Healing - God's Will For You

It is essential to know God's Will is to heal you as the foundation of your FAITH. 

'If any lack wisdom (or healing), let him ask God, Who gives to all men liberally... and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith (believing God is a liberal giver), nothing wavering (not differing from believing this) For he who wavers (differs) is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.' (James 1:5-8). Many christians differ from the Word in not believing God's willingness to heal them. They are certain of God's willingness to save but not to heal. They are doubleminded-they hope God heals them but also look for reasons He won't. Their confidence flows in and out like the tide, depending on how they feel. We need to be stable with our heart established in the truth - GOD WANTS TO HEAL ME!

There is much unscriptural thinking- 'Maybe it's not God's will to heal me, He has a purpose in keeping me sick' This keeps people from their healing. It's unbelief in God's goodness. The traditions of man nullify the power of the Word. We must come to the Bible with no preconceptions to find God's will. God's will is not found from experiences. We must get God's will settled in our heart-that's when faith begins. Without this knowledge we won't have the confidence to come to God and receive our healing. (1John 5:14,15) 'Without faith it's impossible to please Him: for he who comes to God must believe that He is(a Healer), and that He is a rewarder (He is willing to release healing) to them that diligently seek Him.' (Hebrews 11:6). God knew the trouble we would have believing in Divine healing and so He gave a great number of proofs in scripture so that anyone who accepts the Bible can be convinced beyond doubt that HEALING IS FOR THEM.

I want to present 9 PROOFS that God wants to heal us. 

With so much unbelief about we need to be established in truth (a passing aquaintance is not enough) (2Peter 1:12, Heb 13:9)

*PROOF 1- CREATION God created man in His own image. Is God sick? No, He 's full of life and health. Even God had to say 'very good' about man's condition! If God wanted man sick t, He would have made him sick. Adam and Eve were created in health with no sickness. So in Eden when God's will was perfectly done there was no sickness.

*PROOF 2- IN HEAVEN, where God's perfect will is done, again there is no sickness,and no sick angels! 'God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,sorrow, crying,and no more pain: for the former things are passed away.' (Rev 21:2-4) We're to pray 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' God's will is done in heaven. This includes perfect health. God's will is often not seen on earth but our prayers can bring His will (health) to pass.

*PROOF 3 - SICKNESS IS NOT FROM GOD. He doesn't have any to give! Dowie said : 'Sickness is the foul offspring of it's father 'satan' and mother 'sin' ' Sickness came in when man sinned. Man turned from GOD Who is LIFE to satan who is DEATH and death came into man. Sickness comes through Adam's sin. Sickness is of death not of life. 'By one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death (sickness) by sin; and so death (sickness) passed upon all men, for all have sinned' (Rom 5:12) When man chose to sin the curse (sickness) came on him. God allowed it but it wasn't God's will (Deut 30:19) It's the result of man's sin.

I. GOD CALLS SICKNESS IS 'A CAPTIVITY' (of satan). 'So went Satan forth and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to his crown.' (Job 2:7) 'The LORD turned the CAPTIVITY of Job,when he prayed for his friends' (Job 42:10) 

Captivity could not be the will of God. God sent Jesus to bring 'deliverance to the captives (the sick)' (Lk 4:18)

II. GOD CALLS SICKNESS 'BONDAGE' (of satan). 'Ought not this woman,...whom satan has BOUND, these 18 years, be loosed from this bond?' (Lk13:16) 'When Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said, 'Woman, you're loosed from your infirmity.' (v12) Satan bound her, not God. God doesn't bind people but sets them free. Jesus didn't say: 'God did it to humble her or was using it to mysteriously work out His will.' He said 'satan bound her'. Jesus came to set us at liberty (Lk 4:18, Gal 5:1). He loosed her. 'Jesus said, 'I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life' (Jn 14:6) and 'You shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall set you FREE... If the SON shall set you FREE, you shall be FREE indeed.' (John 8:32,36) That includes freedom from sickness!

III. GOD CALLS SICKNESS 'OPPRESSION' (of satan) 

'God anointed Jesus... with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, HEALING ALL that were OPPRESSED of the devil;(not 'all who were blessed by the Father') for God was with him.' (Acts10:38) Here we see all sickness as an oppression of satan. If God's will was for them to be sick then Jesus would be working against God-but 'God was with him'. Jesus 'set at liberty those who were oppressed'. This was 'doing good'. It was God's will. He's the same today. 'For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil (sickness).' (1John 3:8) See also John 10:10.

*PROOF 4. GOD'S HEALING COVENANT. 

