Have you ever asked God to heal you and still found yourself dealing with symptoms? Did someone tell you that if you have asked God to heal you and you aren’t that God wants you sick, and has a plan and purpose for the illness? Healing is always God’s will. Let us look at why we must do something to receive healing, and what those things are.
Why do I have to ‘do something’ to get healed?
Healing is available to the whosoever by Jesus’ finished work. But just because it is available, does not mean that it automatically happens. Let’s look at why this is the case and what we have to do to get healed.
God’s will is not always done on this earth
Sometimes people will say ‘If God wants me healed, then He would just ‘zap me’.” This idea is that if God wants something done on earth, He just does it. As if God is watching over the events of the earth making decisions who get saved, who gets healed and who gets favor. I wish it were so! But this is counter to the truth the Bible teaches.
Psalm 115:16
The highest heavens belong to the Lord,
but the earth he has given to mankind.
This passage reveals the authority structure God designed the heavens and earth to operate under.
God exclusively rules and reigns in heaven, which is the exact picture of His will being done regarding humanity. But the earth has been given over to humanity to rule. God can only do what we give Him permission to do. And we can only keep what we have learned to walk in faith for and use His authority to keep the adversary off.
God has provided salvation and healing, but we must actively believe, actively receive, and purposefully defeat the opposition against it using the tools He has provided. His responsibility is to provide it. Our responsibility is to believe, receive and enforce it.
God’s Will is not Automatic on this earth
Just because God wants us healed, just because He took stripes to heal us, He cannot legally just ‘dump out healing on us’ anytime we need it. God operates with humanity according to the authority structure that He set in motion. He cannot usurp our will. He must have us actively participating in anything He does in our lives.
If this does not seem ‘quite right’, consider how the Bible says we are to live and receive from God.
Just as you received Christ, so walk in Him. Col. 2:6.
How did we receive Christ? We had to hear the gospel preached on our need for a savior. We had to believe the message that Jesus is the Son of God and Son of Man. We had to ask Him for forgiveness and to take residence on the inside of us. We had to believe something, confess something. Romans 10:9. To continue to walk in Christ, we had to continue to feed on the Word, grow in the Word, renew our minds, Romans 12:1-2 and resist the adversary, James 4:7.
Salvation was won by Jesus, paid for by Jesus, and God’s will for our lives, but it required faith and purposeful action on our part to receive.
It is God’s will that none perish. 2 Peter 3:9 But will some perish? YES. Some people will hear the gospel and reject it. That is a good example of how we know that God’s will is not always done on the earth.
Healing operates Similar to Salvation
Healing is like salvation, and like Col 2:6 says, we must learn to walk in healing, as we learned to receive Christ. That means to receive healing, it will mean hearing the Word on healing until faith is deposited in our hearts, acting on that faith and growing in it as a lifestyle.
It is necessary to hear as much Word on healing until we become fully convinced that healing belongs to us and is ours already TODAY by Jesus’ finished work. We must see it in the Word first and consider it ours already whether there are symptoms in our bodies or not. We must learn to start operating in healing by faith.
If Jesus took stripes for me, He bought my healing 2,000 years ago. The work has already done, and healing already accomplished. If I was healed, then I am healed today. Healed is WHO I am. It is my identity in Christ. I am saved, I am healed, I am blessed. I am saved by His blood of Jesus, and heaven is my home. I am the healed of God, healed today, tomorrow and the next day after that.
We must make a firm decision for healing
To be able to receive healing from God, you and I must decide that we want to be healed more than we want anything else. That might seem obvious. It might seem like an easy decision that ‘everyone wants to be healed.’ But that is not the case.
After the Lord supernaturally healed me of a list of ailments and conditions, I started praying for every person I met, to be healed. I wanted everyone to know Jesus like I knew Him, as the miracle worker. But to my surprise, I discovered many people did not want to be healed.
