Mainpage
Healing

 

 

 

 

 

 



Take hold of eternal life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 






 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus is the way,
 the truth, and the life

 

 

Chapter 5 -

Receiving healing

 

 

 

 

As the subject in the previous chapter was that the will of God is to heal people and the fact that the congregation has been given this gift, the subject of this chapter is receiving healing. The purpose is explain this issue, what do the promises of God mean, and what matters generally should be considered. Even though we cannot determine when healing will take place - in a minute, in a day or in a month -  it is worthwhile to search and examine the promises of God regarding this issue, because many may have been healed simply by faith and by hearing or reading the message. They may have been healed merely by reading about the promises of healing from the Bible or hearing a sermon or by seeing others being healed. Good examples are the following cases:

 

Their activity in Bradford was successful, and they had to rent larger and larger assembly rooms. Finally, they got a fairly spacious building on Bowland Street. A picture of a scroll was drawn behind the pulpit on the wall with the following letters on it: "I am the Lord, who heals you." Over the years, many shared how they had been healed by the inspiration they got from those words. (1)

 

Almost daily, we get to hear in our awakening meetings testimonies about how the Lord has healed sick people when they were sitting in their chairs and listening to the Gospel. (…)

It is the Word of God that creates faith in healing. We have had the joy of witnessing hundreds of people being healed when they have listened to the truth of God regarding healing. Others have been healed after reading our printed instructions that answered their questions and removed the barriers to their faith. (2)

 

On our Gospel crusades around the world, I have seen tens of thousands of people who have suffered from illnesses being completely healed in our meetings while listening to the sermon.

   The preached word always bears faith when it is received in faith. (3)

 

One time, we arranged a series of meetings in a vacation area. The last evening many had high faith in God because they had seen miracles take place all week. That evening, the Holy Spirit whispered quietly to me, "Let them know that this evening all people who are sitting in wheelchairs will rise and start to walk!"

When I KNOW that I have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, I become very enthusiastic. Therefore, I told the hearers in advance what would take place. When the Holy Spirit told me "Now!", I simply said, "I command each wheelchair patient to rise right now and to walk here to the front of the hall in the name of Jesus!"

  The next sixty seconds were probably the longest sixty seconds of my life because nobody moved! Finally, when to me it felt like an hour had passed, a woman who sat in a wheelchair closest to the stage rose and started to walk towards us. She had taken only two or three steps when faith arose in the man who was sitting behind her, and he also rose and started to walk!

   One after another all those who had sat in wheelchairs rose and started to walk that evening, seven people in all! Then a young girl who had foot supports came to us. When Charles and I laid our hands on her, her mother took the supports off and the girl started to walk normally!

   When we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we will get to see many exciting things happen, for example, a whole series of miracles! Hallelujah! (…)

   This was the crippled child who had never before walked without foot supports!

The gift of faith was not only given, but ALL also received it! (4)

 

FACT, FAITH, AND EMOTION

 

When seeking healing, it is good to remember that there are three things that are closely connected together: fact, faith, and emotion. If these are not put in the right order, the outcome is usually stumbling, as the next example told by Watchman Nee shows. Stumbling can take place especially when faith starts to follow emotion paying no heed to the preceding fact:

 

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor 5:7). Perhaps you know the story of fact, faith, and experience walking high up on a wall. Fact went faithfully forward, not looking right, left, or behind. Faith followed, and all went well, as long as faith fixed his eyes on fact. But when faith turned around and looked to see if experience was following, it stumbled and dropped from the wall together with poor old experience. (5)

 

1. Fact

 

- (Matt 4:7) Jesus said to him, It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

 

- (1 John 2:14) I have written to you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God stays in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

 

The first phase in seeking healing is fact, which naturally means the word of God. From the Word, we can search for the promises of healing and what Jesus has done for us. For the word of God, which is the truth (John 17:17: Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth.), is the most important criterion in this area and we should agree with it. It is difficult to believe in healing and to expect it if there is no foundation for it. Only from the word of the Bible and from its many promises can we find this foundation.

