KEEP WATCH

Are faith healings real or phony?

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For more than twenty years I suffered from a severe form of asthma and nearly died once. Several times during the day I relied on my asthma inhaler to breath. Never once did I ask to be healed. One day I awoke and the symptoms were gone. Since then, years have passed and today my lungs are symptom free.

Did God heal me or did I simply outgrow the allergen triggering the disorder? While I lean towards the former as the case, Mark Haville (during his faith-healing days) would agree with the former. But today, Mark Haville might think better of it and suggest I outgrew the allergen causing the condition.

The Bible teaches Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Whatever healings Jesus performed during His earthly ministry are available today, but perhaps in a greater way than we think. John the Baptist, while imprisoned, received an answer to his question about Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus's reply to the question through a messenger was, "The blind see, the lame walk...and the dead are raised (Matthew 11:5)."

To John the message meant just that: Jesus was healing the blind and lame, and raising the dead. But there is a biblical principle at work that goes far beyond what the faith-healers fail to recognize. About this principle the Apostle Paul wrote, "...the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual" (1 Corinthians 15:46).

While explaining this principle might easily require a few more paragraphs, I'll keep it short. Jesus performed physical healings as a sign of his divinity but also as a foreshadowing of the spiritual healings that would follow (Acts 2).

So then, does God heal today? Absolutely! As a born again believer, you are healed. You were once blind but now see (Acts 9:18); you were once lame but now walk in the spirit (Galatians 5:16); and, you were once dead but now raised with Christ (Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 3:1).

Whether God heals the body or saves the soul, both are perfect works but the latter more assured.

In closing, God is compassionate. He is always willing to touch believers in miraculous ways. Jesus said, "...seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." The word "all" in the verse means exactly what it says and it is therefore fitting to declare "good health and healing of the body" as indeed part of "all these things" (Matthew 6:33).

Whatever our physical burdens, God's grace is sufficient for you and me until we gather at the river in the by-and-by. There, our earthly journey will end. There our physical infirmities experienced on earth will seem like a distant memory as they fade away in His presence.

Image Credit: Better Than Bacon; "Jesus Heals...Cancer?"; Creative Commons

Tags: Biblical-Truth | Controversial-Issues | Current-Issues | False-Teaching | Health-Wellness

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Published 5-18-15