If it is not God's will for you to be well, it would be wrong for you to seek recovery even through natural means. If it is God's will for you to be well, then it is only logical that the best way of recovery is by divine means.

The Bible reveals the will of God in regard to the healing of the body as clearly as it reveals the will of God in regard to regeneration of the spirit. God need not give any special revelation of His will when He has plainly given His revealed will in His Word. He has definitely promised to heal you.

God's promises to heal are as much a revelation of His will to heal as His promises to save are a revelation of His will to save. A careful study of the Scriptures by an unprejudiced person will clearly show that God is both the Savior and the Healer of His People -- that it is always His will to save and to heal all those who believe on Him. In evidence of this, we present these facts about divine healing.

Sickness is no more natural than sin. God made all things "very good" (Gen. 1:31). Therefore, we should not look for the remedy of sin or sickness in the natural, but from God Who created us happy, strong, healthy, and to fellowship with Him.

Both sin and sickness came into the world through the fall of the human race. Therefore, we must look for the healing of both in the Savior of the human race.

When God called His children out of Egypt, He made a covenant of healing with them. (Ex 15:26, 23:25) Throughout their history, we find them in sickness and in pestilence, turning to God in repentance and confession; and always, when their sins were forgiven, their sicknesses were healed.

God healed those people who were bitten by fiery serpents as they looked at a brazen serpent on a pole (Num. 21:4-9) which is a type of Calvary, Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so" (for the same purpose) "must the Son of man be lifted up" (John 3:14, 15).

The people cried to God then, and He heard their cry and provided a remedy -- "the serpent lifted up." Those who cry to God today discover that God has heard their cry and has provided them a remedy -- "Christ lifted up." (John 3:14, 15.) The remedy was for everyone that is bitten then. The remedy is for whoever believes today.

In their remedy they received both forgiveness for sins and healing for their bodies. In Christ, we receive both forgiveness for our sins and healing for our sick bodies. We are not to look to the symptoms of our sins and diseases today, but to our remedy, Christ. There is only one condition for receiving the remedy: believing.

"Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16) is the promise to all today, without exception.

As the Israelites' curse was removed by the lifting up of the "type" of Christ, our curse was certainly removed by Christ Himself. (Gal. 3:13)

The "type" of Christ could not mean more then to those Israelites than Christ means to us today. Surely they, through only a "type" of Christ, could not receive more blessings than we can receive today through Christ Himself.

God promises protection for our bodies as well as for our spirits, if we live in Him. (Ps 91) In the New Testament, John wishes "above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers." (3 John 2) Both scriptures show that God's will is that we be as healthy in our bodies as we are in our spirits. It is never God's will for our spirits to be sick. It is never God's will for our bodies to be sick.

Asa died in his sickness because he "sought not the Lord, but to the physicians" (2 Chron. 16:12) while Hezekiah lived because he sought not the physicians, but the Lord. (Is. 38:1-9)

The removal of our diseases is included in Christ's redemptive work, along with the removal of our sins. (Is. 53) The word bore implies substitution (suffering for), not sympathy (suffering with). If Christ has borne our sicknesses, why should we bear them? Christ fulfilled Isaiah's words: "He healed all that were sick" (Matt. 8:16, 17).

Sickness is revealed as coming directly from Satan. "So Satan went forth and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to his crown." (Job 2:7) Job maintained steadfast faith as he cried out to God for deliverance, and he was healed. (Job 42:10, 12)

It is written: "Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil." (Acts 10:38) This scripture shows that sickness is Satan's oppression.

We are told: "The Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). Sickness is part of Satan's works. Christ, in His earthly ministry, always treated sin, diseases, and devils the same. They were all hateful in His sight. He rebuked them all. He was manifested to destroy them all. (See Luke 13:16, Matt. 12:22, Mark 9:17-27.) Jesus does not want the "works of the devil" to continue in our physical bodies. He was manifested to destroy them. He does not want cancer, a plague, a curse, "the works of the devil," to exist in His own members. "Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? (1 Cor. 6:15)

Jesus said, "The Son of man is not come to destroy human lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:56). Sickness destroys; therefore, it is not from God. Christ came to save us (Greek: sozo, meaning to deliver us, to save and preserve us, to heal us, to give us life, to make us whole), but never to destroy us. Jesus said: "The thief (speaking of Satan) comes not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)

Satan is a killer; his diseases are the destroyers of life. His sicknesses are the thieves of happiness, health, money, time, and effort. Christ came to give us abundant life in our spirits and in our bodies.

