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Scripture Prayers for Healing
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I believe it was Brother T.L. Osborn—and I’ve heard others make these same kind of remarks—
who talked about when they went out to other countries where people had already heard some
kind of preaching. Some missionaries may have been there in decades past, and some of them
had taught error about Paul’s thorn in the flesh, and about Job’s boils, and different things that
they didn’t understand themselves. They could get people saved, but healing was very much like
it is in the United States; it was a challenge.
But there were other times when they would go to places where the people had never heard
anything. They had never heard one thing about Jesus, about forgiveness, healing, or miracles,
nothing. And when they preached to them that Jesus saved and would forgive them, they would,
in the same breath, preach that He will heal them. Come down to the front, Jesus will forgive
you, and Jesus will heal you. They preached it all in the same breath. We ought to preach it in the
same breath, since it’s in the same verse. “He forgives all your iniquities…” and not even in the
next verse, but in the
same
verse, “He heals all your diseases.” He said these people had never
heard anything, so they didn’t know any better than to just get healed the same time they got
saved. They would just come on down to the front and get both born again and healed, because
they didn’t know any different. Nobody had gotten there to confuse them and tell them that it
might not be His will, and that it’s not always His will, and sometimes it’s this, and sometimes
it’s that, and sometimes He says to wait a while. They had never heard any of that. This is the
first time they had heard anything, so when they believed that Jesus would save them, they just
believed He would heal them, too. They just believed it, and it happened.
Friends, it’s not that it’s not God’s will. It’s just that the waters have been so muddied, and
people have been so confused and believed so much stuff until faith is not there. Instead of
people believing God, people are wondering and arguing and debating. Does it mean this, does it
mean that? Well, you’re not going to be healed like that. You have to get it settled once and for
all.
Say this out loud:
“I’m righteous. I’m healed. I’m rich in Christ Jesus.”
Every one of those is just as true as the others.
He said in Jeremiah 17:14, “Heal me, O L
ORD
, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be
saved: for thou art my praise.”
Jesus said, “Which one is easier?” Why should we pray differently for a healing than for
someone to be forgiven? Why should we think differently? Why should we approach it
differently? Heal me and I’m healed. Why? Just like save me and I’m saved, heal me and I’m
healed. Well, did He save us? He did. Did He heal us? Are people who are lost waiting on God
to save them? No, they are not. He has already paid the price for all of their sins; it’s already
been done, just like He’s already taken our infirmities and bore our sicknesses and carried all of
our pains. He’s already done that, but it’s up to us to receive.
In the New Testament, in James 5, notice that he is talking about two kinds of praying. James
5:15 talks about not just praying, but “the prayer of faith.” What is a prayer of faith? Jesus
defines it in Mark 11:24, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray,…” This is the faith