Andrew Murray. Divine Healing. 1900; Edited by Katie Stewart, What Saith the Scripture, 2009.

Andrew Murray was a profound Christian thinker and expositor. Many of his sermons were turned into books. We have reviewed one of his other books recently. Divine Healing has some of the same themes as Abide in Christ. If we abide in Christ, we will experience His healing.

I confess being a little surprised at Murray’s approach. He generally is acknowledged as teaching from a Reformed perspective, but Divine Healing could have been written by someone in the so-called Faith movement such as Oral Roberts or Kenneth Hagin.

First of all, Murray emphasizes that the Bible teaches physical healing as a gift to believers from God Himself through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. He says that there is no indication in Scripture that the gift was only limited to certain time periods. He gives a few testimonies of people he knew who were healed from serious illnesses by divine intervention. It is easy summarize his argument.

The Bible promises in James 5:15 that “the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.” What is needed? Faith. What is often lacking? Faith. Much of Divine Healing presents Scriptures and discussions to encourage and increase faith in the reader. In other words, it is like the faith teaching of the twentieth century.

What else is needed? A right relationship with God. Sin is a hindrance to the answering of any prayer. So the second half of that verse from James declares, “And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Or as Isaiah 59:1-2 puts it:

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.

Sometimes we do need to confess sin. We may have to ask the Lord to help us with that as the Psalmist prays in Psalm 139:23-24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!

Murray explains, “God’s pardon brings with it a divine life which acts powerfully on him who receives it.” (854)

But Murray spends most of his time really persuading the readers to increase their faith. Divine Healing quotes numerous verses describing God’s promises to His people. It tells how the readers can understand and apply those promises.

Interestingly, it comes back to the main theme of the other book by Murray reviewed on these pages: abiding. One of the greatest promises in the Bible is this: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). Jesus compares the process of abiding to branches connected to a vine.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Think of this relationship, what it means.

The branch has nothing: It just depends on the vine for everything. (1619)

The sap does not flow for a time, and then stop, and then flow again, but from moment to moment the sap flows from the vine to branches. (1627)

If there was anything in the grapes not good, the owner never blamed the branch; the blame was always on the vine. (1640)

No one who learns to rest on the living Christ can become slothful, for the closer your contact with Christ the more of the Spirit of His zeal and love will be borne in upon you. (1642)

“He is my Vine, and I am His branch; I want nothing more—now I have the everlasting Vine…It is enough, my soul is satisfied.” (1727)

Ah, Let it be. And let Murray’s witness speak to you and persuade you and heal you.

This particular edition is a free download from the publisher. The editor has made a few annotations—as if the reader could not distinguish the context when the book was speaking of sin as a specific sin or the sin nature or between belief meaning “trust” and belief meaning “historical knowledge.” However, these are few and are easily accounted for. The editor also includes the full text of any verses cited in the text. That is very helpful and even more faith-building! After all, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

N.B.: Parenthetical references are Kindle locations, not page numbers.