In my essay today I will discuss these points:
We need faith in God, not faith in healers: there are no real healers today. You do not have to have super-strength faith to have a prayer answered, and you don’t need to pray in tongues. God is able to do all things, but He does not do all things. He is under no obligation to do what we ask or demand. Humanity and all of nature is under a Curse. God can and will sometimes heal, if it’s within His will.
GOD CAN DO ALL THINGS, BUT HE DOESN’T
Do I believe in healing and miracles? Absolutely I do. In fact I can go at least one better than the majority of charismatic Christians today on the faith-ometer, and say that I believe God can and did create the heavens and the earth, and all of life including us, in six literal days. I believe that if God wanted to play billiards with the solar system he could, potting each planet into a black hole in no time at all. God can indeed do all things, and nothing is beyond His power. The important thing to note though, is that He doesn’t do everything. Why?
God doesn’t do a whole host of things He’s capable of doing. Instead He has a very specific plan as outlined in His word-the Bible. Why doesn’t God just heal everyone, right now? Or why doesn’t He at least heal all Christians now? After all, Jesus died to take away all the sins of the world, right? He has nullified the Curse, right?
THE WORK OF CHRIST
Yes, Jesus has nullified the Curse, but all the benefits of His work on the cross have not been applied yet. If we’re in Christ, we are “alive” in Christ. That is, our spirits are alive. However, our fleshly bodies are still under the Curse, because sinful flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Our spirits are alive because of the work of Christ on the cross and His resurrection, but our spirits have yet to be liberated from our fallen flesh. Jesus Christ came into the world to die for our sins, not to patch up fallen humanity. I don’t mean to support those past philosophies which believed human bodies to be sinful from the start. God created humans of flesh, blessed them, and told them to be fruitful.
One aspect of the Curse, and of the effects of sin on our bodies, is that DNA itself is damaged increasingly over time. Humanity is not on an onward and upward course.
Our “flesh” Biblically includes that part of our soul and our mind which is corrupted and incurable: that which we have to overcome by walking with God.
PRAYING FOR HEALING
Do we need modern day Peters and Pauls in order to be healed? No we don’t, because since Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross we are all able to approach our God:
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrew 4:16).
I’ve had answered prayers, and I’ve experienced miraculous deliverance: I believe in prayer. We can pray for healing, and God may grant our petition, if it’s within His will. However, there are conditions and ways to be more sure of being heard:
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:16);
And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight (1 John 3:22);
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil (1 Peter 3:12).
Please notice that in the above verses there is no mention of prayer in tongues, and please see my recent posts about the faulty claims that God is more likely to listen to you if you pray in tongues: He is not.
THE INESCAPABLE TRUTH
And so as I noted above, we are still in our fallen bodies of flesh. Even if we are healed, we are still physically under the curse of sin. In short, we have to die, and unless the rapture of the Church comes first, every one of us will.
If Christ had intended to end the physical effects of the Curse during his earthly ministry and forever after, Peter, John, James and all the others, including Paul, would still be with us. Your weeds would not outgrow your flowers. And what became of all those Jesus healed while he was on earth? They’re all dead, including Lazarus who was raised from the grave by Jesus.
…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27).
Therefore, no amount of healing, were we able to do it, would stop us all eventually becoming sick and then passing away. It was not the intention of Jesus Christ to take all our sickness away in this world. If it were, He did a lousy job. Instead, the healings He performed were as signs to us all of just who He is. They were a vindication of His personhood, His Godhood, and His mission. And they were performed because being in nature Love (1 John 4:8) Christ could not happily leave the lame and the blind in their condition, having the power to heal them on the spot.
THE POWER
However, there is still the matter of healing in our lifetimes. It’s believed by many that the power of the Holy Spirit, first given at Pentecost, enables some to heal and to work miracles, and some of the claimed miracle-workers have multitudes of followers and donors. But why, if they have such power, do they not empty out the hospitals, go on secular television, prove that power for all to see, and even heal those in their own churches who are in wheelchairs or dying of cancer? Some are even claiming they have greater power than Jesus. They quote the words of Jesus, who said:
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12).
Jesus on the same occasion also said this:
You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it (verse 14).
We could, were we so selfish, claim this promise and demand that Jesus fulfill our wishes. “Jesus, give me a private plane to go on holiday in!” Can we really apply this claim to anything we want, or do we perhaps consider that the will of God has something to do with it?
Don’t we also have to consider that Jesus was talking to his inner circle of eleven on this occasion? Perhaps the promise didn’t apply to all of us. Perhaps what He meant was that some of his apostles and disciples would be so effective in their witness that they would “turn the world upside down”, as Paul’s enemies accused him of doing. In either case, the question of fulfilment of this promise is made a little clearer for us on other occasions. John, one of that inner circle, after a lifetime of proving the promises of God, wrote this:
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him (1 John 5:14-15).
ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD, NOT OURS
Ah! It’s all dependant on the will of God, said the disciple whom Jesus loved. This puts a stronger light on the whole topic. But why would God or His son not have the will to heal us or do what we want?
THE FAITH-OMETER
Proponents of such movements as “Word of Faith” tell us that we can all be healed, witness miracles, and even get rich and successful, if we only have enough faith. The reason they can’t heal us is because we don’t have enough faith to get healed. They are passing the blame on to us or to you, and absolving themselves. They have the faith to move mountains but we are holding them back from exercising that faith. It’s our fault that Jesus can’t and doesn’t work. If you don’t have enough faith to be healed, they say, it’s impossible to heal you.
My initial answer is that a mountain doesn’t need any faith. So come on, Mr Peter and Mr Paul, let’s see you side up to Mt Ranier, a huge dormant volcano in Washington State, and move its threat away from the large population centers around it. I’ve never seen anyone move a mountain. That’s not to say it can’t be done, but it has to be within the will of God for you to move that mountain.
What about the accusation that those who are sick don’t have the faith to be healed: is that a valid reason to not be healed? No, it isn’t. There are occasions in the New Testament period of people with no faith being healed. For example, when Peter and Paul were entering the temple, they came upon a man at the gate who was lame and asking for money. This is Luke’s account of what happened:
When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk (see Acts 3:1-8).”
The man jumped up and rejoiced. The significant fact is that the beggar was expecting money-not healing. So my suggestion is that those who believe they have great power should go into a hospital, and especially the childrens ward, not tell anyone what the’re there for, and then heal everyone.
Another example is from the account of Jesus’ arrest in the garden of Gethsemane. When Peter cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus stuck it back on again. There was no examination or questionnaire to see first if the man had the faith to be healed -Jesus just did it.
Here’s an example from the ministry of Jesus. Jesus went one day to the Pool of Bethesda, which was believed to have healing waters. He spoke to one of the many there hoping to be healed by the water, and when Jesus spoke to him, he had no idea what Jesus was going to do. He had no idea who Jesus was or that he had the power to heal. Jesus asked him simply if he wanted to be healed:
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked (John5:1-15).
In John chapter 4, a man’s son was healed by Jesus. The man did have enough faith (in Jesus) to “beg” Jesus to heal his son-and not to demand it- but we’re told that the father didn’t believe in Jesus until after his son was healed, not before. The man wasn’t required to build up great faith that the healing would actually occur. In fact, when he begged Jesus to heal his son-again, not demanding-Jesus criticised the people for NOT believing until they had first seen the signs he was doing:
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe” (John 4:48).
In the ministry of Jesus, as he himself said, the signs often came first, and the faith after it. However, in our time, we’re being told by those who consider themselves to be as powerful as Peter or Paul that we can’t be healed until we build up enormous faith. This is an excuse on their part, and a poor one.
In Mark’s gospel we’re told of a father whose son has an evil spirit. He tells Jesus about it, and asks:
“…if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:22-24 ESV).
Here we see a man who does not have overwhelming faith, or the determination that Jesus must heal his son. He begins his petition by saying “If you can do anything…!” In fact, it’s more of a hopeful plea, and he asks Jesus to strengthen his faith. Jesus healed the boy.
Here’s another relevant example. Paul the apostle wrote that he prayed three times for healing. This is what the Lord told him in reply:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Here is a great man of God in Scripture telling us that the will of God matters more than our own, and more than our own pet view of healing, and also that there may be good reason that we are not healed. It is not wrong to submit to the will of God, as some extremists teach: it is the right and Godly thing to do.
FAITH AND ARROGANCE
To be fair, Jesus did sometimes demand faith, and spoke of its necessity in the matters of miracles and healing. However, the faith required was in Him and in our God-not a determination on our parts to insist that He must and is going to do it. Being convinced that God will do it is presumptuous. Demanding that he do it, as some ministers and others do, is arrogant and ungodly. The truth is that God doesn’t have to do anything at all. He is God, and we are not.
THE CURSE: WHO, WHY, AND WHEN?
The fact that the majority of people who have been incapacitated or have died without being healed has nothing to do with failing to build up faith, like Luke Skywalker trying to lift his ship out of the swamp, or like a steam engine building enough steam to move. It has more to do with the will of God, and with the fact that we, at least in our flesh, are under a curse: The Curse. And remember, the Curse was instituted by God Himself. It has not been lifted, and will not be lifted, until we are with our God in heaven, and until Christ has come to assert His authority on the earth:
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you (Romans 8:11).
Fuel for Faith 