Lesson 5. Christ the Healer. F. F. Bosworth. A Classic in Divine Healing.
The First Step
The first step toward healing is exactly the same as the first step toward salvation or any other blessing promised by God. A sick person must learn what the Bible clearly teaches: it is God's will to heal people until they have lived out the span of time appointed to them. Each individual sick person, relying on the Word of God, must be convinced that his or her healing is God's will, because it is impossible to have genuine faith for healing until the slightest doubt that it is God's will has been removed.
It is impossible to confidently believe for a blessing when we are not sure that God is offering it to us, because we can only claim the power of God when His will is known. For example, it would be practically impossible to make a sinner “believe unto righteousness” until you had fully convinced him that it is God's will for him to be saved. Faith begins where God's will is known. Faith must be based on the Word of God alone, not on our wishes or aspirations. Faith that receives is faith in what God wants, not in what God can do. Those who claim to believe in healing but say one word in its favor and ten against it cannot obtain faith for healing.
Faith Is Expectation of God's Actions
When God commands us to pray for the sick, He means for us to pray in faith, which we cannot do without knowing His will on the matter. Until a person knows God's will, he has no basis for faith, because faith is the expectation that God will do what is His will. When we have faith, it is not difficult at all to call upon God to fulfill His will.
When we know that it is His will, it is not difficult for us to believe that He will do what He wants to do. This is how every saved person experienced the even greater miracle of the new birth. Faith cannot receive anything until we learn what God has prepared for us.
There is no other doctrine that the Word of God teaches so clearly as this: through Christ's redemption, salvation and physical healing have been granted to us, and it is God's will to remove all sickness from His people and fulfill the number of their days, as He promised (Exodus 23:25–26). All the examples in chapters 14 and 15 of Leviticus show that under the law of Moses, sickness was invariably healed through redemption, while Matthew 8:17 clearly states that Jesus healed all sickness on the basis of Redemption. Scripture shows us that the reason Christ made no exceptions when healing the sick was the Redemption He accomplished for the entire race of Adam, including you. When great crowds pressed around Him to “hear Him and be healed of their diseases,” as the Gospel says, “He healed them all” (see Matthew 4:24; 12:15; 14:14; Luke 4:40; Acts 10:38), He could not make exceptions. Why? Because in the coming Redemption He “took our infirmities upon Himself.” If He bore our infirmities, then the healing of all is required for the prophecy to be fulfilled. God chose His words so carefully that, to exclude ourselves from this list, we would have to misquote Him.
What Calvary Provides Is for Everyone!
This is how God saves our soul, heals the body, and does everything else: He sends His Word—His promise—and then fulfills it wherever it produces faith. The divine process of healing is described in the passage: “He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their graves” (Ps. 107:20).
It is the Word of God that “works in you who believe” and is “health to all your flesh” (see 1 Thess. 2:13; Prov. 4:22).
Just as a little girl believes she will receive a new dress when she hears her mother promise to buy it for her next Saturday, so our faith for healing comes by hearing the Word of God, or the promise to accomplish it. For both the girl and us, faith comes by hearing. At the same time, it would be strange for the girl to believe she would have a new dress if her mother had not said so; likewise with us: we cannot believe for healing, salvation, or any other blessing until we hear that God has promised to do it.
How can a person find “justification by faith” if no one has preached it to him, and how can a person find healing by faith if it has not been preached to him? It is Scripture that can make people wise for salvation. Before expecting healing, we must be sure that the Creator and Redeemer of the body is also its Healer.
The Value of God's Redemptive Names
So, if God heals us by sending us His Word, what could be more His Word than His names, each of the seven revealed to us for a specific purpose—to show every person descended from Adam His redemptive attitude toward us.
When Christ commands us to “preach the Gospel to every creature,” He means that we are to proclaim the Good News of Redemption. His seven redemptive names reveal what Redemption includes. God has many other names, but only seven are redemptive names, and these seven names are mentioned in Scripture only when they relate to humanity. Not six and not eight names, but seven, the perfect number, because He is the perfect Savior, and His Redemption covers the entire range of human needs. All the blessings revealed through these names are included in Redemption. For example, Jehovah-Shammah means “the Lord who is present,” “brought near by the blood of His Cross.”
