By Tom Shanklin

In the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus says, “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.”

He doesn’t just say that he came to give us life, but He makes a special point to say “…and that they might have it more abundantly.” Jesus makes it very clear that he has come to give us not just life, but abundant life. He didn’t come to give us misery on earth, while we wait for the train to glory. No, the Gospel of Jesus Christ extends into this life as well as the life to come.

The psalmist David, tells us in Psalms 103:2,3, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases…” We are exhorted to “forget not” and yet many in the church world today have forgotten his benefit of healing. The same God, however, who forgives your iniquities, also heals your diseases. Praise God!

The Gospel of healing is just as much a part of the Bible as the Gospel of salvation. The same God that has redeemed you from destruction in the pit of hell, has also redeemed you from Satan’s grip of sickness. God says in Exodus 15:26, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” In the Hebrew language God’s statement about himself is expressed, “Jehovah-Rapha”.

Jehovah-Rapha is one of the redemptive names of God. That means that he is revealing himself to man in certain ways. God is revealing himself to mankind as Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord that heals you. To say that God no longer heals today, is to say that He has changed His name. But the Lord Himself says, “I am the Lord, I change not…”

When God sent His Son to earth, it was to reveal Himself and His will to mankind. God’s plan was to bless you and help you. It says, “For God so loved the world…” Isn’t it good to know that we have a God who loves and cares for us? He’s not out to make your life miserable…to cause you to suffer…to kill your babies and cause untold destruction. No, he’s on your side! He wants to help you and bless you, in this life and in the life to come.

Christ came to fulfill the will of God–to reveal Jehovah-Rapha, as well as the other redemptive characteristics of God. If you will study the New Testament, you will see Jesus revealing the will of God through His actions. Everywhere He went, He healed the sick. Everywhere He went, He cast out demons. There is not one recorded incident in the Bible where Jesus ever put sickness on a human being. He never said, “Be thou sick.” But many times, he did say, “Be thou healed.”

As you are reading this message today, He is saying the same thing to you. “Be thou healed. I want you to have the best in life. I am for you, not against you.”

Acts 10:38 says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” What Jesus did then, He is still doing today. He did good and healed them, and He’s still doing good and healing today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Some would have you believe that Jesus went to heaven to be with His Father and then they devised a plan to begin to put sickness on people. “Well Father,” some seem to believe He said, “I’ve gone to earth and have done a lot of good to people, but now that I’m here with you, let’s change our strategy and begin to whip people into subjection by putting sickness on them.”

But no, God hasn’t changed strategies. James 1:17 tells us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

I believe the reason for a lot of perverted thinking on the area of healing is because people have experienced sickness or they have known someone who has experienced sickness as a Christian. They say something like, “I know Sister So-and-So who is a fine Christian lady, and she died of cancer. Therefore, healing can’t be for today.”

The problem with that type of thinking is that it exalts Sister So-and-So above the Word of God. It is saying that it didn’t work for Sister So-and-So; therefore, God isn’t telling the truth in His Word.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be in the position of calling God a liar.

One of the basic misconceptions that causes this type of confusion is the idea that somehow everything going on in the world today is according to the will of God. When there are wars, people wonder, “Why does God cause or allow all this suffering?” When someone is killed in an automobile accident, many people blame God.

But we have to understand, wars are not the will of God. Death and destruction are not the will of God. He created the world to be a wonderful, peaceful place. It was man, not God, that chose to make it a haven for demonic activity. God wants the earth to be like heaven. It is man that has made it like hell by yielding to the forces of darkness.

Someone says, “I don’t know if it is God’s will to heal me.”

Well, I do. I can tell you for a certainty that it is God’s will to heal you.

“Oh, really, how do you know?”

He told me.

“Do you have a word from the Lord about my healing? Did he tell you it was His will?”

Yes, He certainly did. In III John 2, he says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

“Oh, I thought you meant you had a prophecy or word of knowledge.”

What better word of knowledge do you want than the infallible Word of God?

So often believers are wanting to know: “Do you have a word for me, brother?”

Yes, I certainly do: Genesis to Revelation. Peter calls it a more sure word of prophecy. Praise God!

You don’t have to guess about the will of God concerning healing. He’s revealed it clearly in His Word. His Word is His will and His will is that you prosper and be in health. That, most definitely, is the will of God.

In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself to the nation of Israel. Through Moses, God delivered the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. He brought them out of captivity with a mighty hand. He took them through the Red Sea and delivered them from their oppressors. This is a picture of our deliverance from Satan through the new birth.

The children of Israel were then to go up and possess the land of Canaan for an inheritance. God said, “I have given it to you.”

So you see, the will of God was for them to go up and possess the land at once. He didn’t have any great plan to teach them something through suffering in the desert. He just wanted to bless them with the good life.

You see, God had given them the land, but they had to go up and possess it. It was theirs, but they had to walk forward in faith and take it.

Instead of believing God and walking forth into the promise of God, the children of Israel believed an evil report. They listened to reports about giants and saw themselves like grasshoppers.

So they ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

Was that God’s will?

Absolutely not! The Bible tells us that the children of Israel could not enter in because of “unbelief”. It had nothing to do with the will of God. God even said that he had sworn to give them the land.

Hebrews 4:2 speaks of the children of Israel, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” What was the problem? Was it not the will of God? No. God’s Word was not mixed with faith.