I met some people that said, ‘I hope God heals me, I want God to heal me, but that is ok if He doesn’t because I can always take insulin or some other medicine for the rest of my life if I need.’ “I want Him to heal me, but it is ok if He doesn’t.’
I also met people who said they wanted to be healed but did not want to make lifestyle changes or listen to faith filled teaching on healing enough so that they could grow their faith and receive that healing.
Receiving healing takes effort on our part because we live in world system that is counter to God and the gospel, there is the pull of the world around us at all times and the deception of the enemy which will say ‘it isn’t worth the effort, just take medicine, or learn to live with the condition, God loves you either way.’
Well, while it is true that whether we pursue healing or not, God’s love for us does not change. BECAUSE God loves us, He has a WILL, CHOICE and DESIRE for us to receive His healing. He WANTS us healed! He is passionate about our healing, even if we are not!
Having an attitude that ‘If God wants me healed, He will ‘just do it’, limits God. He cannot ‘just do’ what He wants in our lives. We leave ourselves at significant risk of not receiving healing if we just ask God, and then put out no effort to build strong faith, and carry an ‘if it happens great, if not, that is ok as well.’
A firm decision is necessary because there will be opposition
The other reason we need to make a strong decision to receive healing from God is that the adversary will send opposition against us once we start to pursue healing. God wants you healed. The adversary does not. John 10:10
We will need to carry a bulldog like mentality and firm decision that we WILL RECEIVE God’s healing no matter what.
It needs to be a strong decision. Not a passing thought, mere hope, or sentiment of ‘it would be nice, but it is ok, if it doesn’t happen.’ And it cannot be a ‘I will try this healing thing unless it gets too difficult.’ That will not be a strong enough stand to successfully receive healing once opposition sets in.
We must have ‘had enough’ of being sick. We must have ‘had enough’ dealing with medicine or managing symptoms. Or we must be convinced that Jesus has paid to heal all sicknesses that have no medicine and no cure. We must just have a heart desire to be healed to honor Jesus and receive all that He has for us. When we decide that we WILL RECEIVE healing from God if it is the last thing we do, we are well on our way!
After making a quality decision, a firm and thoughtful, purposeful decision. What else can we do? What else will we need to do?
Submit to the Word over experience or opinion
Our experience might be that we have asked God to heal us, but we still are dealing with a sickness. At this point, we can develop a thought process of ‘I guess God just doesn’t want ME healed.’ Or ” this is something that God just can’t heal. ‘ Or maybe we have prayed for a parent, friend or spouse even laid hands on them or anointed them with oil, and they did not recover.
This can be painful when these scenarios occur. However, I want to encourage you that you or someone else did not recover because God does not want you healed, does not love you and does not have a way to bring healing about.
There are a variety of reasons why we and others fail to receive something from God. Sometimes we can learn and know what those reasons are. Perhaps we or them did not understand how faith operated. Perhaps the person had already decided in their heart to pass. Sometimes the person grew weary of standing in faith. Sometimes we will not know the exact reason.
But that does not change the Word. So, for many of us, learning to receiving healing will mean putting aside all the instances we asked or someone else asked and DIDN’T receive and be willing to be simple in our hearts and take the Word at Word value. Despite our past experiences.
When we look at the Word and see the record, we find that everyone who goes up Personally to Jesus and asks to be healed, He heals.
Healing from Jesus is available, not automatic. ONLY asking usually does not get the job done. The Bible does say to ask, but then it also says we must believe that if we have asked according to His will, that we have what we asked for. After we ask, we must to respond in faith, believing that we have received what we asked for based on the Word.
1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
The Word says that when we ask God for something that is HIS will for us, (and healing is always God’s will) that we will have it. 1 John 5:14
So our job is to ask and then to believe that we have received what we asked for.
We stand on what the Word says already belongs to us by the stripes of Jesus. We decide to allow the Word to be RIGHT, or THE AUTHORITY, the beginning, and the ending of the matter. When we do this, we find God always backs up His Word. Jeremiah 1:12.
