This is a biblical theology discussion. If you are fighting for your or someone else’s healing, I advise you to skip this post. Read it only when the outcome is final, and you have unanswered questions about what the Bible really teaches.

Some say it is God’s will to heal everyone who seeks for it. Always, every time. Others say God does not heal supernaturally today, as seen in the phrase “gifts of healings” (1 Cor. 12:9). Those days are over. Still others teach God has two wills in his being–yes and no. What does the Bible actually say? Let’s look into this. I also get into the debate over “many” were healed and “all” were healed.

Whenever I pray for the sick, I start off believing it is God’s will to heal the sick person. But I have also seen unanswered prayer (and so has everyone else who prays regularly for the sick, if the prayer ministers are honest). People have died later on, from the illness they prayed against. What then? I don’t give up my default position of healing, because the New Testament evidence is overwhelming. God wants to heal. Everyone who came to his Son was healed (coming to him is key). Jesus treated the sickness of those who came to him as an enemy.

But heal everyone bodily down here on earth, every time?

Let’s state the dilemma more clearly.

Concerning the salvation of our souls, Paul writes:

God our Savior […] wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).

Is there the exact same promise in Scripture worded so clearly about the healing of the body? That is, does God want all bodies to be healed here and now, every time?

We may as well say it from the beginning: there is no promise worded exactly like the one in 1 Timothy 2:4, about the healing of our bodies.

However, can we answer the question in the title by looking at Scripture for indirect evidence?

Did Jesus and his apostolic community heal everyone, or did they heal only some people at various times? Also, were people always healed instantly, on the spot, or was there sometimes a gradual healing? Then, does Paul prescribe a natural home remedy, and what does this mean for healing? Is this remedy equivalent to modern medicine today? Are the healings of some illnesses left unstated in the New Testament?

Before anyone accuses me of spreading unbelief or doubt, I say no, I am not. Rather, I am attempting to do an honest Bible study (for a change, in American Christianity). What does the Bible actually say about bodily healing, without an overlay of hype, presumptuous faith, and bad interpretations that omits or seems to explain away certain verses?

To explore this complicated issue of healing / some healing / no healing, let’s take a look at two tables divided into two columns with Scriptures. The first table is about Jesus’s ministry. The second is about the ministry of the broader apostolic community, including Philip the evangelist and elders. Each column is labeled as follows:

Everyone Is Healed / Everyone Is Not Healed

In the second column, some people are healed or one person is, while the others are not.

Each row is numbered, which I call a unit. The layout will be clear once you get there.

I include a brief commentary below each table, unit by unit.

The New International Version is used here. If you would like to see other translations, go to biblegateway.com.

As usual, I write to learn. Let’s learn together.

TABLE ONE

Ministry of Jesus
	Everyone Is Healed	Everyone Is Not Healed
1	When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. (Matt. 8:16)	Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:3-6)
2	[…] A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. (Matt. 12:15)	He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. (Mark 6:5-6)
3	And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. (Mark 6:56)	“Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” (Luke 8:45-46)

Commentary

Unit 1: Jesus healed everyone in a crowd / Jesus did not heal everyone in large crowd at Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem

The Pool of Bethesda was a primitive hospital, where sick people gathered. He did not empty it out with healing. In cities around the Greco-Roman world, the sick and lame also gathered at temples, looking for healing. These temples were also primitive hospitals. When the apostles and evangelists went out to these cities, there is no record that they emptied out these temple hospitals with healings.

Jesus does only what he sees his Father doing (John 5:19). Also, “many good works I have shown you from My Father” (John 10:32). (In John’s Gospel, “good works” = miracles, at a minimum.)

Evidently, at the Pool of Bethesda, the Father did not guide his Son, the Anointed One, by the Spirit to break open a teaching and then heal them all.  So, can we say that sometimes God does not empty out a hospital with healing because he does not want to do this?

In the all / not all dispute, see Unit 5, where I discuss all v. many.

Unit 2: Jesus healed all in a crowd / He did not heal everyone in Nazareth.

Nazareth was his hometown, and the context says that people there were skeptical that he was the Messiah. Therefore they doubted his divine status as the Anointed One. Therefore not many miracles were done there. The Greek says that Jesus could not work many miracles.

