How Far Will God Go to Stop Suffering?

I was reflecting last night on a story that was shared at The Gathering that illustrated the lengths to which God will go to stop suffering and evil. Before I share that story, let me highlight some of the beliefs people have about this issue

Many people believe that God is indifferent to the pain and suffering that we go through. After all, if God is all-powerful and if He opposes evil and suffering, then why does He allow them to happen?

It seems only logical that if He allows them to happen He must approve of them, and if God approves of suffering and evil then He cannot be good. This reasoning about the nature of God developed as a response to teaching from the church that God is in control of everything and that everything that happens is His will, including suffering and evil.

The idea that suffering and evil are the will of God is an ancient philosophy that was given new life during the Protestant reformation. Drawing on a few passages from scripture like Romans chapter nine, men like John Calvin developed a view of God that has Him in control of everything. Romans nine states that God has predestined some to be saved and others to be objects of wrath. This chapter essentially teaches that all the outcomes of life are predetermined by God and we cannot change any of them. This teaching completely ignores the fact than man has a responsibility to exercise his free will.

Is God in Control of Everything?
I've thought about this question for years and here's how I finally settled it:

The bible views life from two perspectives; ours and God's. Most of the passages of scripture view life from man's perspective and teach that we have choices to make. (If we can make choices then God cannot be controlling us, and He cannot be in control of everything.) When the Bible says, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life," it is obviously speaking from man's perspective. Romans nine, which sees God in control of our choices views life from His perspective.

The view that God is in control is a valid perspective to live from, but only under one condition: It is a valid if you happen to be God, and if you happen to know all these things. While I can accept the fact that God's perspective is valid for Him, I can only view life from that perspective if I happen to be God. Since I'm not God and I don't know who has been predestined to be saved or healed, I must operate from the perspective that I have free will and I must make choices.

The Reality of Free Will
God could have made us in such a way that we would always do His perfect will. In such a world everyone would always do what was just, right and fair. If that were the case, there would be no evil or suffering. But if we always did what was right, we would not have the ability to choose to do evil. And without the ability to choose between good and evil, we would be nothing more than robots, devoid of free will.

We would also not have the capacity to love, because love is a choice. In order for us to be able to choose to love, we must be able to choose not to love. We must be able to choose to hate and to hurt others. Suffering and evil are permitted, not because God wants them, but because their very existence gives us the freedom to love others.

God wants us to have the freedom to make choices; whether for good or for evil. Evil is a necessary consequence of allowing us to have free will, and allowing us to have free will is God's top priority. But the fact that He allows evil and suffering to exists does not mean He is not actively opposing them. It's just that He cannot force people to refrain from doing evil without removing their free will.

God will never over-ride a person's free will, so He won't force an abusive father to stop beating his son. If He did, he would remove their ability to choose and negate their free will. So He must oppose evil and suffering in another way. Rather than directly negating the free will of those who want to do violence, He opposes them by recruiting  people who are willing use their free will to accomplish His divine purpose.

How God Opposes Suffering Through Us
We've been given the ability to partner with God as He enforces His will in the earth. By bringing healing to those who suffer illness and injury, deliverance to those who are tormented by demons and by interceding for those who suffer violence, we are God's hands that do  the work that accomplishes His will. If we refuse to partner with God, we are to blame for the continuation of suffering and violence. God opposes tyranny, injustice, abuse and violence through us when we submit our will to accomplishing His work.

At The Gathering a man told me of an experience he had one night after drifting off to sleep. He was taken in the spirit to a place in the heavens where he met about six other people. Gauging by how they were dressed, he had to assume the others had come from different time periods spanning thousands of years, including one person who looked as if he had come from the future. They had all been brought there to interceded for a boy who was being beaten by his father. The group spent time praying for the boy and when their prayer time was done, they departed. The man who had this experience found himself back in his bed.

To answer the question I asked at the beginning of this message: "How far will God go to stop evil?" He is so interested in stopping evil that He'll find people scatted over different time periods in history and bring them together in one place in eternity to pray in agreement for one boy to be spared the beatings of  an abusive father. That's how much He loves each one of us.

