Divine Healing

A Series of Addresses and a Personal Testimony

Andrew Murray

• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781839745546
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In this concise and easily understood volume Murray covers scripture in both the Old and New Testaments proving that healing is provided in the death of Christ, that it is God's will to heal, that laying-on of hands and confession of sin are the way to healing and that sickness is related to sin.Though written some time ago, this book is for today! It will answer pertinent questions people are asking as they experiment with using the power of Christ to heal themselves and others.

 

Chapter 1—PARDON AND HEALING

But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (then saith he to the sick of the palsy). Arise, take up thy bed and go unto thine house. (Matt. 9:6)

In man two natures are combined. He is at the same time spirit and matter, heaven and earth, soul and body. For this reason, on one side he is the son of God, and on the other he is doomed to destruction because of the Fall; sin in his soul and sickness in his body bear witness to the right which death has over him. It is the twofold nature which has been redeemed by divine grace. When the Psalmist calls upon all that is within him to bless the Lord for His benefits, he cries, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,...who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases” (Ps. 103:2-3). When Isaiah foretells the deliverance of his people, he adds, “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity” (Isa. 33:24).

This prediction was accomplished beyond all anticipation when Jesus the Redeemer came down to this earth. How numerous were the healings wrought by Him who was come to establish upon earth the kingdom of heaven! By His own acts and afterward by the commands which He left for His disciples, He showed us clearly that the preaching of the Gospel and the healing of the sick went together in the salvation which He came to bring. Both are given as evident proof of His mission as the Messiah: “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk...and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matt. 11:5). Jesus, who took upon Himself the soul and body of man, delivers both in equal measure from the consequences of sin.

This truth is nowhere more evident or better demonstrated than in the history of the paralytic. The Lord Jesus begins by saying to him, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” after which He adds, “Arise, take up thy bed, and go.” The pardon of sin and the healing of sickness complete one another, for in the eyes of God, who sees our entire nature, sin and sickness are as closely united as the body and the soul.

With us, sin belongs to the spiritual domain; we recognize that it is under God’s just displeasure, justly condemned by Him, while sickness, on the contrary, seems only a part of the present condition of our nature, having nothing to do with God’s condemnation and His righteousness. Some go so far as to say that sickness is a proof of the love and grace of God.

But neither the Scripture nor Jesus Christ Himself ever speak of sickness in this light, nor do they ever present sickness as a blessing, as a proof of God’s love which should be borne with patience. The Lord spoke to the disciples of divers sufferings which they should have to bear, but when He speaks of sickness, it is always as of an evil caused by sin and Satan, and from which we should be delivered. 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).

Jesus came to deliver men from sin and sickness that He might make known the love of the Father. In His actions, in His teaching of the disciples, in the work of the apostles, pardon and healing are always found together. Either the one or the other may doubtless appear more in relief, according to the development, or the faith, of those to whom they spoke. Sometimes it was healing which prepared the way for the acceptance of forgiveness; sometimes it was forgiveness which preceded the healing, which, coming afterward, became a seal to it. In the early part of His ministry, Jesus cured many of the sick, finding them ready to believe in the possibility of their healing. In this way, He sought to influence hearts to receive Himself as Him who is able to pardon sin. When He saw that the paralytic could receive pardon at once, He began with that which was of the greatest importance, after which came the healing which put a seal on the pardon which had been accorded to him.

We see, by the accounts given in the Gospels, that it was more difficult for the Jews at that time to believe in the pardon of their sins than in divine healing. Now, it is just the contrary. The Christian Church has heard so much of the 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. It is true that healing is not given in this day as in those times, to the multitudes whom Christ healed without any previous conversion. 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 than 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 the soul and of the body, equally ready to grant pardon and healing. The redeemed may always cry, “Bless the Lord, O my soul...who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases” (Ps. 103:2-3).

 

Chapter 2—BECAUSE OF YOUR UNBELIEF

Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said. Why could not we cast him out?

And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you. If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye 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 sent 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). He did the same for the seventy who came back to Him with joy, saying, “Lord, even the spirits are subject unto us through Thy name” (Luke 10:17 RV). 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.

