Partial healings frequently occur

Continued from Part 1 –>

We earlier looked at the account of Jesus’ healing in Mark 8;

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

What we learn here is that partial healings can occur. Why? Perhaps because we are complex and fragile beings who cannot handle the whole healing at once. Perhaps we must deal with some heart issues like forgiveness that get in the way of receiving.

The “why” is not important, What is important is that it shows us partial healing can and does occur. When it does, what should our approach be? Keep getting after it.

Again I say, be encouraged and continue to get after it. Some have been healed after many sessions of prayer. In Hebrews 6:12, we read;

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

In today’s church, we often have faith but lack patience. If we don’t receive right away, we say God has stopped healing for all time.  We inherit the promises through faith and patience (some translations say ‘perseverance’). We should have faith, but also persevere.

In Luke 11 and Luke 18, Jesus conveyed to us the importance of steadfastness, urging us to “pray and never give up“. We can be too quick to give up, too quick to surrender. He wouldn’t tell us not to give up if everything was going to be easy.

I have prayed up to a year for healing. Nothing happening was followed by nothing happening. But healing finally came. Why so long? Brothers, I honestly don’t know. I have no clue other than we are opposed by the enemy of our souls.

I just knew to be dogged and to persevere. Do the same and the same God who, under no duress, filled His Book, the Bible, with promises of healing, will be there to heal.

Get after it.

Partial healings frequently occur

Partial healing can be a stumbling block for many in the healing ministry. It is a complex subject for many reasons. Some ask, “If God is healing and He has all power, why doesn’t He do it completely?”

Others get discouraged when they see those they pray for receive only partial relief, and in some cases, lose even that which they received.

Now, as usual there are many facets to this. Let’s be clear though, when I talk about partial healing, I mean that which is verifiable in the cold light of day.

There are preachers who ride in for the weekend, pray for the masses and ask for a show of hands for those who have received their healing. They then ask for a show of hands for those who have received partial healing.

Much of the second category and some of the first are just exercises in emotion, exercises in adrenalin. Jesus did not go about with microphone and speakers whipping his flock into a frenzy – His healings were verifiable when the dust has settled and the preacher has left town.

Pity the hopefuls who come expecting healing and don’t want to disappoint the preacher who asks them if they have “partial relief” from their symptoms. Especially when a microphone is poked in their faces.

Ninety nine percent of the time, the answer is; “Yes, the pain is less” or “Yes, I feel a little better”. While in some cases this is true, in most cases, they just want to save the pastor embarassment or avoid “negative confession”.

How do I know? Over two decades spent in healing ministry, many being a follow-up minister after the “big guns” left town.

Here’s the classic account in Mark 8;

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

Jesus ministered to the blind man in verse 22 and asked him whether he saw anything. He said he saw people, but they looked like trees. In other words, there was an improvement, but he still did not have normal eyesight.

In our day, the one ministered too might have declared “I’m healed, in Jesus Name!!”. Well, obviously, he would not be. Ministry would then be over and you might see moving trees for the rest of your life. We can become so overspiritual, we stop making sense.

After praying for a person, I ask them to tell me exactly what they experienced. If nothing, I tell them to recheck after awhile and if healing still doesn’t show up in a reasonable amount of time, we can have another ministry session.

I tell them to tell me exactly how and what they feel and experience, not what they think I want to hear.

This is one of the reasons I am such a fan of smaller healing settings like Healing Rooms, where you can come back and receive continuing ministry.

continued–>

Luke 13:10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Let's go and do the same

So let us conclude here.   This woman had been bent over for eighteen years. Eighteen long years. Jesus did not forget her experience of year after year of shuffling along, most likely in pain and definitely with lost dignity.  Jesus cared.

Our response today would be to organize a special bus to get her to church on Sunday to hear why God doesn’t heal anymore.  For the deaf, our response would be to hire a “signer” so they can follow along with the sermon on how miracles died out with the last of the apostles.