Having saved His people in the Exodus (a picture of our New Birth) the first thing God did was to establish A COVENANT OF HEALING with them:

'He made for them a statute and ordinance... 'If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, do what's right in His sight, give ear to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will 'put' (this can be translated in the permissive sense as 'allow') none of these diseases on you, which I have brought (allowed) on the Egyptians (due to their sin): for I AM THE LORD WHO HEALS YOU or 'I AM THE LORD YOUR HEALER').' (Exodus 15:25,26; see also 23:25). Here God revealed His will to heal His redeemed people. Why did He make this covenant? Why did He reveal Himself as their Healer? Because He wanted to heal them ! He had already shown them this by healing all of them in the Exodus (Psalm 105:37). Since He wanted them well He gave them the conditions under which His healing power could work. If He wanted and provided for his servants to be well in the Old Covenant, would He do any less for His sons under a new and better covenant? The condition now is primarily to obey the law of love, to walk in love,humility and forgiveness. If we don't forgive, we go against God's will and cut ourselves off from His healing power.

*PROOF 5. GOD'S NAME. When God said: 'I AM THE LORD THAT HEALS YOU.' (Ex 15:26) He was revealing His NAME. 'JEHOVAH (I am the Lord) ROPHE (your Healer)'. Healing is not just something God sometimes does, IT'S WHO HE IS. HEALER IS HIS NAME! His Name is His unchanging nature. 'Jehovah' = 'I AM THAT I AM' = the Eternal Unchanging One. Whatever joins it must be His essential nature. 'I am your Healer, I will be your Healer, that's who I am.' 'I am the Lord - I change not.' (Malachi 3:6). He is just as much our Healer now.

He has 8 such Covenant Names - Jehovah Shammah (The Lord is Present), Jehovah Shalom (The Lord my peace),Jehovah Rohi (The Lord my Shepherd), Jehovah Jireh (The Lord my Provider), Jehovah Nissi (My Victory), Jehovah Tsidkenu (Righteousness), Jehovah Makaddesh (Sanctifier) and Jehovah ROPHE (Healer). 

We do not doubt that He is still the first 7 - why think He is no longer the 8th - our Healer?

*PROOF 6 - GOD'S WORD HEALS. 'He sent His word,and it healed them' (Psalm 107:20). 'The words I speak to you, are spirit, and life.' (John 6:63). 'Man shall not live (get his physical life) by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.' (Matthew 4:4) God must want to heal you because He's already sent His healing word to you. His healing power is in His Word. He heals through His Word.

GOD'S WORD IS MEDICINE. 

'My son, attend to my words; incline your ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health (MEDICINE) to ALL their flesh.'(Proverbs 4:20-23) If a Doctor gives you medicine to heal you would you doubt that it's his will to heal? If we don't doubt a human doctor why should we doubt the willingness of the Great Physician to heal us? He has given us His medicine, now we must take it.

His Word works like medicine. Medicine implies a restorative process. 

These verses are the instructions on the bottle(eg;'take 3 times a day') 

-(1) It must be taken regularly (we don't stop antibiotics after 1 day - there's a build-up effect). 

-(2) It must be put in the mouth - confess the healing scriptures. 

-(3) Let it go down- receive (believe) the word. As we meditate and speak it, it goes down into our heart. 

-(4) Believe that the healing power in it is working in you (people believe they are getting better when they take medicine) Say:'God's healing power is working in me' 

-(5) Like a capsule,when inside, it explodes, releasing healing. God wants us well because He has given us His medicine for ALL OUR FLESH, but not all find it.

*PROOF 7 - GOD SAYS SO: 'Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and BE IN HEALTH, even as thy soul prospers.' (3John 2). 'Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities; who HEALS ALL your diseases' (Ps 103:3)

*PROOF 8. JESUS' MINISTRY SHOWS US GOD'S WILL. Jesus was the will of God in action. In him we see God's perfect will. 'I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.' (John 6:38) 'He who has seen me has seen the Father...the words I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father who dwells in me, He does the works.' (John14:9,10) 'I only do what I see my Father doing'  ALL THAT JESUS SAID and DID WAS A DIRECT REVELATION OF THE WILL OF GOD FOR ALL MEN FOR ALL TIMES. 

Therefore what we see Jesus doing in the Gospels is what God wants to do today. 

'God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power: who went about... HEALING ALL...for God was with him.' (Acts 10:38) 

'Jesus went about...healing ALL manner of sickness and ALL manner of disease among the people....they brought to him ALL sick people taken with divers diseases and torments, those possessed with devils, lunatic, and those with the palsy; and he healed them.' (Matt 4:23,24) 

'Jesus went about ALL the cities and villages....healing EVERY sickness and EVERY disease among the people.' (9:35) 

'Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them ALL' (12:15) 

(Also: Matthew 8:16,10:1,14:14,34-36; Luke 4:40, 6:17-19)

Incidents with the Epileptic (Mark 9:14-29) and at Nazareth (Mark 6:5) show that when there was apparent failure God still wanted to heal. Jesus never refused anyone in a crowd saying: 'It's God's will for you to be sick, it's for your good!' He healed indiscriminantly. He treated sickness as a curse not a blessing; he rebuked it just like he rebuked demons. He healed every kind of person, every kind of sickness, at every place and every time, he turned none away but healed them all. His time was always NOW not later. Thus he showed us God's perfect will. Healing was God's will then and God has not changed-He is still the Lord OUR HEALER! He wants to heal you!

