Monthly Archives: June 2018

Should God heal all Christians who pray for healing?

 

Image result for picture God heals

By Spencer D Gear

Is it the will of God to always heal people when we pray for them?

A Christian friend wrote to me asking for recommendations concerning  a situation in which he was asked to pray for healing for a sick person. My friend was impressed in his heart that instead of praying for healing, that he should trust the Lord for what God was doing through the sickness. When this information was revealed to the person who asked for prayer for healing, my friend was accused of this giving an ā€˜almost heretical responseā€™. Why? It was because my friend had an inner impression that God had a bigger issue in the sick personā€™s life than physical healing.

There are dangers with ā€˜impressionsā€™ because they are subjective and I find it difficult to discern if my friend is hearing from God or if this is a personal view. We know that God gives the gifts of the Spirit that require ā€˜some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teachingā€™ (1 Cor. 14:6 ESV). The safety of the church gathering that enables discernment of the manifestation of gifts is much more suitable than to receive a private impression. However, we do read in passages such as First Chronicles 14:10, 14 where ā€˜David inquired of Godā€™ (ESV) and received the answer that he should go against the Philistines and God would give them into his hands. On another occasion (1 Chron. 14:14), Godā€™s answer from Davidā€™s inquiry was that he was not to attack the Philistines.

Does the Bible teach that during the ministry of Jesus there was no person who wasnā€™t healed by Jesus? Letā€™s examine the Scriptures with a few examples, but they are enough to cause us to question the ā€˜almost hereticalā€™ statement that a person does not believe that God always heals.

A few fundamentals are happening with the ā€˜almost hereticalā€™ statement that are very different from when Jesus walked this earth and contrary to what we should expect from God when we ask for physical healing.

  • The Scriptures do say on occasions that Jesus did heal all who came to him in verses such as Matt. 8:16; 12:15; and Luke 6:19. But thereā€™s another dimension.
  • On other occasions Jesus healed, not all, but ā€œmanyā€ who came to him. See Mark 1:34; 3:10; 6:13.
  • BUT, there were circumstances in which Jesus did not heal people. Iā€™m thinking of Mark 6:4-6:

ā€˜Jesus said to them, ā€œOnly in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.ā€ He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faithā€™ (NIV).

  • What about the events like that at the Pool of Bethesda according to John 5:1-9? Verse 3 says that at that pool ā€˜lay a multitude of invalids-blind, lame and paralyzedā€™ (ESV) but only one invalid who had been at that Pool for 38 year was healed. The facts are that Jesus did not heal all who were sick in Israel at the time of his life and he didnā€™t even heal all invalids at the Pool of Bethesda. It is false information to say that Jesus healed all. He clearly didnā€™t.

People may ask why Jesus didnā€™t heal all. My understanding is that healings are pointers/signs to Godā€™s greater healing of the human soul through salvation and Godā€™s ultimate healing of the universe that will happen with a new heaven and a new earth at the end of time.

However, I do need to say that I accept the gifts of the Spirit are available for todayā€™s Christians and one of the gifts is the gift of healing (1 Cor. 12:28-29).  We must not overlook the biblical fact that Godā€™s gifts to Christians function according to the ā€œmeasure of faithā€ that God has given to believers:

ā€˜For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given youā€™ (Rom. 12:3 NIV).

According to James 5:14-15, the ministry of healing is available through the local church (and it is sadly neglected in most churches) in the anointing of oil by the elders of the church:

ā€˜Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgivenā€™ (NIV).

Again, the emphasis is on ā€œthe prayer offered in faithā€ will cause the sick person to be raised up by the Lord.

I do not find any indications that Jesus healed all people. Nor do I find examples in the New Testament where all people were healed whenever there was a prayer for healing. I do find this in James 4:2b-3:

ā€˜You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasuresā€™ (NIV).

There are many reasons why we do not receive physical healing when we pray and when others pray for us. The major reason is that God is sovereign and we are puny, fallible human beings who can have the wrong motives.

There is also the further biblical truth that most Christians find hard to bear as stated in James 1:2-4:

ā€˜Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothingā€™ (NASB).

God has a greater plan for our lives than physical healing. The trials of our lives are meant to be considered with an attitude of ā€˜all joyā€™ by the Christian because God knows what trials are instrumental in achieving. Difficulties in our lives are are designed for the testing of faith to produce endurance of the faith so that we will be ā€œperfect and complete, lacking nothingā€ when we face Jesus. This is a hard dose to take for many Christians.