Man’s idea of compassion is not Jesus idea of compassion.  In their fear, pastors preach their experience and avoid any topic that actually involves them exercising their faith.  Shame. Shame.  Jesus said we would do greater works.  Now we lay on buses and learn to sign.  We would rather drive the old lady to church for 20 years than have the courage to pray until she gets relief…

Don’t misread me.  I’m not churlish.  I’m not against buses and signers.  Use them if you need them. Especially if healing takes time.  But Jesus showed us He has something better than pity.  Its called healing.

No wonder the world largely ignores the gospel.  Why?  Because there is no power.  Paul came with power.  Philip came with power (and no, Philip wasn’t an apostle, so let’s stop that silly line of thinking before it starts!).  Know what happened whan Philip came to Samaria with power?

^Acts8:5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. ⁶ When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. ⁷ For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was great joy in that city.

It was when they heard Philip AND saw the signs he performed that they paid attention to him and there was revival. Perhaps that’s why few pay attention to the Christian message today.  Perhaps too few signs are performed.

In the case of the old woman bowed over eighteen years, I believe Jesus teaches us a thing about true compassion here. We seldom have true compassion anymore, just something that passes for it in our minds.  We won’t pay the price to see the greater works, so we delight in the works of our hands.

The legalists as usual, were concerned about Jesus healing on the Sabbath.  So Jesus poses the question to those hard-hearted ones… after suffering for 18 years, should Jesus have had to wait for the Sabbath to heal her?

Glory to God, she should be healed immediately. If she was your mother or sister or daughter, your answer would be yes!

So if you are sick, Jesus, who never changes, says: You should be healed! The mind of God would not have us sick a single day longer.

The minute we renew our minds with the Word of God and not the ways of men, and we begin to believe and act this way, that is the time we allow the Holy Spirit within us to move us unto “greater works”.

That's Why We Praise God

Actually, why would I praise God for my sickness?  He obviously didn’t do it, so why praise Him for it?  John 10:10 tells me that: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.“  If you believe sickness is anything other than destruction, sorry, but we are not called to be masochists.

Listen to what Leah praised the Lord for in Genesis 29:35: She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the LORD.”

David praised the Lord also: David sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies.

We also glorify God, being:  a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

In Matthew 15:31, hear what happened:  The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

People praise God for deliverance, for creating the heavens and earth, creating man (not sick!), for healing, for giving us an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  I don’t see where we are told to praise God for sickness.

We need to understand these things better.  If a strange man came your house and demanded your kids, you would fight him with all of your might, even if he had a knife or gun.  But for many church folk, when sickness appears, some of us start praising and thanking God for it.  Why is that?!!

One dear lady told me she praised God for being sick, so she could rest.  Another told me that she praised God for her sickness because it gave her time to be with her family.  Can you see how twisted this thinking is?  Do you have to be sick to rest?  Do you have to be sick to spend time with your family?  Of course not!  Just do it!

To be continued…

The woman bowed over 18 years

You may be familiar with the account of the old woman Jesus healed, who had been bowed over for eighteen years. Here’s the account, beginning in Luke 13:

Luke 13:10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Just a few notes here.  This woman had been crippled, not by osteoarthritis or other physical causes, but by a spirit, an evil spirit.  Some believe there are only physical causes for sickness, but the Bible disagrees.  She was crippled by a spirit that had made its home on her for 18 years.

One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is “discerning of spirits” or the ability to sense if a spirit is present, usually in a ministry situation.  The gifts are rarely taught today, so unfortunately, many who might have otherwise received relief do not receive such.

Does this mean that all sickness has a spirit as a direct cause?  No, that is not supported by scripture.  Many times, Jesus would simply declare healing or lay hands on the sick for healing.  Besides, gifts of healing would not be needed if this was so; we would simply cast a demon out each time and minister healing that way.  (This has not stopped some ministers from doing this though!)

There are sicknesses caused by or rooted solely in physical reasons, but it is clear from the Word that there are also sicknesses caused solely by evil spirits. And there are likely to be combinations also.

