God's Blood Covenant - Part 9 - What If Healing Is Already Yours?

What if the biggest battle around healing isn’t God’s willingness, but our beliefs about what the blood covenant already provides? I walk through why divine healing is presented in Scripture as a real, practical benefit for God’s children, not a rare exception and not a spiritual “maybe.” We start with the uncomfortable question: if God revealed Himself as Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals, what reason would He have to reverse course now?

From Exodus and Jeremiah to Psalms, we trace the Bible’s picture of healing that touches the whole person: physical strength, emotional restoration for the brokenhearted, mental renewal, and spiritual wholeness tied to forgiveness and redemption. Then we look at Jesus as the exact representation of the Father’s will. The Gospels don’t show a reluctant Christ; they show a Savior who teaches, preaches, and heals, who sends others to heal, and who turns away no one who comes to Him. That pattern matters if you’re searching for biblical answers to questions like “Does God still heal today?” or “Is healing part of the new covenant?”

We also get honest about the real-world obstacles that keep believers stuck: not knowing what’s promised, struggling to have faith for what can’t be seen, disappointment after unanswered prayer, traditions that lower expectations, and teaching that turns healing into something you must earn. I share a story told by Charles Spurgeon about someone living in poverty while unknowingly owning a fortune, a sharp picture of what it looks like to ignore a covenant “bequest.”

