The will of God, for a believer it should not be a mysterious thing, but over the years I have heard many people, ask and express and pray from a position of uncertainty… “Lord, if it’s your will…” is often a qualification for any prayer, and it often exposes a lack of faith, and ignorance about God’s will regarding things which He has already made known in His Word.

More destructive though, is the effect that this attitude has on those who are honestly in need of and seeking God’s healing. That is why in this study we will be examining both God’s will to heal, and also addressing the common misconceptions and wrong beliefs regarding the healing of God, so that these ideas will not serve as roadblocks that the enemy can use to stumble us any longer.

In my time talking with people, one of the most often heard issues that seem to come up over and over again is, “How can I know God’s will for me? Sure God healed that other person, but maybe he doesn’t want to heal me.”

To this, I always reply the same way… I say let’s examine the life of Jesus. The life that Jesus lived paints a wonderful portrait of the divine will of God. All of His interactions with various people, every word that He spoke, every miracle that He did, and every single move that He made, all show us a different aspect of the character and indeed the will and heart of God in every situation. If you want to truly know the will and heart of God today, take a lesson from John and lean on the breast of Jesus. (John 13:23)

So let’s begin our study by reading Mark 3:1-5:

“And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.

And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.

And he said to the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.

And he said to them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.

And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, Stretch forth your hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.”

We notice in verse 1 that there is a man with a withered hand. Now this was the synagogue, and the Pharisees, the ones who are the religious leaders were there. These were the ones who were supposed to be the teachers and also the representatives for God to the rest of the people, and yet there is no mention at all of any of the religious leaders helping this man with the withered hand. The man with the crippled hand came to the synagogue probably seeking God’s help, but no-one was helping him, not even the religious leaders.

Instead in verse 2, we see that they had another agenda… they were watching Jesus, but not to introduce the crippled man to Him, but instead they were scrutinizing Jesus in order to try and trap Him. They wanted to see if He would heal the man for the purpose of accusing Him. That was their only intent. Their minds were so corrupted with self-righteousness and law-keeping that they had no compassion or love for the people, or any heart to help the crippled man. This was the scenario.

Now watch how Jesus behaves in this situation. In verse 3 He calls the crippled man forward, and in verse 4 He asks the Pharisees a question designed to expose their self-righteousness and cause them to repent, however they keep silent due to their own pride.

Next in verse 5, we see that Jesus looked on the Pharisees with anger. This is significant because it is the only place in the Bible where the Holy Spirit specifically records that Jesus was angry. Sure, in other places we can make assumptions that Jesus was angry during certain events, but this is the only scripture that specifically mentions it. And this shows us an aspect of God’s will and heart for the hurting.

Jesus was angry at the behavior of the Pharisees in the synagogue here because these were the religious leaders, these were the ones who were supposed to be representing God to the people, but instead due to self-righteous pride, they were grossly misrepresenting God, and failing to help those in-need.

So Jesus heals the man, demonstrating His perfect heart of grace and mercy, but instead of everyone celebrating and praising God for the great miracle that was just done, verse 6 shows that the Pharisees went and immediately made plans to destroy Jesus; and see the detail there, not merely just kill Him, but destroy – violently kill.

The reaction of those who are self-righteous and legalistic, will always be anti-Christ… not anti-God, but anti-Christ. It is the anti-Christ spirit that is in the world today. Anti-Jesus, anti-Grace, opposed to the message of Grace and the mercy of God. And when the mercy of God is displayed, it makes these type of people angry. However the heart of God is mercy, the will of God is to heal… otherwise Jesus went around doing opposite of the will of God, and we know that’s not the case from John 6:38.

There are people today who think that God has made them sick or feeble in order to teach them lessons, but if that was actually true then Jesus went around undoing the lessons from the Father, because the scripture said that He went around healing every sickness and every disease. (Matthew 9:35)

There are believers today today who think that they can serve God better sick than well. They think that their testimony will be greater as people see them struggle and strive through their physical challenges and that it will bring greater glory to God. No my friends, God is not glorified in His children being sick and weak… He is glorified in demonstrating His healing power over sickness and disease. Just like many of the healings in the Bible, the one who was healed often became an instant evangelist – but even those that didn’t, He still healed!

God’s will is always to heal. Psalms 103:3 says that the LORD forgives all of our iniquities and heals all of our diseases. That is eternal, that has not changed; God has not stopped being YHVH Rapha – The LORD who Heals.

Even so we have people who question. Believers who say “Well what about…” and they bring up Job, and they bring up Paul, and they up every Old Testament instance where it said that God struck someone, or God smote someone and it is vital that we understand the truth of the scriptures and where we are in Christ today, because if not these kinds of questions can absolutely tear apart our faith, and I have encountered many who have been hindered by such doubts for far too long.

Many times these questions come because we have had experiences where we pray for people and we don’t see the results, and then someone else (usually a pastor) tells us “well the reason is…” and then they proceed to list off the reasons why people don’t get healed, such as God saying “no.” or “sin in your life” or any number of entirely unscriptural and man-made reasons to explain away the confusion and doubt. And our minds are struggling so hard to try and make sense out of what we see with our eyes or the experiences we have had.

We must realize now that we are in the New Covenant, Jesus has come, and He has changed the paradigm for us. When Jesus appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17, He appeared with Moses and Elijah beside Him. Moses representing the Old Covenant Law, and Elijah representing the Old Covenant prophets. Peter wanted to build temples for all three of them, placing Jesus on the same level as the Law and the prophets – and that’s the reason why the Father interrupted him and the Father’s voice thundered from Heaven saying This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear Him! And they lifted their faces and saw only Jesus.

We run a great risk when we try to challenge the New Covenant with the Old Covenant and say “what about this?” or “what about that?” and we place Jesus on the same level as the Old Testament… instead of saying all those things, why aren’t we saying “What about Jesus.”