When Jesus put his hands on her, the spirit had to leave, it could not remain in the presence of the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Some think that casting out devils is the only way to deal with them.  This is not the case.  Jesus did not cast it out, he ministered by the laying on of hands.

A word of caution – please be trained and mentored in deliverance before you do deliverance this way.  Also, if you go around laying hands on folk with unsavory secrets in your own life, it may be risky for you.  You clearly should not be involved in deliverance if you are bound in sin.  Let the wise reader understand.

I love the fact that Jesus interrupted his sermon to minister to this old woman.  He did not let programs interfere with compassion.  He called her forward right away and ministered healing to her and she was healed.  Don’t let programs interfere with compassion.  Jesus did not.

The old woman was immediately healed and praised God for it.  Can you see that God gets glory when people are healed, not by people being sick?  After she was healed, what did she do?  I love it.   She straightened up and praised God!!

When was she praising God, before or after her healing? Afterwards, Glory to God!  Yes, you might say, but we should praise God all the time.  Agreed.  However, praise is for something done.  She could not and did not praise God for healing her before she got healed.  She praised God AFTER she got healed.

Some praise God for their sickness.  Sorry, I’m not in that select group.  The Bible says in James: “Is anyone sick?  Let him call the elders to anoint him with oil….”  Not let him praise God. God receives praise when you are well, so get healed and praise Him for healing you.

To be continued..

The grace of God in action

I picked up the ringing telephone about 3 weeks ago to hear my distraught cousin tell me about her twin 6 year old boy who was in the hospital with H1N1 or swine flu.  His twin sister had also had the flu but had recovered. He, on the other hand, was not doing well.

She asked me to pray and I said I would.  I took time off and entered the “peaceful room” – what we call one of our bedrooms and spent maybe a half hour praying for the boy.  I immediately got a sense that this would be more of a challenge than her original report indicated, but I declared that he would live and not die.

The next day, she called me even more distressed, with the news that one of his lungs had collapsed, he was now in intensive care, in an induced coma, as his discomfort was acute. His doctors did not know what else to do.

She asked me to pray again as the hospital outlook was bleak and getting bleaker.  I wasn’t too surprised by the turn of events based on what  had heard the first time, although a bit surprised at the speedy deterioration.

I’ll tell you what I did and what I did NOT do.  I did not call a prayer line or a prayer chain.  I didn’t get on the telephone with masses of people.  If the Lord led me to, I would have, but as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I believe it is a disgrace for hundreds of Christians to pray against one or a few spirits of infirmity.  One believer should be able to minister effectively against the attacks of a horde of demons, with Greater One on the inside.

I entered my “prayer closet” and took the offensive against this infirmity.  I prayed in the Spirit and I prayed with my understanding.  I took authority over the situation and spoke healing over the boy.  I prayed a couple of times – perhaps an hour each time.  When the burden lifted, I stopped, called the mother and told her I believed her son would be fine. At this point, there simply was no outward evidence of this, but I was convinced it would be so.

Although she called me the next day with grimmer news of how his collapsed lung was scarring and he was now unable to breathe on his own, I was not moved.  OK, maybe some concern in the flesh – I’ll be honest – but I’ve learned that the flesh and mind will sometimes react to stimuli in ways that you cannot fully control.  If someone jumps out with a gun, your  adrenaline will spike even if you know the angels of God are protecting you.  That’s what I mean. You must realize though, that this is separate from faith.  Faith is what you KNOW, not what you feel.

In my heart and mind and words to her, I knew and told her he would be fine – but it was interesting watching my own emotions at times.  Sometimes even amusing.

OK, what happened?  Two days after that bleak report, he began recovering rapidly and was out of the Intensive Care.  The doctors and nurses who treated him in intensive care were all coming by to marvel at his “miraculous” recovery.  Another two days and he was home, playing with his siblings like nothing ever happened.

The doctors had said that the scarring in his lung would take at least 2 years to heal, but at his last visit, there was no trace of scarring, the doctors pronouncing his lungs to be “like Lance Armstrong’s”!!

So praise God for this all.  This is not about anyone’s greatness of faithfulness, but God’s.  He preserved my cousin from “sorrow upon sorrow” and kept the life of a boy who will live to serve Him and glorify His Name.  I pray that your hearts might be encouraged, just as mine and my cousin (and her family) have been, through the Lord’s healing mercy. Amen.

Precision is key to long-term effective healing ministry

Precision is essential to the healing ministry.  Without it, we often flail about, turn up the volume, and hope for results that seldom materialize. What do I mean by ‘precision’ and why is it so important?  Precision is accuracy in hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit during ministry. Every ministry situation provides you with many alternative ways that you can minister, but not every way will bring success.

When the Shunammite woman came to Elisha after her son died, notice what Elisha did.  He took a specific set of actions. Gehazi was to take the Prophet’s staff and lay it on the boy’s face.  He was not to speak to anyone on the way.

It is interesting that the boy did not immediately recover and Gehazi returned, unsuccessful.  Didn’t Elisha hear God, you may ask?  I’m inclined to say he did.  Why didn’t the child come back to life then?  I don’t think the Bible spells it out explicitly, but I would lay the blame on Gehazi’s doorstep,  as being an unsuitable vessel of grace.  He later proved this in the case of Naaman the Syrian.

In any case, when Elisha finally arrived, he didn’t anoint with oil or lay hands on the boy, but instead, did something that would be strange in any age.  He lay on the boy nose-to-nose (2 Kings 4:32) and eventually the boy came back to life.  Again, he didn’t walk around the bed seven times in the manner of Jericho or smash arrows on the ground as in the case of King Jehoash (2 Kings 13:18).  He was specific in what he did and got results.

Jesus put his spit on a man’s tongue (Mark 7:33), spat in another man’s eyes (Mark 8:23), and asked Lazarus to come forth (John 11:43).  He asked the 10 lepers to go and show themselves to the priests in one instance (Luke 17:12), but laid hands on the one leper who sought healing (Luke 5:13).  Jesus was precise, He didn’t try everything, He did one thing.

If you are in healing ministry, realize you can minister in hundreds of ways to any healing candidate.  Will every approach work?  No, but the one the Holy Spirit illuminates in your heart will in most cases.  I say most cases, because it is not that simple working through the vessels of clay that we are. Unforgiveness on the candidate’s part, tiredness on our part, or disorganization may just a few obstacles to healing.

Yes, we must know all the Biblical approaches to healing, many of which are listed on this blog.  But we must always strive to hear the Holy Spirit in every situation.  We must also be flexible and open to his direction during the healing encounter.  I have seen dual errors of treating every situation like a nail when you only have a hammer (e.g., laying on of hands on everyone you meet), and being so inflexible during ministry, you don’t receive a change in direction from the Holy Spirit.  We would do well to avoid both.

May you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as you minister, may you be flexible enough to deal with changing circumstances in healing ministry.  Amen.

Without evidence, I’m guessing that statistics for Christians are similar. Especially since they are similar in divorce statistics and reportedly, greater in support of torture of prisoners of war (62% vs. 49% – Pew Group Report). However, those discussions are for another day and perhaps even another blog. The focus here is on healing, so back to television.

While there can be good television programming, I think there are few things that are more destructive to faith and a life of communion with the Lord than television. And no, I’m not just referring to sex, violence and profanity. I’m referring instead to the act of TV-watching itself and what happens as you watch TV. It is possibly the most passive and mind-surrendering act you can perform in your home.

Many say they watch TV to relax, but it is merely giving your mind over to the folks in Hollywood. We hand it over to them to fill with images, to engage, but later wonder aloud why we seldom hear the voice of God. It may be that the “still, quiet voice” is drowned out by the multiple explosions and gunshots of those thrillers we have surrendered our minds to.

My personal thesis is that the more we watch TV, the less we’ll hear God. I’ll add even “Christian channels” to the mix here. Some of these are good to watch, others are simply fund-raising operations that don’t edify. If we watch the average of almost 5 hours a day, I personally doubt that we can ever be effective in healing ministry. We simply will not have enough time to pray, to study the word and build faith, and to consecrate ourselves before the Lord.

These days, I now catch myself almost automatically while watching TV. Five to ten minutes seems to be my limit before an internal timer warns me it’s time to move on. I just can’t seem to do it anymore. I realized a long time ago that even with an unremarkable cable package, it is easy to watch TV for hours on end – there is so much ‘interesting’ stuff. History, the geographical channel, news and sports, all of which I’m a fan (sadly!) In Hebrews 12:14, it says:

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

What is holiness? It is separation unto God. The word “see” means perceive. In other words, without separation from the world system (including thoughts, desires, and its affairs), we will not, and cannot perceive the Lord’s purposes. That includes personal leading for our own lives as well as ministry unto others.  If we look at Jesus’ life as a model, we see in Mark 1:35, that:

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Watching TV late at night just makes this impossible for us to do, especially if you have a job you must go to. However, without this type of communion with God, forget signs, wonders, healings and miracles.  They just won’t happen for us if we don’t spend the time – it’s that spiritual law of sowing and reaping again.

So, in summary, I’m not saying all TV is evil, but the less time we spend watching TV and the more time we spend praying, the more effective we’ll be in ministry, including healing ministry. There is a price to be paid for more effectiveness in healing. I’ll say it again, there’s a PRICE to be paid to be effective in healing.  May we be ready and willing to pay that price. Amen.

What about mercy? Let’s talk about mercy for a while. If you sin, you seek forgiveness, which is available through grace. Grace is unmerited favor. If you are sick, you desire healing – you are not looking for forgiveness unless sin was involved.

Actually, what you desire is mercy. Mercy is different from forgiveness. I’ll give an example. You hit a person’s car and you’re in the wrong. He tells you, “I forgive you”, but holds you liable and takes you to court to recover the damages to his car. He forgave you, but did not have mercy on you. It was the same with David, after his sin with Bathsheba. God forgave him, but the child died anyway.

To put it another way, forgiveness washes your sins away – a spiritual action with spiritual outcomes; mercy is a tangible action with physical outcomes. Not convinced? Let’s take a look at what Bartimaeus cried out in Mark 10,

46…a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

This is similar to the man with the epileptic son in Matthew 17:15:

“Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water.

Do a word search of “mercy” in the gospels and you’ll see it used many times in the context of healing. The healings of the Canaanite’s daughter (Matthew 15:22), Elizabeth’s barrenness (Luke 1:58) and of the madman of Gadara (Mark 5:19) were all described as acts of mercy. The Good Samaritan was also described as the one who had mercy, when Jesus asked in Luke 10;

36″Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

What’s my point? When we ask God for healing, it is important to know what we are really asking for. We are really asking for mercy, regardless of whether we have sinned or not.

If your illness has resulted from sin (e.g., poor lifestyle choices), you need forgiveness of sins, but more than that, you need mercy. This not limited to healing, even though that is our focus here. Many enter financial or relationship ruin because of bad decisions. They often ask for forgiveness, but not mercy. They receive forgiveness, but not mercy. Is that possible? Yes, it is, just look again at King David. He actually had it happen not only with Bathsheba, but when he performed an unauthorized census of Israel.

Moses had the same thing happen when he struck the rock twice. He received forgiveness, but mercy was unavailable in regard to his entering the Promised Land. God was merciful enough to let him go up on the mountain and see it, but he never entered it. The deeper your experiences and maturity with God, and the more you partake of the Holy Spirit and of the powers of the coming age, it seems to me that mercy is less available if you play the fool. This writ is not for everyone; those at that stage in their walk know who they are. A scripture that underlines this is James 3:1:

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

To conclude, ask for mercy in addition to forgiveness when you seek healing for sickness that may be partially or wholly due to sin. Ask for mercy even if there is no sin involved. Realize, as many did in Jesus’ day, that healing is a mercy of God. Grace gets us into right standing or favor with God, but mercy obtains for us healing and other interventions in our lives. This is really what you are asking for when you ask for healing—you are asking for mercy.

