Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Bible Teacher, Novelist, and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, November 16, 2024, and this is episode #22 in Series 2024. This episode is titled, “The Truth about Healing.”
Recently, I was severely criticized for my position on healing. Interestingly, the criticism came not from non-Christians who don’t believe in Jesus Christ, but from born-again, Christ-Followers who do.
While the criticism troubled me, it troubled me for a reason other than what you might think. I wasn’t at all troubled because I was criticized. Jesus warned us believers that criticism would come, and I have certainly had my share over the years. The criticism troubled me because the critics, for whatever reason, were missing out on one of the greatest blessings Jesus Christ died to give all of us. The blessing of healing and health.
Whenever a question comes up about a topic, we should go first to the Word of God. The Word of God is like a referee. It alone determines the truth or error of a particular belief or belief system.
So let’s take a close look at what Jesus Himself said about healing.
First, God makes clear in His Word that healing is in the Atonement. The Atonement is the reconciliation between God and humanity that Jesus brought about by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead. Through the Atonement, Jesus paid the price for the forgiveness of our sin and the healing of our bodies.
We acknowledge this truth every time we take Holy Communion. The wine represents the Blood of Jesus that earned for us the forgiveness of our sin. The Bread represents the Body of Jesus that paid for our physical healing. Jesus died to save the whole person, not just the spiritual person.
Now, God is not only able to heal us; He wants to heal us. And even more than that, He has already healed us.
When Jesus took the 39 lashes on His back just before being crucified, He paid for our healing. He took our sickness and disease and, in exchange, gave us His health.
Let’s look closely at some Scripture verses that reveal this truth:
__Matthew 8: 17 NLT – “This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, ‘He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.’”
Notice Jesus “took our infirmities” —our sicknesses—and “bare [or “bore” in modern English] our sicknesses” so that we would not have to bear them.
__Psalm 103: 2-3 NLT – “Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things He does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.”
Notice: God heals ALL our diseases; not some, but ALL. Just as He forgives all of our sins, He heals all of our diseases. Imagine if we believed that God forgives only some of our sins or that He forgives the sins of only some people, but not the sins of all people. I don’t know of anyone who believes in that kind of partial forgiveness of sin by God. Yet, that is exactly what we believe about healing. Why would the God Who forgives all sin heal only some sickness?
We Christians sometimes don’t think straight. We don’t carry our thinking to its logical conclusion but we hold on to tradition or wrong teaching without ever questioning it.
Here is another Scripture verse on healing:
—-Mark 11: 24 NJKV – “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.“
Notice: This verse instructs us to believe when we pray, not when we receive the answer to our prayer. If we believe when we pray, then we receive what we prayed for the instant we pray for it. But, the manifestation—or the showing up—of what we prayed for usually comes later. For example, I believe that I receive healing the instant I pray for it, but the healing may not show up in my body until later. Sometimes a lot later.
God’s will for healing is clear in the verses I cited above, and in many other verses throughout the Sacred Scriptures. I challenge you to look up every Scripture verse on healing and see for yourself that healing is God’s will for you and healing is for today. Hebrews 13: 8 tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Second, a Word on Faith . . .
Faith begins where the will of God is known. I’m going to say that again. Brother Hagin used to say this all the time. Faith begins where the will of God is known. Unless we know the will of God on a particular matter, we will not have faith to ask God for what we need in that area. Or we will ask Him tentatively, such as when we use the phrase “If it be Your will.”
Tentativeness is not faith.
And it is by faith that we receive healing.
How do we receive healing? By faith. Let’s look at Scripture verses that prove this:
__Mark 5: 34 NLT- “And he [Jesus] said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
In the story of the woman with the hemorrhaging, Jesus said that it was her faith that made her whole.
Jesus said the same of the blind man named Bartimaeus.
__Mark 10: 52 NLT – “And Jesus said to him, ‘Go, for your faith has healed you.’ Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.“
It was Bartimaeus’ faith that healed him.
And so it is with us. It is our faith that brings us the healing that Jesus died to give us. Our faith makes us whole.
Jesus says what He means and He means what He says. Why, then, do we not take Him at His Word?
When Jesus told the hemorrhaging woman that it was her faith that healed her, why don’t we believe what He said to her? In telling the hemorrhaging woman that her faith healed her, He was telling us that our faith heals us as well.
Third, My Personal Experience . . .
Lest you think that I am simply misinterpreting Scripture to prove a point, let me share with you some personal experiences of healing in my own life and my own family.
When my younger daughter Gina was two months old, she was diagnosed with an incurable intestinal disease involving the lymph glands. The medical prognosis was that she would not live beyond nine years of age.
Because my husband and I knew and believed the Word of God on healing, we refused to accept our daughter’s diagnosis as the final word. Instead, we laid hands on her as the Word commands, and we prayed for her healing.
And we believed that our baby daughter was healed the moment we prayed.
Shortly after we prayed, I was sitting in our family room with my daughter in a cradle beside me. The Holy Spirit told me to turn on the TV. So I did.
The channel was already set to a Christian program I watched regularly—the 700 Club. Perhaps some of you listening know of this program.
The instant I turned on the TV, the host of the program, Dr. Pat Robertson, was praying. He looked straight into the camera and said, “There is a baby in the television audience out there with a lymph gland disorder and God is healing that baby now.”
