Andrew Wommack - God Wants You Well - Part 5
Welcome to our Friday’s broadcast of The Gospel Truth. Today I’m continuing a series talking about healing. It is God’s will to heal you, and I tell you, I’ve shared some powerful, powerful things this week. You know, I’m, in a sense, belaboring this point about it being God’s will to heal you because most Christians believe God can heal. That is not an issue. If God is God, he can do whatever he wants to, and most Christians will even accept that, you know, every once in a while a miracle will happen and stuff, but where the real contention and division comes is when you start saying, it is God’s will for you to be well because man, that has not been embraced and this resistance against believing that it is God’s will is a major, major deal.
You know, let’s compare it to salvation. Let’s say that a person said, yes, God can save people, but it’s not his will to save everybody. He just saves a few people here and there and you never know if you’re one of those that God wants to save. If salvation was presented that way, I can guarantee you that when a person cries out and said, oh God, would you please save me, the devil would speak in your ear and say, no, he won’t save you. You’re too bad, it’s not God’s will, and he would talk multitudes of people out of ever receiving salvation if there was any doubt about whether it’s God’s will to save every person. But see, the scripture makes it very clear, 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 9, the latter part of that verse says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
It says, God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son. He’s the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, 1 John, chapter 2, verse 2, and many other scriptures. It is God’s will to heal, I mean, to save every person, and because we present salvation this way and if a person was to say, but I’m too bad, we’ll say, oh no, that’s not true. There’s no sin that’s too bad. Paul said he was the worst sinner of all and he was sent forth as an example about how God could save anybody, and so we try and convince people that it is God’s will for them to be saved, and because of that, when a person cries out to the Lord, it’s easy to receive salvation because they know that he died for the sins of the entire world.
But then when it comes to healing, people look at that as a separate category and they say, well, God can heal, but it’s not his will to heal everybody. If you believe that, I can guarantee you, satan is going to convince you that you’re the exception, that God for whatever reason, you’re too bad or too far gone or he’s not going to heal you, but that’s not true. You have to know that it’s God’s will for you to be well, and I’ve shared a lot of scriptures already. What I want to do today is to tie healing to the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a separate thing.
Jesus died to heal your body just as much as he died to forgive your sins, and man, that is super, super offensive to many, many people because the modern day church has broken salvation up into segments and they say, well, healing is the only thing that’s a part of his atonement. It’s the only thing that’s guarant… excuse me, I said that wrong. Forgiveness of sins is the only thing that is a part of Jesus' atonement. It’s the only thing that’s guaranteed and it’s his will for everybody else. Now, he can also heal, he can deliver, he can prosper, he can do all kinds of things, but those things aren’t a part of what Jesus died to produce. Those are just things that might be add-ons, and because the church has dissected salvation into these different parts and then they just choose the part about forgiveness of sins and say, that’s the only thing that’s guaranteed and available to every person. Everything else is conditional.
That has caused a lot of problems, but that is not what the Bible teaches. There’s a lot of ways. I’m going to show you a bunch of individual scriptures, but let me just also show you some things about the very Greek word that is used for salvation. I forget exactly how many times, but it’s hundreds of times in the New Testament this word «Sozo», S-O-Z-O, is used to describe salvation and it’s translated, save and saved, literally hundreds of times. So, this is the word, the Greek word that is used for salvation describing some form of salvation hundreds of times in the Bible. But it’s also used and translated «Healed» in a number of times.
Let me show you this in Mark, chapter 5, and in verse 23, this is Jesus ministering to Jairus' daughter, and in Mark, chapter 5, and in verse 23 it says, and he besought him greatly, saying, my little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come, lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed: and she shall live. The word «Healed» right here is this same Greek word «Sozo» that was translated save and saved and all of these things and it was applied to physical healing. The same thing is done in Luke, chapter 8, verse 36. You know, I could just make a brief mention of these, but again, this is something that’s not believed, it’s not accepted by people and so I’m going to take the time to turn over here and read all of these things because it needs to be emphasized, it needs to be shown, that when the Bible talks about salvation, it’s talking about healing, it’s talking about deliverance, it’s talking about prosperity. The way people have used salvation to refer to forgiveness of sins only is not scriptural.
