SNT 0289 Healing
Healing
God confirms His Word by signs following: we have the manifestation of healing to glorify God and bless us.
[August 11, 1968]
SNT – 289
Format: audio, pdf
Publication Date: 08-11-1968
Pages: 9
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
Mal 3:6; Mar 2:10. 11; 16:20; Act 8:5-7
Act 8:7, 8; Mar 2:11, 12; Mat 15:31; Exo 15:26; 23:24-26; Deu 7:13-15; Exo 12:7, 8; 1Pe 2:24; 1Co 11:23-25
Psa 105:37; 2Ch 16:11-13
(Suggested reading - Deu 28); Gal 3:13; (Psa 103:3; Luk 4:18ff)
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“Healing”
Victor Paul Wierwille
– Sunday Night Teaching 0289 Transcript –
In this the closing night of the Advanced Class, of course, we have been dealing with the six manifestations of the spirit, namely: word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, faith, miracles, and healing. And tonight, I want to talk to our group and minister among our people here from the accuracy of God’s Word dealing with the subject of the ministry of healing.
There’s a little booklet in the back of the auditorium that most of our grads, of course, in the Foundational Class have all read, and I’m sure you’ve all read it in the Advanced Class. It’s entitled, The Cross in the Broken Body, or Healing in the Holy Communion. This has in it many of the great truths that I’d like to set before our people again tonight, but I would like to go specifically to the syllabus of the Advanced Class in a few moments. But before I do, I’d like to read you the first three paragraphs in this booklet entitled, The Cross in the Broken Body, Another Study in Abundant Living.
Multitudes of Christians are suffering from lack of strength and physical unwholeness. This is, in most instances, due to either wrong teaching or no teaching on the subject that I have chosen for this study. There has been little teaching regarding the broken body of Jesus Christ in comparison to his shed blood. We always talk about, you know, the blood of Jesus Christ, what it accomplished for people. But how little teaching there has been regarding his broken body and its biblical significance as well as its practical significance; to the end that most Christians are thoroughly familiar with the meaning of the shed blood, but not with the broken body.
The value of this study in abundant living depends entirely upon what position you hold regarding the Word of God. If you believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that it is God’s answer to the needs of men, then you will be able to manifest the results in your life. According to Malachi 3:6, God says,
Malachi 3:6:
For I am the LORD, I change not; . . .
He is the same all the time. The Lord does not change His nature. What He is once, He is always. What He does once, He does always. The God whom I know, whom I teach and preach and for whom I labor, is the same God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God has not become one bit weaker in all of these years.
The fruitfulness of this study, to a marked degree, depends upon whether you are seeking deliverance from sickness or a reasonable excuse for sickness. If you are not speaking complete deliverance for your life but an excuse for bondage, this study will not profit you very much. For there are people who believe that it is God’s will for them to be sick. There are people who believe that God is not only the author of, but that He sends sickness, suffering, and all manner of evil directly to mankind. There are people who believe that God makes a person a better Christian by sending sickness and disease. God does not send sickness, disease, and sin into anyone’s life in order to make him a more worthy or holy Christian. Nor does God send sickness or disease to prove people. For our God is a good God, and in our God (the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ), there is no darkness, neither shadow of turning with Him.
And the ministry of healing is perhaps the greatest ministry in the church today, and it has the least amount of teaching and understanding. People do not know the difference between ministry of healing, praying for the sick, laying on of hands, or anything else regarding the field, basically. Most of them just talk.
In the ministry of healing, first of all I want to define what it is. As I have already defined it, and we’ve talked about it for a long time from the Word of God in the Advanced Class. But the ministry of healing is to take the place of Christ here upon earth. When Jesus said, “the works that I do ye shall do also,[1]” he meant what he said, and he said what he meant.
Part of the work that Jesus Christ did while was here upon earth was to carry out a ministry of healing. To pray for the sick is one thing, to minister healing is something else. To minister healing is to take the place of Christ and to do the work that he did. It is a ministry whereby you manifest forth the greatness of the power of Christ in your life by the operation of the manifestation specifically of word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits.
Therefore, the definition of the ministry of healing, as I understand the Word – and I’ll show you the Word as we go along tonight – is that it is your operation of the God-given ability whereby you may impart healing to others, according to the revelation you have received, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, God uses this manifestation of healing to prove His ability to forgive sin. How do you know that God has the ability to forgive sin? You can’t go by feeling because feelings can fool you. They may come and they may go. But the Word of God has this answer.
