Jesus is the Living Word and He plays a major role in healing the sick. We know from the Word of God that Jesus actively healed all who came to Him and that He trained and sent out other people into active ministry. As He sent out His disciples, He said to them, “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:7-8). Jesus likewise admonished all believers to, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature…” and He informed them that one of the signs that would follow them would be that “…they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:15-18). We can see that through His own personal actions, teachings and His commissioning and sending of people to minister to the sick that Jesus clearly was showing forth that it is God’s will that people be healed.

Since Jesus is the demonstration of God’s will and Word here on earth, it becomes imperative for us then, as we see Jesus minister to heal the sick, to accept God’s Word as the final authority especially where healing is involved. For in Jesus “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” and we find our own personal completion in Him (Colossians 2:9-10). By action, speech and reality Jesus is the Living Word and the written Word is a proclamation of the Good News about Him!

Knowing from the Word of God that it is God’s will to heal people is foundational to receiving healing. It is the springboard to faith and faith is the necessary ingredient in receiving from God.  Faith is born after we hear the Word of God and solidly embrace the facts which we have heard.  The Bible puts it this way, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). The fact that faith is necessary is carefully instructed in Hebrews 11:6 which reads, “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” The fact of the matter is that faith comes, or is formed in us, as we hear and believe God’s Word and faith is essential in our relationship with God. There is a unique and supernatural relationship between the Word of God and the existence of faith in God.

Concerning divine healing, hearing from the Word of God that God can and will heal permits faith, the appropriating agent, to form within us. Faith for healing, as developed from the Word of God, enables us to receive healing from Him. Another way of saying this is that faith, developed by believing God’s Word, is necessary in order to appropriate those things we heard from the Word that God is willing to do for us. We can now see two things. Not only is God’s Word the final authority to which we must cling, but it is also the entree toward developing faith to receive from God.

One very important way we can develop unshakable faith is through our confession. Words play a very important role in our lives. We learned about God and Jesus through words. Someone either told us the Good News or we read or heard about it in some manner. The Word of God somehow, some way reached us and we heard it. At this point many options are available concerning what we will do with the Word of God that we have heard. For example, we can permit it to move deep into our spirit and develop faith or we can let it lie dormant as unused knowledge.

If we desire to have the Word of God advance to faith, what we believe from what we heard and what we say concerning what we believe plays a major role. The statements we make that flow from what we know and what we believe become our confession. Because one’s confession reflects their belief, one’s confession is an important expression of their faith. Logically then, because one’s belief strongly effects the course of their life and because one’s confession of that belief is as expression of their faith, having a powerful confession of the healing Word can be a potent tool in releasing faith for healing.