Is It God's Will to Heal?
Updated: Oct 16
There has been a lot of teaching about sickness and healing over the years. Maybe you’ve heard that God puts sickness on people to teach them something. Maybe you’ve wondered whether sickness is sometimes God’s way of making someone more spiritual.
Rather than beginning with somebody’s opinion—including mine—I want us to go to Scripture.
What does God’s Word actually reveal about healing?
Quick Answer
Throughout Scripture, we see God associated with life, restoration, and healing.
Sickness and death were not present in God’s original creation, and during His earthly ministry Jesus repeatedly healed people who came to Him.
I believe the Bible reveals God as our healer and that healing is still for us today.
Prefer to Watch?
Watch Pastor Jack Pidgeon’s teaching “Is It God’s Will to Heal?” as he walks through Scripture to examine God’s original intent for humanity, the healing ministry of Jesus, and why he believes healing is still God’s will today.
Start With God’s Original Intent
If we want to understand God’s will, Genesis is a good place to start.
When you read Genesis 1, something keeps appearing throughout the creation account:
God saw that it was good.
God creates light—it is good.
He creates the seas—it is good.
He creates vegetation—it is good.
He creates the sun and moon—it is good.
He creates the animals—it is good.
Then God prepares a garden, and puts mankind into His completed work.
And what was in that garden?
Everything they needed.
Food. Water. Beauty. Abundance. The presence of God.
There was more than one banana in that garden!
God would even come and walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.
See? They had air conditioning!
But think about what wasn't in the garden.
There was no sickness.
There was no disease.
There was no poverty.
There was no death.
So here's the question I want you to consider:
If sickness was something God intended to use to teach His children, why wasn't it present in His original creation?
Everything God had created was good.
KEY TRUTH
To understand God’s will for humanity, look first at what He created before sin entered the world.
Sickness Was Not Part of the Original Creation
We spend a lot of time talking about the world after the Fall.
But what was the world like before the Fall?
It was beautiful.
It was abundant.
Adam and Eve were created in God's image and placed in an environment God Himself called good.
Then sin entered the world.
And everything changed.
Sin, toil, sickness, destruction, and death appear in a world that has been damaged by the Fall.
That's important because sometimes we look at something happening in our fallen world and automatically attribute it to God.
But something existing in this world doesn't necessarily mean it reflects God's original intent.
God created us for fellowship with Him.
He created us to walk with Him.
And I do not believe He created us for sickness.
What Changed After the Fall?
God gave Adam and Eve a command, and Satan attacked them at the point of that command.
They disobeyed God.
Sin entered.
Separation entered.
The curse entered.
And humanity began experiencing a world very different from the one described at the beginning of Genesis.
This distinction matters when we're talking about healing because we cannot look at everything that happens in a fallen world and simply say:
"Well, God must have wanted that to happen."
God's original creation gives us a picture of something different.
The curse is a curse.
Death is an enemy.
God teaches and corrects us through His Word.
I don't believe He needs to put sickness on His children to teach them how to live.
Does God Use Sickness to Teach Us Something?
This is one of the questions Christians often wrestle with.
I've heard people say that God put a sickness on someone because He was trying to teach them something.
But think about that from the perspective of a father.
Would a loving father intentionally put cancer on his child because he wanted to teach that child a lesson?
That's not how I understand the character of our heavenly Father.
God has given us His Word.
His Word teaches us.
His Word corrects us.
His Word builds our faith.
We don't need to turn sickness into one of God's teaching tools.
There is a difference between God teaching His children and the consequences of living in a fallen world.
Look at Jesus if You Want to See the Father
Then Jesus comes.
And when we look at Jesus' ministry, what do we see Him doing?
Healing people.
Jesus didn't go around putting sickness on people.
He went around setting people free.
He healed the sick.
He restored people.
He delivered people.
And He showed people the goodness and love of God.
That's one of the reasons I believe healing reveals God's heart toward people.
Jesus showed the love of God by healing people.
And here's something else worth noticing:
The people Jesus healed during His earthly ministry weren't born-again Christians.
Jesus ministered healing to people before the cross and resurrection.
God's goodness wasn't limited to people who had already gotten everything right.
That's good news.
Is Healing Still for Today?
I believe it is.
Healing is for today.
And healing is for you.
Now you may ask:
"Pastor, if healing is for today, why don't we see more of it?"
That's an important question.
But I don't want to change what I believe the Word says simply because my experience hasn't always matched it.
There are promises in Scripture that have to be received by faith.
That's true in many areas of our Christian lives.
If there's an area where I'm struggling to believe God, I don't want to lower Scripture to the level of my experience.
I want to build my faith in what God said.
That's why we need the Word.
Faith isn't built by pretending questions don't exist. Faith grows as we see what God has said and learn to trust Him.
If you want to understand more about that kind of life, read what it means to walk by faith.
What Does Luke 13 Teach Us About Healing?
One of the clearest passages for me is Luke 13.
Jesus encounters a woman who had suffered from a disabling condition for eighteen years.
Scripture says she was bent over and couldn't straighten herself.
When Jesus saw her, He called her over and told her:
“Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." -Luke 13:12b NKJV
Then He laid His hands on her.
She immediately stood straight.
And she glorified God.
Think about that.
Jesus didn't tell her:
"You've only been this way eighteen years. I need you to stay there a little longer because there's still something God is trying to teach you."
No.
He set her free.
And notice when she glorified God.
The passage doesn't say she glorified God because she had been bent over for eighteen years.
She glorified God when she was made straight.
That's significant.