We are promised the life of Jesus in "our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:10,11). We are taught that the Spirit's work is to quicken our mortal bodies in this life. (Rom. 8:11)

Satan's work is to kill. Christ's work is to give life. Satan is bad. God is good. Bad things come from Satan. Good things come from God. Sickness is, therefore, from Satan. Health is, therefore, from God.

All authority and power of all devils and diseases was given to every disciple of Christ. (Matt. 10:1, Mark 16:17)

Since Jesus said, "If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed" (John 8:31) these scriptures apply to you today, that is, "if you continue in" (act on) His Word.

The right to pray and receive the answer is given to every believer, (John 14:13, 14) "If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." This logically includes asking for healing, if we are sick. "Everyone who asks receives." (Matt. 7:7-11) That promise is for you. It includes everyone who is sick.

The ministry of healing was given to "the seventy," who represent the future workers of the Church. (Luke 10:1, 9, 19) It was given to all "them that believe" the gospel, them that act on the gospel, or the practicers or doers of the word. (Mark 16:17)

It is committed to "the elders" of the church. (James 5:14) It is bestowed upon the whole Church as one of its ministries and gifts, until Jesus comes. (1 Cor. 12:9, 10)

Jesus never commissioned anyone to preach the gospel without including healing for the sick. He said, "Whatever city you enter, heal the sick that are there." (Luke 10:8, 9) That command still applies to gospel ministry today.

Jesus said that He would continue His same works through believers while He is with the Father. "Verily, verily, I say to you, the person that believes on me, the works that I do shall he (or she) do also; and greater works than these shall they do; because I go to my father" (John 14:12). This certainly includes healing the sick.

In connection with the Lord's Supper, the cup is taken "in remembrance" of His blood which was shed for "the remission of our sins" (1 Cor. 11:25; Matt. 26:28). The bread is eaten "in remembrance" of His body on which were laid our diseases and the stripes by which "we are healed" (1 Cor. 11:23, 24; Is. 53:5).

Jesus said that certain teachers were "making the word of God of no effect through (their) tradition" (Mark 7:13). Human ideas and theories have for centuries hindered the healing part of the gospel from being proclaimed and acted upon as it was by the early Church.

One tradition is that God wills some of His children to suffer sickness and that, therefore, many who are prayed for are not healed, because it is not His will to heal them. When Jesus healed the demon-possessed boy whom the disciples could not heal, He proved that it is God's will to heal even those who fail to receive healing; furthermore, He assigned the failure of the disciples to cure the boy, not to God's will, but to the disciples' unbelief. The failure of many to be healed today when prayed for is never because it is not God's will to heal them.

If sickness is the will of God, then every physician would be a lawbreaker, every trained nurse a defier of the Almighty, and every hospital a house of rebellion instead of a house of mercy. Since Christ came to do the Father's will, the fact that He healed them all is proof that it is God's will that all be healed.

If it is not God's will for all to be healed, how did everyone in the multitudes obtain from Christ what was not God's will for some of them to receive? The gospel says "he healed them all."

If it is not God's will for all to be healed, why do the Scriptures stat: "with his stripes we are healed" and "by whose stripes ye were healed" (Is. 53:5, 1 Pet. 2:24)? How could we and you be declared healed, if it is God's will for some of us to be sick?

Christ never refused those who sought His healing. Repeatedly, the Gospels tell us that He healed them all. Christ the healer has never changed. Only one person in the entire Bible ever asked for healing by saying, "If it be Your will." (Mark 1:40) That was the poor leper to whom Jesus immediately responded, "I will; be clean."

