THREE TYPES OF HEALING
E.W. Kenyon & Don Gossett

I AM REVEALED
B. Childress
Apr 24 2012

It is always pleasant to hear new teachings on an old subject, especially one about which many feel that they know the
last word.  However, I think we have discovered the reason why many have arrived at a place where they no longer
have their prayers for healing answered, while others have received healing many times over.

Remember that in Jesus’ teaching, He based healing entirely on the grounds of faith.  In almost every case, He
demanded faith, but the man beside the pool of Bethesda was healed without any faith on his part.  John 5 relates that
man’s story:

    Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having
    five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the
    water.  For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first
    after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.  And a certain man was
    there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.  When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a
    long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?  The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have
    no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before
    me.  Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.  And immediately the man was made whole, and took
    up his bed, and walked.   (John 5:2-9)

But one of the most striking examples in the entire ministry of the Master is the case of the centurion, as recorded in
Matthew 8:5-13.  A centurion came to Jesus, beseeching Him to heal his servant, who was home sick with palsy.  Jesus
offered to go to his home and heal him, but the centurion answered, “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be
healed” (verse 8).  Jesus turned to the centurion and said, “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto
thee” (verse 13).  “And his servant was healed in the self-same hour” (verse 13).

In Matthew 9, we find the story of a woman who forced her way through a crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment,
that she might be made whole.  Jesus said to her, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole”
(Matthew 9:22).  In verse 29, Jesus summed up our understanding of healing.  He had been followed by two blind men,
who cried after Him, saying, “Thou son of David, have mercy on us” (verse 27).  When He reached His destination, the
two men were still there.

    And Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this?  They said unto him, Yea, Lord.  Then touched
    he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.  (Matthew 9:28-29)

We must understand that Jesus was dealing with Old Testament people.  At this time, no one had been born again.  No
one knew that Jesus Christ would be their substitute.  No one knew that He would be made sin for them.  No one knew
that He would go to hell for them, to conquer death and the grave.  No one knew that He would arise from the dead as
their High Priest.  No one knew about the new creation.

Thus, you can understand that their faith in Jesus was based purely upon “Sense-knowledge faith.”  This is the type of
faith that Thomas had.  In the gospel of John, Thomas declared, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails,
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25).  This is
“sense-knowledge faith.”  Thomas would believe it if he could see it and touch it.  Sense-knowledge says, in effect, “I will
believe it if I can see it, hear it, feel it, and experience it.”  Thomas’ faith was measured by his senses, not by the Word
of God.

Then Jesus suddenly appeared in the midst of His disciples.

    Then saith [Jesus] to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and
    thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.  And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and
    my God.  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that
    have not seen, and yet have believed.  (John 20:27-29)

“Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed.”  That hurts a bit, doesn’t it?  It hurt the Master even more.  There is
no unbelief like the unbelief of the senses.  “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:
29).    It is hard for those of us who are familiar with Paul’s revelation of what Jesus did for us in the substitutionary
sacrifice not to carry it over into the four gospels.

If we could eliminate all that we know of Christ through the Pauline revelation and see Jesus as those who walked with
Him did, we could then appreciate their unbelief.  You may wonder, Didn’t Mary believe on Him? Yes, they all believed
on Jesus as they lived in close fellowship with Him.  But what exactly did they believe?

They did not believe that He was their substitute for sin or that He was going to die for their sins in accordance with
Scripture.  They did not fully believe in His resurrection, even after they had seen Him resurrected.

What did they believe?  They believed that He was a prophet and, in some way, the Son of God.  There was evidently
no knowledge of Christ having borne our sicknesses and diseases.  We do know that what Jesus said to His disciples,
as recorded in Mark, was fulfilled, and that God worked with them, “confirming the word with signs following” (Mark 16:
20).

The disciples’ means of advertisement was healing the sick and performing miracles.  According to Mark, the unsaved
man has a perfect right to healing.  One cannot blame the gospel authors for their unbelief.  The whole thing was so
absolutely new and out of the realm of the senses that you cannot find fault with them.

Now, I want to show you the three types, or classes, of healing.

The first comes by the faith of the sick person, as you have seen in Jesus’ teachings.  The second comes by the faith
of the sick person in the elders’ faith.  Finally, there is the believer who knows that his diseases and sicknesses were
laid upon Jesus.  He knows that Jesus put disease and sickness away, and that “with his stripes [he is] healed.”

    And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs
    following.  (Mark 16:20)

After the day of Pentecost, the disciples went forth, preaching in the name of Jesus among the heathens and Jews, yet
they did not have any conception of the substitutionary sacrifice of their Master, in whose name they healed the sick
and cast out demons.  We have a sample of this in the book of Acts:

    And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had
    walked: the same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
    said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet.  And he leaped and walked.  (Acts 14:8-10)

Paul did not lay hands on the man.  He did not pray over him.  We cannot be certain of what Paul told him, but we do
know that he was not a Christian.  The man had been listening to the Word, and, as he listened, his heart believed
without any doubt.  Paul, with the discernment of love, saw it in his eyes and “said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy
feet.”