May I say personally that I would not have reached this point of growth in my Christian life if it were not for the many trials of sickness that God has put me through. This has included 3 bouts of rheumatic fever when I was a child, aged 6, 10 and 12, that left me with a leaking mitral valve in the heart. This has resulted in 4 open heart surgeries in my adulthood to replace (3 times) the valve with 3 mechanical ones and one surgery was for a repair around the valve.

As an adult, I have prayed on all four occasions for healing so that I would avoid the surgeries, but God has not chosen to heal me. God has a greater purpose in my life and that is Christian maturity and endurance in my faith.

It is not biblical to demand that God heal others or oneself when you and others pray. Jesus did not do it and there is ample evidence for Godā€™s greater plan of development in Christian maturity.

The demand for God to heal all people can come with a diminished view of what life in the presence of God is all about. For believers, to have a desire to continue to live in this present evil world has some irony about it. Why is not living in the presence of God at death, and living for Him through trials in this life, not the way God plans for all believers?

As I update this article on Saturday, 16 June 2018, I share that on Thursday night last week after I came home from a Bible study, in the semi-darkness I tripped and fell on my side on the concrete floor of the garage. I was so stunned I didnā€™t know what to do. My medialert did not trigger an SOS as it should do. I eventually pulled myself up and closed the garage door and then it was off to bed.

About 1.30am on Friday morning, I was woken by extreme pain in my left leg. It was so bad I couldnā€™t stand to walk to the mobile phone to contact our emergency services on 000. I cried out to the Lord for healing of the pain and that no damage was done to my leg.

The pain stopped immediately, for which I praised the Lord with jubilation.

When I visited my Dr this week for an assessment of my leg, all he could say was that it was all clear and I was ā€˜luckyā€™ I didnā€™t have a break or hairline fracture as I also have osteoporosis (brittle bones).

See these related articles:

snowflake-red-small ā€œWere miracles meant to be temporary?ā€ (Jack Deere)

snowflake-red-small St. Augustine: The man who dared to change his mind about divine healing (Spencer Gear)

snowflake-red-small Are there apostles in the 21st century? (Spencer Gear)

snowflake-red-small Are miracles valuable? (Spencer Gear)

ā€™Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayerā€™ (Romans 12:12 NIV).

 

Copyright Ā© 2015 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date:16 June 2018.

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One Woman’s Legacy

A shanty town in Jakarta, Indonesia (courtesy Wikipedia)

By Spencer Gear

My wife and I supported children through Compassion International for many years.

In 2010, we supported 6 children. I urge you to consider sponsorship in this Christian ministry to the children of the world who are in desperate need.

In the Autumn 2010 edition of Compassion magazine, there was a touching story of ā€œOne Womanā€™s Legacyā€.Ā  Dr Ranu’s story is told in, Let Your Compassion Live On. Here’s a portion of it:

Perhaps to Ranu, it was a simple gift to the children of the world. We will never know, but what we do know is that Dr Ranu Basu, a sweet and humble lady originally from India who worked and settled in Australia as an anaesthetist, has left a powerful mark on the world.

When she passed away, she left Compassion Australia a donation of $1 millionā€“enough to distribute more than 66,000 malaria nets to African villages, to provide fresh water to hundreds of Indian villages or perhaps to fully fund the tertiary education and Christian training of 50 Leadership Development Students.

Dr Basu has left an undeniable mark on the children of the world and on the work of Compassion. With one gift, she allowed us to help so many.

To this beautiful woman who sponsored six children with Compassion before she died, who overcame great personal adversity including serious illness, and who was described as ā€œthe most kind, compassionate and caring person, we say thank you (Compassion magazine, Australia, Autumn 2010, p. 27).

I thank God for this incredible example of a woman who loved the Lord, suffered greatly, and was able to leave of her wealth to help underprivileged children through Compassion.

May the Lord bless her legacy. Should you wish to sponsor a child with Compassion Australia, please email: [email protected].

About Compassion

Compassion is a Christian international holistic child development organisation. Through our Child Sponsorship Program, more than 1.8 million children are currently being released from poverty in Jesusā€™ name. With over six decades of experience, Compassionā€™s unique approach to solving poverty works: research proves it.

 

Copyright Ā© 2010 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 2 July 2018.