The Power to Heal

[David Huston]

Luke 5:17 says, "Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them" (NKJV). The New Living Translation renders this last statement this way: "And the Lord's healing power was strongly with Jesus." This seems to indicate that sometimes the Lord's power is available for healing and sometimes it's not. Does this mean that if His healing power is not present, then healing cannot or will not take place? How do we know when it's present and when it's not? Please post your thoughts on this question.

[Steve Sanders]

Please allow me to offer some plausible answers to the good questions from Luke 5:17. Luke’s statement “The Power of the Lord was present to heal them” is an immutable truth about God’s power and its availability to heal. In other words, God’s power to heal and its availability to humanity is limitless.  Regarding His miraculous power the prophet Jeremiah said“'Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. Jer 32:17. Moreover, Jesus said “For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37. God’s miraculous power does not have varying levels of power settings like a dimmer switch on a light bulb that needs to be turned up or down depending on the needs of humanity.  The Lord’s power to heal was as strongly with Jesus on that day, as it is today. It was strong then, it’s strong now and will forever more be strong.  We see an example of this limitless power to heal in Luk 6:19  Everyone tried to touch Him, because healing power went out from Him, and He healed everyone. Luke doesn’t describe low, weak, strong or any other form of healing power, just simply healing power went out from Him, and everyone was healed. From Jesus came healing power, and that healing power was obviously not limited because everyone was healed. Why was everyone healed, because “everyone tried to touch Him”.  It doesn’t say everyone did touch Him, it says everyone tried to touch Him (faith). The questions concerning whether or not Jesus power to heal is present sometimes and not present at other times maybe answered by saying there is never anything wrong with Jesus power or availability to heal, but that faithless humanity hinders the healing power of Jesus. Matthew makes this point clearly in Matthew 13:58 And so He did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.  Another example can be found in story of Peter walking on the water towards Jesus, but then he begins to sink.  Jesus explained the reason for his sinking. He said “You have so little faith...Why did you doubt Me? The combination of limitless power and availability with faith in Jesus appears to be the key elements necessary for God’s miraculous power to affect humanity. The passage of scripture in question states that “Jesus was teaching” and we know that faith comes by hearing the word of God. Could it be that those who heard the teaching of Jesus had increased faith in Jesus thereby fulfilling the last remaining element necessary for the healing power of God to touch humanity.   

[Mike R. Prevost]

I know this is an old thread.  I'm catching up after having not kept up with the forums for a while.

[BTW, I think this group and it's online forum is important and worthwhile – we (me included) should do better at keep up with the posts here and do our part to keep it alive.]

These are a great many things about God's will that I have yet to get my mind around and this is one of them.  I know it may sound faithless or even blasphemous to some here, but I don't think that the Lord wants to heal people as much as some folks seem to think He does.  I think He DOES heal people from time to time, but I think that it is the exception rather than the rule, and I believe that there are good reasons to acknowledge this.

For example, what are God's motives in healing someone? Is it that he feels compassion on them because they are sick? I do think He feels compassion, but I don't think that this is the primary reason He heals folks.

I tend to think sickness and disease are part of God's bigger plan for us in this present world – along with persecution, temptation, and other forms of struggle and suffering.  Overcoming these obstacles and enduring these maladies are how we show and prove our love and devotion to Him.  Without them, there wouldn't really be any concept of fidelity, choice, longsuffering, or even love.

So, it doesn't seem that it CAN be God's will to heal all our diseases and solve all our problems -- it would be contrary to His larger purpose for struggle and suffering.

Does that make any sense?