Chapter
3 -
Healing
comes from God
When it is a question of
healing and the promises of God, it is important not to react in a negative manner.
For healing can often be prevented because we thwart it with our pride and
disbelief of God's intentions towards us. This happened already in Nazareth, in
the hometown of Jesus, when people were critical and disbelieving (Matt
13:58: And he did not many
mighty works there because of their unbelief.) Also today, we may
live in an environment that does not have faith in God and for this reason, not
many healings have occurred.
Kathryn Kuhlman has
noted how the congregation can easily foil God's promises and the truth:
For too long has the
congregation weakened the truth of God. Too often have we postponed our right
to the coming glory, even though we could have experienced it already here. (1)
The next quote, from a book
by Veikko Pekki, refers to the same issue. It shows how some may have
completely lost their faith in preaching:
The word of faith back!
The Holy Spirit spoke to my
heart already in the beginning of the year 1991, and told me that I must
faithfully preach the returning of the power of Christ into our congregations
and to our meetings.
In Espoo, on
April 6, 1991, the brethren day of the Pentecostal congregations of Uusimaa and
Southern Häme were arranged. There had been a burning message in my heart for a
long time, and I presented that message in this meeting. My speech was titled,
"The word of faith back to our preaching". The question of the subheading was:
"Are we losing charisma?"
In those days,
the fight against the movement called the Faith of Word was hard. I knew
more and more powerfully that not everything in our lives was as it should be.
I present here some excerpts from my speech, because I believe that these issues
will be topical in the following phase of this renewing movement. The
introduction starts with a written prophecy:
"My people, my people,
why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from me, and do not hear the words
of my groaning? My people, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, and by
night, and am not silent. And yet I am the Holy One, whose throne is in the
middle of your praise. Should I yet again step down, so that the mountains
would shake before me - how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone!
Do you not hear the word of promise, the word of faith, through which you have
received the Spirit? But you have killed faith, regarded it as cheap, and you
have not striven for it: you have not provided for the weak, you have not
healed the sick, bound the wounded, not brought back those who are lost, not
searched for the lost. But even now I stand at the door and I knock; so be
earnest, and repent, so that I would not spit you out of my mouth. I have
opened the door of faith to the heathens of this nation; I am for you the great
door leading to massive and fruitful work, if you again heed my word that
really is the word of faith. But if you reject the word of faith, this door
will be closed to you, and I will open it elsewhere, for I will appear still to
this nation and I will gather my chosen ones. (2)
If we look at some Bible
passages, we can also see the significance of faith as comes to healing. Faith
is not needed in every situation; God can heal without it, but very often in
the times of Jesus and the Apostles, people received healing when God answered
to their faith. This can be seen in the next verses, for example:
- (Matt 8:10,13) When Jesus heard it, he
marveled, and said to them that followed, Truly I say to you, I have not found so
great faith, no, not in Israel.
13 And Jesus said
to the centurion, Go your way; and as you have believed, so be it done to
you. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
- (Matt 9:22) But Jesus turned him
about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; your
faith has made you whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
- (Matt 9:28-30) nd when he was come into
the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus said to them, Believe you that
I am able to do this? They said to him, Yes, Lord.
29 Then touched
he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it to you.
30 And their eyes
were opened; and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, See that no man know
it.
- (Matt 15:28) Then Jesus answered and
said to her, O woman, great is your faith: be it to you even as you will.
And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
- (Luke 8:50) But when Jesus heard it,
he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made
whole.
- (John 4:50,51) Jesus said to him, Go
your way; your son lives. And the man believed the word that Jesus had
spoken to him, and he went his way.
51 And as he was
now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Your son lives.
- (Acts 3:16) And his name through
faith in his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know: yes, the faith which is by him has given him
this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
- (Acts 14:8-10) And there sat a certain
man at Lystra, weak in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who
never had walked:
9 The same heard
Paul speak: who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had
faith to be healed,
10 Said with a
loud voice, Stand upright on your feet. And he leaped and walked.
WHEN HEALING IS DELAYED
When we search for healing,
it is important that we have faith and that we have repented. This is
essential, because the message of Jesus and the Apostles was the same and they
preached, "repent you, and
believe the gospel". (Mark 1:15). If we forget these important
issues and leave them out, we undervalue the message of the Gospel.
On the other
hand, one mistake that can also be made is to believe that healing is always
postponed because of lack of faith or a sin that has not been confessed (= has
not been repented). Many may believe that healing is delayed because of one or
the other reason, and sometimes this attitude can lead to accusing others.
Kathryn Kuhlman tells about this:
I remember very well that
evening when I walked out from a tent in which healing meetings had been held.
I remember well the despair and disappointment on the faces of people who had
not been healed. At the meeting, they had been told that they were not healed
because they were lacking in faith.
For a long time I couldn't get rid of what I had just seen.
Was this the great mercy of God, the great consideration of Him?
I remember that evening, I remember how I cried and said, "They have taken my
Lord and I don't know where they have put Him."
