The Bible Promises of Healing Volume II

Healing, God's Will Throughout the Ages

"For I am the Lord, I change not…"

Mal 3:6

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

Heb 13:8

"When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. Suddenly a leper came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.' Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. 'I am willing,' He said. 'Be clean!' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.…"

Mat 8:1-2

I spend a lot of time in this book talking about the work of Jesus, particularly in the area of healing. But if you look closely at the Old Testament, you will see that healing didn't begin with Jesus.

This is an important point because if I can get you to see that God's will was healing in the Old Testament and in the time of Jesus, then I can get you to understand that it is still His will today (see also the chapter entitled "He Healed Them All” in Vol I).

I wanted to try to use the fancy word dispensation, so I looked it up. That led me to a fancier word, dispensationalism, which spun off into the errors of dispensationalism. I didn't realize it was that complicated. I will try to take the concept as I imagined it and break it down the way I see it in Scripture.

In Scripture, I see a triune God working with man. In the Old Testament, I see God the Father speaking directly to men such as Adam, Moses, and Abraham and through the "word of the Lord" to the prophets (1Sa 3:21, 2Sa 3:24, 1Ki 13:2-18, Isa 39:5, Jer 1:2-4, etc.) and through the ministry of angels (Dan 10:5-9). I also see God the Father's expressed will concerning healing in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament, I see God the Son who put on flesh (Jhn 1:14, Phi 2:6-8), teaching, discipling, leading, and selecting leaders that would carry out His work when He left. In this book, I also detail Jesus carrying out the Father's will regarding healing.

Before He left, Jesus told the Apostles that He would send another Comforter (Jhn 16:14) and that it would be better that He left so that the Comforter could come (Jhn 16:7). That Comforter was God the Holy Ghost.

We see His operation on Earth mirroring everything that had been done by God the Father and God the Son. In the book of Acts and later chapters, we see the Holy Spirit working through men via gifts of healing and miracles.

In the simplest of terms, God, whether God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Ghost, has always been at work in the area of healing. Healing has always been God’s promise and priority, and it makes sense that the three divine personalities would have the same priorities because They are all one.

Let's take a look at some Old Testament Scriptures that emphasize God's will for healing:

"Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, 'What shall we drink?' So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, 'If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.'”

Exo 15:23-26 (NKJV)

“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…”

Psa 103:1-3 (NIV)

“He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen upon them.”

Psa 105:37-38

“So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.”

Exo 23:25-26 (NKJV)

“And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.”

Deu 7:15 (NKJV)

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.”

Pro 3:7-8 (NKJV)

“Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Exo 12:13 (NKJV)

“Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling…”

Psa 91:9-10 (NKJV)

“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.”

Exo 20:12

“Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.”

Deu 5:33

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”

Psa 34:19 

“Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.”

Num 16:47-48

“The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, And a good report makes the bones healthy.”

Pro 15:30

“Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.”

Isa 58:8 (NKJV)

“But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.”

Mal 4:2 (NKJV)

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

Psa 90:10

“My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.”

Pro 3:1-2

“For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.”

Pro 9:11

“Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?”

Ecc 7:17

“They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”

Isa 65:22

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Deu 30:19-20

“If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; for I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.”

Lev 26:3, 9

“I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the LORD.”

Psa 118:17

“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.”

Hos 13:14

“For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: ‘Seek Me and live; but do not seek Bethel, Nor enter Gilgal, Nor pass over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the LORD and live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, With no one to quench it in Bethel…”

Amo 5:4-6

“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.”

Exo 20:12

“Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.”

Deu 5:33

“…and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’”

Deu 11:9 (NKJV)

“that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.”

Deu 11:21 (NKJV)

“Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you.”

Isa 46:41

“And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead.”

Chr 29:28

“Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season.”

Job 5:26

“For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The good LORD pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary. And the LORD hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.

2Ch 30:18-20

“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.”

Isa 53:5

“And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

2 Ki 5:7-14

“And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again.” And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.  And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

1 Ki 17:15-24

“When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. Then he summoned Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

2 Ki 4:32-37

“And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.”

2 Ki 13:21

The Old Testament is a written description of God's covenant with Israel. They were His “chosen people.” The numerous Scriptures above show that healing was a vital part of His covenant with them.

The Scriptural accounts of Elijah and Elisha read like the gospels or the book of Acts. We see stories of sick people being made well and the dead being brought back to life. God used these men as conduits or instruments of His healing power. It’s the same pattern seen in the apostles selected by Jesus and later in men like Stephen and Philip, whom the Holy Ghost chose through the apostles.

In the New Testament, when we receive Christ as Savior, we come into covenant with God. The Bible says in Heb 8:1-13 that we, as New Testament believers and covenant members, have a better covenant:

“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on Earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”

I end this chapter with a request. Reflect on the number of healing scriptures in the Old Testament and ask yourself: If healing was an integral part of the old covenant and we have a new and better covenant, why wouldn’t it be part of it?

Jesus went about “healing and doing good” (Act 10:38). It demonstrated that God’s will for healing was still part of the covenant promises. Jesus said I came to do the will of Him who sent me (Jhn 6:38). In later chapters, I will show that God the Holy Ghost continued this work after Jesus departed. Truly, healing was and is God’s will throughout the ages.