Jehovah-Shalom is translated as “the Lord our peace.” This too is included in Redemption, because “the chastisement for our peace was upon Him.”
Jehovah-Raah is translated as “the Lord my Shepherd.” He became our Shepherd by giving His life for the sheep.
So you can see that this privilege, too, is included in Redemption.
Jehovah-Jireh means that “the Lord will provide” a sacrifice. Christ Himself became the sacrifice offered at Calvary.
He became Jehovah-Nissi, “the Lord our banner”—in other words, the Victor, having disarmed principalities and powers on the cross.
He bore our sins and became Jehovah-Tsidkenu, “the Lord our Righteousness,” opening the way for every sinner to receive the gift of righteousness.
Jehovah-Rapha translates as “I am the Lord who heals you.” This is also part of Redemption, because He “took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
The final name completes the list of seven names revealed to us to show God’s attitude toward us in each of these seven areas. These seven names have always belonged to Christ, and it is through these seven blessings that He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Jesus says to everyone who comes to Him for any of these seven blessings, “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
This is the Good News, and God wants it preached to all creation so that every creature may enjoy “the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ.”
I will say again that nothing is the Word of God, “established in Heaven,” more fully than His redemptive name, Jehovah-Rapha. No one has the right to change God’s “I AM” into “I was,” because “the Word of the Lord endures forever.”
If Jehovah-Shalom, “the Lord our peace,” is one of Christ’s redemptive names, then does not everyone have the Redemption-given privilege of receiving peace from Him, and does he not likewise have the right to receive victory from Jehovah-Nissi? Does not every person have the Redemption-given right to receive the gift of righteousness from Jehovah-Tsidkenu? If so, why does not everyone have the Redemption-given right to receive healing from Jehovah-Rapha?
This name (Jehovah-Rapha) was so accepted and believed by those to whom it was first sent that “there was not a feeble one among their tribes”; and whenever this state of health was disrupted by any transgression, as soon as the people repented and were cleansed, God remained Jehovah-Rapha, the Healer—not for some, but for all. God desires this name, like all His other names, to be sent to every creature on earth with the promise, “they will be well,” because “the Lord will restore them.”
The Bronze Serpent as a Type of Christ
God established this name for the perishing Israelites, sending them the Word: “...the one who was bitten, when he looked at it (the type of Calvary), would live.” If physical healing was not provided through Redemption, why were these perishing Israelites required to look at the type of Redemption in order to be healed? Just as their curse lost its power when they lifted up the type of Christ, so our curse is destroyed when we lift up Christ Himself. If the Spirit is given to us to reveal Christ, why should we not look to Christ Himself with the same expectation with which the Israelites looked at His foreshadowing?
It should be noted that those bitten by snakes could not look at the bronze serpent and pay attention to their symptoms at the same time. Abraham’s faith was unshakable because he looked to God’s promise. Some people reverse cause and effect, and their faith wavers when they look at their symptoms and forget the promise. Since God healed by sending His Word, which is the only foundation for faith, we will miss healing if we allow our symptoms to hinder us from expecting what His Word promises.
The Second Step
The second step is to be sure that you are at peace with God, because the blessings contained in Redemption can become a reality only when certain conditions are met. After we hear the Gospel and learn what it offers us, Jesus tells us: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Only those who are at peace with God can follow these instructions. When we seek physical healing, we must have no compromise with the enemy of our souls, because he is the author of our illnesses. Jesus can destroy the works of the devil in our bodies, but He has not promised to do so if we cling to the works of the devil in our souls. It is difficult to use faith to destroy one part of the devil’s work while allowing another part to remain. Until a person honestly deals with the matter of his obedience to God, he cannot take the side of faith. James says: “Confess your trespasses to one another… that you may be healed.” It is God’s will that you “may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”
If our hearts do not condemn us, then we have confidence toward God.
