Why doesn’t everyone who asks receive healing?

May 10, 2009 · Filed Under faith/believe, healing · Comment 

From Alan Smith’s Blog

Have you ever wondered why many who ask for healing don’t receive it? This is a common question and I’ve heard it voiced in a variety of ways. Very often this question is more than simply theological or conceptual. Many times a great deal of disappointment and hurt lies underneath.

We often don’t have answers to the “why?” question. Even when we do, while faced with particular and personal instances of suffering and disappointment, those answers are sometimes unhelpful. Answers to why questions are generally informational. God’s answer to human need and suffering is rarely informational, but rather incarnational. God enters into our suffering. He is with us in it. He carries it. This reality and experience is what is needed when faced with particular and personal loss or grief.
As I have personally wrestled with this issue, there are a few theological realities which I have found to be helpful. I share these today hoping they might also be helpful to others.

1) There is a difference between my position and my condition. What Christ has provided (my position) must be appropriated by faith in order to impact my experience (my condition). For example: The land of Israel was theirs positionally long before it was theirs conditionally. It was their inheritance long before it was their possession. To lay hold of their possession, they had to enter in and possess it by faith. An entire generation failed to do so, according to Hebrews 4, because of disobedience and unbelief. I believe Jesus has fully provided for all healing through his atoning work. The healing of sickness is part of our Kingdom inheritance inaugurated in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Many of us believe this, acknowledge this, affirm this, but few have learned to enter in and possess it. It belongs to us positionally, but we have yet to appropriate it experientially in a manner that affects our condition. I believe God is today stirring up his people to contend for and lay hold of more of the inheritance that is ours in Christ. My hope and expectation is that as we learn to contend for this we will begin to experience increasing victory in this area.

2) Faith and Unbelief operate both corporately and individually. Jesus himself was limited in what he could do in Nazareth (Matt 13:57-58). This limitation wasn’t due to the unbelief of one individual. There was, in that community, an atmosphere of unbelief which limited his ability to meet the needs of individuals. I believe the secularism and materialism of our culture, combined with the widespread unbelief of the church in our culture concerning the miraculous, has served to create an atmosphere of unbelief which stands as an obstacle. In the West, when we hear about something supernatural, our gut instinct is often that there must be a natural explanation. In other parts of the world, when they witness something natural, their first instinct is that there must be a supernatural explanation. Is it any wonder that it is easier to expereience that which truly is supernatural in those cultures?

3) Sickness is often only a symptom of a deeper root problem. Contemporary medical wisdom tells us that 80% or more of illness is psychosomatic. This means that a great deal of sickness has its root in problems of the soul. It is possible in some cases that we experience limited success in ministering physical healing because we have yet to deal with the underlying, fears, un-forgiveness, bitterness, stress, etc. that lie at the root of the illnesses we face.

4) We have not because we ask not. Very simply, it appears that healing is something we receive by asking. I know when John Wimber (founder of the Vineyard) began to contend for God’s healing power, he prayed for more than 250 people before he saw his first miracle. He prayed for 200+ more before he saw his second. As he began to contend, to ask – consistently, proactively, and faithfully – he began to see more and more people healed. I think sometimes we fail to see breakthrough because particular disappointments and losses discourage us and we simply back away from the issue. The giants are just too big. As Bill Johnson teaches, we easily get our focus on what hasn’t happened and enter into discouragement and unbelief instead of focusing on what God has done and is doing with thankfulness and moving forward in obedience and faith.

5) We are in a war. Satan is actively engaged in warfare against God’s purposes in our lives. He opposes and hinders at every turn. In Daniel 10 we see a specific example of how an unseen spiritual battle delayed Daniel’s answer to prayer.

I’m sure much more could and should be said. This isn’t at all intended to be an exhaustive answer to a complex dilemma. I do not know which of the above factors (if any) have specific relevance to your situation. I’m simply sharing some of the thoughts that have been personally challenging to me as I’ve wrestled through this same issue. I hope these ideas might serve simply as a starting place for you to pursue all the inheritance that God has provided you in Christ.

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Do you believe?

September 17, 2008 · Filed Under faith/believe · Comment 

There is one area in my journey with God that has really changed how I pray and how I respond to God. Faith.

In the New Testament, the Greek word often translated as “faith” is pistis. Interestingly, the Greek word often translated as “believe” is pisteuo. The Greek words are the same, except one is a noun (pistis) and one is a verb (pisteuo), but it’s the same word.

In my journey, I have found faith/belief to be essential to the Christian walk. And conversely, I have found that our greatest enemy is not the devil, but our unbelief. He is defeated. His power and authority has been stripped away at the Cross. But, we must believe in order to reclaim our authority.

Ask yourself a simple question, “What do you really believe?” When you pray for peace, or strength, or victory over some bondage or fear, do you believe? I mean really believe?

We say we believe, but in all honesty, I’m not sure we do. We probably just hope. Read these scriptures and see how faith/belief empowers our prayers:

    Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I assure you that you can say to this mountain, ‘May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,’ and your command will be obeyed. All that’s required is that you really believe and do not doubt in your heart. Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you will have it” (Mark 11:22-24).

    “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

We’ve got to believe. When we pray, beg and plead with God about something, and then don’t believe he will answer, we’re like a wave tossed about by the sea:

    “But when you ask [God], be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6, 7).

Look at your prayer life. When you pray, do you “really believe and not doubt in your heart”? Or, do you struggle with unbelief? Do you have thoughts like, “God won’t answer my prayers. I’m too much of a sinner. It hasn’t worked in the past. Why pray?”

Do you realize that unbelief limits the power of God to work in our lives? Check out one of the most amazing scriptures regarding faith:

    “Because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief” (Mark 6:5, 6b).

Did you catch that? “He couldn’t do any mighty miracles.” It’s not that he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He was limited. His hands were tied. His power was limited. Why? They didn’t believe. And Jesus “was amazed at their unbelief.”

Over the next few weeks, I hope to share more in this area, including some of my experiences (and failures) regarding faith.

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