Is It God’s Will to Heal?
“I’m not good enough for God to heal me,” said Betty, a woman who had been in pain with a back problem for six years. Her pain was so severe that she had to lean forward when she walked. She was visiting her son’s family in Missouri, when one morning her daughter-in-law turned on the television and tuned into a Christian program.
That day I was a guest on the program. I ministered healing in that television studio, I pointed into the camera and said, “There is a woman who is being healed of a severe back problem now. Bend over and touch your toes. God has healed you.”
“That’s for you, Mom!” her daughter-in-law said excitedly. “Go ahead -– bend over and touch your toes.”
Betty is a shy woman who was unsure of God’s willingness to heal her. She felt she was not good enough to be healed. But she obeyed and bent over to touch her toes and found she could do it! Then she discovered she could walk standing straight without pain. Suddenly she realized God is no respecter of persons. It is His will to heal.
So many people in this world are like Betty. Not knowing it is God’s will to heal, they have continued to suffer because of their lack of knowledge. It is not necessary to remain in illness and affliction, but you must be assured it is God’s will to heal, and then accept by faith God’s provision for you.
God’s will for you is expressed in 3 John 2: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the Father, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). What is God’s will in heaven? Is it sickness? The Scripture says, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17) in heaven. There will be no sickness there.
But many people have a problem accepting by faith what is God’s will on earth. The Apostle Paul writes, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). You cannot find one Scripture that will tell you to pray for faith. Instead, you find this Scripture that says faith comes when you hear the Word of God. Faith acts upon knowledge. That is the wonderful power a Christian has when he has God’s Word, and through his knowledge of the Word can claim God’s promises for him.
At the turn of the 20th century a man named Alexander Dowie was pastoring a church in Chicago when the bubonic plague was assaulting our country and many people were dying. There was no cure for the plague, and Dr. Dowie’s church did not believe in divine healing.
One day he was sitting in his study with his head buried in his arms, crying out to God. “Oh, God,” he cried, “did you cause this to happen? Are you trying to teach us something? Is this plague a lesson from you?” Those are questions I’m sure all of us have asked at one time or another.
Finally, Dr. Dowie stopped his questioning and just waited quietly before the Lord. Then the Lord had an opportunity to speak to him in a still, small voice. Dr. Dowie knew the Scriptures, so the Spirit of God had a basis on which to speak to him.
He began to speak Psalm 103:3: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all they diseases.”
Then the Spirit reminded him of Psalm 107:20: “He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
He found out that Jesus is the living Word of God whom God sent to bring healing. (See John 1:1, 14.)
Matthew 8:17 says, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Jesus fulfilled this Old Testament prophecy by carrying away our sicknesses.
Then Dr. Dowie began to read Acts 10:38: “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.” And Hebrews 13:8 came to his mind: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Shortly after this experience, Dr. Dowie heard footsteps outside his study door and two young men rushed in. “Hurry, Dr. Dowie. Mary is dying!”
He ran with the two young men, coatless and hatless, to a house down the street where a physician was tending to a twelve-year-old girl. She appeared to be in the final stages of the plague, with a froth of blood coming from her mouth.
The physician began to give God credit for the child’s death. Dr. Dowie scolded, “How dare you blame this on my Father God!” He walked over and put his hands on the little girl’s head and began to pray, reminding God of His Word. The little girl grew quiet.
The mother, fearing she was dead, exclaimed, “She’s gone!”
Dr. Dowie remembered the occasion when Jesus prayed for a little girl in the fifth chapter of Mark, then commanded her parents to prepare food for the girl. “Prepare her something to eat,” said Dr. Dowie. The child lay perfectly still, but they went ahead and prepared something.
In a few minutes they brought the food in and Dr. Dowie began to snap his fingers next to the child’s ear. She woke up, looked around and said, “Oh, Mother, I feel so good. I’ve been asleep for such a long time.” (Actually, it had been only a few minutes.) She sat up and ate the food, healed perfectly by the power of God.
Dr. Dowie walked into the next room where the little girl’s younger brother also lay dying. Dr. Dowie laid hands on him and prayed, and God healed the little boy, too. From that day forward, not one more member of Dr. Dowie’s church died from the plague, and he continued to pastor there for nineteen years.
God has provided a way for you to be healed and made whole. He has sent His Word, Jesus, to bear your sicknesses. God’s Word is His will, and His will is, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
In one of my meetings in Los Angeles, a man and woman came to the front at the close of the service. As soon as I walked up to them I sensed that the man was there against his will; he was there to please the woman standing by his side. She asked me to pray for him. He just stood there.
I knew he didn’t believe nor did he want prayer. “Do you believe in Jesus?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered. “Do you believe in healing?” He looked down at the floor and said, “No, I don’t.”
Then I said, “Would you like to see what God’s Word says about healing?”
His weak response assured me he really didn’t care, but I opened my Bible to Psalm 103:3 and 1 Peter 2:24 and asked him to read those verses aloud. When he finished, I asked him if the first part were true — that God had forgiven his iniquities.
He said, “Absolutely.” “Then isn’t the second part of both verses true?” I asked. ” ‘…who healeth all thy diseases; …by whose stripes ye were healed’?”
He looked away and said, “No.”
I couldn’t believe he could stand there and read God’s Word, and then reject part of it. To my sorrow, he walked away as sick as he had been when he came forward. Healing was available just as he had read in the Scriptures. But tradition blinded his eyes and he couldn’t accept that it was God’s will to heal him.
How much better to take the attitude Betty did. She stepped out in faith — tentative as that faith was — and claimed her healing. And she learned that God backs up His Word, just as He promised.