Appropriating Healing

In 1943, I was sick and spent many months in the hospital. A woman from the Salvation Army came to visit and pray for me. At that time, I received this word from God: “Consider the work of Calvary; a perfect work — perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect.” I have been considering this statement ever since, and I have only touched the fringe of what took place at the cross. It is a perfect work. From whatever aspect we view the cross, it is finished. Whatever type of help we need, it is settled forever at the cross.

“That sounds easy,” you may say, “but how can we appropriate it?” On the subject of healing, many people wonder, How can I know whether it’s God’s will to heal?

If we are children of God, we are asking the wrong question. Healing is the children’s bread. Jesus said:

“It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs [unbelievers]” (Matthew 15:26)

The Syrophoenician woman had the right answer: “Lord, I don’t need a loaf. Just give me a crumb and it’ll get the demon out of my daughter.” That woman really had faith — a lot more than the children who had the whole loaf offered them and were still sick! A father may not be able to give his family ice cream or T-bone steaks, but every father has an obligation to provide bread. God the Father has put the children’s bread on the table — yours and mine.

I rephrase the question in this way: How may I appropriate the healing that is already provided? For the believer, healing and the atonement are never in the future. It is now up to us to appropriate our inheritance. All is provided for us in the testament — the will sealed by the death of Jesus.