Did God Cause Death & Evil in The Old Testament?

By Richard Murray

This is a discussion about the nature of God and Satan as their works are revealed in the pages of Scripture. The basic premise is that the Old Testament contains an incomplete revelation of the nature of Satan. That incomplete picture of Satan causes many of us to attribute his works to God. The New Testament reveals the works of Satan for what they are. When Old Testament passages are read in light of New Testament revelation, the works of death and evil attributed to God in the Old Testament can be traced back to Satan.

Richard Murray wrote:

The Old Testament has a lesser revelation about Satan and lacks the greater New Testament light.

Jewish and Christian scholars alike have both noted that the Old Testament view of God differs significantly from the New Testament view in one key aspect - the way Satan is viewed. The way Satan is viewed explains all discrepancies between the Old and New Testaments.

Let me explain:

For the Old Testament believer, Satan was an obedient angel who had a tough job as God's enforcer who was in charge of:

1. Executing the wrath of God's curses on disobedient men
2. Dispensing eventual death to all men
3. Testing men's faith by oppressing them with circumstances to see if they remain righteous
4. Hardening the hearts of certain men to commit acts of rebellion so that they quickly destroy themselves
5. Destroying what God commands through war, plague, famine, and natural/ supernatural disasters
6. Accusing men of their failures before God based on his eyewitness reports.

But in all this, Satan is merely fulfilling his role in the heavenly train. He is not seen as an enemy of God, a rebel opposed to the Kingdom of God on every level, like he is portrayed in the New Testament.

For sure, the New Testament confirms that Satan does engage in wrath, accusation, destruction, and temptation, but never under the approval or direction of God. The Old Testament says Satan is just following orders, while the New Testament says Satan is "off the grid" in complete disobedience to God.

In short, Old Testament saints see Satan as a Luca Brasi figure. Brasi was a character from “The Godfather” novel and movies who did the Godfather's dirty work, but who was absolutely loyal to his leader, perhaps even the most loyal. Brasi was an assassin, spy and fixer who always worked behind the scenes to discover and destroy those disloyal or opposed to his Godfather. He rooted out then disposed of the Godfather's enemies. He always had his Godfather's trust and blessing. This was the Old Testament view of Satan.

As The Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts  by Philip Birnbaum says, "Satan...is...identified with the angel of death. He leads astray, then he brings accusations against man, whom he slays eventually. His chief functions are those of temptation, accusation and punishment. Under the control of God, he acts solely with the divine permission to carry out his plots." (Sanhedrin Press, page 594).

Rabbi Benjamin Blech similarly writes, "Judaism sees Satan as a servant of God whose function is to set up choices between good and evil so that we can exercise our free will.... [His] apparent harshness is merely camouflage for divine concern and love." If God is So Good, Why is The World So Bad? (Simcha Press, pages 7-9)

Author Stephen Harris notes that the Old Testament Satan is not the same entity as the New Testament Satan. In the Old Testament, "The Satan figure acts as Yahweh's spy and prosecuting attorney whose job is to bring human misconduct to the deity's attention and, if possible, persuade Yahweh to punish it.

Throughout the Old Testament the Satan remains among the divine 'sons,' serves as God's administrative agent, and thus reveals a facet of the divine personality.... At the outset, some Bible writers saw all things, good and evil alike, as emanating from a single source - Yahweh. Israel's strict monotheistic credo decreed that Yahweh alone caused both joys and sorrows, prosperity and punishment (Deut. 28).... The canonical Hebrew Bible grants the Satan scant space and little power.

Whereas the Old Testament Satan can nothing without Yahweh's express permission, in the New Testament he behaves as an independent force who competes with the Creator for human souls.... According to Mark's Gospel, one of Jesus' major goals is to break up Satan's kingdom and the hold that he and lesser evil spirits exercise on the people. Hence, Mark stresses Jesus' works of exorcising devils and dispossessing the victims of demonic control. The New Testament, then-- in sharp contrast to the Old-- shows Satan and the devil as one, a focus of cosmic evil totally opposed to the Creator God. This 'evil one' is the origin of lies, sin, suffering, sickness and death." Understanding the Bible: A Reader’s Introduction, pages 26-28.