PROOF 9 :GOD'S LOVE, MERCY and COMPASSION FOR US 

Many believe GOD IS ABLE to heal but are not sure GOD IS WILLING. A revelation of God's WILLINGNESS to bless and heal is based on His love, mercy and compassion. 

We need faith in God's love as well as His power. 

'God is LOVE' (1John 4:8) - it is His unchanging nature. 

'Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love.' (Jer 31:3) 

Does LOVE heal or make sick? Love comes in various forms : new birth for our spirit, forgiveness for our soul. Healing is God's love applied to our bodies. We must believe in God's love for us in order to receive it. He would prefer us to doubt his ability to heal than His willingness for that would be a lesser slur on His character.

'The LORD is GRACIOUS (disposed to show favors) and FULL OF COMPASSION ; slow to anger, and of GREAT MERCY. The LORD is GOOD to ALL: and His tender MERCIES are OVER ALL His works (including YOU).' (Ps 145:8,9).

COMPASSION and MERCY is to love tenderly, to pity, to be full of eager yearning. God's compassion yearns to heal, to relieve suffering, to meet the need. It starts in the heart and motivates us to action, to SHOW mercy. God's heart is FULL of compassion-imagine a cup full of water, if you touch it, it runs over. When you touch the Lord in faith His love overflows into your life. His love is like an ocean above your head, that wants to pour into you through any crack.

To say He wants to heal is an understatement -He is searching eagerly. 'The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong (as Healer, Saviour, Deliverer) in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him (looking to and trusting Him).' (2Chr 16:9) God actively looks for people He can bless! 'For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive and PLENTEOUS IN MERCY to ALL who call upon You.' (Ps 86:5).

'Who is a God like Thee, Who pardons iniquity,.. He DELIGHTS IN MERCY.' (Micah 7:18).  God shows many mercies. (2Cor 1:3).  One mercy is forgiveness, another is HEALING.  HEALING IS A MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S COMPASSION. 

HIS MERCY IS OVER US ALL.. HE EAGERLY DESIRES TO HEAL ALL.

We see God's compassion in Christ's healing ministry. In Christ we see a perfect picture of God's heart. He healed because of love, motivated (moved) by compassion. Jesus didn't heal just to prove Himself but from compassion. 'Jesus...saw a great multitude, and was MOVED WITH COMPASSION toward them, and he HEALED their sick.' (Matthew 14:14).  He is the same today. 'Jesus went about ....teaching ...and preaching...and healing every sickness and disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was MOVED WITH COMPASSION on them, for they fainted, and were scattered, as sheep with no shepherd.' (Matthw 9:35,36).  So Jesus sent out his disciples to heal the sick (9:37-10:8). Compassion caused him to reach out with God's power to meet people's need for healing. 

Clearly, HEALING IS A MERCY, a manifestation of God's compassion (Mark 5:19,20) Jesus proved God's will is to heal when: 'There came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down,and saying to him, 'If you WILL, you CAN make me clean.' (He believed in His power but doubted his willingness. Jesus now settled the issue for all, for God is no respecter of persons).

'Jesus, MOVED WITH COMPASSION, put forth his hand,and touched him, and said, 'I WILL' ('I really want to heal you'), 'be clean.' ...immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.' (Mark 1:40-43) 

This is what my God is like! He is full of love and wants to heal us. He does not change (Mal 3:6)

'Behold, 2 blind men...when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, 'HAVE MERCY ON US, O Lord, thou son of David.' and the multitude rebuked them, ... but they cried the more, saying, 'HAVE MERCY ON US, O Lord, thou son of David.' and Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, 'What (MERCY) do you want me to do for you? They said, 'Lord, that our eyes may be opened.' (They wanted the mercy of healing). So Jesus HAD COMPASSION ON THEM, and touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight' (Matthew 20:29-34). See also Mark10:52: 'Jesus said to him, 'Go thy way; your faith has made you whole.'  This story shows HEALING IS A MERCY as well as forgiveness (so you don't earn it) They asked for MERCY and got HEALING. Faith in God's mercy is important. One who doubts God's goodness can't receive from Him (Jam 1:5-7, Heb 11:6).  He believed God's mercy(healing) was for him. So he called upon it in faith and received it. (Psa 86:5, Rom 10:12-14) Christians do this for the mercy of forgiveness but as healing isn't preached so positively, we don't have the same confident faith for the mercy of healing. All accept that God wants to show the mercy of forgiveness to all. But healing is equally a mercy in the Bible. So, God wants to heal all.