The command to “send for the elders” was given to Christians who were already filled with the Spirit. It would be wrong for a person to desire the blessing without the One who blesses, to desire His mercy—but not Him Himself. We cannot seek God’s mercy while rejecting His will. When you reject the greater blessing, do not ask for a lesser one. It is impossible to accept and reject divine blessings at the same time.
God is waiting until He can say to Satan and sickness what He said to Pharaoh: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me” (Exod. 7:16). “In everything, even when we ask for the restoration of physical health, we must think first of all about the glory of God,” Duffy believes.
The power to serve Him is the only proper basis for coming to ask for health from His hands. Anointing with oil for healing is itself a symbol and sign of consecration.
We should desire our health for the glory of God.
What, then, does anointing mean? Open the Book of Leviticus (8:10–12), and you will receive God’s answer to this question. “Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and consecrated them,” that is, he set them apart for God. “Anointing with oil in the name of the Lord” was an act of dedication and consecration, implying the complete submission to God of the one who was anointed: that his hands would work for Him and for Him alone, that his feet would walk for Him and for Him alone, that his eyes would see, his mouth speak, and his ears hear for Him and for Him alone, and that his entire body would be a temple of the Holy Spirit,” explains the Reverend R. A. Torrey.
“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).
The Holy Spirit calls us to submit ourselves to God, and only then does He say: “Resist the devil,” because no one can successfully resist the devil before submitting to God. If you resist the devil in this way, he will not merely leave—he will literally “flee from you”! (see James 4:7).
The curse that included the various diseases listed in Deuteronomy 28 struck the Israelites because they carried out their obedience and service without joy in their hearts. The condition of the heart that was responsible for the arrival of the diseases described in this chapter is also an obstacle to their removal. In other words, the condition of heart responsible for the curse in those days is not the condition in which one should come to Him for deliverance today.
God’s promises are only for the obedient
The Lord fulfills the desires of the hearts of those who delight in Him (see Ps. 37:4). And God has not lowered His requirements in the Day of Grace. The promises are only for the obedient—those who “heed the voice of the Lord” and “do what is pleasing in His sight,” and it is to them that the Lord says: “I will remove every sickness from you” (see Deut. 7:15; Exod. 15:26).
“You see, faith is the unity of our will and our hearts with the will and purpose of God, and where this unity is absent, no results are possible. This is a very important spiritual law to which we were terribly blind in our time,” believes Reverend R. Gavin Duffy.
God speaks of the fear of the Lord and turning away from evil. “This will be health (in Hebrew—medicine) to your body and nourishment (in Hebrew—moistening) to your bones” (Prov. 3:7–8).
Faith always implies obedience. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, calling them to obedience in fulfilling the first commandment: “…that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth” (Eph. 6:3). Naaman’s submission and obedience to the Word of God had to be complete before he was healed.
It is precisely “those who walk blamelessly” whom He “does not withhold any good thing from” (Ps. 84:11). Therefore, before seeking to receive anything from God, we must submit ourselves to the first and greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart,” because God says: “Because he has loved Me, I will deliver him” (Ps. 91:14). He “keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.” Therefore, let us come to Him, bowing down like that leper and asking for healing.
“Long life is in her right hand (Wisdom), and in her left hand are riches and honor” (Prov. 3:16). Marry her (Wisdom), and you will receive her possessions. Wisdom is presented here as a wealthy queen extending blessings with both hands to all who submit to her rule.
For the sake of those whose “heart is fully devoted to Him,” “the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth” to strengthen them (see 2 Chron. 16:9).
“A tranquil heart gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Prov. 14:30). An unhealthy heart is worse than an unhealthy stomach; a contaminated soul is worse than a contaminated body. A disabled will is worse than a disabled liver. Paul wrote, “The body is for the Lord” before writing, “and the Lord for the body.”
The Bible teaches that the body was “bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). “I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). Therefore, present your body to Him if you want it to be healed. He promises to restore it only after it becomes His property.
