by Matthew Crouch
As we’ve been focusing on healing during the month of May at TBN, Laurie and I have been getting great reports about the awesome things God is doing all over the world. We’ve read story after story from people who have reached out to our TBN prayer team and received answers to prayer for themselves and others.
Throughout TBN’s 43-year history, we have always believed God’s love for us included healing. Recently, though, we’ve been getting some fresh perspectives from friends like Pastor Joseph Prince that have helped us see healing in a whole new light. For too long this has been one of those promises from God that many Christians have a hard time understanding. “What if I don’t have enough faith?” some worry. “What if there is something blocking my healing?” or “What if I pray and I’m not healed?”
The bottom line is, there are a lot of “ifs” we can come up with for why we might not be healed. But the reality is that the Bible is filled with God’s promises for healing. Scriptures such as, “I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15: 26) and, “by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53: 5, 1 Peter 2: 24) are just a couple of examples that show God’s desire to heal His people.
The truth is that many people who love and trust Jesus for their salvation have a hard time taking God at His Word when it comes to healing. But as Joseph Prince said recently: “Salvation is not just about being saved from hell to go to heaven, as wonderful as that is. Salvation is health, healing, wholeness, restoration, and provision. Salvation is Jesus walking by the shores of Galilee, opening the eyes of the blind, setting those who are demon-possessed free, and bringing life to where death has come in.”
You see, when Jesus takes us from death to life, He does a total makeover in our lives that includes body, soul, and spirit. In fact, in one of the key scriptures about salvation — “. . . whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13) — “saved” in the original Greek means saved from sin and eternal death, as well as healed and delivered from every sickness, addiction, and oppression.
The mind-boggling fact is that Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection not only secured our forgiveness and right standing before God, but also provided for our healing. As Christ followers we are invited to believe and receive what is already ours. Salvation and healing are His gifts to us.
My own mother experienced this truth firsthand when she was miraculously healed back in 2003. She was diagnosed with colon cancer and had surgery, but opted out of radiation and chemotherapy. She believed in God’s healing and is still alive today!
Once, when thanking Him for healing her, she had a distinct impression of God answering back: “Thank you for receiving your healing.”
This is the place God wants each of us to reach. Of course, we can’t ignore the truth that not everyone who trusts God is perfectly healed in this lifetime. There are times when God will permit illness or hardship in our lives. Read the apostle Paul’s story in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
Nonetheless, it is clear in His Word that God heals here and now, and it has nothing to do with having the right amount of “faith,” being worthy enough, or saying just the right prayer. It’s all about receiving what Jesus already purchased for us, and what is ours through God’s unbreakable covenant of mercy and grace.
Maybe you or someone you care about are faced right now with a need for healing, be it physical, mental, emotional, a shattered relationship — or any other need for that matter. Would you allow Laurie and me, along with our incredible TBN prayer team, to join with you in prayer for God’s power and provision to meet that need? Simply e-mail us at prayer@tbn.org, and a member of our TBN prayer team will lift your specific need to the Father as we join with you in prayerful agreement (Matthew 18:20) for healing and restoration.
And don’t forget to e-mail us again and let us know about what God has done! Here’s just one of the many encouraging stories we have received of God’s miracle power —