Miraculous Healing

I need to start this blog off with a couple of disclaimers:

First, I have never claimed to know all there is to know on the subjects of healing and miracles. I would love to know more. This blog is an investigation and exploration into knowledge much more than it is an attempt at teaching anything I might know.

Second, this is a very deep topic, and I plan to merely introduce my ideas. There are several ideas that I plan to introduce, and I would like to take the time to unpack them in future blogs devoted to each idea singly.

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“⁴Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.”
(Is. 53:4-5 NKJV)

I often hear people say that, “He purchased our salvation.” However, usually, they are referring to the forgiveness of sins. Whenever the Bible uses the word, “salvation,” in either the Hebrew or the Greek, it is meaning “deliverance”. Deliverance most certainly does have to do with our sins, but Christ died to deliver us from more than just our sins.

Isaiah 53:4 tells us that Christ bore our griefs. However, the Hebrew word used here is better translated “sickness.” This word is used 24 times in the Old Testament. The New American Standard Bible translates it 1 time as affliction, 2 times as disease, 3 times as grief(s), 3 times as illness, 1 time as sick, and 15 times as sickness(es).

The New Testament tells us:

“¹⁶When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, ¹⁷that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

‘He Himself took our infirmities
And bore our sicknesses.’” (Matt. 8:16-17 NKJV).

This was a direct quote from Isaiah 53, yet in Matthew, the word sickness was used rather than grief.

There is no doubt in my mind that the purpose of the cross was for our deliverance. I’m not saying it wasn’t for deliverance from our grief. Like I said, I believe the purpose of the cross was for our deliverance, whatever that deliverance may be from: sin, sickness, grief, anything. Christ saw our need, and He fulfilled that need. He paid a price for our deliverance.

Now, I am going to focus this blog, and a series of other blogs on the topic of healing. I will say that it seems that the deeper I look into this topic, the more questions I end up having. Nevertheless, I am going to endeavor to address this topic to the best of my ability, hoping that other people will ask the same questions that I am. I want to see some lively conversation startup across this blog in an attempt to raise new questions, and provide answers to old questions. I certainly hope there are people out there who are willing to join in the conversation. And, by all means, please forward this on to those who you think could add a great deal to it.

I am going to make 2 observations that I might be obvious and that everyone pretty much already understands:

• Not every MIRACLE is a HEALING
• Not every HEALING is a MIRACLE

To fully understand what I mean, we need a good definition of these words. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines each word as:

Miracle – an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs

Healing –

1. to make free from injury or disease : to make sound or whole (heal a wound)
2. to make well again : to restore to health (heal the sick)

I think the first observation is pretty easy to prove. Look over the list of miracles that Jesus did. His first known miracle was turning water into wine. No healing occurred. It doesn’t stop with that. He walks on water, calms a raging sea, and multiplies fish and bread. These are all miracles without healing.

The second observation may be a little more tricky to prove. It depends on how you look at things. For instance, I broke my leg in 2012. I had surgery to repair it. I wore a cast for a while. I went to physical therapy. Over time, the bones healed. According to my definition of miracle (see above) there was no divine intervention that I know of that caused the healing of my leg. Therefore, we had a healing without a miracle. However, some would say that I might not know if there was divine intervention. True. But I’m not sure that God is in the practice of performing “secret miracles”.

The reason I am drawing such a distinction between healing and miracles is because when people pray, they often ask for healing, but expect a miracle. I don’t think that God misunderstands our requests, or doesn’t know what we mean. However, I do think that we need to have a realistic understanding of what we are asking for and what it is that God has promised us.

In the coming weeks I will be unpacking these ideas further, but I want to introduce them now.

Psalms 103:1-3 says:

“¹Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
²Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
³Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;”

This says that is a benefit to us that He heals all our diseases. To say that “He heals” does not specifically call for a miracle. I believe that God heals us in a variety of ways. When I look at healing, I believe there are 4 ways in which we are healed:

1. Miraculously
2. Through medical intervention
3. On our own (time)
4. After death

I believe that God has His hand in each of these.  I believe that this is the order in which we should seek healing. I believe we should always assume that God intended to bless us with miracles.  At the same time, when a miracle does not happen, I understand that my brain will never be equal to God’s, and I will accept that He may have an alternate route for healing.

Over the next several weeks, I will be discussing these methods of healing. I hope that other people will weigh in on them as I am laying out my thoughts.

As I said, this is just the preliminary, introductory remarks, with a whole lot more to come.  But for now, any thoughts?