First—to the Cross for cleansing
“The sure path for a sick person is this: first to the Cross for cleansing, then to the Upper Room for the gift of the Spirit, then to the mountain for life’s assignment, and finally to the Great Physician for power for ministry,” writes Bryant.
“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus dwells and lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11). In Christ, the True Vine, there is all the life necessary for our souls and bodies, but we can possess and enjoy it only when we are joined to the Vine. Not apart from Him, but “in Him” we “have fullness” (Col. 2:10).
Replacement without unity with Him is not enough to receive and enjoy the life of the Vine. If you need a miracle, tune in to the same wavelength as the Miracle Worker. We enjoy the life of the Vine through our perfect unity with the Vine. Asking for healing while refusing the Spirit’s leading is like asking a carpenter to repair the floors without letting him into the house.
All who «touched Him were healed» (Matt. 14:36). You cannot touch Him by placing a pre-order, but, like the woman who pushed through the crowd, you need to “elbow” your way through your selfishness, disobedience, unconfessed sins, indifference, dependence on public opinion and human traditions, through articles written against divine healing, and push through doubts, double-mindedness, painful symptoms, feelings, and temptations. Often, you also have to stand against your pastor, who may be uninformed in this area of the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit, who was sent to fulfill all the blessings contained for us in Redemption, is our Helper, and He is ready to help us overcome all these obstacles and reach the place where we can touch Him so that He may meet our needs. God is waiting for this in order to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us in fullness, and the Spirit comes as the Executor of Christ, bringing all the blessings given at Calvary and revealed to us through His seven redemptive and covenant names.
The truth remains the truth: all who touch Him are healed. How do we touch Him? Through faith in His promises. This is the sure way to touch Christ and receive everything He promised. We touch Him when we ask and believe that He hears us when we pray. It was faith that healed the woman when she touched Him, not merely physical contact, because «the Spirit gives life.» Millions of sinners have touched Him in the same way and received the even greater miracle of the new birth.
Not Just Contact, but Unity
Just as the sick touched Him and were healed when Christ walked the earth, so now it is the privilege of those who touch Him; and today, touching Christ brings the sick person into a closer unity than it did then. Not just contact, but unity, as real as the unity of a branch and the Vine. Everything in the Vine, including spiritual and physical life, belongs to us—the branches.
Now touching Him by faith can bring us under the full control of the Holy Spirit, who is the Miracle Worker; this could not happen during Christ’s earthly ministry because the Spirit had not yet been sent to us. Jesus has not become any less our Savior and Healer since His Ascension; He is even greater. Now the privilege of touching Him is more significant than when He was here in person, because more can be received through that touch. Being at the right hand of God the Father, He can give us more, which is why He said: «It is better for you if I go away.» If the Spirit comes to reveal Christ to us as He could have been revealed before His departure, then why can we not come to Him for healing with at least the same faith with which people crowded around Him in those days?
What we discussed above shows the importance of reconciliation with God before we ask for healing. The blessing of having a righteous relationship with God is a thousand times more desirable and wonderful than healing itself. I have seen people who suffered physically yet were radiant with happiness, and I have also seen people who were perfectly healthy yet so unhappy that they committed suicide.
The Third Step
Now we will turn to how to receive healing. It is like a game of checkers: after making a move, a person has no choice but to wait for the other player to move. Each player takes a turn. So God provided healing, or any other blessing, by sending us His Word; then it is our turn to move before He makes His move. Our move is to expect God to do what He promised when we pray, and this causes us to act in faith before we see the healing, because healing is God's move.
God never breaks the order of turns. When Noah was warned by God about things not yet seen, the righteous man's response was to believe that a flood was coming and act in faith by beginning to build the ark on dry land. So when God tells any sick person that the prayer of faith will save and restore him, He informs you, as He did Noah, about things not yet seen, and your move should be the same as Noah's: believe and act accordingly. The lower nature is guided by what it sees, that is, by its senses, but faith is guided exclusively by the Word of God, and to believe means to expect God to fulfill what He promised, treating Him as an honest partner.
