Divine Healing

By Dr. Brian J. Bailey

God is the Healer. He willingly gave the back of His Beloved Son, Jesus, to be scourged so that by His stripes, healing would be made available for us. Using many testimonies of those who have experienced God’s healing, as well as the numerous examples seen Scripture, Dr Bailey shows that divine healing is not simply a historical phenomenon, but one that continues today and is available to those who call upon His name. It is the author’s prayer that as you read this book, faith will arise in your heart, and that you, too, would experience His divine health.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zion Christian Publishers
• Release date: Dec 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781596656550

Book preview

PREFACE

In Psalm 139:14, King David declared: "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…" Concerning this physical body of ours, the beloved Apostle John expresses the desire of God when he writes in his third epistle, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth (3 Jn. 1:2). Therefore, a healthy body is God’s will for us.

This may be confirmed by the response of the Lord to a certain leper who said to Him, "If thou wilt thou canst make me clean. The Lord answered him, I will, be thou clean" (Mk.1:40-41). Therefore, as we approach, prayerfully and reverentially, this very important subject of divine healing, may we do so in full assurance that His desire is to heal our sick bodies and make us every whit whole.

It is our desire that by the grace of God, this book may encourage you to receive your healing. Our blessed Lord obtained healing for us by giving His back to the smiters (Isaiah 50:6). He allowed them to whip His back so that you might be restored to the fullness of health in body, soul, and spirit. Praise the Lord!

This healing stream flows from heaven above; and it is ours to appropriate by the faith of the Son of God.

INTRODUCTION

We are so fearfully and wonderfully made, that our Creator, in His tender love and compassion for us, has placed within our framework marvellous restorative powers to heal our sicknesses. Hence we have the old adage the bedside manner of the physician works wonders. There are times when simple means, such as resting in bed, will enable our immune system to fight off many maladies.

However, there are obviously other illnesses that require treatments beyond rest. Moreover, there are sometimes cases for which there is no medical cure available. Afflictions that need medical treatment may include, for example, broken limbs, poor eyesight, deafness, viruses, and plagues such as leprosy. The Lord Jesus encountered these same problems in His ministry. Therefore, the healing stream that flowed from Him cured the sick and needy ones of His day. We shall see in this book that He will also extend His healing virtue today to you and me, dear ones.

The definition of healing, as applied to the whole man, may be divided into two parts:

1) The inner healing that meets the needs of our soul and spirit, and

2) The physical healing that addresses the sicknesses which afflict our human frame.

Thus we have divided this book into these two main sections, which we trust will be a blessing to you, gentle reader, and will glorify Jehovah Rapha—the Lord our Healer.

CHAPTER ONE

Inner Healing

We understand from Scripture that man is a tripartite being. For example, 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says: And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have a tangible physical body (some parts of which are visible, and other parts, internal). But we also have a soul and a spirit.

Our Soul

The Apostle Paul makes it clear that our soul must be separated from our spirit, when he writes in Hebrews 4:12, For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The soul is the seat of the emotions. While we are all influenced by our emotions, we must not let them rule and guide us. King David, when he was surrounded and greatly outnumbered by his enemies, cried out, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God (Ps. 43:5).  The soul of the king had been overwhelmed by the apparently hopeless situation; but he would not let his soul guide him. Rather, through his spirit, he spoke words of encouragement to his soul. This is a profound lesson for us all to learn.

The soul, therefore, is governed very much by circumstances. If the sun is shining, the soul rejoices; but if the sky is covered with threatening rain clouds, then the soul becomes sombre and moody. These moods that dominate so many of God’s people are a considerable source of hindrance to their spiritual well being. We must overcome the tendency to be dominated by our moods and emotions.

Let us consider the terrible damage that anxiety can do to the human body. An article in USA Today (a prominent newspaper in North America) on 3rd June 2003, stated that anxiety can produce acid reflux, allergies, backaches, asthma, fatigue, and migraines. However, the key to overcoming bouts of anxiety is for our spirit to take the ascendancy and actually command our soul to rejoice. The Apostle Paul expresses this same important principle when writing to the Ephesians, Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord (Eph. 5:19).

