Let's start by asking a simple question, why did Jesus heal people? Some would say that He healed people to prove His Deity. Others would say it was to fulfill prophecy or to show that he was anointed by God. And of course all of these answers are correct. But there is another reason that Jesus came as a healer, a reason that most Christians have completely ignored:
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. (Matt 9:35 to 10:1 NIV)
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (Matt 14:14 NIV)
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" (Mark 1:41 NIV)
So Jesus healed his people because He loved them and had compassion on them! And this is why he sent His disciples to do the same. Now wait a minute! Everybody knows that, right? Wrong! We may understand this with our heads, but we certainly don't know it in our hearts. If we did there wouldn't be so much persecution against the healing message today. You see if Jesus only healed to demonstrate His power or to show His Deity, than its easy to believe that things have changed and that it's no longer God's will to heal everyone. But if Jesus healed as an expression of His deep love and compassion for people, then we must ask ourselves; does our resurrected Lord now have less compassion? Has he forgotten us or withdrawn His great Love? Clearly not! The Scriptures are very clear that He never changes, His will for mankind then is still His will for mankind now (Heb 13:8). The attitude of our Lord toward healing should forever settle in our minds what God's will is for us, for Jesus was the revelation of God's perfect will. Sickness was a bondage that God sent Jesus to destroy!
But He's no longer here, you may say, He's in heaven and we await His return! True, He is in heaven and we do await his return, nevertheless He is also here among us! For He himself said "I will be with you always, even to the very end of the age." and when Peter healed Aeneas he declared " Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you..." (Acts 9:34 NAS). Peter didn't say "the Holy Spirit heals you" but specifically "Jesus Christ heals you". Its just as the Lord said in the gospel of John "Ask me for anything in my name and I will do it"(John 14:14 NIV). You cannot separate the Trinity into parts, where one is there are the others also. This is what the Lord is explaining in John:
..."If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and WE will come to him and make our home with him... (John 14:23 NIV)
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. (John 17:20,21 NIV)
So the Lord is just as present with us now as he was with the disciples in His earthly ministry. The only difference is that now He lives in us and is among us, so that in actual fact His ministry has multiplied many times over. He will however, remain in Spirit (that is invisible) until the time of His return, but that does not in any sense mean that His power or His ministry has diminished. What an awesome God we serve, who is still full of compassion and delights to show mercy!
Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John 12:23,24 NIV)
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. (John 14:12,13 NIV)
Now please don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that we will never be sick! Until the redemption of the body we are subject to weaknesses. Nor am I saying that we can (or should) always expect instant miracles. I'm not even suggesting that the Lord will always heal miraculously (He may use natural means (see 1 Tim 5:23) or medical science). It's the Lord's business how and when He heals you, and only He knows what you need to learn through the experience. I'm just saying that when we get sick we should not hesitate to pray in faith (or to ask for prayer) and to trust Him to heal us, for the same Lord who healed in Galilee two thousand years ago, still heals today! What some would call presumption, the Lord himself called faith. I believe the following Scriptures can be taken as a parable for our times:
...As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."
So they called the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."
"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.(Mark 10:46-52 NIV emphasis added)
I realize that many have abused this message. So much so, that some mistrust the very concept of divine healing. Some of the most cruel actions in the history of the church have been done to people in the name of faith and healing. Rather than being merciful to those who doubt, as the word instructs us (see Jude 22) some have condemned and destroyed them (thus condemning and destroying themselves in the process). However, does this prove that the theology is wrong? In the case of the doctrine of grace, does the fact that some people use this doctrine as a license to sin, prove that the Lord doesn't save by grace? Of course not!! Yet that is what some opponents of the doctrine of grace have suggested in the past. In the same way, some seem to suggest that the character and actions of people who believe in faith healing is the test of the accuracy of the doctrine. Nothing could be further from the truth! The UNBIASED reading of the Scriptures AND the guidance of the Holy Spirit is the only legitimate test of any doctrine. By unbiased, I mean NEVER EVER go to God with your mind already made up! You must be willing to believe either way, regardless of what you believed in the past. In other words, remain correctable in light of Scripture.