Supernatural healing seems to be one of those subjects that puzzles the church today. Numerous people pray for healing with no results, yet in the early church divine healings were commonplace. Nobody who went to Jesus was turned down. It was clearly God's will to heal the people back then,
so why do we see such miserable success rates today? There are a few reasons, and in this teaching I will explore them.
I think it was last weekend when my pastor focused on healing, and he asked everybody who needed a healing to stand up. About a dozen people stood up. The Holy Spirit came down and moved upon the congregation as pastor Bruce prayed. Afterward, Pastor Bruce asked everybody who received a physical healing to raise their hand... about 8-10 people raised their hands! This is the kind of stuff that happens at my church!!!! This is the early church experience!!!! I don't think a week goes by without several miracles happening in my church... yet many churches can go 6 months and no see a single supernatural miracle! What is the difference? What was different about the early church? It was the teachings. The people believed the new covenant that God had with them! Religious teachings hinder, block, and corrupt the faith of the hearers!
Key #1 - You need to know it is God's will to heal you
One of the hindrances to our ability to receive from God has to do with the way we see Him. If we don't know or trust somebody, our ability to have faith in them is greatly diminished. God's Word tells us that we must be in faith when we approach Him:
"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6 KJV)
Jesus freely healed ALL who came to Him, and He instructed His disciples to
do the same. Freely didn't mean they were charging for ministry, but rather the
frequency by which they performed these miracles. God wants us to FREELY heal
the sick, meaning, He wants us doing it often and to many people!
"And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at
hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely
ye have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:7-8 KJV)
How can we freely go forth and heal the sick, if we aren't sure if it's
God's will to heal them? When Jesus gave the command, there were no exceptions
that went along with it. This lines up with the example we are given in
scripture where Jesus healed ALL who came to Him! How often did Jesus heal
people? Let's take a look...
"And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought
unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and
those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and
those that had the palsy; and he healed them." (Matthew 4:24)
"...and great multitudes followed him, and he healed
them all;" (Matthew 12:15)
What was Jesus doing? He was demonstrating a very important part of the
covenant that He made with us through shedding His blood.
"When the even was come, they brought unto him many that
were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and
healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our
sicknesses." (Matthew 8:16-17 KJV)
Jesus went about demonstrating the GOOD will of the Father toward mankind
and the covenant of healing that we have today because of Jesus' work on the
cross!When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray in Matthew 6, He instructed them to pray that the will of the Father be done here on earth, as it is in heaven. If you want to see God's will here on earth, you need to look at what is allowed or not allowed up in heaven! Do you see sickness, poverty, or bondage up in heaven? Not at all. Unfortunately, God's will does not always prevail here on earth, because we live in a fallen world, and many times His will is hindered. If God's will always prevailed here on earth, then God would have to be behind every form of evil, sin, rape, murder, etc. Those things are clearly not God's will here on earth, are they? Absolutely not!
"Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread,
will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If
ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask
him?" (Matthew 7:9-11 KJV)
Jesus compared the heart of a good earthly father to our heavenly father.
Now what good earthly father would turn away their son or daughter from being
healed if they had the ability to free them from all forms of sickness and
disease? Any parent today that would either put sickness on their child, or
refuse to get them adequate medical attention, can be convicted of a serious
crime, and either wind up in jail or the mental hospital! While we would never
do these terrible things to our children, we somehow believe that God would do
them to us. Are we more loving and good hearted that our heavenly Father?How we see God and knowing His nature is an important key to trusting him; you will have a hard time trusting somebody whom you have never known, or question their heart toward you.
Sickness is a result of a curse (Deuteronomy 28:59-61), and came into the world as a result of sin. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and of sin (1 John 3:8). If sickness is the fruit of sin, for God to be glorified by sickness, would mean God endorses the source of sickness, which would mean God also endorses sin. God does not endorse sin nor does He endorse the fruit of sin!
"...the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy
the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8 KJV)
The fact is, if you don't know it is God's will for you to be healed, then
what you have isn't called faith, it's called hope. Faith is knowing that it is
God's will to heal you. Hope is hoping that it's His will to heal you.And finally, I want to ask you a good logical question: If it is God's will for you to be sick, then why are you fighting God's will in your life by going to the doctor or taking medications?
