Healing Hands

Let us open in prayer. Father in heaven, guide me today to say what you would have me to say. Please put your Holy Spirit over me and guide me, in Jesus name, Amen.

What is healing and where is it in the Bible? Some back ground notes on the subject.

Healing in the Old Testament

Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Heal, Healing)

HEAL, HEALING To make well. The OT provides the proper background for a Christian understanding of the concept of healing. In the OT the basic point is made that God is the healer of his people. In Exodus 15:22–26, after God has delivered his people from Egypt, led them through the sea, and sweetened the water at Marah, he speaks of himself as their “healer.” This refers primarily to physical sustenance, but it points to the more encompassing concept of God sustaining his people in an eternal relationship with himself. In a similar manner, Deuteronomy 32:39 speaks of God as the one who heals. The context in Deuteronomy implies that this healing power derives from the fact that God is God. This concept of God as the healer is echoed throughout the OT by the psalmists (Pss 6:2; 41:4; 103:3) and prophets (Is 19:22; Jer 17:14; Hos 7:1; Zec 11:16).

New Testament, Jesus

Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Heal, Healing)

Jesus the Healer: Accounts in the Gospels. The NT significantly emphasizes Jesus as the healer. Mark portrays him as a teacher and healer in his opening account of Jesus’ ministry in Capernaum with the healing of the demoniac, Peter’s mother-in-law, the sick brought to him in the evening, and the leper (Mk 1:21–45). Indeed, healing sickness and casting out demons characterize Jesus’ ministry. Mark presents in rapid succession Jesus’ healing of the paralytic (2:1–12), the man with the withered hand (3:1–6), the multitudes by the sea (vv 7–12), the Gerasene demoniac (5:1–20), the woman with a hemorrhage, and Jairus’s daughter (vv 21–43). Jesus then commissioned the Twelve to proclaim repentance, to cast out demons, and to heal the sick (6:7–13). He himself continued with healings at Gennesaret (vv 53–56), casting out the unclean spirit from the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman (7:24–30), healing the deaf and mute man (vv 31–37), the blind man of Bethsaida (8:22–26), the boy possessed with an evil spirit (9:14–20), and blind Bartimaeus (10:46–52).Certainly healing is an important aspect of Jesus’ ministry. The healings expressed not only his compassion for those suffering but also constituted a revelation of his person. This is brought out by the climactic statement of Jesus in healing the paralytic: “that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Mk 2:10, RSV). It also seems that Mark intended his readers to understand that the healing of the deaf and mute man (7:31–37) and the blind man of Bethsaida (8:22–26) symbolize the awakening of spiritual understanding in the disciples of who Jesus is. It is also significant that Mark has placed the healing of Bartimaeus (10:46–52) immediately after Jesus’ third announcement of his own coming death (vv 32–34) and the disciples’ third failure to understand that his being the Messiah entailed the necessity of suffering (vv 35–45). Matthew also portrays Jesus as teaching, preaching, and healing (Mt 4:23–25), and parallels the accounts in Mark, except for the healing of the demoniac in the synagogue (Mk 1:23–28) and the blind man of Bethsaida (8:22–26). However, according to his special purpose and structure, Matthew has placed many of Jesus’ healings together in a “mighty works” section (Mt 8–9), complementing the “great words” (“sermon”) section (chs 5–7). Matthew views Jesus’ healings as directly fulfilling the OT, as he states in 8:17. The unique way in which the healings of 8:16 are spoken of as fulfilling Isaiah 53:4 seems to indicate that Jesus’ power over sickness derives in some way from his death for sin, which was to be accomplished at the end of his ministry. It is also interesting that Matthew, in relating Jesus’ healing of the multitudes by the sea (Mt 12:15–21; cf. Mk 3:7–12), cites Isaiah 42:1–4. This OT passage speaks of God’s servant anointed with the Spirit to proclaim justice to the nations. As used by Matthew, the quotation explains why Jesus commanded those healed not to make him known. Jesus did not want too much publicity about himself to thwart God’s plan for him as the Suffering Servant who was to bring salvation to the nations. This action demonstrates that Jesus’ healings are revelations of his person. Again another quotation from Isaiah (6:9–10) in Matthew 13:14–15 brings out the fact that healing is understood primarily in the spiritual sense of hearing Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God.Luke, like Matthew and Mark, portrays Jesus preaching and healing. After the account of the birth of John and Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist, Luke presents Jesus preaching in Nazareth (Lk 4:16–30). Here, in the synagogue of his hometown, Jesus himself, using a quotation from Isaiah 61:1–2, affirms that the Spirit has anointed him to proclaim good news and to announce release for the captives and a recovery of sight for the blind (Lk 4:18). The healing aspect of Jesus’ ministry occupies an important place in the rest of the book of Luke. Indeed, Luke has all the healing incidents noted by Mark, except for those in Mark 6:45–8:26. However, Luke’s opening scene in Nazareth seems to underscore that Jesus’ healing is to be understood, not as merely expressing Jesus’ compassion for the needy, but primarily as a sign of the arrival of the kingdom of God as promised in the Scriptures. This emphasis may be seen in the distinctively Lukan account of the commissioning of the 72 disciples (Lk 10:1–12), where Jesus instructs them to heal the sick in any city they enter and announce to the people there that the kingdom of God has come near to them (vv 8–9). The first three Gospels take up the OT understanding of God as the healer of his people and see this as fulfilled in Jesus. This fulfillment signifies the presence of God’s reign in the ministry of Jesus and points to him as the one through whom God is at work in the midst of his people. John’s Gospel has only four healing incidents: the official’s son (Jn 4:46–54), the man ill for 38 years (5:1–18), the man born blind (ch 9), and the climactic raising of Lazarus (11:1–44). The special purpose and structure of this Gospel indicate that these incidents are carefully related to the accompanying discourses and are clearly intended as signs revealing the person of Jesus. The heightened emphasis on healings as revelatory signs in this Gospel confirms the similar intention in the first three Gospels.