By expecting, I do not mean hoping. One writer put it well: “We hope for what may happen, but we expect what must happen… with such an expectation that casts out doubt or fear of failure and demonstrates unwavering moderation.”
Faith never waits until it can see in order to believe, because faith comes “by hearing” about things not yet seen; faith is “the assurance of things not seen.” All a person of faith needs is to know what God has said. Such knowledge instills complete confidence in the soul. “Thus says the Lord”—and everything is settled. “It is written”—that is all faith needs.
Faith always blows the trumpets not after, but before the walls fall. Faith never judges by what the eyes see, because it is the realization of things that are invisible but promised. Faith rests on a much firmer foundation than feelings, and that foundation is the Word of God, which “endures forever.” Our feelings may deceive us, but the Word of God never will!
When a little girl is promised a new dress for Saturday, her faith is present-tense expectation, which she expresses between today and Saturday. When Saturday arrives and she sees the new dress, she stops believing for it. Genuine faith always results in corresponding actions. Because of her faith, the little girl claps her hands and says, “How wonderful! I’m going to have a new dress on Saturday!” She runs and tells the other children that her request has been granted.
God cannot lie
Standing at Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus looked up and said, “I thank You, Father, that You have heard Me,” although Lazarus was still dead. The little girl is not afraid to tell others in advance that she has a new dress, and when they ask her, “How do you know?” she says, “How do I know?! My mother promised me!” You have even more reason to expect healing than this little girl has to expect a new dress, because her mother could die before Saturday, whereas this cannot happen with God. Her mother could lie, but God cannot. The house containing her mother’s money could burn down. Every act of faith is a well-founded conviction that comes from God’s promise and in accordance with which one acts before anything becomes visible, to inspire this confidence, as with the little girl, “between today and Saturday.”
Faith does not look at what is visible. When Noah built the ark, there were no signs of a flood. Stone walls had never fallen at the sound of trumpets or a shout. The Israelites simply expected what God had promised, and when they acted in faith by beginning to blow the trumpets while the walls were still standing, that was their move. Then, of course, God made His move—and the walls fell!
The entire chapter 11 of Hebrews shows how those who had faith “between today and Saturday” acted.
Actions taken in faith please God so much that in this chapter He gives a detailed list of many such examples.
“By faith Noah” did this and that. “By faith Joseph” did this and that. “By faith Moses” did this and that. “By faith the walls of Jericho fell.” “By faith Abraham” acted in this and that way when everything seemed to contradict what God had promised. Sarah received strength to become a mother, although she was already too old for it, precisely when she believed in God’s promise (rather than in her infertility).
All of them were guided by nothing other than the Word of God, which was why they expected to receive what God had promised.
The same is true of every act of faith.
Jonah’s situation inside the fish was very real, and he did not deny it, but he called it vanity and lies. In other words, we must regard as vanity and lies any symptoms that make us doubt that God is “abounding in mercy toward all who call upon Him.” Jonah said, “Those who cling to worthless and deceitful gods forsake their faithful love.” Instead of listening to Satan and focusing on painful symptoms, we must be “co-workers” with God, who heals by sending His Word and upholding it.
We must cooperate with God, concerned not with what the devil says, but with the Word the Lord sent for our healing.
Symptoms May Remain
Even when we truly act in faith, symptoms do not always disappear immediately. It was only three days after Hezekiah was healed that he became strong enough to go to the house of the Lord. In the Gospel of John (4:50–52), the royal official “believed the word that Jesus spoke to him,” and when he met his servants, he asked them, “At what time did he get better?”
The Bible clearly distinguishes between the gift of “healing” and the gift of “working miracles.” Christ could not perform miracles in Nazareth because of its residents’ unbelief, but He healed a few sick people. If everyone became completely well instantly, there would be no place for the gift of healing; it would all be miracles. Many people miss healing by limiting God to working miracles. Christ promised, “They will be well,” but He did not say, “Instantly.”
