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Does God want you to be physically healthy? Western Christianity has often taught that God doesn’t heal today, a person’s physical health is of little concern to God, and that sometimes, He even causes people to be sick in order to “test” them or teach them a lesson.
If you have been led to believe these kinds of things then I encourage you to reexamine these issues with me today. In this article, I will address Physical healing and health from a Biblical perspective. Click here for a related article about inner healing.
If you have experienced a health challenge it does not mean that you are outside the will of God.
I want to make it clear as we begin: If you have experienced a health challenge it does not mean that you are outside the will of God.
To fall into condemnation because you are not 100% healthy may even be a sin itself. That is not what this article is about. Perhaps that issue will be fully addressed in the future but I want to be clear that, that is not what is being said or implied in this article. There are many reasons for sickness: They are not the focus of this article.
The purpose of this article is to answer the questions: Does God want you to be healthy and does God want you to be healed?
Not only does God want you to be physically healthy and healed in your body, but he also wants you to be healed in your spirit and soul as well. I address that subject in this article.
Typical “arguments of why God doesn’t care if you are healthy or not
While this article is not going to focus on the typical arguments that people use to claim that God facilitates, or is at least is impartial to sickness in His people, I am going to address the fallacy of a few of the primary arguments that are put forth in that regard. There is much more to consider regarding these issues that will not be addressed here.
Job
The favorite argument that people seem to use to support why God is good with His people being sick is the story of Job. However, there is much to this story that is often overlooked or ignored. Job’s faith almost never wavered during His ordeal and in the end, He was rewarded because of it.
Today people are quick to point out that Job experienced difficulty. However, they neglect the fact that although Job was already “the greatest of all the men of the East“, and after the end of His trial God saw that Job was faithful and so He blessed Job with twice as much as he had before for all that he had endured.
Apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”:
I would like to have a dollar for every time someone wanted to remind me that even Apostle Paul had a “thorn in the flesh”. Apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh was most certainly not a physical ailment: Rather it was a harassing demon.
2 Corinthians 12:7, 10 specifically tells us so:
“there was given me a thorn [splinter] in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me”…. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Although this by itself is enough, there is more. Apostle Paul was a Biblical scholar. It is said that compared to education, as we know it today, he would have held approximate four PhD’s. When he said that he had a “thorn in the flesh”, he was simply referencing a phrase from the Tanakh (“Old” Testament) whereby Israel was given a “thorn in the flesh” on a few different occasions.
Here is an excerpt from the Holman Bible Dictionary: “The Old Testament use of the term thorn also offers some help. In Numbers 33:55 ; Ezekiel 28:24 we read of enemies who are “thorns” in Israel’s side, a constant harassment to Israel as the agent of the Lord’s redemptive judgments (compare Joshua 23:13 ; Hosea 2:6 ).
Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 12:7 , “thorn in the flesh” refers more to the enemy, the “messenger of Satan,” than to any specific physical ailment.”
Healing isn’t for today
God never changes. Divine healing can be found all through the Bible.
Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children.
For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Gen. 20:17-18
The Gospels and the book of Acts are full of accounts of when Yeshua went about “healing all” and taught His disciples to do the same. Finally the book of Revelation expresses the healing and restoration of the Bride of Christ in fullness.
God is testing us
A common phrase heard to justify sickness and disease in the body of Christ is “God is testing me”. Throughout the Bible, there are instances of where people refuse to submit to God. They allow their pride to rear up as an affront to Him. When that occurs God deals with them accordingly. However, not one time is anyone ever made to suffer sickness just so God could test them and watch them squirm out of some sort of sick pleasure. While that is completely in line with the satan, it is absolutely contrary to the character and nature of God.
Is seeking medical assistance a sin?
While the following is not an argument that people use to support God’s desire for His people to be weak or infirmed, it does, at the least, demonstrate significant inconsistency in many people’s thinking.
If a person believes that it is God’s will for them to be sick then, if they care at all about what God thinks, they should wholly and completely refrain from seeking medical attention. If a person believes that it is God’s will for them to be sick then simple logic dictates that they are knowingly and purposely violating the will of God by seeking medical attention for any reason; either for healing or to alleviate pain.
The Bible refers to someone who believes that it is God’s will that they are sick while taking steps to heal or alleviate pain as doubleminded and unstable.
The devil wants you dead
The reality that the satan wants you dead is all through the Bible. The most well known and clear expression of this can be found in John 10:10.
“The thief (satan) comes not, but for to steal, and to kill (murder), and to destroy”
However, the principle is clearly demonstrated all through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. In Genesis the satan deceives and seduces Adam and Eve thus plunging them into spiritual and physical death as God had promised, and in Revelation, he is found making war on the saints: Again murdering and doing everything he can to wreak havoc. This is what he does. This is his nature. I hate him. It is not God’s nature to murder or destroy, it is the satan’s character and nature to murder, steal and destroy all that he can.
The Bible on health and physical healing
While people choose to erroneously “hang their hat” on a very few instances in the Bible, in order to justify sickness and disease, there is a multitude of Biblical accounts that demonstrate God’s desire for His people to enjoy good health. They are all through the Bible again, from Genesis to Revelation.
Accepting the notion that God orchestrates evil against you can be a great barrier for you to overcome. This barrier can easily be enough to prevent you from living the healthy, abundant life that God desires for you. In fact, it is very reasonable for a person to turn away from a God that would cause either themselves, or someone they love, to horrendously suffer and die.
