Kenneth Copeland Ministries Australia

Doubled-over and weak from a loss of blood, the woman probably prayed no one would notice her as she inched forward through the crowd. She was focused on one objective: reaching the man making His way ahead of her.

He was “the One” people were talking so much about. She knew it without being told. As she trudged along, she recalled all the good things she’d heard about Him, and for the first time in a long time, hope sprang up in her heart. Because of His touch, blind people could now see; deaf people could hear; lame people could walk. As she turned these things over and over again in her mind, she actually began to expect something good would happen for her. She’d heard this man healed people free of charge, and He was healing everyone who came to Him. That was a good thing, because after 12 years of seeking cures for the terminal illness that racked her frail body, she was penniless.

Really, a miracle was her only hope—He was her only hope.

“If I can just get close enough to touch Him,” she muttered under her breath, “I will be healed.” Each time she said it, her determination became stronger. She fought her way through the swarm of people until finally, she reached Him.

The instant she touched Jesus’ clothes, healing power flowed into her body. She felt it. She didn’t even talk to Him—just touching Him in faith was enough to receive the miracle she so desperately needed.

It also was enough to cause Jesus to stop in His tracks and ask, “Who touched My clothes?” The men with Him were perplexed. “Look at this crowd pressing hard around You from all sides,” they said. “How can You ask such a question?”

But a demand had been placed on the power of God and Jesus knew it. He had something to say to that person and kept searching for her. Overcome with emotion, frightened and trembling, the woman fell down at His feet and told Him the whole truth. What Jesus had to say was great. “Daughter, your faith has restored you to health. Go in peace and be continually healed and freed from your disease.”

Yes. The reports she had heard about Him certainly were true!

Say What You Believe

 

One reason I like to read this familiar story about the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25-34, The Amplified Bible) is because it is a good illustration of how our faith works, and how the Lord desires for us to be continually healed and free from disease.

The fact is, we can place a demand on the healing power of God at any time. His healing power is always present everywhere. God just needs us to use our faith and our words to decree a thing to come to pass in our lives.

This destitute woman reached out in faith to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, and her faith brought the power of God into her body. Notice how she said what she believed. “For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole” (verse 28).

We are no different than she. We will have what we say. We can’t get on our knees, pray and tell God we believe Him for something and then get up and say, “I don’t have it,” and expect results. By faith, we decree how and what we receive from God. Had this woman said, “Well, I wish I could receive healing, but I probably won’t,” she would not have gotten one thing. However, she kept saying, “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” When she touched Him, she released her faith and received her healing—just like she said.

When I teach Healing School, often people are healed while coming into the service. I know that because after the meeting many of them testify and say, “I knew if I just came to this meeting, I would be healed.” Like the woman with the issue of blood, they had declared their faith and how they would receive their healing…and they did!

The woman with the issue of blood called it. She named it. She brought healing power into her body by saying words. And, the moment she touched Jesus, the power of God went into her and delivered her. She believed what she had been saying to be true. The instant she acted on it—it was done.

Who called the shots in this situation?

Jesus didn’t call the shots. That woman did. Her faith did.

It’s still the same way today. That’s the way faith works. The healing power of God is always present everywhere. You call it into your life. You call it into the bodies of your children. You’re the one who decides. Your words and your faith decree a thing in your life.

In other words, if you’re not happy with your life today, then guess who has to change in order for things in your life to change? You change your words. Start saying what you want to come to pass instead of what you have. The scripture tells us if we believe we receive when we pray, we will have whatsoever we say (Mark 11:24).

This woman with the issue of blood believed the reports she’d heard about Jesus. Apparently she believed in His goodness. She believed He could and would heal her. For us to obtain healing, we must know and believe what God’s Word says about healing because “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Just Open the Door

 

The truth is, healing is not man’s idea. Healing originated in the heart of God.

From the beginning, God has desired the very best for His people, including divine health. In Exodus 15:26 God told the children of Israel, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” With those words, He declared Himself to be our healer too. If He was the Lord who heals, He still is the Lord who heals, because God never changes (James 1:17; Malachi 3:6).

