Tag: healing

The Healer’s Blessing

by Ms. Rita's Minute

James 5:15

“And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”

Imagine Jesus, in 2026, here in his physical body, healing someone from their illness. With joy, we can have expectancy of His help in such an event, as we see God’s desired results throughout the gospels. Perhaps sometimes we have not because we ask not. Or, maybe we believe we don’t deserve to be healed, or God doesn’t really want to heal us.

It is comforting to know that even though the Lord will sometimes take someone home to live with Him, He will, at many other times, allow others to be healed and remain a while longer. Of course, this may happen instantly or over time. Yet my point is Jesus is a healer, doesn’t want to see people sick, and demonstrated various types of healing when He walked the earth.

Jesus was a man of compassion, moved by the suffering of others, and being a man of great authority, he healed with a word, a touch, or even from a distance. He was a man who modeled Kingdom power, his miracles fulfilling prophecy, revealing who He was, the Son of God. He also highlighted the role of some people in instances where He told them their faith had healed them. Interestingly, in some places, He could do no great works because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:58 and Mark 6:5-6).

I thought to post about this topic today lest we forget God’s thoughts on sickness and healing. There is no sickness or disease in heaven, and Jesus told us the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus came that we might have life, and life more abundantly (John 10:10). Hence, we should make no mistake who the thief is, satan, not God.

A few amazing accounts of Jesus healing in the Bible are:

  • Healing 10 lepers (Luke 17:11–19). This was a dreadful, contagious disease that people seriously avoided. As the lepers called out to Jesus from a distance for pity, Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests, and while on the way, they were cleansed. Unfortunately, only one leper, a Samaritan (a foreigner), returned to thank Jesus. But Jesus assured him his faith had made him well.
  • Healing the paralyzed man whose friends lowered him through a roof (Matthew 9:1–8; Mark 2:1–12; Luke 5:17–26). This was a bold act of persistence, which Jesus saw as faith shown in getting this man to Him.
  • Healing the woman with an issue of bleeding for 12 years (Matthew 9:20–22; Mark 5:25–34; Luke 8:43–48). This woman believed that if she only touched his clothes, she would be healed. She did, and she was, instantly!
  • Raising a man’s dead daughter to life (Matthew 9:18–26; Mark 5:21–43; Luke 8:40–56). Jesus came to the scene of people crying and wailing loudly about the death of Jairus’ daughter, and upon going in to see her with her parents and a few of his disciples, He took her by the hand and told her to get up, and she did, immediately. So many were blessed that day by this amazing act.
  • Healing a mute, demon-possessed man (Matthew 9:32-34). Seeing the man delivered and speaking, the crowd, astonished, said they’d never seen anything like it in Israel.
  • Healing a crippled woman bent over for 18 years (Luke 13:10–17). The Bible tells us this woman had been crippled, not being able to straighten up at all, by a spirit. He told her she was set free from her infirmity and placed his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Jesus also performed mass healings where people were healed from every sickness and disease (Matthew 4:23–24; Matthew 9:35). Not to mention, there are so many more miracles that Jesus did that weren’t even recorded (John 21:25).

Jesus willingly and compassionately healed the lame, blind, cripplied and mute (Matthew 15:30). Yet I believe it’s also important to note that, in some instances, sin was related to a person’s need for healing or deliverance, and the Lord told them, once healed, to go and sin no more, or something worse would come upon them (John 5:14 and John 8:11).

Thankfully, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Aren’t you glad about it? Now we may call for the elders of our churches, or for other believers to pray prayers of faith (James 5:14-16) that we’d be healed. Just another wonderful thing our heavenly Father has done for us through His marvelous Son, Jesus!

We see in scripture, Jesus shared the blessing in healing, telling his disciples in Matthew 10:8 to “heal the sick and raise the dead,” stating “freely you have received, freely give.” He echoed His desire again in Mark 16:18, just before ascending into heaven, that one of the signs of those who believed would be that they would place their hands on sick people and they would get well. Let us thank the Lord for these beautiful blessings!