Overcoming Offences

The soul is very sensitive, and it can be easily scarred and offended. It is true that prevention is better than cure, especially in the realm of the soul. Offences will come, but before their tentacles can embed themselves into the recesses of our soul and release their deadly poison, let us run for the antidote. What then is the antidote? It is none other than the peace of God, as this verse illustrates: Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them (Ps. 119:165).

The peace of God calms the troubled soul. Therefore, it is essential to cultivate this particular virtue and fruit of the Holy Spirit. The key to obtaining God’s peace is found in Philippians 4:6-7, where it is written, Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Here we see that it is imperative for us to take every offence to the Lord immediately and let Him work. We must let Him speak words of comfort and enlightenment concerning the offence into the deep recesses of our soul. In so doing we will come out triumphant and will also be enriched in our own soul.

Another very important antidote for offences is the spiritual antibiotic called Manasseh. It means God has caused me to forget. It was this powerful weapon that enabled Joseph to triumph over all the injustices that he suffered at the hands of his brethren: And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house (Gen. 41:51). This holy forgetfulness enabled Joseph to treat his brothers with gentle courtesy when they had to bow down before him as ruler of Egypt (Gen. 50:21). True forgiveness is rooted in forgetfulness. Therefore, to truly forgive and to triumph over offences, we need to ask the Lord in every hurtful circumstance for our Manasseh.

Overcoming Fear

Then there is another disturbing enemy that can do great damage to our soul, and that is fear. How many times do we read the command from the Lord to His servants, Fear not! All of us have experienced that deadly enemy. Giving us a key to overcoming fear, King David wrote in Psalm 56:3, What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

Therefore, trust—a wholehearted commitment of a situation, circumstance, or event into the Lord’s hands—is the antidote for fear. Trust comes from believing God’s Word and having a sure knowledge that the Lord is in control of all things in our lives.  We need an ongoing experiential knowledge of Romans 8:28, which says: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Fear is torment. The Apostle John says, There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love (1 Jn. 4:18).  It is obvious from Scripture that love entails obedience to His commandments. We cannot say that we love God if we hate our brother or if we are not living in accordance with His Laws. Making clear what He means by loving God, the Lord Jesus says (in  John 14:21), He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

Overcoming Bitterness

Another perfidious enemy is bitterness. Should this enemy take up residence in our hearts, it can defile many, as we read in Hebrews 12:15, Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. This same verse tells us why people become bitter. Let me explain by this illustration:

One pastor told me that he had a congregation filled with offended people who had become bitter. The Lord said to me that they are people who had failed of the grace of God. The Apostle Peter speaks of manifold trials or temptations (1 Pet. 1:6), and then he speaks of the manifold grace of God (1 Pet. 4:10).

The Lord explained it like this to my wife. In the Greek, the word translated manifold means many-coloured. Thus we have many-coloured trials and many-coloured grace. The Lord pointed out that for every colour of trial, there was a matching colour of grace that would enable us to triumph in that situation. So for example, if we have a gray trial, there is a gray-coloured grace that will cover that trial. The people in that pastor’s congregation had failed to appropriate the necessary grace that would match their particular ordeals and give them victory in each of their struggles. Because they lacked the necessary matching grace to triumph, bitterness came in and they were all defiled.

Hurts can sometimes be generational. Those hurts must be confessed, and deliverance must be received so that we can move on with God. This was true of the Greeks in the time of Alexander the Great who still burned with deep resentment for the way that Xerxes of Persia had burnt Athens some 150 years before. In Daniel 8, we see the picture of Alexander as the he-goat, filled with anger, as he comes against the ram, Darius III of Persia.

Family feuds can fester over the decades and generations, as did the notorious feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. The McCoys, lived in Kentucky, just across the river from the Hatfields on the West Virginia side. These two families hated one another. Their feuding and killings lasted from the time of the Civil War up until the last killing in 1896.

Some people actually take up the offences of others, to the damage of their own souls. The key to overcoming bitterness is to forgive and forget the offence, so that the curse of remembering the sins of others does not produce ulcers in our stomachs, along with spiritual bondages.

Overcoming Lusts of the Soul

The Word of God also links lusting to the realm of the soul in the following scriptures:

"Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he