Is it God’s Will to Heal All? (Derek Prince)

Let’s approach these questions in a logical manner. Before I became a preacher, I was a logician. I believe the Bible to be the most perfectly logical book in the world. And God wants us to be logical in applying its truth. Suppose you said, “I believe my sickness is God’s Will for me. It is a blessing.” Well, then, please be logical. Don’t try to get rid of God’s blessing. Cultivate it. If God has placed sickness upon you to do you good, then you are wroing to seek to get rid of that sickness. If it is God’s will for a Christian to be sick, then it is sinful for him to try to be healed. Let’s discover the three main ways in which God’s Will concerning healing is revealed in His Word: (1) by the nature of God; (2) by Jesus’ ministry; and (3) by Christ’s atonement.

Revealed By The Nature Of God

Read with me the incident that took place at the time Israel was coming out of Egypt into the wilderness in Exodus 15:23-26. (23) Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bittere. Therefore the name of it was called Marah [which is the Hebrew word for “bitter”]. (24) And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” (25) 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, (26) 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.”

I n Hebrew, the last phrase, “who heals you” is a single word. It literally means “your doctor.” In other words, God said to Israel, “I am Jehovah, your doctor.” This revelation was given, not because Israel sought it, but because God desired them to receive it. It was the revelation of the eternal nature and will of God for His people.

Notice God’s promise began with an “if.” God said, “I am your doctor, and will continue to be your doctor, provided you meet certain conditions.” The first condition is the basic and primary condition for receiving healing from God all through Scripture. It is, “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God.” The literal Hebrew phrase is, “If listening you will listen …” It repeats the verb “to listen.”

Do you ever listen to God wiht the right ear and to the devil with the left? God’s Word and the devil’s lies meet in the middle of your head, and the result is confusion. “To listen, listening” means to give your undivided attention to God’s Word. He says, “If you will listen, listening, I am your doctor permanently.” What a beautiful promise!

Twelve centuries later, God said to Israel to Malachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I do not change.” Continuing on in the New Testament, we read: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, wiht whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17). God never varies and never changes his mind. He has moods. And He says, “I am your doctor.” He was and is and will be. God’s nature never changes.

Revealed by Jesus’ Ministry

To me, the clearest summary of the ministry of Jesus is given in Acts 10:38. It says: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. Notice all three Persons of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – are united in the ministry of healing. God the Father anointed Jesus the Son with the Holy Spirit. The Son went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. Healing is of God. Sickness is of the devil. This is very, very clear. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united in bringing healing to suffering humanity.

The earthly ministry of Jesus was the revelation of God’s Will in action. In John 6:38 He said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” There is no record in the Scriptures that Jesus ever turned away any person who came to Him for healing. There were those who did not come and, therefore, did not get healed. But everyone who came to Him was healed. He never said, “It is not the will of God … There is a reason for your sickness that I cannot change … You have been sick too long …” Every person who came to Jesus for healing was healed.

Revealed by Christ’s Atonement

Isaiah 53:4-5 contains the Bible’s most complete description of the atonement of Jesus:
(4) Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we were esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. (5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Were the New King James version uses the English words griefs and sorrows, the literal Hebrew translation is “sicknesses” and “pains.” God’s provision for these conditions is “healing.” In describing the ministry of Jesus, Matthew writes: “They brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses’” (Matthew 8:16-17). Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled. Jesus “healed all who were sick.”

Old and New Testaments unite in this clear testimony: On the cross Jesus took our sicknesses, He bore our pains; and by the wounds inflicted on His physical body, physical healing was obtained for us. Is healing the will of God? Yes! Hear Jesus declare it from the cross in John 19:30, “It is finished!” All we have to do is receive it.