We live in a society that encourages us to pursue the things we want and need in life. The mindset is that we must put our own efforts into chasing them down as if they were some kind of elusive prize. This covers everything important to us, including good health. The good news is that health and wholeness are already ours.
Healing Awaits Us
Healing isn’t something we chase, but something we take because Jesus already finished the work. We’re not trying to get God to do something—He’s already done it. Our job is to respond in faith to what’s already completed. This changes everything about how we approach sickness and symptoms.
When the medical diagnosis is bad, we don’t panic; we instead go straight to the Word. This, not the doctor’s report or our feelings, is our final authority. We settle it in our hearts that healing is ours because of what Jesus did. “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed” (1 Peter 2:24, NLT).
Good Health is Finished
Faith isn’t begging God; it’s a positive response to what grace has already provided. We believe, we speak, and we act like it’s true because it is. “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 4:3). This is where we live. Resting in His finished works is the highest expression of faith.
Resting doesn’t mean doing nothing, but laboring to stay at rest; in our current environment, it can be real work laboring to remain at rest when everything around us screams to worry and fret. The enemy will try to pull us into fear and striving, but we refuse to move from our position of victory. We fight to stay in peace because that’s where the power flows. When we’re at rest, we’re saying, “Lord, I trust You completely.”
Healing flows when we’re convinced of God’s love for us. “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). If He loved us enough to give Jesus, He loves us enough to heal us every single time sickness shows up. Remembering past times when this worked gives us confidence and strengthens our faith.
Wholeness is God’s Will
God is always willing to restore health and wholeness. This was what Jesus told the leper when the man asked if it was His will to heal him. “…I will: be thou clean…” (Luke 5:13). This is Jesus’ heart toward us. We never have to wonder if it’s His will to heal; He settled that forever.
One powerful way we take possession of healing is through communion. We receive spiritual medicine by taking the bread and the cup. We’re declaring that His broken body and shed blood are enough for our wholeness. Jesus deliberately and intentionally emphasized this with His disciples. “And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24, 25).
Our Mindset Matters
Although everything is done, we still must deal with our thought lives. We can’t let fear-filled thoughts run wild. We take authority over every thought that contradicts the Word. “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Negative thoughts will come, but we don’t have to accept them. When the enemy whispers, “You’re not going to make it,” we open our mouth and say, “I will live and not die.” We fight thoughts with words, not with more thoughts. Our confession shuts down the enemy’s suggestions.
This is spiritual warfare, and praise is one of our greatest weapons. Praising God in the middle of symptoms is our way of declaring victory before we see it. Praise shifts the atmosphere and reminds us that the battle is already won. We don’t wait to feel better; we praise because the Word says we’re healed.
A Thankful Attitude
Praise and thanksgiving are powerful. Thanking God when the storm is raging confuses the enemy. He doesn’t know what to do with a believer who praises in pain. Our joy becomes our strength, and our worship becomes our weapon.
When the doctor gives us a bad report, our first and best move is toward the Word; this is a practical and useful strategy. We don’t let the report become the final authority. We open our Bible and find every promise about healing, and we speak it out loud. We say, “I am healed,” and we hold that stance no matter what we feel.
No Striving Required
Resting in the finished works lets us stop striving to get healed. We’re not trying to earn it or deserve it but simply receive it. Laboring to stay at rest involves keeping our emotions in check, controlling our mouth, and refusing to let stress take over. Sometimes that labor looks like laughter, which is one way of keeping joy alive when fear tries to creep in. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).
The bottom line is that healing is a done deal. We mustn’t let fear move us from this position of rest because fear tolerated is faith contaminated. Confessing the Word concerning the healing that has been made available to us is fighting the good fight of faith. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV). This is how we maintain what God has already given us in the midst of an attack.
