BIBLE PROOF THAT IT IS ALWAYS GOD'S WILL TO HEAL
There are many reasons we can give from Scripture to prove that bodily healing is always the will of God for all men in every age. The following proofs are a few that are backed by many Scriptures to prove it is always God's will to heal:
(1) Healing is in the atonement and therefore must be the will of God for all men for whom the atonement was made. That healing is in the atonement is plainly stated in a number of Scriptures. The literal rendering of Isa.53:3-5 reads, "He was despised, and forsaken of men; a man of pains, and acquainted with sickness: . . . Surely he hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our pains: yet we did esteem him violently beaten, slain of God, and degraded. But he was slain for our crimes, he was beat to pieces for our guilt; . . . and with his wounds we are healed. . . Yet it pleased Jehovah to beat him to pieces; he hath made him sick: when thou shalt make his soul and offering for sin." This plainly pictures Christ as bearing the sins and sicknesses of all men in His own body on the cross.
To prove that Isaiah did mean healing of the body instead of only forgiveness of sins we have the statement of Matt. 8:16-17 saying, "He cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." Peter also taught that Christ took our sicknesses on the cross: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: BY WHOSE STRIPES YE WERE HEALED" (1 Peter 2:24). Paul taught the same truth when he stated that many of the Corinthians were sick and many had died because they had failed to get healing for the body by rightly discerning the Lord's broken body (1 Cor. 11:29-30).
To say that Matt. 8:17 was fulfilled before the atonement was made on the cross, and therefore, it was not fulfilled on the cross, does not prove that healing is not in the atonement. On the same basis we could prove that Christ did not atone for sin on the cross because He also forgave sins before the cross. But 1 Peter 2:24 settles this question by showing that both sins and sicknesses were atoned for by Christ in His sufferings. Also, since Isa.53 pictures Christ's sufferings on the cross, it proves that both sins and sicknesses were borne by Him at that time. Christ forgave sins and healed before the cross in view of His coming atonement for both.
(2) God would not have healed people in both Testaments if it had not been His will to heal all who come in faith to him. God is no respecter of persons (Rom.2:11), and He has told us if anyone has a respect of persons he has sinned (James 2:9). This proves that God will heal all alike if He has ever healed anyone. Everyone can be healed the same way that others have been healed and they have the same right to such healing as all others have had, for it is God's promise to provide for all alike and be good to all alike (Ps. 84:11; Matt. 7:7-11). This is why Jesus died (Matt. 8:16-17; 1 Peter 2:24; Rom.8:32).
(3) God would not have made plain His will concerning healing, if it were not His will to always heal those who meet His conditions of healing (Matt. 8:17; James 5:14-16; 1 Peter 2:24; 3 John 2).
(4) God would have been the originator of sin and sickness, if it had been His will for such to continue in the human race (Rev. 21:3-7).
(5) He would not have healed even one person in any age and He would not have provided for and freely promised healing at all if He were responsible for sickness (John 10:10).
(6) It was God's will that man should be healthy and sinless forever when He created him, and that is still His highest will (Gen. 2:17; 3 John 2).
(7) Jesus Christ proved it to be God's will to heal all the sick when He actually healed all that were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38).
(8) The universal will of God was made clear when the early church was given power to carry on the work Jesus "began both to do and to teach" (Acts 1:1-8;Mark 16:15-20; John 14:12-15).
(9) The fact that sickness is the work of the devil proves that God wills to get rid of it in His children (1 John 3:8; John 10:10).
(10) Sin is also the will of God if sickness is, for both were dealt with on the same basis (Matt. 9:1-12; James 5:14-16; Matt. 13:15).
(11) Satan and demons would not fight to make and keep men sick if it was the will of God for them to be sick. Satan would try to make men well if it was the will of God for them to be sick.
It is an unfailing principle of Satan to work just the opposite of the will of God. When one argues that it is God's will for them or anyone to be sick he is in co-operation with Satan and not God (Acts 10:38; 1 John 3:8; John 10:10).
