It is hard to ask Lord for anything when you don’t know if it is His will to give it to you. Finding His will before you pray is therefore of the greatest importance, and it is not hard, because His will is revealed in His Word. God wants us to know!
Faith begins where the will of God is known
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 1 John 5:14,15
Confidence is faith.
We already know that Jesus’ body was broken for us by the stripes that were laid on Him which tore His body apart. His brokenness brought healing to us.
For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots. Psalm 22:16-18
However, before Jesus died on the cross God revealed Himself to Israel as the “The Lord Who heals you.” This happened early in their history as a nation, soon after they escaped the slavery of Egypt:
There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, 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.” Exodus 15:25,26
Even then healing was important to Him. We see Jehovah Rapha — Hebrew for The Lord Your Healer — fulfilling that promise throughout the Old Testament, as we see in the testimonies below:
I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me. O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Psalm 30:1-3
Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5
He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes.
Psalm 105:37
Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Psalm 107:17-20
Jehovah Rapha was their healer!
Jesus is our anointed (commissioned, empowered by God) healer. He is the One with healing in His wings (See Malachi 4:2). Healing the sick was so important to Him that He healed the suffering where He found them, and never turned a single sick person away.
Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” John 5:5,6 (Read John 5:1-15 for context)
He healed them all because it was His will and mission to do so! (See Luke 4:18)
His greatest act of healing though was on the cross, when He took all our sicknesses upon Himself. He was whipped until His body was torn, for “by His stripes we were healed.” Considering the price He paid for it, there can be no doubt about His will for us to be healed!
While John the Baptist was in prison he sent disciples to Jesus to ask Him if He was the Messiah. Jesus answered by pointing to the healings that took place:
When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’” And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Luke 7:20-23
After Jesus went back to the Father, the Holy Spirit came to continue His work on earth. He is God in us — ever present — because Jesus said He would be with us always. The Holy Spirit continues ministry to the sick through believers. He came to live inside of us with gifts of healings — the only one of the nine gifts of the Spirit that comes in the plural! There is healing for everyone, and every disease or condition.
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
These gifts are still available today as the Holy Spirit is still active among us; nothing changed about Him, or God’s will for us.
God is love, and He takes care of His own according to His character as revealed in Scripture. The Godhead, as revealed in the Bible as the Trinity, is behind healing: Jehovah Rapha, Jesus the One who took our sicknesses upon Himself when He went to the cross, and the Holy Spirit in us, with gifts of healing. How can we ever doubt God’s will to heal?
And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. Acts 8:6-8
There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.” Then he arose immediately. Acts 9:33,34
And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” And he leaped and walked. Acts 14:8-10
With Scripture clearly showing God’s will to heal, we still see not everybody receives healing. Do we know the reason why it is so? No, but we do know some reasons, and will talk about it in the next episode.
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