It has always been God's desire for His people to be well. Under the Old Covenant, God provided healing for His people, though most people are unaware of this.

Jesus expressed God's desire to heal in Luke 13:10-13:
And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
She did not glorify God before she was healed, nor did she give God glory for her infirmity. God received glory only after she was healed. There is no example in the New Testament of people glorifying God for sickness. However, we find many instances of God being glorified after sickness was healed.

I realize this may not be what you have been taught, but this is what the Bible teaches. Notice Jesus did not wait for the woman to ask for healing. When He saw her, He called to her and told her she was loosed from her infirmity.

Now let's see how the religious people of that day reacted toward this healing. Verse 14 says, "And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation.…" They reacted just like some religious people would today. They became indignant because Jesus healed on the Sabbath day. These men were spiritually blinded by religion and tradition.

The ruler of the synagogue said, "There are six days in which men ought to work: in them, therefore, come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day" (v.14). Then Jesus answered, "Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?" (v.15).

The Sabbath was instituted for man's rest, based on the fact that after six days of creating, God rested. But men put such burdensome regulations on it that that the people could not enjoy the rest it provided. In Mark 2:27, Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath." By healing on the Sabbath, Jesus was freeing people from the bondage of its tradition.

Then Jesus said, "And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" (v.16).

He did not say God bound her, but rather Satan. Jesus reveals plainly that Satan is the oppressor. This woman had a right to be free—she was a daughter of Abraham. In the covenant God made with Abraham, healing was a provision (Duet. 28).

Study the reaction of the multitude in Matthew chapter nine and meditate on their response when Jesus healed: They marveled and glorified God. You will never find it recorded in the Bible that people gave God glory for any other reason. God never allowed people to keep their infirmity to teach them a lesson—and He is the same today!

The news began to travel rapidly about Jesus how He was doing good—healing the sick and casting out demons. The attitude of all who came to Him was: "If we can get to Him, we can be healed." It is obvious that someone told them the good news of the works that Jesus did.

This can be verified by the account with the issue of blood in Mark, chapter five. Someone told her that Jesus was going about healing all manner of sickness and disease. We have evidence of this, because verse 27 says, "When she heard of Jesus, (she) came in the press behind, and touched his garment."

In Matthew 15:29-31, we find still another example of Jesus healing for the glory of God.
And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them: Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.


The Amplified Bible says, "They recognized God." When healing is taking place, people will recognize God. That is the reason large numbers of people turn to God in healing crusades. They recognize that God is doing the work.

Become confident in your heart that God is a loving, caring heavenly father. His desire is that we all be well and healthy.
And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed.
(Luke 17:11-14)
Notice it says that the lepers stood afar off. You must realize that lepers were considered unclean and were unable to approach clean people. They could be stoned to death for entering a city.

Jesus instructed them to show themselves to the priests. These men have heard that Jesus healed all that were sick because for them to follow His instructions could have meant death by stoning.

We should follow their example: Act on the Word of God.

There is one thing about people who are healed by God: they don't care what anyone thinks; they praise God with a loud voice!
And he fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
(vv.16-19)
One turned back and gave glory to God for his healing. Through this, the Lord revealed something I had never seen before: There is power in Praise. That may be why some people lose their healing: They refuse to praise God when they still feel pain.

Leprosy begins as scaly patches, but then it decays and mutilates the body. Nine of the ten lepers were cleansed of leprosy, but only one was made whole. "Being made whole" means "to be saved from disease and its effects; to be without corruption."

Because the one went back and gave thanks, his body was completely restored. It was as though he never had the disease.

Now you can understand why people glorify God with a loud voice!

Copyright © Ed Dufresne Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.