God and Healing
By Dennis Pollock
There was a time when healing was a hot and controversial subject in the church. Many Pentecostals and Charismatics were declaring that healing is "in the atonement" and insisting that every Christian should expect God to heal them of any and every physical affliction. Most people in the mainline church thought this was nonsense and considered ministers who focused on physical healing as little more than snake oil salesmen. Today that debate has cooled down considerably. Most charismatic and Pentecostal churches have ceased to emphasize the subject of healing, and instead focus on themes like "Success in Life," "Your Best Life," and "The 12 (or 10 or 5) principles to success, or happy families, or prosperity, or overcoming depression and anxiety.”
But healing and Christianity cannot easily be divorced. The reason is simple: healing is all over the Bible, and certainly was no small component of our Lord Jesus' ministry while here on the earth. Even in Moses' day, healing was declared to be a benefit of being God's covenant people. After encouraging Israel to obey His precepts and shun idolatry, God told Moses: "So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days" (Exodus 23:25-26).
This promise of healing to the people of God was not lost on David, who declared in the Psalms: "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:2-3). It is interesting that David linked forgiveness with healing, since when Jesus came onto this earth, He forgave sins and healed the sick. Could this be true today? Could Jesus still be the Healer of our bodies and the One who forgives our sins?
While Jesus was on the earth, He sent out His twelve disciples to go throughout Israel, ministering in His name. The Bible says: "And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease" (Matthew 10:1). Not only did Jesus give them this healing anointing, but He told them plainly what they were to do with it. He instructed His disciples: "And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:7-8).
The Master-Healer
Jesus, Himself, was the Master-Healer. Nowhere in the Biblical records of His life, do we find that He ever turned down anyone who came to Him for healing. His record was an astounding 100 percent. Multitudes came to Him for healing, and all were healed, nobody was ever told it was not God's will to heal them or an admission by Jesus that He couldn't quite make it happen. In Matthew we read: "And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all" (Matthew 12:15). And in Luke we are told: "And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all" (Luke 6:19).
Some may be tempted to say, "Well, sure, Jesus healed the sick. After all, He is the Son of God, so naturally miracles and healings followed Him wherever He went. But He is not here on earth now, so things are different." But we are told that after Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, He said of all who would follow Him: "…they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover" (Mark 16:18). This was surely true of those first disciples. It was said of Peter: "They brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also, a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed" (Acts 5:15-16). Paul's ministry was equally powerful. The Bible says: "Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them" (Acts 19:11-12).
What About Ordinary People?
You may be tempted to say, "Ok, I get that these mighty apostles had healing ministries, but Peter and Paul are long gone, and these are more ordinary times. We cannot expect miracles in our day!" But James says, "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. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up" (James 5:14-15). He does not say, "Let the sick call for Peter or Paul; he tells the sick to call for the elders of the church; ordinary believers and church leaders, people like you and me. And he declares that the "prayer of faith" of these ordinary elders and believers would "save the sick."
In one of Peter's sermons in the Book of Acts, he announced: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him" (Acts 10:38). So according to Peter, healing the sick is doing good, and sickness is in some form or fashion, an oppression of the devil. When Jesus was challenged by the leaders of Israel for healing on the Sabbath, He stated: "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day" (Luke 14:5)? Jesus felt that healing sick people was like pulling them out of a pit; the pit of sickness. And that surely must be a good thing!
I do not believe that those Bible days and these current days are all that different when it comes to God's ability and willingness to heal. But there are a few distinctions that must be made. First, it must be acknowledged that today, we see far fewer instant healings than in Bible times. Perhaps it is our lesser faith; perhaps our anointing is weaker, perhaps the spiritual healing climate is not as strong and rich as in the days when Jesus and the apostles walked the earth. Whatever the reason, often and usually when we pray for healing there is no immediate response from Heaven. We feel as sick and look as sick as we did before we prayed or were prayed for. But this does not mean that God has said "no" to our request. Keep in mind that Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." Often, we must fight the fight of faith over days or months, or even years. The Scriptures tell us that it is "through faith and patience" that we inherit God's promises.
Know the Scriptures
The important thing is that we study the Scriptures on this topic of healing, until we come to know that healing is a part of who God is. When we come before His throne, asking for healing, we are not requesting some strange thing God has never done. And it is important that we can quote the Scriptures to God as we pray in the name of Jesus, reminding Him (and more importantly reminding ourselves) that God is a healing God.
Sometimes God will heal us by giving us knowledge about our physical affliction. I have a YouTube channel that is all about healing, specifically the healing of diabetes. I do not hold huge rallies and lay my hands on diabetics. I do not shout and scream at the devil to take his hands off these diabetics. I sit down calmly at a table in front of a camera and instruct diabetics that they are poisoning themselves with sugar and carbohydrates, and I give them strategies to employ and a diet and pattern of eating to follow, that will help break the chains of diabetes off their lives. And we get thousands of testimonies from grateful men and women who tell me that their diabetes is gone, and their blood sugar levels have returned to normal, simply by applying a little wisdom to the way they eat.
There will be a time when God will not heal us. None of us are immortal; we will all come to the end of our lives at some point, and we will face that final physical weakness and sickness that will not go away. It will be God's time to take us home. If we have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have nothing to fear. At the age of 87, my dad became sick with the sickness that eventually led to his death. He told me at one point, "I just don't understand why the Lord doesn't heal me." But this was not the time for a temporary, physical healing. This was the time for Dad's complete healing. Because he had trusted in Jesus as His Savior, he passed out of this life and received the ultimate healing. He was taken to that place, which we call Heaven, where no sickness can ever afflict us again, that place of abundant joy, health, and peace, in the presence of the Father and of His Son, Jesus Christ. Dad got his healing after all, but not in this life.
And so can you. Give your life to Jesus. Believe that if He has for you to serve Him on this earth, He will be a healing Jesus. And know that when it is your time to go and be with Him, you will receive the greatest healing of all.
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