A Medic Explores Miracles and Healings, Part 2

By Dr Mark Houghton MB, BS (Lond.), MRCGP

Last summer brought one of my biggest ever surprises about Christian healing, and with it, I saw people delighted. People like Jim, healed from depression. Sandra, who was freed from the misery of painful shoulders (in her acromioclavicular joints); she is fine now. Alan, who had long-term constipation even after trying every diet, healed through prayer. Amir, rescued from dangerously high blood pressure, with prayer working alongside prescription medication. Wayne, who was mute following a stroke, began to sing!

What was the surprise in seeing God help all these people? Simply that Jesus of Nazareth paid the huge fee for our healing at the same time as paying for our forgiveness. I was surprised because churches had not taught me this: that He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. That very idea is error in the eyes of some, but when Old Testament verses get quoted in the New Testament, we should sit up and take notice.

Jesus Carried Our Sicknesses and Our Sins

Take Isaiah 53 verses four and five: “Surely He took up our pains and carried our diseases, yet we considered Him punished by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our sins; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”

Christians see these verses (voiced about 700 years before Christ) as prophetic of the coming Messiah. Fast forward those 700 years, and we can gather what they really meant. The Bible writer Matthew recorded, “When Jesus came into Peter’s house, He saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever” (Matthew 8:15). Then “Jesus touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve Him.” And to leave no doubt, Matthew continues, “When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to Him, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick” (verse 16). Finally comes the crunch, when Matthew (in verse 17) goes on to quote Isaiah’s prophecy that we began with. “This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

‘He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.’”

There is the critical evidence, witnessed by many, that Jesus could and did deal with our pains and carry away our diseases. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine every lame, blind, deaf, dead, leprous, paralysed, suffering or feverish child and adult being healed in one evening? Every one of them? Because that’s what happened that evening in Capernaum, and in many other cities that Jesus went through. It follows that because “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), and He is risen from the dead and immortal, He can therefore heal even me from any of those problems.

That’s my take on hearing session 2 of Andrew Wommack’s Healing University. Andrew also presented numerous other Bible verses to back up such a stupendous claim. But the key thing for me to take home from his talk was, God in Christ is just as willing and able to heal me as He is to forgive me.

What do you think?