H E A L I
N G
Healing
is one of the most misunderstood subjects in the Bible. For reasons unknown to myself, this is my
very first teaching on this subject in detail.
Remember, that God knows the exact right moment in time when something should
be done.
I
have recorded 93 records of healing in the Bible – 10 in the Old Testament and
the rest in the New Testament. Everyone
realizes that healing is a serious subject to say the very least. You are also going to be very surprised as to
where all healing originates. Well, let
me tell you right now that all genuine healing comes from God. Now as I have told you time and time again,
the god of this world will counterfeit everything that the true God does and
healing is no exception. When you see
these television preachers and people standing in line to get healed, 98% of
the time, the healing is counterfeit. It
may work for a temporary period of time, but the disease or ailment will always
return and it will always be worse. So
don’t be fooled by what you see on television.
I am going to give you genuine information concerning genuine healing by
the genuine God.
In
the first place, and always, you need to go to the Word of God. I am going to share with you two Scriptures
that I have gone over in my mind by memory thousands of times. Whenever the world would try to make me feel
sick in some way, I would counter the devil’s actions with the following two
Scriptures.
But
before I do this, I want to go over one Scripture that will urge you to study
God’s Word. Remember, you have free will
and you must believe that the Word of God is truth and you must act upon it.
And ye shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. -- John 8: 32
I have gone over many
Scriptures time and time again, but as you know I have made a movement going
back to the basics. Once we lose the
basics, we lose it all and that’s just what the enemy wants. I saw it happen in the ministry in which I
once studied. I got away as quickly as
possible and I took all these basic teachings with me. The above Scripture says you shall know the
truth. By now if we don’t know what the
truth is, we are in serious trouble, don’t you think so? That truth shall make you free. Don’t you think that sickness is
bondage? Don’t you believe it is
something that captivates you? It is
absolutely something you want to get rid of as soon as possible. By knowing and applying the truth of God’s
Word, that truth that’s in all the Scriptures shall make you free. And I always loved the word ‘make’ you
free. It is almost like we do not have a
choice if we study God’s Word, because it is going to make us free whether we
like it or not, but we have free will.
So here we have another solution as I delay sharing with you those two
Scriptures that I mentioned above. This
is another way to be healed in your life of anything that could be bothering
you and making you feel sick mentally or physically. The more of God’s Word that you know, the
less chance you will have of having a physical opportunity or a sickness. I have not gotten seriously sick in about 10
years with the exception of a movement disorder in my left hand.
Beloved, I wish above all things that
thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. -- III
John 2
It
is God’s Will above all things that we prosper and that we stay in health. Notice the last part of the verse. Now this is really something that most people
never see and in turn, they never apply.
If we stay in good spirits and try our best to be happy and positive, we
will accelerate and greatly increase our chances of being healed. That’s what the last part of that verse
means. Our soul is what makes us our
self. For our soul to prosper is simply
saying that we should be in a good mood regardless of the situation and
circumstances. I want to show this to
you from the book of Proverbs.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. – Proverbs 17: 22
I’m
sure you have heard it said many times in medical circles that laughter is the
best medicine. All of these sayings
originated from the Word of God. A
person who has a positive attitude is like medicine that is going to heal him quickly. But that person who is negative in his spirit
is broken and he has much less chance to be healed. These types of Proverbs and sayings are
throughout the Bible.
I
have learned III John 2 by heart for at least 15 years and I have said it
probably thousands of times and it has helped me each time. There is also a second Scripture that I’m
going to go over with you in detail. I
would usually say both of these Scriptures in unison – one right after
another. I sometimes experience a slight
digestive problem with my stomach because I do not have a gall bladder. And don’t let people tell you that you don’t
need one. God put it there for a reason
and to get into detail, if you eat greasy foods, that gall bladder is not there
to assist in digestion with your stomach.
At times, I may feel pains of indigestion and I will say the above
Scripture and the one that is following over and over again. It is amazing how much better I begin to
feel.
