There are many different opinions among believers today when it comes to healing. There are entire denominations today that have built complex doctrines around whether God heals today or not. People in general have a hard time believing in the miraculous aspects of God. If they can’t see it, touch it, or feel it, then it is not “real” to them. This of course is nothing new, people have always been this way, and Jesus understands that. In John 14:20, Thomas declared that he would not believe that Jesus was risen unless he saw the physical evidence for himself, which Jesus indeed gave him, but Jesus also said to Thomas, “blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
Today we will be taking a look at the healing which Jesus provided for – specifically for your physical body. This is important because there are a great number of believers today who are suffering in their physical bodies. They are suffering with sicknesses, diseases, disorders and pains that God never intended, and He went to great lengths, suffering and dying on the cross, bearing the full punishment for your sin and mine so that we would not have to suffer any longer. As we examine this truth today, we will see how important this truth is to God, and to us as well.
Our first scripture text today is going to be Romans 8:9-11:
“But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.”
Verse 9 makes it clear that all who receive Christ also receive His Spirit (which by the way is also the reason we are no longer “in the flesh”). Some people try to equate being in the flesh as committing sinful acts, and they equate being in the Spirit as committing righteous acts – but we see here that what really determines whether you are in the flesh or in the Spirit is not what you do, but what you believe. If you believe Christ and receive salvation, you receive His Holy Spirit, and therefore you are in the Spirit. If you believe in yourself and your own works, then you are in the flesh. It really is that simple!
Verse 10 then continues by saying that if Christ is in you, that is, if you have received Him, then the body (that is the body of death from Paul’s famous discourse in the previous chapter of Romans 7:24), the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Then verse 11 continues, but if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you (which it does if you believe on Christ). He that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies…
Now there have been people who claim that this is only talking about the resurrection when Christ returns. They try to downplay what this verse is saying and rob it of its power. However I want to bring your attention to the detail here that this verse clearly says that the Holy Spirit will quicken (that means revitalize, regenerate and rejuvenate) your mortal body. I’m so glad that this verse specifies “mortal body” here. Because now we can be sure that it is not talking about some time in the future when we receive our supernatural bodies, but that the same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, will also revitalize, rejuvenate and regenerate our mortal bodies. That word “mortal” there in the Greek means “liable to death”, “able to die”; it’s the same word used in 2nd Corinthians 4:11 as Paul makes record that even though he was subject to death often, he was preserved by the Spirit of Christ that the life of Jesus would be manifested in his mortal flesh.
This is the power of the New Covenant. The indwelling of the Spirit within us. This is a magnificent benefit for us that we have barely scratched the surface of in our day-to-day lives as believers. We have not even begun to comprehend this. The fact that the Spirit of Life is indwelling us is a huge point to make because in truth, not many believers have realized this yet. Many Christians are still waiting for God to zap them with some kind of “healing beam” from Heaven, or they are trying to impress God with their levels of faith until He finally capitulates and says “Fine! I’ll give it to you.”
Dear friend, God is not the unjust judge from Luke 18. Jesus shared that parable to contrast the difference between the way the unjust judge behaves and the way that your loving Father in Heaven treats His dearly beloved children. God is not up in heaven arbitrarily deciding who gets healed and who doesn’t! He doesn’t say “Yes, you’ll be healed, but no not you!” – to do so would be doing a great injustice to the healing which Jesus suffered and died for on the cross! Today you are not entreating a distant God up in Heaven in order to get Him to send down healing from above. No, He already sent down the Total Package in the form of Jesus Christ, and today the Spirit of Christ dwells on the inside of you! Turn to Matthew 14:14:
“And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.”
