Part I - Traditions and Objections
Its pretty clear when you consider certain Scriptures that God wants us well. Healing is part of one of God's own names (Exodus 15:26), and Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus consistently showed God's mercy and compassion by healing all who came to Him with even a little faith, and the apostles and early church continued this ministry. The prophet Isaiah talked about Jesus bearing our sicknesses and carrying our diseases in his substitutionary atonement for us, and that with his stripes we are healed (see Isaiah 53:4,5). This makes healing part of our salvation purchased at the cross. It makes sense because the words for salvation and healing are the same in the New Testament. David said that the Lord "forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:3) while John wrote that "I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers" (3 John 2). James promised in the case of sick people "the prayer of faith will heal the sick" while Jesus promised that in His name, believers "shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover" (Mark 16:18). Jesus said that we could speak to any mountain (including sickness) and it will move if we don't doubt. Peter identified sickness clearly as the work of the devil in Acts 10:38, while John said that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Taken together, these and other Scriptures make it pretty clear that God wants people well. We have already dealt with the objection that the fact that people don't get healed after prayer proves that it is not God's will to heal in every case. But if all this be so, why do so many still fail to receive healing, even amongst those who seek it through Jesus Christ. There are answers to this question. When we consider them all, it is remarkable that so many do receive healing at all!
It should be pointed out that God can and does act in spite of these barriers to healing. Some are healed without exercising faith themselves - others are healed through God's mercy in spite of lots of factors being against it. God is both Sovereign and Almighty. This means He can and does heal even when people are not really expecting it, or at times when the sick person needs major change in their life or attitudes. We should just praise God and thank Him for the good things He does for us even when its clear we don't deserve it, and we aren't even meeting God's conditions. Truly the Lord IS merciful, and delights in showing favors.
The First Major Reason why Some People Fail to Receive Healing
The Healing Part of the Gospel is hindered and even made void by the traditions of men
"making the Word of God of no effect through your traditions which you have handed down…" (Mark 7:13)
Those who find fault with the phrase "the healing part of the gospel" are amongst those ones who are making the word of God concerning divine healing of absolutely no effect.
God wants to "send his word and heal" people (Psalm 107:20) but instead, and it is very sad, many Bible teachers make void the Word of God through their traditions on the subject, and their skewed interpretations of a few isolated passages of Scripture. They use these interpretations to veto the plain declarations and promises of God concerning healing found in quite a number of passages throughout the Word of God. And as long as people are left with doubts in their minds concerning God's attitude to their diseases, they cannot have steadfast faith to be divinely healed by the direct action of the Holy Spirit. While people "waver between two opinions" on this subject, let them not think that they will receive anything from the Lord, being "double-minded men, unstable in all their ways" (James 1:7,8).
The effect of these traditions is to destroy people's confidence that the Lord will be gracious to them, and that it is really God's desire for them to be healed. They may dare to hope that God will heal them, but if the doctor has said there is no hope, they generally believe what the doctor says. If the Bible said nothing at all about healing, it would not make a scrap of practical difference to such people. Some may hold out hope that somehow, God may sovereignly choose to do some unusual miracle, perhaps by someone with a special gift of healing. However, they have no assurance that God WILL do something, because their theology tells them that God has promised nothing concrete. They believe they will have to wait and see what happens before they know for sure what God's will in their particular case was. This has come about because of the traditions of men which make the word of God of no effect. Here are some of these traditions:
Tradition Number One: The Age of Miracles is past
Conservative evangelicals disagree as to when the Holy Spirit stopped working miracles. Some say it was with the death of the apostles, while others say it was when the canon of Scripture was put together and people could get the entire Holy Bible. This is based on an interpretation of 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 which sees the Bible as "the perfect". When "the perfect comes", that which in part will be done away with. So tongues and prophecy will cease. But so will partial knowledge (vs 8). If any conservative evangelicals are willing to say their knowledge is not partial but is complete, I would be interested to ask them a few questions of my own! But if it is partial, then "the perfect" has still not come, despite the fact that we can now line our bookshelves with various different translations of the Word of God, with all their alternate readings.
Another thing about when the perfect comes: We shall then see "face to face" (vs 12). We are not all seeing Jesus face to face now. We get glimpses of who He is - through the Word, by the Spirit, in fellow Christians - but we don't generally see Him face to face. It is clear that "the perfect" in the context of 1 Corinthians 13 has nothing to do with the Canon of Scripture, but rather with the consummation of the Kingdom of God at the time of the Second Coming of Christ. Only then will we see "face to face". Only then will we know fully, and only then will tongues and prophecy (and partial knowledge) cease. In the meantime, thank God for your Bibles and continue to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, as the Word of God commands you (1 Corinthians 14:1).
It was unbelief and sin in the ecclesiastical hierarchy that caused the gifts of the Spirit and the working of healings and miracles to be almost, but not entirely crushed. If they managed to totally obscure the doctrine of salvation by their traditions, it is no wonder if they obscured and confused the truth about divine healing and the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Let the teachings and practices of the Reformers themselves also be judged by the Word of God! It is clear that they did not go all the way. It has been a long road back to the restoration of apostolic Christianity, and we are still not totally there.
Historically, God has continued to work miracles through people who believe that He will. The writings of the early church fathers confirm that many healings and exorcisms were taking place well into the 5th century and beyond. You can now search these writings by computer and quickly verify that this is the case, if you so desire. Other bright lights in church history, such as the Waldensians or even St. Francis of Assissi show that God was still willing to use consecrated people to show his mercy and power.
