7-16-23 Kasey Campbell: Why Some Aren't Healed

Let’s just pray before we jump into the Word today. PRAY. We’re talking about healing again this morning. We’ve taken a little bit of a detour as we talked through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We stopped at 1 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV “to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit.” Two weeks ago, we talked about God’s will regarding healing. In case you missed it, I want you to know that it is God’s will to heal people. His Name is literally, ‘The Lord who heals,’ Yahweh Rapha. Sadly, not everyone thinks God wants to heal. One commentator writes: The will of God has been a deep shadow over some people, obscuring the light of present and daily blessing with decrees of sorrow and suffering. It has been a skeleton in the closet, and many pray for God’s will to stay behind closed doors. It has been a presence from whose cold embrace they have prayed to be released. Their dread of God’s will has impelled them to prepare themselves for its visitation as they would prepare for the pestilence that sweeps through the land. The will of God is associated with sick rooms, poverty, loss, bereavement, funerals, and the open grave. The will of God, to such people, is always dressed in black. And this concept and idea of His will produces sickly Christians, weak faith, empty joy, and puny spiritual conquests. With many people, no thought of the will of God is given until some calamity presses into their lives and then they awake to such sad surmisings as we have noted. When we pray, “Thy will be done,” are we always impressed by how great, powerful, and significant His will is? God’s will is not a vindictive judge, exercising bringing down the hammer of inevitable punishment and retribution. Ah, how we have forgotten our Father’s great heartedness in all these miserable thoughts of Him! Why Some Aren’t Healed | 1 God’s will is a blessed companion, which illuminates our way, cheers our spirits, makes glad our lives, and brings fruitfulness to all that we do.1 We can trust God. We can trust His will for us. And we can trust that He is good and wants to make us well and whole in mind, body, soul, and spirit. Ok, so if the Lord is Yahweh Rapha, our never changing physician; if healing is provided in the atonement of Jesus Christ; if sickness is the work of the devil, and Jesus destroyed the work of the devil at the cross; if God is all-powerful and full of compassion, then why are not all who are prayed for instantly healed of their diseases? Why isn’t everyone healed? I want us to talk about this today because it’s important. And it’s important because it’s a part of reality. It’s part of our experience in this life. One Pastor shares a story about praying for his wife to be healed. He says, ‘I remember once early in my marriage when my wife became violently ill. She refused to go to the hospital and I prayed like never before. I prayed as hard as I ever have in my life yet nothing. She got even sicker. Though she recovered within 24 hours, the experience set me back to the point where I stopped praying. Maybe that’s where you are now. It took time, but I started to realize I would never see another sick or hurting person recover if I didn’t start to pray. Little by little, faith returned - small but critical steps of faith. I suppose that if healing happened instantaneously every time we prayed for it, faith wouldn’t be a necessary ingredient. But along with our faith, we must never lose sight of the sovereignty of God. He’s in charge. He knows why and when and if. And if healing takes place on the way to eternity, it will take place. He wants all to be healed and the how and when isn’t up to us, But the fact is that He uses us to pray and believe and step out in faith for it. To do anything less is outside of His will. 1 Kenneth MacKenzie, Divine Life for the Body (Brooklyn, NY: Christian Alliance Publishing Company, n.d.) 32-33. Why Some Aren’t Healed | 2 I confess that my pride was hurt when God didn’t instantly heal my wife. The ‘man of God’ couldn’t even heal his own bride. That’s right; I couldn’t and I’ll never be able to. Only God can, and sometimes He doesn’t do it in the way we want Him to.2 So not everyone is healed in this lifetime, even when we pray really really hard! And I want to give some reasons why. We do know of some reasons why people don’t get healed, but even knowing about those reasons, we should never blame people who are earnestly seeking healing. Sadly, this happens in the church world sometimes. A person asks for healing, and people pray and pray, but the person, for some reason, doesn’t get healed. And then, the pray-ers blow it off and blame the sick person, with some flippant comment like, ‘well, they clearly just didn’t have enough faith to be healed. It’s their fault.’ That’s a horrible attitude! Human knowledge is limited in comparison to the perspective of God. Even though we may not always know why people are sick, remain sick, or don’t get healed, we can still have confidence that the work of God will be revealed in each person through prayer. And I think it’s important that we understand some of the reasons why people might not be healed because it can help us understand some areas to watch for as we pray. It can also help us put each situation we face in God’s hands in faith. And we’ll be better able to minister to people in need of healing because we’ll know what possible blockages to watch out for and how to respond in faith if someone isn’t healed instantly. One reason people may not be healed is a lack of knowledge. Some are not healed because they do not know that God still heals today, that He wants to heal people, or there is ignorance about how to seek, ask for, or receive healing. 