What does the Bible really say about healing?

FAQ: I have heard many Christians say that if a sick person has enough faith, God will always heal him, and that if one does not get healed, it is because he didn’t have enough faith. Others I’ve talked to aren’t sure, but seem to think that healing is not available today. And some say that God is the one who sends sickness to make us humble. Personally, I’m sick of the confusion. What does the Bible really say about healing?

The question you have asked is one to which virtually every Christian wants an answer, and, of course, the Word of God is the only place to find answers. This is a huge subject about which many books have been written, and we cannot begin to cover all the pertinent verses in this brief article. We can, however, show you liberating truth from the Bible that should go a long way toward eliminating your current confusion. To handle this subject, it is probably best to break it down into a series of questions.

Where did sickness, disease, and death originate, and were they part of God’s plan?

There are four main arguments for why these are not a part of God’s plan. The first is that the opening three chapters of Genesis clearly show that God’s original intent was for perfect people to live forever on a perfect earth. Everything God made was “very good” (Gen. 1:31), and neither sickness nor death (which is total sickness) was ever meant to be a part of the picture. It came only when Adam sinned. Not only did mankind suffer as a result of Adam’s sin, but also the entire world has since been held in “bondage to decay” (Rom. 8:21). Even plants and animals get sick and die prematurely. [For further study read Groaning for Liberation.]

Second, the Bible says that, “God is love” (1 John 4:16). Think about that. We are all loving at times, but God is love, which means that by His very nature and unchanging character, it is impossible for Him to think, say, or do anything that is not totally loving. Making people sick to humble them is not being loving.

Third, God created the human body with an amazing, even miraculous, ability to heal itself. Why would He do that if He were also the author of sickness and death? Why would He want to make people sick if their bodies would keep healing themselves? He would be working against Himself. There are some difficult verses in the Old Testament that seem to say that God sent diseases, plagues, etc., but we believe that this can be understood as people bringing upon themselves the consequences of their own sin and unbelief. [For a thorough biblical answer to the problem of evil, sin, and suffering, and answers to these questions raised by verses in the Old Testament, we recommend our book, Don’t Blame God! A Biblical Answer to the Problem of Evil, Sin, and Suffering.]

Finally, Jesus always did the will of God, and he never made anyone sick. In fact, he healed “…all that were oppressed of the devil…” (Acts 10:38-KJV). Therefore, God’s will must also be to heal people. Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus is the “…image of the invisible God…,” meaning that Jesus always said and did what his Father wanted him to, and he became the reflection of his Father’s glory. Thus he could say: “…Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…” (John 14:9), meaning that he flawlessly represented God to the world in a tangible, touchable way.

If sickness and death are not part of God’s plan for mankind, why are they rampant? Isn’t God in control of these things?

No, He isn’t (1 John 5:19). First, it is essential to understand that God gave humans complete and genuine free will. Adam chose to sin, and thus brought disease, death, and destruction into the world. That is not God’s fault. The Fall unleashed a host of germs and viruses that were not part of God’s original plan.

Second, human beings have not lived in accordance with God’s laws. He gave many laws to Moses pertaining to cleanliness and healthful practices, which, if followed, ensured the health of the people. Also, God gave them food laws that helped protect them from disease.

Third, modern man has added to food innumerable chemicals, hormones, pesticides, etc., that are essentially toxic to the human body. These chemicals produce illnesses of all kinds. Modern farming techniques have also depleted the soil of substances that the body needs for health, and, unless people take a mineral supplement, they can become malnourished and diseased. Vitamins contained in healthful food are often lost in the process of getting to market, or later on in the cooking process. Vitamin deficiencies are responsible for many illness and unhealthy conditions. Plus, many Western folks eat way too much, bringing on themselves all manner of health problems. [For further study read Nutrition and Healing.]

Fourth, most people are often anxious, afraid, angry, bitter, etc., and such attitudes do bad things to the human body, even as happiness acts like a medicine. People also deliberately ingest things that are not healthy, like drugs, or are the victim of environmental toxins of which they are unaware.

What steps, if any, has God taken to bring about healing for mankind?