In this short treatise on the subject, I present some very basic information so that you can know that God does indeed want you to live a full, healthy, vibrant and abundant life. Sure there are obstacles to overcome in order to accomplish this: He never said there wouldn’t be, but that is what He wants for you.
Do you want to be free from sickness and oppression? If so it will be exceedingly difficult if you are under the condemnation that the Supreme Being of the universe wants you to be oppressed and die.
The Will of God is Health and Healing
Healer F.F. Bosworth (1877-1958) made a very noteworthy statement in this regard; He said: “The power of God can be claimed only where the will of God is 
known”.
If you accept the reality that God wants you well; vibrant health and freedom will be much more easily obtained.
Before we look at a few Bible passages, I would first just like to ask a question in order to look at this subject from a common sense approach. The question is this: If God loved you so much that He sacrificed His only Son so that you could live (Jn.3:16), then why would He turn around and cause you to suffer and be sick even unto death?
Now, what does the Bible say about being in good health and healing?
Way back in Genesis, after creating man, the Bible tells us that God said it (man) was “very good” (Gen.1:31). Notice He didn’t make man sick, or just “good” enough. From the very beginning, God intended His prized creation to be “very good”.
As God created man to be ” very good”, in Exodus 23:25-26 we see God desiring to take away all disease and then restore health to His people.
Psalm 91:6 says that “with long life will I satisfy him.” All through the “Old Testament” we see these principles expressed as He deals with His people. This is the heart of God
We know that God never changes (Numb. 23:19, Mal. 3:6, Heb. 13:8). This aspect would apply to God wanting His people to be happy, satisfied, healthy and free as well. We see then that not only did God want His people to be healthy and free in the Old Testament, but He wants us to be healthy and free in the New Testament as well; perhaps even more-so.
I discuss this issue at some length in an article that I have written called “Shalom – Nothing missing, nothing broken“.
In Romans chapter 5 verse 17 we see a very interesting and telling verse: “For if by one man’s offense (Adam’s original sin) death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ (who never sinned).”
Jesus / Yeshua said this same thing very plainly in John 10:10 “ … I am come that they (you) might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
In other words, It was God’s desire that the first man, Adam, would take dominion over the earth and live the life that God had for Him. We all know that that didn’t happen. So then what Adam failed to do, Jesus / Yeshua did accomplish and He made it available for all.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus / Yeshua boldly expressed His will for all to walk in the abundant life that He sacrificed so much for. By healing the multitudes, from every sort of oppression, He clearly demonstrated His desire for all to be healed and whole for their blessing and His glory.
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power:
who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.
Acts 10:38
Yeshua taught His disciples how to love others and to express the love of God through healing just as He Himself had done. Along with teaching His disciples how to heal, he also told His disciples to go forth teaching others all that He had taught them.
Matthew 28:19-20
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Mark 16:17-19
These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; … they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
We see that this is exactly what they did.
Acts 19:12
So that from his (Apostle Paul’s) body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
Acts 3:6
Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have, give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
The satan purposes to steal everything he can from you including your health (John 10:10). But praise God, through Jesus we have victory over satan.
The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 10:10
God’s desire for you to be healed and healthy is often denied by those we entrust ourselves to
Unfortunately, over time, healing of the spirit, soul, and body, and even Biblical, natural health practices, have been dismissed and even criticized by mainline denominations, including those in leadership.
Because of these errant teachings, health and healing have been relegated to just about every demographic of American culture other than those for which it was originally created; God’s people.
The “new age” culture is far ahead of mainstream Christians in regards to utilizing God’s provision for healing.
And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for food, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for food, and the leaf thereof for medicine.
Ezekiel 47:12
Praise God, divine healing and natural healing is beginning to be more accepted. God’s desire for His people to be healthy in spirit, soul, and body is beginning to be embraced within a Godly context.
So no matter your situation, no matter where you have been or where you are, know that the Creator of the universe, your Creator, really wants the best for you. He wants you to have an abundance in every area of life.
If you are facing a challenging situation. I want you to know that there is always hope in Yeshua. He never promised it would be easy. As satan purposes to destroy and murder you, Yeshua fight promises that He will be available for you every step of the way. I know; He has been there for me.
While the things I have written about in this article are true, they do not “just happen”. There are Keys to the Kingdom that help unlock health and healing. I welcome the opportunity to assist you in your health and healing challenges as God leads.
You don’t have to face your health challenges alone. Enjoy fellowship with others who are also experiencing personal freedom and health. Check out our online community and local Fellowship Groups where you can receive encouragement for your healing journey.
Conclusion: The satan wants to make you feel alone. He will do everything he can to make prevent you from fulfilling your God-given destiny. One of his favorite tactics is to inflict injury upon people in order to create barriers between people and Yahweh God.
Yeshua wants you to be free from the satan’s grasp so that you can be blessed and He can be glorified. He came to set the Israel of God free from the oppression of the devil. You can be free to fulfill your God-given destiny.
Embracing physical healing is a key to the Kingdom that can open the portal of Heaven between you and Yeshua, allowing you to fulfill your destiny in the Kingdom of God, here on earth.
Confession: Father God, in Yeshua’s name, today I declare that in the power and authority of Yeshua, I choose life. I choose the plan for my life that Yeshua gave Himself for and I will not settle for less.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I release my past, present, and future to you. You are the Great Physician and You are capable of healing every area of my life and so I release them all to You and claim the health in my body that Yeshua gave Himself for. Please help me to walk in your perfect will for my life. By faith and for your glory I receive that blessing now in Yeshua’s Name. Amen!
Dr. Rayphe
God’s Kingdom Realm
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