Is Divine Healing Too Good To Be True?

People Are Asking Can a Rational Mind Believe in Healing?

It is interesting that people would resist believing in the miracle of healing when we are living inside of the greatest miracle of all – the greatest miracle in the Bible is the first verse. We have scientific and philosophical evidence that the first verse is true.

There are many of us this morning that could give testimonies to healings that we have received in our lives. Personally, I have had back pain healed. I personally believe that I have walked in healings because I believed in faith that I would be healed. I’ll never forget Sis. Laura’s healing. My son, Jesse, eyes were healed. Cindy recovered from what appeared to be a stroke here in our sanctuary.

A very public miracle took place in the life of Greg Mundis, the mission’s director for the Assemblies of God. Very early on, Greg caught the Coronavirus. At the same time, another missions team leader, Ron Maddux fought to survive the virus. During this time his wife had a miraculous encounter with Jesus. Her son shared…

This morning my mom shared with me a very powerful encounter she had last night. She was telling me how amazed she was that throughout all of this the Lord has given her so much peace and protected her from any fear. However, last night she was beginning to think that she was showing early signs of having contracted Covid-19 because of chest pains, neck pain, and a bad cough. In the middle of the night Mom woke up to the feeling of a presence in her room. This presence was accompanied by the feeling of overwhelming peace. Before she could even finish the thought of “Who is there?” the Holy Spirit confirmed to her spirit that it was the presence of Jesus! In that moment the Lord spoke to her heart that she and Dad were going to be OK. Since that moment Mom’s symptoms have gone away. When she talked to Dad hours later, she learned that at the very moment the presence of Jesus had visited her room Dad’s temperature dropped significantly and has stayed down ever since.[1]

Divine healing is a remarkable belief, and that is the point. Divine healing demonstrates the character of God. It is God’s nature to heal. It is God’s nature to love. He is the Lord of the universe.

Friends May Believe that Modern Medicine is All They Need

First of all, medical professionals are wonderful at helping us with our health and in our sicknesses. When the woman with the issue of blood came to Jesus and told her story Jesus did not scold her for going to see doctors. It is what the doctors were not able to do that transitioned into the miracle performed by Jesus through her faith.

Divine healing does not fight with the medical profession any more than natural law fights with Jesus as He walked on the water. It is not wrong for you to see a doctor when you are sick, and it certainly doesn’t demonstrate a lack of faith. Dr. Menzies has pointed out, “It is evident that physicians had an honorable place in Israel (Jer 8:22). Jesus also presented the medicinal use of oil and wine by the Good Samaritan in a favorable light (Luke 10:34). Luke the doctor was a dear friend of the apostle Paul (Col 4:14).[2]

However, often modern medicine is unable to heal. At the end of 2019 a movie came out called, Breakthrough. For 15 minutes, a 14-year-old boy’s lungs had filled with raw lake water, his heart had stopped beating, and he lay motionless at the bottom of Lake Sainte Louise. As the boy lay in the ER, his mother cried out to God, “I believe in a God who can do miracles! Holy Spirit, I need You right now to come and breathe life into my son!” Moments later, John’s heartbeat restarted.[3]

For your friend who believes that Joyce needed only a medic at that time, the medic wouldn’t have been enough. However, we have a God who heals us!

Some Today Say That Healings Have Ceased

Promise + Proof + Provision Prove That Healing is Available

Let’s walk this issue through the Word of God starting in the OT.

The Promised Messiah

Isaiah 53:4 NIV

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

The focal point, however, must be Isaiah 53:4: “Surely our griefs [holi] He Himself bore [nasa], and our sorrows [make obh] He carried [sabhal].” Each of the Hebrew words is significant.

Unfortunately, the words “griefs” and “sorrows” do not adequately translate the Hebrew. Holi clearly means sickness or disease, as is evident from a number of passages in Deuteronomy 28 (such as verses 59 and 61). Similarly, make obh is used for physical pain. “Man is also chastened with pain on his bed” (Job 33:19). These same nouns are used in describing the Messiah as “a man of sorrows [make obh], and acquainted with grief [holi]” (Isaiah 53:3). The marginal notes of the NASB render these words as “pain and sickness” both here and in the following verse.

The Messiah is described in this way because in His death He took upon himself our sicknesses and pains. The verbs used in Isaiah 53:4 (nasa and sabhal) speak clearly to this point. Nasa means to lift, carry, bear, take away. Later in the chapter we read that “He Himself bore [nasa] the sin of many” (verse 12). This verb, in contexts like Isaiah 53, definitely conveys the idea of the Messiah dying for the sins and sicknesses of His people, and not only for them but in their place. The imagery of the scapegoat captures this concept of substitution when we read that “the goat shall bear [nasa] on itself all their iniquities” (Leviticus 16:22).

The verb sabhal speaks of bearing a heavy load. It occurs in Isaiah 53 in the context of the Messiah bearing our pains (verse 4) as well as our iniquities (verse 11). Undoubtedly, in the mind of Isaiah the death of the Messiah was for both the sins and the sicknesses of His people.