First, “He sent his word, and healed them…” (Ps. 107:20-KJV). God’s Word heals when it is received, understood, and believed.

Second, He sent the Living Word, Jesus Christ, in whom is complete healing.

Luke 4:18 and 19 (KJV)
(18) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
(19) To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Not only did Jesus heal those who came to him with faith, he also empowered and instructed his disciples to do likewise:

Matthew 10:1
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

God anointed Jesus with holy spirit power for his mission on earth, and, since his exaltation as “Lord,” Jesus has anointed each person who believes in him with the same gift of holy spirit. The Lord Jesus is still highly invested in energizing signs, miracles, and wonders, because they are, if you will, part of his advertising campaign. Every Christian now has the same power and authority to heal that Jesus had, and those in the first century Church knew and believed that. For example:

Acts 28:8 and 9 (KJV)
(8) And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.
(9) So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed:

One of the manifestations of the spirit Christians can utilize is “gifts of healing,” and some are gifted to be “workers of miracles,” which we believe includes miraculous healing. Clearly, God has provided for healing in many ways.

Then why don’t we see more healing occurring in the Church today?

The simple answer is usually a lack of faith, but there is a lot more to healing than merely faith. Although we do see some miraculous healings, there are a number of factors that affect faith and healing that we need to explore. One of them is attitude. Too often people approach the subject of healing with an attitude that limits their trust in God.

There is a foundational distinction in the area of healing that we should all understand in order to adopt the right attitude. We know that health and wholeness is God’s will, and that He has empowered us to heal via the holy spirit, but that does not mean that healing is a right, or something that we can demand or “claim,” as some teach. When properly understood, we believe that Scripture reveals that healing is a gift that is received by faith. In the United States we have certain “rights” guaranteed us by our constitution. We have the right to free speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, and these rights are something we can demand. As sons of God, we also have certain rights. Unlike a right, a gift is not something that one can demand. We see that demonstrated in the Gospels in the ministry of Jesus Christ. No one came to Jesus and demanded to be healed. They asked for Jesus to heal them. A gift is given voluntarily, without payment, and is usually presented to the recipient to show favor. Redemption, salvation, and eternal life are some of the gifts God has given us because of His great mercy and grace. He is merciful because He has withheld from us what we truly deserve for our sins, which is death, and His gifts demonstrate His unmerited favor towards us. Healing is one of those precious gifts. We didn’t earn it and we don’t deserve it. Whenever and wherever healing occurs, it is always because of God’s mercy and grace. Note how David associated healing with God’s mercy.

Psalm 41:3 and 4
(3) The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.
(4) I said, “O Lord, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

The Apostle Paul also recognized that healing was a result of God’s mercy.

Philippians 2:26 and 27
(26) For he [Epaphroditus] longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.
(27) Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. (See also Matt. 17:14 and 15, 20:30-31; Mark 5:18 and 19, 10:46 and 47; Heb. 4:16-5:1; James 5:11; Isa. 58:6-8.)

What is the importance of understanding healing as a gift and not a right?

It is important first because of the difference between truth and error, and because only truth sets us free (John 8:32). To the degree that we have error we also have bondage, and wrong teaching always produces wrong results. Too much of what passes for “Christian” teaching today comes from tradition and culture rather than from God’s Word.

In America, we tend to think in terms of rights and entitlement, but in the biblical culture people thought in terms of patronage. There were serious limitations of goods and services, and if you were to get what you needed, you often had to depend upon the generosity of a patron, whether a landowner, a wealthy person, or an emperor. Analogous to that cultural paradigm, God is a generous patron to whom we can confidently look for the satisfaction of a need, not by “claiming a right,” but by virtue of His generosity and goodness. We believe this is how the first-century Christians viewed healing. In God and Jesus Christ we have the wonderful provision of physical healing, which was first demonstrated by Jesus and then by his followers. We trust our heavenly Father and our risen Lord for healing, and give them the glory. If it were a right, we could congratulate ourselves for asserting our rights, and that is not true faith/trust.