   Therefore, the next verses speak of faith and how it comes from hearing and through the word of Christ. It is a question of saving but also of healing, because also here our faith can increase when reading promises from the word of God:

 

- (Rom 10:14,17) How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

17  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

 

Some of the facts concerning healing were already mentioned in the previous chapter. The most important of them is the fact that in addition to our sins,  Jesus carried our illnesses on the cross and by his wounds we can be healed:

 

- (Isa 53:4) Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

 

- (Isa 53:5) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed.

 

- (Isa 53:10) Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

 

- (Matt 8:16-17) When the even was come, they brought to him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:

17  That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.

 

- (1 Peter 2:24) Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live to righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.

 

Another as important matter in healing is that the will of God is to heal the sick. For as Jesus, who is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8), wanted to heal sick people on Earth, we can expect this from Him also now. We must only turn to Him and to expect it from Him just as the people expected it in His time:

 

- (Matt 8:5-7) And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came to him a centurion, beseeching him,

6  And saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

7  And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him.

 

- (Mark 1:40-42) And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying to him, If you will, you can make me clean.

41  And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and said to him, I will; be you clean.

42  And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.

 

2. Faith

 

The second important factor when searching for healing is faith. Faith should be based on the fact above: the Lord is our healer (Ex. 15:26) and on other healing promises found in the Bible.

   Generally, problems occur when we overlook the facts, or the word, and start to look at ourself - "Do I have enough faith?" - or wonder whether any improvement has occurred. In other words, we may continue to study the third phase, emotion and healing, even though we should keep to the facts written in the Bible.

   In any case, when God answers to our faith in the area of healing as well, it is important to understand fully what it is and what it is not. For instance:

 

The opposite of emotions and seeing

 

- (Hebr 11:1) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

 

- (2 Cor 5:7) For we walk by faith, not by sight.

 

Firstly, it is good to understand that faith is always the opposite of emotion and seeing. They can never be simultaneously valid, as the verses above indicate. Faith is not needed when something has changed into seeing and emotion; faith is needed when emotions and symptoms indicate just the opposite. We should, therefore, understand that they are always opposites and this is how it should be when we are seeking healing.

   A good example of this is "the father of faith", Abraham. He did not pay any attention to his body, which was deteriorating all the time, and neither did he pay attention to Sarah, whose womb was already dead. Instead, he paid attention to the stars and the promise of God therein.

   In the same way, if we are seeking for healing now, we should not pay attention to our five senses and emotions, but to the word of God. If we do this, we can surely expect more healing from God:

 

 - (Gen 15:5,6) And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said to him, So shall your seed be.

6  And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.He took him outside and said,

 

- (Rom 4:18-19) Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall your seed be.

19  And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:

 

No effort

 

The second point that is important to understand about faith, is that it is not about effort, work, and squeezing faith from ourselves: it is receiving. When through Jesus healing has already been earned, there is no need to try and earn it or work for it: we can just receive it. It is a like a gift: if we do not reject it but agree to receive it, it will be given to us. It is true that we can never know when healing will come, but we can receive this gift from God because of the fulfilled work of Jesus:

 

- (John 19:30) When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

 

The promises of God

 

The third important point is that we cannot trust our own prospects, but God and Jesus who will keep their promises. We trust, for example, in the coming of Jesus, or that He is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), and the same goes for healing: we also believe that the will of God is to heal people because His word says so.

   Healing is also very similar to a mother promising her little girl a new coat and the girl rejoicing over it already before the fact. She is happy about the coat even before they actually go shopping, because she deems her mother's promise reliable and has no doubt. Therefore, she believes, in the same way as we can believe the word of God and His promises also as comes to healing:

 

One person who didn't understand faith, told me, "It looks like I don't have enough faith to be healed." I asked, "Do you trust God to keep His promises to you?"

   "Of course," he assured.

   "It is faith," I assured him and added, "Isn't it simple?" And so he was healed. (6)

 

 - (Gen 15:5,6) And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said to him, So shall your seed be.

6  And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.He took him outside and said,

 

- (Num 23:19) God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

 

- (1 King 8:56) Blessed be the LORD, that has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.

 

- (Acts 27:25) Why, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.

 

- (Rom 4:20,21) He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

 

- (Hebr 11:11) Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

 

- (Gal 3:6) Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

 

3. Emotion or healing

 

As mentioned above, the third phase when seeking for healing is emotion. In this phase, we are dependent on God, knowing that we can never determine the moment of healing. Sometimes healing may take a day, sometimes a week, sometimes a month or longer.

