Very solemnly He declared that every disciple of His would have to bear his cross (Matt. 16:24), but He never taught one sick person to resign himself to be sick. Everywhere, Jesus healed the sick: everywhere, He dealt with healing as one of the graces belonging to the kingdom of heaven. Sin in the soul and sickness in the body both bear witness to the power of Satan, and “the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil (I John 3:8).

The Christian Church has heard so much of preaching of the forgiveness of sins that the thirsty soul easily receives this message of grace; but it is not the same with divine healing. That is rarely spoken of; the believers who have experienced it are not many.

In order to receive healing, it is necessary to begin by confession of sin and the purpose to live a holy life. This is without doubt the reason why people find it more difficult to believe in healing that in forgiveness; and this is also why those who receive healing receive at the same time new spiritual blessing, feel more closely united to the Lord Jesus, and learn to love and serve Him better. Unbelief may attempt to separate these two gifts, but they are always united in Christ. He is always the same Savior both of soul and of the body, equally ready grant pardon and healing.

Chapter 2

Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it out? And Jesus said unto them. Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you (Matt. 17:19-20).

When the Lord Jesus send His disciples into different parts of Palestine, He endued them with a double power, to cast out unclean spirits and to heal all sickness and all infirmity (Matt. 10:1).

On the day of the Transfiguration, while the Lord was still upon the mountain, a father brought his son who was possessed with a demon, to His disciples, beseeching them to cast out the evil spirit, but they could not. After Jesus had cured the child, the disciples asked Him why they had been unable to do it themselves as in other cases. He answered them, “Because of your unbelief”. It was, then, their unbelief, and not the will of God, which had been the cause of their defeat.

Paul places the gift of healing among the operations of the Holy Spirit. James gives a precise command on this mater without any restriction of time. The entire Scripture declare that these graces will be granted according to the measure of the Spirit and of faith.

Faith is possible only to him who lives in the world invisible.

Do we not know from the Bible that it is always unbelief which hinders the mighty working God?

Oh, that we could learn to believe in the promise of God! God has not gone back from His promises; Jesus is still He who heals both soul and body.

When we ask why this divine power is not more often seen, He answers us, “Because of our unbelief.” The more we give ourselves to experience personally sanctification by faith, the more we shall also experience healing by faith.

Chapter 3

Jesus and the Doctors

We may be thankful to God for giving us doctors. Their vocation is one of the most noble, for a large number of them seek truly to do, with love and compassion, all they are able to alleviate the evils and sufferings which burden humanity as a result of sin. There are even some who are zealous servants of Jesus Christ, and who seek also the good of their patients souls. Nevertheless, it is Jesus Himself who is always the first, the best, the greatest Physician.

Jesus heals diseases in which earthly physicians can do nothing, for the Father gave Him this power when He charged Him with the work of our redemption. Jesus, in taking upon Himself our human body, delivered it from the dominion of Sin and Satan; He has made our bodies temples of the Holy Ghost, the members of His own body. (I Cor. 6:15, 19). Even in our day, how many have been given up by the doctors as incurable, how many cases of cancer, of infection, of paralysis, of heart disease, of blindness, and of deafness, have been healed by Him! Is it not then astonishing that so small a number of the sick apply to Him?

The method of Jesus is quite different from that of earthly physicians. They seek to serve God in making use of remedies which are found in the natural world, and God makes use of these remedies according to the natural properties of each, while the healing which proceeds from Jesus is of a totally different order, it is by divine power, the power of the Holy Ghost, that Jesus heals. The difference between these two ways of healing is very marked. That we may understand it better, let us take an example: here is a physician who is an unbeliever, but extremely clever in his profession; many sick people owe their healing to him. God gives this result by means of the prescribed remedies, and the physicians knowledge of them. Here is another physician who is a believer, and who prays God’s blessing on the remedies that he employs. In this case also, a large number are healed, but in neither case does the healing bring with it any spiritual blessing. They will be preoccupied, even the believing among them, with the remedies that they use much more than with what the Lord may be doing with them, and in such a case, their healing will be more hurtful than beneficial. On the other hand, when it is Jesus only to whom the sick person applies for healing, he learns to reckon no longer upon remedies, but to put himself into direct relation with His love and His almightiness. In order to obtain such healing, he must commence by confessing and renouncing his sin, and exercising a living faith. Then healing will come directly from the Lord, who takes possession of the sick body, and it thus becomes a blessing for the soul as well as for the body.

