Healing and Righteousness

"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" (I Pet. 2:24). Well there's my text verse for the day, and as you can see, it is about the redemption of our soul and the healing of our body; both of which are in Christ, and are effective for and to those who are in Christ. Since I write so often on the first part of this verse that concerns being dead to sin and living in the righteousness of God, today I'm going to focus on the second part which is in regard to healing. I want to focus on what healing is, meaning is it a promise? I contend that healing is NOT a promise, but don't stop reading just yet. The reason I say that healing is not a promise is because a promise is about something that is yet to come or yet to be effected. But if you will note the verse you will see that Peter specifically says that we 'were' healed by the stripes that Jesus took on his body before he was crucified. What that clearly and simply means is that your body and mine were healed of all infirmity of all kinds WHEN Jesus took those stripes. What this also means is that all we need to do is BELIEVE that we were healed by his stripes, and the healing will manifest in our body. If we believe, then it has to. So then healing is actually a guarantee rather than a promise, because it is something that has already been done, not something that is promised to come. The truth is that people who are not even in Christ can be healed by believing that it is the will of God for them to be healed, because Jesus paid the price for everyone's healing. It doesn't make good sense for someone to be healed of a sickness or the like, and then not want to be redeemed from their sins and live for Jesus. Nonetheless that can certainly happen just because Jesus paid the price for their healing.

I remember years ago when a brother in Christ that I know was really laboring with a serious lower back problem. He had been praying about it and trying to find some kind of relief. One night he had a dream that he was driving down a highway, and he saw a huge billboard on the side of the road. Written on the billboard in big letters were the words, "Accept your healing." In other words the Lord was showing him that his healing had already been purchased and effected, and that he simply needed to receive it. To pray for God to heal us "if it's his will," is one of the most foolish things we can do, and it is also unbelief. "With his stripes we WERE HEALED!" How can it not be his will when it is something that has already been done? OF COURSE it's his will! He took a horrific beating in order to provide us with the assurance that it is his will. The scripture that really solidifies the healing guarantee is Proverbs 3:5: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." We can't 'think about' anything when it comes to the healing guarantee that Jesus purchased for us. We must simply believe it, having no thought at all other than the realization that Jesus DID purchase our healing for us two thousand years ago. Thinking about it at all can only gender to unbelief, and beside that there just isn't anything TO think about. It's done, it's stated, it's still available to us, and we need only to accept this beautiful privilege from God with faith and thanksgiving. We also need to apply this same principle to praying for the healing of others. Whoever we pray for, Jesus has already purchased their healing and we need to enact that healing upon them by our faith in what Jesus has already done. I believe this will suffice for the topic for the moment. God bless.