He Can Heal You

In his final message in the most recent general conference, President Nelson said this, “I also invite you to study again the account of the Savior’s appearance to the Nephites in the Americas, as recorded in 3 Nephi. Not long before that appearance, His voice was heard among the people, including these words of supplication: ‘Will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you? … Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive.’ Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ extends that same invitation to you today. I plead with you to come unto Him so that He can heal you! He will heal you from sin as you repent. He will heal you from sadness and fear. He will heal you from the wounds of this world. Whatever questions or problems you have, the answer is always found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Learn more about His Atonement, His love, His mercy, His doctrine, and His restored gospel of healing and progression. Turn to Him! Follow Him!” President Nelson has invited us repeatedly to come unto the Savior, to learn of Him, to follow Him. The accounts of the mortal ministry of the Savior are full of stories of healing—He healed the sick, He healed the blind, He healed the lame, He healed those possessed of devils, and He even healed the dead. And thus, if we are to believe these words, we must believe that He can, as President Nelson promised, heal us. While most of the healings we read about in the New Testament are physical, I believe they were meant to be symbolic of the fact that He can heal us from all pains and sins and struggles. That was indeed His message when He healed the man lowered down from the roof and forgave His sins at the same time: “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house” (Matthew 9:6-7). And so, every physical healing He did was a witness to us that He can heal us not just physically but also spiritually and mentally and emotionally—He can take away our sins in a miracle as powerful as calling upon the lame to stand up and walk.   

And so how do we come unto Jesus Christ? How do we turn to Him and follow Him so that we might be healed? It starts, as President Nelson suggested, by studying His word. This is what we learn from the account of Philip and the Ethiopian who was reading the words of Isaiah. Luke recorded, “The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.” The man wondered what these scriptures meant, and so “Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” After learning, through the power of the words of the ancient prophet and the Spirit confirming their veracity, this man declared, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:31-37). As Paul declared, after quoting the first verse from the same chapter of Isaiah, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). If we want to come unto Jesus Christ, we must start by reading the testimony of those who have been witnesses of Him. This is what Samuel the Lamanite taught when he spoke of those who “are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them” (Helaman 15:7). Alma taught something similar to his son Helaman as he spoke of those who were converted among the Lamanites through the missionary work of the sons of Mosiah: “Were it not for these things that these records do contain, which are on these plates, Ammon and his brethren could not have convinced so many thousands of the Lamanites of the incorrect tradition of their fathers; yea, these records and their words brought them unto repentance; that is, they brought them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ their Redeemer” (Alma 37:9). It was the words of the scriptures that was the key to their conversion and their coming to the knowledge of their Savior. As the Savior invited us, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). We search the scriptures because they testify of Him, and in Him is found eternal life. And so, any who would come unto Him and be healed must start by reading and pondering and hearing His words that bear witness of Him.