Here
is the second Scripture that I have gone over in my mind thousands of
times. Of course, I learned both of
these Scriptures by memory and I have stressed to you time and time again that
Scripture retemory is one of the greatest weapons you have against the god of
this world. So often we cry out for God
when we are in dire straits. Let’s cry
out to God right now when things appear to be going very well.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that
we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. -– I Peter 2: 24
First of all, I want you to take notice that Jesus Christ was
crucified on a tree, not a cross. Most
religions show the opposite with no scriptural backup whatsoever. I Peter 2: 24 says it as clear as day that
Jesus Christ was crucified on a tree.
His hands were nailed to the upright tree and his feet were nailed to
the bottom section of the tree. It was a
straight up-and-down pole. God says He
cannot tolerate religion - neither can I.
He bare all of our sins as he was crucified because we were dead to
sins and we had no hope. But the ‘why’
is what is most important. He did this
so that we can live unto righteousness and part of righteousness is health and
healing. Look at the last part of the
verse and look for something that you probably missed. The verse says that by his stripes, which are
all of the sufferings that Jesus Christ went through for us, by those stripes
we were
healed. Did
you pick up on that? The phrase is in
the past tense. If we can believe big
enough, we will understand that by what Jesus Christ accomplished already
resulted in our healing. We were
healed. We don’t have to beg God and we
don’t have to wonder about it because His Scripture says that by what Jesus
Christ accomplished on the cross was for our righteousness because we were at
one time dead to sins. Now we are
righteous and by his sufferings we were, past tense, healed. This is major as far as believing is
concerned and I myself had a hard time with it at first. But we are not to blame God for our lack of
believing. We must continue to renew our
mind so that we can believe bigger and bigger and believe to the point that we
understand that Jesus Christ already healed us.
We need to claim this in the face of the adversary and tell it to
him. Tell him that in the name of Jesus
Christ that you are healed. You do not belong in any way shape or form to
the god this world if you are born again.
You belong to the true God and you are His son or His daughter and you
must claim these promises in the midst of hell.
We are still in the second heaven and earth and the third one is coming
when Jesus Christ returns for the second time.
At that third heaven and earth, there will be no pain or suffering and
there will not be any need for healing.
But right now, we need to know about healing and I’m going to get into
more keys that are going to help you to stay in good health and increase your
understanding of genuine spiritual Godly healing.
However, within the realm of spiritual healing, there are actually
three different categories of healing that will make this very simple for you
to understand. Although the Bible
mentions different types of healings such as restoration etc. We are going to go over three classifications
that will be very easy for you to understand.
These three classifications that we are going to cover quickly are as
follows:
First Aid: This is where
we, as a believer, go directly to God Almighty for our healing. We may pray a lot and have a lot of patience
and we must have very strong believing.
Now this is a very simple concept or type of healing. Again, it is referred to as first aid and it
is where we go directly to and only to God Almighty for our healing.
Second Aid: This is where
we, as a believer, will go to another believer to be ministered to. In other words, we are seeking to be healed
utilizing the power of another believer.
That believer will pray or minister healing to you. I have heard of this done many times with
great success. But again, the key to
getting you healed is that you believe.
If someone is ministering healing to you, you must believe beyond a
shadow of a doubt that you are absolutely going be healed as a result of this
other believer’s prayer for you. Again,
this is a simple concept. Now we have
covered two different ways to be healed and we are going to cover one that is
used most often today. I am teaching you
this third section for one reason and one reason alone and it will now be
brought to your attention.
Third Aid: This is where
we, as a believer, will go to a medical doctor to be healed. As I said before, and it now comes into play,
remember that only God Almighty can heal.
A doctor will only assist God in the healing process. Most people do not realize that. Doctors never heal anybody, but with their
experience and training, they learn what they should do according to what is
God’s Will for that person to be healed.
