Healing is something everyone needs at any given time, but few people know the real power behind it. What we can see on the physical level are the doctors at work, but there’s an all-important spiritual force behind them. Without this force, no medicine or therapy in the world will make a difference. There is a link between our spiritual health and our physical health, and studying the word of God helps us understand it.

Just like we can “think” ourselves into a real illness, we can dwell on negative things until our souls become unhealthy. Identifying longstanding feelings of guilt and shame can be the first step in the healing process. If we do something wrong and dwell on it, this keen awareness of sin will eventually produce a guilty conscience. The only way to be free of this type of emotional pain is to realize that forgiveness and healing originates with Jesus Christ. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Now it goes deeper than just realizing this intellectually; we must believe with all our heart that Jesus is the only way to real healing. When we are born again, we’re purified from this guilty, evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22). Jesus shed his blood to pardon our mistakes, wash away our sins, offer us forgiveness, and free us to concentrate on what he did rather than what we did.

In the Old Testament, sacrifices to atone for sin had to be made continually. Jesus loves us so much that he chose to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins for all time, even the ones we have yet to commit.“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13, 14). We can forgive ourselves because Jesus already forgave us, andz accept this by faith instead of working to earn God’s forgiveness.

When we need healing, many of us forget to go to God first. We get involved with self-effort; but the problem is that when we fail in our efforts, we feel guilty and ashamed. Healing is God’s will, but guilt and shame aren’t. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). We could never hope to do what Jesus already did.

Believing God for healing sounds simple, but it’s real work. The temptation to think that healing comes from a bottle of pills or a vial of medicine threatens to pull us away from the truth. God will work through medical professionals, but we have to make an effort to focus more on the promises made in the Bible than what we see around us. This is what distinguishes self-effort from faith-effort.

Healing by faith is real, and it’s no coincidence that God pairs up healing with salvation. “Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise” (Jeremiah 17:14, NIV). When we receive healing from him, we can’t help but thank him. Wholeness from him is real and permanent!