2 Stott, Jerry, and Robert Hunt. Positioned for the Gifts: Preparing Us for Extraordinary Power and Compassion, P198. Edited by Laurie De Revere, Foursquare Missions Press, 2019. Why Some Aren’t Healed | 3 Many people have never seen or experienced physical healing, while others have been taught wrong. They’ve been taught against praying for healing. Consequently, there are many individuals who need to be taught through Scripture and testimony that Jesus Christ still heals today. Hosea 4:6 AMP My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge [of My law, where I reveal My will]. People continue to hurt, remain sick, or don’t receive healing sometimes because they don’t know God’s will in regard to healing. Faith begins where the will of God is known. Jesus told his disciples that everywhere they went, they should Luke 10:9 NKJV heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ The disciples announced by their message and by the presence of healings, that the kingdom of God was near. In preaching the kingdom of God, we should both announce God’s kingdom and demonstrate that God is present to heal. Without this knowledge of God’s healing power, many may not seek His healing grace. Another reason some may not be healed is a lack of repentance or unconfessed sin. There are some groups, unfortunately, that believe this is the only reason why people aren’t healed. That causes all kinds of problems. “Well, God isn’t healing you, so you must be sinning! You don’t know how you’re sinning, and I don’t either, but you must be in sin or else God would heal you right this instant!”Look, healing is not a reward for personal holiness. It just isn’t. Like all other blessings purchased at the cross, healing comes by the grace of God. But when believers refuse to confess and repent of sin, this hinders their faith and their ability to receive what the Lord has provided. I might pause and say this as a reminder; there is the repentance of salvation and the repentance of relationship. Why Some Aren’t Healed | 4 That means that when we come to Jesus and accept His free gift of salvation, we repent of our sins and He washes us clean, makes us His children, and brings us into His kingdom. Then we move forward in our relationship with Him, we repent (usually daily) of ways we’ve messed up, ways we’ve fallen short, failures of heart attitudes and motives and bad thoughts, etc. That kind of continual daily repentance keeps our hearts clean before God and keeps us in a daily place of relationship with Him that is unbroken. If we have known sin that we don’t repent of, it can block healing.3 The psalmist wrote, Psalm 66:18 AMP If I regard sin and baseness in my heart [that is, if I know it is there and do nothing about it], The Lord will not hear [me]. When people confess their sins, when they surrender their lives to the full work of the cross when they welcome both spiritual and physical restoration, they put themselves in a better position to receive healing. James 5:16 AMP Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses], and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored. This is why the steps to freedom in Christ we use is a helpful tool - it helps us engage with the Holy Spirit and confess to Him anything we might find in our hearts that might hinder receiving wholeness from the Lord. Of course, we can talk to the Lord about things whenever we want, as well, without extra tools, but it’s helpful to have knowledge about how to repent of different areas in our hearts we struggle with. But clearly, unconfessed sin can be a block to healing. Next, we start to get into issues of faith. And issues of faith can be problematic for both the person who needs healing and the person praying for healing. You can, of course, pray for yourself as well (and lay hands on yourself, and anoint yourself with oil), so sometimes this is the same person. 3 Van Cleave, Nathaniel M., and Guy P. Duffield. Foundations of Pentecostal Theology. Foursquare Media, 2019. Why Some Aren’t Healed | 5 But issues of faith all around can sometimes affect healing. Jesus repeated over and over and over again that the faith of people seeking healing was why they were healed. One example is the woman who had an issue of blood. Matthew 9:21-22 NKJV ‘For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” 22 But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.’ Faith plays a crucial role in the ministry of healing, and a lack of faith can be a major block to receiving healing. So a lack of faith can be a problem, but so can misguided faith. By that, I mean faith in the wrong things. Some put faith in the healing itself instead of Jesus. And if they’re not careful, slightly misguided faith can turn into wishful thinking or a simple desire for something good to happen instead of faith-filled trust in the person and character and will of God. Healing comes from Jesus, not humans or spiritual techniques. It is absolutely true that God uses us, humans, to bring about His marvelous works - we are His ministers and His ambassadors; it is important that people seeking healing look beyond human instruments to the source of healing. Sometimes individuals are not healed because they’re looking to an individual person or a certain technique for healing instead of Jesus. Jesus alone is the great physician. When a