Salvation and Healing go together

 Many Christians think it is better to focus on our eternal destiny rather than on miraculous healings.

Forgiveness of sins or healing from all diseases. Which is more important?

If a cancer patient believes in Jesus and dies anyway, he will go to heaven and enjoy eternal love, joy and peace. There is no sickness of any kind in heaven.

If a cancer patient is cured but does not believe in Jesus, he may remain healthy on earth for many years, but after his death he will suffer eternal distress separated from God's blessings.

Jesus himself said that it is better to die disabled but in faith than to go to hell physically healthy.

If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. Mt 18:8 NIV

So if you have a pornography addiction, you may have to give up the internet for a while.
If your job makes it impossible to work without sin, you need to find another job.

God's first priority is to save our souls, to save us from sin and condemnation. That's why God's eternal Son died on the cross to take the punishment for our sins. God is just, and no sin can go unpunished.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

But when we hear how Christians are doing missionary work in Asia and the Third World, we come up against a contradiction. Where many miraculous healings are taking place, countless people are turning to Christ. Churches are multiplying dramatically and discipleship is dynamic.

In the West, we see traditional Christianity in retreat. Whether the focus is on humanistic theology or reformed biblical teaching, we are not seeing dynamic growth.

Some Christians try to justify this sad state of affairs by pointing to passages in the Bible that indicate a falling away before the return of Jesus. But there are also passages that point to a great harvest.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Mt 24:14 NIV

How is the gospel being preached in the Third World today in Asia, Africa and South America? With signs and wonders, as in biblical times.

Conservative or Reformed churches focus on salvation rather than healing, and we see disappointing results. Humanistic churches emphasise theology, psychology, tradition, politics and good works. The world outside the church does not take this seriously.

In the Bible, we see something very different.

And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Ac 10:38 NLT

Healing and deliverance from sin go together in the Bible.

 … who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, Ps 103:3 NIV

The same God, in the same Bible, in the same verse, promises forgiveness of sins and healing from all diseases.