   It is good to notice that Abraham did not either receive the promise of God immediately: he had to wait for it for a some time. However, he finally got what had been promised:

 

- (Hebr 6:13-15) For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,

14  Saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.

15  And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

 

DO NOT LOOK AT YOURSELF!

 

When we want to receive healing, it is important that we do not look at our symptoms and at ourselves - the same goes for salvation. Very often, we observe ourselves and our emotions instead of always throwing "the anchor of the ship" to Christ, to His fulfilled work and to His promises. If the latter does not take place, it is impossible for us to believe in the promises of the Word as comes to healing and salvation.

   What then can help us with self-observation? There is no other means than to turn our heart again to Jesus Christ and recognize what He has done for us. We should keep in mind that when Moses made the bronze snake in the desert, people had to look at it in order to be healed from snakebites. They were not able to simultaneously look at their symptoms; they only looked at the bronze snake and they were healed.

   Therefore, when we look at "the serpent" of the New Covenant (John 3:14-15) or Jesus Christ, we can also expect to be healed. It may take a while for healing to occur, but it will occur, if we have given up our life to Christ and look at Him as our healer:

 

- (Num 21:9) And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it on a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

 

This same issue is well illustrated by the two examples below. They show how healing can come when it is expected from God:

 

Linda Graaf-Bergling: I remember suffering from a rheumatic ache for many years. Occasionally, it was so hard for me that I couldn't rise from the chair I was sitting on. My knees and arms swelled so that I could hardly walk. I experienced such continuous and wasting pain, and often I had to fight against melancholy and worry. 

   This was about seven years ago. I had started to get some teaching about how through faith I can receive the healing on grounds of what Jesus already has done for me on the Calvary. I remember the moment when I knelt and received the healing power of God. I didn't feel anything in my body. The ache was still there. The devil laughed at me and brought to my mind all kinds of pictures he had invented from my illness. He wanted to steal the assurance of my heart of healing. But I turned my eyes away from the symptoms. With the mind's eye, I formed a new picture concerning the future instead of the picture of illness. I saw myself healthy. I said to myself when the pain came back, "The power of God affects in me. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead and that is stronger than the power of the illness." When I praised and thanked God for my healing - which I have not yet experienced - health was slowly but surely freed in my body. I was already healed IN MY HEART, even though there were still symptoms in my body. Inside, I saw the promises of God as if fulfilled. I don't even remember exactly the day when all the symptoms were gone and I had completely recovered. (7)

 

Joyce Meyer: One day, when I was reading a book on my bed, a sudden pain struck my foot. I have an inflamed bunion, and now and then it starts acting up. When the pain struck my foot I said, "I scold this pain in the name of Jesus. Through his wounds, I have been healed. Through the power of his blood, I have been made healthy and I don't have this pain."

   Another wave of pain immediately struck my foot and I said again, "In the name of Jesus, I have been healed and I am healthy."

   It was like a duel. I quoted something positive from the word of God, and the pain struck again after it. I thought to myself, "I don't care even if I have to lay here all day long repeating these words, for in any case I am going to win."

   Then I said aloud, "I have healed through the wounds of Jesus. This pain must end."

   I lay on my bed and whenever the pain struck, I struck Satan with the word of God. Quite soon the pain ended, and I was fully in peace for the rest of the day. (8)

 

EXPECT HEALING!

 

When we are seeking for healing, it is important to expect it as well. Because if we pray for healing never expecting anything to happen, is there no sense in praying? Are we not just saying the words in vain?

   Let's study this issue in the light of the next examples. These two examples - "Receiving the seed of healing" and "Health to a man's whole body"  show how after receiving healing, there can be a time of waiting that God alone knows:

 

Receiving the seed of healing

 

- (Luke 8:11) Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

 

- (Ps 107:20) He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

 

Firstly, a good way to describe how healing can be delayed, is by a woman receiving a seed from a man to her ovum. Even though she receives this seed and is expecting a baby, she cannot tell when the baby will actually be born. However, normally she believes strongly that one day the child will be born and that her belief will change into seeing, even though she does not know the exact moment. Also, she may already in advance rejoice over this matter and be grateful.