Hear the Word on Healing -Faith is specific
For strong faith to receive healing and stay healed, it will take an ongoing hearing of God’s Word on healing.
Faith is specific.
We cannot build strong faith for healing by listening to teaching on prosperity. Faith for healing comes by hearing and hearing by God’s Word on healing. Romans 10:17. There are many healing verses in the Bible to meditate on to build strong faith. Psalm 107, Psalm 103, Isaiah 53, Psalm 91:16 are some of my favorites.
Remember, Hebrews 4 says that Jesus is the EXACT representation of God the Father who is unseen. We can build strong faith for healing by meditating on Jesus’s response to people every time they approached Him and asked to be healed. Read the gospels and note each person who approached Jesus for healing and what He did and said. He always said yes, and He always healed completely so there was no trace of the illness.
Our current series ‘Healing’ on Life Network for Women has many examples of God’s Word on healing from the Old and New Testament. Meditating on these and reading all the other accounts in the Bible of God’s healing power will help you build strong faith for healing. http://watch.lifenetworkforwomen.tv/Sara-Shallenberger
When we chose to set aside past experiences or maybe or own preconceived idea about healing, and just go directly to the Word, we will find great faith to receive healing!
Confess the Word
Faith without works is dead or unproductive faith. So, once we HEAR the Word on healing, we need to RESPOND and ACT! The first action and most important is our confession. Confession means we take God’s Word and send it back to Him with faith! That means confidence! You know that you know that this is the ‘most true thing’ about you!
‘Thank you, Jesus, that your Word says that I am the healed of God from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes, I have long life, strength and health!’ Psalm 91:16
‘Thank you, Jesus, that your Word says that by your stripes I have been healed. And if I was healed then I AM healed. I am healed today; I will be healed tomorrow, and I will be healed the day after that! Healed is who I am! Isaiah 53:4, Exodus 15:26
God sends His Word to heal us. Psalm 107. His Word produces faith. And our CONFESSION is the ‘connect’ that connects our faith to God’s will for our lives. Jesus is the High Priest of our confession, Hebrews 4 and when we send our confession of HIs Word to Him, He presents it to the Father and the Father performs it. Jeremiah 1:12. We cannot send God’s Word back to Him in a faith filled confession without Him responding and sending right back to us the very thing we are confessing. Isaiah 55:11
You can learn to build a life style of confessing the Word by joining our weekday series ‘Frame the Week with the Word’ Monday through Friday, facebook live. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008824265065
Praise and Worship
Another great tool we need to make use of to receive healing is our praise and worship.
There is no sickness in heaven. We will not need healing in heaven. There is no sickness or disease in the Presence of God. We can enter His Presence through our praise and worship. Psalm 1004. An effective tool God gives us is our praise and worship. He can heal us at home or at a service while we are praising Him. I have received healing in my body often during corporate worship, or worship at home. The Lord loves to heal, and, in His Presence, there is healing.
We can praise Him in our native tongue. We can praise Him in our spiritual language. Acts 10:44 We can sing in our native language or tongues. We can praise Him by ourselves and in corporate settings. It is easy to live a lifestyle of praise and worship. The key is to set aside time every day, meditate on the greatness of God. His majesty and glory and just allow your heart time to worship Him and express that love out of your mouth.
Your praise keeps God close and the enemy, including sickness and disease, away!
Speak TO the sickness and TO your body
The Bible says our bodies belong to Jesus, 1 Cor. 6:19 And because He redeemed it and filled it with HIS Holy Spirit, He will always back up His will and covenant in YOUR body.
However, our bodies are still under our stewardship or decision making. We decide what gets in and we decide what gets out.
If a sickness or disease is in your body, it is trespassing. It is going against God’s covenant of healing included in salvation. But the good news is that anything that gets IN, can get right back out!
I love this about the Lord. Sometimes we were born with disease or the precursor to disease before we knew they were there. Sometimes a disease can sneak up on us during a time or trial or stress.
