Is It the Will of God to Heal You?

Summary:  Christians are often heard asking: “Is it God’s will to heal?” That question deserves a biblical answer. There are many Scriptures that address this important issue. Let’s look at some.

Mark 1:40-41, NKJV  Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

Physical healing is a topic that, over the course of a lifetime, most likely affects everyone. I’ve written elsewhere about the broad subject of divine healing. In this article I’ll be addressing the specific question of whether or not it’s God’s will to heal us.

The leper appealed to Jesus with a reasonable petition: “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” And from that day to this, many people sincerely approach the Lord for healing with that mindset: “If you are willing…” My encouragement to you is not to pray the leper’s prayer, but to believe in Jesus’ answer: “I AM WILLING.” Our Lord and Savior Jesus is both able and willing to heal us. And lest we mistakenly think His willingness was only meant for that leper, we see consistently in the Gospels that He healed “all” who came to Him for healing. Several Scriptures below show that clearly. And lest you be tempted to say, “Well, that was for then, not necessarily for today,” remember that the Lord, Savior, Deliverer, and Healer “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Matthew 9:35  Jesus went … proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

Matthew 12:15b  A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.

Matthew 14:35b-36  People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Jesus’ words to the leper — “I am willing” — were clearly shown to apply to all who looked to Him for healing. Let’s see some more Scriptural proofs.

Isaiah 53:4-5, NASB  However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, and our pains that He carried … [5] He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.

Matthew 8:16-17  …[Jesus] healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

The prophet Isaiah, in what some call “the fifth Gospel” (Isaiah 53), specifically prophesied that, in addition to dying for our sins, the coming Christ would bear our sicknesses. The Gospel writer Matthew, under the Spirit’s inspiration, looked back to Jesus’ suffering and death for us and said, “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” And Matthew clearly identified Jesus’ healing of the sick as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of divine healing given many centuries earlier.

Never lose sight of that thrilling fact: because Jesus took our sicknesses, infirmities, and diseases, He is and will continue to be the Healer of the sick. Just as certainly as He took our sins at Calvary, He took also our physical infirmities and diseases. That is clear evidence of Jesus’ ongoing willingness to heal us, just as certainly as He is willing to forgive those who repent and look to Him for forgiveness of sins. The apostle Peter summed this up in one short verse (below).

1 Peter 2:24  “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

KJV:  …by whose stripes ye were healed.

(1) Jesus bore our sins on the cross. All genuine Christians believe that.

(2) But also, exactly as Isaiah had prophesied, Jesus also bore our sicknesses — “by his wounds you have been healed.” Many of you know this great promise in the familiar King James: “by whose stripes ye were healed.”

The apostle is reminding us of a consistent truth of Scripture. That is, God makes provision both for our sin issues and for our physical healing issues. In the verse below, the Psalmist declares that with unmistakable clarity.

Psalm 103:2-3  Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.

There it is in one brief verse. For all who will believe and receive Him as such, God is the forgiver of sin and the healer of diseases. Jesus the Son of God  came to earth 20 centuries ago, demonstrated forgiveness and healing in his several years of ministry, then died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice in the eyes of God His Father. As such He secured for us permanently the forgiveness of sin and the healing of sickness. How many sins, how many sicknesses? The Scripture says “all”! Let there be no doubt in your minds about the Lord’s willingness both to forgive sin and to heal sick and infirm bodies.

Exodus 15:26  He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

Healing is more than simply what God does. It is a reflection of who He is:  “I am the Lord, who heals you” … “I am the Lord, your healer” (ESV) … “I, the Lord, am your healer” (NASB). Part of the very nature of the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is a desire and willingness to be our Healer.

Psalm 105:37, KJV  He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.

One of the greatest demonstrations of healing in all of history was in the Exodus of Israel from centuries of slavery in Egypt. God judged Pharaoh’s Egypt with 10 miraculous plagues. In the tenth and last plague, all the firstborn of Egypt were killed. But the Israelites were spared, because at God’s instruction, they had sacrificed a lamb, applied the lamb’s blood to their doorposts, and inside their houses had partaken of the cooked flesh of the sacrificed lamb. That night the death angel “passed over” the houses of those identified by the application of the lamb’s blood. This foreshadowed the then-future saving ministry of “Christ our Passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7), who died on the cross for us.

Protected by the lamb’s blood and with God’s help, the Israelites fled Egypt into the wilderness, some two or three million of them. AND “there was not one feeble person among their tribes (KJV) … not one who stumbled (Amplified) … all of them were healthy and strong (GNT) … there was not one sick person among their tribes (JUB) … there were no sick and feeble folk among them” (TLB).

The Lord made no distinction. Young or old, male or female, all who had partaken of that first “passover” lamb (think of Jesus, the Lamb of God!) experienced God’s healing power. Two or three million of the Israelites fled Egypt with none among them feeble, none stumbling, none sick, all “healthy and strong.” Among those millions God made sure that there was “not one feeble”! That’s a very clear illustration on a massive scale of God’s willingness to heal the sick.

Acts 10:38, NLT  And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Notice two key words in Jesus’ ministry—“healing all.” It is not His will to heal some and leave others unhealed. No! In His suffering and death for us, He bore both our sins and our sicknesses. So leave all your sins and your sicknesses with Him who bore them on your behalf.

Our enemy the devil, Satan, would love to see all of us sick all the time. But Jesus came to “destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). Just as Jesus healed “all who were oppressed by the devil” in His earthly ministry, the same all-powerful Jesus (Hebrews 13:8) is doing that for us today.

There’s no doubt from the biblical record that it was our Savior’s will and intention to heal all. And a reminder one more time: “Jesus Christ is the SAME yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He healed all then; He’ll heal all today. So don’t pray the leper’s prayer: “If you are willing.” No! Pray Jesus’ answer: “I am willing!”

James 1:5-6  If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

KJV:  [6]…let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.

In closing, we read an important, broadly applicable principle here: whatever you ask the Lord for, “you must believe and not doubt.” As the King James says, “…ask in faith, nothing wavering.” I trust that our look at the Scriptures today has helped you be fully convinced that (1) Jesus is your Healer and (2) He is continually willing to heal you. With that in mind, take your healing needs to Him. Ask Him in faith to touch that area of healing need that you’re bringing to Him. Believe, and do not doubt. He died for your sins, and He suffered and died for your healing. Trust him for that and receive your healing, in Jesus’ Name!

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Check out our widely-read sermon on "Divine Healing for Today"

For further study, here's our Bible Verses on Healing | Faith-Building Healing Scriptures or our Divine Healing Sermons from 50 Years of Holy Ghost Ministry

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