What the Bible Teaches on Health and Healing

We know that the promises of God never fail. He makes the promise to His people: "You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The LORD will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you." (Deuteronomy 7:14-15)The promise was originally made to the children of Israel, but as believers in Jesus Christ, we are spiritual descendants of Abraham, and we share fully in his blessing, (Galatians 3:6-8). Why then are faithful Christian couples sometimes childless? Is it perhaps because they have sinned? But they confess and are forgiven; and then they fast and pray, but the child still does not come. Why do sincere Christians ever fall sick? Since our own sins have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, could it perhaps be the result of ancestral curses? If so, why is it that prayer for special deliverance do not guarantee to anyone to be always "free from every disease" as God has promised?And when we do fall ill, we pray for healing. This we can do confidently on the authority of the word of God. We have been assured by the prophet Isaiah that Jesus Christ takes away our infirmities and our sorrows, and by His wounds we are healed, (Isaiah 53:4-5). And this same Jesus has given us authority over all unclean spirits and has promised that when we lay hands on the sick they will recover. The problem is that sometimes it works but sometimes it does not work - not even when we fast as well as pray and call on the elders to anoint with oil. Can we always blame the people who are not healed for lack of faith? Or is it a failure of the faith of the people praying for the sick? Some people are so desperate they will go to any prayer house to seek healing. Sometimes they are healed, but does that prove that it is of God?There is something wrong somewhere, and it is not with God or His promises. It is most likely to do with our own misunderstanding of Him and of those promises. That is why we are taking a careful look at all the main verses that speak about health and healing in both the Old Testament and the New. The format is a set of Questions and Answers. My prayer is that we shall all have our questions answered sufficiently to enable us to trust God fully for every aspect of our health and healing, and to avoid the frustration and disillusionment which results from a false understanding of God and His promises.