New testament Apostles

Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Heal, Healing)

Healing Done by the Apostles. The Acts of the Apostles tells of the continuation of Jesus’ ministry through the Spirit at work in his disciples. The primary focus in Acts is on proclamation, as 1:8 indicates. However, the healing of the lame beggar in Jerusalem indicates that the disciples were able to exercise the power of healing in the name of Jesus (3:1–16; 4:8–16). The healing is clearly intended to point to and glorify the person of Jesus and lead to faith in him (3:12–26). The balanced, twofold ministry of the disciples may be seen in the prayer of 4:29–30: “O Lord, hear their threats, and give your servants great boldness in their preaching. Send your healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (NLT). The ministry of Philip in Samaria was devoted to proclaiming Christ (Acts 8:5) and healing the sick and those with unclean spirits (v 7). Peter heals Aeneas and raises Tabitha (9:34, 40), and in each case the effects are that many believe in the Lord (vv 35, 42). Paul is also described as preaching the gospel (17:2–3), healing (14:8–11; 28:8), casting out spirits (16:18), and raising a dead man (20:9–10).

New testament Church age.

Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Heal, Healing)

Healing in the Church Age. The letters of the NT say little about healing. First Corinthians speaks of the gifts of healing (1 Cor 12:9, 28). The implication is that such gifts are intended to be part of the ministry of the church, but the context indicates that not all are given such gifts (v 30) and that it is God who sovereignly distributes gifts for the good of the body. James indicates that a believer who is ill should request the church to pray for his healing (Jas 5:14–16; cf. Heb 12:13). The clear implication is that God is willing and able to minister to his people for healing today.

Personal experience on the subject of healing.

One bright Sunday afternoon after church I was getting ready to have a nice juicy steak for lunch. I got out my frying pan and put a good amount of oil in it and put it over the fire to get hot. I then got the steaks out to cook and put it in the oil to sear the first side. After it got good and hot and was ready to be turned over, I grabbed the frying pan with my left hand and took my tongs and flip the steak over. As the meat hit the hot grease it splashed all over the inside of my left arm. The pain that immediately hit me was extremely intense. I got over to the water faucet and let cold water run all over my arm but the damage had already been done I could see my arm was beet red.

