Thankful for the God Who Heals

Don’t Forget the Benefits

Psalm 103:1–5 NKJV

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

God declares

1. God Declares that He Will Heal

Exodus 23:25 NKJV

25 “So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

Deuteronomy 7:15 NKJV

15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.

Jeremiah 30:17 NKJV

17 For I will restore health to you And heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord, ‘Because they called you an outcast saying: “This is Zion; No one seeks her.” ’

Jeremiah 33:6 NKJV

6 Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.

3 John 2 KJV 1900

2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Psalm 147:3 NKJV

3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3

Matthew 4:23 NKJV

23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

Smith Wiggleworth - Where people are in sickness you find frequently that they are dense about Scripture. They usually know three scriptures though. They know about Paul’s thorn in the flesh, and that Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach’s sake, and that Paul left someone sick somewhere; they forget his name, and don’t remember the name of the place, and don’t know where the chapter is. Most people think they have a thorn in the flesh. The chief thing in dealing with a person who is sick is to locate their exact position. As you are ministering under the Spirit’s power the Lord will let you see just that which will be more helpful and most faith-inspiring to them.

When I was in the plumbing business I enjoyed praying for the sick. Urgent calls would come and I would have no time to wash, and with my hands all black I would preach to these sick ones, my heart all aglow with love. Ah, you must have your heart in the thing when you pray for the sick. You have to get right to the bottom of the cancer with a divine compassion and then you will see the gifts of the Spirit in operation.

I was called at 10 o’clock one night to pray for a young person given up by the doctor who was dying of consumption. As I looked, I saw that unless God undertook it was impossible for her to live. I turned to the mother and said, “Well, mother. you will have to go to bed.” She said, “Oh, I have not had my clothes off for three weeks.” I said to the daughters, “You will have to go to bed,” but they did not want to go. It was the same with the son. I put on my overcoat and said, “Good-bye, I’m off.” They said, “Oh, don’t leave us.” I said, “I can do nothing here.” They said, “Oh, if you will stop, we will all go to bed.” I knew that God would move nothing in an atmosphere of mere natural sympathy and unbelief.

They all went to bed and I stayed, and that was surely a time as I knelt by that bed face to face with death and with the devil. But God can change the hardest situation and make you know that He is almighty.

Then the fight came. It seemed as though the heavens were brass. I prayed from 11 to 3:30 in the morning. I saw the glimmering light on the face of the sufferer and saw her pass away. The devil said, “Now you are done for. You have come from Bradford and the girl has died on your hands.” I said, “It can’t be. God did not send me here for nothing. This is a time to change strength.” I remembered that passage which said, “Men ought always to pray and not to faint.” Death had taken place but I knew that my God was all-powerful, and He that had split the Red Sea is just the same today. It was a time when I would not have “No,” and God said “Yes.” I looked at the window and at that moment the face of Jesus appeared. It seemed as though a million rays of light were coming from His face. As He looked at the one who had just passed away, the color came back to the face. She rolled over and fell asleep. Then I had a glorious time. In the morning she woke early, put on a dressing gown and walked to the piano. She started to play and to sing a wonderful song. The mother and the sister and the brother had all come down to listen. The Lord had undertaken. A miracle had been wrought.

The Lord is calling us along this way. I am thanking God for difficult cases. The Lord has called us into heart union with Himself; He wants His bride to have one heart and one Spirit with Him and to do what He Himself loved to do. That case had to be a miracle. The lungs were gone, they were just in shreds, but the Lord restored lungs that were perfectly sound.

2. God Points us to the Cross as our Source of Healing

...In the Beginning

Genesis 2:9 NKJV

9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:24 NKJV

24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Rev 22:2

Revelation 22:2 NKJV

2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

…In the Revelation of His Name

Exodus 15:22–26 NKJV

22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24 And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, 26 and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

God first revealed Himself as Jehovah-Rapha to the Israelites after their exodus out of Egypt.

These people were restless and angry. Max Lucado said, “Their jubilation over liberation soon becomes frustration over dehydration.” - cityonahillstudio.com

After three days of wandering in the Desert of Shur, the Israelites were in desperate need of water. The discovered a river, however the waters were unfit to drink. As a reflection of the quality of the water and their emotional disposition, the Israelites named the river  Mahra (bitter).

God divinely cleansed the waters by instructing moses to throw a piece of wood into the water, thereby making it drinkable. - Christianity.com

In , God gives himself a new name: Jehovah Rapha. Jehovah wasn’t a new name. Jehovah means “the Existing One” or “Lord” and suggests “to become known.” Rapha was the new part. Rapha means “to heal.” God let the Israelites know that he is the God who heals. What he actually said is stronger than that. It’s not so much, “I am the God who heals” as it is, “HEALING IS WHAT I AM.” - cityonahillstudio.com

…In the Law

Deuteronomy 21:23 NKJV

23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.

Deuteronomy 21:22–23 NKJV

22 “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.

Deut

Galatians 3:13 NKJV

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us ().

Deut

Galatians 3:13

Sickness and disease were never part of God’s plan for mankind. When He created the garden and placed Adam in it, life was perfect just as God planned it to be; there was no sickness or disease. But because Adam sinned and opened the door to the devil, mankind was subjugated to all that was part of the curse.

Until, that is, Jesus broke the power of the curse when He died on the Cross and rose again, destroying all the power of the devil. This is good news, because sickness and disease no longer have a right to be in your body. - JerrySavelle.org

3. Christ Purchased Healing Along with Salvation

Matthew 8:14–17 NKJV

14 Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. 15 So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them. 16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.”

Matt 8:14-17

Isaiah 53:1–6 NKJV

1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:4 CJB

4 In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God.

Isaiah 53:4 YLT

4 Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains—he hath carried them, And we—we have esteemed him plagued, Smitten of God, and afflicted.

Isa

1 Peter 2:24 NKJV

24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

4. Healing is Appropriated by Faith (in His Word) through Prayer

Psalm 107:20 NKJV

20 He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions.

Matthew 8:7–10 NKJV

7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!

James 5:14–16 NKJV

14 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. 15 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. 16 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.

James