Does God Still Heal? - Physical Healing - A Biblical Assessment, Part 1

Does God physically heal people today? One group of people would say, If you believe hard enough, it will happen every time. Another group will say, It happened in the New Testament.

It doesn't happen anymore. What does the Bible actually teach? That's today. Thanks for being with us as we continue our series, Does God Still Heal, based in James Chapter 5. On this program, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram delves into the delicate and hotly debated topic of physical healing.

Well, there's a lot of ground to cover, so grab your Bible and go to James Chapter 5 as we settle in for Chip's meaningful talk. To begin, I want to ask you a question that is not all that hypothetical, but I would like you to ponder that if in just a few days from now, let's call it Monday afternoon, you, a friend or a family member, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. You walked into a doctor. You got the biopsy report back.

What would you do? What would you expect from God? What does the Bible teach about physical healing in our day specifically? And therefore, how would you respond in view of, unless God intervenes, someone you love is going to die?

Now, I'm not the sharpest guy in the world, but I'm also not stupid. And these are the kind of topics that as pastors, it's wise to avoid. There's a broad spectrum in Christianity on a topic like this, and no matter what I say, someone will be mad.

This is an emotionally charged issue where people have very, very strong feelings. But I had an experience as a young pastor that forced me to dig in at a very deep level, because what I learned is faulty theology will fracture lives. I was a young pastor in Texas, and there was a lady in our church, Susan, 46, 48 years old, godly, spent time in the scriptures. You wanted someone to pray, Susan. Her husband was not necessarily a strong follower, but he would come to church now and then.

His daughter, her daughter was in our youth group and making great progress in Christ. Susan was diagnosed with cancer. She went through chemotherapy.

There was a slight remission, and then it returned. And they said, you know, there's not a whole lot more that we can do. Well, Susan did what anyone would do. She began to dig in the scriptures.

She began to listen a little bit more to the radio, watch a little bit more TV. And in her desperation, was searching, God, if there's a way, if there's healing, I want to know about it. She found herself getting connected to a group in Dallas that believed that all people should be healed all the time. And it goes something like this, is that healing is in the atonement. They usually quote Isaiah 53, 6, that by his stripes you're healed. So you've already been healed. You just need to claim your healing, and you need more faith.

So she would go to seminars where they would read the Bible for six or eight hours out loud, and she would come back, and all we heard from Susan was, I'm healed. I'm already healed. I just have to, it's not manifested yet. I just have to keep believing and believing, and then it's going to happen. Well, as she continued to diminish in every Bible study, in every conversation, Susan was, I'm healed. I'm healed.

It just isn't manifested yet. I'm just believing. And so when her daughter wanted to have a serious talk as she saw her mom declining, stop being so negative. Don't say anything.

That's unbelief. When her husband wanted to talk about resolving some issues and, you know, what about our family, and what if you actually die? And, you know, we've got some unresolved things, and what's wrong with you? And I buried Susan. And her daughter in tears said, I'm done with God because he promised to heal my mom. She said so, and he didn't come through, so I'm out of here. And I never saw her again. Actually, I saw her one other time with a group of young people moving in a direction that broke my heart.

But never saw her husband again. So I don't know what you believe about physical healing and God intervening, but what I'm going to ask you to do with an open mind is dig in the Scriptures with me, and then no matter what you hear, you search them for yourself, and then you determine what you believe. Because I will guarantee, probably in the next five years, someone close to you, a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, or someone, will have a situation where you really need to know what the Scripture teaches, and you need to have convictions. So with that, open your notes if you would, and what I'd like to do is begin with sort of a big picture context. I'll look at the whole issue of healing.

Well, let's start with the problem. As you would search through the Scriptures, I'd suggest there's at least four reasons why people get sick. The first reason is actually some people get sick and die. A couple passages I've given you, there's a sin that leads to death, but remember when Jesus was talking about Lazarus, and he said, no, this isn't a sickness unto death, but it's for the glory of God.

But unless you are murdered or in an accident, most people are going to get sick before you die. Second reason that you're sick is a sickness for discipline. 1 Corinthians 11, 30 talks about a group of people that were in blatant relational sin, and God disciplined them. He said, because of how you're treating one another and dishonoring me around the Lord's Supper, some of you are sick and some are asleep prematurely, literally talking about fellow believers who God disciplined through health issues. The third reason that sickness happens is for the glory of God.

