Victory Through the Word - Healing

Hi Y'all! It's your girl Susanna. I've been away travelling and not had much chance to blog - apologies! I want to do things a little differently this year, starting with a new series of selected Bible verses grouped into relevant topics, with annotation from yours truly, called Victory through the Word. These verses are intended to refresh and sustain you in times of need, and to feed your spirit man. :) Meditate on them until they become part of your thinking and your first response in trial or tribulation. This is not an exhaustive list - feel free to add your own verses!

3 John 1: 2 - Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers.
[Is it God’s will for us to be healed? Should we pray for healing? Absolutely!]

Hosea 6: 1-2 - Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
[The Hebrew words for “help” and “health” are actually the same: http://www.icr.org/books/defenders/3069). In the Old Testament, healing is often synonymous with deliverance e.g. Jeremiah 30: 13-18; Isaiah 19: 22. As well as an expectation of imminent salvation, is this verse a prophetic reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ cf. Luke 13: 32?]

Exodus 15: 26 - And said, If thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the ‘LORD that heals’ thee [aka 'Jehovah Rapha']. 

Isaiah 53: 5 - But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed [cf. 1 Peter 2: 24].

Isaiah 58: 8 - Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward [aka rearguard].
[The context of this passage is sincere fasting – is there a relationship between fasting and healing?]

Deuteronomy 32: 39 - See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
[This reminds me of Job's response to adversity: The Lord gives and takes away (Job 1: 21). Shall we accept the good from God and not accept the bad (Job 2: 10)? But as we see from Job's example, this does not mean we can't or should not pray for help and relief in the midst of suffering or pain.]

Jeremiah 15: 18 - Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail? [Where is God when it hurts? How are we to respond when we suffer and are not healed?] 

Jeremiah 17: 14 - Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. [Nevertheless, he resolves to trust God.] 

2 Chronicles 7: 14 - If my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. [Note the relationship between repentance and healing.]

James 5: 16 - Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. [Note the relationship between confession and healing.]

Psalms 103: 2-3 - Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals all thy diseases.

Psalms 6: 2 - Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed [prayer for physical healing].

Psalms 41: 4 - I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee [prayer for spiritual healing].

Psalms 147: 3 - He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds [prayer for emotional healing].

Psalms 60: 2 - Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shakes [prayer for healing of the environment].

Psalms 107: 20 - He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. [How does God's word heal us?]

Proverbs 4: 20-22 - My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

Matthew 4: 23-24 - And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people...and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick [sic], and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
[Can sickness be caused by demons/evil spirits? The Bible seems to support this view e.g. Matthew 12: 22; Luke 8: 35.]

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, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised [cf. Isaiah 61: 1].

1 Corinthians 12: 9 - To another [is given] faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit.

Acts 14: 9 -10 - The same heard Paul speak: who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet. And he leaped and walked.
[Is faith a prerequisite for healing? Given the context, a cripple from birth in the ancient city of Lystra (around AD 48; Wikipedia), he probably did not expect to be healed (but is expectation the same as faith)? We know from the passage in Acts 14 that Lystra was a pagan city, so he probably was not a believer in the God of the Bible either. However, it would seem from the narrative about Paul that the ability to perceive or discern faith is associated with the gifts of healing, and that faith is required for healing cf. Matthew 8: 10 & 13; Mark 2: 5; Luke 8: 47-48; Matthew 13: 58.]

Revelation 22: 2 - In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
[Interestingly, many medicines are derived from plants. Why would healing be needed in the new Jerusalem/afterlife?]