Paid in Full, day 2: Why healing matters (healing IS the gospel_

Hover over the references to see the Biblical text

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I'm on the slow track, working my way through Art Thomas' book, Paid in Full 40-Day Healing Ministry Activation Manual, and the homework for day 2 is to answer the question, "Why does healing matter?"

I have read that signs and wonders accompany the proclamation of the gospel to testify to it's truth. I think that's an incorrect hypothesis. In fact, I don't think signs and wonders accompany the gospel at all. I think they are the gospel.

• Paul wrote to the Corinthians that his message and preaching "were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that [their] faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power" (1 Corinthians 2:4-5 NIV). To the Roman Christians he wrote that what Christ had accomplished through him in leading non-Jews to faith had been accomplished "by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum [Paul had completely] fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ" (Romans 15:18-19 ESV). For Paul, the Gospel without signs and wonders was incomplete.
• Both Hebrew and Greek have individual words (rp and sozo respectively) that mean both healing and saving, and those two activities are paired in mulitple places in Scripture (Psalm 103:3; Isaiah 53:4-5, Matthew 8:16, 1 Peter 2:24; Matthew 8:1-7; James 5:15-16).
• Salvation is undeserved and freely given in response to nothing but faith in the one who saves. This is the same model we see in Jesus' healing ministry: no one had to deserve healing; it was freely given in response to faith enough to just ask him for it.

Roger Sapp got into the healing ministry after the Spirit asked him, "Why don't you receive me as your healer in the same way that you received me as your Savior?" They are the same. The only difference is that Jesus gave the healing work to his disciples but retained the saving work himself, and he had a 100% success rate in his healing ministry. Our salvation is secure with him.

So, in my understanding, healing is important because it is the gospel: Jesus came to save us, and that includes healing us.

(First publish June 9, 2020, but moved to September 15 to place it after Paid in Full, day 1 in this blog.)

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