But is it not God who has given remedies to man? It is asked. Does not their power come from Him? Without doubt; but on the other hand, is it not God who has given us His Son with all power to heal? Shall we follow the way natural law with all those who do not yet know Christ, and also with those of His children whose faith is still too weak to abandon themselves to His almightiness? Or rather do we choose the way of faith, receiving healing from the Lord and from the Holy Spirit, seeing therein the result and the proof of our redemption?

The healing which is wrought by our Lord Jesus brings with it and leaves behind it more real blessing than the healing which is obtained through physicians. Healing has been a misfortune to more persons than one. On a bed of sickness, serious thoughts had taken possession, but from the time of his healing, how often has a sick man been found anew far from the Lord! It is not thus when it is Jesus who heals. Healing is granted after confession of sin; therefore it brings the sufferer nearer to Jesus, and establishes a new link between him and the Lord. It causes him to experience His love and power, it begins within him a new life of faith and holiness. When the woman who had touched the hem if Christ’s garment felt that she was healed, she learned something of what divine love means. She went away with the words, “Daughter, the faith has saved you: go in peace” (Mark 5:34 ASV, margin).

O you who are suffering from some sickness, know that Jesus, the sovereign Healer, is yet in our midst. He is close to us, and He is giving anew to His Church manifest proofs of His presence. Are you ready to break with the world, to abandon yourself to Him with faith and confidence? Then fear not. Remember that divine healings is a part of the life of faith. If nobody around you can help you in prayer, if no “elder” is at hand to pray the prayer of faith, fear not to go yourself to the Lord in the silence of solitude, like the woman who touched the hem of His garment. Commit to Him the care of your body. Get quiet before Him, and like the poor woman say, “ I will be healed.” Perhaps it may take some time to break the chains of your unbelief, but assuredly none that wait on Him shall be ashamed (Ps. 25:3).

Chapter 4

When, after Pentecost, the paralytic was healed through Peter and John at the gate of the temple, it was “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” that they said to him, “Rise up and walk,” and as soon as the people in their amazement ran together to them, Peter declared that it was the name of Jesus which had so completely healed the man.

As the result of this miracle and of Peter’s discourse, many people which had heard the Word believed (Acts 4:4). On the morrow, Peter repeated these words before the Sanhedrin: “By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth … does this man stand before you whole”; and then he added, “There is none other name under heaven …whereby we must be saved.” This statement of Peter’s declares to us that the name of Jesus both heals and saves. We have here a teaching of the highest import for divine healing.

We see that healing and health form part of Christ’s salvation. Peter clearly states this is in his discourse to the Sanhedrin where, having spoken of healing, he immediately goes on to speak of salvation by Christ (Acts 4:10, 12). In heaven, even our bodies enjoy the full redemption of Christ. Why then should we not believe in this work of redemption here below? Even already here on earth, the health of our bodies is a fruit of the salvation which Jesus has acquired for us.

We see also that health as well as salvation is to be obtained by faith.

The tendency of man by nature is to bring about his salvation by his works, and it is only with difficulty that he comes to receive it by faith; but when it is a question of the healing body, he has still more difficulty in seizing it.

1.) As to salvation, he ends it by accepting it because by no other means can he open the door of heaven;

1.) while for the body, he makes use of well-known remedies.

Why then should he seek for divine healing? Happy is he who comes to understand that it is the will of God that heal; to manifest the power of Jesus, and also to reveal to His Fatherly love; to exercise and to confirm our faith, and to make us prove the power of redemption in the body as well as in the soul. Wherever the Spirit acts with power, there He works divine healings.

If divine healing is seen but rarely in our day, we can attribute it to no other cause than that the Spirit does not act with power.

Let us pray earnestly for the Holy Spirit, let us place ourselves unreservedly under His direction, and let us seek to be firm in our faith in the name of Jesus, whether for preaching salvation or for the work of healing.

God grants healing to glorify the name of Jesus. Let us seek to be healed by Jesus that His name may be glorified.