We got into the car and immediately went to the emergency room on the Navy base where they looked at my arm and started to treat it with some salve. They wrapped my arm up with gauze and taped it closed and told me it would have to be abrade the following day. I did not know what that was so I asked, and they told me I would have to have all the dead skin pulled off my arm. This was something I was not looking forward to.

In those days we had Sunday night services, so I went that night with my arm in a big bandage and I was in a lot of pain sitting in the congregation. I finally could not take it any longer and knowing that we were a praying church I asked the preacher if he would pray to take away my pain. He asked me to come forward and asked the whole church to come forward and lay hands on me while he prayed for me. After the prayer was over, I sat down in the congregation again in my seat and was immediately relieved as the pain seemed to have gone away.

The following morning being a Monday, I went to the emergency room again before going to work to have my arm looked at. I was not looking forward to what I thought was going to happen next. They told me this process was going to take many weeks to complete before I had any kind of healing I could look at. I told them I was ready because we had prayed about it in church the evening before. They removed my band aid and could not believe what they saw. Where yesterday when I had been in the ER there had been massive burn marks and blistered tissue, there was only new pink skin. There was absolutely no trace of any kind of burn damage. Well, I tell you they did not know what to do so they just sent me back to work.

The following Sunday morning when I went back to church, I showed the congregation my arm and told them the story of what happened in the ER on Monday and we all had a good time praising the Lord for healing.

James 5:13–16 (NKJV)

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 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 sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

In my case back then, there was a natural thing that if anybody had a problem, they would stand up, ask, and it would be taken care of in prayer right away. It was a common occurrence in my church that if anything was wrong prayer would take care of it. Very often, many people from the congregation would come forward, lay hands on the person and pray along with the preacher as he prayed for that person. We really loved our preacher. He always preached straight from the Bible when he was preaching from the pulpit. He started each sermon by holding up his Bible and asking if anybody else had theirs as well. Just about every hand would raise in the air holding a Bible waiting for the sermon to start.

We had many small groups at Sunday school of about anywhere from 5 to 10 people each. The group I was in had the choir director as the leader of the group. I remember one day her husband came in with a bad neck pain and it was my turn to pray for the problems of the day. I stood behind him and laid my hand on his neck, along with all the other people as well and began to pray that the Lord take away his pain. I ended my prayer with, “In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.” We asked him how his neck felt now, he moved it around a little bit and he said the pain was gone.

This is just one example of the many things that we saw happen in our church.

One day we were having football tryouts in the field behind our church and big thunder clouds were coming our way. About five of us men got together and we prayed that the clouds would spread and miss us completely. We always ended our prayer, “In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.” It was really amazing. As we watched, the clouds split in the middle and went right and left around the church and missed us completely.

Jesus said in all things, make sure you pray about it.

John 14:12–14 (NKJV)

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Closing prayer: Lord Jesus, you are the master of healing and still are today. Give us the faith to follow your teaching. Father, if it be your will, guide us on our path and lead us to action following your will. In Jesus name, Amen.

Just a closing thought, there are three answers to all prayers.

Yes

No

And not now.

I have seen all three answers in practice.

I prayed for my room mate, James Wirebaugh, daily and was going to lay hands with the help of a couple of prayer warriors. I was going to go to him right after breakfast. While eating my meal, the ambulance crew carried him away. I was too late. If there is a lession to be learned it is this. When the Lord tells you to do something, He means now, not later. I can not tell you what would have happened, my answer from God may have been, no or not now. I just do not know.

Are there any questions?

Just remember, we are here for a reason. Remember the three answers to prayer. Yes, no, and not now. I know I will never leave, so any prayer for me to leave is no. Paul had a pain in the flesh and any requests to God was answered with “My grace is good enough for you.”