Understanding God’s Desire to Heal the Sick
By: David Martin
There are two aspects that we want to deal with briefly. One is you receiving, because God wants you to receive everything that He wants you to have in walking in the supernatural. And two, God wants you to reign.
God wants you to enjoy His blessings and provision. He wants you to walk in good health. As John said in 3 John 1:2, “Beloved I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health.” The key is the last part of that verse, “as thy soul prospers.” That is what we’re doing. We’re teaching, and we’re imparting to you so you can walk in the life that Yeshua paid for with the shedding of His blood. The second aspect is how God wants you to be used in His kingdom. The gifts of the Spirit are going to be a blessing as you carry them into the world where you live. The gifts of the Spirit are designed for your world.
The gifts are a dinner bell to the unbeliever. They are what provokes skeptics to spiritual jealousy, when they see the reality of a miracle working God. I want to add some practical insights in walking in these gifts. I want you to see that Yeshua didn’t heal everybody. Often people say “Why don’t you go to the hospitals? Why don’t you go to the nursing homes? Well, Yeshua didn’t, and we’re going to look at an instance of when He healed, and only one person out of the whole multitude received healing.
Earlier we pointed to the need to develop an ear, a sensitivity to the voice of God and what He is saying. When you go into a Wal-Mart or a public place, there may be hundreds of people there. If you start your day with prayer, one of the things you want to ask for is a divine appointment. Ask God that somewhere in the course of the day, He will use you. I also encourage you to start journaling. Purpose every day to journal before you go to bed. One of the things you want to journal is, how did God use me today? What supernatural events happened today? Where did you experience the favor of God? I also have people pray for doors to open and doors to close. Not every open door is from God. Pray for divine appointments.
Let’s look at when Yeshua went to the pool Bethesda, where there was a great multitude. Also we will look at when He fed a multitude of five thousand people. At Bethesda, although there’s a great multitude, only one or two people receive. We’re going to consider this from two different perspectives. One is people that receive by faith and the other is people that receive by mercy. One operates grace and the other operates mercy. Most often, out of an entire multitude Yeshua only healed one or two people. He only healed those with faith and those that came to Him. The myth we’re going to dispel is, He went to this problem, He went to that problem, He went to this need. That’s not what He did. For the most part, He was going about His day and people were coming to Him. Yeshua’s steps were orchestrated. Your steps are orchestrated in the same way, particularly when you begin to pray for God to use you.
Yes, it is okay to make your plans, but if you are open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, He will direct your steps. You do not lean on your own understanding, and you must think outside of the box. Recognize that God has a big vision for us, but we tend to limit ourselves by our culture and what we’re used to. What we have seen in Christianity is nothing like the reality of God’s Word. Yeshua was supernaturally led, supernaturally directed. God would bring people to Him and He was always ready. Other times He was led by the Spirit to one specific person out of a whole multitude that was going to receive a miracle.
We have looked at the power gifts, which include the gift of faith, the gift of healing and the working of miracles. Now we want to look at how these gifts operated in the life of Yeshua. We’re going to see faith plays a big part. When He came into His own hometown in Mark 6, it says, “He Himself could do no miracles there.” Only a couple of people got healed, but what did He do? He taught.
Often what you are going to need to do is build faith in others so that they can receive. Other times there’s going to be an operation of a gift of the Spirit, nothing at all to do with faith other than your faith that God’s going to use you for the operation of the supernatural. I can’t encourage you enough that when you wake up in the morning, ask God to use you. Go into your day with expectation. We’re going to see this in Luke 5 and 6. We’re going to see two multitudes. In the first multitude, not one person is going to receive healing even though the Bible points out, “the power was present to heal” them. No one receives. But in the next chapter, in Luke 6, we see a great multitude and they all get healing. What made the difference? Expectation. Expectation is the foundation to the operation of the supernatural.
Luke 5:17-18 says, “One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present—to perform healing.” No one in this entire multitude is going to receive. “And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in to set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd.” Now there are many people in this crowd, but it is the man on a stretcher with his friends who have faith that receives. The men with the stretcher had faith that all they had to do was get their friend close enough to Yeshua and he would receive healing. There is an important aspect of pressing in to the supernatural and the power of God. In this particular story, these friends act on their faith. They tear the roof apart. There’s such a crowd, the doorway’s blocked, the windows are blocked, the room is full. They can’t get close, but they have enough determination to tear the roof apart, lower the man down and he is supernaturally healed. What does Yeshua say here? “Seeing their faith, He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”’
Recall Romans 5:17 which says, “[By the offensive one], death reigned; much more they which receive [of] the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Messiah Yeshua.” You need to know you are righteous. You received it according to Romans 5:17, by grace. You received the gift of right-standing; the ability to stand in the presence of God as if sin never existed.
As we see in this story, what Yeshua did first to set the stage for the miraculous healing was let the man know, “your sins are forgiven.” Your sins are forgiven and it is because of the blood of Yeshua that you can stand in the presence of an Almighty God without any sense of guilt or inferiority. It is as if sin never existed. The devil is the accuser who’s going to tell you, “You didn’t pray enough. You didn’t fast enough. You didn’t give enough. You didn’t do enough.”
The ability of God to work through you has nothing to do with you. It is all about the blood of Yeshua. You are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and because of that you stand in the presence of God. You come to the throne room of grace and receive help in time of need. There’s nothing between you and God. The spiritual barrier was removed 2,000 years ago and you have free access. You don’t need to go through any man or priest. You are going to be used of God because you are righteous and He wants you to operate on His behalf. Otherwise the gifts would not have been given. But you are justified by the blood. This man, when Yeshua says to him, “Your sins are forgiven,” he gets up out of the bed and he’s completely healed.
In Luke 6:17, we see the contrast. It is a great multitude and they all receive healing. Verse 17, “Yeshua came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all [of] Judea and Jerusalem and [from] the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, who had come…” Here’s the key — this group had expectation. “[They] had come to hear Him and be healed of their diseases.” In Luke 5:17 the crowd came to question and to debate among themselves. They didn’t come with an expectation. But this crowd, they heard about Yeshua and how He was a miracle worker. They came “to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits [and they] were cured.” They came to hear and they came to receive. And it says, “And all the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming [out of] Him and [He was] healing them all.”
Let’s also mention Matthew 8 and 9, where we see almost one-third of all the recorded miracles that Yeshua did. In this collection of miracles it shows the heart and will of God in a very clear way.
“When Yeshua came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him.” But how many people are going to receive healing? One leper. “And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean.” This one question is on ninety percent of people’s minds. No one questions God’s ability. Everyone knows God can do anything. But they question God’s willingness to heal them. Why? Because they know their sin. They know how much they have fallen short. The fact that God had a leper ask the question gives it even more validity. Biblically, a leper is an outcast. You can’t get any lower or any more undesirable. The leper was healed.