   One good example of this kind of an attitude is Mary. She too rejoiced in advance and thanked God for making the promised issue true. She deemed it a sure thing and glorified God for it:

 

- (Luke 2:19) But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

 

- (Luke 1:45,46) And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

46  And Mary said, My soul does magnify the Lord,

 

Therefore, when you receive "the seed of healing", hold onto it and expect for it to "be born" and produce fruit at some moment in the future. Wait for it to come out some day that only God knows.

 

Health to a man's whole body

 

In the previous paragraph, we talked about how a seed can have its own time of germination before anything is produced. The same also applied when we have taken ordinary medicine. It will take some time for the medicine to penetrate our body and have an effect on us.

   The word of God can also be this kind of "medicine" or "health to a man's whole body". When it is received, the duration of action can vary. Sometimes healing takes place quite soon and sometimes after a longer time. However, if this medicine has been received, we can have faith in its effects:

 

- (Pro 4:20-22) My son, attend to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

21  Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the middle of your heart.

22  For they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

 

When it is a question of the ten lepers, "the medicine" didn't heal either them immediately at that moment, but they went away as lepers and were cleansed only after a while. Their health was not restored immediately, but later:

 

- (Luke 17:12-14) And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

13  And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

14  And when he saw them, he said to them, Go show yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

 

THE MEANS AND THE TIME OF THE HEALING

 

Expecting healing can be compared to a seed that has been planted but cannot be immediately harvested.

  It is a bit like planting a potato into the ground: the potato will not grow in a moment, it takes a few weeks. During this time, we can do nothing but wait  that "God that gives the increase" (1 Cor 3:7) will bring about the fruit.

   On the other hand, when we receive "the seed of healing" from God, we can use different kinds of means to assist us in receiving healing. When we study the texts of the New Testament, we can see that these aids of healing were laying hands on people, anointing with oil, and using prayer linen. All of these were used to help people heal:

 

- (Mark 6:5) And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands on a few sick folk, and healed them.

 

- (Luke 4:40) Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.

 

- (Mark 16:17,18) And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

 

- (Mark 6:12,13) And they went out, and preached that men should repent.

13  And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.

 

- (Jam 5:14,15) Is any sick among you? 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:

15  And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

 

- (Acts 19:11,12) And God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul:

12  So that from his body were brought to the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

 

It is important to realize that each of us can use these same means. We can lay your hand on the sick point or anoint it with oil, because God does not show favouritism (Romans 2:11). If you therefore do this, you can observe the point in time when you believe to have received "the seed of healing".

   The next quote proves well how many have received healing later:

 

I often encourage people to look at their watch when I lay my hands on them, no matter what they feel at the moment, and to believe that they have received. I have seen how people have been healed from long-term cancer and other difficult illnesses. Even though they may not have felt anything at that moment, they have simply looked at their watch and said, "Praise to the Lord, I receive my healing at this instant." And later, the healing appeared also in their bodies. (9)

 

YOU CAN ALSO THANK!

 

When we receive something from God, we should thank Him for all that we receive from Him - also when we have not yet received it concretely; like the child who rejoices and thanks in advance for a coat that her mother has promised her. She rejoices over it, because she deems the word of her mother reliable and does not doubt it at all. That is why she can also thank her mother in advance for what has already been promised to her.

   However, it is important to note that there is no power in our words by themselves and we cannot earn anything but we thank because we deem the promises of God reliable. It is actually a question of repeating what God says in His word. We confirm it with our words:

 

- (Ps 107:20) He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

 

- (Ps 103:1-3) Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3  Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases;

 

Thanks can also be compared to how God changed Abram's name to Abraham - in other words the father of many nations - already long before Sarah was pregnant and before there was any hope of descendants. Abraham received this name when the promise had not yet been fulfilled in practice.

   So, you too can in a way "change your name": rejoice and thank God already before healing has taken place. You can see yourself as healthy (for example running) and thank God that this really will come true. It is true that we cannot always know the precise moment of healing, such as Abraham did not, in the beginning, know the moment when Isaac would finally be born:

 

- (Gen 17:5) Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jari Iivanainen




shopify analytics ecommerce