God
has revealed His will concerning healing just as He has revealed His will
concerning salvation. He is not willing
that any should perish and that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). God so loved the world that He gave His Son
(Jn. 3:16). All who call upon His Name
shall be saved (Acts 2:21).
It is
impossible to have faith if we don't know God's will. As one man of God has said, "Faith
begins when God's will is known."
As long as there is doubt, there is double mindedness, and we will receive
nothing from the Lord (James 1:6-8).
We
have no doubt that God will honor His Word concerning salvation. All who believe with their heart and confess
with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead shall
be saved (Rom. 10:8-10). God does not
respond to the faith of some, and ignore the faith of others. He will save all who come to Him in faith.
The
same is true concerning healing. The
same redemption that saved us also heals us.
In fact, the same Greek word, 'sozo,' is used interchangeably in the New
Testament to speak of salvation (forgiveness of sins) and physical healing.
If we
want to know God's will concerning something, we need to look at Jesus, since
Jesus came to do His will (Heb. 10:7).
Jesus healed all who came to Him and never once refused to heal
anyone. He never told a single sick
person that it was God's will that they suffered a little longer. He never made anyone sick 'to teach them
something.' These are terrible lies that
the enemy has sown in the church in order to keep God's children in bondage to
sickness and doubt.
James
makes it quite clear in James 5:14, when he asks the church, "Is any sick
among you?" The question reveals
that there should be no sick in our midst.
James goes on to give the answer if per chance there are some sick ones
in the congregation. He declares that
the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up!!
To
suggest that God may not will to heal some would make Jesus' suffering on the
cross of no effect. The Word declares
that 'by His stripes we were healed.' (1 Pet. 2:24) Jesus bore all sickness so that we would not
have to bear it. Just as He bore all sin
that we not have to pay the penalty. The
power of sickness is sin, and if sin is defeated, then sickness has no legal
right in the body of a believer.
Sickness only exists because of ignorance, fear or rebellion.
God
does not change. He is the Lord that
heals us (Ex. 15:26), the Lord who sent His Word to heal us (Ps. 107:20), the
Lord who forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases (Ps. 103:1-3), the
Lord who bore our sicknesses on the cross (Isa. 53:4-5), the Lord who healed
all who came to Him (Matt. 8:16), the Lord who went about doing good and
healing all who were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him (Acts 10:38),
the Lord who set the church against sickness and commanded us to go and to heal
the sick (Matt. 10:8), the Lord who told us that greater works would we do
(John 14:12), the Lord who gives us power to lay hands on the sick and they
recover (Mark 16:18), the Lord who confirms His Word with signs following (Mark
16:20), the Lord who healed the sick in the early church through the ministries
of Peter, Paul and other believers (Acts), the Lord who gives gifts of healings
to the church for the church age (1 Cor. 12:9), and the Lord who asks through
James if there are any sick among us (James 5:14).
If we
can't be sure what His will is, then something is very wrong. Please know that God wants to use you as an
instrument of healing. The Greater One
lives in you, and He has equipped you to walk in the power of His Word without
doubting.