So we have a combination of people’s lack of faith (skepticism) and God not willing to heal those who doubt his Son, except a few.

Unit 3: Everyone who touched the edge of his cloak got healed / Only one person (woman with issue of blood) who touched the edge got healed.

In the first column, the healed column, the crowd reached out to him with their need and faith and got healed. In contrast, evidently the crowd in the second column did not reach out to him in faith. The Father did not guide his Son, the Anointed One, by the Spirit to encourage them with a teaching to touch his cloak. People have to be hungry on their own sometimes. Or maybe it was God’s will that only one woman got healed that day in the second column. Faith and God’s will have to work together.

I have a multipart series on all the healings and deliverances in the four Gospels and Acts. Go to the Healings and Deliverance category on the front page.

Now let’s transition to the apostolic community, after Jesus’s ascension, where he guided his church from his heavenly throne, by His Spirit living in his redeemed people.

These next examples come from the Book of Acts and the epistles.

TABLE TWO

Ministry of Apostles and Evangelists and Elders
	Everyone Is Healed	Everyone Is Not Healed
4	Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. (Acts 5:16)	32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. 35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.  (Acts 9:32-35)
5	His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. (Acts 28:8-9)	For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. (Acts 8:7)
6	For he [Epaphroditus] longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. […] because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me. (Phil. 2:26-27, 30)
7	As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, (Gal. 4:13)
8		Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (1 Cor. 12:7-10)
9		Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20)
10		[Timothy] Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. (1 Tim. 5:21)
11	Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. (James 5:14-15)
12	“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.” (1 Peter 2:24)
13		For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. (1 Cor. 11:29-30)
14		[…] So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. (1 Cor. 5:4-5)
15		Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  […] For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. […] (2 Cor. 4:16, 5:1-4)

Commentary

Unit 4: Everyone from towns around Jerusalem who was prayed for was healed / Only Aeneas was healed in Lydda.

In the first column, people were hungry for healing. In the second column they heard about Aeneas’ healing miracle and believed in the Messiah–the main purpose of signs and wonders (really just healings and deliverances in Acts). But they did not bring their sick to Peter. Why not? I don’t know exactly, but evidently the Spirit did not prompt Peter to preach the healing of everyone; instead, many people got saved. Mission accomplished: salvation of souls. Does this indicate that saving souls has priority over healing bodies (recall 1 Timothy 2:4)? See Unit 15 for a possible answer.

Unit 5: On Island of Malta, all were apparently healed / in Samaria, many were healed and delivered.

All v. many. In the second column, do we take “many” to mean “all” or “everyone”? Probably so.  If you don’t, though, then apparently God did not will to heal everyone in Samaria. Is it possible that the apostolic community did not have a one hundred percent success rate in every circumstance?

But then this option leaves the door open that God does not want to set people free from demonic attacks, which is a defective option. The mind / soul must be free from demons. So maybe it is best to say that many = all.

To support the conclusion that many = all, in Matthew’s summary verses about Jesus expelling demons and healing everyone (after he healed Peter’s mother-in-law), Matthews says Jesus expelled demons from “many,” while he healed “all” (Matt. 8:16). It seems therefore that the two words are synonyms. Mark says he expelled demons from “many” and he healed “many,” without “all” (Mark 1:32-34). Luke says that he laid hands on each one and healed them (meaning “all”), and demons came out of “many” (Luke 4:40-41). It seems that “many” is the same as “all” in these contexts. In other contexts “many” just means a large number of people (see BDAG, 1β, p. 848, which is a thick Greek lexicon of the NT, which many consider authoritative).

To further show that many = all in some contexts, BDAG cites Mark 10:45 and Matthew 20:28 (ransom for “many”) and 1 Timothy. 2:6 (ransom for “all”). Yet Mark 10:44 says that a disciple must be a servant of “all.” The lexicon also cites Matthew 12:15 which says a large crowd (“many”) followed him, and he healed all who were ill. BDAG calls this an “ascensive all.” So combining those three verses theologically, they could be translated as follows: give his life “a ransom for many, even all.” Note how “many” ascends to become “all.”