Christ's compassion led him to the cross where he died for our sins and sicknesses. 

He has the same Compassion now. 

'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.' (Heb 13:8) 

'Seeing we have a great High Priest, who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not an High Priest which can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like us, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly (with confident faith in His mercy) to the throne of grace, to OBTAIN (HEALING) MERCY, and find grace to help in time of NEED.' (Hebrews 4:14-16).

He is still moved with compassion to heal the sick. That's why he has sent us to go with his love, his Name and his power to lay hands on the sick and see them recover (Mark16)

HEALING IS A MERCY. So when we see 'mercy' in a scripture, we can replace it by 'healing' - eg: 'The LORD is gracious, full of compassion;...and of great 'healing' mercy. He is good to all and His tender (healing) mercies are over ALL His works (healing is for all, including us in the 20th century)' (Ps 145:8,9).  God's healing power is over you now!   He is 'PLENTEOUS in HEALING MERCY to ALL who call on Him.' (Ps 86:5)   'He DELIGHTS in HEALING MERCY.'(Micah 7:18). 'God, is rich in (healing) mercy'(Eph2:4) 'The LORD passed before Moses, and proclaimed, 'The LORD God, MERCIFUL and gracious, longsuffering and ABUNDANT in goodness and truth' (Exodus 34:5).   'Abundant' shows God as a river of mercy and healing overflowing it's banks.

Some say 'healing has passed away.'   But healing is God's mercy, which hasn't passed away. It is His unchanging nature. 'The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His (healing) mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness' (Lam 3:22,23).   His mercies do not run out. 

'O give thanks to the LORD; FOR HE IS GOOD; FOR HIS (HEALING) MERCY ENDURES FOREVER.' (Psalm 136:1). So healing is here for us everyday, there's nothing that can stop it. Healing is in constant supply to us. It doesn't run out or dry up after a time. God is faithful, not on at times, then off: 'The faithful God, keeps covenant and MERCY (healing) with them who love Him and keep His commandments to a 1000 generations' (Deuteronomy 7:9)

Psalm 103 is a great Psalm of God's mercies: 'Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his BENEFITS (mercies): Who FORGIVES all your iniquities; who HEALS all your diseases; Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender MERCIES.' (v1-4)

'He made known His WAYS to Moses, His acts (miracles) to the children of Israel.' (v7, Exodus 34:5).  His ways are: 'The LORD is MERCIFUL and GRACIOUS, slow to anger, and PLENTEOUS IN MERCY.... as the heaven is high above the earth, so GREAT IS HIS MERCY toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Like a FATHER PITIES his children, so the LORD PITIES them that fear Him. For He knows our frame;...that we are dust...But the MERCY(healing) of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him.' (v8-14,17).

Mercy (healing) must be God's will!

THE FATHER'S COMPASSION.  He is 'THE FATHER OF MERCIES' (2Cor 1:3).  

We see the Father's Love in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:20).

'What man is there of you, who if his son ask BREAD (HEALING is the children's (believers') BREAD -see Matthew.15:26) - will he give him a stone?...If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give good things to them that ask him?' (Matthew 7:9-11).  

What would we think of a human father who wanted his children sick? Parents will do whatever they can to make their children well. That's our loving Heavenly Father, only more so! He has compassion on His children and wants to meet our needs, including healing.

WE MUST DECLARE HIS COVENANT MERCY. 

'Let them now that fear the LORD SAY, that His MERCY ENDURES FOREVER.' (Psalm 118:4).

'But I will sing of Thy POWER; yea, I will sing aloud of thy MERCY in the morning: for You have been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. To You, O my Strength, will I sing...my defence (against sickness), and the God of my MERCY.' (Psalm 59:16,17) 

'The trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound... in praising and thanking the LORD;..saying, 'FOR HE IS GOOD; FOR HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER': that THEN the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD...for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.' (2Chron 5:13,14) When you declare: 'His healing endures forever - He is my Healer today', then God's glorious healing-power will fill your body, which now is the House or Temple of the Lord. (see 1Cor 6:19). 

'Jehoshaphat appointed singers to the LORD, to praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, 'Praise the LORD; FOR HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER.' When they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushments against those (enemies) who had come against Judah; and they were smitten ...every one helped to destroy another.' (2Chronicles 20:21-23).  

They sang Psalm 136. When we declare God's mercies our enemies (sickness and evil spirits) are confused and defeated.

WE CAN DECLARE Psalm 23: 'The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want (for healing) ...Surely goodness and (HEALING) MERCY shall follow me ALL the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.' 

WE OVERCOME BY DECLARING HIS GOODNESS and MERCY FOR US. THEN HIS PRESENCE WILL FILL OUR HOUSE (BODY).