Jesus travelled throughout Galilee teaching the people his message of prosperity and proving that he was the Messiah by healing every disease (except the genetic ones, as they were born that way.) News soon spread throughout the region and people brought him all the sick, demon-possessed and paralysed. He healed those whose faith was strong enough, gave psychiatric help to those whom people thought had spirits and made the paralysed comfortable as there was nothing else he could do for them. Large crowds purchased his teaching manuals, CDs, and other merchandise.
Not the Bible: The Ungospel of Matthew 4:23-25
There’s so much packed in here.
Firstly Jesus didn’t heal people just to prove He was the Messiah (and neither did His disciples…). Healing is part of the Gospel message:
Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ (Lk 10:9)
But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Lk 11:20)
It is God’s desire to heal – its a sign of His Kingdom, His rule, Heaven on Earth. If in doubt, can I recommend this blog post which gives 13 scriptural reasons why it is God’s will to heal.
Secondly to quote Steve Bremner from his excellent book 6 lies people believe about divine healing:
“You’ll never find Jesus refusing to heal someone because their faith is too small to be healed, but He does rebuke His disciples for their faith being too small to heal others.”
The onus seems to be on the healer not the one being healed, however since faith grows over time then the one praying will see their faith grow and will see more miracles.
Thirdly, in our so-called enlightenment we believe that mental illness is something just to be treated by medication and therapy. Whereas as Christians we know that Satan seeks to kill, rob and destroy and that often includes mental illness. I can testify to the fact that my wife who suffered severe depression experienced huge release after having a demon cast out of her.
Finally, too often we make healing more complicated than it is and create extra hoops that we have to jump through before we receive our healing.
Do we see Jesus doing this?
No.
The only “advantage” for us making it more complicated is that we can then sell books to walk people through “the steps” and if they don’t work there’s always another book or another minister to try.
Let’s get to the source – Jesus – and get our eyes fixed on Him not on techniques or particular ministers or anything else. He is our life, our hope, our healing. He is everything we need.