It would be a shame to write a perfectly good book on healing without giving the pro-unbelief folks at least one statement to yank out of context and berate me for. So I figure this will get their attention. This title is not a gimmick; it is the absolute truth!

The Church is called the Body of Christ. We are Christ's body, the fulness of him who fills all in all (Eph 1:23). So we, being many, are one body in Christ (Romans 12:5). "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular" (1 Cor 12:27). Jesus is the head of the body (Col 1:18). The believer, in 2 Cor 6, is called righteousness, light, the temple of God...and Christ! When Saul of Tarsus persecuted the Church, he persecuted Jesus Christ himself -- the Lord told him so when he appeared to him on the way to Damascus.


Before I get written up in the latest anti-cult literature, let me point out that I am not saying that YOU are Jesus Christ. That should be obvious. But if you are a Christian, you have been baptized into Christ. You are part of Christ's body on the earth. Since Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father, the only physical presence of Christ in this earth is his Body!

To me, you need no further proof that healing and laying hands on the sick are for today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8). What he did in his ministry on earth 2,000 years ago is what he wants to do today. He wants the gospel to be preached and the sick to be healed.

We are ambassadors of Christ. We represent him in front of the whole world. We are literally the only Jesus that they can see with their physical eyes. How pathetic it is to think that we should be sick! Does that accurately reflect Jesus Christ, who never suffered a single sickness of his own? NO! We represent Jesus Christ accurately when we lay hands on the sick and see them recover as he did. How can we represent our Master without doing the works he did, as he promised us that we would? How can it possibly be God's will for the Body of Christ to live a lower life than Christ himself did? IT ISN'T.


Jesus Christ is not physically on the earth in the way that he was during his ministry, but his name is still on the earth. Sickness and adversity must bow its knee at the name of Jesus just as it would do before Jesus himself. That is because Jesus' name carries all of his power and authority. We are to cast out devils and lay hands on the sick in his name (Mark 16:15-18). We are the only ones who can use that name. Jesus himself can't and never has. He is seated in heaven with God and does not come down and use his own name. He authorized his Body to use his name. He told us that whatever we ask in his name, he himself will do it. The use of his name by the believer, the member of the Body of Christ, brings Jesus Christ himself onto the scene to do what needs to be done.


This does not mean that you should use the phrase "in the name of Jesus" as a lucky charm, as some would seem to do, given their lack of results. The phrase "in the name of Jesus" is also not a code for "end of prayer." (Nor is "Amen," by the way.) The name of Jesus did nothing for the sons of Sceva, who had no faith in that name. It did everything for the beggar at the gate Beautiful, of whom it was said that Jesus' name, through faith in his name, made him whole.

Can you see how silly it is to think that Christ himself, who "nourisheth and cherisheth" his body the Church (Eph 5:28-32), should be portrayed as the sickener and destroyer of his very own Body on the earth? It would be just as ridiculous as it would be if you said that it was your will for your head to be whole but for your third finger on your left hand to endure sickness. Besides, you know full well that you go to a doctor or take medicine to try to relieve your suffering when you are sick, which makes you a hypocrite if you really think sickness is God's plan for you. You know it isn't your will for any part of your body to be sick. Why do you think it could be God's will for part of his Body to be sick?


If sickness is such a blessing, why did God set in the Church gifts of healings instead of gifts of sickenings? Jesus did not go around giving out sickness to his own faithful, and we misrepresent him (and slander his character) when we say that he does. The gifts of the Spirit, which draw attention to Jesus and exalt him, include gifts of healings and working of miracles. Jesus is exalted by the healing of the sick, not by the sickening of the well!

Let's face it. The only way that you can represent Jesus Christ is to live like he did and do what he did. To do otherwise is to fail to represent Christ accurately to the world. That means that you should be well and actively involved in laying hands on the sick for their recovery. If you are not doing this, you are living beneath your privileges in Christ, and missing out on a lot of fun, besides.