The Truth about Divine Healing

The source of all healings is God. God Himself revealed to His covenant people after He brought them out of Egypt that He is the Healer:

"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, NKJV, emphasis added).

In other words, God is not only the healer, He also controls diseases and healings. He puts diseases on people and takes away diseases. The conditions given by Him for living a disease-free life and receiving healing are:

1. Diligently heed the voice of the Lord.

2. Do what is right in His sight.

3. Obey and keep his commandments.

On the other hand, if God's covenant people refuse to do the above, then curses would come upon them:

"But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you" (Deu. 28:15).

The list of curses includes consumption or wasting disease, severe burning fever and inflammation(V22); incurable boils, tumours, scabs or festering sores and incurable itch (V27,35); blindness (V28); extraordinary, fearful, prolonged plagues, serious and prolonged sicknesses or severe and lingering diseases (V59); and every other kind of sickness and plague (V61).

These curses become hindrances to Divine healing. However, by God's mercy a way was made possible for the release of these curses - by the divine exchage of what Jesus has done on the cross. The most complete account of what was accomplished at the cross was given through the the prophet Isaiah seven hundred years before it actually took place (Isaiah 53).

Jesus the Healer

God's healing nature was manifested on earth in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Peter said, "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).

Notice that all three Persons of the Godhead are mentioned here. The implication is that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are united in the ministry of healing to sick humanity. Jesus has the power to heal because God is with Him and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. It is true that not all sicknesses are due to the oppression of the Devil, but Jesus heals all deseases and sicknesses including those brought about by the oppression of demons.

God makes healing available through His Word

The psalmist said, "Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions" (Psalm 107:17 - 20, emphasis added).

The psalmist gives us a picture of men so desperately sick that they have lost all appetite for food and are lying right at death's door. In their extremity they cried out to the Lord, and He sent them His Word to heal them and delivered them from death.

The truth of physical healing through God's Word is even more fully stated in Proverbs, where God says:

"My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh" (Proverbs 4:20,21,22).

Notice the all-inclusive promise of physical health and healing. The conditions of receiving the promise are fourfold:

1. Give attention to God's Word. As we read God's Word, we need to give it close and careful attention. We need to forcus our understanding upon it. We need to give it free, unhindered access to our whole inward being.

2. Incline our ear to God's Word. The inclined ear indicates humility. It is the opposite of being proud and stiff-necked. We must be teachable. We must be willing to let God teach us.

3. Not to let the Word depart from our eyes. We must keep both eyes fixed unwaveringly on the Lord's promise. We must not be doubtful, double-minded or waver in our faith (James 1:6 - 8).

4. Keep God's Word in the midst of our heart. The heart has decisive influence in human experience. In other words, what is in our hearts controls the whole course of our lives and all that we experience. God's Word in our heart gives life to our souls and health to our flesh.

An important truth is that not all Christians receive divine healing. This remains a secret, known only to God and not revealed to man.

"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deu. 29:29).

God wants us to concern ourselves only with those things which are revealed in God's Word. These belong to us and to our children forever; they are our heritage as believers. And they belong to us "that we may do them" - We may act upon them in faith. When we do, we prove them true in our experience.

"Gift of healing?"

You often hear people talk about someone having the gift of healing. This makes it appear that God has given this person a supernatural ability to heal the sick. It seems then that whoever this person prays for ought to be healed. Whoever is not healed it is assumed to be the result of the lack of faith of the person prayed for! This belief is not biblical.

There is no such thing as the gift of healing! The Bible does not mention any such gift given to a person. Read 1 Cor. 12 carefully you will notice that Paul wrote about "gifts of healings" ministered by the same Holy Spirit who ministers other gifts also (1 Cor.12:9). Each healing is a separate and individual gift given by God. The healing itself is a gift! Therefore through a certain Christian at a certain time, God sovereignly produces different kinds of healing according to His own wisdom and will.

Some of the healings from Paul's ministry may fall into this category. The healing of the crippled man in Lystra certainly was a sign to the people, and convinced them of the authority of the ones proclaiming the Gospel (Act 14:8 - 11).

"Healing Ministry" carried too far

There is a woman pastor ministering in a small town in Malaysia. She claims to have an effective healing ministry. Her husband died of cancer some years ago. She was involved in the occult and suffered the same illness. Finally she received Christ, and instantly received divine healing. She built herself a ministry to preach divine healing at her "Prayer and healing" centre immediately. She said God uses her mightily to heal the sick. Soon she was overcome with pride and started to preach against doctors and medicines. Christains heard her said in some of her nightly meetings that medicines are of the Devil and everyone she prayed for must not take medicines any more. If what she said is true, then the logical conclusion is, if medicines are of the Devil than all doctors are working for the Devil! Deception! It follows that it was evil for Paul to give advice to Timothy to drink wine because of his frequent infirmities (1 Tim. 5:23)! It must also be evil for Isaiah to give advice to king Hezekiah to use "a lump of figs" to heal his boil (Isaiah 38:21)!

The place of doctors and medicines in healing the sick

James said, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning" (James 1:17, emphasis added).

We all know that medical help is a gift of God and it does accomplish good for suffering humanity. In my opinion, if divine healing is the perfect gift from God, then medical knowledge is a good gift from the same God! We need to receive all gifts that God has to offer.
No one knows when natural healing and when divine healing would come about. Only God knows. I do not think it matters. Both healing actions are gifts from God Himself!