Derek Prince - Deliverance And Healing Are Part of Salvation
This is an excerpt from: Complete Salvation And How To Receive It - Part 1
I want to draw your attention to something which probably is not familiar to most of you because it does not come out in any translation of the Bible that I know. But there is in Greek and remember, the New Testament came to us in Greek. There is one word which is the word for 'to save.' And putting it in English letters it's S-O-Z-O, sozo. That's not exactly right but it's near enough. In some places in the New Testament, this word is translated saved, most often. But there are many other passages where it's translated heal, make well, make whole, preserve and so on. So, these other translations conceal from us the fact that all of this is salvation, you understand? It's not a little salvation. I think to make it very vivid for you I'll give you eight examples from the New Testament of the use of this word sozo where if you didn't have access to the Greek, you would have no way of knowing that that's the word that's used.
Let's turn, first of all, to Matthew 14:35-36. Matthew 14:35-36. This is part of the ministry of Jesus. And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent out into all their surrounding regions, brought to him all who were sick and begged him that they might only touch of the hem of his garment. And as many as touched were made perfectly well. That's the translation I'm reading. But what the Greek says is they were thoroughly saved. It's the word sozo with a preposition in front which means to do something thoroughly. So, every person who was miraculously healed, according to the text, was thoroughly saved. You understand? In other words, healing is not an addition to salvation, it's one part of salvation. It's salvation applied to the physical body.
Then in Luke 8:35 and following we have the record of what is known as the Gadarene demoniac, this man who was totally possessed of demons. He wouldn't wear any clothes, he was always in the tombs naked, cutting himself, shouting out day and night. When Jesus came he did one tremendously significant thing, he came and worshiped Jesus.
Now, my experience in deliverance in helping people get delivered from evil spirits is that they have to be willing to submit to Jesus. Otherwise they don't qualify. He did all he could, that was absolutely all he could do. After that the demons took over. But he had come to Jesus and Jesus saw that in that man's heart was a desire for himself. And so, Jesus began to speak to the demons and they said, 'We are Legion, because many of us have entered in.' Do you remember that? And then they pled with Jesus, 'Don't send us into the abyss, let us go out into this herd of swine here.' And Jesus permitted it.
There have been a lot of interesting speculations as to why He did. Let me give you my opinion because we don't have to dwell on it. I think it would have been terribly hard for the man if the demons had gone out unwillingly. So Jesus gave them an option that they were prepared to accept, to go into the swine. You remember what happened to the swine? They immediately ran down a steep slope and plunged into the sea and were drowned. It's interesting that one man could contain enough demon power, and keep it under control, the same demon power that could destroy a herd of 2,000 pigs. That gives you some idea the power of human personality. Many times in deliverance when I've heard a person's story I've been overwhelmed by the fact that a person could live with what they had to fight inside them.
Anyhow, the man came, Jesus cast out the spirits and we read this well, the people who kept the swine went and told it in the city so everybody came out to see what had happened. And this is what it says in verse 35: Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon possessed was healed. Here's what the word is, saved. So, deliverance from demons is not an addition to salvation, it's a part of salvation.
And then this 8th chapter of Luke contains a wonderful example. Going on a little further Jesus returned to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and He was in the crowd, and and the little woman with chronic bleeding, or an issue of blood, came up behind Him and touched Him. And Jesus knew somebody had touched Him and He said, 'Who touched me? ' She was afraid, she didn't want to admit it. Do you know why? Because according to the law of Moses, a woman with an issue of blood was ceremonial unclean and she was not permitted to touch anybody. But she was so desperate she went against the law. So then it says when she realized Jesus knew what had happened she came trembling and fell down before Him and confessed what she'd done. And in verse 48, Jesus said to her: Daughter, be of good cheer, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Guess what that is 'has made you well'? Your faith has saved you, that's right.
So deliverance from chronic bleeding is just a part of salvation. And then Luke 8:50, Jesus was at that time on His way to pray for the daughter of Jairus who was at death's door. Well, because He got delayed with the woman, Jairus' daughter died. So, these well meaning negative people sent a message to Jesus be careful of the well meaning negative people they said, 'Don't trouble the master. She's dead.' But this was Jesus' response, verse 50: Jesus heard it, he answered it, saying, 'Do not be afraid. Only believe and she will be made well.' Guess what the word is? She will be saved. What happened to her? Brought back from death to life. What's that? Part of salvation, see? Okay.
Then in Acts 4:9, this is the aftermath of the situation in which Peter and John had brought miraculous healing to the lame cripple who sat at the gate of the temple begging for alms. Typically of the religious leadership of the day, they had to have an inquiry, what had they done healing this man? I don't know whether you've ever noticed, when Jesus healed people and He usually did it on the sabbath day they never bothered about the fact that people got healed, all they bothered about was the regulations for the sabbath which they had had not been observed. I have to say, in a way, that's rather typical of religious people. We tend to get so absorbed with our little rules that we miss the really important things of God.
Anyhow, Peter and John are arraigned by the Sanhedrin. This is what Peter said in Acts 4:9: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to the helpless man, by what means he has been made well. Guess what the word is? Saved, that's right. So the restoration of strength and life to the body of a cripple is called salvation. And, just a little further on in verse 12 Peter says: It was through the name of Jesus of Nazareth that this happened And then he says:, nor is there salvation in any other. So what was the healing of that man? Salvation. See? And just two more examples. Acts 14:8, this is something that happened when Paul was preaching in Lystra. Acts 14:8: And in Lystra, a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked.
This man heard Paul speak. Paul, observing him intently, and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand up right on your feet.' He leapt and walked. Paul saw that he had faith to be what? Saved, that's right. And then a completely different use of the word in 2 Timothy 2 Timothy 4:18. Paul, right at the end of his life, in jail, facing probable execution says: And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me to his heavenly kingdom. Guess what the word preserve is? Saved.
So, salvation is also the ongoing process of being preserved in every situation. So there are eight examples where this basic word for saved or salvation is applied to things other than the forgiveness of sins. In other words, it's the all inclusive benefit of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It covers every area of human personality; it covers every need in any human life in time or eternity. Whether it's spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, financial; it's all covered by the one sacrifice of Jesus.
I have spent years meditating on this because when I was sick in the land of Egypt in 1943 in a British military hospital, God sent a precious sister, a lady brigadier in the Salvation Army aged about 76, who was a warrior of the Lord. She came in and got permission for me to go out and sit in the car and they prayed together. God spoke to me through another sister in that car. He said, 'Consider the work of Calvary. A perfect work. Perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect.'
Now, when I got out of the car I was just as sick as when I got in. But God had shown me where to find the answer. The work of Calvary. A perfect work. Perfect in every respect. It doesn't matter what kind of need you have, it's perfect. Perfect in every aspect. It doesn't matter from what angle you view it, it's perfect. I could say I think truthfully that for the last 46 years I have been considering the work of Calvary. I never get to the end of it, there's always something new.