Turn to Mark, the Gospel of Mark tonight – Mark, Chapter 2. And we’re going to be moving through a number of scriptures so keep your Bible rather handy. Mark, Chapter 2, verse 10 . . . but if you go back up . . . and of course, the reason I’m skipping some of the verses ahead of this, because I just cannot take the time to read them all tonight. But it’s the record of the one who was brought to Jesus who had palsy. He was carried of four, and all five of them had to believe. And when we get to verse ten in this second chapter, he says:
Mark 2:10-11:
10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
11 I say unto thee, Arise, . . . take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
The proof that he was able to forgive sins was the healing of the man. The healing they could see. The man had had palsy, and God set him free because Jesus Christ ministered healing to him. And after they had seen the healing, he said to the man, “Now you know God has power to forgive sin.”
You can’t see forgiveness, but you can see healing, physical healing. And the physical healing is the proof in the senses realm that He does and can and will forgive sin.
In Mark, Chapter 16:
Mark 16:20:
And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, . . . confirming the word with signs [what?] following. . . .
They went everywhere preaching the Word. They didn’t preach their opinion, they didn’t preach what they thought ought to be said, they preached what God wanted said.
Mark 16:20:
And they went forth, and preached every where, [and as they preached the Word,] the Lord . . . [worked] with them, and . . . [confirmed] the word . . . [He confirmed the Word by the] signs [the miracles and the wonders that were wrought] . . .
The preaching and the teaching of the Word is primary. It is significant. It is singularly important because no man can believe until after he’s heard the Word of God; then he can believe. And God confirms the Word by the signs, the miracles, and the wonders.
This ministry also builds believing for people to get saved. In Acts, Chapter 8 . . . If God never does anything, why does anybody want to get saved? Maybe that’s why so few are staying unsaved.
In Acts, Chapter 8, it says that, verse 5:
Acts 8:5-6a:
5. . . Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and [he] preached [what?] Christ unto them.
6 And the people with one accord . . .
The words “one accord” mean unity of purpose. They’re used four of five times in the opening chapters of Acts.
Acts 8:6b
. . . the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which [what?] he did.
Who did them? Philip did them. That’s what the Word says, that’s what it means. Philip did them. They believed what he preached, not because of the words that he used in his preaching, not because of his vocabulary, or his personality; they believed what he preached because of the miracles he did.
The miracles under the ministry of healing are the proof in the senses world that the Word of God that the man spoke was really the Word of God, because God confirmed His Word with the signs, the miracles, and the wonders following.
That’s why verse 7 says:
Acts 8:7:
For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed . . . and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.
Whenever a person is possessed, it’s always a devil spirit. Christ never possesses anyone. We are not channels. We are not mediums. We are not sensitives. We are sons and daughters of God, born again of God’s spirit by our free will. We accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, and he never possesses us.
All possession, all possession in the Word of God, or at any time in our society, is always from the other source; no matter how sincere they look, because sincerity is no guarantee for truth. Truth is truth.
Acts 8:7b:
. . . possessed. . . many taken with palsies, . . . that were lame were healed.
And verse 8 says:
Acts 8:8:
. . . there was great joy [great joy] in that [what?] {city.}
Because people were being delivered under the ministry of healing. For he went forth – Philip did – proclaiming the Word of Christ. And God confirmed that Word by the signs, the miracles, and the wonders.
This ministry of healing not only blesses God’s people, but it glorifies God’s name.
In Mark, Chapter 2 . . . Mark Chapter 2, in verse 12, “And immediately . . .” he told the man to rise up, take his bed and go for a walk.
Verse 12.
Mark 2:12:
And immediately he arose, took up . . . [his what?] bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, [they glorified God] saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
Under the ministry of healing, it blesses God’s people and it glorifies the name of God.
In Matthew, Chapter 15, and in verse 31, we have this record:
Matthew 15:31:
Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of [what?] Israel.
You see, the manifestation of this ministry of healing proves God’s ability to forgive sin, it proves his resurrection, it proves that God confirms His Word as it’s spoken. It builds believing for salvation that people want to get saved, and it blesses God’s people and glorifies God’s name.
It is no glory to God’s name when people are possessed . . . not the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. It only glorifies the god of this world, who is Satan. And most people don’t even know there are two gods. Been in churches for 40 years and still don’t know it. Pitiful! But we go right along with it, you know, because nobody wants to come back to the accuracy of God’s Word and believe God’s Word.
My Bible says that there is a god of this world, and he owns all the kingdoms of this world. And his name is Satan. Then it says there is a God who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ can only be blessed, can only be worshipped, can only be magnified as His power lives within people who believe. Not that they're possessed, but they believe to operate what God made available.
The manifestation of healing, the first basic question in the teaching ministry you’ll have to ask yourself, and people need to be taught is: is it for all? This is what they will be asking. So you’ll hear people say, well, I believe God could heal so and so, I think maybe God once in a while does so and so. That’s not an issue. The issue is, is healing for all individuals? If it’s for one, it has to be for all. And if it’s for all, it has to be for that one.
In Exodus Chapter 15, listen to verse 26:
Exodus 15:26:
. . . [The Lord] said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all [of] his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that [what?] healeth thee.