But regardless, encourage yourself that the same door it came into your body through, it can get right back out. This operates with Our words. If you are dealing with pain in your shoulder, speak to both the pain and to your shoulder:
“Pain, you have to go in Jesus Name, I take authority over you in the Name of Jesus you have to go and can’t stay, you do not belong here, I am the healed of God I have long life strength and health.’
Then speak to your body ‘shoulder, line up, you are the healed of God, I command the ligaments and muscles, and everything attached to my shoulder to line up with the stripes of Jesus.’ By those stripes I am healed.
Whatever the illness, whatever name the doctors attribute to what is in you, use that name and speak to it directly in Jesus Name. Tell arthritis, diabetes, lupus or whatever it is to get out and stay out in Jesus Name. Speak over the body parts, bones, blood, or whatever part of your body it is affecting. Speak God’s Word of healing over it and command it to line up.
You will find the more you exercise your faith, it is like a muscle and the stronger it will grow!
Stand your Ground
Remember that the adversary is a bully! He is not unemployed until the Millennium. So, until Jesus comes back, you and I will need to operate in STRONG faith to get His Will done in our lives. And this includes healing.
Even though God wants you healed. Even though you start hearing His Word and confessing it by Faith, especially when in fact, the adversary will ALWAYS oppose the Word in you! Always!
Do not take it personally, but know that it is be mentally, spiritually, emotionally ready to take that push back.
Do not be intimidated by opposition. Stand your ground and overcome it. Continue confessing the Word, decreeing your healing, praising the Lord for your healing, and speaking to your body and commanding the symptoms go.
Hear more Word. Do whatever it takes to stay submitted to God’s Word that by the stripes you have already been healed. God will back up His Word. Jeremiah 1:12
When we stand firm on the word and resist and tell the adversary to go, he flees. James 4:17 That is good news for you and good news for me. The righteous take their healing by active effort, the things of the kingdom we take by force.
Many tools, but YOUR FAITH is required
We can all make a choice to learn how to use these tools to believe and receive supernatural healing from God.
There are other tools as well, that God provides, and we also mention. He has also given us the prayer of agreement, laying on of hands, gifts of the Holy Spirit. All of these are available. These tools operate within the Body of Christ and are great blessings!
However, remember, even if you attend a revival, crusade or healing service and get healed, you will still need to defend/keep that healing by using your personal faith in the Word and exercising your authority as a believer to rebuke and resist symptoms.
The adversary will oppose all of us when we start down the road the healing and after we have received it. So, start now building a lifestyle of believing the Word for the Word’s sake. Making good life choices for your health and keeping your faith built up.
If you have ‘tried everything’ in this article and are still stuck on a healing issue. Join us for our next article ‘Help I am stuck”. We also have a complete study book on Healing available at https://h2two.org/bookstore-and-partners.
We invite you also to view our Victory in the Word episodes this month on the Life Network For Woman App, where we teach these important life principles for receiving healing and living in divine health! God bless you! http://watch.lifenetworkforwomen.tv/Sara-Shallenberger
- Prosperity Gods’ Way – Sara Shallenberger - December 28, 2021
- Healing – Help I am stuck! – Sara Shallenberger - November 26, 2021
- What to do to get Healed – Sara Shallenberger - November 9, 2021
Wow! You wrote, “It is necessary to hear as much Word on healing until we become fully convinced that healing belongs to us and is ours already TODAY by Jesus’ finished work. ” Mic drop on that statement! I pray for believer’s to catch this revelation. We are His OFFSPRING and He wants us healed. Thanks for this teaching on healing; it does belong to us and God gives it to us graciously when we ask in faith. Praise the Lord!
Thank you Ms. Cynthia! And I agree! God is a good God! He loves us so much, He wants us healed! Faith is specific! And faith for healing only comes by hearing the Word, and the Word on healing. There is always something for all of us to learn and grow in our faith for healing for us and those around us, God bless you!