Here is another example in Luke, chapter 8, and in verse 36 it says, they also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devil was healed, and this was talking about this man, the Gadarene, the demoniac, that had a legion of demons and he could break chains, he didn’t wear clothes, he cut himself, he lived in the cave, and it says that they told him how, he that was possessed of the devil was healed. This is that same Greek word that it refers to salvation and it includes healing, deliverance from demonic things and all of the physical things that went along with that.
Also, in Acts, chapter 14, in verse 9, this is where Paul, ministered to this man who had been lame, and in Acts, chapter 14, in verse 9 it says, the same heard Paul, this is talking about this impotent man, the same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceived that he had faith to be healed. This is talking about Paul beheld this man and looked at him and perceived that he had faith to be healed. This word «Healed» here is that same Greek word, «Sozo» that we talk about salvation. So here again, is another confirmation that when it’s talking about when we’re talking about salvation, it includes healing. Healing is a part of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, for time’s sake, let me just go through some of these things. James, chapter 5, verse 15, it says over there, talking about that the prayer of faith will save the sick, and that’s that same Greek word «Sozo».
Now, here it was translated, saved, but it’s obvious that it’s talking about, this isn’t saying that his sins will be forgiven if he’ll pray for him, it’s talking about that he will be healed of whatever he has. In James, chapter 5, verse 14, it says, if anybody’s sick, let him call for the elders of the church, let them anoint him with oil, praying over him, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, talking about the healing of their bodies. So, this word for salvation is applied to the healing of your body.
In Luke, chapter 6, verse 9, it talks about Jesus was criticized for healing people on the sabbath day, and he used an example that if your ox falls into a ditch, you’ll save it, how much more should I save this life on the sabbath day, and he was talking about the physical healing of the man who had the palsy, and so here again, it’s applied to healing. In Mark, chapter 5, it talks about the woman with the issue of blood and Jesus' virtue flowed out of him and this woman’s issue of blood instantly stopped, and he turned around, found out who had done it, and he said, daughter, go in peace, your faith hath made you whole, and the word «Whole» here is referring to her physical body being healed. It’s that exact same word «Sozo» that was translated «Whole» in relation to your physical body being whole.
In Matthew, chapter 9, verse 22, it talks about this same woman with the issue of blood, and twice it says, she was made whole. All of those words are this same Greek word «Sozo», and anyway, on and on it goes. Jairus' daughter, it was talking about her made whole. Let me turn over here to Isaiah, chapter 53, and I haven’t got time to put this chapter in all of its context, but it is a prophetic Psalm talking about Jesus, how Jesus died for us and did all of these things, and here’s what it says in Isaiah, chapter 53, and verse 3, «He is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows: and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him: he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him: and with his stripes we are healed».
You know, that’s just about as clear as you can make it. With his stripes we are healed, and it’s in the same context as everything else. The same way that he bore our sins and did all of these things, he bore our sickness, by his stripes we are healed. That is so obvious, and yet I was brought up in a denomination that read these scriptures, but they would inevitably, I mean, invariably, every single time they would apply it to spiritual things. They would say, we were like spiritual cripples, we were limping through life and Jesus came and gave us life, and you know what? It includes that, it’s talking about, yes, the healing of your spirit being forgiven of your sins, it’s talking about emotional healing and all of those things, but it also includes the physical healing of your body.
If you were to go back where it says he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him: and with his stripes we are healed, if you go back and look at those words in the Hebrew, you’ll find out that they’re talking about not just emotional things, but they’re talking about physical sickness and disease.
