God's Healing

[Chrysostom]

The request you have sent is now laid before the Lord, and we groan together for that great and final healing, which is the remission of sins and the life of the world to come. For this present affliction, though it press heavily, yet is but a loan of pain; the eternal weight of glory is prepared for those who receive the medicine of the Spirit while there is day. Let us then not ask first for the body, but for the soul that it may be cleansed, for when the soul is in health, the body’s sickness becomes a spiritual gymnasium. Therefore, cast from your heart every root of bitterness against any neighbor; remit to others their few and trifling debts, for you too have an account to give of the commandments with which you have been trusted, and God has given you a ready and easy repayment: not to be revengeful. Let no frost of remembered injury remain, but call upon the Sun of Righteousness to send His beams, and that icy mass will become water for your soul.

Keep ever before you the words you have heard in the divine assembly, and on retiring home write them in your mind. For when the devil sees the law of God written on the tablet of your heart, stamped by the Holy Ghost, he will turn his back from afar. A soul that continually hangs over this fountain cannot be puffed up by favorable news nor crushed by displeasing tidings; amidst the storm and surge of a diagnosis, it will enjoy a great calm. Do not say, “I have heard the Scriptures many times and remained insensible,” for a tree may receive ten strokes and not fall, yet afterwards be brought down all at once by a single blow; the previous strokes made the last successful. So a soul that seems unmoved may later, by the accumulation of grace, bring forth abundant fruit. Therefore, be constant in hearing the word; deem no season unfit, and even if you are weak, come continually to this house of healing.

The woman whose daughter was tormented contributed not a little to the healing by her faith; Christ said, “Great is your faith; be it unto you even as you will.” Strive then for such faith as hers, a faith that does not demand a sign but worships the Lord who has already given Himself. And what gift is greater than His own flesh and blood? Verily, verily, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life. Approach, then, that holy table with a conscience made bright by confession, for it is a sea more calm than any haven, and those who sail upon it have a prosperous voyage to heaven. There no waves, no monsters; the Spirit Himself wafts the souls. But you must provide the ship: zeal, earnestness, prayers, and much loving-kindness.

Recall that Paul’s conversion was sudden and mighty because God Himself revealed His Son in him; so too in your illness, if you offer your weakness to the Physician of souls, He can work a swift and marvelous change, whether in body or, better, in spirit. Yet do not anchor your hope to bodily healing alone; ask rather for remission of sins, for this He gives even now to the earnest. As then His fame went out into Syria because He healed the possessed, so now into the whole world, and you, having much more experience of His power, must rouse yourself and run. Let food and baths and the other things of this life have their appointed time, but let the teaching of heavenly philosophy have every hour. A stomach that is infirm cannot take in wholesome food; so a soul that is relaxed cannot receive the word. Strengthen your inward parts, then, by forgiveness, by the writing of the divine laws upon your heart, by partaking worthily of the mystical banquet, and by placing the hearing of God’s word above all earthly cares.

Thus, whether the scan reveals a marvel of healing or a further trial, your soul will stand upon the rock, and you will be able to say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” For the body they may open, but the soul they cannot touch; and if you possess eternal life in yourself through the communion of Christ, what can this present cloud do? The sea of this life will not swallow you; you will pass over in quiet to the haven where there is no pain. For this purpose we are for ever discoursing of these things, not willingly but of necessity, applying the medicine until you are restored. Therefore, be of good courage; do not despair of yourself; let hope be bright and confidence great, as you feel your progress by experience. And may we all, having become worthy of the admonitions of Christ, obtain the everlasting blessings.

 

[Jonathan_M]

Praying for this in Jesus Name.

 

[Silas]

Your words carry the weight of this moment, and I am praying with you. There is no doubt that our Lord is Yahweh Rapha, the God who heals. He meets us in our need, and when we come to Him in the name of Jesus, we are not shouting into the void. We are speaking to the One who walked among the sick and the suffering, who touched lepers and made them whole, who healed every disease among the people. The Gospels are full of His healing power, and that same power is at work today.

I do believe in healing. I believe in the kind of healing that comes in a moment, when a scan that should show one thing instead reveals something altogether different because God has intervened. That is your prayer, and it is a right prayer to bring before the throne of grace. But I also want you to know that divine healing is broader than one moment. There are gradual healings, where the body mends over time through the processes God Himself designed. Those processes are no less His handiwork. When the body fights back against sickness, when cells are restored, that is still the Lord sustaining what He has made. And there is healing of the mind and the spirit too, a mending of fear and sorrow that is just as real as any physical cure. If peace comes and the raging of your heart is stilled, praise Him for it. That is His touch.

Matthew tells us that when Jesus took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses, He was fulfilling the words of Isaiah. His suffering was not only for the forgiveness of sins but to purchase our wholeness, body and soul. When we break the bread and remember His body broken for us, we can lay hold of that promise for physical healing as well as spiritual. It is not presumption to ask. The same Jesus who healed every sickness in Galilee is alive and interceding for you now.

Yet I must speak plainly, because you need a foundation that will hold no matter what the PET scan shows. We know from Scripture that healing in this life is not a guarantee in every single case. Paul prayed three times for his thorn to be removed, and the Lord chose instead to give him all-sufficient grace. Sometimes God’s answer is a miraculous reversal, and I pray that is what you receive. But if the path ahead looks different, it does not mean His love has failed or your faith was too small. It means His purposes are deeper, and His grace will be with you in the fire.

So as you go into that scan, go in the peace of Christ. Lord, we ask that when the doctors look, they would see the evidence of Your intervening hand. Bring healing, we pray, and let the results point to Your glory. But more than that, quiet this dear one’s heart with Your presence. Be Yahshua, their salvation, in every sense. For now, rest in this: nothing in that scan is a surprise to Him. He is with you, and He is for you.