By Martha Bush

Last week, in Part 1 of Four Reasons for The Cross, I concentrated on Transgressions and Iniquities as listed in Isaiah 53:5.

• He was wounded for our transgressions,
• He was bruised for our iniquities,
• The chastisement of our peace was upon Him,
• And by His strips we are healed. 

Today, let's take a look at Healing with an emphasis on physical healing. Many times, I hear people say, myself included, “Why don’t we see more manifestations of physical healing?”

This is a question my friend, Libby Finan, has had to deal with for years as she suffers from chronic illness. It is one she has had many talks with the Lord about.

In her own words, Libby tells what she has learned in her talks with the Lord.

As one who suffers from chronic illness, I find the subject of physical healing very complex. I go through times that I do battle, and then there are times, I believe it is right just to rest. That doesn’t mean giving up! It takes a lot of faith to stand in battle on the front line, cursing sickness and interceding for supernatural miracles. But, it also takes a lot of faith to let go and let God; to trust Him and let Him fight for us. Wisdom is needed to know when to battle and when to rest.

Everyone's journey is different and to me, to be so black and white about physical healing is not incorrect, but it is incomplete. There are nuances, and it is more like a spectrum. God heals in so many ways.

• Sometimes He lifts us out of the pit in one miraculous swoop.
• Sometimes He gives us a ladder and teaches us to climb out.
• Sometimes He sends others to help push us up, as in fellowship and medicine.
• Sometimes He sits with us in the pit, holding us tight.

But, either way, He is there and He is working all things together for our good - just in different ways and in different timescales for each of us.

The biggest thing that has helped me is this: I lay down my need to understand. That's hard for me. I want to understand and know and have a solid grasp on the whys and why not of healing. Let me be clear: my belief that God is healer, that it is His will that all are healed, and that He is capable of healing anything is absolutely solid.

BUT, the reality is we do not always see that manifested in this lifetime, in these bodies, in this fallen world. I do not know why, but I lay down my need to know why. This was a divine moment. I did a 6 week course on healing at my church. I was getting so distressed during this course as it just wasn't adding up, and I just couldn't understand why I was not receiving my healing. I had done all the work for it, breaking generational curses, forgiveness, confession, declaration, gone up to the front at every healing meeting, had so much deliverance prayer, my faith was high. So, why had I not been healed all these years later? What is the truth?

On the way home from one of these classes, all these questions were whirring round my mind and I was sobbing and just feeling utterly overwhelmed when God spoke to me. Clearly, He said "You only need to know 2 things”:

1. That I am GOOD
2. That you can TRUST me.

Wow! So, I now cling onto those two God-given truths, even when my mind or my body are suffering, even when I am confused and feel abandoned, even when I feel like giving up. I hold on to those two truths, no matter what. God gave me my answer.

Another thing God told me was about layers of healing. First He heals our spirit, (when we are born again)...then He heals our soul (mind, emotions, soul wounds, trauma etc), and then He heals our bodies. I know it doesn't work like this for all. But, for me personally I believe that is what he told me for my journey.

He is most interested in our spirit as that is the real us and we will be with Him for eternity. Then our soul as our mind and emotions. And then lastly this temporary earthly tent of a body. For me, and many of us, the body physical healing is paramount is it hurts and we want relief! But what God told me was that actually in His perspective of eternity, the body is the least important of the three.  It will turn to dust and I will get a brand new one in heaven that is perfect. Praise God for that! Don't get me wrong, I still long for physical healing in this lifetime and I will not stop praying for it and believing for it, but I trust that God is working all things together for my good.

*****  

Thank you, Libby, for your heartfelt story.

My friends, as we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, may the words to this beautiful song bless you: There's Room at the Cross for You.