When we have a right to something, we can, and generally should, assert that right. But asserting or demanding something to which we do not have a right carries with it an element of arrogance, an attitude God resists (Prov. 3:34, 15:25, 21:4). When the Old Testament saints came and offered a sacrifice to God, they had no absolute assurance that God was going to grant their request. On the contrary, the tension of not knowing if your sacrifice was acceptable actually engendered humility, which is something He requires when He gives grace. Though Christ’s atonement did make many things available to us, we receive these by trust and confident expectation in the Generous One, not by asserting our rights. The difference in attitude is subtle, but is the difference between biblical faith and arrogant presumption. “…God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

God desires mercy, not sacrifice (Hosea 6:6). The Israelites were approaching Him with the attitude that they merely had to comply with the outward, sacrificial requirements of the Law. They wrongly focused on the sacrifice and not on the heart, that is, the relationship that God desired to have with them in their coming to Him as He prescribed. Our God is not a vending machine, nor is He one merely transacting business with us. Our Father desires an intimate relationship with each of His children. He gives to us in order to bless us and to engender joy, thanksgiving, and more trust in return on our part. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16-KJV).

Healing is such a large subject that we covered it in our May and June 2006 Tape / CD of the Month. For your further study, we have posted both of the edited transcriptions.

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Marley’s former manager dead
BY HOWARD CAMPBELL Observer senior writer
Tuesday, October 09, 2012

DANNY Sims, the American impresario who once managed Bob Marley and The Wailers, died last Wednesday in Los Angeles at age 72.
Allan ‘Skill’ Cole, Sims’ close friend, told the Jamaica Observer that Sims succumbed to a long fight with colon cancer. Sims had been helping Cole shop his Marley biography, The Bob Marley I Know.
SIMS… succumbed to a long fight with colon cancer
2/2
Cole said he last spoke to Sims two months ago from Los Angeles where the latter was receiving treatment.
“He was very jovial, you couldn’t tell he was sick,” said Cole, who described Sims as an “unusual character”.
Sims was in Jamaica in April for the premiere of director Kevin MacDonald’s documentary, Marley, which took place at Emancipation Park in Kingston.
Cole says he first met Sims in 1970 through Marley. At the time, Sims was managing The Wailers, of which Marley was a member, as well as American soul singer Johnny Nash.
“He was a very strong personality who knew what he wanted. Danny was a great organiser, disciplined businessman,” said Cole.
Reggae historian Roger Steffens worked on several projects with Sims’ JAD Records, including the well-received The Complete Bob Marley and the Wailers: 1967-1972.
The comprehensive set covered recordings Marley and the Wailers did for Sims and Nash while they lived in Kingston.
Steffens credits Sims and Nash for transforming the Wailers from ‘rude bwoys’ to professionals.
“Their training brought Bob and Peter (Tosh) up to high international standards in both studio and stage craft. Bob received his first serious money from publishing royalties for songs of his that Johnny Nash turned into international hit records,” Steffens told the Observer.
Born in Mississippi but raised in Chicago and New York City, Sims entered the entertainment business in the late 1950s. He brought several soul artistes to Jamaica in the early 1960s, including Nash who recorded with local producers such as Vincent ‘Randy’ Chin.
Sims and Nash eventually settled in Jamaica and met the Wailers which at the time comprised Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston. He produced many songs with the group for his and Nash’s JAD Records label and signed them to his Cayman Publishing company.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Marley-s-former-manager-dead_12724582#ixzz28pGNpuus

Penis Size Does Matter To Some Women, Study Claims.

