Faith’s Demand on the Body (Scriptures on Divine Healing)
Contributor:
Chad Roberts
What am I to do with the faith the Lord has given me? He has given me a measure as well as you, so what do we do with such a gift? Jesus taught that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, that alone can move mountains, so what are we to do as our faith increases? How are we to pray? How are we to believe?
In Charles Capps classic book, God’s Creative Power for Healing, he points out that when we exercise it puts a demand on our body and our body responds to that demand. Any doctor will tell you that the magic bullet to health is exercise. It works! Well, just as exercising can put a physical demand on our bodies for good, so can our faith.
When I pray in faith over my body for divine healing, I am demanding that my body align itself to the truth of God’s Word. I love how Charles Capps explains, “As Christians, we do not deny that sickness is in our bodies, but we do deny it has a right to be there.”
What an incredible statement. Why does sickness not have authority in me? Because the same salvation that delivered my soul also delivers my body. I think this is what the Apostle John meant when we wrote in 3 John, “Beloved that your health may prosper as your soul prospers.” There is a link between the atoning work Jesus did on the cross in both our soul and body.
So if I have the understanding that Christ died not only for my sins but also any disease I face, then I can speak (with authority and with confidence) to the mountain of sickness to be removed.
That is taking the precious gift of faith that God has sovereignly given to me and appropriating it according to His Word to have great effect in my soul and in my body. I am to take my faith, and just like physical exercising, place a demand on my body to respond to the truth and totality of God’s Word.
To learn more about what the Bible says concerning divine healing, pray and think deeply over these Scriptures:
If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer (Exodus 15:26).
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24).
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases (Psalm 103:2-3)
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health (Psalm 41:3).
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard (Isaiah 58:8).
For I will restore you to health, and your wounds I will heal (Jeremiah 30:17).
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another that you may be healed (James 5:15-16).
