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CHAPTER THREE
What Is Healing
Believers today are an extension of the ministry of Jesus. Just as He invested His love and power in His first century disciples, so has He invested His power and His love in us, His disciples of today. We must know how Jesus worked so that we can imitate Him. He said: “. . . He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” John 14:12;
As if these words of Scripture were not astounding enough, Jesus then added: “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:13-14;
The key to healings in Jesus’ ministry was in the relationship He had with His Father. Jesus repeatedly made statements like: “. . .the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” John 5:19;
During His earthly ministry, Jesus was utterly dependent on His relationship with the Father. He instructed the disciples (that’s us), that they were also to be dependent on a relationship with another helper, the Holy Spirit. “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.” John 14:16;
The Father showed Jesus how to minister to sick people. In the same way, the Holy Spirit will teach us all things. The Holy Spirit will remind us about how Jesus ministered. Believers today are to be just as dependent on the Holy Spirit as Jesus was dependent on His Father. This dependence is maintained by reading the Word and listening to the urgings in our heart and by seeking direction from the Holy Spirit.
Jesus used different methods to heal the sick, one of them being through touch. This is the account that Mark gives in the book of Mark. “Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If you are willing, You can make me clean.’ Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed [healed].” Mark 1:40-42;
Just as Jesus touched the sick, we touch them in His name. He said, “…if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in Heaven” (Matthew 18:19). And He stated further, “They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” Mark 16:18;
I must admit to you that at first this did not make much sense to me. I reasoned, “I am a believer in Jesus Christ, but what good would it do for me to lay my hands on someone. After all, there is no healing power in my hands, so how would such an act help a sick person. Then God showed me, that all I am is a vessel, an extension of Jesus Himself through whom anointing to heal could flow. Then He showed me it could be done by praying for and seeing tumors removed, fevers taken away, and other diseases healed in His name by the laying on of hands and the anointing with oil.
To my human logic, it seemed strange at first to lay hands on a sick person, but when you begin to operate in the realm of the supernatural you stop operating by human logic. I Corinthians 2:14 says “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned.”
In obedience to the command of Jesus, I have laid my
hands on the sick. My natural mind may not comprehend God’s method of healing a sick person, I just know that when I act in obedience to the command of Jesus, His healing power is released and the rest is up to Him. When you are a follower of Jesus, you can lay hands on the sick and see them healed. The early apostles continued ministering by laying hands on the sick.
Today, every believer can do it because Jesus said, “They will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” Mark 16:18; Further He said, “. . . he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do.” John 14:12; Matthew said, “And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all.” Matthew 12:15; and Mark said, “And when they {Jesus and His disciples} came out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, ran through that whole surrounding region, and began to carry about on beds those who were sick to wherever they heard He was. Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the market places, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well.” Mark 6:54-56;
Luke who was a doctor also reported the healings of Jesus, “. . . Jesus of Nazareth . . . went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. . .” Acts 10:38;
Now, folks, I do not want you to think that every sick person was healed through Jesus’ ministry. Some thought that Jesus was an agent of the devil. Others hated Jesus because He disregarded the traditions of the Pharisees, the most powerful sect at that time. There were many sick people who did not even approach Jesus. Nowhere in the scriptures do we find that all the doubters and the unbelievers were healed. Jesus healed those who came to Him in faith, believing God and believing His Word.
His Word is clear: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” Mark 9:23; “And as many as touched Him were made well.” Mark 6:56;
The same holds true today. Some people would say, “If you believe in healing, why don’t you go to the hospitals and just heal everybody?” Well, when we study the ministry of Jesus, we notice the He did not heal everybody in Israel. The reason was, they were so bound by their traditions and religiosity that they were completely unwilling to receive from Jesus. In fact, the Bible states that when Jesus came to Nazareth, He could not do any mighty work there because of their unbelief. The Word says that He healed only a few minor illnesses.
Yes, I know Jesus can do anything but He has chosen to limit Himself. It is the law of God that He not honor unbelief. Nowhere in history is there an example of God rewarding doubt and unbelief. Just as God has ordained the law of gravity and any other natural law, He has ordained the law of faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6;
As you have been reading this, I pray that faith has welled up in your soul to believe that God can and will heal you. Do not let unbelief rob you of God’s best for you. You are able to receive from God. That is what healing is about. Receiving from God. I’m not talking about a mental assent either; I’m talking about something that has been birthed in your spirit to receive from Him anytime.
The faith I am talking about is the kind of faith God births in your spirit and allows you to access His miraculous resources which are deeper than one can know. It is a gift from God that you receive as you continually expose yourself to the Word. Paul put it this way. . . “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8; Faith is not of yourself. It is not something that you produce from your own efforts or intellectual study; it is a gift from God. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17;
So, when you open your mind and heart and study to receive God’s Word, God deposits the gift of faith in your spirit. Then it is no longer your own faith, but rather it is the faith of Jesus that surges through your inner man, moving and energizing your spirit. You are operating in His faith. Another translation of the Scripture verse which says, “Have faith in God,” is actually, “Have God’s faith” Mark 11:22;
We are not motivated by our own ability. We cannot work ourselves into a state of expectancy and faith. We are motivated by the very faith of God, the faith by which the world was made. Whenever people’s hearts were filled with real faith, the results were astounding, as we read in the gospel of Matthew: “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” Matthew 4:23;
Notice how the word ‘all’ is consistently repeated in this scripture. He healed ‘all’ kinds of disease. This is Jesus the healer in action. He is unchanging! He desires to heal ‘all’ kinds of sickness, just as He did back then.
He healed to fulfill prophecy, He healed to destroy the works of the devil and He healed because of compassion.
Compassion was the motivating force that drove Jesus to heal the sick. It is the same today. The perfect love of Jesus is extended to us even today. His love removes tormenting fear and releases healing into sick bodies.
When I minister and pray for healing in others, I am overwhelmed with a love that transcends my own ability to have compassion. This is a work of the Holy Spirit who causes this love of God to be “Shed abroad in our hearts” Romans 5:5;
That’s what healing is!
That is the end of the chapter and if you continue on with chapter four, you will read about genuine examples of healing. I trust they will minister to you. Thanks for reading.