Bottom line: in many instances, “many” and “all” are interchangeable, or in other contexts “many” means a large number as distinct from a “few.” In the healing and deliverance summary verses, we should see “many” and “all” as synonyms and take the fuller, ascensive “all” as the meaning of those verses.

You can decide on your own, though, after your own study.

See Unit 1 for a variation on all v. many.

Unit 6: Epaphroditus was healed eventually.

There are no verses in the second column because there is no clearly corresponding case.

Epaphroditus was eventually healed, but there is no record that he was healed immediately by supernatural means after he got his illness, which was caused, so it seems, by over-exertion and taking risks for the gospel. If Paul laid hands on him to be healed instantly, then it did not work. In fact, it looks like Paul acknowledged that no instant healing took place because he was grateful for Epaphroditus’ recovery, as if his healing was out of Paul’s hands. Paul had to depend on God’s sovereignty. It looks to me that Epaphroditus was healed after rest. His healing was gradual and natural, with a supernatural element.

God had mercy on him (and Paul), so God willed to heal him. Epaphroditus had to complete his mission. If you’re sick with a fatal illness but want to live longer, ask God to give you a mission. He sees the needy world and is looking for missionaries to meet its needs. But ultimately, healing is in God’s hands.

Unit 7: Paul preached in Galatia while he was bodily ill.

The Greek is clear: “fleshly weakness” = “bodily illness.” Why couldn’t Paul lay hands on himself and heal himself? Or maybe the apostle Barnabas (or another apostle or elder) could have done this. It looks like Paul got over his illness–completely or in part–because we see that he lived many years after this mission trip to Galatia. Evidently, God willed to heal Paul because the apostle had more missions and assignments to accomplish. But he had to recover naturally and presumably with prayer. His healing was not instantaneous.

Unit 8: Paul’s thorn in the flesh

Was the thorn a bodily illness (“in the flesh”) or persecution? Either interpretation could be the right one. If it was a bodily weakness / illness, then God did not will to take it away.

BTW, I tend to think the thorn was persecution, especially when I read 2 Corinthians 11, which is all about Paul’s persecution and which provides the context for chapter 12. (The nations that harassed Israel were thorns in Israel’s side; see Num. 33:55; Josh. 23:13).

But you can decide on this issue after your own study.

Unit 9: Trophimus was left sick in Miletus.

Trophimus was a beloved and hard-working disciple (Acts 20:4; 21:29). Why did he get sick? We don’t know Trophimus’s back story.

In any case, why could Paul–an apostle–not heal him by laying hands on him? Could it be that God did not want to heal him instantly by supernatural means through prayer? Maybe he had to recover gradually, as Epaphroditus did. Sometimes instant healing does not happen. God does not will it so.

Unit 10: Timothy had to drink wine for his frequent illnesses.

Wine has alcohol in it, so it is an antiseptic, a germ killer. This is a home remedy. I don’t know what his illness was. Paul could not heal him by supernatural means, instantly. Even a body of elders laid hands on Timothy for the impartation of a gift:

Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. (1 Timothy 4:14)

It is safe to believe that the elders knew about Timothy’s frequent illnesses. It’s a sure thing that they prayed for him to be healed, if not at that time of the impartation and prophecy, then at other times, just like James said to do (James 5:14-15). (See Unit 11.) But somehow it did not work. He still had frequent illnesses when Paul wrote to him.

So, Paul advised Timothy to take his medicine. God wanted Timothy healed to complete his mission, but the healing was more natural and medical than supernatural (as far as we know from what the text says).

Unit 11: Call for the elders to pray for the sick.

James seems to imply that healing will happen every time. All the sick person needs to do is gather the elders, let them anoint him with oil, and pray, with the result that the prayer of faith will make him well.  We saw already that sometimes God does indeed grant healing to everyone who asks, like the people of Jerusalem and nearby towns (Unit 4) and on the Island of Malta (Unit 5). This is a blessing.

However, the way I see it, James is offering a general rule and church policy and encouragement to expect happy results. The rest of Scripture, as we have seen in this list, allows for many kinds of exceptions to the one-hundred percent success rate. Recall Unit 10, which says that even though a body of elders prayed for and prophesied over Timothy about his gift, and probably for his frequent illnesses, he still had them and had to take wine.