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Transcript

Show Purpose And Host Intro

Lynne 0:00

You are listening to Higher Realm with Lynne Little. Our program highlights biblical strategies for moving through life's difficulties and finding your path to healing. We tackle issues particular to those who have experienced painful loss in any form. Lynne is the founder and president of Lynn Little Ministries and the author of Missing Lisa, A Parent Grieves, and Finding God in Death and Life, a Passage Through Grief. Now, here's Lynne. Hello, and welcome to Episode 9 of God's Blood Covenant. In the last several episodes, we briefly discuss the blessings of the new covenant that come under the headings of our identity, our position, and security found in Christ. These three can technically be categorized as benefits, and there are additional benefits that we have not yet covered. Two of them are especially important to examine further because they significantly impact our daily lives. They are the benefit of divine health and the benefit of financial provision. Surprisingly, they are included in both the old and the new covenants. The difference is that benefits in the old covenant were, in most cases, provided under certain conditions. New covenant benefits, by contrast, are gifted by grace. Today we will focus on the benefit of divine health and healing. This subject has created much controversy, either with claims that it does not exist, or that it's reserved only for a chosen few, or bestowed in a hit or miss fashion, rather like winning the lottery. It might surprise you to know that God has always provided healing for his children through multiple millennia. So what possible reason would he have to stop now? Has it not been said of our Heavenly Father in Lamentations 3: 22, and 24, "because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Greatest his faithfulness." In addition to sending his son as our Redeemer, God's provision for our health is considered the next greatest blessing. We can trace the will of God regarding the health of his children, beginning with the Old Testament and on through the new. Exodus 15: 25 and 26 signals God's intent for his people. "If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put, or better said, allow none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that heals you." In this passage, God is referred to by the Hebrew name Jehovah Rapha, or the God who heals. The concept is reiterated in Exodus 23: 25, and 26. "Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. "And again in Jeremiah 33:6, "nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it, and the it here is a reference to the house of Judah. I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security." God provided different facets of healing within the old covenant. Jehovah Rapha provided the physical healing. We recall the result of the supernatural healing that came up after the Israelites had passed through the doorway, sprinkled with the blood of the Passover Lamb. Of the millions of people who were led out in the Exodus by Moses, there was not one feeble person among their tribe. And this was after 400 years of hard labor, and not a single person, no man, woman, or child experienced sickness and disease or infirmity as they left Egypt. God also healed his people emotionally. Psalm 34: 18 records this: "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." God also brought mental healing even to those who were in outright rebellion. Daniel 4:34 describes a king who went mad and then was restored. "At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me. And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation." Finally, God provided spiritual healing. Psalms 103:2 reads: "Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your sins, and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles." Imagine believing that Jehovah Rapha, the one who provided health and miracles of healing under the old covenant, would suddenly decide to deny that benefit in the new, particularly when the new covenant, according to Hebrews 8:6, is established upon better promises. Better would seem to imply an increase in God's benefits, not a decrease. We turn now to the new covenant and how the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with sickness and disease in his ministry. As we look at scriptural proofs, let's employ the tenets of logic to come to an agreement on what the word is actually telling us rather than what religion or our assumptions have to say. We begin with two premises. First, that Jesus represented God's will. Second, that God's will included healing. I'm sure we can all agree that Jesus Christ came to earth as the perfect representation of the Father. We must understand the totality of Christ's oneness with the Father and consequently his reflection of the perfect will of God. Hebrews 1: 1 through 3 reads, "In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being." In John 5: 19 through 20, Jesus reiterates, "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself." And again in John 12: 49, "for I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken." These words of Jesus make clear his identification with and his personification of the Father's desired will for mankind. And the second point is what Jesus spent the lion's share of his time doing. It was teaching, preaching, and healing. Acts 10:38 speaks of "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him." Who told Jesus to heal? God. How many were healed? All. Do you know that there are approximately 17 recorded instances in the gospel where Jesus healed ALL of the sick people present, or a very large crowd at one time? And of the multitude of those healed, were they wonderful God-fearing people? It's doubtful. Many Jews in the crowd were perhaps healed because they were still under the old covenant, but Gentiles were healed as well. And the Jews, including the disciples, thought the kingdom of God was only for them. But Jesus taught that the Gentiles were included in God's favor because he referred to Elijah and the widow of Zarephath in Sidon, Elisha and the leprous Naaman of Syria, and he said he had other sheep in another pen, referring to Gentiles being included in his kingdom. Did they all deserve to be healed? Did they in any way have to earn their healings? Certainly not. And let's be clear, there is not one instance in the four gospels where someone came to Christ to be healed and were denied. Not one. Not only did Jesus work tirelessly to minister to the sick, he also delegated 72 other disciples, plus the twelve, to assist him in that work. Luke 10: 8 through 9 gives their instructions. "Heal the sick who are there, and tell them the kingdom of God has come near to you." In addition to the many mentions of Jesus healing multitudes, the four gospels are filled with 20 to 30 + specific, individual accounts of Jesus healing people, the stories of blind Bartimaeus, the woman with the issue of blood, the centurion's servant, the ten lepers, the paralytic of At Bethesda, Peter's mother-in-law, the Syrophoenician's