Spiritual Healing
2. Spiritual Healing
Some say that the Lord gives spiritual healing and not physical healing. When a person accepts Lord he or she becomes a new creation. When a sinner comes to God’s presence, his spirit is not getting healed, but is getting a new birth. Look at Ezekiel 11: 39. “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them. I will remove from them a their heart of stone and will give them a heart of flesh”. Nowhere in the Bible does it speak of spiritual healing. The Bible talks about new birth. But when somebody receives healing their illness is removed but organs of their body do not become new.
The Word of God says that by the testimony of two or three witnesses any matter can be established. In three different portions, Isiah: 53: 4, Mathew: 8: 17 and 1.Peter: 2: 24, it says that Lord Jesus took up our infirmities and healed us.
Isiah 53: 4-5 says, “Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. But He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we are healed”. (NIV)
Mathew 8:17 says, “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases” (NIV)
1Peter 2: 24 says, “He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, by His wounds you have been healed.” (NIV)
I do not intend to refute or put down medical science by sharing these thoughts. Let us praise God for the achievements and progress of medical science. Many people are not able to receive God’s healing which He meant to be received by faith. I believe that the merciful God in His mercy to his creations has progressed medical science so that people can be cured from their diseases. Though medical science has achieved remarkable progress, we see that it has many limitations. We can buy medicine with money. But healing cannot be bought. We can receive healing only from God. There are various kinds of diseases. Not all can be cured by medical treatment.
We can see in the Bible that Lord Jesus healed everyone who came to Him. The Word of God says that all who touched Him were healed. If we look carefully we can see that the Lord did not deal the same way with all diseases.
Before healing the paralytic man who has brought by four people, the Lord specifically says that his sins are forgiven. The Lord dealt with the problem of sin before healing him. Because of sin many people become sick. The Lord touched and healed the leper who came to Him. He touched Peter’s mother in law and healed her of her fever. He healed the blind Berthimaeus with a word. While healing people possessed by evil spirits, we can see that He rebuked the evil spirits. When they bought a dumb person to Jesus, we can see that the Lord cast out the demon and healed him. (Mathew. 9: 32-34, Luke. 4: 31-36, Mathew. 12: 22-24) We see that then the dumb man opened his mouth and spoke. So we can assume that this man was not dumb from birth.
If we break the laws of nature, we will become ill. Lord Jesus touched and healed diseases caused due to physical reasons. For diseases which were caused due to satanic bondages, he first rebuked and cast out the evil spirit and then gave the healing. The same disease can be caused by both reasons. Treatment will not work for diseases caused by satanic bondages. We can see many people around us who are suffering from various kinds of illness and not getting cured in spite of best treatment. Don’t we think of this as a mystery, a question without an answer?
Acts. 10; 38 specifically states two things God did. (1) God anointed Jesus with Holy Ghost and power. (2) Healed all that were oppressed of the devil. (KJV) The one who oppresses, crushes, persecutes and discourages people is Satan and not God. God enlarges or broadens constricted lives. (Psalms. 18; 36) He Is a God who enlarges boundaries. Narrowness does not exist in God’s presence. Similarly there is no death in God’s presence. There is only life. Hebrews. 2: 14 says that the devil had power of death. Jesus now holds the keys of Death and Hades. (Revelation.1: 18 NIV) But the Lord is the source of life and death. God raised Lord Jesus so that all who dwell on earth can look to him and receive life.
God called Moses to be the deliverer of the people. He sent him to Pharaoh in Egypt. But when Pharaoh hardened his heart, God withdrew his hand of protection from the people of Egypt. So the people of Egypt suffered from continuous plagues and disasters. But because the Lord’s protecting arm was around Israel all these plagues and disasters did not affect them.
When we see the injustice and violence in today’s world we might wonder why God allows this. This is a mystery to which we have no answer.It is a fact that all this is happening because God has allowed it. But that does not mean that God has sent it. There is a whole lot of difference between God “sending” and God “allowing”. The law of sin and death belong to Satan. But the law of Spirit of in Christ Jesushas made us free from this. (Romans 8:2)
