Taking Communion for Healing
Isaiah 53, the prophetic passage on healing, reads, “Surely He has borne our griefs…” (verse 4). The literal word for “griefs” is sicknesses. In this passage, Isaiah is, in fact, saying, “Surely He has borne our sicknesses. He carried our pains. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.” When Jesus died on the cross, the Scripture says, “He became sin.” (See 2 Cor. 5:21.) And when He became sin and died in our place, the Father’s anger and wrath were poured out on Him as He became the very thing that was working to destroy us. He took my place and bore what I deserved. Jesus asked the Father, “Why did you turn your face from me? Why did you forsake me?” (See Matthew 27:46 and Psalm 22:1.) The Father forsook Him because Jesus became sin. He poured out His wrath upon His own Son, who had become what was destroying mankind.
The movie, The Passion of the Christ, is probably the clearest pictorial description of the sufferings of Christ available at this moment. Isaiah 53:5 records, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our inequities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.” When the Scripture is talking about stripes, it is talking about His physical beating. They beat Jesus with a rod, and of course He wore the crown of thorns, but those things were minor compared to being whipped with metal shards tied onto leather straps.
The tradition of the day was to use the whip in cases like this and give specifically 39 lashes. That number was so severe, it actually opened up their flesh to their internal organs. The understanding was that 40 lashes would kill a man, so they would take him to the edge of death instead. When we say that “by His stripes we are healed,” we’re talking about the beating that He endured. We’re talking about the moment when Jesus made a payment for our health and our healing. This part of His suffering was not to make it possible for us to go to Heaven. This one, in many ways, is for Heaven to come to earth in us. His blood paid the price to get you to Heaven. But His stripes were actually a payment for our pain, suffering and sicknesses here on earth.
Everybody knows you get a new body in Heaven. There’s no sickness there, there’s no weeping there, there’s no pain, no conflict, no confusion. In Heaven, everything is wonderful. So, it’s important to see that this part of His provision is for now. “By His stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:5). Peter quoted the passage from Isaiah in this way: “by His stripes we were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24). Notice it is past tense. It has already been accomplished on our behalf.
The body of the broken Savior made a full and complete payment, not only for my healing, but for health—spirit, soul, and body. This is the provision of the Lord. And that’s its purpose. Remembering Jesus’ broken body in Communion is not just a nice sentimental moment when we give thanks that He died and we get to go to Heaven. It is all that, but a million times more. It’s a divine moment.
Let’s say somebody gives you a car. They’ve gone down to the dealership and paid in cash, and they say, “Just go on down there, give them this card, and they’ll give you the car. Everything has been paid for—the taxes are paid, the tank is full of gas and I’ve covered insurance for the first five years. Go, get your car!” It would be foolish for you to go down there and insist on paying for the car again. Yet many people are trying to pay for their healing that’s already been purchased. It’s a gift that we all qualify for.
Then how is it that Jesus could heal people during His earthly ministry before He had borne stripes on His body? I look at it like when we went grocery shopping with our whole family when the children were small. The key to sane shopping with young children is the ice cream aisle. We strategically went down the ice cream aisle first and got an ice cream for each of the kids before we did any of our shopping. It was amazing how angelic they were with an ice cream cone in their hands. We hadn’t paid for that ice cream yet, but neither had we left the store. We would put the wrapper in the cart so the cashier could scan it with the rest of the groceries. We paid for what was already consumed before we left the store. And when Jesus died, He paid for everything that had already been consumed before He left the store.
Two New Kidneys
Our friends, Michael and Jessica Koulianos, shared an amazing testimony with me about Jessica’s maternal grandfather, Roy Harthern. In the late 1990s, Roy was dying of kidney cancer. He had spent his life pastoring a large Assembly of God church, but he got sick and was not getting better. As the family traveled to his bedside to say goodbye to their grandfather, he was carrying a mere 80 pounds on his 6’1” frame. A pastor friend, who was a great Bible teacher, contacted the family and told them that Roy needed to start taking Communion every day. The pastor connected with Roy and began to teach him about the power of the sacrament. Despite his condition, Roy began to align himself daily with the body and blood of Christ through Communion.
One night, shortly after, Roy had an encounter with the Lord. Jesus entered his room and told Roy that He was going to heal his body. That night, Roy received two brand new kidneys. Not only was the terminal cancer completely gone from his body, but the tests revealed that Roy suddenly had the kidneys of a much younger man. The doctor, a staunch atheist, didn’t know how to comprehend what had happened to his dying patient. He could find no medical explanation for the sudden changes in Roy’s body. He ended up admitting, “There has to be a God!” Even though he had refused God’s existence, he suddenly saw the lack of evidence on the side of atheism. This supernatural, creative miracle pushed the doctor right out of his unbelief. Roy left that hospital and lived for another twenty years, sharing his testimony of God’s healing and the power of Communion.
I can’t hear that story without feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. Even if you don’t have a personal story like this, you do have a God like this. Each of our lives testifies of His goodness and faithfulness. We just need to cultivate the awareness. When we take Communion, we get to collect those stones of remembrance of His goodness and create a monument of thankfulness in our hearts. The heart of praise allows us to draw near to Him, and that is the entire focus of Communion.
The Context of Relationship
It’s all about Him. Everything changes when we align ourselves with God. The Holy Spirit wants to reveal Himself to you so that He can reveal Himself through you. We are citizens of Heaven, but we have an assignment to fulfill on earth—that is releasing the reality of Heaven into every situation, every relationship, and every corner of the earth. But how can we do that? Not through our own strength, surely. Scripture says that “we have been given the mind of Christ” (1Cor. 2:16). It says that we have died and have been raised with Jesus (see Rom. 6:4). It says that our old man has gone and “we are a new creation” (see 2 Cor. 5:17) and that “Christ lives within us (see Gal. 2:20). The Bible is 100% true, so if I’m not experiencing those statements all of the time, then there must be a reality that is greater and truer than the one that I am experiencing.
That we would need reminding of this greater reality comes as no surprise to the Lord. It’s like He sat us all down at that table with the disciples in that upper room and said, “Listen, I know. I know some days are going to be hard. I know there are going to be moments when it feels like the reality of Heaven is far away. Your child is sick or you lost your job or your best friend died or you did that thing you swore you would stop doing. I know. I’m leaving you something—My body and My blood—to remind you who you are and where your true home is. I’m leaving you this reminder of My salvation, My healing, the comfort of My presence, and My victorious return. Take it. Remember me. Be everything I created you to be so that My Kingdom can invade every single one of those situations, and the world can know a good, good Father.”
Communion is not a magic pill, and God is not a vending machine.
Human nature is constantly attempting to create rules outside of a relationship. Communion is not a magic pill, and God is not a vending machine. He does not want us to eat a wafer and drink some grape juice every day so that He will grant our wishes. Communion is about lining ourselves up with Him—spirit, soul, and body. It is a chance for us to remember the debt of sin that hung around our necks—too big for us to ever repay on our own—and the way that our Jesus took that debt with Him to the cross so that you and I could “have life, and have it abundantly” (see John 10:10). It’s a chance for us to come—in all humility and honor—into the presence of the Lord, to praise His name for all that He has done, and to celebrate in union with other believers. Take this tool, given to us by Jesus Himself, and use it frequently. You will not remain the same. That is His promise.
Bill Johnson Beni Johnson For more on Communion and Healing, watch Beni Johnson's Interview with Candice Smithyman
