He Sent His Word and Healed Them
“He sent his word, and healed them…” (Psalm 107:20). The Word is an instrument in God’s healing process. It is the written Word being preached and proclaimed and applied in a given situation that is the key.
In the New Testament we find significant statements that show the application of that statement in the Psalms. For example, in Matthew 8:8 in the healing of the centurion’s servant, we read, “The centurion answered and said, Lord, … speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” And verse 13b states “and his servant was healed at that very moment” (ESV). The centurion had explained that he was a man under authority and he knew that is you have the authority you could just speak a word and it would be obeyed.
We have been given the authority to use the name of Jesus Christ. In Acts 3:6, “Peter said, ‘I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!’” (ESV). “He sent his [command], and healed them.” There is tremendous power when a believer speaks the Word with authority.
In many healing accounts in the Gospels, Jesus spent time talking to those wanting healing. Sometimes he asked people questions, other times he taught what God had revealed in the Old Testament, and he also proclaimed the truth as it applied to people then. He always spoke the Word that was needed by that person at that time.
All healing is based on God’s Word, and the truth is that sick people need the Word more than they need healing. If the sick grasp what God has said about their condition and His redemptive sacrifice for their physical and mental healing and healing is truly their right as a child of God, then they will receive healing.
In the book of Acts, there was a man named Aeneas who had been paralyzed for eight years. Even his name indicated that he had been dealing with many health issues, because a shortened form of “Aeneas” means “afflicted or distressed one”. He obviously had heard of Jesus Christ and what he had done to bring healing and deliverance to people. In Acts 8:34, “And Simon said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Rise up and smooth out your pallet.’ And immediately he rose up.” (MGI) Aeneas needed to know that healing was available FOR HIM. It is not enough to know that other people can be healed.
He sent his Word and healed ME. We need to make the promises of the written Word personal. I Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (ESV) We can change it to read “by his wounds I have been healed”. Did we deserve it? No! Did we do anything to get it? No! But because of what Jesus Christ went through in the torture and on the cross, it was made available as a free gift. We need only to receive that gift.
We need to continue to minister healing to people in this way, continue to believe the promises of the written Word are personal for us and continue to seek to speak the word that is needed at any moment!