God Is Still In The Healing Business

Jesus Was Willing To Heal

Many people came to Jesus and asked Him to heal. Jesus never said "I don't want to." Instead, He was moved by compassion and healed their sick.

Some people argue that God does not want to heal everybody. However, close examination of the Scripture will not back that up. There is not a single verse where Jesus said "No" to their request for healing. In fact whenever the sick were brought to Him, He healed them. We can read this in Matthew 12:15: "Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed Him, and He healed all their sick."

Jesus gave us an example of what the Father is like. Jesus told us that when we know Him we will also know the Father (John 8:19). He didn't do anything apart from what He saw the Father doing. Since He healed all those who were brought to Him, it is save to conclude that it is also the Father's will for all to be healed.

There was one case in Mark 6:5 where Jesus could not do as many miracles as He desired to do. It says, "He could not do any miracles there except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith". A few people were healed. But what about the rest? What about the ones who did not get healed? Was it because Jesus did not want to heal them? No, it wasn't. The people who didn't get healed remained sick because there wasn't enough faith for Christ's healing anointing to operate in. And their lack of faith shocked or amazed Jesus, making it clear that He wanted to heal.

We have to play an active role in our healing. This means that often we are required to do something in order to receive our healing. For instance, let's say you are at a healing conference and your condition is called out. Let's say the condition is an infection in your hand. You hear your condition called out, so you make your way forward. You may feel uncomfortable being in front of all those people. However, the minister insists that those with that particular condition should come forward. So you hesitantly walk to the altar area. When the minister prays for you, he asks you to stretch out your hand. But everything in you tells you that stretching out your hand will be very painful. So you hesitate. However, the minister insists that you stretch out your hand in obedience and promises healing if you do so. He also tells you that if you refuse to stretch out your hand, the infection will not be healed. Convinced, you stretch out the hand and then you see the infection disappear.

Sometimes God requires us to do certain things because He wants to see if we will be obedient. We find an example of this in the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5. Naaman was a commander in King Aram's army, and he had leprosy. He heard that there was a prophet in Samaria who could heal him. So he went to see him. He expected Elisha to come out to greet him and wave his hand over him so he could be healed. But it did not happen that way. Instead, Elijah sent a messenger to tell him he should wash himself seven times in the Jordan. Naaman was upset and insulted because he expected this to happen completely differently. In fact, he almost missed out on his healing. But his servant talked him into following the directions as instructed. And, Naaman was healed as he followed Elisha's instructions. The point is that he would not have gotten healed if he had continued on his stubbornness and dipped himself in one of the rivers in his country instead of the muddy Jordan river.

It is important to obey when God instructs us to do things a certain way, so we can receive our healing. It may not be comfortable for us, it may even be embarrassing to us, but there is a reason why God tells us to do certain things a certain way. We just need to get over the fear of men and be obedient regardless of what it looks or feels like.

We May Start Out Small

The kingdom works by principle and one of those principles is increase by use. Jesus demonstrated that clearly in the parable about the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). You probably already know the story but let me summarize it to refresh our memory. A master gave three of his servants various amounts of money. He gave five talents to one, two talents to another and one talent to a third servant. He didn't specify how to invest the money, but he entrusted each of them with his property while he was out of town. The only thing clear to all three of the servants was that they were supposed to guard the master's property. Two of the servants immediately invested what they had, and each received a sizable return on their investment. The other servant was too afraid to take a risk. He knew his master would be very upset if he would lose everything. So he buried the talent for safekeeping and did not gain a return on it at all. When the master finally returned and saw the extra money the other two had earned, he was very pleased. In contrast, he was not pleased with the third servant because he did not invest the money. The one who gained the most interest received more. But the one who was not willing to invest anything lost everything he had.

The spiritual principle here is that God gives us a certain measure of faith. He also gives us a certain measure of anointing and gifts. Just like the parable about the talent, we are expected to invest (use) what God has given us and then see an increase in giftings and anointing. We don't see the increase until we actually step out and start using the gifts (talents) that God has given us.

You see, God works on the principle of increase. Often when Jesus describes the kingdom, He describes a kingdom that is growing. In other words it is increasing. We can see this in the story of the mustard seed (Matt 13:31) or the story of the yeast (Matt13:33).

God has given us certain gifts and talents and He expects us to use them. He commissioned us to pray for the sick and He expects us to do so. We may not see immediate results. However, as we are faithful in obeying God's commission to pray for the sick, we will eventually see results. If we do not use what God has given us, then God does not have any reason to bring increase. Those who are faithful with little will also be faithful with much.

I believe that at times God wants to see how serious we actually are in pursuing His kingdom work. This is not a foreign principle to those of us who are parents. We often start our children off with small things to see if they are faithful. Once we see that they are faithful with those things we are more eager to give them more responsibilities in those areas. However, when we see that they are not faithful then we probably give them extra time to learn how to become responsible in those areas.

Let's say one of your children expressed the desire to learn how to play the guitar. If you are like me you probably would not go out and buy the most expensive guitar to practice with right away. You would probably get a cheap one first, so your child has something to practice on. As you see your child devote his time to practicing, you see him improve on a weekly basis. Then, at some point you are ready to invest the money to get him a nicer and more expensive guitar. You make this decision based on the fact that your child demonstrated that he was serious by practicing and working with the starter guitar. So you are confident that, when you give him a nicer guitar, he will continue being serious with wanting to play the instrument.

However, if your child does not practice and leaves the guitar in the corner to collect dust, you are not very likely to buy him the more expensive nicer guitar, are you? You want to see him demonstrate his commitment on the cheaper instrument before you invest more into it.

We are God's children and He is a wise parent. God starts us out "smaller" for a reason. If we are faithful with what He gives us, if we use what we have now, then He will send increase and graduate us to a higher level with more anointing and additional responsibilities. God's end goal is for us to walk in His fullness because that is the only way His entire purpose can be fulfilled.