In Chapter 23 of Exodus. I’m taking you way back to the history of the background of the early part of the Word of God as it was written. Exodus 23, verse 24:
Exodus 23:24-26:
24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
25 And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy [what?] {water;} and I will take sickness away from the [what?] midst of thee.
26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will [what?] {fulfil}.
What a tremendous promise of the God who never changes, way back there in the Old Testament time.
In Deuteronomy, Chapter 7, and in verse 13 of this chapter, listen to this:
Deuteronomy 7:13-15:
13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy [cattle] kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
Deliverance promised by God way back at the beginning for people who kept His statutes, who believed His Word, who walked on it.
In Exodus, Chapter 12, in verse 7, listen to this record . . . talking about the Passover in Egypt:
Exodus 12:7-8:
7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
8 And they shall eat the flesh [of the lamb] in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Before they left Egypt, God had told them what to do. They took this lamb, they sprinkled the blood thereof on the lintel of the door posts and so forth, but they ate the flesh. Now, why were they instructed to eat the flesh of the lamb? Because, if you’ll read back here in Exodus, you’ll see it was for the healing of their bodies.
When we take holy communion in our churches, always two elements involved – the bread and the cup, right? Well, what . . . why do you take two? Well, they didn’t teach me this in the seminary, and I graduated from four theological seminaries not knowing it. I was still under the opinion you came and took both of them for the forgiveness of sins. Then I got to thinking, well, why do I have to do things twice? It’d be good enough to do it the first time, why do I have to do it the second time?
And then I got to working the Word, man. And you know what I found way back here in Exodus? That the blood was sprinkled for the covering, and the lamb was eaten for the healing of the body. Then, when I traced that through – and it’s all written in this research book on The Cross in the Broken Body – I traced it all the way through the Old Testament, the Gospel period. You found out that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God, and when Jesus Christ died for us, he shed his blood for the forgiveness of sin; but his broken body, his body was broken for the healing of our body. That’s what he accomplished. He was the Lamb of God, slain from the foundations of the world. When he laid down his life, it says in 1 Peter 2:24, I believe:
1 Peter 2:24:
… by his stripes… [we] were [what?] healed.
In his shed blood, we have the forgiveness of sins – two things. But before he died, he instituted something, which is called the Lord’s Supper by people. Some people call it the Last Supper; it wasn’t the last supper, really. But it was the memorial that he instituted.
Paul picked it up later on in Corinthians, and gave us a record of it. For he said:
1 Corinthians 11:23-25:
23. . .the Lord Jesus [Christ] the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and [he] said, Take, eat: this is my [what?] body, . . .
25 . . . [Then] he took the cup,. . . [and he said], This cup is the new testament in my blood: [unto the remission of sins]. . .
Two things: the broken body and the shed blood. In that bread, we have the representation of the healing of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ – what he accomplished for us when he died for us. But about all any of us ever hear taught is forgiveness of sin, remission of sin – that his shed blood covered it. Both of them are in the atonement. Both of them are in that which God, in Christ Jesus, accomplished for us, and it started way back at the Passover.
And that year when Jesus Christ died, he died at the exact hour when the Passover lamb was slain. He was our Passover. He died for us. He had his body broken for the healing of our bodies. He shed his blood for our remission of sins and for our forgiveness of sins.
When the children of Israel, about three million, left Egypt they travelled in the wilderness for twenty years before anybody got sick. The Bible says in the Book of Psalms . . . it’s Psalms 105:37:
Psalm 105:37:
. . . there was not one feeble. . . [knee] . . .
Among all those three million. And they were babes in arms . . . little toddlers, at eight months or nine months, just starting to walk. They were young people, adolescents, youth, adults. And they marched in the wilderness under the most adverse conditions, without any modern medical science for twenty years; and not one feeble knee among . . . about three million.
And if you can find a church with ten members and not nine feeble knees, I want to see them. That’s right. The Church is sicker than a dog today. Everybody inside of the Church is basically sick. Why? Because nobody has dared to stand up and declare God’s Word, and to tell God’s people again, it is God’s will for God’s people to be made whole.
Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll teach this if we die tonight. That’s right. Because if we died tonight, it would still be God’s will to have delivered us. We just didn’t have the believing to appropriate it, that’s all. But this thing has become so displaced in the Church because we have lauded – you know, the drugs and the biochemists have pushed this; the doctors have pushed that – and so we have relegated the healing of the body to the medical profession. You can’t read that in the Word of God to me.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with the medical profession; I didn’t say so. Except, if you put the medical profession ahead of the Word of God, there’s something wrong with it.
