Healing is a gift. It is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12. Healing is defined as God supernaturally restoring the physical body to perfect health. These days there is some confusion on how or even if God heals today and what part faith plays in it.
Faith can be defined as believing on what God said and acting upon it. If you miss read the scripture and trust in what you think God said you will suffer for it. Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

According to His will
1 John 5:14 And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. (NRSV)
Matthew 8:2 and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean." (NRSV) also Mark 1:40

By faith
Matthew 9:28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." (NRSV)
Matthew 13:58 And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief. (NRSV)
Matthew 14:31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" (NRSV)
Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly. (NRSV)
Luke 8:25 He said to them, "Where is your faith?" They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, "Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?" (NRSV)
Luke 18:42 Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has saved you." (NRSV)
Matthew 16:8 And becoming aware of it, Jesus said, "You of little faith, why are you talking about having no bread? True faith requires proper understanding.

Faith a force?
The following verses are used by some to try to say that faith is a force, a power like electricity which you must learn to use. This is the beginning of the prophecy of the elect being deceived. See Matthew 24:24. In reality these scriptures are showing that if you had faith (trust in the Messiah) then the Holy Spirit will heal you. In other words you don’t need a faith healer.
Mark 5:30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?" (NRSV)
Luke 8:45-48 Then Jesus asked, "Who touched me?" When all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you." ⁴⁶ But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me." ⁴⁷ When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. ⁴⁸ He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace." (NRSV)
Mark 6:3-6 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. ⁴ Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." ⁵ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. ⁶ And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. (NRSV)

Sin can cause sickness
John 5:14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you." (NRSV)

Sickness is not always because you sinned
John 9:1-3 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" ³ "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." (NIV)
Sometimes God chooses not to heal now or ever for the purpose of working out His glory.

Not going to Doctors is sinful
Lets look at a work that shows what the early church fathers thought about doctors.
Sirach 38:1-15 Honor physicians for their services, for the Lord created them; ² for their gift of healing comes from the Most High, and they are rewarded by the king. ³ The skill of physicians makes them distinguished, and in the presence of the great they are admired. ⁴ The Lord created medicines out of the earth, and the sensible will not despise them. ⁵ Was not water made sweet with a tree in order that its power might be known? ⁶ And he gave skill to human beings that he might be glorified in his marvelous works. ⁷ By them the physician heals and takes away pain; ⁸ the pharmacist makes a mixture from them. God’s works will never be finished; and from him health spreads over all the earth. ⁹ My child, when you are ill, do not delay, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you. ¹⁰ Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly, and cleanse your heart from all sin. ¹¹ Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of choice flour, and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford. ¹² Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; do not let him leave you, for you need him. ¹³ There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians, ¹⁴ for they too pray to the Lord that he grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life. ¹⁵ He who sins against his Maker, will be defiant toward the physician. (NRSV)

Presumption
James 5:14-16 ¹⁴ Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (NIV)
If the LORD chooses to heal, it will be done at that time. Remember the Apostle Paul couldn’t always heal, in 2 Timothy 4:22 He had to leave Trophimus sick in Miletus. In 2 Corinthians 12:7 Paul had his own thorn in the Flesh. Paul told Timothy to take wine for his stomach’s sake in 1 Timothy 5:23. If you Keep positively confessing your not sick, you will never call for the elders and be healed.
Matthew 4:7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ "
If you keep confessing you are healed when there is no sign that you are, you are taking the LORD’s name in vain, which is of course sin. You also will be chastised for lying. See Hebrews 12.

LORD’s Will
James 4:13-17 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that." ¹⁶ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. (NIV)
Matthew 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (NIV)
1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. (NIV)
James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. (NRSV)
Remember that man is not sovereign, God is. You have no right to demand anything from him. He is your father not your servant.

All quotations are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.

Copyright June 1995 by Dr. Kenneth Johnson. Rev. 2