Now here is the major point that I want to make concerning this type or
category of healing. So many of us today
will go to a doctor and the doctor will give us specific instructions or a
certain type of medicine to take at a certain time or hour of the day. We somehow, due to pride, often think that we
know more than the medical doctor. So we
come home from our appointment and for a few days, we do exactly what our
medical doctor told us to do. We do not
see instantaneous results and we get disgusted and we start saying negative
things about our doctor. Oh, he doesn’t
know what he’s doing and I’m not going to listen to him anymore. You’ve got to understand that God Almighty is
able to work within a doctor to help you.
You are the one that wanted to go to a medical doctor because first aid
and second aid did not work for you. The
most major point that I’m trying to make is that if you go to a medical doctor
for healing, you must do exactly what that doctor tells you to do. This only makes sense. Why would you have gone to a medical doctor
if you are not going to listen to a thing that he has to say? Not only did you waste your time, but you
wasted your money and let’s face it medical expenses are extremely expensive
today and they always will be. So don’t
be a fool and try to point fingers at your doctor because you’re pointing three
back at yourself. I need to stress this
point to you because I myself have done the same thing. But I learned that when a doctor tells you to
do something to help you with your healing, you must do exactly what that
doctor tells you to do. Because God
Almighty, more than likely, in fact almost always is working within that Doctor
to guide him so that you can be healed.
It’s simple, isn’t it? But how
many of us have done the wrong thing.
I hate to stretch this out without backing this up with Scripture
but in this case experience is a good teacher.
I went to a doctor one time for a serious involuntary movement in my
left hand. This went on for three years
and I prayed to God and I went to a believer for healing and nothing
happened. Finally, after suffering for
such a long time, I went to a number of
medical doctors – third aid. One was the
best in his field. This guy was very
lighthearted and he was not afraid to try different things. At one point he said to me something that was
sort of off-the-wall. But he said he
wanted to try something unusual. He had
tried a number of different medications and nothing worked. The movement in my hand was still there. He used to turn around and go to his library
of books he had and look up things and research ideas as I sat there in his
office. At one point he said to me I
think you have this certain problem only in your left hand. But he said I’ve got a new plan and let’s try
it out and see what happens. He gave me
a type of medicine that was actually used in certain cases for a panic
disorder. He felt that my left hand was
suffering a panic disorder. By this time
I was so impressed with everything that he had done and tried, that I was happy
to try out this medicine. That evening
before I went to bed, I took one tablet of this medicine and the next day the
movement in my left hand was completely gone.
I called him up in tears thanking him for helping me. But the point here for you is how did I get
healed? I listened to and did everything
this doctor told me to do. I had to keep
continuing to take this medicine because of this unusual medical
occurrence. To this day, no one is 100%
sure as to what is causing this problem.
But let me tell you something, to take a few pills a day and have my
hand be as calm as it can be so that I could do these teachings is well worth
it. I usually don’t share anything about
my personal life, but if it helps you I will.
I said in this teaching that it’s been about 10 years before I’ve had a
serious problem. Ever since I took this
little pill, I have not had a serious problem with my health. It’s not much of a price to pay. I look at it as taking a vitamin every
day. Once I went so far as to go against
what this doctor said out of curiosity.
Within four or five days, the movement started to come back in my left
hand and it freaked me out. I was
driving my car and I went home and took the medicine again and sure enough the
hand settled down completely. That’s
third aid and for your own good, don’t forget it.
When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him.
And, behold, there came a leper and
worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I
will; be thou clean. And immediately his
leprosy was cleansed. –- Matthew 8: 1 – 3
You need to understand exactly what is taking
place here. As always, multitudes of
people followed Jesus Christ. And a
certain leper had worshiped Jesus Christ and that’s one of the keys to
healing. We must worship God Almighty to
be healed. The leper said to Jesus
Christ, “if it is thy will, you can make me clean of this leprosy.” The record points out that this is all that
the leper said to Jesus Christ. And
Christ put forth his hand and he touched him and he said, it is my will that
you be clean. And immediately the man’s
leprosy was cleansed.