He desires for all His people to be well. Why? Because God loves us, and He is gracious (Psalm 145:8) which means He is “disposed to show favors.” That’s His natural disposition—to do us good. That’s why He has always been the healer. This psalm also tells us the Lord is “full of compassion…abounding in mercy and loving-kindness” (verse 8, The Amplified Bible). Now, if He is full of and abounding in those things, that means there isn’t room for anything else. He is “good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”

Our God desires for us to be healed and whole even more than we desire it! We don’t have to twist His arm to get Him to heal us. We just have to give Him an opening into our lives.

We do that by trusting Him and believing His Word.

If you need healing, believe you are healed because of what you read in His Word. Believe in His goodness and willingness to heal you. That’s how your faith opens the door for God to move in this natural realm and produce healing for your body.

Faith is that force that comes out of your heart and causes the power of God to come into your circumstances.

Psalm 107:20 says this of God, “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” God wants us to live healed and free! He has given us His Word to teach us His ways. If we walk in His ways, we can be whole and complete. That’s why the Bible tells us to be doers of His Word (James 1:22).

The following words reveal the very heart of God toward us…

“O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29).

That’s God’s will for your life. That it might be always well with you and your children.

You Must Choose

 

Receiving His will is not automatic, however.

God told the children of Israel what would bring the blessing and what would bring the curse in their lives. Then He told them to “choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). They had to choose to obey His Word in order to walk in the blessings He desired to give them. So do we.

We see from Scripture that the covenant of healing God gave Israel was immunity from disease. He said, “And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee” (Exodus 23:25). Moses said if you obey, “The Lord will keep you free from every disease…” (Deuteronomy 7:15, New International Version).

God gave man statutes that would do them good and preserve them. Moses said, “And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive…” (Deuteronomy 6:24).

God is sending you His Word today. He desires for all your needs to be met and everything in your life to be intact, including your health. The words of God “are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:22). One translation says His words are “medicine” to your flesh.

So read His Word with childlike faith. Simply believe and receive it.

Look What the Lord Has Done!

 

As you read through the Gospels, you’ll find that Jesus took our sin, sickness and disease, and on the third day, He came up out of that grave victorious! He overcame hell and death, totally destroying Satan’s power. Colossians 2:15 says, “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

All power was given unto Jesus in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18-19).

Satan has no authority over us after we are born again unless we give it to him. When we resist the devil, he will flee (James 4:7). We must resist sickness and disease with the same tenacity we resist sin. It’s our right to stay healthy. In fact, it’s my job and yours to take authority over the enemy in every area of our lives. We must not give him an inch!

Jesus didn’t. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

Jesus also plainly tells us, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus showed us that anything that steals, kills or destroys is from the devil. But good things, things that give life—such as healing—come from God. In His ministry, Jesus healed everyone who would receive Him.

The Bible says Jesus came doing the will of the Father (John 6:38). We can know healing is the will of God simply by looking at the ministry of Jesus. And, Jesus healed them all when He walked the earth, and that’s still His ministry today. Jesus has always been against sickness and disease. In the Bible, you never see Him telling anyone, “You have to keep that sickness because God wants to teach you something.”

No. Jesus never hesitated to pray for anyone who wanted to receive healing. But if they didn’t receive Him, they didn’t receive the healing anointing. Today, Jesus hasn’t changed His mind or His ministry. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). So we have every scriptural right to believe for healing for every person today who receives Jesus.

Matthew 9:35 says, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” When Jesus was on earth He went about teaching, preaching and healing. That’s what we are to do—in His Name.

When Jesus walked the earth, He was God’s vehicle on the earth. He was God’s way to man and man’s way to God. Today, the Church is that vehicle.

Jesus came doing the will of God. He healed all the people who would receive Him. Then He sent out the disciples and gave them authority to do the same. Matthew 10:1 says, “He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”

Jesus commissioned the Church to do the will of God. He told His disciples to go in His Name and do the things He had been doing: Cast out the devil. Lay hands on the sick, and they will recover (Mark 16:15-18). The Spirit of God is still at work today, just as He was in Jesus’ ministry. The power has not waned. But we must do our part.

The fact is, God’s best is not for us to get sick and then get healed. What really belongs to us is divine health—we can and should stay continually well. “By whose stripes, ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). That’s the position we should take. We can stay healed and whole as we continually take in God’s medicine—His Word. That’s the way God planned it. We don’t have to talk Him into healing us…

Healing is God’s idea! It’s just up to us to believe it and receive it.