Jesus heals the whole person body, mind and spirit today" OR "Jesus heals on the mission field but not here" to "Jesus heals everywhere and everyone, all who came to Him no matter how unworthy or of what race." It is having increasing faith and decreasing unbelief at the point of operation, the critical point that counts. Peter knew Jesus was the "son of the living God" but on the water it wasn't theology that kept him afloat but faith in Jesus in storms, faith to walk on water at that time. When that critical point was surrendered and "common-sense" took over Peter went under.

Reframing……

We need to reframe healing from a Kingdom perspective so that the question is not "Why isn't everyone healed?" but "How can we have the Kingdom out breaking with such intensity and power that everyone is healed." When the early Church saw incredible healings it was because they prayed from that faith framework. (Acts 4:29-31 NASB) "And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Thy bond-servants may speak Thy word with all confidence, {30} while Thou dost extend Thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Thy holy servant Jesus." {31} And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness…(Acts 5:12 NASB) And at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico. It is like getting a flat tire in a car. You can spend all your time arguing about the problem (how it got punctured) or you can ask "how do we fix it" (where's the spare etc). The second is a more constructive solution and puts you back on the road a lot faster. I don't know why so and so was not healed but I do know how to see much more healing than we are seeing. The practical question I ask is "How can I develop faith for healing and receive power and authority to heal?" and its natural extension "How can I develop a Spirit-filled community of believers that have faith for healing and who have received power and authority to heal? - through humble belief in the word of God and crying out to Him to endow us with this gift.