Now, I don’t even have to go to the Hebrew to show you that because I can turn right back to Matthew, chapter 8, and the Bible will comment on itself. Here is an instance where Jesus had healed multitudes of people and he even healed Peter’s mother-in-law and he just did all of these miracles and this is what it’s talking about in Matthew, chapter 8, and in verse 14 it says, «And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick», not some but all that were sick, and look at this in verse 17, «That it might be fulfilled», here’s why he did it. Here’s why he healed all that were sick, «That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by esaias the prophet, saying, himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses».
Now, this is a quotation from Isaiah, chapter 53, verse 4, and it substitutes the words, infirmities and sicknesses, for sorrows and griefs, so even if you didn’t know the Hebrew in the Old Testament, you could read the quotation in the New Testament and the Bible interprets itself, comments on itself and shows that this is not talking about just emotional things. Now, it doesn’t exclude emotional things, but it is beyond that, it is physically talking about the sickness and the infirmities. When it says, by his stripes we are healed, it is talking about physical healing. It is a part of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a person that doesn’t believe that, you’re going to disbelieve that because of tradition, not because of what the word says.
Man, I tell you, to me that is just super, super clear, but there’s even more. You can turn over here to Psalms, chapter 103, and in Psalms 103, in verse 1 it says, «Bless the Lord, o my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities: who healeth all thy diseases». It puts healing of your body and the forgiveness of your sins in the same verse. The Bible doesn’t separate salvation into forgiveness of sins, healing of your body, deliverance from demonic oppression, depression, et cetera: financial, the Bible doesn’t separate it. Man has done that. Our modern day, apostate church has divided salvation and said the only thing that’s important is the forgiveness of your sins.
I’ve actually had people come to me before and say, let’s not preach all of these other things. They cause contention and division. Let’s just talk about just forgiveness of sins. Let’s not talk about baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, healing, deliverance, prosperity: all of those things are contentious. The only reason they’re contentious is because people reject those things. Man, it’s all a part of one deal. When you got saved, you also got healed, and somebody says, well, I’m not healed. You’ve got the healing power of God living on the inside of you in your spirit, that’s what it says in Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 18 through 20. You’ve got the same power that raised Christ from the dead dwelling on the inside of you.
Now, whether it ever gets out and produces physical healing in your body is not God’s fault, it’s not an indication of whether or not God is going to heal you, God’s already put the healing power of God on the inside of you. It’s an indication of whether you’ve renewed your mind and know how to draw out this power of God. But I’m telling you, God wants you to be well. He died for your healing, by his stripes you were healed, just the same as you were forgiven of sins. If you would begin to look at healing as a part of your salvation just as much as you do the forgiveness of your sins, you would start seeing healing manifest in your body. But most people see it as optional and they don’t put it together, but again, I’m using all of these scriptures.
The scripture puts healing of your physical body right next to the forgiveness of your sins. It doesn’t make a distinction between them. Let me turn over here to 1 Peter, chapter 2, in verse 24, and it does this again. It says in verse 24, «Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree». That’s talking about the forgiveness of your sins, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. It puts the physical healing of your body and the forgiveness of your sins in the same category.
Earlier this week I talked from Mark, chapter 2, where Jesus saw a man let down through the roof and it was obvious that he needed to be healed, he was a paralytic, and Jesus said, your sins are forgiven you, but when the people got upset saying, you can’t forgive sins, he says, which is easier to say? Your sins be forgiven you or to say, rise up and walk, and he says, that you might know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then he said to the sick of the palsy, rise up, take your bed and walk, and he did, and Jesus coupled healing of your physical body right next to the forgiveness of your sins. It’s only men who have separated it, and I believe that the reason for it is that same principle that Jesus was talking about in Mark, chapter 2. It’s easier to say that your sins are forgiven because you can’t see a sin, you can’t see if it’s forgiven, you can’t tell if it’s been erased.
It’s an intangible and so it’s easy to preach the forgiveness of your sins, but it’s harder to preach the healing of your body because if you preach healing and people come in and they’re in a wheelchair, they’ve got crutches, they’ve got cancer, they’ve got all of these things. It’s not as easy because immediately if you preach healing and if they don’t see something happen, there is going to be a resistance and a rejection and so, ministers have just avoided preaching on healing because it’s either put up or shut up. You’re either going to see it manifest and they’re going to say, well, what you’re preaching is true, or they aren’t going to see it manifest and immediately you’re going to open yourself up to criticism.