Signs of life remain in a tree for some time even after it has been cut down.
“Faith means that we are confident of what we hope for and convinced of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1, Moffatt translation). Of course we are convinced, because God, who cannot lie, has said it. This reason alone is more than enough to believe! Faith is therefore highly rational. It does not mean believing without evidence, as many thoughtless people suppose, but believing because there is the highest evidence of all—the Word of God, “established in heaven.” The Apostle James says, “I will show you by my actions what faith is” (Moffatt translation). Faith, therefore, is such conviction of the absolute truthfulness of God’s statements recorded in the Bible that the believer is ready to act accordingly.
Faith Is Both Rational and Safe
What could be more rational, safer, and more reliable than faith?
To believe means to accept God’s written promise as a direct message to us. His promise is just as if He had come to us and said, “I have heard your prayer.” The Word of God is life to our bodies, just as it became life to our souls when we believed His promise.
I know some people who prayed for healing for forty whole years without results, and then, when they were told how to receive it, were healed—sometimes instantly. We do not need to pray for forty years or even one week for the blessing Christ longs to give us. His compassionate heart desires to heal us more than we are capable of desiring it ourselves, but we make Him wait until “faith comes by hearing” and until we begin to act on it, because God will not cheat or cut in line.
When we see that Jesus bore our diseases on the cross just as He bore our sins, and that we no longer need to bear them, our next step is to take this by faith—the only way prescribed in Scripture. The truth is that God gave us this part of our inheritance nearly two thousand years ago, and He is waiting for us to take this blessing by faith. Two thousand years ago God removed sin; two thousand years ago God laid “all our iniquities” upon Christ; two thousand years ago He “took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” God is the waiting party, waiting for us to be shown how to receive the blessing He has already given. “The Lord is not slow in fulfilling His promise… but is patient toward us” (2 Peter 3:9). Or, as Weymouth translates it, “The Lord is not slow in fulfilling His promises, but He deals patiently with you.” In other words, He is not slow to fulfill the promise; we are slow to act, and He patiently waits.
Many of us could have been saved five years earlier than we were. It was not God who made us wait; we made Him wait for us. The same is true of healing.
In Prayer, Not Afterward
In Mark 11:24, Jesus tells us exactly how to receive any of the blessings purchased for us through His death. Having promised us everything we need, He says: “Whatever you ask for in prayer (not after you have prayed for 20 years, not after you have recovered, but while you are sick, in prayer), believe that you will receive it—and it will be yours.”
The condition we must fulfill to receive what we ask God for is to believe that He answers our prayers when we pray and that we “will be well,” as He promised.
In other words, when you pray for healing, Christ offers you the assurance that the answer to your prayer has been received. Remember, He stood at Lazarus’s tomb and said, “Thank You, Father, that You have heard Me,” before He saw Lazarus come out of the tomb. When we pray for healing, Christ tells us to speak in faith: “Thank You, Father, that You have heard Me,” before we see the answer to our prayers.
When the Word of God, and it alone, is the basis for believing that our prayers have been answered before we see or feel it, that is faith!
“Jesus declared: ‘The words that I speak to you are spirit and life.’ John says: ‘The Word was God.’ To receive Christ’s words recorded in the Bible as a direct message to us is to believe. This is how the Word of God becomes life to us, both in salvation and in healing. Thus, the act of believing in and receiving Christ according to the Gospel of John (1:12) is like the act of God, who by His power gives us new birth. In exactly the same process, divine healing is given to our bodies” (author unknown).
Someone said, based on the example of the woman who touched the Lord’s garment, that faith, fact, feeling—that is the order from which God never departs. If we depart from this order, neither faith, fact, nor feelings will be as we want them to be, because that is not what God desires.
First Thessalonians (2:13) says that this is “the Word, which also effectively works in you who believe.” When His Word convinces us that our prayers have been answered, although nothing has happened yet, His Word begins to work in us.
