Don’t Wait To Believe You Are Healed
Abruptly my eyes sprung open, instantly awake and grasping my right side. It was early in the morning July 2009, it couldn’t have been later than six, and I’m lying there in agony and barely able to breath. The sharp stabbing pain originated from my lower abdomen and shot like a bolt of lightning both up and down my right side. Before I could even consciously contemplate what was happening, like a premeditated attack, thoughts came flooding into my head. “This is serious, I need to go to the hospital” was the voice echoing in my mind. Lying there in a fetal position, trying to gain composure, after many minutes reason began taking back control of my mind. “Pain, you have no right to be in my body,” I mumbled between labored breaths, “I evict you from my body!” With that being declared I allowed my mind to begin focusing on the task at hand. I couldn’t stay here balled up in bed. I had to work and knew I must get up. The pain persisted and even intensified a little as I attempted to straightened my body and tried to climb out of bed. I guess it was more of a slither out of bed than a climb as I found myself balled up on the floor and a new revelation that because of the intense pain I couldn’t stand and walk. Now I have been an athlete most of my life. Much of my childhood and into my early twenties was occupied with sports, especially martial arts. I have trained my mind to ignore and even suppress pain, but this was going to be difficult. Gradually, over twenty to thirty minutes I was able to get my body up and slowly begin walking. Missing work was not an option, this was something that had to be done.
I believed in divine healing, I knew it to be a fact. For the previous nine years, I had been praying for the sick and even teaching others. I had seen numerous healings and had even been healed myself. I knew It was God’s will for me to be healed, the pain couldn’t change that. Matter of fact, even though the pain was just as bad or even a little worse than it originally was, I knew I was already healed. How can I know that you might ask? It’s simple, it’s the Gospel!
Back in 2000 Holy Spirit told me that there was no difference between healing and the forgiveness of sins. He said that if Jesus died and forgave all my sins then He died and healed me! He didn’t just tell me, over the period of about eight months He proved it to me!
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim 2:2-4)
It is clearly shown in 2 Corinthians 5:19, in Hebrews and many other places that Jesus paid the price for all sin. Not just the sin of the believers or those that He knew would make Him Lord of their lives, but the sins of the whole world. God left nobody out when Jesus died on the cross, it is His will that all would be saved. Answer these questions about salvation.
- What is God’s will for salvation? (All saved)
- Does He want every person saved? (Yes)
- Can a person be saved anytime anywhere? (Yes)
- Does a person have to do anything to earn salvation? (No)
- Does God save people irrespective of the magnitude and type of sin they are in? (Yes)
- What is the only requirement for salvation? (Believe)
Next, try to answer the same questions again but instead replace “salvation” with “healing.”
- What is God’s will for healing?
- Does He want every person healed?
- Can a person be healed anytime anywhere?
- Does a person have to do anything to earn salvation?
- Can / Does God heal people irrespective of the magnitude and type of sin they are in?
- What is the only requirement for healing?
Were all your answers about salvation the same as it was for healing? If not, you need to pay very close attention. If it can be proven to you from scripture that healing is provided in the atonement, then you can’t in good conscience differentiate between God’s will for salvation and God’s will for healing ever again. They are the same, always and forever.
Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. ( Isa 53:4-6)
- Griefs (kholee) = sickness (Deut 28:61, 1 Kings 17:17, 2 Kings 1:2, 2 Kings 8:8, and other places)
- Sorrows (Makob) = pains (Jeremiah 51:8, Job 33:19)
- Borne (Nasa) = To bear in the sense of suffering punishment for something. (Isa 53:12)
- Carried (Sabal) = To bear something as a penalty or chastisement. (Isa 53:11)
In Deuteronomy 7:15 we read where the Lord will take away from you all sickness (Kholee). In Job 33:19 we read where the word “Makob” is translated “pain”. So from these scriptures it is very evident that Isaiah 53:4 should read, “Surley He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.” In Leviticus 5:1 we read that if a soul sins then he shall bear (nasa) his iniquity. In Isaiah 53:12 we read that Jesus was numbered with the transgressors and bare (nasa) the sins of many. It is unquestionably clear that God is telling us that in the same way Jesus bore (nasa) the payment for our sins, He bore (nasa) our sickness and disease and took it away.
