Miracles of Healing

The year I turned 16 was a significant year in my life. I experienced an overwhelming closeness with the Lord after acknowledging and surrendering to God’s call to full-time vocational ministry. Yet no sooner had I committed my life to the Lord’s call than He placed me under a severe test. 

I was preparing for an upcoming mission trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico, at school’s end. Just before our youth group was set to leave, inexplicably, my right arm became paralyzed. I felt nothing at all. It became all but useless. My parents took me to a neurologist. He ran tests and drew blood and performed whatever else neurologists do to determine the cause of paralysis—and found nothing. Medically, nothing seemed wrong with me. There was no physical reason that my right arm, from shoulder to fingertips, was completely numb. 

With a shrug of the shoulder and a scratch of the head, the doctor saw no reason that I couldn’t go on the mission trip; I’d just have to do everything left-handed. It was a frightening time. I decided that going to San Juan to minister to others was better than sitting at home in Dallas with nothing but my increasing anxiety.

We arrived in San Juan without incident and began ministering there. The days were busy, and learning to get by with only my left hand was frustrating, but after a while, I stopped focusing on my paralyzed arm. The nights were another matter, though, and they became increasingly difficult to bear. So, one night as I was getting ready for bed, I cried out to the Lord to heal me—to bring feeling and mobility back into my right arm. I lay on my bed and put into practice Jesus’s admonition in Matthew 7:7 to ask, seek, and knock, pleading with the Lord until I finally fell asleep. 

Later that evening, I suddenly awakened. At first, I didn’t notice it, then it dawned on me that I could feel and move my right arm. I praised God through tears and went back to sleep.

The next day, I called home with the exciting news. My dad praised the Lord with me and then told me my mother was in the hospital for a procedure. Later that day, I called my mom’s hospital room to check on her and tell her the great news. She asked what time the paralysis had left, and I told her the approximate time in San Juan. She said that Dr. Criswell, our pastor, had paid her a visit and that she had asked him to pray for me because my arm was paralyzed and the doctors couldn’t figure out why. Dr. Criswell prayed with my mother at the same hour, Dallas time, that my arm was healed in San Juan.

As mentioned earlier, I’m skeptical of faith healers, but I firmly believe in faith healing—that our great and good God, according to His purposes, can heal us. I have experienced His divine invasion in my life with a miracle of physical wellness. Perhaps you have, too, or maybe someone you love has experienced physical healing. If so, I encourage you to regularly praise God for His grace and mercy in your life.

I stumbled on an interview my friend Lee Strobel did with pastor Roger Olson. Strobel summarizes a point Olson made: “Many American evangelicals have relegated the supernatural and miraculous to the past (biblical times) and elsewhere (mission field) rather than seeing them as an ever-present possibility in their lives.” Strobel then quotes Olson: “This is obvious from the way we react when someone gets sick. Of course, we pray for them, but what do we ask? That God would comfort them in the midst of their suffering. That God would guide the hands of surgeons. That God would give doctors wisdom and discernment. What’s missing?” Strobel answers: “Asking God to supernaturally heal them.”

“Precisely,” Olson says. “The Bible says to pray for their healing, lay hands on them, and anoint them with oil, but mainstream evangelicals tend to look down their noses at churches that do that.”

I’ll have more to say about what the Bible prescribes for the sick later in this chapter, but I’m so grateful my mother and pastor asked the Lord to heal me directly.

1. The Need for Physical Healing (Ecclesiastes 12:1-5)

We live in bodies that are temporary—they aren’t meant to last forever. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul compares them to a tent. Tents are temporary—you might spend a few nights in one, but not the rest of your life.

So, you may wonder, when our bodies begin to wear out or become plagued by disease, does the Bible promise healing of our bodies?

2. Does the Bible Promise Physical Wellness? (Isaiah 53:5; Revelation 21:4)

Contrary to what some television preachers will tell you, there is absolutely no promise in the Bible that exempts Christians from illness and death. Full stop.

Nowhere in Scripture does God give us a universal, blanket promise of health and wealth, regardless of what some well-intentioned but misguided believers may tell you. But what about Isaiah 53:5, some would ask? 

This verse refers to Jesus’s atonement for our sins—our “transgressions” (willful and rebellious acts of sin) and “iniquities” (guilt associated with a sinful soul)—and offers a brutal description of death by crucifixion. Jesus was literally “pierced through” by being nailed to the cross and having his side sliced open by a Roman lance. And though His legs weren’t broken—a common practice to accelerate death—His spirit and body underwent a crushing when the sins of the world were placed upon Him.

Jesus’s suffering produces peace and healing for all who place faith in Him. That’s the promise in the last half of the verse: “the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” By taking the punishment of God’s discipline, which was ours to bear, we experience divine shalom—spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical peace.

Jesus’s suffering also brings healing. This is where things get tricky. Some claim this verse teaches universal physical healing for all believers. However, those who teach this put qualifiers on it since their claim flies in the face of reality—plenty of believers endure any number of physical maladies. To circumvent this reality, bogus teachers and preachers blame those believers who suffer illness or infirmities for not exhibiting enough faith. Nonsense! 

The promise of Isaiah 53:5 isn’t for universal physical healing for all believers today. Rather, it’s a promise for universal physical healing for all believers one day! Everyone who places faith in Christ will be ultimately healed when we are in the physical presence of the Lord, just as promised. Even though our ultimate healing will only come when we receive our new bodies from God at the Rapture, the Bible teaches that God is still concerned with our health and sometimes demonstrates His miraculous power in temporary healing.

3. The Principles of Physical Wellness

God’s providential care for your physical health comes in two forms. There are preventable actions you should take, as illustrated in the life of Jesus. And there are prescribed actions you should take as outlined in the book of James.

• Preventative Principles (Luke 2:52)

Though we don’t have much physical description of Jesus (Isaiah 53:2), we know He was human and suffered the same frailties we do, though without sin. He experienced hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and stress. So what did He do to “increase” His physical health? He did what we should do.

1. When Jesus was hungry, He ate.
2. When Jesus was thirsty, He drank.
3. When Jesus was tired, He slept.
4. When Jesus was under pressure, He retreated.

• Prescriptive Principles

Why do Christians get sick? The short answer is that we inhabit bodies with an expiration date. The bodies we inhabit were never designed to last forever. Beyond that general truth, the Bible gives three specific categories of illness.

1. Sickness that leads to death. (John 11:4; Philippians 2:27)
2. Sickness that is a result of personal sin. (Numbers 12)
3. Sickness that is for the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 12:9)   

So what should we do when we become ill? James, the half-brother of Jesus, gives us a prescription for handling illnesses that invade our lives:

1. When you are sick, go to the doctor. (James 5:14; Matthew 9:12) 
2. When you are sick, pray. (James 5:15)
3. When you are sick, seek to glorify God. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Remember Paul’s story. He had an incurable illness. He prayed for a miracle, and God said no three different times God said no. Notice what Paul wrote about his unanswered prayer for healing.

A couple in our church, Tony and Cindy Weber, have been dealing with Cindy’s brain cancer for years. We’ve all prayed for a miracle, but so far no instantaneous healing. She’s gone through radiation, but a tumor remains. By all logic, she should be either dead by now or experiencing terrible symptoms, but she has not experienced either of those outcomes. Instead, she is alive and telling everyone who asks her how she is managing so well about God’s incredible power to sustain her through this storm in her life.

Now think about it. If she were instantaneously healed, the focus would be on the miracle.  But it is through a continuing illness that God’s power and glory are seen.

“For when I am weak, then am I strong.”