God has a three-fold purpose for each one of us here on this earth: 1) He exposes our flesh, so He can consume it, 2) He makes us able to receive His healing in all areas of our lives, and 3) He makes us able to enjoy intimacy with Him on all levels. These areas are intertwined, and as He heals us, it will also affect how He exposes our flesh and brings us into relationship with Him. One can’t be done without the others. So if you want to have an intimate relationship with God, you’re gonna have to let the Lord deal with your flesh, and you’re gonna have to let Him heal you. Likewise, if you want to be healed, you’re going to have to develop an intimate relationship with God and have your flesh exposed. Finally, if you’re tired of walking after your flesh, you’re going to have to learn how to get healed, and how to walk and live and move in the spirit.
So part of God’s purpose for us is that we receive healing in all parts of our being. Remember, we are a three-parted being: “I am a spirit, I have a soul and I live in a body.” In our spirits we are already complete. Spiritually, we are whole, we are entire—we don’t need healing in our spirit. It is in our body and in our soul (our mind, will and emotions) that we are wounded, and, if not tended, where wounds can fester and need healing.
How Do We Know God Wants To Heal Us?
God wants us whole and complete in this lifetime. How do we know this? There are several reasons…
1. God Loves Us And Wants What Is Best For Us. Part of knowing God is experiencing His love for us. Words cannot describe what His love is like, nor can it be compared to anything that we can experience outside of Him. So it is only by going through the healing process that we truly know by experience how much He loves us in this area.
2. God’s Nature Is To Give Us His Life. Since God’s nature is to give, He requires simply to be received. But His life can’t be contained in wounded vessels: Unhealed wounds keep Him from having His way in our lives; they block His life from flowing to and through us. So His desire is that we be made whole in our entirety so that we may receive His life.
3. Being Wounded Keeps Us From Resting In Him. Though we already know Him spirit to Spirit, God also wants to be in union with us in our souls and bodies. It is only through being healed that we gain confidence and enter into His rest in our entire beings, and enjoy the companionship He created us for. Unhealed wounds keep us from relaxing in His presence.
4. Being Wounded Keeps Us From Enjoying The Freedom And Purpose He Has Set Aside For Our Time Here On Earth. Eternal life was given to us by the Resurrection of Jesus 2000 years ago. But we’ve not yet learned how to live like sons, so it’s like having a bank account containing all the riches in the world, but not knowing how to make a withdrawal. Healing is part of our inheritance as sons of God.
5. Finally, Knowing How To Get Healed Frees Us. Learning how to go to God to get healed enables us to be willing to be wounded, so we can take risks, freely love others and accept love unconditionally. As we experience the healing process for ourselves, we learn we can truly trust the Lord with our entire being, and thereby become fully available to do and be whatever He wants us to do or be.
Why Doesn’t God Just Go Ahead And Heal Us Completely Right Now?
Pain, which reveals our need for healing, drives us most quickly into a dependent relationship with God. Also, God doesn’t like to be taken for granted. He wants us to come to Him, personally and directly, not only for healing but also with all of our needs and concerns. He is jealous over the privilege of teaching us Himself—on how to get healed, how to be set free, how to depend on Him, and how to receive His life.
However, being healed should never become a distraction from depending on Him—it is not the ends, it’s the means. The end goal is dependence on God, and our healing is measured by our freedom and rest in dependence on God in that once-wounded area.
What Do We Mean By “Getting Healed”?
God’s idea of healing may be different than ours. Often, we just want to deal with the symptoms, we just want to feel better or get out of a stressful situation. But God wants to get at the root-causes. “Getting Healed” means being freed and restored from unhealed wounds, whether in the body or the soul, not just the unhealed wounds or afflictions in our physical bodies, though that’s certainly included. But very often the wounds, the burdens, the afflictions that we are carrying in our physical body are the result of wounds in our soul that have not yet been healed.
We are always in the process of being healed. God wants us to be active participants in that process, and He doesn’t want us to settle for anything less than complete healing. Knowing that it’s His idea for us to receive healing, we can actively rely on Him, assured that He will provide the training, He will provide the teaching, and He will provide the insight and the light to show us how to depend on Him for healing. All we need to do is show up for class.
We Need To Learn How To Get Healed
Getting healed is something we can all learn how to do, and is something we need to learn how to do. Healing is a personal learning process, one in which we’re going to make mistakes, since a lot of the process is trial and error. But being healed doesn’t depend on praying the right thing, being gifted or being prayed for by one who is, but by depending on the Healer Himself, Jesus. This doesn’t discount the idea of someone having a gift of healing; we just need to understand that God’s healing is for all of us, as we depend on Him. If you have Jesus living and abiding in you, which you do if you are a believer, He is just as much in you as He is in anyone that has a “gift” of healing. Jesus is the healer, He is our provider, He meets all our needs, and He is not less that for you than He is for someone else, regardless of what you may have done or are doing. God is much more practical than we give Him credit for, and He wants us to seek and learn and not settle for anything less than a complete healing in our entire being.
Healing Is A Continual Process
By recognizing God’s purpose for us here on this earth—to expose the flesh, be healed of our wounds, and enjoy intimacy with Him—we can proceed forward into the rest of our lives appreciating every circumstance as an opportunity geared toward these ends. Every circumstance of our lives is to expose our flesh, bring us healing, and bring us into greater dependence and fellowship with God. Healing is not controlled by our circumstances, though it is often our circumstances, usually the negative ones, that reveal our need for healing. But we don’t want to judge how much or how quickly we are being healed by how much our circumstances change. In fact, we can be freed from a wound and be changed without our circumstances being affected at all. We will be different, so we will react differently to the circumstance, even when that circumstance is a physical affliction.
God wants you whole—He wants you to seek and not settle for anything less than a complete healing! And you can have confidence in God’s commitment to your healing: He is so committed and passionate toward you that He spends every second of every minute of every day working on your behalf.
Start Here
Our faith in God’s healing needs to be based on first-hand experience. Everything He is and everything He does is available for every single one of us. We want to learn how to practically appropriate that. Again, He is objective, He is practical, He knows where we’re coming from, He knows what we need. Our main problem is that we don’t ask, we don’t get involved. We may believe we need to be dependent first on our leaders, that they know what they’re doing, they’re the experts or are closer to God or have more authority. But no one has more authority over you than God Himself does, and He is with you and in you always. This freedom, this healing, this health and wholeness is available to every believer. You don’t have to wait for somebody else to pray for you, and you don’t need to wait for somebody else to show or reveal to you what your unhealed wound is. Sometimes God even heals us without revealing what the specific wound is.
So we start where we are. We ask. We take our wounds, whatever our perception of them happens to be at this moment, and we present them to our loving Father, entering into His healing school. God knows what you need—you don’t. At this point don’t worry about saying or doing the “right” thing. Here’s an example of what you might want to say:
Jesus, I want everything You have for me. I realize and thank You that You want to heal me, and that You want me to be an active participant in that healing, since part of Your purpose is also to draw me closer to You. Please bring to the surface any area that You are presently working on. I want to learn what You want me to learn, and am willing to follow where You lead, as You prove Your faithfulness, trustworthiness, and love for me. Thanks, Lord, I’m excited about what You have waiting for me!
Change the wording to whatever you want, but be sure to give God an opportunity to respond.
Throughout this book we will go through detailed guidelines to get you started in learning how to get healed. Remember, though, that your healing is dependent on God alone, and you don’t have to wait to get started! So enjoy the adventure He has planned for you!
Adapted from Getting Healed by Dianne Thomas