By: Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Published: 10/08/2012 11:36 AM EDT on LiveScience
Contrary to the reassuring catchphrase “size doesn’t matter,” penis size may matter in bed — but only for some women, and for certain types of orgasms.
A new study finds that women who have frequent vaginal orgasms are more likely than other women to say they climax more easily with men with larger penises. Women who tend to prefer penile-vaginal intercourse over other types of sex also say the same, researchers reported online Sept. 24 in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
“Male anxiety about penis size may not reflect internalized, culturally arbitrary masculine stereotypes, but an accurate appreciation that size matters to many women — just as men feel legitimate anxiety when they enter the mating market about their intelligence, personality traits, sense of humor, social status, height, wealth, and other traits known to be favored by women across cultures,” study researcher Stuart Brody, a psychologist at the University of the West of Scotland, told LiveScience.
But other researchers were less convinced.
“There’s such variability in preference,” said Barry Komisaruk, who researches female sexual response at Rutgers University. Women who orgasm through vaginal stimulation may indeed prefer longer penises, Komisaruk told LiveScience, but not everyone prefers to orgasm that way. [10 Odd Facts About the Female Body]
“There are so many different factors,” said Komisaruk, who was not involved in Brody’s study. “Once it gets to the kind of specifics that they’re talking about, I get wary.”
The female orgasm
Both penis size and female orgasm are hot-button topics. There is still scientific debate about whether vaginal and clitoral orgasms are different phenomena. Different nerves carry signals from the vagina and from the clitoris, Komisaruk said, and stimulation of each activates different brain regions. But some researchers argue that vaginal stimulation is simply activating a different, internal, section of the clitoris. Women report different sensations from vaginal and clitoral orgasms, Komisaruk said, but which one women prefer largely comes down to personal preference.
In some cases, female orgasm is even more complex. For example, Beverly Whipple, professor emerita at Rutgers University and one of the discoverers of the G spot, a sensitive area felt through the front wall of the vagina, has found that women with complete spinal cord injuries can sometimes experience orgasm, even though the nerves that carry sensation up the spinal cord from the pelvis have been severed. It’s likely that the sensory vagus nerve, which runs in the abdomen but bypasses the spinal cord, is recruited to carry signals to the brain in these cases, Whipple told LiveScience.
Other research has found that abdominal exercises induce orgasm in some women, resulting in pleasurable spasms at the gym.
Brody holds a different view, pointing to studies finding that the ability to orgasm with vaginal stimulation alone is correlated with better psychological functioning, better relationship quality and greater sexual satisfaction.
“Earlier research with a large representative sample also found that women who are made aware in their youth that the vagina is a source of women’s orgasm are more likely to develop the capacity for vaginal orgasm. Therefore, those who deny these findings (and insist on maintaining the politically correct party line) are not doing women a favor, but might be injuring women’s health and sexual potential,” Brody wrote in an email to LiveScience.
Does size matter?
In the new study, Brody and his colleagues asked 323 women, mostly Scottish university students, to recall past sexual encounters. They were asked about their recent sexual behaviors as well as how important penile-vaginal intercourse and other sex acts were to them. They were also asked whether penis length influenced their ability to orgasm with vaginal stimulation.
Defining “average” as the length of a 20-pound banknote or U.S. dollar bill, which are 5.8 inches (14.9 cm) and 6.1 inches (15.5 cm) long, respectively, the researchers asked women if they were more likely to orgasm vaginally with a longer-than-average or shorter-than-average penis. [Macho Man: 10 Wild Facts About His Body]
They found that 160 of the women experienced vaginal-only orgasms and had enough sexual partners to compare size experiences. Of these, 33.8 percent preferred longer-than-average penises, 60 percent said size made no difference and 6.3 percent said longer was less pleasurable than shorter.
Supporting the hypothesis that size matters, Brody and his colleagues found the women who reported the highest number of vaginal orgasms in the past month were most likely to say that longer was better.
“This might be due at least in part to greater ability of a longer penis to stimulate the entire length of the vagina, and the cervix,” Brody said.

Finding sexual satisfaction
The data supports Brody’s claim, Whipple said, but the sample is limited to Scottish university students and should be replicated with a broader group. Nevertheless, she warned against worrying about the findings in bed.
“To me, all of this is just so goal-oriented, and it’s difficult for me to see researchers setting up another goal [vaginal orgasm] for women to experience,” Whipple said.
Whipple argued that sexuality is healthier when focused on the pleasure of acts from cuddling to kissing to other sexual sensations rather than the goal of reaching orgasm.
“I recommend for women to learn about themselves, learn about their body, find what they find pleasurable and enjoy that, as long as it’s not exploiting another person,” she said.

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