Does God want to heal you? I’m not asking if He can heal you—I’m asking if He wants to.
Today’s teaching may be an eye-opener for some of you, and I hope it is!
I want to start by answering right away with a resounding “YES!” God definitely wants to heal you. He wants it so badly that He sacrificed His Son. Jesus endured the crucifixion to pay the price for your salvation, which includes forgiveness, deliverance, and physical healing.
The prophet Isaiah had a powerful insight into the atonement of Christ and let us know exactly what Jesus paid for with His sacrifice. Here are his words in the Amplified version of the Bible (which highlights more of the original Hebrew meaning):
Isaiah 53:4–5 – Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole. (AMP)
There’s a lot in this verse, but right now we’re focusing specifically on physical healing.
Whatever sickness, weakness, and distress you’re facing, He bore it. You can imagine Jesus as the Roman soldiers whipped Him repeatedly and rightly say, “You’re bearing my disease right now, so there’s no sense both of us bearing it.”
He carried your pains of punishment—so even if someone could prove that your sickness was punishment from God, Jesus already took that punishment, so there’s no sense in you continuing to receive it.
Jesus took the chastisement that was necessary for us to have peace and well-being. With every lash of the whip, he thought of your sickness, disease, injury, or whatever physical condition is robbing you of your fullness of life in Him.
Jesus endured the lashes from the “cat-of-nine-tales” knowing that it would sufficiently purchase physical health and wholeness for every human being throughout all time. In the classic words of the young Moravian missionaries who sold themselves into slavery to spread the Gospel to unreached people, “Does not the Lamb that was slain deserve the reward of His suffering?”
I would say He does. He paid a high price for your healing.
Why are some people not healed? I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t give us an answer. Anyone who offers an answer is merely trying to escape the question to make people feel better. Personally, I think actual healing would make a person feel better than an unfounded answer made up by someone grasping for straws. Just a thought.
But I do know this: The Bible (and specifically the life of Christ) is clear that sometimes persistence is necessary for healing. If someone prays for you and you’re not healed, I say pray again! Continue to pursue the healing Jesus paid for until you either receive it or die; and at that point, you won’t really care about it anymore.
Did you ever notice that in the history of the church (specifically the book of Acts), you see plenty of people being raised from the dead, except for the martyrs? I think there’s a reason men like Stephen weren’t raised from the dead. I believe there’s intercessory power in those who have died unjustly, and it is beneficial to advancing the Kingdom. God said to Cain that his murdered brother’s blood cried out to Him from the ground (Genesis 4:10). And I believe that those who have died of disease while pursuing their healings have died as martyrs in the cause of healing. Their blood cries out, interceding for breakthrough. The enemy will not have the last word. Our God sees the injustice. He paid the price. And He will not allow the sacrifice of His Son to be ineffective.
So continue to pursue your healing. I don’t know why some people get prayed for a thousand times before being healed, but I do know that it happens. I don’t know why some healings are immediate and some are gradual, but I do know that Jesus paid the price. There’s a lot we don’t know, but don’t let that change what we do know: that Jesus paid for all of it.
Psalm 103:2–5 – Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits–who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (NIV)
Does God want you to be healed? If He didn’t, then Jesus would have gone directly to the cross rather than being delayed at the whipping post. His scourging was not a waste of time.
In the name of Jesus, be healed!
God bless, –Art
