Summer of Prayer 9: Praying for Healing - Pastor Megan Wood
Healing is a difficult topic and full of questions. The ultimate question we should ask is:
What does God say about healing, and what is healing to God?
God Heals in His way and His Timing.
Key Scripture:
Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” (NLT)
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross made a way so that we could experience his healing, not only physically, but spiritually. We can and will experience wholeness. It is a promise.
James 5:14–15 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. (NLT)
Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we should pray for healing for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for those around us.
Scriptures about healing:
Exodus 15:26 I am the LORD who heals you. (NLT)
Psalm 103:2–3 He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.(NLT)
Matthew 8:16–17 …This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our sicknesses and bore our diseases.’(NLT)
Mark 16: 18 …they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.(NLT)
Time in Prayer is Never Wasted.
“Healing is part of the provision of the cross. Whether that healing is immediate, progressive, or ultimately in His presence, the blood of Jesus has secured it. Our call is to pray in faith, trusting His timing and His wisdom.” -Jack Hayford (The Beauty of Spiritual Language)
God still heals today. He wants to hear our hearts, fears, and desires. Sometimes healing is immediate, sometimes we wait, and sometimes it is fully realized in eternity. Prayer is our active participation in God’s power.
We should pray for healing because:
1. God Heals Today
Jesus’ power to heal hasn’t changed. He still meets us in our need through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of the Church.
We still pray because He heals and God’s desire is for us to be healed.
Mark 5:34 “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.” (NLT)
John 5:8 “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” (NLT)
James 5:14–15 “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders… Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.” (NLT)
“Healing is provided for in the Atonement, and is the privilege of all believers. The ministry of the Church… is to pray for the sick, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.” — Assemblies of God, Statement of Fundamental Truths #9 (Summarization)
2. Waiting isn’t Wasted.
We become closer to God when we seek Him in the waiting. We long for Heaven and eternity when we are in seasons of waiting, seasons of pain, grief and suffering.
Examples of Waiting:
Woman with the Issue of Blood
Mark 5:25–34 “A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding… She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, ‘If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.’ Immediately the bleeding stopped… And he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.’”(NLT)
Suddenly the waiting was worth it and suddenly all that waiting didn’t matter because she was healed and restored.
Paralytic Man at the Pool of Bethesda
John 5:5–9“One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, ‘Would you like to get well?’… Jesus told him, ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!’ Instantly, the man was healed.” (NLT)
Even after decades of waiting, this man was not overlooked. Jesus saw him and healed him.
The Holy Spirit works in our hearts during these seasons to prepare us for God’s timing.
Romans 8:23
Romans 8:23-25 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,[a] including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. If we already have something, we don’t need to hope] for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently. (NLT)
We are waiting to experience the fullness of God’s promises, to never have to experience suffering again, to be made whole.
3. There are no sick or broken people in Heaven
Our ultimate hope is not only physical healing, but eternal restoration through Jesus, to be fully restored in every way.
Revelation 21:4 – He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. (NLT)
Joni Eareckson Tada, who has spent more than 50 years in a wheelchair as a quadriplegic due to a diving accident, said it this way:
“I still can hardly believe it. I, with shriveled, bent fingers; atrophied muscles; gnarled knees; and no feeling from the shoulders down, will one day have a new body, light, bright, and clothed in righteousness — powerful and dazzling. Can you imagine the hope this gives someone like me? … I can hardly believe it!”- Joni Eareckson Tada (Your Real Home)
WE PRAY FOR HEALING BECAUSE:
1. God Still Heals Today. - Jesus heals through prayer and the Holy Spirit. God can do the impossible and miraculous.
2. Waiting Isn’t Wasted. - God is at work while we wait; prayer keeps us trusting and enduring in the waiting.
3. There are No Sick or Broken People in Heaven. - God will restore us all fully in eternity, we will be fully restored, healed and whole in Heaven.
We Pray for Healing NOW!
Because we know God heals and that his desire is for us all to be healed and whole.
We pray believing that God can heal today, he can heal if we have been waiting months, years or decades and we can pray knowing that one day we will all walk into eternity whole and fully restored.
James 5:14–15 14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. (NLT)