No. 354

Tract Number 354

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What is Divine Healing?

By Cleve Green

James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

14. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

I want us to closely examine the word let. In answer to the question, What is divine healing? I say upon the authority of God’s Word that it is a Bible doctrine. A Bible doctrine is a fundamental truth. When you become enlightened to it, you can no longer do as you please with it but must walk in the light of it. For too long now this great message on healing has been counted as just a privilege. I grant you, it is a great privilege to trust God for the healing of our bodies; yet it is more than that—it is a Bible doctrine.

Look closely at the word let. “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.” That is a command. When trials and tests come, God has commanded that we pray. When we are persecuted and folks mistreat us, we are not to go around grumbling, complaining, telling everybody about it, and seeking sympathy; but He said just to pray. If we have a slight ailment in body, pray. I do not believe that God intended for people to run the pastor to death praying for little aches and pains. He said for you to pray. Verse 14 says, “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church.” It is hard for you to have faith when you are suffering in great pain. God knew this, so He said to “call for the elders.”

Hebrews 13:1 says, “Let brotherly love continue.” Is this a command? Certainly it is a command. He meant that brotherly love must continue. If it does not, we are not brothers in the Lord. What if we took this as lightly as some folks take James 5:13-15 and say, “Well, it is just a privilege. We can either let brotherly love continue or not. It does not make much difference.” It makes all the difference in the world.

Let us look at Ephesians 4:29-31. In verse 29 Paul said, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.” Is this a command? Certainly it is! Then look at verse 31, which says, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.” Do you think that this is just a privilege and that we can do as we please about this? No, of course not! This is a Bible command. The same word let is used in James 5:13-15.

You say to your children, “Leave that alone.” Is it a command or can they do just as they please about it? You meant it for a command. God wants His people to take hold of this Bible doctrine so He can work the healing and miracles in the church that He needs to. Divine healing and the miracles were a great drawing power to the morning-time church. I believe it will be a drawing power to the evening-time church, also. People will drive farther and sacrifice more to get help in the body than in the soul. We need the great demonstration of the power of God in our midst in miracles so that the world will be drawn unto Christ.

We read in John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Jesus is the world’s greatest magnet, but the church must lift Him up. When we lift Him up by trusting Him for our healing and God is able to work with us with signs following, the world will surely take notice.

Let us look at another command in God’s Word that begins with this word let. Romans 13:1 states, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.” Here the word “let” stresses a command. The word let as used in these Scriptures is just as binding as the word must in John 3:7, which says, “Ye must be born again.” We all accept that as a command. Then why is it so hard for us to accept James 5:13-15 as a command? For one reason, the ministry has not taught it as a command. They have left it up to the people to do as they please about this. This has greatly retarded the progress of the church. I know of nothing that will brighten up the saints’ testimonies more than divine healing. This is one of the first places where compromise has crept in: a let down on divine healing. This is one thing that has helped kill the prayer meetings across the country. Faith was killed, and the vibrant testimonies died out. I still say that it is one of the greatest drawings that the church has.

Once I was talking with a brother pastor who had a struggle for a few years building up the church in his locality. Some time ago he was greatly burdened to go pray for a neighbor lady who belonged to a sectarian church. She had never attended his congregation to my knowledge before her healing. She was sorely afflicted and in bed when this dear pastor felt the burden to go and pray for her. He went and prayed for her, and God healed this dear soul. She and her husband came out of the sect they were in and took a stand for truth. They both sing and are a real help to the work. Since she has been healed, five more people have come out and taken their stand for God and His truth. Praise God, church, divine healing will draw!

In 1st Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul said: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” You see, you cannot do as you please with your body. It is not yours. If you are sanctified, your body is not your own. Romans 12:1 reads, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” You have presented your body to God for a living sacrifice, to suffer in sickness and disease for a while so that your faith might be tried, or God might want you to be as Job to prove to others that your faith will stand.

You need to get to the place one old brother got to in his experience when he trusted God for body and soul. One day when he was suffering terribly in his body and he thought he might die, he prayed: “O Lord, come down and take care of Your property. The devil is about to steal it.” He had it exactly right! it is God’s property. Oh, I know we go around saying “my body,” but it is not ours if we are sanctified. First Corinthians 3:16-17 reads: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

Saint, after coming to light and understanding of God’s Word on divine healing, let us not go back into the way of unbelief, the way the world goes, the way the unenlightened souls go for help in their bodies. Let us hold firmly to the promise of God without any fear. Someone is bound to say, “Yes, preacher, but I might die trusting the Lord.” Now, wouldn’t that be a terrible disgrace upon the cause for you to die trusting God for your healing? No! It would be a great honor to know that you held faithful to the end.