I remember how I went to my room and shouted to God, praying for
light and a true answer to my questions. I can take you to that place; I can
take you to the streets where I walked that evening. I can take you to my room
where I prayed as I had prayed never before. Searched for Him as I had searched
never before. (3)
But is healing always delayed
because of a sin or lack of faith? Even though they sometimes can prevent
healing, there must also be cases indicating the opposite: there are situations
in which these explanations are defective.
Next, we will study this issue. The idea is
to prove that healing is not always delayed because of one of the reasons
mentioned above. Sometimes, there may be hidden reasons that God alone knows.
THE FALL AND ILLNESS
When it is first studied the
idea that illness is always caused by sin, we should note that this cannot be
applied to many of the saints of the Old and New Testament. For when we study
their biographies, we see that several of them became ill at some point in
their life.
One example of
this is of course Job, whose trials are well known, but there were others as
well. They fell ill (it is good to note, however, that several of them were
healed later on) and their sins could in no way be the reason for this. A
mention of illness is found at least for these people:
- Job fell ill, but his sins
were not the reason, because God praised his life (Job 1:8). He was also healed
at a later point in time (Job 42:10).
- Elisha suffered from an
illness that later killed him. (2 King 13:14).
- Hezekiah became ill and was
at the brink of dead, but God healed him (2 King 20:1-7). Neither was his
illness caused by his sins, because he had dedicated himself to God and "the
Lord was with him" (2 King 18:1-7).
- Daniel was ill for a while
(Dan 8:27).
- When in Galatia, Paul
experienced physical weakness (Gal 3:13-16).
- Epaphroditus was ill and
almost died, but God had mercy on him (Phil 2:25-27).
- Timothy had trouble with
his stomach, and Paul advised him to drink a little wine (1 Tim 5:23).
- Trophimus remained in
Miletus because he was sick, and no more specific explanation as to why is
given (2 Tim 4:20).
Although illness does not
always need to be connected with a sin, as the examples above prove, there is
still some connection between the two. The major cause of illnesses is namely
the Fall of the first two human beings from whose consequences we also now
suffer either in the form of diseases, temptations or suffering. Also death,
which will be destroyed last (1 Cor 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death), is one of the
consequences of the Fall:
- (Rom 5:12) Why, as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin; and so death passed on all men, for that all have
sinned:
Therefore, when we seek for
the root of all diseases, we will always find them to be the consequences of
the first Fall, when sin and illness came into the world. It is true that our
own acts can occasionally cause a disease, but certainly the most major reason
is the Fall that took place centuries ago.
ILLNESS AND FAITH
Lack of faith is deemed
another reason for delayed healing. Many have believed that if healing is delayed,
it is due to their lack of faith or them not trusting the promises of God. Many
may also say that if someone has "positive confession" only, they can refuse
all ordeals, suffering, and illnesses, and not have to experience them at all.
It has been thought that through faith, one can avoid these sufferings in
advance.
If we study
whether this theory is valid, we will see defects. Even though it is true that
a critical attitude towards the promises of God and lack of faith can prevent
healing, there must be some situations to which this cannot be applied. We
should take into account at least the following:
The lives of many saints. Firstly, it is
good to study the lives of many saints. If we read the biographies of saints
who have experienced many healing miracles, we will see that many of them may
suffered from various kinds of diseases and ailments during their service work.
Examples of these kinds of people are: Niilo Yli-Vainio in Finland, Kathryn
Kuhlman, Smith Wigglesworth, and many other servants of God.
Their ailments
were surely not caused by lack of faith - because they had faith - but simply
the fact that each of us may be faced with an illness, even those whom God has
especially chosen and used.
This can be seen
in the life of Smith Wigglesworth, for example. He recovered from several
illnesses, such as hemorrhoids in the beginning of the twentieth century, a
perforated appendix, and bad teeth, but still he was a tool God used to heal
thousands of others and even to raise some people from the dead.
Nevertheless,
his biography tells how he also suffered from kidney stones for six years until
he was freed from them. The quote below shows how he suffered. His ailments
could not have been caused by his lack of faith: this proves how anyone can be
faced with a disease. It is also good to note that Wigglesworth recovered from this too:
(...) Healing miracles took
place when Smith Wigglesworth prayed in the name of Jesus Christ. He was sicker
than many of those for whom he prayed, but he did not receive any mitigation
for his own ailment. (...) In Switzerland, he was like a burning flame travelling
from one congregation to another. As a result there was revival. Souls were
saved, and people were healed from all kinds of illnesses. Large assembly halls
were full of people and they all got to experience the blessing of God. (...)
When he went to
America, a record number of people came to hear him. Even the largest of
assembly halls were always full of people and he prayed for thousands: yet he
himself was sick all the time. His son-in-law and daughter often left him in
bed when he was too sick to attend his own meetings. But later on, when the
meeting had already started, he arrived in the middle of the congregation, hold his
sermon and prayed for the suffering people, only to return straight to bed.