I want you to notice the next group of people who have a right to healing.  They are the ones described in I Corinthians
3:1: “and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”

The word “carnal” is another way to identify “those ruled by their senses.”  “Carnal” people are dominated by what they
see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.  Now, look at the next two verses:

    I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.  
    For ye are yet carnal…are ye not carnal, and walk as men?  (verses 2-3)

In other words, “You walk as sense-ruled men who have never been born again.”  The Greek word translated as
“carnal” is sarkikos, meaning “sense-ruled” or “senses.”  The “sense-ruled” man may be born again but is untrained in
the Scriptures.

    For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first
    principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.  For every
    one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.  (Hebrews 5:12-13)

He is but “a babe.” Or, a better rendering “He is not experienced in practicing and living in the realm of righteousness.”

What does that mean?

Righteousness is the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without a sense of condemnation or unworthiness, or in
the presence of Satan, disease, and adverse circumstances without fear.  It is knowing that, in the name of Jesus, you
are a master over demons, disease, and circumstances.

Peter and Paul knew that they were masters in the name of Jesus.  They commanded the sick to be healed in that
mighty name.

    But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses
    exercised to discern both good and evil.  (Hebrews 5:14)

Now, let’s look at James 5:14-16:

    Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil
    in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have
    committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, the ye
    may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Notice that, first, the sick one confesses, and then the elders pray for him.  The sick one, although a Christian, has
never taken advantage of what he is in Christ.

    Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
    afflicted.  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.   (Isaiah 53:4-5)

It goes without saying that this Scripture refers to the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.  Here, the Holy Spirit puts
physical healing before the sin problem.  Why?  He knows that because we live in physical bodies, we are sense-ruled
people.  Because of this, He dealt with the physical bodies first.

Notice that Christians have been healed when their sins have been laid on Christ.  Isaiah 53:10 clears this up:

    Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
    he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

You see, God made Jesus a perfect substitute.  Sick folks who do not understand the substitutionary sacrifice are
clearly relying on the faith of the elders instead of on what Christ did for them in His substitution.

There are three facts I would like you to notice:

First, the sick Christian often does not recognize his substitutionary rights in Christ.  He does not realize that a proper
amount of faith is not a prerequisite and that healing belongs to him just as much as Jesus’ ministry at the right hand of
the Father belongs to him.  All he has to do is look up and say, “Father, I thank You for my perfect healing, in Jesus’
name.”

This sick person may be out of fellowship, allowing the adversary to take advantage of him.  He calls for the elders of
the church to come, and he confesses his sins to them – or, perhaps, to the Father.  He is forgiven the moment the
confession is made.  The elders pray for him, and it is their faith that heals him.

In his sickness, he has brushed aside the substitutionary work of Christ by asking for the elders’ faith to heal him.  He
does this in ignorance, and grace overlooks it.

How many sick folks are there today who are waiting for somebody to pray the “prayer of faith” over them?  Isaiah 53 is
utterly ignored.  The work that Jesus did from the time He was made sin until He sat down at the right hand of the Father
is ignored.  The sick man can see the elders; he can feel them anointing him with oil; he can hear the prayers of faith.  
You see, he is living in the realm of the senses.  He has the same kind of faith that Thomas had.

He is inexperienced in righteousness.  He has never taken his place as a righteous man.  He has never done the works
of a righteous man.  He has never borne the fruits of a righteous man.

A righteous man has a legal standing with the Father.  He can approach the Father at any time.  The righteous man is
always bearing the burdens of others in prayer.

Did you notice that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16)?  The prayer of a
righteous man is always heard.  He is not afraid of sickness or disease.  He is a master in every circumstance.

Who is righteous?  Every new creation is “the righteousness of God in Christ.”

    He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.  (II
    Corinthians 5:21)

Now, you can see how the sick man has repudiated the work that the Father did in Christ by requesting that someone
pray the prayer of faith for him.  He is requesting that someone heal him independently of that work.

You ask, “Do you not pray and anoint the sick?”

Yes, if I cannot instruct them of their rights in Christ.  I meet them right where they are, as the Master did.

The third class of healing belongs to the new-creation man who knows his Father, knows his rights and privileges in
Christ, and knows that Jesus “took [his] infirmities, and bare [his] diseases” (Matthew 8:17).  He is taking his healing on
the grounds of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.

Here are some facts I want you to note:

The believer owns all of the rights that Jesus paid for.

All that Jesus did for him in His substitutionary sacrifice belongs to him.

He has come to act on the Word as he would act on the word of a loved one.

It is not a problem of faith.  He has no conscious need of faith.

Why?  Because he is healed.  God does not need to heal him again.  He has been healed.

The believer simply accepts the fact that God’s Word cannot be broken.  He knows that God said, “I will hasten my word
to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:12).

No word from God is void of fulfillment.

The disease has touched his body.  He demands that Satan, the author of all disease, take the unclean thing away, in
the name of Jesus.  It does not belong to him, for his Father laid that disease on Jesus.

Then, he looks and says, “Father, I thank You for my perfect deliverance.  I thank You that Your Word has proven true
again, and that by His stripes, I am healed.”





Source:

KEYS TO RECEIVING GOD’S MIRACLES, by E.W. Kenyon & Don Gossett, Copyright 2011, Whitaker House.
2010 - HIS GLORY REIGNS
LIFE IN JESUS-MINISTRIES