Mark 10:51–52 (NIV): “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
The Bible teaches us that the Body of Christ is the company of the faithful. These words are taken generally in their spiritual sense, while the Bible asks us positively whether we know not that our bodies are the members of Christ. In the same way, when the Bible speaks of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit or of Christ, we limit their presence to the spiritual part of our being; our soul, or our heart. Nevertheless, the Bible says expressly, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Cor. 6:15, 19, 20) When the Church understands that the body also has a part in the redemption which is by Christ, by which it ought to be brought back to its original destiny, to be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, to serve as His instrument, to be sanctified by His presence, she will also recognize all the place which divine healing has in the Bible and in the counsels of God.
The account of the creation tells us that man is composed of three parts. God first formed the body from the dust of the earth, after which He breathed into it “the breath of life.” He caused His own life, His Spirit, to enter into it. By this union of Spirit with matter, the man became a “living soul.”
The soul, which is essentially the man, finds its place between the body and the spirit; it is the link which binds them together. By the body the soul finds itself in relation to the external world, by the spirit with the world invisible and with God. By means of the soul, the Holy Spirit united by faith expressed by our spirit, can by His Sovereign will, subject the body to the action of the heavenly powers and thus imbue it with the indwelling power to atomically and immediately heal. But by faith we must desire and request this: Christ’s grace to heal. And here we must relearn and seek the Lord for a newfound faith abandoned by the churches for centuries. And by prayer and repentant confession allow the Spirit to sanctify us from all sin. Moreover it is of great importance to rely on the Scriptures to guide your doctrine with Spirit-led meditation, into all truth. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Heb 13:8)
The soul, subject to the solicitations of the spirit and in unity in the body, is in a position to choose between the voice of God, speaking by the Spirit in faith, or the voice of the world speaking through the senses. This union of spirit and body forms a combination which is unique in the creation; it makes man to be the jewel of God’s work. Other creatures had existed already, some were like angels, all spirit, without any material body, and others, like the animals, were only flesh, possessing a body animated with a living soul, but devoid of spirit. Having a spirit and a body we are the temple of God, wherein he via the Spirit, abides with us.
Man was destined to show that the material body, governed by the spirit, was capable of being transformed by the power of the Spirit of God, and of being thus led to participate of heavenly glory. We know what sin and Satan have done with this possibility of gradual transformation. By means of the body, the spirit was tempted, seduced, and became a slave of sense. We know also what God has done to destroy the work of Satan and to accomplish the purpose of creation. “The Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
God prepared a body for His Son (Heb. 10:5). “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14). “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). And now Jesus, raised up from the dead with a body as free from sin as His spirit and His soul, communicates to our body the virtue of His glorified body.
it is worthy to note that when the Holy Spirit testified to the believers at and after the Pentecost outpouring of the Spirit, the message the disciples wanted enablement for, and were given:
Acts 4:29–31 (NIV): Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
And Jesus taught that healing is to go along with the gospel proclaimation: Matt 10:7-8: As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
If we are tempted to think this was only while he remained on earth, here is proof it was to be a continuum as noted in Mark 16: 15-20:
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
Further, healng is one of the gifts of the church as taught by Paul, applicable to a faith-based Spirit-led church, even today, 1 Cor 12:28: Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages.
The Lord’s supper is “the communion of the body of Christ;” and our bodies are “the members of Christ” (1 Cor. 10:16; 6:15; 12:27). Faith puts us in possession of all that the death of Christ and His resurrection has procured for us, and it is not only in our spirit and our soul that the life of the risen Jesus manifests its presence here below, it is in the body also that it would act according to the measure of our faith. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” Many believers represent to themselves that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our body as we dwell in a house. Nothing of the kind! I can dwell in a house without its becoming part of my being. I may leave it without suffering; no vital union exists between my house and me.
It is not thus with the presence of our soul and spirit in our body. The life of a plant lives and animates every part of it; and our soul is not limited to dwell in such or such part of the body, the heart or the head for instance, but penetrates throughout, even to the end of the lowest members. The life of the soul pervades the whole body; the life throughout proves the presence of the soul. It is in like manner that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our body. He penetrates its entirety. He animates and possesses us infinitely more than we can imagine. In the same way in which the Holy Spirit brings to our soul and spirit the life of Jesus, His holiness, His joy, His strength, He comes also to impart to the sick body all the vigorous vitality of Christ as soon as the hand of faith is stretched out to receive it.
When the body is fully subject to Christ, crucified with Him, renouncing all self-will and independence, desiring nothing but to be the Lord’s temple, it is then that the Holy Spirit manifests the power of the risen Saviour in the body. Then only can we glorify God in our body, leaving Him full freedom to manifest therein His power, to show that He knows how to set His temple free from the domination of sickness, sin and Satan.
Andrew Murray, Divine Healing: A Series of Addresses (Nyack, NY: Christian Alliance Publishing Co., 1900), 50–55.