You know, on our program yesterday I think it was, I mentioned that I was with oral Roberts just a few months before he died. I was in his home and I asked him to pray with me that I would see greater manifestations of healing and his first response is, he says, it won’t work, and I said, why not? And he said, because you’re a pastor, and I said, I’m not a pastor. I’m a television minister and I travel, and he says, oh, well then I can pray for you, and he prayed for me and I believe I’ve seen a greater manifestation of the healing power of God, but his reasoning, he didn’t explain it to me, but I understood.
Because see, when you’re a pastor and if you go to preaching on healing, you will start seeing people healed, you will see some good things happen and then they’ll start bringing in the sick, and I can guarantee you, somebody is not going to manifest a healing, not because it’s not God’s will to heal them, but because they’re just, we’ve got so much baggage, so much junk clogging our pipes that sometimes it’s hard to get the power of God to flow through us, and if you are stationary in a local church, there’s going to be somebody who stays in their wheelchair, somebody who keeps their problem and for you to continue to preach on healing, you’re going to have this conflict.
You’re going to have a conflict between what you’re saying and what you see, and most people, rather than deal with that conflict and stuff, they will just avoid it and they won’t preach on it and they will sit there and say, well, maybe it’s not God’s will for every person to be healed, maybe it’s not God’s time for you to be healed. They’ll come up with some way and they will start watering down the truth about God wants you healed. But if you’re a traveling minister, you can go in and preach the gospel, pray for people and leave and you don’t have to deal with the consequences. That’s what oral Roberts was talking about. You know, I can understand the position that this puts you in.
I remember after this Niki Ochenski got healed, that I played her testimony on Monday’s broadcast, that the next year when I came back to the Dallas/Fort Worth area we played her testimony on my television programs, I said, bring the sick, bring the blind, the deaf, the dumb, we’re going to pray for people, and did you know, I remember being in a little church in Dallas that probably only held 100, maybe 150 maximum, and ambulances started coming and they were bringing people in on stretchers and in wheelchairs, and you know what?
My first reaction was, oh Jesus, I don’t want to preach this stuff, because it puts you on the spot, and you know what? I had to deal with things and I started praying with people and I didn’t see every single person healed. We saw people come out of wheelchairs, people who were lame walk, but not every single person walked, and you know what? It’s a conflict, it’s a struggle. I’m going to deal with this later in the series and talk about some of the reasons why I know people don’t manifest their healing and I don’t know it all yet.
I still don’t understand everything, but I believe without any reservation that it’s always God’s will to heal, and some people would look at the one that didn’t get healed instead of at the dozens who were healed, the dozens who had their deaf ears open that night that I was talking about in Dallas, and dozens that came out of wheelchairs and miracles happened, but there were some people that walked out and the average person would look at the one who didn’t receive and skip the dozens and dozens and dozens of people who do receive.
Matter of fact, this same time I was with oral Roberts, one of the questions that was asked him is, how do you deal with the people who don’t receive their healing? And he nearly broke down and cried and he says, that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with, and he says, I was actually going to quit praying for people because of the ones who wouldn’t manifest and the Lord just spoke to him and said, oral, if you do that, you aren’t going to see people healed anymore.
He says, what you’ve got to do is look at the ones who are healed, and if you only get one healed, that’s one more healed than would have been healed. You’ve got to preach the truth and you’ve got to look at the ones who receive and not the ones who don’t receive. Anyway, I’ll be dealing with this more in this series, but the point I’m trying to get across is, these scriptures, the things I’m sharing with you show that healing is a part of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus doesn’t want you to be sick anymore than he wants you to sin, and if you would go to resisting sickness the way that you resist sin, then praise God, you would start seeing healing manifest in your body.