An Invalid’s Healing and Warning

by Ms. Rita's Minute

I love the fascinating story in John 5:1-13 where Jesus went to one of the Jewish festivals in Jerusalem and came upon a pool there called Bethesda. Many disabled people could be found lying there. They awaited movement in the water which took place after an angel would come down at certain times to stir it so that whoever first entered it was healed from whatever disease they had.

Can you imagine this pool where everyone, in large numbers, was blind, lame, or paralyzed? This was the pool of Bethesda.

Jesus encountered a man lying there who had been an invalid for 38 years and asked him if he wanted to get well. It’s interesting, that Jesus would ask the man that question as one would think, 1) Jesus would know if he did or not, and 2) who wouldn’t want to be healed of such a debilitating, long-term condition? Yet, of course, Jesus knew the answer, but perhaps wanted the man to express the desires of his heart verbally and be inspired with hope for change. The man explained to Jesus that he had no one to help him into the pool and that others would get in ahead of him when he was trying to get in.

Then Jesus told him to get up, pick up his mat and walk. Now I imagine a man who had been an invalid for 38 years might be quite shocked by Jesus’ instructions, nevertheless, what would he have to lose? The Bible tells us immediately the man was cured, picked up his mat, and walked. In one sentence from Jesus, the man was suddenly healed and able to do that which he had not been able to do for 38 years. His debilitating status was immediately canceled! What an astonishing blessing!

Unfortunately, since it was a Sabbath, Jewish leaders reminded the newly healed man that the law forbade him to carry his mat on that day and asked him who told him to pick up his mat and walk. This shows just how powerful the law was in the hearts of those leaders, to even forbid the healing of someone because of a certain religious day.

The former invalid didn’t know who healed him as Jesus had departed into the crowd, apparently before he could find out. Yet later, Jesus found him at the temple and had additional instructions for him: “See you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

This verse indicates that: 1) even though the former invalid had been incapacitated for a very long time, he wasn’t always an invalid and he had been made well again; 2) apparently, in this case, the man’s illness was caused by his sinful behavior; and 3) if he didn’t stop sinning (which indicates he could do so), something worse could have happened to him. I shudder to think of anything worse. At that point, the man went away and told the Jewish leaders it was Jesus who made him well.

The story continues later to show Jesus being persecuted by the Jewish leaders because of his activity on the Sabbath and Jesus’ response to the persecution.

We don’t have all the information on this healed man’s life before his sickness, but Jesus in this event has given us some insight into one of the things that could cause sickness in one’s body: Sin.

There are other instances of impairment mentioned in the Bible not caused by sin, one, specifically in John 9, where Jesus and his disciples encountered a blind man and his disciples asked who sinned, him or his parents, and Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

One thing we are made aware of is, per Jesus’ view, the healed invalid did not have to sin. Some hold the view that this is not possible as it very well may appear, yet Jesus clearly tells the man to stop whatever the sinful behavior was or something worse could happen to him. Would He tell anyone to do something he could not do? So, perhaps we can conclude that if Jesus tells us not to do something, it is certainly possible. Though most of us may feel like it isn’t.

The wonder of God’s power and compassion are not the only characteristics of his love I see in this story that relate to our own lives today, but also his warning. His warning is that our sin can bring about sickness, or worse, in our bodies. Sin might not always be the cause, though in this event it was.

Thankfully, we have the Bible and access to the Lord by prayer for help when we feel overwhelmed by temptation and need God’s strength and guidance to assist us in our times of need. Even Jesus was tempted and used the word of God in His resistance and was successful in not sinning, which involves behaving against God’s instructions.

We can be honest with God in prayer, as he already knows all about us. We can talk to Him about our weaknesses, temptations, or feelings, and He will still lovingly counsel us according to His scriptures. When we feel incapable of behaving as we should, we can ask for His wisdom, power, and deliverance.

We all fall short at times but have the tools to be successful. After all, in our current new covenant age, Romans 6:14 reminds us of our elevated position in Christ.

Of the many ways we may define grace, not being a slave to sin is one of them. God graciously warns us as He did the former invalid, later a newly healed man, from the pool of the disabled in Bethesda.