Healing for the Christian

by Billy Joe Daugherty

 

God Is the Healer

God revealed Himself to the people of Israel as a healer God, Jehovah Rapha. He promised to keep disease from them if they would obey His Word.
“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes. I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.” Exodus 15:26

Healing – One of God’s Benefits

God is a Father to His children. Because of His compassion for those He loves, He has made provision for their healing. This is one of the benefits of having a loving heavenly Father who cares for your every need. 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

Notice that forgiveness is one of God’s benefits. Both forgiveness and healing are placed together in this passage of Scripture. God is concerned about both your spiritual healing and your physical healing.

Messiah Suffers for Our Healing

The prophet Isaiah wrote about God’s suffering servant, the Messiah or Redeemer of Israel. He was writing about Jesus taking your punishment for your sins. Jesus suffered for you in every way you deserved to suffer: physically, mentally, and spiritually. He did it so you would not have to suffer these things. He was your substitute, your Savior.

The four Gospel writers tell you what they SAW and HEARD about he suffering of Christ. On the other hand, Isaiah tells you what was REVEALED to him by the Spirit of God concerning Christ’s sufferings: Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us
all. Isaiah 53:4-6

The two words “griefs” and “sorrows” in the first phrase of the passage could equally be translated “sicknesses” and “pains”. This will be clearer after reading Matthew 8:16-17. From these three verses you see the variety of things Jesus suffered as He took your place and God’s judgment for sin fell on Him.

He Took Our Infirmities and Bore Our Sicknesses

While Jesus walked the face of the earth, He ministered healing to every part of man. He cast out devils, healed the sick, forgave sins, and restored wholeness to those tormented by Satan. In recording these events, Matthew quoted from Isaiah 53:4 concerning the substitutionary work of Christ.
When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demonpossessed.

And he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying: “HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INIRMITIES AND BORE OUR SICKNESSES.” Matthew 8:16-17

Not only did He take your infirmities and bare all your sicknesses on the cross, but also during His ministry, He relieved people of infirmities and sicknesses. He did this in relation to sins also. Not only did he take your sins on the cross, but He also forgave men of their sins before the crucifixion.

Healed by His Stripes

Peter was a man who witnessed the mock trial of Jesus. He was well acquainted with the happenings on Calvary. He wrote about the effects that Jesus’ suffering would have on your life. he mentions both the spiritual and the physical results of Christ’s atonement: Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – BY WHOSE STRIPES YOU WERE HEALED. 1 Peter 2:24

The phrase, “By whose stripes you were healed,” is a direct reference to Isaiah 53:5. You remember that Jesus was scourged or whipped before His crucifixion (Mark 15:15). The physical punishment that He took was for your healing, for “by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). All the punishment Jesus received before and during the crucifixion was for your healing – spirit, soul, and body.

Satan Is the Author of Sickness and Disease

Before Adam’s sin in the garden, there was no sin or death in the earth. After his disobedience, sin and death with all of their evil companions (hatred, bitterness, jealousy, sickness, disease, torment) entered into the world (Romans 5:12).

Jesus was sent to establish the wholeness that man had before the fall. He was the Redeemer, the One sent to buy you back from the dominion of Satan. Jesus loosed the people who were captive to Satan’s devices. He healed the sick, delivered the oppressed, opened prison doors, and preached the good news.

How 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

This scripture, as well as all four Gospels, clearly reveals that the devil oppresses people with sickness, and Jesus heals people who are sick. Never confuse these two. God desires an abundant life for you, and the devil wants to steal, to kill, and to destroy(John 10:10).

God Wants Us in Health

“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2). God is interested in your health spiritually and
physically. he wants your body to be just as free from Satan’s influence as He does your heart. “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:10). Not only are you to live a holy and pure life in your body, but also it is possible for you to live in health. You have been bought with the blood of Christ. The price has been paid for spiritual and physical health.

Redeemed from the Curse

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:13-14

There was a curse pronounced upon those who would not keep God’s laws (Deuteronomy 18:15-68). This curse generally included poverty, sickness, and death. Since all men were sinners, there was no man who could fully keep all God’s laws (Romans 3:34). Jesus entered the earth as a man and lived His life without sin. As He hung on the cross, He was actually made to be a curse for you as your substitute. He took the curse you deserved. He took your poverty, your sickness, and your death (sin), so that you might receive the blessings God had promised to Abraham and those keeping His law. These include an abundant supply for every need in your life (Deuteronomy 28:1-14).

Jesus Is Still the Same

“ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). The reason Jesus healed people was because of His compassion. He saw their needs and met them. He is still the same. His compassion has not stopped. He loves you just as much as He did those in the time of His earthly ministry. His power is not stopped just because He is no longer visibly in our midst. His power and effectiveness are even greater today because He can be present in all places at all times by His Spirit. “For his mercy endures forever” (Psalm 136).

Prayer of Faith – Anointing with Oil
We know from the book of Acts that the healing ministry of Christ did not stop with His death and resurrection. It continued through the twelve disciples and the other believers (Mark 16:15-19).

There were numerous ways in which people received healing under Jesus’ ministry. Today men can receive healing from the basis of numerous passages of scripture. These include: Mark 11:22-24, John 16:23-24, Matthew 18:18-20, Mark 16:18, James 5:14-15, Exodus 15:26, Psalm 103:3, 1 Peter 2:24, and Matthew 8:16-17.

One particularly important method is anointing with oil and praying the prayer of faith. It demonstrates to us that God’s power can be ministered by believers and thus shows that healing did not end when Christ died or when the apostles died. Healing is still provided for you today.

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. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. James 5:14-15