Lesson 1. Christ the Healer. F. F. Bosworth. A Classic in Divine Healing.
Before a person can develop firm faith for the healing of his body, he must be rid of all uncertainty regarding God's will. Faith that produces results cannot go beyond our knowledge of God's revealed will. Before trying to exercise faith for healing, we need to learn what Scripture clearly teaches—that God desires to heal the body just as He desires to heal the soul. The chapters in this book point out and explain the passages of Scripture that will forever establish this truth in you. Simply knowing that God promises what you are seeking can remove all uncertainty and make firm faith possible. Every promise He makes is a revelation of what God is ready to do for us. Until we know what God's will is, we have no basis for our faith.
It is important that the minds of those seeking healing be renewed and brought into harmony with the mind of God, as revealed in the Bible and explained on the following pages of this book. Faith for receiving God's promised blessings is the result of knowing and acting on the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). The right attitude, or a “renewed mind” (Rom. 12:2), makes firm faith possible for everyone.
We continually receive testimonies from people who, although they had been prayed for unsuccessfully many times, were miraculously healed while reading this book. Many also were converted.
The world would be amazed if it could read the steady stream of miraculous testimonies coming to us from across the country. Over the past few years, we have received more than 225,000 letters from radio listeners and friends we have gained, most of whom we have never seen.
The truths discussed in this book, together with the prayer of faith, have made healing a reality for many thousands of suffering people who could not recover without the direct work of the Holy Spirit. Glory to God!
As we rejoice in these miracles, we remember that they are only the outward manifestation of a miracle that is a thousand times greater and more precious at its depth, and that took place in the sacred recesses of the soul. The inward cause is far more precious than the outward effect. The outward results of prayer are like the figures in a bankbook showing that gold is stored in your bank. The gold is far more valuable than the figures.
The Word Is Seed
Jesus said, “The Word is the seed of God.” It is the seed of divine life. Until the person seeking healing understands from the Word of God and is convinced that his healing is God's will, he is trying to harvest where no seed has been planted. It would be impossible for a farmer to believe he would receive a harvest if he were not sure that the seed had been planted.
It is not God's will to believe in a harvest without planting seed—when His will is unknown and people act contrary to it. Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Freedom from sickness comes through knowing the truth. God does nothing apart from His Word. “He sent His Word and healed them”—these are the words of the Holy Spirit (Ps. 107:20). “All His works are done in faithfulness” to His promises.
For every sick person, knowing that their inability to rid themselves of sickness is God's will is that very “seed” that must be planted in their mind and heart. It has not been planted until they learn about it, receive it, and believe it. No sinner can become a Christian until they learn that it is God's will to save them. It is the Word of God, planted, watered, and firmly believed, that heals the soul and body. The “seed” must remain planted and watered before it produces a harvest.
When someone says, “I believe the Lord is able to heal me” before learning from the Word of God that He wants to heal them, they are like a farmer who says, “I believe the Lord can give me a harvest without planted and watered seed.” God cannot save a person's soul before that person learns God's will in this matter, because salvation is received by faith—that is, through trusting in God's known will. To be healed is to be saved physically.
Prayer for healing with faith-destroying words such as “if it is Your will” is not planting the “seed”; it is destroying the seed. The prayer of faith that heals the sick must follow—not precede—the planting of the “seed” (the Word), on which faith alone is based.
This is the Gospel, which, as the Holy Spirit says, is “the power of God for salvation” in every area, both physical and spiritual. The entire Gospel is intended for “every creature” and for “all nations.” The Gospel does not leave a person praying uncertainly, “if it is Your will”; it reveals what God's will is. The words of the Holy Spirit, “He Himself took our infirmities” (Matt. 8:17), are just as much a part of the Gospel as His words, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24).
Neither the spiritual nor the physical meaning of the Gospel can be applied through prayer alone. The seed will not manifest its power until it is planted. Instead of asking, “Pray for me,” many should ask, “Teach me the Word of God so that I can consciously cooperate with God for my healing.” We must know the benefits of Christ's sacrifice for us at Calvary before we can receive them by faith. David clearly defines the will of God, “Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.”
Once we are sufficiently enlightened, our attitude toward sickness should be exactly the same as toward sin. Our goal of having a healed body should be just as definite as our goal of having a healed soul. We must not ignore any part of the Gospel. Christ bore both our sins and our sicknesses in our place so that we could be free from them. The fact that Christ bore our sins and sicknesses is sufficient reason to believe now for deliverance from both. When we confidently entrust the forgiveness of our sins to God in prayer, we must believe, based on the authority of His Word, that our prayer has been heard. We must do the same when praying for healing.
When we know enough about God’s promises, we simply believe that our prayer has been heard even before we receive the answer, just as Jesus commanded in the Gospel of Mark (11:24) and as Hebrews (10:35–36) also instructs. By doing this, we can always see any divine promise fulfilled. God’s will for every Christian is to follow the exhortation of Hebrews (6:11–12).
By confidently entrusting the healing of our bodies and its completion to God, we can and must learn one of the most valuable lessons of our Christian life. This lesson is how to fulfill what Hebrews chapter 10, verses 35 and 36, instructs. Only divine promises can make our faith steadfast. After Jonah prayed for mercy, he did not lose his confidence because there was still no visible evidence that his prayer had been heard. No, he did not lose confidence; he added to it a sacrifice of thanksgiving offered in advance (Jonah 2:9). In Hebrews (13:15), the Holy Spirit commands us all to do this “continually.”