But what did Jesus Christ know by word of
knowledge? Remember that word of
knowledge is knowledge that is received directly from God Almighty. Jesus Christ knew that this man believed that
he could be healed. And the key word
here pertaining to this whole record is the fact that the leper BELIEVED. This is the great key to being healed by God
Almighty when it comes to the subject which pertains to any type of
healing. It could be mental healing and
it could be physical healing. We must
believe the Word of God and we must apply it in our lives. We must meditate upon the Word of God all day
and all night.
Meditate
upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear
to all. – I Timothy 4: 15
It is always a good idea to compare and contrast
ideas that relate to the same subject.
So that is what we are going to do here.
We looked at an incident of believing that pertains to healing and now
we’re going to take a look at the opposite situation. What happens when there is an atmosphere of
healing where there is unbelief?
Mark 6: 1 – 6
And he went out from thence, and came
into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
And when the Sabbath day [Saturday] was come, he began to teach in
the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished,
saying, From whence hath this man these things?
and what wisdom is this which is given unto
him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?
You need to understand that what the people were
expressing was doubt. They were starting
to look at any way they could to criticize and degrade Jesus Christ. So they brought up all these different
situations pertaining to his life and his lifestyle and even his family as you
can see in the next verse. The next
verse also says that they were offended at him which can be stated that they
were jealous of everything that he knew because they knew nothing.
Is not this the carpenter, the son
of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not
without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own
house.
Here is where Jesus Christ spoke great truth and
it still holds true today. When I first
got involved in the Bible, I lived home among many of the people that I
knew. I had changed so drastically that
I had nothing in common with these people any longer. And many of them did seem offended at me
because I turned to God Almighty for my life and my guidance. That’s what Jesus Christ meant when he said a
prophet is not without honor in his own country and among his own friends and
family. This I experienced firsthand and
I listened to my own sisters tear the ministry apart that I studied with even
though they knew absolutely nothing about it.
This relationship was strained over 30 years ago and is still the
same. God says not to fellowship with
darkness and I keep away from my earthly family. It sounds sad and it doesn’t sound right in
many ways but it’s either that or listen to and put up with their unbelief. I chose to listen to God. Now take a good look at the next verse and it
will illustrate clearly to you what happens when there is unbelief, especially
when a person needs to be healed and the people around him are
unbelievers. There is a section in the
Bible where Jesus Christ commanded the unbelievers to leave the room so that he
could perform healing upon someone. You
may recall this record as being the one where he raised someone from the dead. He put the unbelievers out before he
ministered healing.
And he could there do no mighty
work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
Why could he not do mighty works in this
situation? All that he did was to lay
his hands upon a few sick folk, instead of upon the usual multitudes. The next verse answers that question.
And he marvelled because of their
unbelief. And he went round about the
villages, teaching. –- Conclusion of Mark 6: 1 - 6
Jesus Christ was simply amazed at the unbelief of
the people in his present location. This
atmosphere of unbelief is negative believing which is believing in reverse and
yields negative results. Jesus Christ
sensed this among the people that were present and because of it, he could not
do many mighty works there because of the people’s unbelief. You need to understand as we close out this
one section on healing that it is usually always not the fault of the person
ministering healing. It has to do with
the people who are present at the time of the healing. For healing to be effective, there must be an
atmosphere of positive believing.
The next teaching is why I have decided to place
this teaching in the Advanced category.
There is a principle here that you will have to work to try to
master. Let’s get to the teaching. We are going to start in the gospel of
Matthew.
Matthew 12: 10 – 13
And, behold, there was a man which
had his hand withered.
And they asked him, saying, Is it
lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that
they might accuse him.
Do you think these Pharisees gave a damn about
this guy and about his healing? They
were so jealous and hateful of Jesus Christ that they searched for anything
that they could find wrong. They made an
issue of the fact that it was the Sabbath day and they said, is it right or
lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? You
can see that their argument makes no sense whatsoever. It is the result of the evil that permeated
their hearts. But Jesus Christ had an
answer for them.