“God’s Word always works in those who accept it as such, because they do not doubt that it will be fulfilled in their lives… God gave all His blessings to Faith. He has not kept even one for unbelief” (Harriet Bainbridge).
When people say to me, “I don’t know whether it is God’s will to heal me,” I ask them, “Is it God’s will to keep His promises?” If we are at peace with God, we should not focus on ourselves as though we were dealing with people’s promises. The question is not whether I have enough faith, nor whether He is honest. This is a question of facts, not of what we feel. If that little girl became ill the next day, it would still change nothing regarding the purchase of a new dress on Saturday. Scripture says, “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” Is that true or not?
Does God answer prayers?
If you firmly believe that you will receive (Mark 11:24) an answer to your prayer and act in faith, each of you will be healed, even if it does not happen instantly.
God always makes His move after our move, and our move is to act with full confidence, coming only from His promise and nothing else, before we see the answer. If healing comes by faith, and any faith “without works is dead,” then God begins to heal precisely when we begin to act in faith.
Our faith moves God to act
Our “acts of faith” move God to act.
We cannot all act in the same way. Ten lepers were healed while they were on their way. Jonah, having ended up inside the fish, could not go anywhere, but he acted in faith when he firmly decided: “I will offer a sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving.” Acts of faith expressed through praising God and thanking Him in advance have throughout history been the way He ordained for receiving blessings. Hebrews (13:15) teaches that our sacrifice of thanksgiving—the “sacrifice of praise”—must be offered first, for the blessing promised by God, and then we await the result. The Psalm says: “Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High; call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psalm 50:14–15).
Here, as in other cases, we are required to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving while we are still in distress, like Jonah. Perhaps this was the promise he relied on. “Let the needy praise Your name”—that is, praise God in advance while you are still in need. “Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving” does not mean being healed and then going into His presence to thank Him, but coming to Him for healing with thanksgiving. “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.” We could leave with thanksgiving, but that is not faith.
Faith is what we have before we are healed. “Those who seek the Lord will praise Him.” “You shall call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.” Without praise, we stand before a great wall without gates; but when we begin to praise, we establish our own gates and pass through them. “Rejoice and be glad, for the Lord will do great things,” and in keeping with this, “they were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God”—not afterward, but before they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This happened after they “raised their voices and glorified God”; it was then that “the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” “They believed His words” (not the symptoms, not the father of lies) “and sang praise to Him.”
Make Satan listen to your praise
Instead of listening to the father of lies, make him listen as you praise God for His promise!
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” A sick person has breath. In other words, even while you are still sick, praise Him, because you will be well, as He promised. “Let not your heart be troubled.” “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” “Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.”
Any sick Christian has a thousand times more reason to be happy than a perfectly healthy, cheerful sinner.
Praise God, because “faith without works is dead.” “Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you.” “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” If everything that has breath is commanded to praise the Lord, then the only spiritual reason not to do so is to be breathless. “Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” “Whoever offers a sacrifice of praise glorifies Me.” “Your lovingkindness is better than life; therefore my lips shall praise You.” Praise Him, because “it is good to give thanks to God.” “Give thanks, remembering His holiness.” Praise Him, because by withholding praise, we demonstrate either unbelief or ingratitude. Praise Him, because God “dwells among the praises of His people.” Paul and Silas sang praises to Him at midnight while their backs were bleeding and their feet were in chains. And God responded with an earthquake that set them free.
Genuine faith rejoices in God’s promise as though it already sees and enjoys deliverance.
When three great armies marched against Jehoshaphat, in human terms it meant the complete destruction of the people, but the Israelites praised God “with a loud voice,” and the only evidence that their prayer had been heard was the Word of God, unsupported by anything else; and it came from the mouth of a man. When they went out to the battlefield the next day and began to sing and praise the Lord, He, in turn, moved and stirred up strife in the camp of their enemies, and victory was won (2 Chron. 20:18–19). “We have the more certain prophetic word; holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:19, 21).
