Healing

Healing

Why is it possible on one occasion to pray for a sick person and he is healed, yet on another occasion, he is not? Most believers have certainly seen God’s power to heal, and many have been healed themselves, but there are cases where nothing helps. Why is this? There are even people among us who claim to be “experts” regarding healing by faith and prayer, but it is a fact that a lot of sick people leave these experts just as sick as when they came. Healing certainly takes place in some cases, but this is not the general pattern among believers throughout the country as a whole. There is a great lack of true insight into the secret of why healing takes place on some occasions but not on others. It is so hit and miss: Maybe, maybe not, maybe, maybe not. Maybe it will succeed, maybe it won’t. Insight, which gives authority, is totally lacking.

Since faith is needed for a person to be healed, we have to ask, “What is faith?” If God has decided that it is time for the sick person to be taken home and that his days here on earth are over, what use is there in believing anything other than what God believes? Is there any point in praying for life in such a case? No, we would surely be praying in vain. The patient will die despite all our prayers. But since the Spirit searches all things, shouldn’t we be able in the Spirit to inquire what God’s will is for the sick person? Absolutely, but we need a well-tuned instrument (receiver) in order to be able to consciously perceive such delicate, subtle impressions from the Spirit. Generally, people are far too insensitive to be aware of the Spirit’s testimony, so they continue to pray haphazardly. True enough, this does not do much harm, but neither does it do much good.

Sometimes God makes a person sick in order to draw him to Himself and away from the world. To pray for such an illness to be healed would therefore be to pray against the will of God.

We have seen amazing healings, where people have been healed from tuberculosis, stomach ulcers, hernias and other things, but we have also experienced times when our prayers have been to no avail. It is no use pretending that things are different. Sometimes healing comes immediately; at other times it comes gradually.

People often refer to Isaiah 53, where it is written, “Surely He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.” (Norw.). This is interpreted in such a way that since He has borne our sicknesses and pains, we shouldn’t experience sicknesses or pains, and if anyone does, he is regarded as one who does not have faith. This interpretation is fundamentally wrong. In addition to our sicknesses, Jesus also bore our sins in His body on the tree, and yet there is still a lot of sin in the world. There is an enormous amount of illness and sin among both worldly and religious people. Many of the saints have had a weak body, and generally this has contributed to them making significant spiritual progress. It is written in Sirach 47:19 that Solomon was overcome by his body and sinned. If Solomon had struggled with constant ill health, then I imagine he might have been saved from marrying so many heathen women, who enticed him into worshiping idols.

In Isaiah 53:10 (Norw.) it is written about Jesus: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He struck Him with sickness; when His soul brought forth the sin offering, He should see His seed, length of days, and the will of the Lord would prosper by His hand.” Since the Master Himself was “struck with sickness” in order to bring forth the sin offering, we cannot assume that our treatment will be any easier when it is time for us to bring our sin offering. Not that I believe that sickness is necessary, but when God sees that it will serve for our spiritual development, then we must not regard this as something strange. Madam Guyon was sick her entire life. Catherine Booth and Charles Finney were also very sickly, and yet they were known as God-fearing people who helped many in spiritual matters. Furthermore, Sirach says that we should honor the physician for his skill, because the Lord has created him, and you may have use for him in your time of need. To reject the Lord as your physician and only use human doctors is, of course, quite wrong. But it is also entirely wrong to reject doctors, when the Lord has given them understanding in many things about which we, for the most part, are ignorant. We have examples of people who have despised doctors in their hearts, and whose prayers were not answered when they were sick. Yet when they consulted a doctor, they became well. God’s primary interest is people’s inner healing.

“To another gifts of healings by the same Spirit . . . .” 1 Cor. 12:9. In other words, there are people for whom healing is a gift. They have a special faith for this, and this faith lies in the Spirit. Through it they are able to heal people. However, faith in God cannot contradict God’s will and wisdom. No faith or gift can heal a Job before God’s time, until the sickness has accomplished God’s purposes. If anyone tries to do so, he will fail, because it is a vain, human effort. Some sicknesses are punishment for transgressions, while other sicknesses help us by restraining us from sinning. If a person with the gift of healing is to become mature in his work, he needs to have enough insight to be capable of working together with God in each individual case. If a person prays for the sick without getting any results, then he is doubtlessly working on his own—without connection to the Almighty God.

It is often said, “Jesus healed all those who came to Him,” with the implication that “therefore all those who come to me should also be healed.” But it is a fact that not everyone who comes to us is healed, even if we have the gift of healing. Why is that? It is because Jesus was keenly attentive to His Father’s voice. He did nothing outside of His Father’s will. His testimony was that He could do nothing of Himself. This unshakable faithfulness in the smallest details meant that no sick person came His way except those whom the Father wanted to heal. Since the Son did everything to honor the Father, the Father did everything to honor the Son. Jesus was in Nazareth when He was supposed to be in Nazareth and in Jerusalem when the Father wanted Him there. In this way, He was led to those people in whom God wanted to do His work—whether it was to save them or harden them.

In times past preachers rushed off without having been sent. There is nothing new under the sun. If the truth were known, I think many of the missionaries in China and India would have been more useful if they had stayed on their father’s farm. Their desire to travel—first out to the mission field and then back home again and then off again—strongly testifies to this. If they are so insensitive to God’s will and leading, then it is not surprising that they are incapable of working together with God regarding physical healing as part of a person’s salvation. Such a work has nothing to do with a lust to travel and the begging that is necessary to satisfy such desires. However, God in His own way can still get something out of it all—despite the fact that He is unable to work together with such people. When their life is of such a caliber and their ear is so dull and slow to hear, it is not surprising that it goes the way it does concerning healing through prayer. And then, to make things worse, they blame the sick person for lacking faith if he doesn’t immediately become well. It never enters their head that they are the ones who are incompetent.

Their prayers would have more weight and power if they had more of the fruits of the Spirit regarding prayer for healing. This in turn would be beneficial for the sick person, for the prayer of a righteous man avails much. When people come to rest in God, they understand that healing the body is not the most important thing. That is why it is written, “Seek first the kingdom of God . . . and all these things shall be added to you.” God’s kingdom does not consist of physical healing, but of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. What then must we do? Our primary concern must be people’s salvation. Physical healing is secondary. If healing becomes the primary focus, that is because of a human understanding. The goal for everything must always be the salvation of the soul.

Our faith, which has overcome the world, is also strong enough to bear any illness when it is according to God’s will and for our own benefit. But if you can be made free, do it! We must, in any case, refrain from human tricks and techniques when we pray for healing, because God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.