We know that not everyone is healed. That, however, does not mean that God’s will is being done in the matter. Many times it is this very idea, the kind of thinking that blames God for sickness, which keeps people from receiving their healing. If you are not sure of God’s will, how can you seize it for yourself? You have to possess your land of Canaan by faith.

Many times people are put on the defensive by this teaching, because it puts the responsibility for their healing upon them, rather than God. It’s no longer possible to blame their sickness on God’s sovereign will, and that’s very uncomfortable. But as long as you accept sickness as coming from the hand of God, it will be impossible to be healed.

So many are opposing themselves on this issue.

Why not just relax and recognize God’s love for you? It’s not God’s will for you to be sick. But he’s not condemning you if you are. He’s just encouraging you to take what belongs to you…to accept His healing power.

None of us have arrived completely in God’s Canaan land…into our total inheritance, but we are moving on. Amen? We’re pressing on into all that God has for us.

Smith Wigglesworth of England was a great faith preacher. He was very strong in his preaching of the Gospel of Healing. He believed and preached healing as a possession of the believer through the New Birth. At one point during his ministry Smith was traveling around preaching this message and ministering to the sick supernaturally. Many miraculous healings are recorded.

However, during this time for several years, Smith himself was afflicted with Kidney stones. His position was different than our concerning doctors. He believed that Jesus was his healer, and that was it. Because of this, he refused treatment or surgery for the condition and he suffered tremendously as a result.

Finally, after months and months of agony, he was delivered of the kidney stones, but all the time he was suffering hundreds were being healed through his ministry.

Even this great man of God faced a severe trial in the area of healing. Some would say, “See, God doesn’t heal everyone.” But Smith didn’t back down from his stand because of the trial. He didn’t doubt and blame God for the condition. No, he kept believing and confessing the Word and he came out on top. So don’t be consumed by discouragement. Continue to lift up the Word of God above the sickness. Deny its right to exist, based upon the Word of God.

We are not recommending that everyone take the stand that Smith Wigglesworth did. In many cases this would be a mistake. We can not walk in another persons faith. We have to walk in the faith that we are able to operate in. However, we can learn from others!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a Gospel of salvation to the total man (spirit, soul and body). When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty, not only for your sin, but also for your sicknesses. I Pet. 2:24 says, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness…”

Many times I will stop there and talk about the blessing of Christ’s substitution for us…how he took the penalty for our sin, that we might be delivered from sin. But, the verse does not end there. He goes on to say, “…by whose stripes ye were healed.”

You see, not only did he pay the penalty for your sins, but also sicknesses. Some will say that this verse refers to spiritual healing. The only problem with that is that the Bible does not teach such a thing as spiritual healing. When you were saved, you were born again and became a new creature. (See John 3 and II Cor 5:17-21) Being born again and being healed are two different things. No, I Peter 2:24 refers to physical healing.

Matthew 8:16-17 also refers to the healing provided for us through Jesus Christ. “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”

Some theologians like to somehow spiritualize such a statement, but it is obviously a reference to physical healing.

Both I Peter 2:24 and Matthew 8:17 are drawn from the great redemptive chapter of the Bible, Isaiah 53. This particular portion of the Scripture had a great deal to do with me coming to the Lord, when I realized that the prophet had predicted the death of Jesus with such accuracy over 700 years before it took place.

Matthew 8:17 (Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses) is actually an inspired interpretation of Isaiah 53:4, which reads in the King James version of the Bible, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows…”

In the original language, the word translated griefs is “choli” which actually means “sickness” and is translated as such in Deut. 7:15, 28:61, I Kings 17:17 and other passages. The word translated sorrows is from the Hebrew “makob” which literally rendered is “pains” and is translated as such in Job 14:22 and Job 33:19. (See Young’s literal translation of the Bible.)

The prophet goes on to say, “…yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” So we can see that God is speaking of the healing of our natural man almost in the same breath with the salvation of our souls. And just as Adam’s sin brought not only spiritual death, but also sickness (incipient death) into the world, so Jesus Christ has redeemed us from both spiritual death and sickness.

Perhaps one of the clearest references, however, in terms of Biblical evidence for the Gospel of healing is found in Galations 3:13. One has to virtually reject Biblical authority to reject the validity of this Scripture’s reference to physical healing.

It says, “Christ hath redeemed (bought us back) us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

Christ was our substitute on the cross. He took the punishment that we deserved, including sickness. If he took it, I don’t need to. He redeemed us. He bought us back. He redeemed us from something. That something is “the curse of the law.”

If we are going to find out what that means, we are going to have to look in Deut. 28:15-62, which describes the curse of the law. You will find that this portion of Scripture describes every sickness known to the human race, as well as many other disastrous results of disobedience to God. Many, many sicknesses are listed. Then verse 61 states, “Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.”

So the curse of the law (the result of disobedience) includes every sickness. But I’ve got Good News for you. You’ve been redeemed from every bit of it.

So I encourage you, don’t fight it. Flow with God’s blessing. He’s provided healing through His Son, Jesus. He is on your side!

Pray this simple prayer:

Dear God, I thank you for Jesus. I thank You that He died on the cross for me, that I being dead to sin should live unto righteousness. And I thank you, Lord, that by your stripes, I was healed. Thank you Lord for your salvation. Thank you for your healing, in Jesus name.