The Holy Spirit also declares this to be true when He inspired Matthew to quote the passage in Isaiah 53 showing that He was talking about bodily sickness and disease.
When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.” (Matt 8:16-17)
What did Jesus do?
- Cast out spirits
- Healed all who were sick
- Fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah 53 showing that it was indicating physicall sickness and disease.
Some may say, “you see, it says that Jesus fulfilled that prophesy through His ministry of healing and not through what He did on the cross. Doesn’t that mean healing and deliverance are not for today? That’s a legitimate question so let’s look into what it means when it says that it was fulfilled.
The word fulfilled in the 17th verse is (plerothe – Aorist passive, subjunctive, 3rd person singular of pleroo). The aorist tense expresses a momentary completed past action that continues and its complete fulfillment is assured. That means what Jesus did not only completed the task in front of Him (healed all) but that single action (healing all) has results that last forever! To further prove that statement let me show you another example.
that it might be fulfilled (Plerothe) which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; And in His name Gentiles will trust.” (Matthew 12:17-21)
The word for fulfilled used in Matthew 8:17 is the same word used in Matthew 12:17. And just like the way Matthew 8 is quoting Isaiah 53, Matthew 12 is quoting Isaiah 42. If you say that healing was fulfilled and not part of the atonement, then you have to say He is no longer bringing justice to the Gentiles. That is saying that the Gentiles cannot be saved. Obviously, Jesus is still preaching the gospel to the Gentiles through those who believe in Him and He is also still healing the sick through those that believe in Him!
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. ( 1 Peter 2:24)
Like Matthew, Peter is also quoting the passage in Isaiah 53. But unlike the prophet Isaiah, Peter stated it in past tense. “…By His wounds (stripes) you have been healed. Now Holy Spirit doesn’t make mistakes so why would he have Peter misquote the passage? It is because something very important happened between the two verses; Jesus paid the price! That’s right, in the same way Jesus has already forgiven you of all your sins, He has also already healed you of all your diseases, hurts, pains, and mental anguishes. And in the same way you receive His forgiveness of your sins, you receive His healing of your disease.
This is the reality that Holy Spirit revealed to me over those many months. This is the reality that He has proven to be true time and time again. Yes I knew the scriptures, Yes I knew God’s will, but when the pain persisted I needed more than just facts, I need much, much more. I need assurance!
You see, the pain didn’t leave within a few minutes, hours, or even days. For a couple weeks, the pain persisted, 24 hours a day the pain did not cease. Like I said before, I’ve learned to suppress pain. Day after day as I worked the pain was there, as I prayed for people on the streets to be healed, the pain was there, even while ministering at a conference the pain didn’t stop. I would minister, go up to my hotel room to lie down, then go back down to minister. The whole time the voices never stopped, “you’ve got appendicitis and are going to die,” or “you’ve got prostate cancer and are going to die.” Then there is the best, “what a man of God you are! You believe God heals but you aren’t healed!” Hour after hour and day after day the pain and the voices were my constant companions.
Like I said before, it wasn’t knowing the scriptures that allowed me to ignore the voices. It wasn’t even the truth that healing is in the atonement that allowed me to walk through the pain. It was the assurance that my Daddy loved me and that love would never fail. I remembered all the times He had come through for me, I would daydream about the times He healed me and the countless others I had prayed for. Those times He acted on my behalf are like monuments erected to His faithfulness. It is those times and the reality that Daddy loves me way too much to leave me in that condition that gave me the assurance and allowed me to rest knowing I was healed and nothing could change that and my body would soon reflect that reality. And that is exactly what it did. It was another July morning, about 2 weeks from the morning I woke up in pain. Again I woke up but this time it was after a full night’s sleep, the pain was gone.
You too can have that assurance. Allow your mind to reminisce about the times He has come through for you. Allow your mind to rest in the reality that you are healed and your body will now begin to manifest that reality!
Glen Hartline 