The renowned International Standard Bible Encyclopedia is in full agreement with this in its entry on Satan: "The Old Testament does not contain the fully developed doctrine of Satan found in the New Testament. It does not portray him as at the head of a kingdom, ruling over kindred natures and an apostate from the family of God.... It is a significant fact that the statements concerning Satan become numerous and definite only in the New Testament.

The daylight of the Christian revelation was necessary in order to uncover the lurking foe, dimly disclosed but by no means fully known in the earlier revelation.... In the early states of religious thinking it would seem to be difficult, if not impossible, to hold the sovereignty of God without attributing to His agency those evils in the world which are more or less directly connected with judgment and punishment.... The progressive revelation of God's character and purpose, which more and more imperatively demands that the origin of moral evil, and consequently natural evil, must be traced to the created will in opposition to the Divine, leads to the ultimate declaration that Satan is a morally fallen being to whose conquest the Divine Power in history is pledged."

Finally, scholar Jeffrey Burton Russell, who has written multiple volumes on the historical development of our understanding of Satan, notes that the reason early Jewish thought saw Satan as God's servant is as follows:

"Since the God of Israel was the only God, the supreme power in the cosmos, and since, unlike the abstract God of the Greeks, He had personality and will, no deed could be done unless He willed it. Consequently, when anyone transgressed morality, God was responsible for the transgression as well as for its punishment." The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of God in History, (Cornell University Press, 29-30)

Russell goes on to trace that later in Jewish history, closer to Jesus' day, more and more Jews began to see Satan as an evil entity acting independently of God's approval. This is easily proven by considering the incident in which King David sinned by numbering Israel. This incident is first recorded in 2 Samuel 24:1, and then centuries later in 1 Chronicles 21:1.

In the earlier entry, David's sin is caused by "the anger of God," while in the later passage "Satan" is the cause of David's sin. Same sin, same event, entirely different cause. The Jews were beginning to see that they could not attribute both sin and punishment to God, good and evil to God, love and hate to God. They began to develop the idea that Satan was an enemy to God's purposes rather than an obedient friend. Unfortunately, when Israel as a nation rejected Jesus as Messiah, they also rejected the truth about Satan and have since sadly regressed back to their early Old Testament view, as the earlier quotes above show.

But let's catch our breath and think about this for a moment. If in the passage above, Satan's destructive activity is wrongly attributed as God's wrath, then where does that leave us?

It leaves us falsely accusing God of all sorts of evil events, motives and destructions. We have chained God and Satan at the spiritual hip, good and evil at the spiritual hip, love and wrath at the spiritual hip - God is blamed for all that Satan does, while Satan gets partial credit for the good God does. The end result is that the character of God is clouded and men are unable to fully see, trust and rejoice in his love and forgiveness.

So was the Old Testament view of Satan different than the New Testament view?

Yes, vastly different, but perhaps the best way to put it is not so much that the Old Testament was wrong about Satan, but that the Old Testament was almost completely uninformed about him. The first reference to Satan is not even until 548 pages into the Old Testament. Satan is first mentioned only 3 pages into the New Testament. The total number of times Satan is mentioned in the Old Testament is 19 times, 14 of which are in the book of Job. The New Testament mentions Satan (or his devils) nearly 200 times, despite the fact that it is five times shorter than the Old Testament in length.

Only three Old Testament writers ever even mention Satan, and that only briefly. Every New Testament writer mentions Satan. Amazingly, Moses, David, Abraham and Solomon never mentioned Satan at all.

Their clueless silence is hard to imagine, given the fact that these men are considered giants of the faith. Contrast this with the New Testament, where Jesus repeatedly calls Satan "the ruler of this world" (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), the Apostle Paul calls Satan "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4) and "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2) who can appear as "an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). The Apostle Peter calls Satan "your adversary... a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8), and the Apostle John calls Satan "the evil one... in whose power the whole world lies." (1 John 5:19).

What is going on here?

Not one Old Testament verse warns us of Satan's evil influence in our hearts or minds, much less his rebellious rule over the entire fallen world. Not one demon is cast out in the Old Testament. Legions of devils are cast out in the New Testament. Evil spirits are sent from the Lord in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 16:14), but are sent from Satan as Beezlebub, the ruler of demons, in the New Testament (Matthew 12:24-29).

Jesus' main thrust in ministry was to destroy the works of Satan, not enable them or approve of them in any way. "He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8)
When summarizing the Gospel for the first Gentile converts, Peter described "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him." Acts 10:38.

The point?

Jesus continually exposed Satan as an enemy of His Father, and not a servant. Jesus described Satan as: "a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." (John 8:44)

This is a crucial passage for it shows Satan's evils come from "his own resources," not God's, and that he is in essence a killer and a liar, in fact the "father" of all killing and lying. Remember, Satan tried to both deceive and kill Jesus in the wilderness temptations in Luke 4. Jesus defeated him then and went on defeating him throughout the rest of Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

Jesus not only opposed Satan personally, he fought against Satan's entire kingdom of demonic elements, "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:10. Through the work of the cross, Jesus defeated all of Satan's armies, "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2:15) Greek scholars tell us these words describe Jesus having a victory parade wherein He brandishes all the captured armor of Satan's kingdom for all to see and celebrate. Satanic captivity has been taken captive by the Lord of love and light who has ransomed and rescued us from our dark kidnappers.

Now we see what one of the main problems was with Old Testament believers. They simply did not have the depth of understanding to see the truth about God's Kingdom as it related to Satan's kingdom. Their understanding of what we call New Covenant truth was at most only embryonic. This is the perfect example of John Calvin's claim that Old Testament saints had only "sleight capacity" to understand deeper New Testament concepts - the true nature of Satan being just such a concept.

Without the indwelling Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth, Old Testament saints simply could not accurately process how the two invisible personalities of God and Satan operated on the earth. It wasn't God working with Satan as they supposed. It was God working against Satan as Jesus revealed.

Jesus revealed that between their two kingdoms, there was no treaty, no cooperation, no partnership, no under-the-table deals, no compromise, no joint operation going on. It was war!

Jesus stated the battle lines of this war in John 10:10, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly."

Satan = stealing, killing, destroying.

Jesus = life abundant.

Bill Johnson - God's Concealed Glory and Sovereign Healing

Bill Johnson discusses why God generally conceals His glory and on rare occasions, reveals it more fully. He also discusses the purpose of God's sovereign acts in the earth.

Freeing The Prisoners

I've been turned down more in recent days when I ask people on the street if I can pray for them. The funny thing is - the people who don't want me to pray for them are often Christians. They usually tell me about the church they go to then offer a reason why they don't need my prayers. I've decided not to engage in debates. I don't try to convince them to let me pray with them. I smile and continue looking for people who want to be free.

I'm not as discouraged as I once was. It used to be more painful to be rejected, but I'm gradually accepting the fact that some people are comfortable with their pain, sickness, fear or whatever imprisons them. They've made a choice and I need to honor it. Apparently, God knew I was feeling a little rejected yesterday, so He gave me a dream last night to help illustrate the reality of His kingdom.

In the dream I was traveling to different locations. My job was to facilitate the closure of prisons. People in the areas I went to had voted to close certain prisons and to let the prisoners go free. My job was to make sure the prisons closed on time without any problems. I was a representative who had been given the authority to close the prisons. I went to many different prisons and helped in the process of of getting them closed.

Near the end of the dream, I went to one prison and asked if it was to be closed. I was told that I had no authority to close that one yet, because the people had not yet voted to close it. This was the end of the dream.