(12) Jesus would not have died to heal men of sickness if it is the will of God for them to be sick, and if He wanted men to bear it (Matt. 8:16-17; John 10:10;Jn 14:12-15; Acts 10:38; 1 Peter 2:24).
(13) Every time men asked Christ to heal He did it and repeatedly He said, "I will" (Matt. 8:2,7;)John 5:6 Since He spoke only as God gave Him words, then He expressed the will of God in saying "I will" (John 12:49).
(14) There can be no analogy between Christ's prayer, "If it be thy will" and the prayers of Christians concerning God's will to heal. Healing is always of God and is always His will, and we do not have to ask Him if it is His will concerning anything that is definitely promised in Scripture. It is already His will to heal or He would not have given His word that it is. In other words, any promise God has made should never once be doubted and asking God whether His promise is true expresses doubt and unbelief. The promises to the believer are "ask what ye will" and "What things soever ye desire," therefore ask, and you shall have them (Mark 11:22-24; John 14:12-15; John 15:7,16; John 16:23-26; Matt. 21:21-22; James 1:5-9; Heb. 11:6). How literally foolish it is to ask God to know His will concerning anything that is already clearly His will! Never be guilty again of praying a useless, unbelieving prayer concerning anything that God has promised, such as "If it be thy will." It is a sinful reflection upon God to always tell Him that you do not believe His will as expressed in plain promises and that you must hear from Him personally as to whether His promises are true or not.
(15) Sick people should ask God to forgive their unbelief even when they are only tempted to question the will of God concerning healing or anything He has promised. The will of God is expressed in the Lord's prayer, "Thy will be done in Earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN" (Matt. 6:10). If one could be presumptuous enough to argue that Heaven is full of sick people and that this is God's will on Earth, one might question the will of God and excuse unbelief. This prayer has been perverted by Christians almost universally. Even Christian hymns and writings disclose such delusions of Satan to keep men in bondage to himself. Christians actually thank God for the work of the devil. Satan also leads them to believe that his works in their bodies glorify God and that they are in His perfect will by having sicknesses.
A clear sample of such fallacy is expressed in the following hymn of Frances Ridley Havergal, written in the Alps, Oct. 8, 1876, while she was in great pain:
"I take this pain, Lord Jesus, from thine own hand; The strength to bear it bravely thou wilt command. I take this pain, Lord Jesus, as proof indeed that thou art watching closely my truest need, that thou, my Good Physician, art watching still, that all thine own good pleasure thou wilt fulfill. I take this pain, Lord Jesus; what thou dost choose. The soul that really loves thee will not refuse. I take this pain, Lord Jesus, as thine own gift. And true, though tremulous praises I now up lift. 'Tis thy dear hand, 0 Saviour, that presseth sore. The pressure only tells me thou lovest me."
What wonderful love and what a way to express it! This is accusing Christ of being the author of pain and sickness for the pleasure of God; that sickness proves the love of God; that it is the truest need of man ' : that the Good Physician instead of healing, makes sick; that it is God's pleasure to cause pain in His children; and that such is the choice of God and His gift to the redeemed.
One can only believe that such poetry was inspired of Satan instead of God. And to think-saints are so deceived. Surely Satan stands back and laughs with glee when he can get God's own children to accuse Him of putting on them the works of the devil.
(16) It is as impossible for God to communicate disease as it is for Him to communicate and propagate sin and rebellion. Neither sin nor sickness comes from God for they do not belong to Him. They belong to a fallen world of sinful creatures (James 3:11-12).
(17) It is not presumptuous to pray in every case for healing, believing from the whole heart that it is already God's will and that it shall be done according to His will (John 10:10; John 15:7; James 4:7;Jas 5:14-18; Mark 11:22-24).
(18) If it were not the will of God to always heal He never would have provided the means of healing, made a covenant to heal, promised healing, demonstrated it, rebuked men for not having faith for it, continued to heal in every age, and He never would have made hearing part of the spiritual equipment of the church and proof that an individual is a full believer (John 14:12; 1 Cor. 12:7-11; Acts 1:8; Acts 3:6; Acts 4:30; Acts 5:10; Acts 19:11.)
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