In our days, divine healing is very little believed in, because it has almost entirely disappeared from the Christian Church. One may ask the reason, and here are the two answers which have been given. The greater number think that miracles, the gift of healing included, should be limited to the time of the primitive Church, that their object was to establish the first foundation of Christianity, but that from that time, circumstances have altered. Other believers say unhesitatingly that if the Church has lost these gifts, it is by her own fault. It is because she has become worldly that the Spirit acts but feebly in her. It is because she has not remained in direct and habitual relation with the full power of the unseen world. But if she were to see anew springing up within her men and women who live the life of faith and of the Holy Spirit, entirely consecrated to their God, she would see again the manifestation of the same gifts as in former times.

Which of these two opinions coincides with the Word of God? Is it by the will of God that the “gifts of healing” have been suppressed, or is it rather man who is responsible for it? Is it the will of God that miracles should not take place? Will He in consequence of this no longer give the faith which produces them? Or again, is it the Church which has been guilty of lacking faith?

What Does the Scripture Say?

The Bible does not authorize us, either by the words of the Lord or His apostles, to believe that the gifts of healing were granted only to the early times of the Church; on the contrary, the promise which Jesus made to the apostles when He gave them instructions concerning their mission, shortly before His ascension, appear to us applicable to all times (Mark 16:15-18). Paul places the gift of healing among the operations of the Holy Spirit. James gives a precise command on this matter without any restriction of time. The entire Scriptures declare that these graces will be granted according to the measure of the Spirit and of faith.

It is also alleged that at the outset of each new dispensation God works miracles, that it is His ordinary course of action; but it is nothing of the kind. Think of the people of God in the former dispensation, in the time of Abraham, all through the life of Moses, in the exodus from Egypt, under Joshua, in the time of the Judges and of Samuel, under the reign of David and other godly kings up to Daniel’s time. During more than a thousand years, miracles took place.

But, it is said, miracles were much more necessary in the early days of Christianity than later. But what about the power of heathenism even in this day, wherever the Gospel seeks to combat it? It is impossible to admit that miracles should have been more needful for the heathen in Ephesus (Acts 19:11-12) than for the heathen of Africa in the present day. And if we think of the ignorance and unbelief which reign even in the midst of the Christian nations, are we not driven to conclude that there is a need for manifest acts of the power of God to sustain the testimony of believers and to prove that God is with them? Besides, among believers themselves, how much of doubt, how much of weakness there is! How their faith needs to be awakened and stimulated by some evident proof of the presence of the Lord in their midst. One part of our being consists of flesh and blood; it is therefore in flesh and blood that God wills to manifest His presence.

In order to prove that it is the Church’s unbelief which has lost the gift of healing, let us see what the Bible says about it. Does it not often put us on our guard against unbelief, against all which can estrange and turn us from our God? Does not the history of the Church show us the necessity of these warnings? Does it not furnish us with numerous examples of backward steps, of world pleasing, in which faith grew weak in the exact measure in which the spirit of the world took the upper hand? Faith is possible only to him who lives in the world invisible. Until the third century, the healings by faith in Christ were numerous, but in the centuries following they became more infrequent. Do we not know from the Bible that it is always unbelief which hinders the mighty working of God?

Oh, that we could learn to believe in the promises of God! God has not gone back from His promises; Jesus is still He who heals both soul and body; salvation offers us even now healing and holiness, and the Holy Spirit is always ready to give us some manifestations of His power. When we ask why this divine power is not more often seen, He answers us, “Because of your unbelief.” The more we give ourselves to experience personally sanctification by faith, the more we shall also experience healing by faith. These two doctrines walk abreast. The more the Spirit of God lives and acts in the soul of believers, the more will the miracles multiply by which He works in the body. Thereby the world can recognize what redemption means.

Chapter 3—JESUS AND THE DOCTORS—(Mark 5:25-34)

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, and 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 physician’s knowledge of them. Here is another physician who is a believer, and who prays God’s blessing on the remedies which 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 which 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 sins, 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 of 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 of Christ’s garment felt that she was healed, she learned something of what divine love means. She went away with the words, “Daughter, thy faith hath saved thee: 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 healing 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 H...