. It is the will of God to glorify His Son in the Church, and He will do it wherever He finds faith.

. Let us give ourselves to believe with firm faith in the power of the name of Jesus. Let us ask great things in His name, counting on His promise, and we shall see God still do wonders by the name of His holy Son.

Chapter 5 Not By Our Own Power

And when Peter saw it, he answered to the people, men of Israel why marvel at this? Or why do you look so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man walk? (Acts 3:12)

As soon as the crippled man had been healed at the gate of the temple, the people ran together to Peter and John. Peter, seeing this miracle was attributed to their power and holiness, lost no time in setting them right by telling them that all the glory of this miracle belonged to Jesus, and that it is He in whom we must believe.

Peter and John were undoubtedly full of faith and holiness; they may have been the most holy and zealous servants of God in their time. Otherwise, God might not have chosen them as instruments in this case of healing. But they knew that their holiness of life was not of themselves, that it was of God through the Holy Spirit. They thought so little of themselves that they ignore their own holiness and know only one thing – that all power belongs to their Master. They hastened, then, to declare that in this thing they counted for nothing, that it was the work of the Lord alone. This is the object of divine healing, to be a proof of the power of Jesus, a witness in the eyes of men of what He is, and proclaiming His divine intervention, and attracting hearts to Him. “Not by our own power or holiness.” Thus it becomes those to speak whom the Lord is pleased to use in helping other by their faith.

It is necessary to insist on this because of the tendency of believers to think the contrary. Those who have recovered their health in answer to “the prayer of faith,” “the supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working” (James 5:16 RV), are in danger of being too much occupied with the human instrument which God is pleased to employ, and to think that the power lies in man’s piety.

Doubtless the prayer of faith is the result of real godliness, but those who possess it will be the first to acknowledge that it does not come from themselves, nor from any effort of their own. They fear to rob the Lord of the least particle of the glory which belongs to Him, and they know if they do so, they will compel Him to withdraw His grace from them. It is their great desire to see the souls which God has blessed through them enter into direct and increasingly intimate communion with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, since that is the result which their healing should produce. Thus they insist that their own power or holiness does not cause it.

Such testimony on their part is necessary to reply to the erroneous accusations of unbelievers. The Church of Christ needs to hear clearly announced that it is on account of her worldliness and unbelief that she has lost spiritual gifts of healing (I Cor. 12:9) and that the Lord restores those gifts to those who, with faith and obedience, have consecrated their lives to Him. This grace cannot reappear without being preceded by a renewal of faith and holiness. But the, says the world, and with it a large number of Christians, “You are laying claim to the possession of a higher order of faith and holiness; you consider yourselves holier than others.” To such accusations, this word of Peter is the only reply before God and before man, confirmed by a life of deep and real humility: “Not by our own power or holiness.” “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto the name given glory, for the mercy, and for the truth’s sake” (Ps 115:1).

Such a testimony is necessary also in view of our own heart and of the wiles of Satan. As long as, through the Church’s unfaithfulness, the gifts of healing are but rarely given, those children of God who have received these gifts are in danger of priding themselves upon them, and of imagining that they have themselves something exceptionally meritorious. The enemy does not forget to persecute them by such insinuations, and woe unto them if they listen to him. They are not ignorant of his devices: therefore, they need to pray continually to the Lord to keep them in humility, the true means of obtaining continually more grace. If they persevere in humility, they will recognize that the more God makes use of them, the more also will they be penetrated with the conviction that it is God alone who works by them, and that all the glory belongs to Him. “Not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1Cor. 15:10). Such is their watchword.

Finally, this testimony is useful for the feeble ones who long for salvation, and who desire to receive Christ as their Healer. They hear of full consecration and entire obedience, but they form a false idea of it. They think they must in themselves attain to a high degree of knowledge and of perfection, and they fall a prey to discouragement. No, no; it is not by our own power or holiness that we obtain these graces, but by faith quite simple, a childlike faith, which know that it has no power nor holiness of its own, and which commits itself completely to Him who is faithful, and whose almightiness can fulfill His promise. Oh, let us not seek to do or to be anything ourselves! It is only as we feel our own powerlessness, and expect all from God and His Word that we realize the glorious way in which the Lord heals sickness by faith in His name.

