Healing is Part of the Believer’s Job Description

Are you a believer and a follower of Jesus Christ? Because Jesus is our Lord, we take His commands very seriously. Most of us have heard the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20. First, He gave us the great commission, to go into all the world, preach the gospel and baptize. Then in verse 20, we are instructed to teach everything that He commanded.

Matthew 28:18 - 20

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen

In the following passages from Matthew, Jesus is commanding His disciples. Notice the common message and theme that we saw in Matthew 28. As we go preach the Gospel, He gives the signs that should follow us, including healing!

Matthew 10:7

7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Matthew 11:1

1Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities

Note: Between Matthew 10:7 and Matthew 11:1, the break in the chapter is something man put in (not God). It goes to follow that Matt 11:1 does not have a time lapse from chapter 10. Read the verses together as if they were not separated by chapter and see how they flow together.

Jesus taught His disciples how to preach the kingdom. When we study Scriptures, it is important to not only notice what is said, but also what is NOT said. In this passage, Jesus did NOT give an end date for His commands.

Mark 16:15 - 20

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen

Notice that verse 18 states that believers (1) Shall lay hands on the sick, and (2) They shall recover.

Let’s back up to verse 15. How long are we to preach the Gospel? It says we are to preach to every creature. That means that we can stop our work when every creature has heard the Gospel. Jesus said until that time, we are to keep preaching with signs following. Healing has not passed away, and will not as long as believers are doing their job.

And that’s not all! Jesus does not stop with the list of signs that follow believers in Mark 16. Read what He says in John 14:12:

John 14:12 -15

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. 15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.

We believe on Jesus, so we are authorized and commanded to not only do the works that He did, we are to do GREATER works! What works did Jesus do? Healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out devils, fed the multitudes, commanded the weather and preached the Gospel. Jesus said that we are able to do these things because He went unto the Father. Jesus gave no ending criteria to these mighty works, He only gave the beginning: “because He went to the Father.”

In verse 15, we see that if we love Him, we are to keep His commandments. Often when Christians hear the word, “commandments,” we think of the 10 commandments given to Moses; Jesus is talking about doing everything that He commanded and did, and even greater things. Jesus ALWAYS healed the sick. We have no record of Jesus refusing or being unable to heal someone. If we love Jesus, we will lay hands on the sick and God will heal them. By laying hands on the sick, we are also obeying the command to love our neighbor.

To get a different perspective, turn Jesus’ statement in verse 12 around: We cannot say that we love Jesus if we do not keep His commandments.

We don’t need prompting, we have Scripture

To be led, do the Word; take the Word literally.

The Holy Spirit leads us into all Truth. Once He leads us into truth, we are responsible for acting on it.

When you stand before people, you represent God to them; when you stand before God, you represent the people to Him.

We are to love God and love our neighbor, doing to others as we would want done for us.

We are led by truth and compassion.

No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

We know that divine healing and divine health are ours because Jesus paid for all sickness and disease at the whipping post. He was also given all authority over everything after He rose from the dead; thus so have we.

We know that Jesus said that we only need to believe (have faith) and we will receive healing, along with all the other blessings and promises of God. Remember that healing is only one of the promises of God. There are many others, and they are all received in the same way.