How to Receive Healing as a Citizen of Heaven

There are four major ways through which we can receive physical healing. The first is naturally. Your body was designed by God to naturally heal itself. When you get injured for example, the body responds by closing blood vessels that may be ruptured and sending white blood cells to the region to fight infection. Eventually over time, damaged cells are replaced and the injured area restored. Sometimes however, your body may be having difficulty fighting a certain condition (maybe your immune system is in a weakened state for example) and so a doctor can prescribe medication or alter your diet in order to assist the body to heal itself. This is the second way to receive physical healing.

The third way to receive physical healing is miraculously through the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as Gifts of Healings, Working of Miracles and the Gift of Faith (1 Cor 12:9-10). This is powerful, most often instantaneous and is not dependant on the receiver having faith. It is totally a work of God and bypasses the laws of nature. Receiving healing through the gifts of the Spirit was set up by God specifically to help those who, for various reasons have found themselves in a situation that requires a miracle of healing but they are unable to activate their faith to receive it.

As good as this sounds, receiving healing through the Gifts of the Spirit is not God’s best because it implies that we're in a crisis in need of a miracle. God does not want us to live from crisis to crisis, being bailed out by miracles. His desire is for us to be like Jesus; walking in victory and using the authority and power He’s given us to change the things that are not right in our lives. God’s best is when we rise up and move forward trusting and acting on what He’s told us in His Word. This is activated faith and it pleases God.

The Gifts of the Spirit are meant for those who don’t know how to activate their faith. Unfortunately, too many Christians depend on the gifts of the Spirit to receive healing. Many believers are travelling all over the country looking for someone who has ‘the anointing’. They think if they can just get someone who has the anointing to lay hands on them they might have a chance of getting healed. But because they’re using a method which was never intended to be the norm, they’re not guaranteed of success. The greatest problem in depending on the gifts of the spirit for your healing is that you never know if you will receive it.

The fourth and final means by which we can receive healing is God’s best way. It's guaranteed to work if you put it to work properly.  It often works hand in hand with our body’s natural tendency to heal itself and it can also work effectively with (but is not dependant on) medical assistance to accelerate recovery and repair. I call this method ‘Receiving healing as a Citizen of Heaven’. This is God’s best for us because it involves faith. God designed us to live by faith (Rom 1:17); everything in the Kingdom of Heaven is received by faith and in fact, without faith it’s impossible to please God (Heb 11:6).

How then can we receive healing as a Citizen of Heaven? I’m glad you asked!

Firstly, you must be fully persuaded that God wants you well. This is the major reason why most people fail to receive healing. People can have all sorts of opinions about healing but if it doesn’t line up with the Bible then you shouldn’t accept it. Some of the weird ideas I’ve heard others talk about when they discuss healing are:

• Supernatural healing no longer occurs today; it passed away when the Apostles passed away,
• God won’t heal you unless you’re reading your bible, going to church, praying every day, paying your tithes and being nice to everyone
• God will make you sick to teach you something
• Sometimes you can be sick for the glory of God
• It’s all up to God and so if it’s His will then you’ll be healed otherwise you’ll stay sick

None of these ideas are correct because none of them are from the bible. The bible shows us clearly that Jesus never taught any of these things. He said that if you’ve seen Him then you’ve seen the Father. Jesus is the exact representation of the Father (John 14:9; Heb 1:3). So if we want to know what God is like then we just need to look at Jesus’ attitude toward that issue. When it comes to healing, Jesus healed everyone who asked Him (Matt 4:23-24; Matt 8:16; Luke 4:40-41). He healed multitudes and so if any of the ideas listed above were true then why didn’t Jesus talk about them?

Secondly, if we’re going to receive healing as a citizen of Heaven then we need to recognise that God has already taken care of sickness through what Jesus did on the cross. We’re not waiting for God to do something; He’s already done something. God sent Jesus to take care of sickness and when He died on that cross, He not only bore our sin but also our sicknesses. That’s why 1 Pet 2:24 says by His wounds you were healed. If you were healed then you’re not going to be healed. Too many Christians are trying to get something they’ve already got.

There’s much more to say about this topic and this article is only an outline. If you’d like to learn more then feel free to download the mp3 file below.

How to Receive Healing as a Citizen of Heaven - Part 1

How to Receive Healing as a Citizen of Heaven - Part 2