Wednesday, March 15, 2017

4 Ways God Heals:

2 Corinthians 1:20 contains an amazing statement!
“…no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘YES!’ in Jesus Christ…” —2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV
In this series of blog posts, I want to explore God’s promises to heal. In today’s post, I want to explore four ways God heals.
Four Types of Healing:
When we talk about healing, I think it’s important to describe four ways God still heals today.
1) The natural recuperative process
God designed your body to heal itself. Every person reading this blog has experienced “natural healing.” If God hadn’t designed your body to heal itself, the first time you cut your finger, you would have bled to death. But God put our bodies together in an amazing way.
For instance, the moment you cut your hand… Immediately a combination of clotting blood cells and replacement skin cells begin a patch job. Every second, as your heart beats, tiny bits of mineral and organic material are sent to parts of the body that need it, performing ongoing repairs that will never finish.[1]  Your body actually renews and repairs itself every day…
A virus enters your body, and your white blood cells are launched into action. Like a hunting dog on the trail of its prey, your white blood cells hunt down the perpetrator of the virus to kill and destroy it! God came up with that design!
God has designed your body to heal itself. This is one of the reasons David made this statement in Psalm 139, “I will praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” —Psalm 139:14
2) Medical treatment
Let me ask a few questions… Just answer them as you read the blog…
Have you ever had stitches?
Have you ever had a broken bone?
Have you ever had minor surgery?
Have you ever had major surgery?
Have you ever had cosmetic surgery? Okay… I was just having fun on the last one…
But seriously, if you have ever had any type of stitches, surgery, care for broken bones or medical procedures, you’ve experienced God’s “natural” and “medical” means of healing the human body.
We should never discount God’s ability to heal through medicine. Just a few days ago someone described to me the “miracle” of the way the machine that does an “MRI” works. It’s incredible! And, it’s only possible because of the way God designed our bodies and because of the wisdom, ability and insight God has given to scientists and medical doctors!
We have a number of nurses in the a2 Church family. I have several doctors that I’m privileged to call, “personal friends,” and I personally thank God for His ability to heal through the means of medical treatment.
Recently a2 Church hosted Dr. Chauncey Crandall. Dr. Crandall appears on several lists as one of the top cardiologists in the United States. Dr. Crandall is a Duke and Yale educated physician. In other words, the dude is super smart! But he is also a follower of Jesus and has personally seen God do extraordinary miracles! I love Dr. Crandall’s philosophy. He wants to give his patient’s the “best of medicine and the best of Jesus.” That's a great philosophy! 
God heals through “medical” treatment…
3) Ultimate and complete healing
The Bible calls death “the last enemy” (1 Cor 15:26). That's right, Harry Potter fans! J.K. Rowling wasn't the first to say that!  
The Biblical view of death is that death is an “enemy.” It’s an “enemy” that God has already defeated through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. Because of that, 1 Corinthians 15 contains an incredible description of what will one day occur!
A trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised in a moment, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, never to perish again! (1 Cor 15:52)
These physical bodies will become incorruptible, spiritual, glorious and powerful! (1 Cor 15:42-44) They will never experience sickness, pain, affliction, deformity or disease again.
Cancer, MS and ALS will be consigned to hell! Operating rooms, doctors, nurses, ambulances and hospital emergency rooms will become a thing of history, which has been eclipsed by eternity!
Nobody will cry, except for joy. Nobody will grieve! Octogenarians, who currently sit, blank-faced, under blankets in wheelchairs in what is commonly referred to as “old folks homes” will be given new life and new youth that will never be stolen by the march of time again!
Every deaf ear will be unblocked! Every damaged limb will be made whole! Every blind eye will see! Autism, Down’s syndrome, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s will be swallowed up in victory.
And “the last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:26; 52-58). This is the hope we have as children of God!
4) Divine and miraculous healing
We believe in God’s ability and willingness to do the miraculous today! We’ve actually seen God do the miraculous at a2 Church!
I recently read this in a blog post by Andrew Wilson, a very well-respected author and pastor in London. Andrew was quoting a story that appeared in the Daily Mail and on the BBC in London…
“A woman who had been wheelchair-bound for years was prayed for in Jesus’ name! She was immediately healed and got out of her wheelchair… Months later, she phoned the benefits office to stop her disability benefits… Why? Because she had been miraculously healed… She was told by the benefits office that “the system did not allow for miracles,” so she would have to go on receiving her benefits, (which lead the Daily Mail and the BBC in London to run an outraged story about it)…” [2]
I love that!
God is still doing the miraculous! 
Over the next several posts and in the coming days, I’ll attempt to unpack what I believe to be a biblical theology of healing. I look forward to going on this journey with you. In the mean time, I am praying Paul’s prayer for the church at Thessalonica over you and me:
“May God Himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, and You are making me holy and whole… You are putting me together – spirit, soul and body! You are keeping me fit for the coming of the Master.” —1 Thessalonians 5:23
[1] – Andrew Wilson – http://thinktheology.co.uk/blog/article/four_types_of_divine_healing
[2] Ibid

No comments: