Healing Through Communion
Although the Lord has many ways of healing, surely one of the most precious comes from observance of Communion. Through Communion, people have been healed of cancer, diabetes, Epstein-Barr virus, and more. Recently, Sid Roth interviewed Dr. John Miller, a chiropractor who has studied the power of Communion to heal for more than 20 years.
Dr. Miller said, “Communion is a powerful source of healing that has been overlooked by the church. I took Communion all my life and never once thought about it in connection with healing. Then, one day, as I was reading 1 Corinthians 11: 28-30, I saw that sickness can come from not recognizing or discerning the body of the Lord. The way a believer takes Communion can directly affect his or her health.
Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 11:27-30, New International Version, emphasis added).
“As I researched this passage, I learned that Communion, also called the Lord’s Supper, originated in Jesus’ last observance of Passover, the night before His crucifixion. During that meal, Jesus shared a cup of wine, and said it was the new covenant in His blood, for the forgiveness of our sins. He also broke bread and said it represented His body.
“As I meditated on the symbolism of the broken bread, His body, I thought about the 39 stripes He received when He was scourged. He had literally taken the beating due us for our sin. I realized that discerning the body of the Lord meant our focus should be on the Lord. He had already paid the price for our healing by the scourging He experienced, and that we do not have to be sick!
“Isaiah talked about a coming Messiah who would take our sins and our sicknesses onto His own body. Chapter 53 of the book of Isaiah describes what the ancient rabbis referred to as the leprous Messiah, because early portions of the chapter talk about His being marred or disfigured by all the sin and disease of humanity.
Surely our griefs [sickness, Heb.] He Himself bore, and our sorrows [Heb., pains] He carried….But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5, New American Standard version, emphasis added.)
“This passage is repeated in Matthew 8:17 and in 1 Peter 2:24 because it is so important. Jesus took our sin and died to pay the price, and by the wounds in His body, we have been healed. When we discern His body, we are to consider this important fact.
“In the Communion supper, the Lord provided two elements, wine and bread As we take the wine, which represents His blood, we are forgiven of our sin. As we eat the bread, we are healed in our bodies. God gave us this physical ceremony in Communion, for the healing of our physical bodies, as well as for the forgiveness of our sins.
“Many people are healed once they understand and believe this. For example, Troy Miller, no relation, is a pastor in Florida who had cancer of the kidney. He lay dying in a hospital bed. The Lord spoke to his mother, telling her to take the Communion elements of bread and wine to him in the hospital. When he took Communion, the cancer immediately began disappearing from Troy’s body.
“To give another example, a car racing friend of mine had been in a bad crash, which he had survived, but which had cost him his peripheral vision. One night when he was visiting at my house, I explained the healing power of Communion to him. It was late at night, about two o’clock in the morning, when we decided to break bread together. As he meditated on the truth of healing through the wounds of Jesus, the lamb of God, his peripheral vision came back.
“All healing is not immediate. In fact, most healing takes place gradually. I tell people to take Communion just like it was a medicine, three times a day. You can do it by yourself, in your own home or where ever you are. You do not need any special bread or wine, because it is your faith that is the key, not the material objects you have.”
Dr. Miller said, “If we take Communion on regular basis, daily or even several times a day, we can take it believing in progressive healing. This is good for people who just do not have the faith to receive immediate, total healing, and it builds their faith because they can see small, progressive improvements. The important thing is to take Communion in faith, recognizing signs of improvement.
“One young lady was brought to me who was dying from Epstein Barr virus. The virus has destroyed 39% of her liver, and she was very ill. She began taking communion three times a day, discerning the Lord’s body, broken for her healing. A year later, she was in perfect health, with no trace of the virus in her blood.
“I myself was healed of chronic headaches which had developed from a head injury. Every day I took a large hunk of bread and chewed it bite-by-bite, meditating on the mystery of exchanging my sickness with Jesus wholeness, because all my diseases were placed on Him. He paid the price for my wholeness.
“Faith is the key to unlocking all of the promises of God. Jesus said, “What things so ever you desire, believe you receive them and you shall have them.” If we take Communion in faith, then we enter not only into forgiveness of sin, but also healing for our body.
During the radio interview, Sid commented, “This is a powerful teaching. From now on, I will be taking Communion every day, eating the bread slowly while meditating on the awesome love of the Messiah.”
We are free from all curses through the Messiah. Discerning His body, broken for us, is one of the most precious ways we have of expressing that faith.
