We will continue our study of Biblical healing with a focus on the amazing role of the Holy Spirit in healing. That the Holy Spirit plays a vital role in healing is hardly unexpected when you consider the fact that the Holy Spirit, as the third person of the Trinity, is coexistent with the Father and the Son and functions in complete harmony and union with them. The Holy Spirit exercises the power of the Father and of the Son as exemplified by His participation in such awesome events as creation (Genesis 1:2), the incarnation of Jesus Christ (Luke 1:30-35), the empowerment of Jesus (Matthew 12:28-29; Luke 11:20; Acts 10:38) and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11).  He, likewise, is the powerful participant in the redemption of mankind who convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:5-11). The Holy Spirit enables spiritual regeneration in the “new birth” (John 3:3-8), guides believers in their walk with God (John 16:13-15) and ministers to them (John 14:16, 26).

In all of these works, and countless others like them, the Holy Spirit has moved in complete accord with the Father and the Son from the very beginning.  He has continued to move with them throughout all time and will persist in doing so even beyond the final moments of this present age (Revelation 22:17).

Specific to divine healing the important empowerment of the Holy Spirit can be clearly seen.  Jesus Himself credited the Holy Spirit as the power by which He cast out demons (Matthew 12:28-29).  And Acts 10:38 reveals, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil…”

Not only was Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit for His ministry work, which included healing the sick, but also when he instructed believers to continue doing the work He did, He prepared them to receive the necessary Holy Spirit empowerment (John 14:12, 16-17; Mark 16:15-18). Just moments before His ascension to the Father, Jesus instructed His disciples to tarry in Jerusalem to receive the Promise of the Father, who is the Holy Spirit, and to be “…endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5). Along with that empowerment from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5,8; Acts 2:4) gifts of the Spirit become available for people including those specific to healing (1 Cor. 12:1-11).

This brief overview of the working of the Holy Spirit gives a starting point enabling a closer look at how we are equipped by the Holy Spirit for this life and the Holy Spirit’s role in divine healing. In Romans 8:14 we read these soul-stirring words, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” And Ephesians 5:18 admonishes us to “…be filled with the Spirit.”  But how does that come about?

Well, we know that it is a life-changing experience to receive Jesus, to become a child of God and receive the indwelling Holy Spirit, but it is likewise an awesome and powerful thing to be “clothed with” and “filled” with the Holy Spirit. This “filling” and this being “clothed by the Holy Spirit” is the desired posture for divine healing.

This raises two important questions: (1) How does one become “clothed with” and “filled with” the Holy Spirit (2) and how does this impact divine healing? Although the Holy Spirit does work in a global sense in the world today, the following comments will be confined to His work in individuals.

When a person receives Jesus as his personal Savior and Lord, he has an encounter with God through which the Holy Spirit effects regeneration within that person. Regeneration is the impartation of spiritual life, eternal life and the implantation of a new nature, into the individual who was formerly as Ephesians 2:1 says, “…dead in trespasses and sins.” Regeneration is a supernatural phenomenon whereby the Holy Spirit recreates the human spirit of a person removing their sin nature and replacing it with the nature of God. 2 Peter 1:4 reads, “…by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Having this transformation and becoming a partaker of the divine nature is absolutely essential.  Jesus had said as recorded in John 3:5, “…unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” When a person receives Jesus as his Savior, we talk about the fact that that individual is now saved. Colossians 1:13 speaks of that person as “…delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed… into the kingdom of (God’s Son).” God does that supernatural work of spiritually recreating the person by the power of the Holy Spirit. We say the person has been “recreated” or “born again.” Because of the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration in that person, 2 Corinthians 5:17 calls that person “a new creation” in which “…old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

From the moment a sinner receives the New Birth, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell that individual. He comes to abide within that person forever (John 14:16; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; John 14:17). This indwelling of the Holy Spirit fully makes it possible for the believer to live a holy life, a life that is pleasing to God, a life capable of personal spiritual growth.

The indwelling Holy Spirit not only sets the person free from the law of sin and death (Romans 7:9-24), but He strengthens him (Ephesians 3:16-19), witnesses to him (Romans 8:16), guides him (John 16:13) and reveals to him the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-14). The role of the Holy Spirit is truly amazing in the believer’s life. We will continue and build on this study in our next teachings.