Let’s explore the topic of spiritual healing. Let’s view sin as it is, as a fatal disease. Sin is a fatal disease. Did you know that the Greek work that is translated as the word “saved” in the New Testament is sozo? Sozo is a word that is often translated as “healed.” When you read in the Gospels that Jesus saves someone and then you read that He healed someone you are often reading the exact same word! There was an intentional blurring of the lines between salvation and healing because they were often one in the same.
Remember the woman who had the 12-year-long bleeding disorder? The lady who was so desperate for healing that she pressed through the crowd to get to Jesus? The lady who thought if she just touched the hem of His garment she would be healed? She did get her physical healing, but she also received spiritual healing. Some translations of that story say, “Daughter, your faith has healed you,” and some say, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” Those aren’t contradictory translations because salvation is spiritual healing.
Maybe we need to quit looking at salvation as a decision to stop doing the wrong things and start viewing salvation as a reception of healing for our souls.
Salvation isn’t just about being forgiven, about being technically or legally free from your sin-debt, but it is about being made whole! Yes, we need to be forgiven of sin, but we need to be made new so that we stop desiring to do the very things we then have to be forgiven for. Salvation isn’t translated to us on a behavioral level, but on a soul level where the sickness lies. We must get to the point where we aren’t satisfied with simply being justified before God, where our sentence is dropped in a legal sense, but where we long to be changed through deep spiritual healing.
Don’t settle for eternity in Heaven when you can also have spiritual healing and wholeness while you live on earth. Sadly, I encounter a lot of spiritually sick believers, people who need healing on a soul level. Our souls are not only marred by sin, but they are bruised by rejection, crushed by anger, and bound by unforgiveness. They are lifeless because of abuse, and our souls are often alienated from God because of the walls we put up. You may be angry with God over something you have suffered, something you are having to endure now, or something that happened in your childhood or even decades ago, and so you tend to keep Him at a distance. Hear God’s voice today. He is inviting you to come close. He wants to dispense spiritual healing to you. He wants it to be well with your soul!
While God has reasons for sometimes withholding physical healing in this life, He will not withhold spiritual healing for anyone who wants to receive it.
When you read the Gospels, you can see the way people positioned themselves to receive spiritual healing. There are so many stories of how people came to Jesus, how they made a move toward Him, how they reached out and presented their need, how they exercised faith and asked for the help they believed He could give.
Look at Matthew 8:2-3- 8 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” 3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Multitudes followed Jesus. Crowds were there for the show. People were excited to see what Jesus would do next, but in the context of Jesus and the crowd, there was one who was bold enough, desperate enough, who believed enough in the healing power of Jesus that he came out of from the crowd to encounter Jesus one on one.
You don’t have to standout to stay part of the crowd. You don’t risk your need being known in the crowd. You can hang back and hang out in the crowd. This man wasn’t content to simply hear Jesus speak. He wanted to encounter Him personally and on a soul level. So, I would submit to you that step one in attaining spiritually healing is to come out of the crowd, and get yourself to Jesus.
Notice what he did when he got to Jesus. Matthew 8:2 says the leper worshiped Him. Other translations say he knelt before Him. Cultural norms would have said he didn’t even have any business being in the crowd. You thought Covid protocol was bad. Lepers had to keep six feet away from everyone at all times, and if the wind was blowing toward a person from a leper, that person had to be 150 feet away from the leper. The only thing worse that you could come into contact with than a leper would have been a dead body. Both were considered to defile someone.
It’s obvious that this man was desperate to experience a healing touch from Jesus. He broke societal and religious norms to come into contact with Jesus. What others thought or how they would react was put behind him. Can you imagine how alone he felt in his condition? He wasn’t just avoided. He was despised. He had every reason to hibernate and die as he was, but he came out of the crowd and deposited himself on his knees in front of Jesus and began to worship Him.
The Greek verb there for “worship” is proskenein. It is never used of anything but for worship. Everyone there knew the man was worshiping Jesus. He positioned himself to receive a special healing as he started his appeal with worship. He acknowledged Jesus as Lord when he said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” You can see him expressing great faith in Jesus’ ability to do the healing that was necessary. And notice how he phrased his need for healing. He said, “You can make me clean.” He asked for a cleansing. Leprosy was the outward manifestation of other illnesses, other effects on his life and soul that needed to be removed from him.
Imagine how bitter you would feel if no one could ever touch you. Don’t we all need a good hug from time to time? How would it hit you if no one would shake your hand or pat you on the back or fist bump with you? How rejected would you feel every day if you had to maintain a six-foot distance from everyone you came into contact with? Think about the emotional impact of the disease of leprosy, the toll it would take on a person on the inside. This man was asking for more than physical healing. He was asking for a cleansing from everything that had negatively impacted his life. Maybe his thoughts needed washed. Maybe he was so dejected he had considered suicide. Given his circumstance it is certainly plausible. This man didn’t just want physical healing, but he wanted a whole, full life.
Listen, because the man came out of the crowd, because the man humbled himself in worship and placed himself at the feet of Jesus, he was close enough in proximity for Jesus to touch him. He could have easily concluded that Jesus could have cleansed him from six feet away and kept his distance, but by coming right up to Jesus’ feet, the leper demonstrated an understanding that he needed to be touched by Jesus and he demonstrated faith that Jesus actually wanted to touch him.
How close are you willing to get to Jesus in order to receive your special healing? Jesus was willing to heal the man. You need to believe that Jesus is willing to give you the special healing, the special cleansing you need as well. Come out of the crowd. Worship Jesus Christ as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings and ask Him to remove everything that is keeping your soul from thriving. If a physical illness is impacting your soul, ask God to heal it all. If bitterness and un-forgiveness are robbing you of your best life, ask God to pluck them out at the root. If addiction is ruining your ability to produce and prosper and build a godly earthly life, get low before a high and holy God and tell Him your hope is in Him.
My question for you is simply this: Are you positioned for spiritual healing?