But let’s pray for all to be healed during our meetings! Then let God be God and heal as he pleases.

Unit 12: “By his wounds we have been healed.”

Peter is quoting from Isaiah 53. Forgiveness of sins and the healing of the soul by the Messiah’s wounds is definitely in view here. Yet in Matthew 8:16-17, Matthew the Gospel writer applies Isaiah 53:4 to Jesus’s bodily healing ministry while he was alive. “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” So far, so good.

The context of Isaiah 53 is about the Suffering Servant, the Righteous One, suffering for his people and atoning for their sins through his suffering and even death. Therefore, I see no reason why this application of Isaiah 53 should stop before the Messiah’s death on the cross. Instead, the application continues while he was on the cross. In other words, healing is in and through the atonement. This includes healing the soul and the body.

Yet what happens when this promise of bodily healing does not come instantly through prayer? We have seen the storylines of Timothy and Trophimus and in one case even Paul himself, when he arrived in Galatia while he had a bodily illness. Yes, healing is in and through the atonement, as a general principle, so we should always seek for our healing. The atonement is intended for everyone. But the specific application of healing through the atonement is up to God and his will. After the ascension, gifts of healings are distributed as the Spirit determines (1 Cor. 12:11). Thus we have to distinguish the intention of the atonement (it’s for everyone) and its application (God decides, and it’s a blessing that he has a generous will, so many will be healed).

So the application of healing through the atonement still depends on the Spirit and his gifts. Salvation of the soul is in the atonement, and 1 Timothy 2:4 says God wants all to be saved. But no such clear verse exists for bodily healing. Evidently God has a different and higher perspective on our bodies.

Sometimes we don’t get healed because …. see Unit 15.

Unit 13: Getting sick after eating and drinking from the Lord’s Table unworthily

It is a little-known passage because it is little preached. (Too scary for the modern American church!) But if we regularly take communion (or the Eucharist) unworthily, then we subject ourselves to God’s judgment and may get sick and even die prematurely. So here we see that God is willing to place sickness on people in judgment. Alternatively, maybe it is best to say that in judgment he wills to allow sickness to happen on its own with his permission, but he does not directly place it on us. He allows nature to take its course.

Sad to say, sometimes sickness led to early death, in Corinth.

This is something to ponder.

The Lord’s Supper in Synoptic Gospels + Church Traditions

Unit 14: A sinning young man was about to be judged with death

God through Paul was about to pronounce judgment on a young man who had been having sex with his mother–probably his stepmother (!). To save the man’s spirit / soul, Paul gave the man’s body over to Satan, so it could die, while his spirit / soul would live on in salvation. In this extreme case, God willed to place the man’s body under judgment and kill it, probably by a disease, though we don’t know the how. Certainly the body would wear out by something that would kill it.

Why Did Ananias and Sapphira Drop Dead?

But the man’s spirit would be saved and reach heaven.

It’s possible, however, that he repented and was spared deadly judgment on his body (2 Cor. 2:7).

Please don’t believe that your illness was sin-caused (John 9:2-3), unless God tells you it is, like the damaging effects of drugs or unsafe sex, before you were saved. If so, renounce your sins and repent, and then pray for healing (James 5:15). There is hope for you.

Unit 15: Our bodies waste away.

Every one of us will die because our natural bodies do not live forever. They wear out. God wills to take us home to be with him by letting our bodies die. God does not want to heal us every time.

The passage in 1 Corinthians 4-5 is the clearest teaching that God sees a difference between our corruptible bodies and our incorruptible spirits / souls by God’s grace. Those verses tell us why there is no promise about our bodily healing as we see in 1 Timothy 2:4 about God wanting to save the souls of everyone. By God’s grace, souls live on forever; bodies wear out.

Sometimes God does not want to heal us, so we can go home to him.

Then our bodies will be restored to us, perfect and incorruptible, at the final resurrection.

TWO WILLS OR DIFFERENT PURPOSES?

You may skip or skim this section, if you wish.

In all my 50 years of belonging to the Renewal Movement and observing or participating in healing ministries, I have never heard of the two wills of God in his being to explain why some people are healed while others are not. It looks to me like someone is slipping an unhelpful Calvinist doctrine into God’s healing ministry.

