Healing and Giving
Being generous promotes healing:
In Psalm 41:1-3, God says that He will help you when you are sick if you remember the poor! That’s a good deal. Under the New Covenant, healing is yours regardless of whether you help the poor, but if you are generous, you may get healed even if you are not exercising faith to receive healing the usual way.
In Isaiah 58:6-11, we see that your health can spring forth speedily when you have compassion on the poor.
How do we apply these concepts under the New Covenant that states that you WERE healed? I look at it this way – giving sets up a better atmosphere for healing than stinginess. There are other things you can do to promote health other than believing and receiving when you pray. For example, you can improve your diet. That will set up a better atmosphere for health in your body, and in some cases, that alone could result in healing without doing any believing and receiving. The same could be set for getting more exercise.
I would not trust in giving or diet or exercise as my main reason to walk in health, but those are still things that promote health. The Bible has much to say about things you can do that will make you either healthier or sicker. Being cruel will make you sicker (Proverbs 11:17). Taking in the Word will make you healthier (Proverbs 4:20-22). Fearing the Lord and departing from evil are health to your body (Proverbs 3:7-8). There are many more such Scriptures. So while walking in health is your right under the New Covenant, you still promote or hinder your health. (See God, Satan or You? for more on this.)
In Exodus 30:11-16, people were required to give a financial offering to prevent plagues from coming on them! The finances given represented an atonement in this context, but the clear implication was that if the people did not obey God in their giving regarding this offering, they would get sick as a result of their disobedience in giving.
Being stingy is bad for you and can even make you sick!
Ecclesiastes 5:13-17:
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
All the days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
However, you cannot “buy” your healing because Jesus already bought your healing. It cost Him His life, but it’s free to you. You do not “plant a seed” toward your healing by giving money to somebody, even if some misguided minister sends you a mail piece encouraging you to do so. You don’t have to pay for what’s already free! The Bible way to plant a seed for your healing is to hear the Word of God on the subject.
Unfaithfulness in finances can hinder you in other areas of your Christian walk. Jesus asked, “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon [money], who will commit to your trust the true riches?” (Luke 16:11). This proves that mishandling money can block your ability to receive the more important things of God. Healing is still legally yours, but you want to avoid a situation where you’re telling God YES about your healing but NO about your money at the same time. It’s just hard to be both open and closed to God at the same time.
Failure to obey God in one area of your life can lead to difficulty when trying to receive in another area of your life. If God leads you to give to a certain ministry and you don’t do it, it will be hard for you to receive the will of God in your body while resisting the will of God in your finances. Some people get healed after they consecrate another area of their lives to God. If you’re holding out in obeying God with your money, reading all the healing Scriptures in the Bible may not help you; only obedience will get you in a position to receive. Disobedience puts you on the devil’s playing field, which is where sickness is.
Generosity puts you in a place to receive from God. Note that story in Luke 7:2-10 of the Gentile who gave to Israel, building a synagogue because he loved their nation. This man had so much faith that Jesus didn’t even need to go to his house – his son was healed of a fatal illness through words alone. I consider it entirely reasonable that the Gentile man’s favor with God was tied to his generosity in giving. Also consider that Cornelius, the man at whose house the gospel was first preached to the Gentiles, was a giver even though he was not saved. His giving “came up for a memorial before God” (see Acts 10:1-4) and God chose to use this generous man to host an outpouring that changed history.
If you are a giver, it is a good sign that you know how to trust God with your money and act based on His Word rather than what your senses tell you. Your flesh wants to hoard, not give. Your flesh wants you to get into financial fear. So if you know how to give, you already have experience trusting God and mortifying the flesh. This will come in handy when you need to receive healing.
Finally, an observation. I am convinced that many times the power of God is hindered in crusade-style meetings because people are stingy with the offerings and “tune out” when the bucket is passed. I believe that when financial respect is shown to the man of God, there is a greater flow of the anointing. This is not because you are the man’s exclusive source, and it is certainly not a case of buying your healing. However, Scripture teaches that preachers should be able to make their living from the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14). When the people hold back, it shows a lack of appreciation for the ministry gift. Perhaps the minister just feels freer when he doesn’t have to be concerned about the budget, but it does seem that the power of God flows better when the budget is met than when the minister knows he will be leaving town trying to believe for money to cover the debts he racked up that the offerings would not cover. I know from that side of things that you can push through the frustration when a love offering has “more love than offering,” but it does make things more challenging! I also know that if the people just don’t have much to give and put in their “widow’s mites” anyway, God will still honor that and His power will still flow in a way that it probably wouldn’t if the low offering were due to the stinginess of the local millionaires in the crowd.
I am not excusing extravagant crusade expenses. I’ve seen what I considered some outrageous excesses coupled with long and sometimes manipulative offering times. But the minister should not have to eat peanut butter sandwiches between services because he has no money. If you’re going to invite a minister in, you need to be prepared to take care of his basic needs for food and shelter even if you won’t be giving him an offering that could buy him an airplane.
I will also note in passing that Jesus and the apostles never received offerings as we think of them. Jesus’ expenses were paid for by His partners, not by the sick people in the crowds or the others that He ministered to. I personally like that model better because I prefer not to interrupt services with offerings if I’m putting on the meetings myself.
When I’ve had control of such matters as the pastor, I’ve always made sure that our guest speakers are well taken care of in every way. We’ve seen some wonderful miracles, and I believe this been helped by respecting God by respecting the people He sends.