Of all the promises in the Bible, those promises concerning healing are the most difficult.
- Our CONFUSION is often caused by the sadness we feel if someone doesn’t recover.
- Our UNBELIEF in God’s ability is an ignorance of Biblical teaching on healing.
- Our MISUNDERSTANDING is added by false claims of healing.
Central truths on healing.
1. God is still in the healing business- but, it’s His business, His will, and His timing.
While God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Hebrews 2:4
2. The church (believers) should pray for healing today.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? 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. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
James 5:13-18
3. The Lord never changes His purpose and His ways remain consistent throughout the Bible.
- Healing is always intended to glorify God and point us to believe.
And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: ‘Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.
Acts 3:12-13
Healing in Old Testament:
Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 8 For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Genesis 20:17-18
You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.
Exodus 23:25
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5
Christ’s Ministry of Healing
And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.
And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick. and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
Matthew 14:34-36
1. Christ primary purpose and reason for His healing miracles was to demonstrate that He was the Son of God.
Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.
Matthew 15:29-31
2. Christ is primary priority for His healing miracles was always on the heart- (soul, over body restoration/recovery)
And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Mark 2:5
3. Although Christ has ascended to heaven, He is still healing people in our world today.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8
A story of Healing
(REF) Mark 5:21-34
Lostness of sickness.
And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
Desperation of risk
She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
Compassion of Jesus
And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?'” And he looked around to see who had done it, But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.
How can we “touch” Christ?
1. Give God a chance.
2. Believe that God will hear you.
3. Be willing to wait patiently for the Lord.
Remember: The person who waits on God doesn’t lose any time.
4. Reach out and touch Him.
Remember: Be a grabber, not a bumper.