Is healing the will of God?
Most definitely! In the Old Testament, God reveals himself as Jehovah Rophe; the Lord who heals. He said to Israel: “If you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and obey it, and do what is right, then I will not make you suffer the diseases I sent on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.” (Exodus 15:26).
In the New Testament, God in Christ is also revealed as the healer of sicknesses and diseases. Peter recalls: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38).
Jesus himself says: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38). Therefore, since Jesus went about healing everybody, healing must be the will of God.
Tell the Lord: “Let your will be done in my life and in my body.”
Children’s Bread
Bread is a staple food. Some of us eat bread everyday. It is significant, therefore, that Jesus describes healing as “the children’s bread.” When someone outside the commonwealth of Israel came to him to ask for healing for her daughter, Jesus replied: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” (Matthew 15:26).
Therefore, rest assured, healing is your portion as a child of God. God is not obligated to heal an unbeliever. He has no covenant with unbelievers. But healing is the entitlement of the believer. Jesus promises that one of the signs that will follow believers is that they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover:
“These signs will follow those who believe: In my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:17-18).
We can only give what we have received. If Jesus affirms we can heal the sick, then we have received healing. He says: “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8).
Healing Wings
God is a healer. He is a God of miracles. The greatest miracle of all is that of salvation. If the age of miracles were past, nobody would be saved today. Since the unsaved are healed spiritually today, then the sick are healed physically today. If healing were not the will of God, it would be a sin to go to the hospital if you were sick, or even take medicine. Going to the doctor or taking medicine would be acting contrary to the will of God.
If healing were not the will of God, then every doctor would be a law-breaker, every trained nurse in defiance of the Almighty, and every hospital would be a house of rebellion and not a house of mercy.
Balm of Gilead
But then this is the question. If healing is the will of God, why then do many sick Christians remain sick? If healing is the will of God, why are Christians still dying of sickness? God says: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6). He asks: “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” (Jeremiah 8:22).
The tragedy of the Christian life is that, in spite of there being balm in Gilead, (and God is that balm); many nevertheless remain in sickness. This is what happens when you sit under false teachers who nullify the effects of the word of God. Jesus told the Jewish establishment: “You have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. (Matthew 15:6). Others simply refuse to believe what the word of God promises.
Isaiah says of Jesus: “By his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5). But the devil uses the same trick he used to deceive Eve to deceive the children of God. He says to us: “Has God said that by the stripes of the Lord Jesus you were healed? You will surely not be healed.”
Respecter of Persons
While some believe God sometimes heals the sick, they doubt whether he will heal them. They seem to be waiting for a special revelation of the will of God to heal in their particular case. They say within themselves: “I know God heals. I have heard of so many people he has healed. But would God heal me? Would God also do it for me?”
Jesus already answered these questions conclusively in the scriptures: “Behold, a leper came and worshiped him, saying, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Then Jesus put out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” (Matthew 8:2-3).
Why don’t you doubt, by the same token, whether God will save you or not? Why not say: “If I give my life to Christ, will I be saved? I know Joseph is saved; I can see a transformation in his life. But what about me? Can I be saved?”
Peter says: God is not a respecter of persons: “God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” (Acts 10:34-35). Balaam is emphatic: “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19).
There is no example of anyone who came to Jesus for healing and was not healed. Jesus healed every sick person who approached him for healing: “All those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.” (Luke 4:40). “Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all. (Matthew 12:15). “The whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all. (Luke 6:19).
Jesus is Lord. He does not change: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8). If he healed them all yesterday, he heals them all today.
Brass Serpent
In the Old Testament, God asked those bitten by serpents to look at a brass serpent on a pole. Everyone who did was healed. The brass serpent is a type of Calvary where Jesus was lifted up on the cross. Since everyone who looked at the brazen serpent was healed, everyone who looks to Jesus can be healed today.
Jesus confirms this: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15).
The remedy yesterday was for everyone bitten to look at the brass serpent and be healed. The remedy today is for everyone who is sick and looks to Jesus for healing to be healed.
Receive your healing now; today!
Credit: Femi Aribisala