Any time God answered a prayer with a result that would not have happened otherwise, a miracle took place. The whole idea that the Age of Miracles has passed away is an insult to the Holy Spirit. It is to mock prayer today. This particular tradition of men, that the Age of Miracles has passed away, should be treated by all thinking people with the contempt it deserves. It is neither historically nor biblically accurate.
Tradition Number Two: Paul's Thorn was a sickness, and proves God is sometimes unwilling to Heal
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast of my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Many have taught that Paul's "thorn" was a sickness, which Paul wanted the LORD to take away - but the LORD was quite unwilling to take it away (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Thus many sick Christians today have been taught that since their prayer for healing has apparently been denied by God, they are in the same situation as Paul. They see that God has given them this sickness for the purpose of character development - that they might exhibit fortitude and patience in their suffering and thereby glorify God.
While patience in suffering is certainly commendable, this passage tells us what the "thorn in the flesh was". Paul himself says that it was "a messager [Gk: angelos] of Satan to buffet him". This means Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was really a person - most likely a fallen angel of Satan.
The use of the word "thorn" is obviously symbolic. We can see that also in the book of Joshua it referred to a harassing person or people. When Joshua told the Israelites that if they make peace with the Canaanites they would be "scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes" (Joshua 23:13) he meant that they would be harassed and attacked by them. We should not make too much of the fact that the thorn was "in the flesh", just as we would not draw too many conclusions about the location of the problem if we heard someone being described as "a pain in the neck", or, to use the Old Testament expression "a thorn in the eyes".
Therefore the most likely conclusion is that Paul was at some time in his ministry under intense demonic attack. These attacks may at times have produced physical discomfort and weakness, since Paul mentions "infirmities" in 2 Cor. 12:10. But he also mentions "reproaches", "needs", "persecutions" and "distresses" - all of which were likely also to be the results of this demonic angel stirring up trouble for Paul.
This view is in line with the text itself. The thorn was given lest Paul be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations. God did not want Paul to become haughty, arrogant or puffed up by the great revelation knowledge he received. Therefore he permitted Paul to get into circumstances where he would need to continue to depend on God and His power, and not on what Paul already knew and understood. Our true wisdom is to humble ourselves before the Lord and receive His help against our spiritual enemies who can stir up much trouble for us at times.
One thing is clear. Paul's "thorn", however distressing it may have been at times, did not prevent him from engaging in "labours more abundant" (2 Cor. 11:23). Are some of those who are claiming to have a thorn like Paul's using their thorn as an excuse for not being able to work hard for the Lord? Are the exhortations to "be prepared for every good work", to "be careful to maintain good works" and to be "always abounding in the work of the Lord" only applicable to Christians without "thorns"?
Paul's thorn did not cause those on the island of Malta to have doubts concerning divine healing (Acts 28:8,9). While teaching on Paul's thorn by many modern preachers has destroyed the confidence and expectation of believers that God shall heal them by his power, it was not so in Paul's day. The words and works of Paul were doubtless in line with the testimony of the whole of the Word of God, which we are told is "medicine for all our flesh" (Prov. 4:22).
If a Christian is convinced that God has given him a sickness, a "thorn" for character development or any other purpose, then surely it would be wrong for them to go to the doctors to seek to have the "thorn" removed!
God wanted Paul here to humble himself and get more grace from God, so that he could overcome these demonic assaults. Indeed, the Christian life will have many battles with evil spirits. By humbling ourselves we receive grace from God to not only live patiently and righteously in these trials, but also to rebuke them and eventually clear the demonic opposition out of our path, no matter how strong and persistent it may seem to be.
In conclusion, Paul's thorn was a fallen angel, not a sickness as such. And although there may be various demonic attacks on our bodies and our situation, this does not change the fact that God's intention for us is to overcome these things through faith and patience and receive the fulfillment of the promises He has made to us concerning healing and every other problem. In the midst of these attacks we are supposed to gain spiritual strength. We are not supposed to just let the devil walk all over us.
Tradition Number Three: The will of God is shown by what happens, since nothing and no one can resist God's will. But since many are not healed, it is obviously NOT God's will to heal all.
I have dealt with this insidious tradition here in my article "How Can We Know the Will of God in Divine Healing".
Tradition Number Four: The Promises of Healing were only for the Old Testament - We Cannot Claim them Today
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us." (2 Corinthians 1:20) very little of the New Testament had as yet been written. Paul could not have been referring strictly to the New Testament. The use of the Word 'all' is very inclusive - it has to include the Old Testament promises. The apostles frequently quoted the Old Testament in their councils and teachings. So all the promises in the Old Testament ARE for believers today. As long as you are "in Christ", you qualify. Further, when you receive the fulfillment of these promises, it will be "to the glory of God". People will glorify God when they see evidence of Him doing what His Word promises.
It is true that we are no longer under the Old Testament Law of Moses. But not one of God's promises have been abrogated. So if God said, "If you diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God … I will not put on you … diseases … for I am the Lord who heals you" (Exodus 15:26) , then this verse is the voice of God to us today, if only we will believe it. Of course, if you don't believe it, you can't really expect it to work for you.
Tradition Number Five: God Sometimes Wants t
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