“You know of Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”  (Acts 10:38)

The blind receive sight and the lame walk!  The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear!

Since the days of the Prophet Isaiah, the Jewish people expected that they would see healings like these when the kingdom of God arrived.

Proving that the Kingdom of God was available for everyone is the reason Messiah Yeshua healed so many people!

And, it is why He told His disciples which includes all of us today, to do the same.

Let’s take a closer look at the Divine mandate of Yeshua and all of His followers to reach out and heal others.

Some Miracles Only Messiah Would Do

The Prophet Isaiah revealed the kind of healing the Messiah as the Servant of the Lord would manifest on earth.

“Your dead will live.  Their corpses will rise,” God said.  (Isaiah 26:19)

“The eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.  Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.”  (Isaiah 35;5–6)

When Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist) needed reassurance from his cousin Yeshua that He was in fact the Messiah, Yeshua referred to this passage from Isaiah and said to John’s disciples:

“Go back and report to John what you hear and see:  The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised.”      (Matthew 11:4–5)

Yeshua was not the only person healing at the time:  mystical rabbis, magicians, and diviners all performed healings.

 

One thing that distinguished Yeshua as the Divine Messiah from the other “miracle workers” was that everywhere He went, He proclaimed the source of His supernatural power — “the kingdom of God has come near.”  (Mark 1:15)

The perfection of the coming kingdom had begun to break into the earth.

As a sign of that reality, Yeshua did what the Jewish People expected the anointed Messiah to do — He healed the sick and raised the dead.

Yeshua never turned away anyone who came to Him for healing, even on Shabbat!

He healed all who believed that He could and would heal them:

“… and all who touched Him were healed.”  (Matthew 14:36; Mark 6:56)

“… and He healed all of their sick.”  (Matthew 12:15)

“… and healing every disease and sickness.”  (Matthew 4:23; 9:35)

This caused the religious leaders (the Pharisees) to investigate Yeshua’s potential Messiahship, especially when He healed a man born blind, something no prophet, magician, or mystical Rabbi had ever done.

The investigators came to the scene of the miracle.  However, their minds were already made up that both Yeshua and the blind man were sinners.

But the blind man who was healed and could now see told them, “Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”  (John 9:32)

Yeshua performed a genuine “Messianic miracle,” but the Pharisees would not even consider that it could be true.  Instead, they hurled insults at the man and threw him out

Yeshua Commissions the Disciples to Do What He Has Done

“Repent and believe the Good News!”  Yeshua often said.  (Mark 1:15)

After his physical eyes were opened, the man born blind believed the good news that Yeshua was the Messiah!

“Lord, I believe,” he told Yeshua, “and he worshiped Him.”  (John 9:38)

From that point on, the man could see the spiritual truth that the Kingdom of God had indeed come to Israel through the Divine healing of Messiah Yeshua.

More important than restoring physical health was bringing sight to the spiritually blind, so Yeshua commissioned His disciples to go preach the kingdom and do exactly the same works of physical healing that He Himself was doing:

“As you go, proclaim this message:  The kingdom of heaven has come near.  Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.  You received without payment; give without payment.”  (Matthew 10:7–8, Luke chapter 10)

God has always used healings — and told His disciples to use them — to demonstrate His power and His glory so that people will turn to Him and partake in the blessings of the Kingdom of God.

This is why Yeshua told the religious leaders of the day,  “Even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”  (John 10:38)

The whole point of God’s supernatural works is so that people will put their faith in Him.

For this reason, He has given the gifts of healing.

“To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.  To one there is given through the Spirit …  the gifts of healing by that one Spirit.”         (1 Corinthians 12:7)

Activating the Gifts of Healing by Action

While the apostles spent time in prayer for many requests, including healing, they activated their gifts of healing through action.

One day, on the way to afternoon prayer, Peter looked at a man born lame and said, “In the name of Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth, walk.”  Peter grabbed his hand, lifted him up, and the man began to walk!  (Acts 3:2–8)

The more the apostles healed, the more that “people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. …  and all of them were healed.”  (Acts 5:12–16)

Speaking forth healing and reaching out to enact God’s will are powerful ways to see miracles.

Healing is always performed under the authority of YHVH Rapha, Yehovah our Healer, whose Spirit (Ruach) gives us the power to manifest a portion of His Kingdom wherever we are, here on earth.

In the Tanakh (Old Testament), the prophets Elisha and Elijah both called out to God and saw incredible miracles of resurrection  (1 Kings 17:17–24; 2 Kings 4:32–35).

In both cases, however, after appealing to God, they made direct physical contact with the dead bodies.

God is the healer, not us, but He wants us to exercise our faith in healing.

The Holy Spirit that is in us can even raise people from the dead; we just need to believe.   From personal friends of our ministry, more than 100 people in Mozambique have been raised from the dead in the past 20 years.

Our ministry staff have seen the lame walk, people with cancerous tumors healed, the blind see, deafness completely healed, and people with metal in their bodies after motorcycle and car accidents completely healed with the metal miraculously disappearing from their bodies.

 

No person can heal, only the Spirit of God does the healing, but we are used as instruments for Him as we step out in faith, asking people if they want to be healed.

It is just a matter of obedience — all we can do is pray with total faith in the Name of Yeshua, the God who Heals — and watch what God does!

Many times, the person praying is more excited when the person gets healed, because they experienced the power of God moving through them!

We simply need to appeal to God in prayer and make physical contact with those who are suffering, commanding their healing in the Name of Yeshua.

Overcoming Blockages to Healing

Wholeness (Biblical shalom) for the entire person is part of God’s will for our lives and part of God’s very character.

Even so, blockages often exist that interfere with God’s desire to heal.

We know, for instance, that sins including bitterness and unforgiveness can lead to physical sickness; it can also prevent people from seeking and receiving healing.

Before healing a lame man, Yeshua first forgave his sins  (Mark 2:5).

This could be why Yeshua’s half-brother James encouraged the sick to confess their sins to one another and to seek out elders to anoint them with oil and pray for their healing (James 5:14–15).

“Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.  The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much,” said James (5:16).

But we must also remember that people are healed even when there is so-called sin in their lives, perhaps so that they will come closer to God and stop sinning.  We have documented cases of Believers praying in the Name of Yeshua (Jesus) for non-Believers, and they have been healed!

This, again, shows God’s desire for everyone to be completely healed:  physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The Mystery of God’s Healing

We don’t always understand why some people are healed and others are not.  We know of two adult twin brothers who could not walk since birth.  They were both prayed for at the same time, as they sat in their individual wheelchairs, side by side.  As a man prayed for them, one was completely healed while the other brother was not.  

However, If the person did not step out in faith and ask the two brothers if they wanted to be prayed for, neither of them would have been healed.

We simply don’t know why God heals one and not another.  Perhaps it’s His timing.

But what we do know is that God is YHVH Rapha (the LORD who Heals).

The Messianic Prophecy of Isaiah 53 sums it all up.

His healing work was finished when Yeshua died on the execution stake.  Isaiah 53:5 says,

“He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”

If you need healing today, just lift up your hands to God in praise, and receive His healing touch in your body.

We pray in the mighty Name of Yeshua that you walk in perfect Shalom (Peace) and in perfect health.

Let us commit our lives to the faith of the Healing Power of God and the blood of Yeshua (Jesus), with full faith and see what God does in our lives and as we pray for others.