I asked God to help me understand the dream. Here's what I heard:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
(Isaiah 61:1 - See also Luke 4:18)

God has been speaking with me lately about freedom; specifically about our choices and His decision not to overrule them. As an evangelical I was often taught about the sovereignty of God. I've leaned hard on this idea over the years, but I'm finding lately that the more I lean on it, the more it seems to be failing me.

The Old Testament often uses the title "Sovereign Lord." It was brought to my attention that this name was previously translated, "Lord Almighty". I hate long debates about theology, so I'll get to the point: I think many of us (myself included) have a faulty belief about the sovereignty of God. I've been under the impression that God always does whatever He wants, with little or no regard to what humans want. I think this belief is wrong.

I believe God is all powerful; that is to say He has the ability or power to do anything He wants. But I believe He honors the will of man much more than I've been comfortable with.

In my dream about closing prisons, a group of people had not yet voted to close a prison. Their decision was to keep it. And their decision had to be honored. Although God gave me authority as His representative to close some prisons and free the captives, that did not give me authority to overrule the free will of others. And this seems to be the main point God wants me to understand.

I've heard people teach that it's OK to cast demons out of people against their will. In studying the ministry of Jesus, I don't see that lived out. I'm often surprised at how low- key and unobtrusive the Lord was in ministering to people. He often simply asked, "What do you want from me?" In ministering to those oppressed by the enemy, Jesus first inquired, then gave according to what was asked for. He honored the desires and free will of others. Jesus didn't use His authority to violate the free will of those who were in bondage. He delivered those who wanted freedom.

In another recent dream, God spoke to me about having authority over all the power of the enemy. (Luke 10:19) We do without question, have a great deal of authority in Christ. Using it properly seems to be the thing we struggle with. Perhaps the most common problem is not knowing the authority we have or not walking in it. Less common, but still problematic is choosing to wield our authority at a time when restraint might be the better thing.

Thanks for your time.

(Feel free to leave comments)

Healing - Our Responsiblity or God's?

In the short time I've been interested in the subject of healing, a thorny problem has repeatedly confronted me. I did some thinking on it. Here's what I found out: the Christian world is divided into two camps; or three, if you count those who take the middle ground. At issue is a centuries-old debate about man's responsibility and God's sovereignty; Calvinism and Arminianism. These mind-sets and arguments have infected the waters of healing.

I won't bore you with a long discussion on the theological points of this argument. If you're interested in learning more, you can google it. I had an old friend who insisted on arguing his Calvinistic world-view with me every time we met. He drove me crazy. God mercifully removed this 'thorn in the flesh' from my life. I've never had a desire to return to this debate.

I'll summarize for you the basic points of these two views; Calvinism was named after the reformer John Calvin. It's main emphasis is on the sovereignty of God. There are varying degrees to which adherents follow this teaching. Some are moderate, some are quite extreme; to the point of stating that man is without free will. Arminianism, takes it's name from Jacobus Arminius. Followers of Arminianism stress the reality of man's free will and tend to minimize the sovereignty of God. Both sides will cite piles of scripture verses to support their view.

If the bible gives support to both sides; perhaps both arguments are valid. In searching the bible, that's just what I found. In several passages, the bible reveals the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man in the same passage. I'll give an example.The first part of this verse (in teal) stresses man's responsiblity, the second (in red) discusses God's sovereignty. "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)

Here's another verse, again I'll show man's responsibility in teal and God's sovereignty in red: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” ( Acts 2:36 )

I particularly like this verse because the free will of man is bracketed inside the sovereign will of God. There are other similar verses, but I think you get the point.

I'd like to offer my conclusion on the matter - both views are right in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny. Calvinists are right when they say that God is sovereign over all He does. They are mistaken if they believe man has nothing to do with making it come to pass. Likewise, an Arminian is right in saying we must apprehend for ourselves all that is available in God, but he is dead wrong if he teaches that God is not in charge of things. Much of this foolishness has found it's way into modern teaching about healing.