In John chapter 9, the disciples were saying, Jesus, this man who's blind, was that his sin or his parents' sin? And Jesus said, you're mistaken, it's neither, but it's for the glory of God. There was a mindset that any time anyone was sick in New Testament times, it must be a direct cause and effect. It had to be because of sin. And Jesus says, no, sometimes God allows people to be sick in order to deliver in a way that he gets glory. And then finally, there's a sickness from the enemy. In Luke 13, Jesus is in a synagogue, and they're very angry because he heals this woman, who for 18 years was bound by an evil spirit, and he did it on the Sabbath.

And as they accuse him, he says, look, each of you would release your oxen during the day on the Sabbath. But why do you accuse me for releasing this woman from this sickness that has bound her because of this evil spirit for the last 18 years? So at least in Scripture we know there's at least four basic reasons why people get sick. The next section I'd like to give you a little bit of the religious landscape in terms of five views of healing. The first one is what I will call the sensationalist.

It's faith healers. It's emotionally charged, flamboyant. It's a strong psychological, the cameras are rolling. Often you have to pay for parking.

They rent out big arenas. Now what I will tell you is I'm not sure what's happening. 20, 20, and 60 Minutes has done research, and there's certainly fraud there. But I've also heard stories of people that have actually experienced supernatural healing. All I can tell you is the methodology and the means and the focus is the opposite of how Jesus did it.

Jesus, low profile, the focus is on God. There weren't outrageous things. There wasn't wild emotionalism. The second is what I call confessionalist. This is the name it and claim it group. It's called the Word of Faith movement. It's that everyone has already been healed. It occurred on the cross, and you have to believe it. And the only person that loses on this is the recipients.

It's never the teacher's fault. If you're not healed, you didn't have enough faith. I cannot even count the number of people that I've met who have lived with guilt because they didn't have enough faith when they prayed for someone or their mother or their father or their daughter or their son or someone died because of this false theology. We're going to learn that God does supernaturally heal, but God doesn't heal all the people all the time, and you can go all the way through Scripture. He heals an unbeliever here, another person, it's because of your faith, another person has no faith. You can't build a case from the work in the gospels or the book of Acts that people have faith all the time or that everyone is supposed to be healed.

Third is what I call the anti-supernaturalist, and this comes in about three categories. There's one group called ultra-dispensationalists who believe that healing occurred and miracles occurred in the first century to affirm the Word of God, but those days are gone. There's another group who would be called liberal theologians who don't believe in miracles at all.

They believe this contains great thoughts, but they don't think it's the Word of God. And then there's another group that we can't measure that we don't believe in the supernatural. Scientific, anti-supernatural, these kind of things simply don't happen.

The fourth group is what I call the rationalist. These are actually the Christian scientists, if you've ever had any familiarity. They believe that there is no such thing as sickness. It's a figment of your imagination and that when you begin to think good thoughts, the illusion of sickness or even the illusion of death gets removed.

Their founder, however, died, which sort of disproves the theory, but it's Mary Baker Eddy. But there's literally a group of people that think that it's not really real. It's just in your mind, and if you begin to think better thoughts, the Christ within you. And then the last one, I hold this different things, but I call it the medical biblical spiritual integration group.

How's that? I used to call it the biblical realist, but realist sounds like, you know, it's just all reality and you don't really believe God would do something supernatural. What I mean by this is that this group believes that God actually has medicine and doctors and vaccines and He heals in that way.

They also believe in the Bible as a historic document and that He does supernatural things today. He does supernatural things back then, but He is a sovereign God, so God heals people, but He doesn't heal everyone all the time. He has very specific purposes, and the last word, spiritual, is that healing and sickness really is often very much connected to how we're thinking, how we're living, our walk, our relationships with others. And so those things are integrated, so there's a medical aspect of healing, there's a supernatural aspect of healing, and there's a lifestyle aspect.

There's actual impact like how much sleep you get and what kind of food you eat and how much exercise. So the medical, the spiritual, and the lifestyle all come together in an integrated way because we don't have a body, we have a mind, a body, and a spirit, and all those things work together. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and Chip will be right back to finish his talk. But quickly, are you aware there's a spiritual battle happening right now? Now that's not meant to scare you, but rather to motivate you. Stick around after the program as Chip talks about an effective tool we have that will prepare and equip you to fight back against our enemy.