Another tradition is that we can glorify God more by being patient in our sickness than by being healed. If sickness glorifies God more than healing, then any attempt to get well by natural or divine means would be an effort to rob God of the glory that we should want Him to receive.

If sickness glorifies God, then we should rather be sick than well. If sickness glorifies God, Jesus robbed His Father of all the glory that He possibly could by healing everyone, and the Holy Spirit continued doing the same throughout the Acts of the Apostles.

Paul says, "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:20). Our bodies and spirits are bought with a price. We are to glorify God in both. We do not glorify God in our spirit by remaining in sin. We do not glorify God in our body by remaining sick. John's Gospel is used by some people to prove that sickness glorifies God; but God was not glorified in this case until Lazarus was raised up from the dead, the result of which was "many of the Jews... believed on him" (John 11:45)

Another tradition is that while God heals some, it is not His will to heal all. But Jesus, Who came to do the Father's will, did "heal them all." If healing is not for all, why did Jesus bear our sicknesses, our pains, and our diseases? If God wanted some of His children to suffer, then Jesus relieved us from bearing something which God wanted us to bear. But since Jesus came to do the will of the Father, and since He has borne our diseases, it must be God's will for all to be well.

If it is not God's will for all to be healed, then God's promises to heal are not for all. That would mean that faith does not come by hearing the Word of God alone, but by getting a special revelation that God has favored you and wills to heal you.

If God's promises to heal are not for all, then we could not know what God's will is by reading His Word alone. That means we would have to pray until He speaks directly to us about each case in particular. We could not consider God's Word as directed to us personally, but would have to close our Bibles and pray for a direct revelation from God to know if it is His will to heal each case.

God's Word is His will. God's promises reveal His will. When we read what He promises to do, we then know what it is His will to do.

Since it is written, "Faith comes by hearing the word of God" (Rom. 10:17), then the best way to build faith in your heart that God is willing to heal you is for you to hear that part of God's Word which promises you healing.

Faith for spiritual healing comes by hearing the gospel: "He bore our sins." We are to preach the gospel — that He bore our sins — to every creature. We are to preach the gospel — that He bore our sicknesses — to every creature.

Christ emphasized His promise, "If you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it," by repeating it twice. (John 14:12-14) He did not exclude healing from this promise. "Anything" includes healing. This promise is for all.

Healing is for all. Otherwise Christ should have qualified His promise when He said: "Whatever you desire (except healing), when you pray, believe that you receive it, and you shall have it." (Mark 11:24) But He did not. Healing, therefore, is included in the whatever. This promise is made to you. If it is not God's will to heal all, His promise would not be dependable when Christ said, "If you live in me, and my words live in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you" (John 15:7).

James says: "Is any sick among you? Call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise them up" (James 5:14, 15). This promise is for all, including you, if you are sick.

Paul tells us that God would have us "prepared to every good work" (2 Tim. 2:21) "thoroughly furnished to all good works" (2 Tim. 3:17), "that we may abound to every good work" (2 Cor. 9:8). A sick person cannot measure up to these scriptures. These conditions would be impossible if healing is not for all. Either healing is for all, or the Scriptures do not apply to all.

Bodily healing in the New Testament was called a mercy, and it was God's mercy which always moved Him to heal all the sick. His promise is that He is "plenteous in mercy to all that call on Him" (Ps. 86:5). That includes you, today.

Christ was "made to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21) when He "bare our sins" (1 Pet. 2:24). He was "made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13) when He "bare our sicknesses" (Matt. 8:17).

Since Christ bore our sins, how many is it God's will to forgive? Answer: Whoever believes. Since Christ bore our sicknesses, how many is it God's will to heal? Answer: He healed them all.

Traditionally some people have believed that if we are righteous, we should expect sicknesses as part of our life. They quote the scripture: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous" (Ps. 34:19), but this does not mean sicknesses as some would have us believe. It means trials, hardships, persecutions and temptations, but never sicknesses or physical disabilities.

It would be a contradiction to say, "Christ has borne our sicknesses, and with His stripes we are healed," but then to add, "Many are the sicknesses of the righteous, which He requires us to bear."