Calvinism in Healing

Over-emphasis on God's sovereignty is perhaps the biggest problem in healing today. Most people who dare to ask God for healing eventually utter the words,"thy will be done..." It's essentially equal to, "I don't know if I'm worthy of healing, or if God even hears my prayers." Particularly in more conservative streams of the church, there's a pervasive teaching that we can never really know if it's God's will to heal anyone. It stands as a kind of wall between us and God, preventing us from coming boldly before the throne of grace and asking for His healing grace to make us whole.

I'll suggest to you my personal feelings on the root cause of the problem and let you decide for yourself. For centuries the church has been led by 3 of the 5 types of leaders Jesus appointed to the church - the pastor, teacher and the occasional evangelist. (See Eph. 4:11) The apostle and prophet have been absent. I see the apostles as spiritual mothers and fathers who help the church grow into maturity. The prophet is essentially the 'eyes' of the church, taking revelatory information from God and passing it on to the body. The absence has created two problems; one is a perpetually immature body, the other is a body that is blind to the will of God.

In the last century the prophetic gift has slowly been restored to the body, though not yet to fullness. The last 30 years or so has brought a gradual restoration of the apostolic. As we see these gifts restored, there has also been an interesting change in healing. In a recent interview, Bill Johnson and Randy Clark both noted a dramatic upward shift almost every year in the number of people and the kinds of diseases they have seen healed. They both report sudden healing of diseases no one ever saw healed in modern times, and in great numbers.

One of the key tools to healing is prophetic revelation. Healers who are given detailed information from God about medical conditions, demonic oppression, childhood problems and such are in a much better position to see breakthrough than those who pray without them. There is much we can know about God's will in healing specific problems. It's our responsibility to ask and receive then act on it. In the words of Todd White, "God reveals it, to heal it."

We must stop thinking that God's will is a secret we can never know, or that God's plan is completely outside our understanding. Words of knowledge, dreams and other sources of revelation are at our disposal if we pursue them. Even more so, we must believe that God wants to heal a great many people, whether we know it or not.

Arminianism In Healing

My wife suffers from chronic neck pain. She's had more people pray for her in the last year than I can count. Like many people, she's grown weary of it for several reasons. One reason is the comments she receives from some of the people who've prayed for her:

"You need to learn how to receive your healing."

"Jesus paid the price already, you simply need to believe you're healed and you will be."

"The bible says by his stripes you were healed- that means in God's eyes it's already done."

"You have to take your healing by force and refuse to let the enemy steal it away from you".

"Maybe there's something blocking your healing like bitterness or unforgivenness that you need to repent of."

Need I say more?

These are some of the 'helpful' observations we tend give to our bewildered friends when they aren't healed. Like Job's uninformed friends hurling accusation at him, needing an explanation for failure, we blame our brother or sister. It's all on us...man's responsibility. I've found that most people who operate in the gift of healing are extremely Arminian in their thinking, almost to the point of excluding God's sovereignty from the equation. This seems very destructive to me for a couple of reasons.

I've noticed how my wife tends to avoid certain people when they come around. They'll always ask about her neck pain, always offer to pray for her and always offer some observation about a lack of faith or some other problem what's preventing her from being healed. It doesn't take much of this to completely discourage people from seeking prayer. The afflicted person feels condemned and worthless, feeling that the pain of their affliction is better than the disappointment and hurtful, accusing explanations they always hear after they aren't healed.

A man suffers paralysis from a stroke. Over the years he frequently receives prayer for healing, to no avail. One day he's approached by a well-meaning would-be-healer.

Healer: Mind if I pray for you to be healed?
Paralytic: I've had a lot of people pray for me in the past, but nothing ever happened.
Healer: Well, I believe God wants you healed. The bible says, "By his stripes you were healed, that's past tense, it already happened so we need to bring that reality into your body today.
Paralytic: I think God has a purpose for me to be like this. I think he's trying to build character into my life through trial and difficulty.
Healer: Sickness and suffering are of the devil! God wants all his children to be healthy, and the enemy wants to keep you in bondage, we can set you free today.
Paralytic: If God wanted me healed, why didn't he heal me already?
Healer: Healing takes faith. Jesus said if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can say to the mountain move, and it will be done. Maybe there wasn't enough faith to heal you before.
Paralytic: Maybe God doesn't want everyone healed all the time. Don't you think there might be reasons for some people not being healed?
Healer: Jesus is my model - he healed everyone who came to him. I believe it's possible for us to do the same.
Paralytic: OK, you can pray for me.
(a moment of silence for prayer)
Nothing happens
(More prayer)
Nothing happens
Paralytic: Thanks for trying, God bless you.