Jesus and the first generation of Christians followed God in every scenario. Then the sick were also in the mix. They had various levels of faith and responses to God. Or we don’t know how God interacted with people and they with him because the text is silent.

Healing is a complex business in Scripture, and injecting the two wills doctrine makes things even more complicated. There are eight billion people on the planet, so does God have eight billion wills in his being? Surely not! This doctrine is unwanted and unneeded. Pastorally, God’s storyline for each person has better explanatory power than the two-wills doctrine.

God has one will, but different purposes or storylines for each thing.

1.. The universe, with its billions of galaxies and billions of stars in each galaxy: new creation

2.. Earth and our atmosphere: new creation

3.. Eight billion people: difficult to say about each one, but two classes: the redeemed and unredeemed, and their eternal destinies for each class.

4.. Countless numbers of the diseased: difficult to ascertain God’s purpose for each sick person, but generally God will heal those who seek him, but sometimes he wills not to heal. He has a different purpose for each one whom he chooses not to heal.

With the warning in the fourth point about not knowing why there is no healing, let’s explore, nonetheless, the better explanatory option–God’s tailor-made storyline. Call it his specific or particular purpose or storyline for each one of us, as he interacts with us. There is a human factor to God revealing his specific purpose or storyline to each human who seeks him, because God knows who each one is and what he or she needs.

Each story (purpose) will be different. In our healing ministry, we have to find out what his story is for each individual. Better yet, the sick person in need of healing should seek God for God’s purpose (story).We should not put pressure on ourselves to discover God’s purpose for someone else.

So how do we hear from God and pray in accordance with his story (purpose) of our life? How do we know when we should hold on to God’s supernatural healing until it comes or let it go and embrace medical treatment? Or should we embrace our supernatural healing and medical treatment? (We should always seek medical treatment, but only after we seek God first; see King Asa who sought doctors before the Lord and was rebuked for it, in 2 Chron. 16:12.) Paul said to Timothy to take a little wine for his frequent illness. Evidently Paul and the elders praying for him did not see him healed. Or how do we know that it is time for us to go home to heaven, without our bodily healing right now?

In some rare cases or stories, God simply does not always heal our wearing-out bodies right now. And I say that Scripture teaches that in a few cases God does not purpose to heal our bodies by supernatural means, instantly or even gradually.

What is the difference, then, between will and purpose? To me, I don’t like to attribute two wills or twenty wills or eight billion wills to God. I prefer to say he has different purposes. Or maybe we could say he has a specific or particularly will for each thing (e.g. those four points above), but he has only one will in his being.

To resolve this conundrum, I prefer, as I just explained, to say God has a different purpose (or telos [singular] telē or teloses [plural]) for each thing: an ant, a galaxy, a healthy person or an unhealthy person. I prefer the word “story,” but “purpose” also works. God’s purpose for an unhealthy person is to serve him in health, so God heals him. Or God’s purpose for an unhealthy person is to glorify God in a wheelchair, for example. So no healing.

However, if you see no difference between God’s purpose and his will, then this is fine (“the will of God” is certainly a biblical phrase). But I still don’t believe God has, for this reason, millions of wills in his being. God single will is expressed differently for each individual case, depending on individual circumstances. He has a different story unique to each individual. Or we may never know God’s will for an individual who died, despite all of our prayers. We may never know the answer to the why question, even when we get to heaven. We have to leave it as a mystery. After all, we should be grateful God accepts us into heaven, in the first place, by his grace alone, our (gospel- and Spirit-inspired) faith alone, and on Christ alone.

The bottom line for this section: God has one will. It is to heal everyone. The question is the timing. In heaven everyone is healed. At the final resurrection when the redeemed are restored to their new resurrected and glorified and transformed bodies, everyone will be healed. At new creation everyone will be healed. If the entire universe–all creation–will be put right, then so will our bodies because they are part of old creation now and then new creation.

CONCLUSION

As alluded to, above, healing in Scripture is a complex business, probably because God and humans interact!

Our faith … our lack of faith … our corruptible bodies … one person gets healed, others don’t … all get healed, only few or one gets healed … instant, supernatural healing … gradual healing … medical treatment … God is behind all healing … God uses illness to call people home … judgment through illness … judgment through death … ultimate healing in heaven and then at the final resurrection … God’s sovereignty …

These things are difficult to untangle! There is a mystery to all of this.