And he [Jesus] said unto them, What man shall there
be among you that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the
sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
Notice how Jesus Christ never got angry, but he
did get agitated with these unbelievers.
The point I’m trying to make is that he always had an answer for them
which shut their mouths. And when you
walk with God, there is no one that can trap you in your words. You always have the correct answer and you
always know what to say and when to say it and how to say it. Jesus Christ used a simple example and said
to the Pharisees, if one of your sheep fell into a pit and it happened to be on
the Sabbath, would you just let that sheep die or would you do everything you
could to rescue it? The Pharisees were
stuck for words. Jesus Christ went on to
expand his example which only strengthens what he was trying to say and why he
was about to heal this person on the Sabbath day.
How much then is a man better than a
sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well
on the sabbath days.
Christ made his argument and then he drew his
conclusion. The Pharisees had no
logical means to refute the argument regarding the example that Jesus Christ
had presented. So Jesus Christ went
about to heal this man. Now there is a
great principle involved in this particular healing and I want you to see it in
the next verse and you should never forget this. Healing takes great believing and you will
see how this man was healed from his problem.
Then saith he to the man, Stretch
forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth;
and it was restored whole, like as the other.
–- Conclusion of Matthew 12: 10 - 13
Now there is a great principle here that you may
have missed. You must learn to apply
this principle if you are ever to get healed. I have heard it said in a different manner
and the saying went like this: Act like
you have it and then it becomes yours.
This is a mighty principle that you must master and it is somewhat
advanced in many ways.
This person who had the withered hand was not
healed only because he was ministered to.
Jesus Christ said to him, and this is the key, Stretch forth thine
hand. This person was not healed yet,
but he made his greatest effort to stretch forth his withered hand. He only received the healing that he needed when
he made the effort to stretch it forth.
When he stretched forth his hand – that’s
when he was healed. I will say that again. When he stretched forth his hand, then and
only then was he healed. He acted like
he was healed because of his believing and action. This can be an extremely difficult principle
for some people to grasp. But there have
been many times when I had a problem
with something in my legs, especially because I walk a lot. And I would say to myself, I’m going
walking. And when I stretched forth my
legs to walk and got my believing to the highest point, the problem I had with
any one of my legs just seemed to disappear.
This dynamic principle of acting like you
have it and then it becomes yours is maybe the greatest key to spiritual
healing. Remember, that the man’s
hand was not healed until he, by his own free will, stretched it forth. He made the effort to do so before his hand
was healed. One last time: As he stretched
it forth, it was healed. I hope you will never forget this.
Because there are so many examples of healing in
the Word of God, I believe it is best not to go into any more examples right
now. I do not want to confuse anybody
and this truly is an advanced subject.
What I would like to do is to close out this teaching by going over some
Scriptures that are scattered throughout the Word that deal with the subject of
healing. I thought of taking this
teaching to a second part, but I believe there is enough information here for
you to grasp and apply the basic principles of healing. And there are also advanced principles to
take into consideration. So let us end
the examples from the New Testament.
Remember, there are 83 of them and 10 in the Old Testament. You should study some of these on your own.
Advanced teaching or not, I would like to keep it
as simple as possible. I was looking
through my Scripture retemory cards and picked out only a small group of
Scriptures that are related directly or indirectly to the subject of
healing. The following are those
Scriptures.
Proverbs
4: 20, 21, 22
My son, attend to my words; incline
thine ear unto my sayings.
God is exhorting us to listen to His Words and He
wants us to hear all of His sayings. It
is because there is great benefit in doing this as we will see. In the last Scripture, God brings up the
subject of this teaching and this is one of the reasons He wants us to do His
Word.
Let them not depart from thine eyes;
keep them in the midst of thine heart.
