Healing testimony…
Many years ago when my husband and I were newlyweds, he was stricken with a horrible disease that paralyzed most of his body and plagued him with many other symptoms. The prognosis was dire, and we had very little hope for a bright future. He improved somewhat over many months and was able to walk, but had attacks of the disease every few months so that he was under the constant care of doctors.
For eight years, we believed that this disease was God’s punishment and His way of teaching us a lesson. When my husband was asked to speak in groups and give his “testimony,” he would always say, “God put me on my back so that I would look up.” We believed that God sent the disease. Of course, we didn’t have a biblical foundation in the New Testament for that, but it was just the only thing that made sense to us. However, when you think about it, why do we go to doctors to get well if we believe that God made us sick? If we take that line of reasoning, we should stay home and let the sickness run its course and accomplish whatever God wanted to do with it. Trying to get well, taking medicine, having surgery, and even having people pray for healing would be going against God’s will if He gave us the sickness in the first place. Right?
So eight years into the disease, I was sitting on the couch in our den – the striped one with the hide-a-bed inside (you never forget the details of those Damascus Road experiences). I ran across a passage I had read many times before, but it was as if I had never seen it:
“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.” (James 5:14-15)1
My husband was sitting across the room in his leather chair, and I said to him, “We need to get the elders to pray for you.” Prior to that time we had never heard about prayer for healing, even though we were active in church. However, from that point on we believed that it was God’s will to heal my husband. We delved into the scriptures, had people lay hands on him, but mostly we looked to Jesus in the scriptures, and we saw that He healed everybody that came to Him.
Of all the passages that opened my eyes to God’s will concerning healing, Matthew 8:16-17 was the one that God used to completely solidify my unshakable belief that it is His will to heal:
“Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them. When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: ‘HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.’” (Matthew 8:14-17, NASB, emphasis mine)2
Here is Jesus healing people to FULFILL the prophecy in Isaiah 53:5! I had always reasoned away God’s promise of healing in Isaiah 53 by saying it referred to emotional healing or perhaps healing when we get to heaven. Yet the Bible clearly connects physical healing to Christ’s atonement.
“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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 53:4-5)
End of story: Mark was gloriously healed, and Jesus got what He paid for.
(from pages 344-346 of Unveiling Jesus)
1All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
2Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