I want you to see the character of God here. Jesus was moved with compassion, the Greek there meaning His innermost being was touched with care and pity regarding those He saw, and He healed their sick. I want you to also see that often times when Jesus healed people, they became instant evangelists for God. Many times the people healed begin rejoicing and praising the LORD… but not all of them. In Luke 17, we also read an account of ten men with leprosy whom Jesus heals. Of those ten, only one returns to give God praise, but all ten were healed. This is important because some say that God will only heal to give Himself glory. But I would open your mind to the fact that God heals to honor Jesus and His sacrifice. That gives God glory. One of the things I have seen a number of people try to do over the years is to bargain with God or try to convince Him to heal them by promising to give Him glory. Yet that is missing the point. All healing gives God glory because they honor the sacrifice of His Son, but the glory alone is not the only reason God heals. We see from this verse that Jesus healed purely as an outpouring of charity. Do you see the heart and character of God here? Many times we are treating God as a disinterested, unemotional being that must be somehow convinced to do us good, when the reality is that He cares deeply about us, and has already done us the best good possible by sending Jesus. The healing has already been sent, Jesus has already paid the price for it!
What then is stopping it? Why does it seem to not arrive? Turn to Isaiah 53:4-5:
“Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: 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 on him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Take notice of the fact that verse 4 begins with the word Surely. This is a statement of truth, this is a reality. Yet most believers do not really believe this truth! They might say they do, because they know that the Bible says so, but when it comes right down to what they really believe in the deepest regions of their soul and spirit, they do not believe this truth that Jesus carried their sicknesses.
“So you’re saying I don’t have enough faith?”
No that’s not what I am saying. I’m sure you do have faith, because faith is information. That’s why faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. What I am saying is that you do not have belief. Faith is a noun, belief is a verb Belief is what you do based on your faith. You see, many people have read the verse of Isaiah 53:4 – they have the information, they know what God’s word says, but they do not actually believe it. They don’t live like they are free because they don’t believe that they are.
One of my favorite examples of this is of a lady I knew who was allergic to chocolate… she couldn’t eat even the smallest amount of it or she would develop rashes and terrible symptoms. Well her and I were talking and there was a plate of chocolate chip cookies on the table in-front of us, and we were discussing God’s love and healing… just talking about Him. As we were discussing God, she just started eating the cookies without even breaking conversation. She must have eaten at least three, with no direction or urging on my part. She never had one single symptom.
Now, I’m not saying to go and do dangerous things on purpose to try and get healed. That’s not belief, that’s insanity! What I am saying is that when you truly believe that you are healed then you will live like it. This is not about doing things to get healed; it’s about knowing that you are already healed and living it. And this knowing doesn’t come from your feelings or your physical senses, but it comes from your spirit.
Again, notice that verse 4 starts with the word Surely. Also notice that verse 5 does not start with that word. The significance is this… every true believer knows that Jesus was wounded for their transgressions and crushed for their iniquities. However very few believers actually know in their spirit that He also carried their sicknesses and diseases. They fail to discern the body of the LORD Jesus for their diseases and sicknesses. The Holy Spirit even had Matthew translate this verse for us so that there would be absolutely no doubt or confusion about its meaning in Matthew 8:16-17, but still people doubt this truth:
“When the even was come, they brought to 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 bore our sicknesses.”
This is part of what Jesus did for us on the cross. But people have become blind to the fact that He gave His body for the healing of our body. People have become blind to the fact that He bore their sicknesses and carried their infirmities in His own body. There is no reason for two people to pay the same debt twice!
In 1st Corinthians 11:29-30, it is said that for this reason many are sick and weak among you, and many sleep, for failing to discern the Lord’s body.
For this one reason, for failing to discern, failing to properly separate and recognize the body of Jesus Christ for you, many are sick and weak, and many have died prematurely. This is serious business, and churches have been too afraid and too timid to educate people on this extremely important subject.
The truth my dear friend, is that Jesus has made divine provisions for your body. He has bought and paid for your healing, health and wholeness on the cross and He has sent His own Holy Spirit to you, to indwell you and revitalize, regenerate and rejuvenate your mortal body. This amazing truth is yours! I pray that you choose to not wait one second longer. Don’t spend another moment living below your rightful means in Christ Jesus. Live the fullness of what Jesus paid for you to have. And be an ambassador for Christ, so that others will realize that God still heals today. He has not grown weak. He has not become ineffective, and He loves you more than you can possibly imagine! Surely, He has carried your infirmities and sicknesses on the cross, and He did it, because He loves you.
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