Notice: I believe people will be healed as they are reading this chapter, as they believe, absorb, and act upon God's words quoted herein. The healings may be instantaneous or they may be gradual, beginning this very day.
The biblical truths in this chapter cannot only bring physical healing for yourself, but you can use them to minister healing to others. I pray that many reading this right now will become vessels for God's healing power to many others who are sick.
The power of His words. In view of the previous chapter, this passage is particularly relevant (emphasis supplied):
My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh (Proverbs 4:20-22, NKJV).
Do you want life? Do you want healing and health? God's says that His words provide both.
The above passage reveals what God says about healing and its relationship to His Word. But note His related instructions.
· Give attention...
· Incline your ear...
· Do not let them depart ...
· Keep them...
There is power in God's words! Therefore, "Keep them in the midst of your heart."
Jesus is alive! This is a fact beyond debate: The Lord Jesus Christ not only healed people when on the earth, He still heals people today!
God revealed Himself in the Bible as "I am," not "I was" (Exodus 3:14). He wants you to know that He not only "did," but He "still does." He is in the now, always in the present. He lives in timelessness and is not bound by our calendars and clocks. What He did 2,000 or 4,000 years ago, He stills does today. In eternity, it is the same moment. His words and promises written in His holy Word 2,000-3,500 years ago are alive and valid today.
God says, "I the LORD do not change" (Malachi 3:6). He has not changed and will not change. Healing was, and still is, a part of His gospel, or "good news." That is one reason it is good news!
This good news of God's love is much more than forgiveness and saving one's soul for eternity, as wonderful as that is. Physical healing is one of the benefits of the atonement (at-one-ment) of the God-man, Jesus Christ, bridging the gap between a holy God and sinful man, which He provided by His substitutionarysuffering and death in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago. His great sacrifice provided reconciliation with and access to God for all those who believe in and put their trust in Him.
The various benefits of Christ's atonement are actually listed in two prophetic Old Testament (Covenant) passages written hundreds of years before He was even born: Psalm 103:3-6 and Isaiah 53:4-5. Physical healing is included in both of these passages! Here is the promise in the very first verse:
Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases (Psalm 103:3).
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds (stripes) we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).
The word "infirmities" above is clear. In the Hebrew it is choliy, which means sickness. The word for "sorrows" is makob, which also means pain. The passage is clear that Jesus took our sicknesses and pains.
Later, after Christ came, in the New Testament, Matthew clearly confirms the physical healing meaning of Isaiah 53:4, written hundreds of years before:
When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." (Matthew 8:16-17).
Numerous other passages confirm it, some of which are included in this chapter.
Receiving forgiveness, eternal life, and the other free benefits of Christ's atonement is the most wonderful thing that can ever happen to a person. It results from receiving Him. If you have not yet received Christ and been born again, stop reading here, mark this page, and go directly to Appendix 3, then return to this later.
He is sending you His Word. "He sent forth his word and healed them" (Psalm 107:20). God has sent His Word to you this day. God's Word is "living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).
Receive God's Word for you today, as shared below. Expect your healing!