To prove this tradition, theologians quote, "But God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you" (1 Pet. 5:10). This suffering does not refer to suffering sickness, but to the many ways in which God's people have so often had to suffer for their testimony. (Acts 5:41; 2 Cor. 12)

Another tradition is that we are not to expect healing for certain afflictions. People quote the scripture, "Is any among you afflicted? let him (or her) pray" (James 5:13). This again does not refer to sickness, but to the same things pointed out above: trials, hardships, persecutions and temptations.

Another tradition is that God chastises His children with sickness. The scripture is quoted, a part of which says, "Whom the Lord loves he chastens." (Heb. 12:6-8) God does chasten those whom He loves, but it does not say that He makes them sick. The word chasten here means "to instruct, train, discipline, teach, or educate," like a teacher "instructs" a pupil, or like a parent "trains and teaches" a child.

When a teacher "instructs" a student, various means of discipline may be employed, but never sickness. When a parent "trains" a child, there are many ways to chasten, but never by imposing a physical disease upon it. For our heavenly Father to chasten us does not require that He lay a disease upon us. Our diseases were laid upon Christ. God could not require that we bear, as punishment, what Jesus has substantially borne for us. Christ's sacrifice freed us forever from the curse of sin and disease which He bore on our behalf.

The most common tradition is the worn-out statement: The age of miracles is past. For this to be true, there would have to be a total absence of miracles. Even one miracle would prove that the age of miracles is not past. Anyone who claims that the age of miracles is past denies the need, the privileges, and the benefits of prayer. For God to hear and answer prayer, whether the petition is for a postage stamp or for the healing of a paralytic, is a miracle. If prayer brings an answer, that answer is a miracle. If there are no miracles, there is no reason for faith. If there are no miracles, prayer is mockery and only ignorance would cause anyone to either pray or expect an answer. God cannot answer prayer without a miracle. If we pray at all, we should expect that prayer to be answered. If that prayer is answered, God has done it; and if God has answered prayer, He has performed something supernatural. That is a miracle. To deny miracles today is to make a mockery of prayer today.

The age of miracles is not past because Jesus, the miracle worker, has never changed: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever" (Heb. 13:8).

When Jesus sent His disciples to preach the gospel, He told them: "These (supernatural) signs shall follow them that believe" (Mark 16:17). This was for every creature, for all nations, until the end of the world. The end of the world has not yet come, so the age of miracles has not passed. Christ's commission has never been withdrawn or cancelled.

Christ's promise for the spirit — that it shall be saved — is in His commission and is for all. His promise for the body — that it shall recover — is in His commission and is for all. To deny that one part of His commission is for today is to deny that the other part is for today. As long as Jesus' commission is in effect, the unsaved can be healed spiritually and the sick people can be healed physically by believing the gospel. Multiplied thousands of sincere people all over the world are receiving the benefits of both physical and spiritual healing through their simple faith in God's promises.

Christ bore your sins so that you may be forgiven. Eternal life is yours. Claim this blessing and confess it by faith; God will make it good in your life.

Christ bore your diseases so that you may be healed. Divine health is yours. Claim this blessing and confess it by faith; God will manifest it in your body.

Like all of Christ's redemptive gifts, healing must be received by simple faith alone without natural means and, upon being received, must be consecrated for Christ's service and glory alone. If God was merciful enough to forgive you when you were UNconverted, He is merciful enough to heal you now that you are in His family. (Rom. 8:32)

You must accept God's promise as true and believe that you are forgiven before you can experience the joy of spiritual healing. You must accept God's promise as true and believe that you are healed before you can experience the joy of physical healing.

"As many (sinners) as received him were born of God." (John 1:12, 13) As many (sick) as "touched him were made whole" (Mark 6:56).

When we preach that it is always God's will to heal, the question immediately raised: "How then could we ever die?"

God's Word says: "You take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust." (Ps. 104:29) The Bible says: "You shall come to your grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn comes in its season" (Job 5:26).