One of the spiritual gifts I pray for often, or at least for an increase in the gift, is the gift of healing and the associated gift of miracles. There is much I don’t understand about healing but I am learning more and know that there will always be some mystery attached to the supernatural. If we are going to operate in the supernatural, we will have to be at peace with not knowing or understanding everything. I also know this: to move ahead in spiritual things we need to stand on what we do know rather than teetering on what we don’t know.

There is an older book by F.F. Bosworth entitled Christ the Healer that I would recommend to anyone who wants to increase their faith in God’s healing for today. I like Bosworth’s approach to the subject because he doesn’t appeal to experience for faith in healing but appeals to the Word of God. His position is that healing has always been a benefit of any covenant God has established with his people and once we are convinced of that by scripture, we will have faith for healing since faith comes by hearing the word.

Let me quote a few lines from Bosworth in regard to this position. I think it is compelling and helpful.

Is it still the will of God, as in the past, to heal all who have need of healing and to fulfill their number of days? The greatest barrier to the faith of many seeking bodily healing in our day is the uncertainty in their minds as to it being the will of God to heal all. Nearly everyone knows that God does heal some, but there is much in modern theology that keeps people from knowing what the Bible clearly teaches – that healing is provided for all. It is impossible to boldly claim, by faith, a blessing that we are not sure God offers.

The power of God can be claimed only when the will of God is known….Faith begins where the will of God is known. If it is God’s will to heal only some of those who need healing, then none have any basis for faith unless they have some special revelation that they are among the favored ones. Faith must rest on the will of God alone, not on our desires or wishes. Appropriating faith is not believing that God can, but that God will. Because of not knowing it to be a redemptive privilege for all, most of those in our day, when seeking healing, add to their petition the phrase, “If it be thy will.” (p.49-40).

Once we accept the position that we cannot have faith for what God does not promise all of his people, we are then compelled to dig through the Word to see if those promises are truly there for all of God’s people and, especially, for us. So, I want to begin that search in this blog and then continue it for another blog or two so that you may have a stronger foundation on which to stand if you are trying to believe God for healing.

Let me raise this question: What if healing is as much a promise of the gospel as the forgiveness of sins? When Jesus established “the Lord’s supper,” he offered two parts. One is found in the cup, which represents his blood. The blood of Christ brings forgiveness. The writer of Hebrews makes this point when he says, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb.9:22). At the first Passover, it was the blood of the lamb that was placed on the doors that released them from the judgment of God. So…the cup in communion represents his shed blood and that is what brings forgiveness of sins. So what is the bread for? What does the body of Christ, broken for us, bring to the table if the forgiveness of sins is already provided by the blood? Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet. 2:24 ). Jesus incurred wounds in his body that was broken for us. Why? So that we may be healed as well as forgiven.

Many will argue that the healing Peter speaks of is spiritual healing, not physical healing. Then why did Jesus heal everyone who came to him instead of simply taking away their emotional pain? Undoubtedly, one of his major goals is to take away emotional pain from his people since both Isaiah 61 and Luke 4 tell us that he came to heal the broken-hearted. But, he also came to heal bodies in bondage to disease and infirmity. In Luke 13, a woman came to Jesus who had been crippled with a bad back for nearly twenty years. Jesus healed her on the Sabbath and as the Pharisees objected he said, “Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” (Lk.13:16). Jesus spoke of physical infirmity as bondage and set her free. In Isaiah 61 and Luke 4, we are told that Messiah Jesus would not only came to heal broken hearts but also to set captives free.

In Psalm 103, David speaks of the benefits God provides for his people. He says, “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 and crowns you with love and compassion.” (Ps.103:2-4). Now, as Christians who live under an even better Covenant than David, we easily and quickly claim that God’s forgiveness is for all, along with his love and compassion and his involvement in our lives to pull us out of any pit. So…why do we exclude from that promise that God also heals all our diseases? Didn’t Jesus do both over and over again in his ministry as he preached the Kingdom of God and then demonstrated it?

In scripture, healing is a physical manifestation of forgiveness since sickness is part of the curse of the Law for those who are unforgiven. In Exodus 23, God tells Israel that when they serve him faithfully, “I will take sickness away from your midst and the number of your days will be fulfilled” (Ex. 23:25-26). A few chapters earlier, God had already revealed himself as Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals you. (Ex.15:26). If it is the name of God to heal, then it is the nature of God to heal. Jesus came as the exact representation of the Father and demonstrated his will to both forgive and heal over and over. So…why would God withdraw that covenant benefit from those who love him today and live under a better covenant – a covenant through which he gave gifts of healing to his church?

We will pick up on that thought in Part 2 in my next blog.