Healing was a powerful tool the Lord Jesus used as He ministered to the masses.  Now, the primary reason He came to earth was to redeem mankind from their sins, but He had to get their attention first before they would listen to the Gospel message, right?  As multitudes came to hear His words, people were healed of whatever was afflicting them.  Healing wasn’t the sole reason He came to the earth, but rather, it was a by-product of His work here.
   To the many who were afflicted with divers sicknesses, diseases, and what-have-you, getting healed was all they were interested in.  The message of the Gospel was of secondary importance to them, if important at all.  After all, they had the teachings of Moses presented to them each Sabbath at the Temple.  As far as we can tell, nobody ever got healed hearing the Law of Moses, for the law has no room for grace, only compliance.  Then came Jesus, teaching both the observance of the law AND the availability of grace.  And, He healed their sick.  Now THAT’S something the people had never heard of or seen before.  Thus, the wrath of the Scribes and Pharisees, who were the voice of the “Establishment”, was incited against Jesus.  So much so, that they played right into the heavenly Father’s plan of redemption through the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the cross.  The Law of Moses was all there was, as far as the Jews of the day taught. But the heavenly Father, as Jesus presented Him, was a loving, tender-hearted, merciful Father, not some irritated and angry Father sitting up there on a cloud with a fly swatter in His hand, just waiting for us to “light” so He could swat us.
   All my church life I had heard not the loving heavenly Father message, but the angry, irritated heavenly Father message of fire, brimstone, and hell, having continually heard, “BOY, IF YOU DON’T REPENT, YOU’RE GONNA BURN IN HELL!”  Now, they preached redemption through the shed blood of Christ Jesus, but why in the world would I want to spend eternity with an angry and irritated heavenly Father who couldn’t stand the sight of me?  Is repentance bad?  No, it’s good!  We need to turn from our sinful ways and do that which is good and right.  But that doesn’t solve the “angry, irritated heavenly Father” image I had of God.  Somehow, I couldn’t imagine why God would want me in heaven when all the while He was looking for the opportunity to send me straight to hell.  It just didn’t add up.  Then finally, the true Gospel message that Christ Jesus came teaching finally broke through and gave me light where darkness had been before. 
   We, meaning you and I and most of the rest of the world, have been taught all wrong about God.  Clearly the Jews were against the teachings of Jesus because He taught people contrary to what they did, and the Jews saw it as blasphemy, because they sat in the authority of the office of Moses.  For example, one day Jesus and His disciples were walking through a field, and were picking corn to eat as they went, and they were accused of breaking the Sabbath.  We can read about it in Matthew 12:1-8:
Mat 12:1  At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
Mat 12:3  But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
Mat 12:4  How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
Mat 12:7  But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

   Now, what does all that have to do with healing?  I’m getting to it.  As I said, the Law has no place for mercy, yet Jesus plainly said, If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.  Was Jesus saying there was no more place for the Law?  NO!  But He said He will have mercy in preference to sacrifice.  The Law serves to show us our rebellious nature that loves to sin.  But it doesn’t show us Jesus!  The Law shows us the penalty for sin, but it does not show us how we may obtain mercy.  Jesus came to show the side of His heavenly Father that we have all missed, and that is mercy.  Psalm 103:2-5, one of my favorite passages says,
Psa 103:2  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Psa 103:3  Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Psa 103:4  Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Psa 103:5  Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
   Don’t you see the MERCY there?  Yet, between the Law and what most of us have learned about God, we usually fail to understand the same God who gave us the Law, also extends mercy.  God doesn’t want His children sick and diseased, and even provided the perfect, complete payment for our sins and our diseases, because of His mercy.  He didn’t give us the Law to destroy us, but rather, He gave us the Law to keep us FROM destruction, to warn us DON’T DO THAT, IT WILL CAUSE YOU SORROW AND DEATH.
   Like the kid that you tell, Stay out of the cookie jar, as soon as nobody is looking, what does that kid do?  Yep, he’s in the cookie jar.  Been there, done that.  Why?  because rebellion is in our very nature, handed down to us all the way from Adam just like he rebelled against God.  And every human in the world has done the same ever since.  So, when we read in the Bible that God has provided mercy for healing of our sicknesses and diseases, what do we do?  Most of us don’t believe it, because we rebel against the truth.  Even our bodies rebel against the truth.  God created us to be well, and our bodies rebel and get sick.  Health was our “default” condition, in other words, it’s what we’re created to have, but something came in attempting to change that, and that is sin, doubt, and unbelief.
   If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me, “Why haven’t I received my healing yet?” I would be a wealthy man indeed.  But I know why people fail to receive healing.  It isn’t because God failed to completely pay for their healing.  It isn’t because He wants them sick so they can learn a lesson.  It’s plain and simple because they don’t believe it’s a done deal.  They think it’s something off in the future that He’s GOING to do.  No, it’s already done, and you can have it if and when you are thoroughly convinced you can have it, and not a moment before.  Those who went to Jesus BELIEVED He would heal them, and He did.  Those in His own home village DID NOT BELIEVE, and there He could do no mighty works, except that He laid His hands on a FEW sick folk and healed them.  What was the difference between those who were healed and those who not?  It was the “BELIEVE”.  It is written in Mark 11:22-24,
Mar 11:22  And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
Mar 11:23  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Mar 11:24  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
    When is “BELIEVE”?  Is it after “RECEIVE” or before?  It is before.  Believe is ALWAYS prior to RECEIVE.  Once the BELIEVE takes place, that is, fully trusting in, being fully convinced of so that NOTHING may sway you, and that includes pain, doctor’s diagnosis, what you see, what you feel, what you hear, what your mother-in-law tells you, or anything else, RECEIVE happens.  Not because I say so, but because Jesus said so.  Argue with Him if you wish, but I’m not going to.  I BELIEVED HIS WORD when I was dying of cancer, and I was healed with no treatments, and I haven’t been sick ever again, and that’s been since 1993.  So, where’s YOUR healing?  The same place mine was, and is.  And you can have yours, too. What are you waiting for?