Questioning Assumptions About Healing: It Passed Away with the Apostles or after the Bible was Canonized
There was once a dad who founded a family business went away on a long journey. He put his children in charge to run the business until his return. Before he left, he taught them everything they knew, modeled how to meet whatever needs his customers had, and wrote a manual detailing all the company policies, values, rules, job descriptions, and expectations for employees.
It was undetermined when exactly the founder would return from his long journey, but now his children were given the authority to make decisions and to grow the company according to the founder’s example, teachings, resources, their own gifts and talents, and the policy manual they possessed.
One day, the sons in charge discovered that the company headquarters had become infested with termites. These termites were weakening the foundation of the building as they were eating away at the wood from the inside.
These pests were elusive and it was challenging to identify the scope of their activity, where they were hiding, and where they were all coming from. The sons hired a team of pest control professionals, but after they did their thing, if ever an employee saw another termite, they would begin to wonder about how thoroughly the job was done. At the next company meeting, the leaders discussed the following:
- Did the pest control team really remove all the termites? If we saw another termite, then they must not have done a complete work.
- Did they get rid of 90% of the termites? 30% of the termites?
- Is it possible for us to remove 100% of the termites? Should we hire them again, or should we find and invest in another pest control team for a deeper work?
- Should we even bother about the termites anymore? Out of sight, out of mind?
- What if the termites are an inevitable reality and we should just stop worrying about them and focus on other company matters?
- Should we just divert our time and attention to more marketing and getting more customers?
Are the gifts of the Holy Spirit for today? According to Acts 10:38, Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil because God was with Him. In the Great Commission passage of Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus told his apostles, “…All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (NASB1995).
Jesus told his eleven disciples to make disciples, teaching them to observe everything that he commanded them and to keep his commandments. These disciples were to make disciples, teaching those disciples to observe everything that Jesus commanded, and to demonstrate that they truly are his disciples by loving one another and keeping his commandments (see John 15). This ripple effect of “spiritual multiplication” was to continue to the end of the age, so that every people group (nation) will know God as a member of His family and will think, believe, and act in the same way that Jesus did.
This begs the question: what is included in “[everything or] all that [Jesus] commanded [his disciples]?” Would “all” include his commandments in Matthew 10:8 to “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give” (NKJV)?
Would “observe all that I commanded you” apply to the following passages?
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25 NKJV)
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? (Matthew 6:31 NKJV)
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:24 NKJV)
“But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak;” (Matthew 10:19 NKJV)
“But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 13:11 NKJV)
“Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say.” (Luke 12:11 NKJV)
When Jesus commands his disciples never to worry, does he really expect us to actually obey that? Come on; is that realistic?
Why did I go off on a “tangent” about worry or anxiety? Is there a connection between worry and sickness? If it was established by the medical community and the testimony of Scriptures that worry, anxiety, and fear releases excess cortisol drip into the human body, compromises the immune system, and results in disease to nearly every system of the human body (immune system, endocrine system, digestive system, cardiovascular system, cardiopulmonary system, limbic system, nervous system, etc.), then is there a possible connection between the removal of worry and the healing of sickness?
If so, is it possible that our failure to see the healing of sickness may often be due to the failure of our obedience or application of Jesus’ command not to worry about our lives or about what we will do or say?
If we could declare with authority that a sick person is healed from their disease, and they even see a manifestation of healing as their symptoms go away, but then they continue to worry about their life on a constant basis, then might the excess cortisol drip from the same old mindset of worry only compromise their immune system again and bring back their sickness again? If so, might they end off worse than before and they be tempted to blame God for taking their healing away?
Thus, if many in the church today do not see the manifestation of healing from disease, then why is that? Is it because the Holy Spirit who lives within every believer decided that healing is no longer a part of God’s nature?
Is it because physical healing is no longer necessary after the Bible was canonized and the Holy Spirit’s ministry of healing kickstarted the early church, but now it is no longer necessary? Because eternity is forever and salvation from one’s sins is therefore far more important than whether or not a person gets healed during this fleeting vapor of an earthly life, does God no longer care whether or not we live healthily or free from disease?
Or what if there are other factors that we may not have considered? What if it is God’s will that we prosper and be in health, even as our souls prosper? What if our souls aren’t prospering because we are not believing God’s implanted word which has the power to sanctify us (save our soul–intellect, will, and emotions)? See James 1:21.
What if there are areas in our lives where we are not thinking the way God thinks, practicing the mind of Christ, or having the same attitude as Christ Jesus? Is it possible that our stressed, worried mindsets are making us sick, and that our failure to remain in God’s love is what is allowing that worry (and the resulting sickness) to remain?
If we abide in God’s love, and God’s perfect love casts out all our fears, and we cast all our anxieties upon God because we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that He cares for us, then is it possible that our healing will come speedily after we come back into agreement with God’s Word in every area of our lives?
Job was worried and stressed about his reprobate children. After he encountered the trauma of losing them along with all his wealth, he became sick. Then he confessed to his friends that the thing he feared greatly had come upon him. In no way do I mean to make light of Job’s real agony and suffering or to minimize the terrible things that he went through.
Job’s three friends were “worthless physicians” and “miserable comforters” who blamed, heaped guilt upon, and falsely accused Job for some hidden sin he must have done to bring about this calamity. But did Job’s three friends once address Job’s fear of losing his kids?
Did they minister to his heart, love him, and tell him about a coming Messiah? Did they prophesy to him about God the Father losing His only begotten Son, heaven going bankrupt, and God losing everything dear to His heart as His Son became sin for us?
Did Job’s three friends minister God’s love to Job through the good news about Jesus? Or were they out to prove Job wrong by convincing him what a bad person he was? A fourth man, Elihu, did address the specific thoughts and ways that Job had been accusing God of wrongdoing and how Job had come into agreement with mindsets of pride, self-righteousness, and self-pity.
Elihu did talk about how healing manifests when we receive God’s ransom who redeems us from our sins. For this reason, the one person in Job’s discourse whom God did not rebuke and require a sacrifice in repentance from was Elihu, who sought to restore Job in a spirit of meekness.
For more information on this good news about Jesus so that we may enter into a personal relationship with God, click “Four Spiritual Laws for Experiencing Joy.”
