There are many people who are physically ill and others who also have diseases hidden inside their bodies. By His death, resurrection and enthronement, Jesus Christ provided for all that man needs for total healing on all levels.
Indeed, divine healing extends into the most personal, deepest and secret levels where no one can penetrate. Jesus, through His Spirit, comes into our minds and souls to do His healing work in our emotions, painful memories of the past or our deepest wounds. In our time of great distress, the Gospel of Jesus Christ remains the answer to all human needs. Did not the psalmist say about God : “He heals all diseases” ? (Psalm 103:3)
As we have mentioned, divine healing is not limited to the body. The human being is spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
1 Thessalonians 5:23 «23And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ » KJV
Through our spirit we are aware of the presence of God; it is through our spirit that we are in communion with Him and receive His thought. It is still in our spirit that the regeneration, the New Birth, takes place. True worship is also the realm of the spirit: it is spiritual, in spirit and in truth.
Through our soul we are aware of ourselves. The soul is the realm of will, character, intellect, feelings and emotions.
As Christians, we often thank God that Jesus carried our sins in His body on the Cross. In His full identification with our humanity, He also took upon Him the whole range of our feelings.
On the physical level, Jesus heals the suffering bodies; on the psychological level, the failing soul.
Psalm 41: 4 « 4I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. » KJV
And at the level of the spirit, Jesus heals the broken spirit.
Luke 4:18 « 18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised » KJV
Jesus Christ knew the fears, terrors and anxieties we might experience in our worst moments of rejection, abandonment and depression. This means that there is not a single feeling that we cannot present to Him. In Gethsemane, He wept with cries and tears Himself, prayed to God with sobs as He struggled with feelings that nearly tore Him apart. He was also abandoned by all.
If we are fighting loneliness or depression, and especially when it is difficult for us to pray because we do not feel the presence of God, Jesus is close to us. He understands and feels our weakness. He also shares our feelings because He has experienced them Himself.
In His trial, He heard false testimonies against Him. Perhaps we too have been falsely accused?
He was spat in the face and punched; perhaps we were insulted, wounded, beaten in our childhood, youth, home or elsewhere? Our Divine Doctor knows what it feels like to be hit and does not blame us for what we are experiencing in those moments, but He wants to heal us.
On the Cross, He was mocked, ridiculed, derided; all words that could evoke for us humiliating pains or wounds of adolescence or even today. Jesus knows how we feel when we are rejected by a friend, abandoned by the loved one or mocked by others. He Himself was this man of pain, accustomed to suffering.
Isaiah 53 : 2-3 « 2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. » KJV
If we suffer, He can feel it and if we are alone (widows or divorcees), He understands what it means to be alone.
There is no need, therefore, to come to Jesus in guilt or shame. We must approach with confidence, knowing that not only does He feel our feelings but that He wants to heal us. Moreover, He has not left us alone; the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, comes to the rescue of our weakness.
Romans 8:26 « 26Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. » KJV
Healing past wounds with the help of the Holy Spirit
The wounds we have received have often been buried within us. They have not disappeared, but only been buried in our subconscious from which they continue to control us without our knowledge. Because these things have been buried, sometimes for many years, we accept them as part of our character and personality.
Let us know that this is not our true character; God wants to heal us so that our character is like that of The Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit is able to “bring to the surface” of our memory everything we need to know about our past, in order to be healed. He is ready to bring back events from our subconscious where they were buried to consciousness so that we can know them and be free of them.
Jesus Christ is the Healer. We must pray and present our wounds to Him, having faith that we will be healed. Speaking to someone else will only lead, at best, to temporary relief but only Christ heals on the deepest level; and what He does remains and cannot be changed.
As we receive our healing from the Lord by faith, let us ask that He also make sure that this part of our personality which has been “atrophied” in its growth can grow so that everything in our character and personality be aligned, for the glory of God.
Sovereignty remains with God in our healing
The road to healing is rarely a highway. It is often littered with fetters placed by the devil to prevent us from receiving the blessing of health that God has provided for us. These obstacles come from different sources; some are based on traditions, others on superstition and others also on the Holy Scriptures which have been misunderstood.
We do not know why some Christians remain with their disability or illness while others experience divine healing. The things hidden are unto the Lord. We know, however, by the Word of God, that healing is not for a few. God does not show any favoritism towards some and Jesus has healed all the sick who have turned to Him.
As a Sovereign, God can:
Not heal at all.
Fully heal:
Acts 3: 16 « 16And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. » KJV
Gradually heal:
Mark 8: 22-25 «22And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. 23And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. 24And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. 25After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. » KJV
Heal instantly:
Matthew 8:3 « 3And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. » KJV
Nevertheless, it would not be right to take refuge behind the sovereignty of God and stop praying for those who are suffering among the people of God.
Divine healing is not an end in itself. We are called to be a light in this world by the way we live our difficulties, in peace and consolation that gives the Lord, and not because we would be exempt from all difficulties.
When God, in His goodness, gives us health, He pursues a goal. Let us be grateful first, like the leper who came to Jesus to pay homage (Luke 17:11-19) or Bartimaeus who followed Jesus after his healing (Mark 10:46-53).
So let us not be guilty if after praying or asking someone else to do it for us, we are not immediately healed. Let us not say or let us not be told, “It is because you have lacked faith”.
When we pray, believe that we have received our healing and we will see it.
We would all like to see immediate, instant miracles; the most important thing is to know that the process continues even after the time of prayer.