You don't want to miss it. But for now, let's get back to our series, Does God Still Heal? And so with that, I'd like to try and ask and answer the question, what does the Bible actually say? Most of all those different views of healing take something from the book of Acts, something from the Gospels, some Old Testament passages, but where is the one passage in the New Testament that says directly, if you're physically sick, what should you do? And that passage is James 5, verses 14 to 18. God's specific instruction for the physically ill. Is anyone among you sick?

And we'll talk about what that word means in a minute. It's not the flu. It's not a cold. It's very serious illness. Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing or literally having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins, they'll be forgiven him.

So what I want to do is break this down and kind of ask some very basic questions about this passage and then we're going to get at least the clearest teaching in the New Testament on healing. Who are the sick? The word literally means without strength, unable to work, physically disabled or bedridden. When Lazarus was dying, this is the word that's used. When Dorcas was dying, this is the word that was used.

The man who was by the pull of Bethesda for 38 years, this is the word that was used. In other words, even when it talks about the Lord will raise him up, this is a life-threatening illness. So what are the sick to do? Well, they're to call the elders of the church.

Put a little asterisk there. The responsibility is not with the church leadership. The responsibility is with the people that are sick. I've heard more than a handful of tragic stories. I hang out with other pastors and remember having a conversation with another pastor and we all have sort of those days where you get those phone calls and you go to try and help people and you find out some balls were dropped and they go through a difficult situation and no matter what you do, you're not going to be able to make it right. And it's just part of your world as a pastor. A family had come to his church, it's another church, and had come for a couple years, but they never really got involved.

They didn't know any people. They kind of liked the church. They would come to the services maybe even three times a month, but they were never really connected and then the husband got cancer. The wife called the church and left a voicemail and he was out of town.

It was a smaller church so there wasn't a lot of staff so he didn't get it for about 10 days. He got back in town and the wife called and said no one really cares and so he came and prayed with the husband and she was distraught and he was going through a horrendous time and she goes, why doesn't anybody care? And he said, well, I was out of town and so she prayed for the husband. He goes, before he left, he said, now, you know, this all can't just be me. You know, there's two or three hundred other people I'm responsible for so could you give me the name of two or three of your closest friends in the church that you're connected with so they could support and pray as well?

And he said, she looked at me and she goes, we don't know anybody. Well, are you in a small group? No. Well, did you go through the process and never join the church?

Well, no. And he said, you know, it's just like if there's ever a reason, a pragmatic, biblical, wise reason to be connected with the body, it's when things get very difficult, you want to be connected with people that know you and love you and will share life with you. That sick person calls, takes the initiative for the elders of the church and it's implied that the person actually isn't well enough to make it to the church. Now, we do a lot of praying in the back room, anointing people with oil, we pray up front so you don't have to be bedridden, but this is a prayer for serious things and the person takes initiative and so what are the elders to do?

Two things. One, anoint with oil and pray. Now, if you are a Bible student and like to read lots of commentaries and want to hear a lot of people go in about eight different directions on what all this means, I would invite you to do that.

I did that again this week just to stay fresh. There's two different words for anoint in the New Testament. One is a more medical, medicinal world. It's used for rubbing the olive oil and different types of oils were even taken internally and externally and then there was a different word for anoint that is sort of ceremonial. This is the medical world. There's debate and people, depending on your theology, it's interesting how they take these passages, but he says having anointed with oil.

A.T. Robertson is the one who wrote the Greek grammar that all of us pastors of all backgrounds and all denominations use and this is his take on these two words. The use of olive oil was one of the best remedial agencies known in the ancient world. They used it internally and externally. Some physicians prescribed it today. It's clear in this passage in James and all through Mark 6, 13 that it is a medicinal value attached to the use of the oil and the emphasis is placed on the worth of prayer. There's nothing here of pagan magic or practice or any thought of extreme unction which didn't even occur in practice until the 8th century.

It is no means certain that this word here means to anoint in any ceremonial fashion. What we have here is medicine and prayer combined together to bring healing to people. And so when we as elders go and talk to people about an illness, one of the first things we do is ask them, so what did the x-ray show? What did the doctor say? What is your MRI? In other words, having anointed, the other view is that this is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.

I'm fine with that. But having anointed with oil, what you want to know when you're going to pray for someone that's in a dire situation is have you received the best medical help anywhere? Another false theology is somehow if you really believe God, you believe Him so much that you deny medical help. A number of years ago, this Indianapolis, Indiana, maybe you remember reading this story, it was a big nationwide thing, and a family had a small boy, six, seven years old, with an illness and very treatable illness, but they were in this, you know, God has to do it and it's a lack of faith to go to a doctor. And they withheld treatment and that little boy died, and both parents and the pastor were charged with manslaughter.

