MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT DIVINE HEALING

Jesus always saw sickness as something to be healed. But the church today is doing something different. When it comes to healing the average church will ask the sick person. Did you call the doctor etc. But the Bible did not say when a believer is sick he or she is to call the doctor. The Bibles says we should call the elders and their prayer would heal us.

Whenever Jesus came across sickness His attitude was to heal it. (Matthew 4;23-25, 8:16,17, 9:35) Jesus had compassion on the sick. Just as we automatically have compassion on our own children when they are ill. It would be a most cruel and unusual parent that seeing one of their own children ill would think “This child should suffer some more in order to learn a lesson”. These natural instincts we have are part of the image of God in us and reflect the heart of God. All who came to Jesus for healing, were healed. None were told to wait until … (put whatever you like in the gap).

Jesus sometimes saw sickness as the direct work of the devil. There are verses in the Bible that prove how Jesus saw this. Sickness can come from the Devil in two main ways – as a direct attack on the life of a righteous person, permitted by God but not “God’s will”. The sickness of the woman bound in the spirit of infirmity (Luke 18:10-16) seem to be in this category. The devil came to kill, steal and to destroy. Sickness destroys therefore it cannot be from God. Jesus bore all our infirmities.

Jesus sometimes saw sickness as the direct result of sin. Throughout the Old and New Testament there has always been a strong connection between sin and sickness. Except for the book of Job and some cases of barren but righteous women there was an almost universal causal connection between the disruption of fellowship with God and bodily illness. This flows from the Bible’s view of the person as a whole being body-soul-spirit knitted into one with each part affecting the other. Consequently spiritual health can also impart physical health and quicken our mortal bodies. (Romans 8:11) There is no record of Jesus being ill, though He was mortal and human and subject to the normal exigencies of human flesh. This proves the perfection in which Jesus walked. Without sin and without sickness though He was in the form of Man.

While Jesus broadens the OT understanding so that not all sickness was due to sin he twice indicated that a person’s illness was based in prior sin. (Mark 2:5, John 5:14) Paul is more explicit about it in his writings to the Corinthians who had a strong triumphalistic streak. He indicated that sickness could be the result of Church discipline for gross immorality – “handing someone over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh..” (1 Corinthians 5:1-5) . The abuse of the Lord’s supper was also seen to result in physical illness (1 Corinthians 11: 28-32).

In extreme cases sin may even result in physical death. ( 1 Corinthians 11:30; Acts 5:5-10; Romans 1:26-28). The normal aim of such illness is repentance and the soul being saved on the day of salvation. (1 Cor 5:1-5; 11:28-32). Thus it is wise for the person seeking healing to confess any known sin and to get right with God before prayer is administered. This naturally leads to the question Should we heal someone that the Lord is chastening?

The answer to this is simple. If they turn to God in their illness and submit themselves to the elders of the church, confessing their sins and asking for healing (as in James 5) then the chastening has done the work of leading them to repentance and we should heal them. Thus there is no contradiction between “healing all who ASK for it” and allowing the Lord to chasten people unto repentance. The very act of asking is a sign of seeking God. Later we will cover how to help people when repentance is needed prior to healing. While Jesus and the apostles acknowledged a connection between sin and physical illness they never blamed anyone for being ill (or even lacking faith in their healing) but rather always sought to heal them.

Jesus often drew a direct connection between faith and healing.
Healing is a manifestation of the kingdom of God in our mortal bodies and I think a pre-figurement of the resurrection. Like all Kingdom realities healing is received by faith. Jesus explicitly acknowledges this in Matt 8:10, 9:28,29; 15:28; Mark 2:5; 9:24; 10:52 and the parallel passages.

Jesus saw healing as one of the signs of the Presence of the Kingdom
In Matt 4:23, 9:35, and Luke 9:11 healing and the preaching of the Kingdom are tied together In Jesus ministry. The ministry of the disciples(the 12 and the 70) is to have both aspects the Kingdom proclamation and the demonstration of Kingdom power (Matt 10:7,8, Luke 9:2). Luke 10:9 is quite explicit (Luke 10:9 NKJV) “And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ In Matt 12:28, Jesus associates exorcism in His name with the Presence of the Kingdom (Matthew 12:28 NKJV) “

How Jesus saw sickness is not the same as we do now. If the Church is going to take over the world we have to be healers and people of faith. Our healing methods should be better than that of the Hospital. We know of accounts of Smith Wigglesworth and the other men of faith. This power is for us today so let us take hold of it in Jesus name