God’s promises work miracles when we see and act according to eternal realities (His promises, His faithfulness, and so on) and refuse to submit to the influence of temporary things. God always fulfills His promises when He finds the right understanding on our part. He always receives us and works on our behalf when we obey His instructions (see Mark 11:24; Hebrews 10:35–36). “With long life I will satisfy him” is God’s promise, which everyone should apply to themselves (Psalm 91:16).
A Comprehensive Guide
In Proverbs chapter 4, verses 20–22, we find the most comprehensive guidance on how to receive healing:
“Attend to my words and incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh.”
The Word of God cannot be health for the soul or body until it has been heard, received, and understood. Notice that God’s words are life, but only for those who find them. If you want to receive life and healing from God, take time to find in Scripture the words that promise you these results.
When the Word of God becomes health to your whole body, your cancer will disappear, the tumor will go away, and the goiter will vanish. We have seen thousands of times how the Word of God, when received and acted upon, produces such results. The bodies of thousands of people are unhealthy today because they have not “found” and “attended to” that part of the Word of God that produces healing in them. This is God’s method for receiving the blessings He has given us. Many have not received healing simply because they did not follow this principle.
God says that when we act as Scripture instructs us, His words become “health to all our flesh.” It does not matter what specific illness is in the body—cancer, goiter, a tumor, or anything else. God says, “health to all the body.” Whose body? The bodies of those who “find” God’s words concerning this matter and “attend to” them. This happens in exactly the same way that the Word of God becomes health to our souls.
It Is Impossible to Look in Two Directions at Once
In this detailed passage from the Book of Proverbs, God tells us precisely how to “attend to” His words. He says, “Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart.” Instead of watching the symptoms and being anxious about them, allow the Word of God not to “depart from your eyes”—that is, continually look at it and, like Abraham, remain steadfast in faith, looking at God’s promises and nothing else. Just as the only way for a seed to do its work is to remain in the ground, the only way for God’s “incorruptible seed” to work effectively in us is to remain “in the midst of the heart.” Not occasionally, but continually.
The reason many people fail is that they have not done this.
Act Like Farmers
When we heed God's words, not allowing them to depart from our eyes and keeping them within our hearts, the seed is then in “good soil”—soil in which, as Jesus says, “it bears fruit,” and, as Paul says, is “living and active.” When a farmer sows seed in the soil, he does not dig it up every day to see what is happening to it, but says, “I am glad it has been planted,” and believes that the seed has begun to sprout. Why should Christians not have the same faith in the “imperishable seed”—the words of Christ, which are “spirit and life”—and believe that His words are already doing their work, believing without waiting for visible results? If a farmer, without having any specific promises, trusts in nature, why should a Christian not trust in God, who created nature?
The psalmist says, “Your word has given me life.” Paul tells us that the word effectively works in those who believe. Every Word of God is “spirit and life,” and it will work in us when we receive it and “heed” it. When we receive the Word of God and obey it, we can say with Paul, “The power of God works mightily in me.” Thus, the Word of God becomes the power of God. It is “spirit and life.” If the field in which it was sown could speak, it would say, “The seed works mightily in me.”
Three Essential Conditions
The passage from Proverbs quoted above shows us what is necessary for the promises of the Word of God to be fulfilled.
1. There must be an attentive ear. “Incline your ear to my words.”
2. There must be a focused gaze. “Let them not depart from your eyes.”
3. There must be a heart that keeps them. “Keep them within your heart.”
When your eyes are fixed on the symptoms of illness, and your mind is occupied with them more than with the Word of God, you have sown seed unsuitable for the harvest you desire. The seeds of doubt are in your soil. You are trying to grow one crop while sowing a different seed. You cannot sow weeds and reap wheat. Perhaps your symptoms foretell death, while the Word of God promises life, but it is impossible to look in opposite directions at the same time.
What Have You Sown?
What kind of seed have you sown? “Let the Word of God not depart from your eyes; keep it within your heart.” In other words, you must look intently and persistently, and only at the confirmation God gives for your faith. God says to all who are sick, “Everyone who looks will live.” The word “looks” is in the present tense. This is not an indifferent glance: let His words not depart from your eyes; keep them within your heart.
The words that command our attention are exceedingly powerful. Our Heavenly Father is speaking to us. All heaven stands behind His words. What He says is a life-giving and strengthening power. His words are life to those who find them and health not only to the soul but also to the body—not merely to some part of it, but “to the whole body.”
A medicine that proves effective in treating one organ of the body may make its inventor wealthy. But here is a medicine for the whole body—from head to toe. Here is a physician with unlimited ability: “Who heals all my diseases.”
“The Assurance of Things Not Seen”
You plant a seed and believe it is growing before you see the shoots. This is faith, which is “the assurance of things not seen.” In Christ, we have perfect evidence for faith. Any man or woman can rid themselves of doubt by looking intently at the evidence God has given for our faith. When we see only what God says, it produces and multiplies our faith. And believing becomes easier than doubting, because the evidence for faith is far stronger than the reasons for doubt. Do not doubt your faith; doubt your doubts, for they cannot be relied upon.
Looking to Christ in faith is such an effective means of blessing! Life, light, freedom, love, joy, guidance, wisdom, understanding, perfect health—in fact, all these are centered in gazing upon the Crucified One. No one ever looks to the Great Physician in vain.
Everyone who looked at the bronze serpent—a type of Christ—remained alive. All these people were, quite simply, incurable, but they were forgiven and healed by the One they looked to. Whoever trusts in Christ must not be crushed in their confidence. Time and eternity will vindicate their hope.
This school will show those in need of healing which part of the Word of God they must receive and “heed.” Some people have been miraculously healed while reading the next lesson of this school.
Author: F. F. Bosworth
