His Word Heals

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Proverbs 4:20-22. I usually read it from the Amplified Classic, but today, I read it from the CSB, “My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings. 21 Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body.”

Unfortunately, the Biblical truth of healing is a controversial doctrine among the Body Of Christ. I have struggled with my belief in healing in recent years because of some teaching I began to listen to. It is not my desire to enter into the healing debate. I want to say that I get the struggle and the questions, but at the end of the day, it is the Word of God – not our questions, not our or someone else’s experience, not even the saint who believed but died should cause us to quit believing for healing. There are questions we will never have answers to on this side of heaven. I don’t know why some people pray and don’t get healed. But here’s the thing we all need to realize: we are not responsible for another’s faith; we are accountable for our faith, for our taking hold of the Word, and for the words we speak, either in line with God’s Word or words that bring questions.

I want to share a quote on healing from Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch, “The following two steps are most critical to healing of all ailments, both physical and spiritual: a) to know that one is ill, and desire most fervently to be cured of one’s malady; b) to know that one can be cured, with hope and absolute trust that, with G-d’s help, one will indeed be cured of his sickness.”

The healing of disease is a truth that resonates throughout Scripture, and it’s a belief shared by both Jews and Christians. We both teach and believe that healing is an integral part of God’s covenant. The Sages of the Talmud even link the Messiah’s epithet to Isaiah 53:4, which states, ‘In truth, it was our illnesses that he bore and our pains that he carried, but we regarded him as a metzora, smitten by God and afflicted¹.’ Today, I want to encourage all of us to focus on the Word, to set aside the debates, the what-about, the “it didn’t work for so-and-so,” to set aside all the noise and go back to the Scriptures.

Psalm 103:1-5 CSB “My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget all his benefits. 3 He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases. 4 He redeems your life from the Pit; he crowns you with faithful love and compassion. 5 He satisfies you with good things; your youth is renewed like the eagle.”

The wording of the CSB emphasizes that David was telling his soul what to do. He was telling himself to remember the covenant benefits, one of which is the healing of all diseases.

Let’s turn our attention back to the Scripture we began with, Proverbs 4:20-22 CSB “My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings. 21 Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body.”

The Word is life and health to our bodies. Jesus’ death on the cross was not just about our eternity in heaven; it was also about our life here on earth. Matthew 8:14-17 CSB “Jesus went into Peter’s house and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 So he touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and began to serve him. 16 When evening came, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed. He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick, 17 so that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: He himself took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.” Even before Jesus’ death, Matthew said that healing was a fulfillment of the Isaiah passage.

Healing is part of our covenant. Look at this passage from Mark 7:26-30 CSB “The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she replied to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” 30 When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.”

At this point, Gentiles didn’t have a right to the covenant, but Jesus acknowledged her faith, and her daughter was healed. Jesus equated healing to the children’s bread, meaning that in the covenant, healing belongs to us.

There are many healing Scriptures in the Bible that I would encourage you to search out. I will put some links to resources at the bottom of this post as well. We’ve already looked at a few Scriptures that solidify the healing promise of Scripture, but let’s look at another. Matthew 8:1-4 CSB “When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. 2 Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 3 Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 Then Jesus told him, “See that you don’t tell anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Notice that the man wasn’t sure of the Lord’s will, but Jesus cleared that up by saying He was willing. He also reached out to the lepor, something you didn’t do because you would then become unclean. Jesus had all power and authority over sickness and disease—that same power is present in the written Word because He is the Word made flesh. Every time we say a Scripture out of our mouth, it causes life to begin operating in us.

James 5:13-18 CSB “Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. 17 Elijah was a human being as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.”

The prayer of faith saves the sick, and the prayer of a righteous person is very powerful. Many times, we can pray out of habit, duty, or, sadly, a “last resort,” but that doesn’t mean the prayer was a prayer of faith.

Earlier in James, we read, “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22-25 CSB). We must act on the Word by believing it in our hearts and speaking it with our mouths. Healing comes the same way salvation does by acting and speaking (Rom. 10:9-10). James also said, “But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:6-8 CSB).

It’s easy to let doubt, questions, and negative words cause us to question the Word, and I’m not just talking about healing; this can happen in any area of our lives, and that’s why we must always answer a question or negative thought with “what does the Word say?” That needs to be our response every time, “My situation says this, but God says this.” I feel fear, but “God hasn’t given me a spirit of fear but power, love, and a sound mind.” (2 Tim. 1:7).

Faith works by love (Gal. 5:6), and when my mind is on the Word, I am kept at peace (Isa. 26:3). Developing the love of God in our hearts, believing for healing, and claiming any covenant promise begins with knowing our covenant – The Bible is our covenant document, it is sealed in the blood of Jesus. We must know not only the promises but the terms of our obedience. We can only know these things by spending time in the Word, getting it in our hearts and minds, coming out our mouths, and conforming our lives to it.

Start renewing your mind to the promises of God today. Pray and ask the Lord to help you overcome worry with the Word, fear with faith, and doubt with determination—a determination based on Scripture, a knowing that God is not a man that He should lie, so if the Word says it, it’s part of my covenant and belongs to me.

I want to close by saying faith grows, believing God is a journey, and this is where we can get tripped up; it’s where I’ve gotten tripped up several times. When we’re praying and feel we’re in a strong place, after a few days or weeks of believing, the enemy will put the thought in our minds, “nothing is happening,” “you sound ridiculous quoting those verses” – the second one is the thing that always hits me, but we’ve got to make a quality decision to resist the lies, and the humiliation the enemy tries to heap on us and say no, I believe the Word of God and I will not be moved.

I want to leave you with Hebrews 11:1 in the Amplified Classic, “Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”