Just as in Eden the enemy managed to invalidate God’s testimony when people ate the forbidden fruit, so now he tries to strip God’s promise of its power by turning people away from believing the Gospel. After God said, “On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die,” and the serpent said, “You shall not surely die,” so now, when the Word of God clearly says, “Lay hands on the sick, and they will recover,” that same serpent tries to convince them that they will not recover. Is it reasonable to believe the “father of lies” more than the Son of God, who is the very embodiment of Truth? When coming to God for salvation or healing, everyone must decide whether to allow the serpent’s hissing to become louder than the voice of God.
“Blessed are those ears that hear the impulses of the Divine whisper and pay no attention to what the world whispers” (Thomas à Kempis).
When, after you have been anointed for healing, Satan tells you that you will not recover, tell him, as Jesus did: “It is written: they will recover; the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:15). In this same passage, the words “in the name of the Lord” mean that the Lord Himself has anointed you. Expect Him to honor His own law and promise.
Why listen to the devil?
All that the devil heard from Christ’s lips when he tempted Him was, “It is written! It is written! It is written!” (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10). “Then the devil left Him” (Matt. 4:11). Yet all we hear from people is, “The devil says! The devil says! The devil says!” as though Christ’s words carried less weight than the devil’s words. This was Christ’s method, and it is the most successful way to resist the devil. Let us not seek any others! “Give no opportunity to the devil” (Eph. 4:27). “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
There is only one way to resist the devil: believe the Word of God and act on it.
As soon as any other voice begins to influence us more than the voice of God, it means that we have abandoned God’s way of healing us.
What reason do you have for doubting? You have no more reason to doubt than a sinner has when he repents and asks for forgiveness of his sins. You have exactly the same basis for expecting healing as you had for expecting salvation. “He has given you His Word, and you cannot accept it without acting on it; otherwise, your faith is still far from what it should be” (Duffy).
The Lord’s mercy—the foundation for faith
What a magnificent foundation for faith—the Lord’s compassion! If Christ redeemed us from sickness, then surely His love and faithfulness can be trusted. The Cross is the surest foundation and an excellent reason to live by faith.
I do not remember who said: “Let us set sickness aside, just as we have set sin aside. A dedicated Christian will not knowingly tolerate sin for a minute, and yet how patient some people are toward sickness—they even cherish their pain instead of resisting it as the works of the devil.”
Harriet S. Bainbridge says that concerning the sin, sorrow, and physical weakness of Adam’s race, the Lord Jesus declared, “It is finished,” and gave each of us the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable us to recognize and enjoy the great salvation He obtained for us. Unwavering faith that Christ’s words, “It is finished,” are a literal statement of an unchanging, timeless fact always brings deliverance. The serpent still denies that these great words of Christ apply to us, just as he denied the words God clearly spoke to Eve. It is when we realize that our redemption from sickness was accomplished in the body of our crucified Lord, and when we wholeheartedly believe and accept that this is precisely what God declares in His written Word, that the Holy Spirit gives us a personal awareness of Christ as our Healer.
Today’s Results of Faith in God
Following these instructions has brought health to thousands of people who were once convinced that the age of miracles was a thing of the past and that God wanted people to remain sick for His glory. Those blind from birth now see; those who were deaf and mute now hear and speak; those crippled from birth are now completely well; those who had suffered from epilepsy for many years are now free and happy; many who were dying of cancer are now healthy and praying the prayer of faith for others. God shows no partiality. “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.” This cannot be true while we are sick and confined to bed. God’s new covenant has made it possible for each of us “to be complete in every good work, that you may do His will.” This is impossible while we are sick, and it demonstrates His willingness, even His desire, to heal us.
He cannot keep His covenant with us without removing our diseases and prolonging our days, as He promised.
Since “by His stripes we were healed,” let us not forget the cost of our healing. Rather, with gratitude and love, through devoted service to God, let us stand on His promise and “blow the trumpets” of faith and thanksgiving until the walls of our suffering collapse.
Faith does not wait for the walls to fall; faith brings them down with a shout!
Author: F. F. Bosworth