Which of these men did you feel was more correct in his thinking, or which did you identify more strongly with? Both men have a biblical basis for their beliefs, but each saw the problem from a different perspective. The healer was convinced he could do something to make the paralysis leave. The paralyzed man felt God was in control and had a divine purpose for his condition. Both were right in their thinking. But each of them could only see one side of the coin.

Healers can be blind to the idea that there may be a divine purpose for pain, sickness and suffering. But the the bible teaches that pain, suffering and affliction can be redemptive. The story of Job is a good example. He was a righteous man who loved God. Satan accused Job of serving God out of selfish motives. The only way that God could prove that Job's heart was in the right place was by allowing him to go through a season of loss and sickness. God permitted Job's sickness for a defined period of time and for a specific end.

We often tell people after they're healed, they have a responsibility to keep their healing. I'm not saying there isn't some truth to this idea, but the person is right to ask - if God is powerful enough to heal me, why isn't he powerful enough to keep me healed? Once again, it reveals a theology that leans too much in the direction of man's responsibility, and ignores God's part.

Another danger exists in putting too much emphasis on our part of the healing process....pride. I won't go into great detail, but I'll simply say that when we place an emphasis on man, we take the emphasis (and the glory) away from God. That's a danger we must continually be mindful of.

My wife and I have been discussing her chronic pain. She came to a sober realization about it. Prior to suffering from her condition, she had no way of identifying with others who suffer long-term painful conditions. She confesses that its given her a deep empathy for people who suffer like this. She also knows there's no way she would have been able to enthusiastically support my calling to minister to the sick, had she not been through this ordeal. Most of the motivation I have to see people healed comes from seeing my family suffer from various diseases. John G. Lake had a similar motivation; many of his family members died at a young age, including his wife. I'll go as far as to say that many people who work in healing would never have thought about it, until suffering and sickness became a familiar part of their life. God is able to work His redemptive purposes through sickness, suffering and affliction, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory". 2 Cor. 4:17 (See also Philippians 3:10, James 5:9-11, 1 Peter 1:5-7 )

I love the way Todd White ministers healing to people. He's my personal role model here on earth, Jesus is my heavenly one. But Todd (in my opinion) is extremely Arminian in his approach to healing. When an amputee wasn't healed after Todd prayed for him, Todd blamed himself. I guess it's better than blaming God or the amputee. But I see a problem, either way. Todd was taught that it's God's will that everyone can and should be healed - always. Jesus is our example and Jesus never failed to heal anyone. This belief naturally means that if we pray and the person isn't healed, it's either a problem with us, or the person we prayed for. We already discussed blame directed at the sick person. I think it's equally wrong to blame ourselves. Todd feels that the failure lies with his thinking and belief system. He says that when he gets his heart and mind perfectly aligned with God's will, everyone he prays for will be healed. I hope he's right. But, I'm not betting on it. I have to give my man a lot of grace, he's a fairly new believer and this issue may never have crossed his mind.

The heart of the matter is a shallow understanding of God's purpose in allowing sickness to exist at all. We, as healers must wake up and accept the fact that not everyone will always be healed and there may be a divine plan unfolding that we are ignorant of. I'm not suggesting that God is some perverted deity who enjoys watching us suffer. He isn't. But we can't ignore the fact that God has a time, a season and a reason for all that he does. I think the best approach is to acknowledge both God's sovereign plan and our responsibility in bringing it to pass. We need not blame ourselves, the sick person or God when healing doesn't happen. Recognizing both God's sovereignty and man's responsibility provides a safe and healthy theology for those who endeavor to heal the sick.