We don’t have to question the will of God when Jesus has demonstrated it so completely through His life and though the plain simplicity of His Word in many places all over scripture. But we have people who are in doubt about His will and so therefore they don’t even seek healing (or don’t seek it honestly) and say “well it’s His sovereign will, if I get better or not it’s all up to Him.” and they don’t earnestly contend for the faith as is mentioned in Jude 1:3. Yes it is all about God’s will, but He has made His will known, and if we were not supposed to contend for it, then we wouldn’t have a sword. (Ephesians 6:17).

My dear friend, if you sit back and say “well, it’s all God’s sovereignty and His will” regarding the things which He has plainly stated in His Word as being His will, then you are taking off your God-given sword and shield, laying down and forfeiting the battle to the enemy. If it’s truly not God’s will to heal, then you wouldn’t have His weapons – He would’ve never given them. You wouldn’t have His Word or any of His promises which we have been studying these last few weeks. If it wasn’t His will to heal, He never would’ve revealed Himself as YHVH Rapha: the LORD who heals in Exodus 15:26. rapha in Hebrew literally means “to heal, restore and make healthful” and denotes both physical and emotional healing.

He has told us to go into every city and heal the sick (Luke 10:9) and how can we do that if we’re not sure He wants to? And if when I go, I don’t immediately see results and doubt comes in that quick and I recoil in unbelief, that that really exposes a lack of faith and not being rooted and grounded in the truth.

You might still say “Well maybe God just said ‘No’”.

My friend in Matthew 17:14-21 when Jesus heals the epileptic boy, the disciples could not cure him, and Jesus said it was a faithless and perverse generation, and when the disciples later asked why they could not cure the boy, Jesus said it was because of their unbelief. Why do we not just accept what Jesus said plainly? Was it God’s will to heal the boy? Obviously, since Jesus healed him. Was the boy healed when the disciples tried? No. And what did Jesus say was the reason? Unbelief.

God’s will is always to heal, but some people simply do not believe for all of the reasons which are being mentioned today in this study, and that’s why we are taking the time today to expose all of these misconceptions and bringing them into the truth of scripture in the light of Jesus; so that you can receive in faith what the lies and doubt of the enemy has been stumbling you on.

So now the final area that is common and the enemy tries to stumble us on, now that we have established belief is all that is required… maybe I just needed more faith.

Take notice from the healing of the epileptic boy, that Jesus did not say that their faith level was too low… He did not say that they could not heal the boy because of not enough belief; He said that they could not heal the boy because of their unbelief. Notice also that Jesus did not say that the disciples could not heal the boy because it was not the will of God, or the divine order or sovereignty of God, or that it was not the right time, He simply said: unbelief.

This account of Jesus healing the epileptic boy is often taught in churches in a legalistic way to make people think that they need amazing levels of faith in order to receive healing, and it gets people so introspective and afraid that it actually kills whatever faith that they have and they end up never reaching out to God at all.

However Jesus says in Matthew 17:20 that even a small amount of faith is all that is required to move mountains. So what happened then to the disciples? The Greek word for “unbelief” used in verse 20, actually means faithlessness, a complete lack of faith. Something had totally voided the faith of the disciples, so that they could not make use of the power of God. You may be surprised to discover what happened to them… Mark 9:14 tells us what voided the faith:

“And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them.”

The scribes are the Pharisees, the teachers of the law. The ones who believe and promote self-righteousness, the ones who as we read earlier, were making plans to destroy Jesus. They were questioning the disciples. And when the disciples allowed the legalistic self-righteous words of the Pharisees to filter into their minds and hearts then their faith was voided. (Romans 8:11)

The Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Romans 8:32) but once that faith in Christ has come we are no longer under a schoolmaster. But many have been led astray and brought into bondage by trying to use the law to earn favor or blessings with God through their own performance, or to try and please Him, when we know that He is already well pleased with Jesus Christ alone. (Matthew 17:5), and if you want to say “Thank you” to Him, simply say “Thank you. Thank you Father for your Son Jesus Christ. I am absolutely complete and satisfied in Him.”

Nothing will delight the Father’s heart more then someone who accepts and receives Jesus completely.

Jesus loves you, and the Father loves you without compare (John 16:27). He sent His Beloved Son to die and take away the sins of the world and He completely saves all who come to Him (John 3:16) and yet people still question whether miracles exist today and if God still heals.

One time someone asked me why addressing these issues and questions is even important. The answer is because if you just float through life and use the cop-out of “God’s choice” as an excuse to not reach out in faith and resist the enemy, then it will end up tearing you away from God. It will eventually shred you on the inside. You are setting yourself up for loss if you roll-over for the enemy, and you never use your God-given sword and shield to contend for healing. And the more loss you encounter the more it will trouble you over time and eventually you will be confused and not even love God anymore because your mind will be vexed wondering “If God loves me, why is there so much loss.”

The truth is that it is God’s choice and He has chosen to heal, and He even wrote His will down in a book so there would be no confusion (John 20:31). But the enemy, using man’s reasoning and man’s ideas and senses and thought processes, has confused and convoluted what God has made so simple.

So when you go to pray for someone to be healed (or even yourself). You don’t have to beg God, rip out your hair, rend your garments, cry, scream, or shout.

You don’t need to worry about your faith level, and you shouldn’t be afraid of the ailment. Just know that it is God’s will to heal, and it’s not your own righteousness or the righteousness of the other person that does it, but the righteousness of Jesus that has made healing available. That is why it is beyond question or doubt.

I pray this study has encouraged you today and strengthened your faith for healing. It is God’s will, and He does not change. Jesus paid for it, and He never loses His potency or effectiveness. Healing is yours in Christ Jesus.