Does God Heal Today?

One of the most controversial questions about healing is whether sickness could ever be beneficial. God uses pain and suffering to discipline and purify us all the time. None of these verses is specifically about illness but the Bible contains principles that can be applied to different situations. James 1:2-4. Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds. The testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:12. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. He will receive the Victor's crown of life. Romans 5:3:5. Trials produce perseverance and character. God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 12:1:13. A father disciplines his sons. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. In your weakness my strength is great.

Could sickness ever have a purpose? 2Corinthians 1:3,4. He comforts us in our sorrow so that we can comfort others. When our cat Poppy was old Suzanne was the only person who knew that the cat was almost blind and couldn't see her bowl of food. Suzanne is almost blind. I cut the food into tiny little bits because I have buck teeth and have no bite. That is what I do with the meat in my sandwiches. The cat was pulling pieces of food on to the floor, as if they were too big. Two people caring for an old cat would never have understood it unless they both had illnesses. When David Krienke's wife died they sought healing but God kept saying, 'In your weakness, my strength is great.' After his wife's death David Krienke found a Bible that had belonged to her. She had written in the cover, 'Discover Your Ministry.' That was the only sermon he had ever preached. He did not think he was very good at preaching. It had obviously made an impression. This gave him the confidence to become a preacher on YouTube. David Watson was a Church of England vicar who died of cancer. He said, 'At the beginning of my illness I was prepared to go to Heaven and willing to stay on Earth. Now I am willing to go to Heaven and prepared to stay on Earth.' Sheila was born blind and could see angels in her mind's eye. This became extremely useful when the church were praying together. She ran a business helping people who were partially sighted or blind put helpful software on their mobile phones.

None of these things prove that it wasn't God's will to heal the person. God has a plan for our lives which is planned around all our problems and all our disasters. God uses our mistakes. God uses a church where the Holy Spirit has been neutered and Christians are allowed to die prematurely. God uses people who think that healing was only for Biblical times and say, 'Debbie's cancer has come back. Does that mean it's not worth praying for her anymore?' Romans 8:28-39. All things work together for the good of those who trust God. He has predestined us to be transformed into the likeness of his son. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Death can't.

Barry Bennett is a teacher in Charis Bible College in America. He was healed of cancer several times. He had skin cancer many years ago, trusted God for healing, it returned in his ear, he was healed without the surgery his doctor advised and the third time the cancer returned the doctor told him he had 6 months to live. He was healed again. He constantly hears Christians say that they are the exception, that their illness has a purpose. This prevents many people from receiving healing. We can't all be the exception. There are some people whose blindness is an incredible spiritual weapoon which enables the church prayer meeting to see angels or demons, there are some people whose early death is pivitol in a moment of history, but these are actually very rare. Most of the suffering we go through in life is pointless and useless. It must be God's will to heal at least most of the time. Barry Bennett is also frustrated by Christians who insist that if God will heal them, it must happen in the next 5 minutes. They don't want to seek the Lord, hear his voice, and wait for the healing to come. F F Bosworth wrote a book about healing a hundred years ago in which he mentions the same problem. He makes a distinction between the gift of miracles, which were always instant, and the gift of healing, which is not necessarily instant but may happen over time.

It is surprising that we don't see healing more often. It is in the atonement. Jesus died for our sins and also for our illnesses. 'He took our sicknesses and carried our diseases.' Matthew 8:14-17. Isaiah 53:4-6. We all like sheep have gone astray. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. He died so that our sins could be forgiven. He took our sorrows and carried our infirmities. Sorrows and infirmities include emotional weaknesses. Every nervous breakdown that you've ever had. 1Peter 2:24. By his wounds we are healed. Jesus never turned away anyone who came to him for healing. Healing is part of the gospel message. It should be just as normal as forgiveness of sins. But healing has been denied by a church who think that miracles have passed away, or believe that it is exceptionally rare.

If an illness has a purpose, this also accounts for why healing doesn't always happen straight away. I am convinced that God will heal Suzanne before she goes completely blind but he certainly would not have done so until she had finished looking after an elderly cat. Abraham waited a long time for a miracle. For Sarah to be childless, in those days, was a disgrace. Romans 4:18-22. Abraham was 100 years old and so was his wife Sarah but he trusted God and believed the promise God had made to him. God had asked Abraham to count the stars and said, 'So shall your descendants be.' Genesis 15:1-5. Why did Jesus delay going to visit Lazarus? He deliberately held back the visit for two days until Lazarus had died. John 11:1-6. 11:21,22. Martha believed that Lazarus would not have died if Jesus had been there. John 11:32. Mary believed the same ting. Martha still expected him to do something. She believes that Jesus is the resurrection and the Life and that her brother will rise again thousands of years in the future, at the end of time. She wasn't ready for what happened. Jesus asked for the stone to be rolled away from the entrance to the tomb and Lazarus came out. John 11:38-46. Lazarus' resurrection was a much greater demonstration of God's power than his healing would have been. Many people believed.

One man visited an old lady in hospital and prayed for her to be healed, 'if it be thy will.' He was very upset when the people with him told him, 'That is not a prayer of faith. You're supposed to say, 'Look God, raise her up.' Of course, the man didn't want to command God. That would be heretical. But we can command the illness to leave or the person to be healed. That is not commanding God. F F Bosworth refers to the phrase, 'If it be thy will' as faith destroying. That isn't believing at all. Faith is the expectation that God will do something, not the belief that he could if he wanted to. Faith is discerning God's will in the matter, his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1,2. Asking for wisdom and not doubting. James 1:5-8. Abraham knew he had received a promise from God and believed the specific word God had given him. Barry Bennett believed very much in people receiving a personal word from God. He said of people seeking healing, who have come into your meeting, 'Talk to them. What do they know that they know?' William Branham often had experiences of God revealing the exact time and circumstances in which a healing would take place. He prayed for a baby to be healed. Nothing happened. God said, 'I showed you a picture of the whole family around the table, including the grandmother. Wait for the grandmother to arrive.' When the whole family, including the grandmother, were there, he prayed for the baby and the baby was healed.