Healing is one of our rights as believers. It is a finished work of the cross, accomplished more than 2,000 years ago at Calvary … a part of our salvation package. Isaiah 53:4 (CSB) tells us that, “… he [Jesus] himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains.” So, why are there so many questions about healing? Why is it often much harder to believe that it’s always God’s will to heal than to believe we are forgiven of all sin by the same act of Jesus’ obedience to endure the cross on behalf of us all? Why does healing sometimes seem more difficult for us to receive than salvation itself?
One aspect of this relates to how and when healing happens. Many times, it doesn’t seem to be as neatly a defined process. For example, Romans 10:9 (NIV) tells us, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Sounds fairly simple and straightforward, right?
Healing, on the other hand, can come in several different ways. Sometimes healings are sudden and instantaneous, while at other times, while no less miraculous, healing is a process that takes time. Healing can occur through a variety of different avenues or methods. Sometimes healing happens simply through faith in the spoken Word of God (Matthew 9:29); and at other times, it involves the activation of faith through a point of contact. This could be, for example, through the laying on of hands (Mark 16:18), anointing with oil (James 5:14-15), or a physical connection with a prayer cloth or other anointed garment (Acts 19:12) etc.
My family has witnessed this in our own lives through the years. Some years ago, I was diagnosed with multiple gastrointestinal disorders which were making it difficult to function properly both at work and at home. I was worshipping at the altar one Sunday morning, when one of the Pastoral team came quickly running across the platform in my direction, calling out every symptom I was experiencing. Before I could even finish saying, “that’s me,” I was slain in the spirit and when I got up, I had been miraculously healed of all infirmities. I laid down all the medications I’d been prescribed, and I suffered no more from any of the associated symptoms.
One time when my son was a small child, he began running a consistently high fever in the range of 103 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. My wife and I considered taking him to see a doctor but couldn’t get him in immediately. By faith, I laid hands on him and commanded the spirit of infirmity to depart. Instantly, the fever left his body, his temperature regulated, and his health returned to normal.
Around the same time, my wife suffered a freak accident in our home where she fractured her foot in two different places. She was on crutches, and wearing only a protective boot, when we went to church on a Wednesday evening. Having seen her hobble down near the front row of chairs, a group of the elders in the church surrounded her, anointed her with oil, and prayed over her. When service was over, she discarded both her crutches and her protective boot, and walked all the way out of the church and across the parking lot unassisted. She returned to the doctor the next day for a follow-up and another X-ray. The doctor was amazed to report that one of the fractures had disappeared entirely and the other one was nearly invisible.
Yet another time, my wife was diagnosed with a spot on her lung and told that it appeared to be malignant. Refusing to believe the negative report, she slept with an anointed prayer cloth under her pillow each night until her follow-up appointment. When new X-rays were taken, they showed that the spot had totally disappeared.
We must be open to the fact that, although God’s will is always to heal, He may perform the healing in different ways and over different time periods. Our challenge is to remain open to how He wants to do it in any one instance. We must not be dismayed or deterred if healing doesn’t happen immediately or in the way we might have expected. We must persevere in our fight of faith and trust that, healing is as available to us as was our salvation. Jesus paid the price for both!
Marc Loomis is a staff member of Lord of Hosts Church.