Who Did Jesus Say Had Bound Her?
The religious leader became angry because Jesus had healed this woman on the Sabbath.
Jesus responded:
“So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”— Luke 13:16 NKJV
Look at the language Jesus used.
“Whom Satan has bound.”
Jesus identifies the bondage and then sets the woman free from it.
That's one of the Scriptures that shapes how I understand the source of sickness and the ministry of healing.
Jesus wasn't cooperating with the woman's bondage.
He was destroying it.
KEY TRUTH:
In Luke 13, Jesus did not tell the woman to accept her condition. He loosed her from it.
Sickness Doesn't Make You More Effective for God
I experienced this in a very practical way while we were ministering in Thailand.
I got sick.
And I mean, I got really sick.
I had a sinus infection and was taking what felt like 75 medications.
Let me tell you something:
It did not help me minister to those children.
It didn't enhance my ministry.
It didn't make me more effective.
When sickness hits your body, what naturally happens?
Your attention starts turning inward.
How do I feel?
Where does it hurt?
Why don't I feel better?
That's what sickness did to me.
I had gone to Thailand to minister to other people, but being sick made it harder to do what I had gone there to do.
That's one reason I reject the idea that being sick somehow makes someone more godly or more useful to God.
What About Job?
Whenever you teach about healing, eventually somebody asks:
"What about Job?"
That's a fair question.
So let's actually read what happened.
Job 2:7 says:
“So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.”
Who struck Job?
Satan did.
The book of Job certainly raises larger questions about suffering, fear, God's sovereignty, and why things happen. But I don't want us to overlook what the text itself says about who struck Job with the boils.
When we're building our beliefs, we have to pay attention to what Scripture actually says.
What About Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh?
This is another passage people frequently bring up when discussing healing.
Paul describes a “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12.
But the passage itself calls that thorn:
“a messenger of Satan”
I don't believe the text requires us to identify Paul's thorn as a physical disease.
My understanding is that Paul was describing satanic opposition sent to buffet him and hinder the ministry God had called him to accomplish.
So before we use Paul's thorn to build a theology that says God wants His children sick, we need to pay attention to what the passage actually calls it.
Don't Allow Fear to Determine What You Believe
Sickness can produce tremendous fear.
You hear a diagnosis.
You notice a symptom.
Someone tells you what happened to somebody else.
And suddenly your mind begins racing.
Fear starts imagining what might happen next.
That's when you have to come back to the Word.
Fear doesn't get the final say over what I believe.
Circumstances don't get the final say.
My experiences don't get the final say.
God's Word gets the final say.
That doesn't mean we pretend symptoms aren't real.
It means we refuse to allow fear to become the foundation of our faith.
If you're struggling to trust God because what you're seeing doesn't match what you believe, learning how to trust God when you don't understand can help you remain anchored in His Word.
What If Someone Prays and Isn't Healed?
This is where the subject becomes deeply personal.
Many of us know somebody who prayed and didn't see the outcome they wanted.
Maybe you've experienced that yourself.
I don't want to be insensitive to that.
But I also don't want an experience I don't understand to cause me to rewrite what I see in Scripture.
There are things we're still learning.
There are areas where we need to grow in faith.
There are questions we may not be able to answer.
But when I have a question I cannot answer, I don't want to build my theology around the unanswered question.
I want to keep going back to the Word.
What did God say?
What did Jesus do?
What does Scripture reveal about His character?
Those are the questions I want shaping what I believe.
How Can I Build My Faith for Healing?
If healing has been difficult for you to believe, don't condemn yourself.
Build your faith.
1. Start With the Word
Don't begin with somebody else's experience.
Don't even begin with your own.
Begin with Scripture.
Read what God says about His character, His goodness, healing, and the ministry of Jesus.
2. Look at Jesus
Pay attention to how Jesus responded when sick people came to Him.
Watch what He did.
Watch how He treated people.
Let His ministry shape your understanding of God's heart.
3. Refuse to Build Your Beliefs Around Fear
Fear will always try to get you focused on the worst possible outcome.
Bring your thinking back to God's Word.
That's part of renewing your mind with God's Word.
4. Be Honest About Areas of Unbelief
I've had areas where believing God was easy.
I've had other areas where I've had to build my faith.
There's no reason to pretend otherwise.
Recognizing an area where you're struggling gives you an opportunity to spend more time in the Word and strengthen what you believe.
5. Pray and Believe
When I pray for somebody who needs healing, I want my expectation to come from the Word.
I'm not praying because I have everything figured out.
I'm praying because I believe God is good.
I believe Jesus heals.
And I believe healing is still for today.
So, Is It God’s Will to Heal?
When I look at Scripture, I see a consistent picture.
I see a creation where sickness and disease weren't part of God's original design.
I see sin and death entering after the Fall.
I see Jesus healing people and setting them free.
I see a woman bound for eighteen years whom Jesus loosed from her infirmity.
I see Scripture explicitly identify Satan as the one who struck Job.
And I see Jesus reveal the goodness and compassion of God through healing.
That's why I believe:
God is our healer.
Healing is for today.
And healing is for you.
There may still be questions we have to work through.
There may be things we don't understand yet.
But don't let what you don't understand keep you from believing what you can clearly see in God's Word.
Keep building your faith.
Keep trusting Him.
And keep your eyes on Jesus.
Ready to Grow Stronger in Faith?
At West Houston Christian Center, we’re passionate about helping people know God’s Word, grow in their relationship with Him, and become the disciples He has called them to be.
We are a Go Ye church—making disciples, living by faith, and walking in love.
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