There’s a fella by the name of Asa in here someplace, in the Old Testament. Is that in
2 Chronicles? Eddie, do you know? I think it is. Let’s just look in 2 Chronicles. I think it’s in about the . . . hmm, fifteenth, sixteenth chapter someplace . . . fifteen, sixteen . . . 2 Chronicles, Chapter 16. What verse is it there? Oh yes, here is it, verse 11:
2 Chronicles 16:11-12:
11 And, behold, the acts of Asa, [he was king] first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
12 And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not . . . the LORD, but [went] to the physicians.
And he died.
You see, what we believe the Word of God teaches is that our whole life, first and foremost, belongs to God. And so, we always go to our heavenly Father with every need we have, or with every opportunity as it presents itself, according to our believing ability. We always go to Him, first and foremost. That’s right!
If I broke my arm right now, the first thing I’d do is go to my Father to see if I was gelling big enough for Him to do the job. And if I’m gelling big enough, I’m sure He’s big enough to do it. But if I'm gelling so little that He isn’t big enough to do it for me because I’m not gelling enough, you know what I’m going to do? I’ll go to the best doctor real quick to get it set. But I never would go there first; I’d always go to my heavenly Father.
But under the ministry of Christian healing that I've seen, we get them when everybody else is finished with them. When Mayo say, “We can’t help you,” then they come to The Way headquarters. That’s when they get on the long-distance phone call. That’s when they write the letters. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s just got the cart in front of the horse and everything turned around backwards and kittywampus.
If Jesus Christ is first in your life spiritually, why not endeavor to make him first physically? When you have a need, why not go to him? The reason we’re seeing such little Christian healing today is because our believing is so low, because we’ve had everything talked out of us through the years. Nobody has stood up and said, “Thus saith the Lord.” We’ve had a few healing campaigns, but most of those – compared to the thousands of people that are there – are usually relatively few set free in healing, compared to the thousands that come.
And again, it’s due to our times where the Word has not been elev– . . . people do not have any believing faith in God’s Word that God will heal them. They hope He will. And if you come on hope, you go away sick because you get nothing by hope, honey. That’s right. No, sir.
Hope in the Bible is used regarding something you cannot have now. Believing is used regarding that which is immediately available. So, I have a hope for heaven, the Bible says, because can’t have it right now. But I have believing for salvation right now, because it’s immediately available.
Now, we will not take the time tonight to look at Deuteronomy, but sometime please take the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy and read. And you will see that, when the law was given, that the greatest curse of the law is sickness. The curse of the law is sickness. When they broke the law, they got sick.
And in Galatians is the answer to this truth . . . Galatians, Chapter 3, in verse 13 . . . listen to this:
Galatians 3:13:
Christ hath [past tense] redeemed us [past tense] from the curse of [what?] the law, being made a curse for us: . . .
He has redeemed us from the curse of the law. The vast majority of the curse of the law in Deuteronomy, Chapter 28 is sickness. If Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, then he must have redeemed us from sickness and disease; and he did just that. He redeemed us from the curse of the law, it’s what he redeemed us from. So, if Christ redeemed us, are we redeemed? Even if I never manifest it, I’m still what? redeemed. I just didn’t have enough sense, or I wasn’t able to gel believing big enough in my life to appropriate it.
It’s like, did he . . . can anybody get saved tonight if he wants to? But if they don’t get saved, it isn’t that God couldn’t do it in Christ; you simply were not believing for it, right? Same thing in the manifestation or the ministry of healing.
You see, the only question you logically have to ask yourself is, is salvation for all? If you say salvation is for all, then healing has to be for all. For the same Christ who died to save you from your sins, died to save you from the consequences of them. And this is why the Christian believers ought to be the most positive – the greatest group manifesting the abundance of the life of God – of all of God’s people. Remember it says:
Psalms 103:3:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth [what?] all thy diseases;
Our God is more anxious to meet our needs than we are even to pray for it. He is more anxious to give us the answers than we are even to ask the questions.
When Jesus Christ opened his ministry here upon earth (record is written in Luke 4), he said that he came to set the captives free;[2] to break the bands which had enslaved people;[3] and to break the kingdom of Satan. All of these are involved in the ministry of Jesus Christ. And his total ministry here upon earth was that we might be able to receive the abundance of that which he made available.
You see, when you go to God’s Word then, it becomes very plain and very simple that the manifestation of healing is for all, and that we, God’s people, ought to start standing upon the integrity and the accuracy of God’s Word; and let the abundance of this Word of God just live within us. And one help the other, and build each other up, so that we can tap into the abundance of the greatness of the revelation that God has given to us through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Shall we pray.
Our heavenly Father, I thank you for thy divine presence and power and glory. I thank you for your goodness unto us, Father. And I thank you for touching the hem of your garment at various times, that you’ve really set us free; and for your wonderful presence and power unto each and every one of us this night, through Christ Jesus our living Lord. Amen.
[1] John 14:12: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
[2] Luke 4:18: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, cand recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
[3] Isaiah 58:6: Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, And to let the oppressed go free, And that ye break every yoke?