Knowing the Truth about Sickness and Healing.
If we are going to pray for the sick we need to know if healing is in the atonement or not and also how to stand if sickness attacks us.
I had better give a word of explanation first of what is meant by atonement. Atonement is not so much a New Testament word but rather an Old Testament word which means a “covering”. The covenant God made with the Israelites, through Moses, was that if they kept His laws then God would bless them, however if they broke the law then they would be under a curse. The law was kept in a box, or chest, called the ark of the covenant.
When the Priest sacrificed an animal for the sins of the people on the Day of Atonement, the blood of it was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat which covered the ark of the covenant where the book of the law had been placed. The blood covered the people’s sins and the killing of the animal was a ransom paid for their life. It reconciled them to God making them at one with God (“at one” or “atonement”). If the people kept the law then they would be under God’s blessing and He would take all sickness from the midst of them, if they broke the law then they would come under the curse of the law where sickness, disease and death would be the result. When they sacrificed an animal to atone for their sins, then their sins would be covered and God would forgive them and heal them. They would be back under God’s blessing.
In the New Testament sins were not covered but completely removed by the sacrifice of Jesus. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away our sins but they were types of Jesus who was to come and be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins taking all our sins completely away. Christ is now the atonement, or propitiation, for our sins and His blood completely cleanses us from all sin. The atonement in the Old Testament covered the people’s sins and brought them back into God’s blessing. Propitiation just means that by dying on the cross, Jesus satisfied, or appeased, God’s wrath and turned it away, so that God was able to show us mercy instead. The price has been paid by Jesus and our sins are completely removed by His precious blood. By faith we are in the blessing.
The question is, does Christ death include God’s blessing of healing on His people?
Harry Greenwood said there are two kinds of truth, one truth says we are sick and the other truth says we are healed. Our body might say we are sick but the word of God says that we are healed, which do we believe?
Another way to look at this is to recognize there is objective truth and subjective truth. What do I mean by that? Objective truth is how God see us now we are saved. It is the truth that God says about us once we are born again. Subjective truth is the truth of our experience. In other words objective truth is our standing before God according to His word while subjective truth is our actual state which may fall far short of what God says about us. Both these are true and what is needful is for our state to come in line with our standing not the other way round.
Christians should be praying one for the other, which is natural for Christians, but one of the problems is that when we are praying for the sick we may find that we ourselves come under attack, what do we do?
Well the first thing is that we need to know the objective side concerning sickness and disease.
God says, “I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26).
God says, “I will take sickness away from the midst of you” (Exodus 23:25).
The two promises above were dependent on keeping the law. If they broke the law then they would fall under the curse of the law. In the curse of the law, God would not remove all sickness from their midst but would allow all manner of sickness and disease to come upon them.
Paul tells us that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13). This is the atonement.
Peter tells us we are redeemed not with corruptible things like silver or gold, “but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:19). This is the atonement.
Jesus asked a question, “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? (Matthew 9:5). In other words, what is the difference, if He has forgiven a person’s sins then they are entitled to healing, if a person is sick and He heals them, it is on the ground that He has also forgiven them their sins.
David tells us that the Lord forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases (Psalm 103:3). How can He do that and be righteous? Because of the atonement.
Isaiah tells us that when Christ suffered for us on that cross, He bore our sicknesses (Isaiah 53:4, Matthew 8: 17) and by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). This is the atonement.
Peter tells us, “By whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter2:24). This is the atonement. (This is something that has already happened but needs faith to receive it.)
When someone says they have faith they will be healed, the question is, is their faith in their faith or in a Person?
Also faith for healing is not dependent on the manifestation of healing , it is dependent on Christ and precedes the manifestation.
We need to have faith in the Lord, looking to Jesus, that is, looking away from everything else and fixing our eyes upon Jesus. Christ is in heaven, our advocate and our Great High Priest, seated at the right hand of the Father.
We need to agree with God concerning what He has done for us in regards to our sins and sickness. When we are quite sure what we believe we need to stand against the devil by confessing the truth. I am not saying ‘Don’t go to the Doctors or don’t take medicine,’ what I am saying is confess the truth to your sickness and having done all, stand in the full armour of God.
What we need is a personal revelation from the Lord concerning sickness and disease, whether ours or someone else’s, and a measure of faith from the Lord to deal with it.
I know of a young woman that, after being prayed for, she declared to everyone that the Lord had healed her, even though it was obvious to everyone that she still had her problem. This went on about two years until one day God did honour her faith and miraculously removed the problem, so that everyone could see she was healed. I have heard other similar testimonies. Personally I wouldn’t do that, unless of course I felt very deeply the Lord wanted me to do it. I would strongly believe that God has healed me and that I will recover, but that will stay between me and God. Now I could be wrong on that but it has to be according to our faith and unless God gives me the faith to declare I am healed when it is obvious to others I still have the sickness, I will not go round telling everyone I am healed but I will confess my healing to God, give thanks to God for healing me and wait for Him to declare it to others by a manifestation of healing. Now I am not saying it is wrong to tell others we are healed before the manifestation of healing but I have in the past declared that God has healed someone even though they are still sick and the next thing is that they have died so then I have had to tell the same people that the person I said was healed, had died even though I said that God had healed them. However if someone believes they should confess their faith before any manifestation of healing then that is fine by me.
I know people who pray for the sick according to a formulae or technique. Now they do have some success, but I am not into formulae’s or techniques except for doing it in the Name of Jesus and being led by the Spirit in the words we use. The Name of Jesus however isn’t a technique or magic formulae, it represents all that He is, His character, His holiness, His righteousness, His love, His faith, His authority and power. We are “in Christ” and Christ is in us, when we use the Name of Jesus we represent Him.
An interesting thought, when Peter prayed for the sick he prayed in the name of Jesus Christ. Where the name “Jesus” comes before “Christ” it is relating to the time when He was on earth, before His resurrection, it is the name of the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth. They were told to do this by Jesus.
Where “Christ” is put before the name “Jesus” it is His anointed name in relation to His body after His resurrection. We are united to Christ.
The apostle Paul said that it was no longer he that lived but Christ that lived in him. When he prayed for the sick he just commanded them to be healed, it was as if it was Christ in him doing the healing through him. With Jesus the crowds just touched the hem of His garment to be healed, with Paul, while at Ephesus, he sent aprons out from his body to the sick and they were healed. However when Paul was at Philippi he cast a spirit of divination out of a woman, commanding it to come out “in the name of Jesus Christ.”
One last thing, it may be possible we need to repent about our attitude before God can heal us. When Paul is writing about the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11: 17-34, he warns the Corinthians about their attitude when they come together to break bread. Communion is the fellowship of the body of Christ (believers) in remembering the Lord’s death (see 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17). We need to wait on others and put others first and also recognize what we are doing, remembering the Lord’s death till He come. If our attitude is all wrong and we are putting ourselves first and indulging ourselves then we need to examine ourselves and repent. Many are weekly and sick because they have put themselves first before others and not had their mind on the Lord.
Mark Greenwood
August 2022