It's a tragic thing. It's not medicine over here and how God works over here. God gave people the brains and the wisdom to make the very best medicine, and we happen to be in one of the best places in the world in terms of medical care. And so as pastors, as elders, what we want to ask first is have you got the best medical treatment possible?

And what's the diagnosis? How are we going to pray? What should we know? So having anointed with oil, and then they pray, and then what does God promise to do? He says He'll restore the one who is sick, He'll raise him up, and forgive his or hers sin. By the way, this is a promise.

It's what He says to do. But like every single verse in Scripture, like Mark 11, 24, if you've ever read that, that one gets butchered. It says believe, right? If you believe, God will do whatever you ask. Well, true in the context, so notice the passage says, and they pray in faith in the name of the Lord. So the prayer offered in faith is godly people who believe not only that God can, but that in this particular case, trusting that God will. But notice it's in the name of the Lord, and that's sort of a euphemism for in the authority and the power of God, but under the will of God, if this is your will. You don't put God in a box and tell Him He has to do this or He has to do that. I'm sure the apostle Paul prayed three different times for himself.

God said no. There were times when Paul prayed for someone and they were miraculously healed. There was a season when they were taking handkerchiefs from Paul when God was authenticating His word and people were healed. And later on, he writes to his son in the faith and says, you know, make sure you keep drinking a little wine for your stomach, medicine of the day for your frequent ailments.

And so you don't put God in a box, but you pray believing in faith. I remember the last time that I did this, I got a call from an elder. It was the night before and we went to a family here and we prayed. It was a very serious situation. And by the way, they tried everything.

I mean, all kind of medical, all kind of stuff. And from the time that we prayed afterwards, there's a complete change in that lady's life. But he called me and said, you know, I'm just, I'm really searching my heart. I want to make sure that I'm right before God so that when we pray that God will hear. So it's the prayer offered in faith by godly people walking with God saying, it's in your name. The power isn't in oil. The power isn't in how loud we pray.

There's no magic in the oil. We're coming and we're going to obey you. And what we know is that at times, you will choose to supernaturally intervene and we've seen you do that. Finally, notice that it says if he has sinned, they will be forgiven him. I'd like you in your notes to circle the word if and then underline the little phrase, they will be forgiven him. In English, you know, if we say if, it can mean, well, if and then.

If things work out, then I'll be coming on Saturday. Well, we don't know what that means. Well, it could work out or could not work out. It's called a conditional clause.

In Greek, you don't have to wonder. There's four different conditional clauses. This is what's called a third class condition. A third class condition is what's called the condition of future probability. In other words, if he's sinned and in this context, likely this happens to be the case.

Not always, but likely this happens to be the case. When you go and you pray for them, his sins will be forgiven. So one of the things that we do when we anoint people with oil, and it's honestly a little bit awkward and I often get that job, is I sit down with people after finding out how long has this happened? What does the doctor say? You know, we've all prayed.

We're ready. We have some olive oil here as a symbol, but before we pray, I need to ask you something. Is there any known sin in your life? Is there anything between you and God that could prevent him from answering? Do you have any resentment toward anyone? Is there an unfulfilled commitment you made to someone?

Is there issues? And so part of what causes sickness, we'll see a little bit later, is sin. And often, can I be as bold to say to us in our current culture, things that the Bible clearly calls sin are so common among some of us, we don't even recognize it. And when it causes the consequences of sickness, since we don't call it sin anymore, like being a workaholic, have you thought of that as sin? Or what about an addiction?

I mean, how about this? I get five hours of sleep. I drink nine cups of coffee. I work 85 hours. I eat mostly fast food. I never work out.

I don't take any vitamins. I'm really mad at my ex, and I'm just about ready to go through the... I have outbursts of anger. So what's the problem, God? Why won't you heal me?

Right? So that's why there's medical issues, there's spiritual issues, and there's lifestyle issues, and those things are interwoven. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip Ingram's message, Physical Healing, a Biblical Assessment, from our series, Does God Still Heal?

Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. Do you know someone fighting a lifelong disease, battling depression, or wrestling with their faith? In this insightful series, Chip tackles the question that haunts many, is there real hope for those suffering physically, emotionally, and spiritually? Journey with Chip through James chapter five as he unravels the true meaning of healing and what it looks like in our modern world. You'll also discover prayer's influential role in navigating life's most difficult trials. You're not going to want to miss a single program of this meaningful teaching.

