Certain Charismatic ministers and their followers are teaching that God literally “cannot” heal unless we believe fully that He’s going to do it, or even that He has already healed us. They say that to consider whether or not God wants to heal us is to ensure that the healing will not happen. I here lay out a selection of Scriptural evidence that this is a false teaching, and therefore that the proponents of this idea are either false teachers or should not be trusted to teach.
Please forgive me for any ugly ads or gaps inserted by WordPress software!
Claims such as the one we’re considering today pretend to be helpful to believers and honoring to God: the opposite is true. How many have been offended or hurt and driven away from the Church because their desire to be well has met the brick wall of faulty theology, or the spectre of fake healings? Their testimonies will not be heard.
OUR EXAMPLE. Jesus Christ, praying at Gethsemane, said to the Father, “Not my will but yours be done”. True, he wasn’t looking for healing at the time, but as our example we see that he submitted to the will of the Father even in the most extreme circumstance. He recognized that the Father had a different plan to his own wish to escape the trial to come. In time every single one of us will submit to the will of the Father whether we want to or not, and there is no exception. To attempt to resist the will of God is pride and pride is sin. False teachers today or those who are badly mistaken attempt to bypass this principle as they do many Scriptural principles, because, they claim, God is “doing a new thing”. In the world of false teaching god is increasingly an invention moving away from the Bible. Those of us willing to recognize Scriptural authority can find the truth.
NAZARETH. The claim that we’ve got to be convinced God is going to heal before the healing can take place is sometimes presented from the example of Jesus’ encounter with the people of His hometown Nazareth. Matthew tells us, “And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith” (Matthew 13:58). It’s said that Jesus was unable to heal because the Nazarenes didn’t believe he could do it. Herein is the problem with plucking verses or phrases from their context, because the account as a whole tells a different story. Jesus’ lack of miraculous engagement wasn’t due to the fact that the Nazarenes didn’t believe in his miracle working ability, because they had already openly recognized his power:
“…they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” (verse 54b).
Their problem was not that they didn’t believe he could do it or that he would do it if asked, it was that once he made his position plain in regards to Scripture they didn’t want to know him. They were so offended by Him, once they realised He wasn’t that little boy they once looked down upon, that they refused to even consider bowing to His authority, his love, his mercy and power, or we could say, his will. “We know this guy”, they were saying, “He’s a nobody”. They had no faith in him:
“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him” (verses 55-57).
IF YOU ARE WILLING. God’s will is the final decision-maker, not ours. We can’t “make” the creator of the universe do anything for us as though He were our servant. No, we are His servants. Neither do we have powers of our own to heal and to work miracles, even though this is the incredible and ridiculous claim of some on the fringes of the Charismatic world. Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). In contrast, Consider the leper who approached Jesus and asked Him to be willing:
“A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy” (Matthew 8:2-3).
THE WORDS “IF YOU CAN” ARE NOT A BLOCK TO THE POWER OF GOD. The father whose son was afflicted by a spirit wasn’t convinced of Jesus’ ability or willingness to help. He said, “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” (Mark 9:22b). Jesus didn’t refuse to heal the boy because the boy’s father had used that little word, “if”. It doesn’t even appear that Jesus’ reply was a rebuke. Instead, Jesus was making plain that God can do whatever He wants to do, and there are no limits. Certainly, the faither should have been believing this, as we should. In any case, the father said to him, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
This is evidence that the father’s weak faith was not a block to the healing. The father did not have to “confess” that Jesus was going to heal or that he had already done it. No amount of reluctance or unbelief can stop the power of God or the will of God. It can, however, produce failure to appeal to or accept His mercy and help. Arrogance and pride refuses to seek the Lord’s help. Humility and brokenness, even accompanied by weak faith, leads us to God’s mercy.
CONFIDENCE, NOT ARROGANCE. In the Old Testament Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not sure that God would choose to deliver them from the fiery furnace, and they didn’t have to “confess” that He would:
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).
SAVED WITHOUT FAITH. The twelve disciples-including Judas-were rescued from the storm by Jesus (Luke 8:22-25). They thought they were going to drown, and when Jesus had calmed the sea He asked them, “Where is your faith? (verse 25). Their lack of faith didn’t stop them being rescued, and their demise wasn’t in the will of God. Their being in the hands of God was what Jesus wanted them to have faith in.
NO FAITH. Numerous accounts of healing in the New Testament had nothing to do with faith on the part of the one being healed. One of the most significant is the healing of the high priest’s servant whose ear Peter had cut off. There’s no expression of faith on the part of the servant or anyone else, and none required by Jesus-He just did the miracle with no questions asked:
“When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, ‘Lord, should we strike with our swords?’ And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him” (Luke 22:49-51).