Chapter 6 According To The Measure Of Faith

And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go the way; as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in that hour. (Matt. 8:13)

This passage of Scripture brings before us one of the principal laws if the kingdom of heaven. In order to understand God’s ways with His people, and our relations with the Lord, it is needful to understand this law thoroughly and not to deviate from it. Not only does God give or withhold His grace according to the faith or unbelief of each, but also it is granted in greater or less measure, in proportion to the faith that receives it. God respects the right to decide which He has conferred on man. Therefore He can bless us only in the measure in which each yields himself up to His divine working, and opens all his heart to Him. Faith in God is nothing else than the full opening of the heart to receive everything from god; therefore, man can receive divine grace only according to his faith; and this applies as much to divine healing as to any other grace of God.

This truth is confirmed by the spiritual blessings that may result form sickness. Two questions are often asked:

1.) Is it not God’s will that His children should sometimes remain in a prolonged stage of sickness?

2.) Since it is a recognized thing that divine healing brings with it greater spiritual blessing than the sickness itself, why does God allow certain if His children to continue to be sick through many years, and while in this condition give them blessing in sanctification and in communion with Himself?

The answer to these two questions is that God gives His children according to their faith. We have already had occasion to remark that in the same degree in which the Church has become worldly, her faith in divine healing has diminished until at last it has disappeared. Believers do not seem to be aware that they may ask God for the healing of their sickness, and that thereby they may be sanctified and fitted for His service. They have come to seek only submission to His will and to regard sickness as a means to be separate from the world. In such conditions, the Lord gives them what they ask. He would have been ready to give them yet more, to grant them healing in answer to the prayer of faith, but they lacked the faith to receive it. God always meets His children where they are, however weak they may be. The sick ones, therefore, who have desired to receive Him with their whole heart, will have received from Him the fruit of the sickness in their desire that their will should be conformed to the will of God. They might have been able to receive healing, in addition, as a proof that God accepted their submission; if this has not been so, it is because faith has failed them to ask for it.

“As thou hast believed so be it done unto thee.” These words give the reply to yet another question: How can you say divine healing brings with it so much of spiritual blessing, when one sees that the greater number of those who were healed by the Lord Jesus received nothing more than a deliverance form their present sufferings, without giving any proof that they were also spiritually blessed? Here again, as they believed, so was it done unto them.

A good number of sick people, having witnessed the healing of others, gained confidence in Jesus just far enough to be healed, and Jesus granted them their request, without adding other blessings for their souls. Before His ascension, the Lord had not as free an entrance as He now has into the heart of man, because “the Holy Ghost was not yet given” (John 7:39). The healing of the sick was then hardly more than a blessing for the body. It was later, in the dispensation of the Spirit, that the conviction and confession of sin have become for the believer the first grace to be received, the essential condition for obtaining healing, as Saint Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Corinthians, and Jesus in his to the twelve tribes scattered abroad (I Cor. 11:31-32; James 5:16). Thus the degrees of spiritual grace which it is possible for us to receive depend upon the measure of our faith, whether it be for its external manifestation, or for its influence upon our inner life.

We commend then to every suffering one who is looking for healing, and seeks to know Jesus has his divine Healer, not to let himself be hindered by his unbelief, not to doubt the promises of God, but to be strong in faith, giving glory to God as His due. “As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” If with all your heart you trust in the living God, you will be abundantly blessed. Do not doubt it.

The part of faith is always to lie hold on just that which appears impossible or strange to human eyes. Let us be willing to be considered fools for Christ’s sake (I Cor. 4:10). Let us not fear to pass for weak-minded in the eyes of the world and of such Christians as are ignorant of these things, because, on the authority of the Word of God, we believe that which others cannot yet admit. Do not, then, let yourself be discouraged in your expectation, even though God should delay to answer you, or if your sickness be aggravated. Once having placed your foot firmly on the immovable rock of God’s own Word, and having prayed the Lord to manifest His almightiness in your body because you are one of the members of His Body, and the temple of the Holy Ghost, persevere in believing in Him with the firm assurance that He has undertaken for you, that He has made Himself responsible for your body, and that His healing virtue will come to glorify Him in you.