Well, before we go any further, in today's broadcast, here's Chip. I'll be right back in just a minute to give you some very specific application about today's teaching. But if you're concerned about our nation and our world and the strife and the chaos and the violence, and you're just really uptight about, so what's really going on? And you hear maybe other Christians or you watch the news and you hear these strong statements and social media postings.

Here's what I want you to know. James chapter three says, the wisdom that is from the enemy is chaotic, it's demonic, it's divisive, it brings disorder. So when you see those things, that's not flesh and blood. You see, people are not the enemy. It's demonic forces that are causing that level of chaos and disorder. Satan and demonic forces are energizing these things.

And so you've got to be very careful not to attack the people but attack the cause. And if you don't know how to discern what's from the enemy and what's just natural, you will be deeply stuck about how to respond in some tough situations right now. These spiritual warfare cards will give you a clear perspective of what spiritual warfare is, how to respond, and what you need to do once you recognize this isn't just a person's bad attitude, there's demonic power behind this. In fact, let me give you a quick description of these cards. These cards are very systematic. They will help you understand the basic principles of spiritual warfare.

When you're in spiritual warfare, what are the promises in the Bible about spiritual warfare, how to understand the tactics or the strategies of the enemy, what protection God has given you and actually how to put on the armor of God, and then when necessary, out loud, how to engage the enemy and when. These cards, I think, would be great for people in your world that you love, that you want to help, and we're living in a world that's getting crazier and crazier. But here's the promise. Greater is he that is in us than he that's in the world.

Good word, Chip. Well, if you want to get your hands on our Invisible War scripture cards, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. This powerful resource will help you recognize the tactics of our enemy, embrace the security Christ offers, and effectively wield God's word. Again, for complete details about these Invisible War scripture cards, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003.

App listeners, tap Special Offers. Here again is Chip to share some application for us to think about. As we close today's program, I am very aware that there are some of you that are thinking, Chip, I can't believe it. Don't you really believe God really heals? I mean, if you believe hard enough, doesn't he promise by his stripes we're healed?

And it happens 100 percent of the time. And I can also hear other people going, now, Chip, you know, I've heard you speak before. Are you saying that you think God still does miracles? Well, I went through those five specific ways that people look at things, and I'd like you to both lean back.

I think most of us are somewhere in between. I think we would all say that the sensationalists and sort of the miracle healers, there's charlatans out there. I think we would say that, you know, just saying something, the confessionalists believing it somehow, there's got to be more to it than that. A lot of scripture contradicts the idea that just believing hard enough.

I think you have the rationalists who don't believe this can ever happen. And then I think what we have here is a very clear passage from the Bible in the New Testament, when you had very few doctors in a time that I think God can intervene, and he promises that at times, not at our command, that he will supernaturally intervene and heal people's lives. So all I want you to do is, could you be open, if you are one of those people that believe that God doesn't do miracles anymore, could you be open to realize that the purpose of miracles are always to authenticate his word and that there may be a time in our day when people are disregarding God's word that he's doing it like never before?

I've had multiple personal experiences in this way. I've prayed for a lady, and I don't have any special gifts, and a brain tumor was gone. I can tell you a lady in a personal interview that she was actually listening on the radio, and I was talking about, would you actually not just wish it, but expect and ask God to really believe, Lord, if you want to heal me? She'd been bedridden and had issues, and she sensed God wanted to do that.

She prayed right then, miraculously healed. God is a sovereign God. He's a good God. He's completely in control. I've been all around the world, and I can tell you I've seen him do miraculous things to authenticate his word. He is the God that we can't put limits on.

He can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, but he's also a God that can't be told what to do, and so let me encourage you. In our next study, we're going to look at the very prescription that he gives to the church about physical healing. Would you listen with me in our next broadcast with an open mind? I hope our listeners will join us for that insightful program, Chip. Thanks for the reminder. Well, before we go, I want to thank those of you who make this program possible through your generous financial support. Your gifts help us create programs, purchase airtime, and develop additional resources to help Christians live like Christians. Now, if you've been blessed by the Ministry of Living on the Edge, would you consider sending a gift today? Now, you can do that by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap donate. We want you to know how much we appreciate your support. Well, I do hope you'll listen to next time as Chip picks up in his series, Does God Still Heal? Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge. .