This came up in our pre-start discussions last week.

How can I be sure God wants to heal me?

Is it selfish to ask God for healing?

Psalm 35:27 Webster’s Bible Translation  “Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yes, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, who hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.”

Key Point:  prosperity here is sozo…. which includes of course healing and wholeness for the whole body.    So God delights in your health.

3 John 1:2 KJV “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

Key Point:  God desires greatly for us to be in health, both body and soul.   This desire was expressed here through His disciples.   

Romans 6:13-22 Revised Standard Version (RSV)  “13 Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.  15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.   20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.”

Key point:   members = body parts….    so this literally can mean do not yield your body parts to be instruments of unrighteousness.

1 Corinthians 6:20 King James Version (KJV)
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Key point:   The price Jesus paid to make us whole and healed in our bodies was the torment and torture He went through during his “passion” week.   If God did not want us well, He would not have paid such a Massive price to heal us.

Isaiah 53:4-5 + 10 KJV” ⁴ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  ⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”   + “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”

1 Peter 2:24 King James Version (KJV)  “24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”

Key Point:   It pleased God to bruise Jesus…  Jesus laid down His life for us willingly out of love and allowed his body to be scourged and whipped so that we could be healed physically and mentally and set free from our iniquities.

Psalm 103:1-4 ” Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 4Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;”

Key Point:  We are reminded to never forget the things he has paid for.   Who forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases.     In the New Testament, this is repeated in the “communion” “Lord’s Supper” verses.

1 Corinthians 11 “20 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper.   21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.  22 What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? what shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.  23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:  24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.  25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.   26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.  27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.   28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.  29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.   30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.   31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.   32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

Key Point:   If we do not discern (perceive as separate) the benefit we receive through the Lord’s body, this is the reason many are sick and weak and have even died.      That worddamnation means from the blueletterbible.com site  and the Strong’s Concordance “κρίμα kríma, kree’-mah; from G2919; a decision (the function or the effect, for or against (“crime”)):—avenge, condemned, condemnation, damnation, + go to law, judgment.”   Anyone who doesn’t receive Jesus is presently condemned because our redemption comes through believing in and accepting that He has indeed paid the penalty for our sins by His shed blood… AND He has paid for the redemption, healing of our bodies, by the scourging and stripes He took for us.  Another way of saying this might be “whoever eats and drinks without perceiving what Jesus did remains under the judgements that they would released from if they believed and received what He has done”.   Why would He pay for my healing through the blood, whipping and torture of His Son if He did not want me to be healed?

John 3:18 ” 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

My favourite verse on this topic:

Luke 6 KJV “6 And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.  8 But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. 9 Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?  10 And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”

Key Point:  Jesus asked “which is  lawful?”   to do good = to save life = to heal on the Sabbat OR  to do evil = to destroy life = to leave unhealed on the Sabbath.   Jesus provided the answer definitively by healing the man’s hand.    In doing so, He has told us all that to leave the sick unhealed is equivalent to destroying live and doing evil.  For me this couldn’t be more clear!!!!    We can clearly understand even on a purely rational level that leaving a person unhealed especially in the case of a terminal disease, is to leave them in harms way.    This is why we are willing to spend billlions of dollars trying to help people get well as a nation and pay top dollar to those who promise health and wellness to us individually.  Jesus paid an even greater price because God Himself puts an even greater value in our wellness than we do.   Truly receiving our healing and being made whole is a source of delight for the Lord.

Luke 12:32 King James Version (KJV) “32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Key Point:  The enemy’s desire is for us to remain slaves to sin instead of living in freedom and righteousness.  His main tactic is to get us reject God’s Word.   I believe the story of Moses and Pharoah is a powerful type and shadow of what lengths that Pharoah/the enemy would go to and what extremes he will tolerate and go through to keep his slave nation under his rule…. BUT “He who is in us is GREATER than he who is in the world”.   ” We are more than conquerors” and the enemy has already been “publicly shamed and disarmed”.

1 John 3:8 King James Version (KJV) ” 8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

Acts 10:38 King James Version (KJV) ” 38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

John 10:10 King James Version (KJV) “10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Other verses to consider:  Ezekiel 34 and Psalm 23.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd who goes after, binds up and heals His sheep.  He rebuked the evil shepherds for failing to do these things so certainly will be faithful in not neglecting what He sees.