daughter, the man with a withered hand, to name a few, are all beautiful vignettes of healing. They clearly demonstrate God's intentions for healing in the new covenant. We've so far established that Jesus, who represented the Father's will on the earth, spent most of his time teaching and healing, sent others out to help heal, healed all groups and types of people, and focused intently on an individual's need for health. A clearer articulation of the will of God in this matter can hardly be found. Why then are so many unaware of or unable to receive this marvelous benefit? Since the word tells us in Hebrews 13:8 that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever," from where comes this idea that divine healing no longer applies to us? As a lifelong believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, one of my greatest griefs is to see members of the body of Christ, God's children, stricken with sickness and disease. Our healing and health has already been provided through the broken body of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the new covenant sealed and signed in his blood. The untold suffering of thousands would be ameliorated if the body of Christ would simply do the work commanded of us by Jesus. He states in Mark 16: 17 and 18, "and these signs shall follow them that believe. in my name they will cast out devils, they will speak with new tongues...they will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover."The woeful ignorance of covenant blessings reminds me of a story that the great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon told many years ago. He was called to the bedside of one of his parishioners who was so weak from malnutrition and lack of care that she was nearly on her deathbed. While visiting, he happened to see a framed document hanging on her wall. It seemed such a curious thing to be hanging on the wall of what was no more than a shack made out of boxes. He asked the woman about it, and she told him that she was in service to a family for many years. And upon her retirement, the employer gave her that document. She treasured the document, had it framed, and hung on the wall. She had obviously never read it, no doubt because she was illiterate. He asked if he could take it with him because he wanted to have someone look at it a little more closely. She reluctantly gave him permission. When it was examined by officials, they discovered that the framed document was a bequest from her very wealthy former employer. Officials had been searching for this poor woman for years. The document bequeathed her a beautiful home to live in for the rest of her life, as well as a huge sum of money to live on. The starving woman was completely ignorant of what was already hers. This is the picture of the child of God who has no idea of the benefits they already own. They either never read or ever understood the bequest. God's people. So why are so many continuing in unbelief in this wonderful provision? Well, one hurdle to overcome is ignorance. Most people haven't a clue what is promised to them in their covenant. They either haven't studied it or meditated on it or had it properly explained to them. And what we don't know has really hurt us horribly in some cases. If we could only catch a glimpse of what God has already provided and learn how to walk in these privileges, we would live entirely differently. A second hurdle is a difficulty having faith for things that can't be seen. Of course, that's the very definition of faith, to believe before we see. The truth is that we are utterly dependent on the unseen every day of our lives. Think gravity, oxygen, molecules, the chair that holds us. I could go on, but you get the drift. It is nearly impossible to receive something from God without exercising a measure of faith for it. Understand my meaning. The problem is not on the giving side because it's already been given. I am referring to the receiving side. That's our part to play. How do we get faith to receive? It comes from hearing. This is spelled out in Romans 10:17. "Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." How can we have faith to receive something without first hearing about that something? Which returns us to the first point of being sadly in ignorance. The third point could be a prior disappointment. Someone prayed and a person was not healed, or perhaps passed away. The conclusion drawn then is that it must not have been God's will. In other words, healing is not a provided benefit for everyone. Religious tradition has preached against divine healing for decades, perhaps in the attempt to save people from disappointment, or to save leadership the embarrassment of unanswered prayer. It could also be an excuse, perhaps to rationalize away the powerlessness of some aspects of the modern church. Fourth is being led astray through wrong teaching. Some claim that healing in the New Testament was only a temporary gift to jumpstart the church, that it died away with the last apostle. Really? So that means that Jesus has died? Because Hebrews 3:1 refers to Jesus as "the apostle and high priest of our confession." Are proponents of this view unaware that miraculous divine healings have been the benchmark of every single revival in recent history? Indeed, all of Christianity is based on miracles. If we insist on taking the supernatural out of Christianity, it becomes nothing more than a religion. Fifth, others would suggest that people need to earn their healing, that they must somehow convince God, who is inexplicably sitting in heaven with his arms folded as if to say, "convince me to heal you, or not today, or you need to suffer a while longer to learn your lesson." And of course, a lesson is something random that people have to guess at. In believing this, we are attributing human conditional love to a father who loves unconditionally. Shall we continue to beg God for what he has already provided? Have we forgotten that the people in Jesus' day and those in the Old Testament were sinners, unsaved, certainly, and some in outright rebellion against God? Beloved, the benefits are ours because of God's grace, not because of our ability to earn them any more than we could ever earn or deserve our salvation. And speaking of salvation, have you made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? The word of God says if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Pray with me to receive the Lord. Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross and pay the penalty for my sins. I believe he rose again on the third day. Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sin and make me brand new. I confess you as my Lord and Savior. Amen. Next week, in the final episode of God. Blood Covenant will discuss the financial provisions that are included within. Until then, God bless your week. Thank you so much for listening. Lynne Little Ministries is a 501c3 whose mission is to assist those who have suffered loss and to help them discover hope, peace, and restoration. For books, resources, or to make a tax deductible donation, go to lynnelittle.org.