Occasionally, when he was holding his meetings, his pains got more intense but
he tried to endure them for as long as possible. Sometimes, he would leave the
stage and rest for a little while only to return soon to continue the meeting.
(4)
Healing without faith. It is important to
notice that God has healed also many people without faith and who have not been
expecting healing. Even though faith is an important channel for healing, it is
possible for God to heal also a person who does not believe in Him and who has
lived in sin - although many of these people find salvation after being healed.
In the Bible,
one good example of this is a man who came to capture Jesus. It is not likely that
he was a believer, and he certainly did not live according to the will of God,
but Jesus still healed his ear, even though he did not expect it. This is only
one of the cases found the New Testament where the faith of a person is not the
main point in healing. There are similar cases both in the gospels and in the
Acts of the Apostles:
- (Luke 22:50,51) And one of them
smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.
51 And Jesus
answered and said, Suffer you thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.
Also Kathryn Kuhlman - in whose meetings thousands of
sick people were healed in the last century - noticed that faith was not always
necessary in healing. Many were completely healed without faith, and without
expecting anything from God. These healings were surely caused by the love of
God, His mercy and pity towards those people:
All of this surprises me more
than anybody else, because I know that I have absolutely nothing to do with
these healing miracles. This enormous outpouring of the Holy Spirit - and all
the miracles - exceed even faith, for I have seen many people who have been
healed, even though they did no have a shred of faith in them. (5)
The schedule of the healing. The third
important thing to understand is that faith alone cannot heal anyone. In other
words, faith does not have the power to carry out the works of God: everything
is based on the mercy of God and His power alone. Even if we have faith and
trust in the promises of God, and we doubt nothing, this alone cannot heal us:
we need the touch of God. This also prevents faith from becoming an
accomplishment, which can easily happen.
What this means
from our viewpoint is that we cannot determine the schedule of healing. There
is no way to know if it will happen in a second, minute, week or for example a
month (or, as Jesus said: ... apart from me you can do nothing.).
For even if one has faith, his healing
depends on the touch of God. Therefore, the main issue is not always faith or
lack thereof, but the schedule of God. This also answers the questions as to
why some people have not been healed yet. Perhaps they will be healed at
another time.
What is important to understand is that if
we have received Jesus Christ into our life, we will get to experience healing
at the latest in the kingdom of God where we will receive a perfect resurrected
body. Healing is based on the atonement work of Jesus and that is why we can
say with certainty that each person in Him will be healed, healthy, and without
ailments at one point in time. The old order of things and also pain will be
gone in the coming kingdom:
- (Rom 8:23) And not only they, but
ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption
of our body.
- (Phil 3:21) Who shall change
our vile body, that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to
subdue all things to himself.
- (Rev 21:3-6) And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he
will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be
with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the
former things are passed away.
5 And he that
sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write: for these words
are true and faithful.
6 And he said to
me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to
him that is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely.
MEDICINE
An issue that is connected
with healing and faith are medicinal substances and the use of them. It is a
question of whether it is right and reasonable to give up using medicine or
other care as an indication of faith and because "we do not really trust
in God unless we do so".
The answer to
this question is that these two issues are not opposites of each other:
instead, they support each other. For many have been (and still are) helped by
operations, organ transplants, or vaccines (tetanus, smallpox, cholera, plague,
rabies, polio...), for example. These have been used to help and save the lives
of millions of people. Therefore, their benefits are not worthwhile to belittle,
but worthwhile to receive.
On the other
hand, if someone gives up using medicine too early "as an act of
faith", it may sometimes cause serious consequences, even death, and this
is why we should never hurry into giving up medicine. There is plenty of time
to give up using medicine when we have been healed. Also, if someone has not
been healed yet, he can seek for normal medical treatment:
Years ago, I got a leg wound
as a consequence of a vein infection I had got during my "smoking years".
The best intercessors in the country prayed for me. I confessed healing verses and
I held on to the promises of the Word. Charles commanded the illness to leave.
I commanded the illness to leave. Charles put his hands on me. I put my hands
on myself. A few times the whole congregation put their hands on me, but
nothing helped. (...) My foot ached unbearably, no matter in which position I put
it. The infection had spread to my whole leg and in the spirit I felt
convicted, because the healing did not occur!
(...) I
immediately went to the hospital without any feelings of guilt whatsoever. The
bone specialist removed the diseased tissue, and to everyone's surprise my foot
healed in record time. I was told that I had to be in the hospital for several
weeks. Charles received the message of knowledge and informed the doctor that I
would leave the hospital in eight days. And that is what happened!
When I was in
the hospital, I was able to witness and as a result, my roommate received
Jesus. Her husband and her son were also saved, and all three were filled with
the Holy Spirit. The doctor said, "God certainly has had a hand in this!"
Hallelujah!
If you have
tried and tried, as I did, and nothing has helped, do not judge yourself. Go
and get medical help! That is what I did, and now my foot has been healed! (6)