Over and over again we see Jesus healing people with not even a mention of faith. In some cases, those healed didn’t even know they were about to be healed. A man healed at the pool of Bethesda did not expect to be healed. Instead he was counting on a superstition that there was a healing angel of the waters, and he thought that’s what Jesus was talking to him about. But then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” (John 5:1-5). The man was clearly not a follower of Jesus, because when he had the opportunity to betray him to the temple officials, he did (verse 15).
Peter and John healed a man who did not expect to be healed but expected money. There were no questions or demands for faith:
“… where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 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” (Acts 3:2-6).
When Jesus healed a man born blind there was no word about his faith. Instead Jesus merely approached the man and healed him (John 9:1-12). When asked by others what had happened to him, he seemed totally unaware of who had healed him and stated that he didn’t know where he was (verse 12).
An official’s son was healed (John 4:46-53) but faith only came to the official and his family after the healing-not before (verse 53).
Faith came after and as a result of the raising of lazarus, not before. This was John’s observation after the event:
“Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him” (John 11:45).
A TEST FOR THE FALSE APOSTLES AND FALSE HEALERS OF OUR TIME. If you want people to have faith in Jesus, and you are the one claiming to have great faith and Holy Spirit power-get to work! It was normal in New Testament times for faith to follow miracles-and by that I mean real miracles, not fakes:
“Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name” (John 2:23).
Jesus did miracles among unbelievers. They were real and powerful enough to bring judgment upon people who saw them and yet didn’t repent:
“Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes’” (Matthew 11:20-21).
On one occasion, Jesus healed and yet marvelled at the lack of faith:
“He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mark 6:5-6).
THE FAITH OF OTHER PEOPLE. The evidence is that if you really think you are an “apostle” or a healer, you should be able to go into the hospital and heal people without their faith being involved at all. You’re the one with great faith, right? Then according to the Bible, you should be able to show us that you can do it. Time and time again in New Testament accounts of healing there is no faith seen or needed on the part of the one being healed, but instead it’s the faith of others who approach Jesus and appeal to Him for help. This means that if you claim to be one of great power in the Spirit (or even if you don’t) you should be able to take your relative or brother or sister to the “healer” or the healing service to be healed. You can be the one with the faith. What a challenge this is to the “super-spiritual” and the “Spirit-filled” among us!
The man on a stretcher lowered through a roof was healed because of the faith of the friends who took him there and his own faith or lack of it is not mentioned (Mark 2:3-5). Mark records that, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (verse 5).
Jairus’ daughter didn’t need faith to raise her from the dead, it was “some people from the house of Jairus” who appealed to Jesus (Mark 5:35-43). Jesus did tell Jairus to, “Just believe”, but did not grill him or demand that he have enough faith. There was no passing or failing grade, but only the will of God and the faith of friends who reached out to the Lord.
Simon Peter’s mother in law was healed at the request of those who cared for her, not her own faith:
“Simon’s wife’s mother was sick with a high fever, and they made request of Him concerning her. So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them” (Luke 4:38-39).
The centurion whose servant was sick sent some elders of the Jews to Jesus. Here we have a third party-not even the request of the servant. Jesus went with them, and the words of the centurion upon Jesus’ arrival is significant indeed, because he did not consider himself worthy to be helped by the Lord. However, the Lord healed the servant. Jesus remarked on the man’s faith, but there’s no indication that his faith was being tested: Jesus had come at the request of the elders to heal the servant (Luke 7:1-10).
ARE WE LACKING FAITH WHEN WE VISIT A DOCTOR? High on the list of priorities in order to stay healthy is the need to live a healthy lifestyle, to take care of our own bodies as a gift of God, and to sometimes seek medical help. While we certainly should pray for healing and God does care about our troubles, God has gifted many in the medical profession with the incredible ability and knowledge needed to bring healing and health. Sometimes these people are the agents of God’s miracle-working power. They are gifted by God to provide aid and rescue, just as surely as the builders of the Old Testament tabernacle and the temple of Solomon were gifted with talent and passion.
We go to the gas station to get gas for the car; we go to a farmer for food, we go to a hairdresser for a haircut, and we don’t consider it sin to not look for manna from the sky. In the New Testament, Paul was blessed with the company of Luke who was a doctor (2 Timothy 4:11). Jesus told the Pharisees, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Matthew 9:12). We could argue that Jesus was not referring to believers, but if he really thought that anyone and everyone should bypass the doctor and be healed miraculously, he would have said so. Paul told Timothy, “… use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses”.
Sometimes sickness is within the will of God for our lives. This too is Biblical, as I’ve covered in posts about suffering and healing. Our submission to God is what He is looking for, not the pretense of being super-spiritual.