In Jeremiah 17:5 we read, “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.” To me, this means if you have come to the knowledge and understanding of God’s truth on divine healing and you know God wants you to measure up to it, then for you to go and put your faith in a man and lean upon the arm of flesh, you will be cursed; cursed with man’s mistakes and his limitations, and cursed with weak faith. I have noticed saints that were once enlightened on healing and then went back. Their faith was made weak, and if they ever wanted to trust God fully for healing again, it was a hard fight to get the faith again. It not only weakens your faith, but it has a tendency to weaken the faith of others who are watching your case.

James never did compliment weak faith; he reproved it. In Matthew 8:26 Jesus said, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” The disciples were on a ship at sea. Jesus was asleep in the hinder part of the ship when a storm came up. They ran to Jesus and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us; we perish.” Jesus rebuked them by saying, “O ye of little faith.” Fear will make faith very weak. We see that from this text. We need to realize that fear is an evil spirit that needs to be rebuked just like we would rebuke the spirit of lust, murder, lying, or any other unclean spirit.

We read in Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.” Many people are being snared with fear. Fear is a terrible enemy to faith and divine healing. Isaiah 12:2 says, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid.” The implied thought is we cannot really trust and still be afraid. Someone may say, “Perhaps Isaiah was talking about salvation.” What does salvation mean? It means deliverance. When God heals your body, He delivers you from the pain, sickness, or the disease.

Second Timothy 1:7 tells us, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” If you have a spirit of fear that the devil has imposed upon you, you need to rebuke that thing and stand upon God’s Word. First John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” Oh, saint of God, if there ever was a time when we need perfect love, it is now. Imperfect love will not convince this skeptical world that Jesus is real. If you have fear, your faith is weak, and if your faith is weak, your love for God is weak.

Let me give you a true-to-life illustration of what 1 mean. Take your companion, for example. If you really love your companion and he or she really loves you, there is no fear to trust. When you crawl in bed with that husband or wife who loves you, are you afraid that he or she will cut your throat while you are asleep? It never enters your mind. Why? Because you know he or she loves you.

Husband, when you go to the breakfast table, are you afraid your wife is going to put poison in your food? No! That thought never enters your mind. When you fully love someone, you can really trust that one. Now, why should it be so difficult to trust God whom you say you dearly love? I still say that weak faith equals weak love. You can balance your faith by your love. In Galatians 5:6 the Apostle Paul told us that “faith worketh by love.”

Let us get back to the thought of let being a commanding word. Let us look at one more test. We read in Luke 5:4-8: “Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they in-closed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

Why did he say he was a sinful man? He had doubted the Lord, in other words, Peter was confessing, “Lord, I did what You told me, but I didn’t have a bit of faith in it.” You see, Peter was looking at the logical side of this thing. After all, Peter had fished for many years and was well experienced in fishing. Thus, if he had said, “We have toiled all night and have caught nothing,” what was the use of anyone saying, “Let down your nets for a draught?”

The thing that Peter forgot for a moment was that Jesus was the miracle worker, and if He said, “Let down your nets for a draught,” it would work. Too many times today people look at a situation and it looks hopeless as far as logical reasoning is concerned. We must remember that if it is a miracle, then we cannot figure it out, but we must simply accept it and praise God for it.

One thing I trust that you have learned in this lesson is that diving healing is a Bible doctrine. Like any other Bible doctrine, if you get the light on it and then rebel against it, you will become a disobedient child. The Bible says to walk in the light while you have the light lest darkness should come upon you. I have written this to encourage and inspire your faith. If you let this crush or discourage you, then the devil has done his work, it does seem strange, but it is so true—the same message that will inspire and lift up one, the devil will take it and twist it and crush some poor soul to death. The Word of God will either make you or break you, save you or damn you. It is up to you to apply or to misapply the Word. I do trust that you will apply the Word properly and become one of the faithful few who are willing to be tested and tried for the glory of God.