Key #2 - You must understand the covenant
I have a really important question I want to ask you: Is healing part of the atonement and new covenant we have through Christ?
"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised
for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his
stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5 KJV)
Now some of you might say, "But that was just for our spiritual
healing. That couldn't be for our physical healing!" Turn to Matthew 8 and
read the story in verses 16 and 17:
"When the even was come, they brought unto him many that
were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and
healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our
sicknesses." (Matthew 8:16-17 KJV)
Were those "spiritual healings" or were those full blown physical
healings that took place? I would say that irrefutably proves that our physical
healing was indeed part of the atoning work of Christ on the Cross. Don't you?If healing is part of our covenant with God through Christ's atoning work, what is this business about "in God's timing" or "if it's God's will to heal me"? If He has made a covenant with us, and Jesus has paid the price for our healing in the atonement, then for God to withhold on that provision, His integrity would be worth squat.
Many people are not healed because they lack basic knowledge of the covenant we have with God. Just as we are told in Hosea chapter 4, Christians today are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt
be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also
forget thy children." (Hosea 4:6 KJV)
We need to be diligent in seeking to understand the scriptures and not be
ignorant of the things which God has for us. You can stake your life on God's
integrity, but we doubt His integrity when we still ask if it's God's will to
heal us, as it's clear that healing is one of the benefits of the New Covenant.The thing we have to keep in mind is that the promises of the New Covenant are received by faith. Just as Jesus died for the sins of the world, does not mean that the world will be saved.
Key #3 - Realize that you are worthy to receive
One of the major blockages to receiving the things of God, whether it be a healing, a breakthrough in our finances, or a deliverance from some type of bondage in our lives, is the self-worth stumbling block. Have you ever seen the prophet who is incredibly gifted and can give the most wonderful life-changing words to everybody around them, but finds it nearly impossible to receive a good word from God for themself? Or the person who is incredibly gifted with faith and healing gifts, and can get everybody around them healed, but struggles themself to receive a healing? This is because they don't feel worthy to receive. They see everybody else as worthy and favored by God, but struggle to see themself as worthy. Dealing with self-worth issues is a major key to healing for many Christians today.This feeling of unworthiness is a sign of unbelief in another benefit of the covenant that Jesus so lovingly purchased for us... that is, the total and complete forgiveness of our sins. Jesus paid-in-full the price we were supposed to pay, and for God to make us pay for our sins after Jesus already paid for them, would discredit or ignore the price that Jesus paid... as if it were not sufficient!! Who is behind false guilt and condemnation? Satan! What is he really trying to do? Get us to not really believe in the wonderful work that Jesus did for us, by paying the steep and terrible price for ALL of our sins! Satan does not want you and I to realize that our sins have been totally paid for.
You are justified by the Blood of Jesus (Romans 3:24). To be justified in the root Greek word, literally means to be made just as if you have never sinned! The righteousness of God is upon you (Romans 3:22) and your sins have all be washed away, so far as the east is from the west (Psalms 103:12).
"But now the righteousness of God without the law is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus." (Romans 3:21-26 KJV)
You are made righteous, justified, and totally forgiven of all your sins,
and are in a covenant with God which includes your healing, and yet you still
believe you are unworthy to receive? That's unbelief in the work that Christ
has done for you. You were not made worthy by your own works or attempts to
live a sinless life, but Christ made you worthy to receive all the promises of
God when He shed His blood for you and I on Calvary!How we see ourselves will greatly affect our faith and ability to receive the things that God has for us. Many times we have to believe this first provision of the covenant (the forgiveness of our sins) before we are ready to believe the other promises such as healing.
I like how Joseph Prince said he used to preach the 7 things which would prevent a person from being healed, until the Holy Spirit spoke to him about this and told him to begin preaching that the people are worthy to receive because of what Jesus did for them. What happened? Healings broke out everywhere in his church!!! This goes along with faith coming through hearing the gospel message of Christ. If you look at the context of this next verse, you'll find that it wasn't just the Word of God, but the message of what Jesus did for us which builds faith:
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word
of God." (Romans 10:17 KJV)
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