God is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4). May you be recipients of God’s mercy today and for the rest of your life, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

John 5:14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

From this, we saw that sin can lead to sickness. Worry or drugs or sexual sin, among other sins, can lead to sickness of the body and mind. In case you were wondering, worry is a sin, as in Philippians 4:6;

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Note that this is not a suggestion, it is a command—primarily for our own good. Physiologically, worry and stress raise cortisol levels in the body and can affect blood pressure, sleep patterns and so on. Anxiety and worry cannot coexist with faith.  Once they arrive, trust and faith in God departs.

So then, is all sickness the result of sin? Thank God, it is not, or some would be sick every day or week. In Jesus’ day, many believed that sickness was the result of a person’s sin or that of his parents, but Jesus debunked that very quickly:

John 9:1-3 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

So this sickness was not the result of sin by either the man or his parents. Some sickness comes from our being in a fallen world, others from our unwise choices and lifestyles, and yet others by demonic attack. Also, the actions of sinful or malicious people can cause sickness in others, such as parents who smoke.

Note that I didn’t mention God here. He is not the source of sickness. I find it strange that the obituaries of worldly people state that “after a yearlong fight against cancer….”, whereas Christians point to God or “God’s will” for their sickness. Many non-Christians recognize sickness as an enemy of all that is good, an evil that must be fought, while many Christians go on about God’s supposed will ‘permitting’ or causing them to be sick.

If you think this way, tell me this: If it was God’s will for you to be sick, why do you visit the doctor to escape “God’s will”? If it was His desire that your character be perfected in sickness, why do you ask for your name to be placed on the prayer chain to avoid this perfecting? If God wanted you ravaged by illness, why not ask the brethren to pray for you to become more sick, so as to enter His will more deeply? The faith-sapping myths we propagate in the church today are a tragedy.

Why is it that wise Christians cannot tell God’s will until after the event? The person died of sickness, ergo, it was God’s will that they died. The person recovered from sickness, thus it was God’s will that they recover. This is a “que sera, sera” Christianity, a lazy spirituality that tries to infer God’s will after the fact. It has more in common with fatalistic Mid-Eastern and Eastern religions than Christianity. If you know God’s will, tell me before we pray, so if it is not His will, we won’t bother. However, not one of these wise ones ever knows until afterwards—going by sight and not by faith.

I can tell you God’s will for the very sick young man with a heartbroken wife and three young children all crying out to Him. It is for him to be healed, period. That is His will before I pray and that is His will after I pray, whether he gets up or stays down. God’s will for that sick child? The same, of course. Why? Because healing is in His Word and His Word is His will.

Why do tragedies occur then, you ask? There are many reasons, but why on earth wouldn’t they occur when we continue teaching unbelief throughout our churches….because we, as a church do not believe all of the Atonement. As a pastor, you doth protest too much that you believe. It doesn’t matter what you profess in conversation. Do you preach healing? Do you regularly pray for the sick? No? Why not? Because you don’t believe it. I learned a long time ago that people do what they believe and avoid what they don’t believe. Most pastor/teachers don’t believe in the full Atonement. If they want to argue about healing being in the Atonement, fine, we don’t have to bring that up.  They just don’t believe in the many healing promises in the Word or in doing the works Jesus said we would do.

Finally, some will argue “why the undue focus on healing?  There are other things to preach about, aren’t there?” Yes there are.  But let’s look at Jesus, in Matthew 4:23:

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Jesus focused on healing quite a bit, didn’t He?  He didn’t have other things to preach about?  Somehow though, our gospel has been transformed into a shadow of that which Jesus and the Apostles preached.  It has changed from the Full Gospel to the “Part-Gospel”.

If you are one of few who preach and minister healing regularly, God bless you. May He strengthen you, embolden you, impart spiritual gifts to you, infuse you with the power of the Holy Spirit and may signs and wonders accompany your ministry. Amen.

…to be concluded…