Gerry van der Wende: Healing and the Word

Healing and the Word

March 6, 2011

2 Peter 1:4

Introduction

I grew up in a church that believed in healing
The odd thing was that we were not spirit-filled
As a kid I remember being bitten by a spider, being prayed for, and the bite did not swell up or cause problems
I remember stepping on a rusty nail and getting blood poisoning, being prayed for, and my life was spared
I once had blood poisoning in a finger, and the red line was racing to my heart and it stopped halfway up my forearm
One time my first wife had an abcess and was in excruciating pain. After praying for God's intervention the infection was totally healed
A woman in our small group had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and after prayer, she was healed and got her driver's license back
Someone had x-rays taken and there was a spot on the x-ray, the size of a quarter, right around the appendix. We prayed, and after tests and surgery it was determined that there was nothing there
The same person went to Renown and was told his aorta, the main artery into the heart, was 75% blocked. After prayer he went back and the doctor said the blockage had mysteriously gone.
Another person was in the agonies of methodone withdrawal. Our home group prayed for him and he slept peacefully and the withdrawal symptoms had left, overnight
I know the Lord heals from personal experience
But God's Word is more real than my experiences
There is power in God's Word to heal
Tonight we will look at some of God's promises to heal, and hopefully they will help to bolster your faith

Is sickness normal?

Many believe that God sometimes heal the sick, but they don't believe God wants to heal them personally
They feel they need a special revelation of His will for them personally
If it is not God's will for you to be healed, then it would be wrong for you to seek healing through natural means
If it is God's will to heal you, it would seem the best way to go about this is through divine healing
God is as concerned about your physical as your spiritual problems
Psa 103:2-5
He wants our sins to be forgiven and our diseases to be healed
Sin is unnatural and a result of the fall of Adam
Sickness also is a result of the fall - man was created "very good" Gen 1:31
It is only after man was evicted from the Garden, that the curse went into effect
If sin is unnatural and needs a divine remedy, then sickness also requires a divine intervention
So the answer to the two problems of sin and sickness, is to be found in the single remedy, Jesus our savior

The bronze serpent

The Israelites were complaining about God, and as a result, punishment came in the form of poisonous snakes
Num 21:4-9
They cried to God, and he told Moses to raise up a bronze serpent on a pole
This serpent was a type of Christ
John3:14-15
As the Israelites fixed their eyes on the serpent, they were healed
As we today fix our eyes on Jesus, we too are healed of our sins and sicknesses
We are not to be looking at the symptoms
Instead, we are to look to Jesus, our Savior
When they were healed they received both forgiveness of their sin (complaining about God), and physical healing from the snakebite
They were a physical people inheriting physical blessings
We are a spiritual people, inheriting eternal blessings
John 3:16
They as a physical people, looking to a physical forerunner of the Savior, received physical healing
When we look to the reality of Jesus for healing we should reap at least as much blessing as they did
If they were healed, we should be healed
The condition is that we must believe

We must believe

If we believe that Jesus died to save our sins, personally, whenever we turn to Him, we can also believe that he will heal us, personally
The removal of our sins and the removal of our sicknesses are both included in what Jesus did on the cross
Isa 53:4-5
It takes faith to believe in Jesus' sacrifice for us personally
Some may say, that the healing referred to here is our spiritual healing from sin
But Jesus shows it refers to actual physical healing
Matt 8:16-17
God's will for us is that we be protected by Him and kept healthy even in the midst of pestilence
Psalm 91 (whole psalm)
When we believe in Jesus, healing is promised for us

Conclusion

If we believe that Jesus died for us, so that our spiritual condition is healed, and our sins are forgiven
In the same way, in Jesus' atoning sacrifice, his stripes were for our healing
God's will for us is that we be healthy in every part of us, body soul and spirit.
But that discussion will have to wait till a further sermon

Gerry van der Wende