The Proof in the Person of Jesus Christ

The OT is rich with prophecies about healing from sickness and disease that the Messiah would bring. Now let’s turn to the NT and take a look at what Jesus did while he was on this earth. In Luke we see that even John the Baptist and his disciples were wondering. Jesus makes it clear to them…

Luke 7:20–23 NIV

When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’ ” At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

It is interesting to realize that John the Baptist’s question came from him while he was in a dungeon. I think that John had no issue of faith, but there are many people who find themselves in the dungeon of doubt and despondency asking whether Jesus can heal them or not. The answer is that He does give the blind sight, the lame mobility, the lepers healing, and the dead are raised. He is the Healer and He can heal us as we believe in faith.

In Luke’s Gospel we see another occasion of Jesus healing many people:

Luke 4:40–41 NIV

At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

Here’s a little grammar for us. Luke uses the imperfect verb tense for the word, healing. His use of this verb tense tells us that the healing went on and on -- one sick person would either be brought to Him or come on their own power (if able) and He would heal him, then a lame person would come and He would heal him, then a deaf person would come and He would heal him. We don't know how long this scene lasted, but we do know the whole city was there and it was evening. So, depending on how many were sick, this scene could have lasted well into the night.

This scene, if we can get a mental image of it, should help us understand that the Healer is more available than we want to give Him credit. Healing is not restricted to old fashioned tent revivals, remote meetings, or television evangelism. He wants to heal us and He wants to do so today.

An Ongoing Provision

We’ve walked our way through the Bible from the prophecies of the Messiah in the OT to the time of Jesus. But, is healing available to us today in the modern church age as we await the return of Jesus Christ? The answer is an emphatic, ‘Yes!’ The step-brother of Jesus Himself taught that we should have an expectation of healing.

James 5:16 NIV

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

The book of Acts described the Work of the Holy Spirit in the early Church. Peter heals a lame man in chapter 3, the apostles perform ‘many wonders’ in chapter 5, and Peter heals a man with palsy. Paul heals a cripple, casts out a demon, heals multitudes, brings Eutychus back to life, and shakes a venomous snake off into a fire.

Many churches today don’t accept the belief that physical healing is available for us today like it was in the NT church. I don’t understand their thinking. Have there been frauds? Absolutely. But we have seen healings at Grace Chapel. We know 1st hand of evangelists, pastors, and missionaries who have seen healings. We know that the Apostle Paul included in his letters to the Corinthians that the gift of healing is in his list of spiritual gifts. Healing is solidly dependent on the work of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Helps Our Faith

Jesus clearly linked our healing to our faith. But, often people reject healing because they do not feel they have ‘enough faith’ to be healed. Being in church and listening to a sermon like this one today help to build our faith.

Faith is complete confidence in God and His word. Repeatedly, we see that the New Testament connects healing with faith. When two blind men approached Jesus for healing, “he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you’; and their sight was restored” (Matthew 9:29–30). He told a woman who was hemorrhaging that her faith had healed her (Mark 5:34). Faith enabled a lame man to be healed under Paul’s ministry (Acts 14:9–10). James wrote, “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well” (James 5:14–15).

Understanding that circumstances can diminish faith, Jesus never turned people away because their faith was weak. Instead, He did things to boost their faith, such as touching them. Jesus knew the power and encouragement of a simple touch. He took the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:31). Even though leprosy was highly contagious and considered unclean, Jesus reached out to touch a leper when healing him (1:41). For the blind, He once placed His hands on a man’s eyes (8:25) and another time put mud on a man’s eyes and told him to wash it off in the Pool of Siloam. When the man obeyed, he was healed (John 9:6–7). In all those cases, however, the individuals’ faith was in Jesus rather than the method.

This concept also applies to the anointing oil mentioned in Mark 6:13 and James 5:14–15. Anointing oil in itself does not heal. Rather, it is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. The prayer of faith is what brings the healing (Betzer 1983, 54).[4]

Your faith builds my faith and my faith builds your faith. Regardless of whether we are pushing through the crowd to touch the hem of His garments or He is walking by and simply asks, “Do you want to be healed”, we can be healed.

Some Avoid the Notion of Divine Healing Because They Say It Puts More Emphasis on Body Than Soul

God is concerned with ALL our griefs and sorrows

Jesus is our Healer. He healed in the past, is healing in the present, and will heal in the future.

Hebrews 13:8 NIV

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The Bible teaches that the final great manifestation of His healing power will be the destruction of sickness, pain and death forever (Revelation 21:4,1; 1 Corinthians 15:26).

Revelation 21:3–4 NIV

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

As Christians we know that physical healing occurs as a result of the atoning work of Christ, but at best it is only a temporary deliverance since all must die. The greater physical deliverance is the redemption of the body, which will undergo not only resurrection but also transformation, never again to be subject to sickness and disease. Ultimately, the consequences of physical and spiritual death have been overcome by the death of the One who took upon himself both our sins and our sicknesses.[5]

[1] Ortiz, Kristel Ringer. “AGWM Personnel Making Miraculous Recoveries”. Agwm.org. Accessed Aug 5, 2020.

[2] Menzies, W. W. (1993). Bible Doctrines: A Pentecostal Perspective. (S. M. Horton, Ed.) (p. 204). Springfield, MO: Logion Press.

[3] Kennedy, John W. “AG-Focused Film Nears Release”. News.ag.org. Accessed Aug 5, 2020.

[4] Ford, J. (2011). Introduction to Theology: A Pentecostal Perspective : An independent-study textbook (Fourth Edition, p. 150). Springfield, MO: Global University.

[5] Palmea, Anthony. Enrichment Journal. “Healing and the Atonement”