Well, I jumped out of my chair shouting, “That’s my Gina! That’s my Gina!”
Suddenly I felt a sensation like that of warm oil running down my body from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. I knew that my baby was healed.
My husband—who, by the way, is a physician—and I took our baby back to her pediatrician. He was amazed and vouched for her healing. All symptoms of illness had disappeared.
Today our daughter is 47 years old, happily married, and serves on the worship team at her church. God’s Word works, my friend!
Why do I share this? Because I am saddened to see so many people needlessly enduring sickness that Jesus took from them, simply because they do not know the truth about healing. Case in point: the well-meaning critics who recently criticized me for believing in healing.
I am saddened by the false teaching about healing and the lack of teaching about healing in the Church. I am saddened from grieving over the untimely death of family members and friends who did not know the Word of God on healing or, worse yet, doubted it. Yes, all of us must die one day, but hear this: we don’t have to be sick in order to die!
We have no problem believing that we are forgiven when we ask God to forgive us. Why not? Because we have heard the message of forgiveness over and over and over again.
But we have trouble believing that we are healed. Why? Because we have not heard the message of healing over and over and over again. In fact, we’ve barely heard it at all!
Romans 10: 17 tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. This is the only way faith comes. If we don’t hear the Word of God on healing, we will never have faith for it. In fact, we will eventually believe whatever we hear often enough and long enough. The Church has heard wrong teaching about healing far too often and far too long.
Lest I mention only my daughter’s healing, for which we continue to this day to praise God, I would like to share two more healings in my immediate family:
1) First, my own healing. I was healed of breast cancer 30 years ago. When I received the diagnosis, I rejected it. I didn’t deny the fact of the test result. Rather, I rejected the truth of the test result.
I mean that TRUTH and FACT are not the same thing. FACT is the test result you receive, the medical report from your doctor. TRUTH is what God says about you. TRUTH is greater than FACT. TRUTH supersedes FACT.
God says 1 Peter 2: 24 that you were healed by the stripes of Jesus. This is TRUTH. The test result says you have cancer. This is FACT. Which one prevails in your life—whether Truth or Fact—depends totally on which one you believe—Truth or Fact.
The problem with most people is that they believe Fact over Truth. As a result, FACT prevails in their life.
2) My husband was recently healed of cancer. When he received the cancer diagnosis, he rejected it and chose to believe what God said about him in the Holy Scriptures. This is what my husband stood on and held fast. Remember: My husband is a physician. He has treated hundreds, if not thousands, of cancer patients over his 50 years of practice.
So, my friend, why were my daughter, my husband, and I healed? Because we simply believed God’s Word about healing. We simply placed TRUTH over FACT.
And you can do the same thing!
It grieves me that so many churches today are reluctant to preach healing for fear of making people feel bad if they are not healed. I call this reluctance the fear of man. And God warns us against the fear of man.
I, for one, will not deny God’s Word because of the fear of man. Instead, I will speak the truth in love because of my fear of God and my love for my fellow man. The truth is that if I do not receive something that God has promised me and given me, the problem is with me, not with God.
If we love someone, we will tell him the truth, regardless of how it makes him feel, because only the truth sets us free. If we love someone, we will tell him the truth, regardless of the cost to us, whether that cost be simply criticism or something worse.
So, my friend, if you are facing an illness today, the truth is that Jesus died to heal you as well as to forgive you. Choose to believe God’s Word about healing. Choose to be healed.
A word of caution here: It is not wrong to go to a doctor and to take medicine for one’s healing. God has provided these wonderful resources for healing as well. To those who would say that God makes us sick, I would say, “Why, then, do you go to a doctor? If God made you sick, you are sinning by trying to get well.”
Do you see the lack of logic in this way of thinking?
So, bottomline, Just as we cannot earn forgiveness of sin, neither can we earn physical healing. We simply believe that forgiveness and healing are ours, and we receive them with thanksgiving.
Our Lord Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price so that we can be free in spirit, soul, and body. We must not take His sacrifice lightly by not believing Him and by not receiving what He did for us. To do so would break His heart and, in my opinion, be a slap in His face.
Our world desperately needs healing. Just as millions will go to hell needlessly because they refuse to believe in salvation by Christ alone, millions are needlessly sick today because they don’t believe in healing. Don’t be one of them.
The focus of this message today—and of all of my messages—is Jesus Christ. He is all you will ever need. Do you know Him personally? Have you received Him as your Savior and Lord? If not, pray this simple prayer with me now:
LORD Jesus, I come to You just as I am. I admit that I am a sinner in need of Your mercy and grace. I repent of my sin, and I invite You into my life to be my Savior and Lord. Thank You, LORD, for saving me. Thank You for healing me. I pray this prayer in Your mighty and compassionate Name. Amen.
If you sincerely prayed this prayer from your heart, you are now a born-again child of God. Write to me at [email protected], and I will send you a free PDF e-booklet titled After You’re Born Again.
In case you are not aware, I write heart-mending fiction that deals with the deepest issues of life. In my stories you will find characters just like you who struggle with what look like impossible issues. You can check out my books at my online bookstore at MaryAnn’s Online Bookstore.
Until next time, remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are, and that He will help you to keep on winning with the Word.
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Copyright 2024 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved.
