Much of my notes here are inspired by Joseph Prince sermons, much of it is inspired by life, and much of it came like a roaring river of scripture remembrance as I came across fellow friends and family with health issues. Most of all, this is what God has been showing me through his word lately! “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” I am here today to share God’s word in confident expectation it will increase our faith.
There’s a TON of scripture here and a ton of words I could not resist writing so I hope you’re hungry for the healing God’s word provides in abundance. This is written specifically for those who are hungry. Enjoy. :)
In every passage in scripture where it shows Jesus healing someone, the immediate result/outcome is written “-and they glorified God”. God is glorified when his goodness is bestowed on us! So come boldly to the throne of grace! (Hebrews 4:16) Do not hold back, as if you’re stepping over a line when you ask big from God, and know this:
God is glorified when we receive goodness from him.
“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in ALL things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”
- III John 1:2
All scripture is God breathed. (II Timothy 3:16) The disciple John was the most aware of Jesus’s love for him as he referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. In this verse of God’s word in III John it is revealed that the heart of our Heavenly Father desires us to be IN HEALTH. This goes against all assumptions I’ve learned over the years, some examples being that God “wants me to be ill” or God “puts” sickness in us to “teach us a lesson.” It’s true, he causes all things to work together for good (*Romans 8) but notice in James that it says every GOOD gift is from above. It doesn’t say everything is from above.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
- James 1:17
I want to point you to a huge game changer in the realm of healing. This has helped me heal mentally, emotionally, and even bodily. Through the power of God’s word in light of his grace and the righteousness by faith through Christ, I’ve literally watched my own personality and vigor bloom, from serious and sullen to joyful and youthful-
“My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to ALL their flesh.”
- Proverbs 4:20-22
Check it out! Did you see what he said? Notice how it doesn’t say God’s word is health to all our spirit, but our flesh! Our bodies! God gave us his word as a literal medicine! Earthly medicine can only go so far, but God has placed power in his word to be health to ALL our flesh! We don’t have to go through life under the world’s limited acceptance of weakness as we grow older.
Deuteronomy 34:7 says “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.”
“Your sandals shall be iron and bronze; As your days, so shall your strength be.”
- Deuteronomy 33:25
In other words, the harder your day, the more grace and strength God will give. The more your days progress, the more strength God will give. God is not the kind to give you days on this earth without supplying the strength to live them.
“So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”
- Zechariah 4:6
If we are to be healed in this life, it will not be a product of effort. God does not glory in men’s strength, but in our weakness. That’s when we’re made strong. (II Cor. 12:10)
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:10
Notice when Jesus gave this guide to prayer what he said. He says to pray for God’s will as it is in heaven, on earth. Is there any sickness in heaven? No! What an encouragement to know that God wants us to receive heavenly blessings on this earth! We don’t have to wait for heaven to have abundant life.
“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith WILL save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails MUCH. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.”
- James 5:14-17
God gave this fantastic example of how a man just like us, imperfect, not knowing everything, can pray EFFECTIVE prayers through faith.
“Consider how I love Your precepts; Revive me, O Lord, according to YOUR lovingkindness.”
- Psalms 119:159
Clearly we can’t ask God to revive us according to how much we do for him, since in the flesh nothing good dwells. (Romans 7:18)
But if we ask according to His love, which is abundant and unconditional, we can expect to be abundantly and unconditionally blessed.
“And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit GIVES LIFE.”
- II Corinthians 3:4-6
The letter, the law of God’s standards, is for the world. It is not for those who’s faith is in Jesus, for we are governed by God’s in-dwelling spirit and the righteous requirement is fulfilled in us through Christ, not by what we do but by what He’s done! (Romans 8:4)
I can attest to this personally that the letter kills.. During the first 2 years after Jesus came into my life, I wasted so much time just beating myself up for “not doing enough for God” or “not being good enough” not knowing that by holding myself to an unreachable standard I was putting myself under law, (demands of doing good to obtain God’s favor) making grace of no merit, increasing my depression, decreasing my health, and acting as if Jesus died for no reason, as if I had to atone for my own shortcomings somehow. To think I struggled with this in the era of my salvation! I can say for sure Jesus didn’t take all my shame on the cross just for me to bear more shame.
“I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.””
- Galatians 2:21
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
- Galatians 5:18
“For sin SHALL NOT have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under GRACE.”
- Romans 6:14
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives ALL your iniquities, Who heals ALL your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,”
- Psalms 103:2-4
The story of Mephibosheth in II Samuel is a picture of Jesus’s love for us. King David asked one thing of Mephibosheth, and it was that he would eat at his table for all the days of his life.
“I will surely show you kindness”
Mephibosheth was given this blessing WHILE he was lame in both his feet. He had an infirmity.
In the same way we can find nourishment in God’s word all the days of our life.
“Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?””
- John 5:5-6
“Rise. Take up your bed and walk”
God can heal is just by saying the word
- Matthew (8:5-13)
“When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.””
- Matthew 9:27-29
And their eyes were opened. What do you earnestly yearn for God to heal you from? I personally have a secret ailment only a select few know about. On a positive note, lately I can’t seem to fight this belief that God is going to heal me even more than I myself want to be healed, and have been waiting for it. I believe God will heal this secret thing to show that there’s nothing he can’t do, even when it seems to defy reality, even in this modern world. I pray this imparts faith to the hearer. Lately I keep hearing the words “keep feeding on My word. Your healing will come without you realizing it. I heard you when you asked me for help.”
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry.”
- Psalms 34:15
Im thankful that the one personality aspect of God Jesus came to reveal above all else was God as “Father”. It’s hard to imagine a God as great and holy as God to have a caring heart too, but the fact that he looks at us with the same fatherly love he looked at Jesus with shows how much he cares.
1 Cor. 13:7- love hopes all things, believes all things.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have LIFE, and that they may have it more ABUNDANTLY.”
- John 10:10
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we IN THIS WORLD.”
- I John 4:17
In this world! In this imperfect world we are declared as spotless, sinless, perfect, and healthy as Jesus is! Proclaim this, receive this!
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are HEALED.”
- Isaiah 53:5
You may mention as I sure have before in my life, “well I still have this ailment, and there are still people who are sick with health issues. How can I believe all this?”
God wants us to ask him! He wants us to receive and keep receiving all that he has to give, in the same way he wants all to receive life.
- (II Peter 3:9)
Matthew 7:7-11 -
““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
“Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” (- Mark 9:24)
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
- Matthew 6:33
I used to look at this verse through a lens of guilt, aware that I don’t often seek first God’s will. Then grace became abundant in my life. Here’s an elevated perspective for this verse. Notice how it says HIS righteousness. His righteousness is in Jesus, and is imputed to us! That transformed my futile striving into rest! (Matthew 11:28) All of God’s favor is in Christ, a gift to us. Seek consciousness that you are righteous in Jesus, and every blessing of God is included in Him.
I want to mention these two verses from God’s word as well-
“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”
- II Corinthians 1:20
“But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.””
- Mark 10:27
All things are possible with God. We live in a world that is bound and limited by the state of what is seen, but “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Keep hoping for what you yearn for God to deliver you from. Keep receiving his grace. And in the meantime, keep feeding on his word that is nourishment even to our joints and marrow. - (Hebrews 4:12) Keep remembering Jesus’s body that was broken for us so we could be whole. He didn’t come so we could barely get by. He came so we could have abundant life.