One thing is certain. We must avoid two extremes. One extreme says that God does not supernaturally heal anyone at this time. The gifts of healings in 1 Corinthians 12:9 have ceased in our day. The other extreme says that God wants to heal everyone now. If we are not healed, then it is our fault. We lack faith or don’t have the right confession or not enough word in us or something.

The first extreme is called under-realized kingdom presence and power (or under-realized eschatology), and the second extreme is called over-realized kingdom presence and power (or over-realized eschatology). The so-called cessationists advocate for the first extreme, and the Word of Faith Movement pushes the second one.

5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully

Let’s look at the ministry of Jesus to learn some things about God’s purpose.

God the Father through his Son who was anointed by the Spirit performed miracles of healing. Jesus clarified that he does only what he sees his Father doing (John 5:19). He lives because of the Father (John 6:57). He speaks only what the Father taught him (John 8:28). He does what he sees the Father do (John 10:37).  What Jesus says is just what the Father told him to say (John 12:49-50, 57). As noted at Unit 1, perhaps the most important verse about miracles: “Many good works I have shown you from My Father” (John 10:32). (In John’s Gospel, “good works” = miracles, at a minimum.) The dominant image of the four Gospels is that Jesus healed everyone who came to him.

And so the Father through his Son who was anointed by the Spirit performed all miracles during his Son’s ministry (Acts 10:38). While on earth ministering, the Son obeyed and followed his Father.

Jesus and the apostolic community sought God for his purpose when they met sick people. Does he want to heal in this case? If so, how? As to other sick people, sometimes Jesus and his apostolic community walked right past them. Timothy’s story was not the same as Epaphroditus’s story, and Trophimus had his own story. One crowd responded, and all got healed because the Anointed One was with them. In contrast, the people at Nazareth harumphed and disbelieved that he was the Anointed One. Very few got healed.

We too should develop life in the Spirit (Gal. 5; Rom. 8), so we can hear from the Father through the Spirit, in Jesus’s name and authority granted to us. We will never heal as Jesus did, because he is the Anointed One without limits (John 3:34). And after the cross and the Son’s ascension, the Spirit distributes the gifts of healings (plural) as he determines (1 Cor. 12:11). We don’t own them and heal on command every time.

Nonetheless, when healing does not happen at first, don’t be discouraged, because healing is for you. Jesus healed many, that is, all people who came to him. In some summary verses, he healed them all. Let’s start by believing that he wants to heal you too.

However, he may confirm in your heart that it is time to go home to him. You have to hear from God for your own story, with loved ones and prayer warriors at your side. To hear from God clearly, you need to live the crucified life and give your entire body and life to him (Luke 9:23). When he whispers to your heart that it is time to go home, then let him bless you with your homegoing. In this final stage of your storyline, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). The peace of God will confirm in your heart and mind that it is time to go.

In the big picture, the long game, before Christ returns, we shall all die, one day. The heavenly homegoing is the wonderful and glorious destiny of all of our stories. It is the climax and then the resolution of the plot. In Christ, death is not to be feared (Heb. 2:14-15), nor to be seen as demonstrating a lack of faith. To God, death looks like this:

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants. (Ps. 116:15)

Bottom line: The dominant message of the NT is that disease is an enemy. Fight it. Healing is for you. It is your friend. Let the Spirit work, and you listen and obey. And then rebuke a disease and pray for healing. Always seek medical treatment, as well. Then let God be God. He is the one who heals you or not.

RELATED

Why Doesn’t Divine Healing Happen One Hundred Percent of the Time in This Age? (this post goes into kingdom theology of the already and not yet.)

5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully

Is ‘Decreeing’ Biblical for Christians?

4. Gifts of the Spirit: Gifts of Healings

Kenneth Copeland Gets a Pacemaker (he is a super-charged Word-of-Faith man who bullied and sneered at us for many decades on Christian TV, when we did not get our healing.)

I have a multipart series on all the healings and deliverances in the four Gospels and Acts. Look for the category Healing and Deliverance on the front page.