God always wants our eyes upon His Word. He then tells us to keep His Word in the
midst of our hearts. It’s beautiful
because the heart is the innermost part of the being. If you take a day and you focus only on God’s
Word, you will have the greatest day that you can remember. So often, the world will just drag you
down. It is at these times and actually
all times that you should pick up the Bible and simply read it. Remember to act first and then you see
results. God’s Word will heal you and
get your mind off the negative world.
Keep His Word in your heart and you will be blessed.
For they are life unto those that
find them, and health (medicine) to all their flesh.
- Conclusion of Proverbs 4: 20,
21, 22
Now, the final Scripture in this small group has a
surprise that many people still do not know.
Take a look at the end of that verse and God makes
a promise – one out of about 1000. He
says that if you find those words that He has written and you put them in the
midst of your heart, it will be just like medicine to your flesh. It will bring you good health because the
Word of God, when read and studied and applied, is like medicine – perfect
medicine, to our flesh. The more of the
Word of God that you know and study, the better health that you will have. Isn’t that just amazing? It really blows my mind because I have
experienced this to be true. At times,
when the world just drags you down and you feel physically ill, pick up your
Bible and read it. You will begin to
feel better because the Word is just like a perfect medicine. God Almighty is your medical doctor. Remember, He is the only one that heals. Doctors may assist Him, but He is the healer
of all healers.
James 1: 6, 7, 8
But let him ask in faith [believing], nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the
sea driven with the wind and tossed.
Especially when we ask God for something related
to health, we must be believing to our fullest capacity. God says that when we ask Him for something,
we cannot be wavering – which means we should not be flipping in and out as I’m
sure you know what I mean. Anyone who is
sure of himself and then he is in doubt is like someone who wavers like the
wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed all over the place. We either believe or we don’t believe. We must make up our mind by our own free
will. When it comes to God’s Word, there
is only a benefit to anything that we do if we believe in a positive manner. God expounds in the next verse.
For let not that man think that he
shall receive any thing of the Lord.
God is simply expounding on what He said in the
previous verse. That man who wavers and
is thinking back and forth – that man should not think for a minute that he is
going to receive anything from the Lord.
In the next verse God is going to tell you why and it’s very simple.
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. -- Conclusion of James 1: 6, 7, 8
God refers to this man who is like a wave of the
sea tossed back and forth as a man who is double minded. From working in a state hospital, this always
reminded me of someone who was a schizophrenic.
God is saying that this type of man is unstable in all of his ways. A person who is trying to get healed and
believes one day and doesn’t believe the next day is double minded and
unstable. God says not to expect to
receive anything from Him. We need to be
clear and concerned and we need to believe all of the time if we are going to be
healed from God Almighty.
Now why should we be so concerned about our health? I have heard it said many times that if you
do not have your health, you have nothing.
There is great truth to this and it is simple common sense. There is only one force in this world and it
is a force that is second in power to God and he has the key to sickness and
suffering. We must take a look for a
short time at the god of this world and the power that he has.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. -- I Corinthians 15: 26
Then death is an enemy. Now let’s get this right for a change. The Bible teaches that God is all light and
in Him is no darkness at all. You should
be familiar with that Scripture. If God
is all light, then it is not possible for Him to bring harm upon people. If death is an enemy, and the Word of God
clearly states it is, then it must come from another source. It comes from the god of this world. If you ever try to get in good physical
condition, you will receive opposition from someplace or somebody or
something. The enemy does not want you
to take care of yourself or be in good health.
If he is successful, he can bring sickness upon you. It has been said and it is true that sin is
death in part. That’s why we need to
stop sinning and get our life in alignment and harmony with God. When we do this, we will naturally want to
get in good physical condition, which means to eat right and especially to
exercise. Many people today are talked
out of this by the devil himself. Not
me, O Lord. You will find out that if
you exercise and eat correctly, you will feel much better mentally and
physically. Again, this is up to you –
you have free will. And if you have any
doubts about the power of the true God when it comes to your accomplishments
and your HEALING, then take a look at this final Scripture.
Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? --
Jeremiah 32: 27
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