lame man at the temple gate asked for alms, Peter told the man to “Look at us” to momentarily get the man’s attention. However, once Peter had the lame man’s attention, he immediately directed him to Jesus. Acts 3:1-8 NKJV Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter Why Some Aren’t Healed | 6 and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. Healing is rooted in a faith encounter with Jesus. And then one more issue of faith can be powerless faith. There’s a lack of faith, misguided faith, and powerless faith. What I mean is that some miracles just require different amounts of faith, power, or prayer. It simply takes more pressing in. Matthew 17:14-21 NKJV And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Why Some Aren’t Healed | 7 Jesus’ words and actions demonstrated that some miracles just require more power. Therefore, those who minister or seek divine healing must spend time in spiritual preparation for full empowerment. This isn’t a message about prayer and fasting today, but it’s a great way to press in to take hold of a miracle and to see God move. I will add that it’s not about building up power in ourselves; it’s about connecting deeper with the Holy Spirit so we can be better used by Him. Again, healing is a gift of grace, not a reward for praying harder than someone else or starving yourself. If you pray for the sick, you will face some disappointments. John Wimber, remembering his first few hundred pray-for-the-sick attempts, talks about how for a long time he didn’t see anyone get healed, and many times when we prayed, he would get the same sickness that person had! It takes a fighter’s mentality. If you can’t get up after a blow or a disappointment, you shouldn’t be in the ring. Here are a few practical things to keep in mind: 1. Healing is often a process. Your prayer might start the healing process and you might not get to see the completion of it. Don’t get discouraged; sometimes, the process happens right away, and sometimes it happens after multiple sessions of prayer. 2. Be willing to grow. Learn from others who have moved in gifts of healing, stay close to Jesus, listen to the Holy Spirit, and live in the Word. 3. Be willing to fast and pray for healing as a LIFESTYLE. We call this the Mary Model around here - but the idea is to maintain your connection to Jesus at all times and at all costs. John 15:5 NKJV “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. Say, ‘Without me you can do nothing.’ Why Some Aren’t Healed | 8 Literally, Jesus says, ‘Separated from me you can’t do anything.’ To be attached to Jesus is to bear much fruit; to be separated from Him is to accomplish absolutely nothing of spiritual worth at all. Jesus is our source of life. If we will stay strong in our faith and we will actively try to obey Him, then the life-giving relationship with the God of the Universe will continue to flow, Jesus will guide us, the Holy Spirit will empower us, and the Father will accomplish great works through us.4 4. If someone isn’t healed, don’t take it personally. There are a lot of factors involved in the healing process, and not all of them have to do with the person who needs healing or the person praying for healing. One pastor shares, ‘It is rare, but I have prayed for people when the Lord let me know they wouldn’t be healed. I’ve never felt comfortable sharing that with their loved ones, of course, partially due to a desire to be proactive and comforting and partially due to the fact that I could have heard wrong. There can always be a bigger objective that has that we don’t see or know. One of my closest friends and key leader in my church was the standard of health. He exercised regularly and thought nothing of going on a 100-mile beach ride. Yet one day after we both attended a funeral he blurted out, ‘The Lord just told me I’m next.’ I rebuked him immediately. ‘Absolutely not! You’re not going to die!’ Yet every day he came to me saying the same thing, asking me to pray for him and prepare him for the next life. A month later, stricken with an illness called Gillian-barre disease, he went into a coma. I still didn’t believe this was of God, and full of faith commanded the illness to leave his body. 4 Schell, Dr. Steve C. Study Verse by Verse with Dr. Steve Schell, P275-276. Federal Way, WA, Life Lessons Publishing, 2021. Why Some Aren’t Healed | 9 I never believed so hard for anyone. Only after the Lord spoke to my stubborn heart did I relent. ‘No, he’s with me and he doesn’t want to go back.’ God’s will must always be interpreted in the light of eternity. If healing doesn’t take place for the believer on this earth, it will happen immediately upon entering the next life. That’s not a cop-out, but an eternal perspective. Because we don’t fully see this eternal equation the way God does, we are instructed to pray in this life for healing. We are never instructed to be fatalistic or passive when in the face of sickness or the demonic. We are called to model Jesus, who saw hundreds healed and delivered as He did what He saw the Father doing and walked by the voice of the Spirit. There are times with the Father’s hand is on someone and times when they aren’t, and as His disciples, we hope and try to be in step with Him, hearing His voice and praying. But because we see ‘through a glass dimly,’ we should always pray for healing and total deliverance, never ‘hedging our bets’ with an ‘if it’s your will’ kind of weak and passive prayer. It may seem pious, but Jesus never modeled prayer like that. Bill Johnson said, ‘In the thousands of people I’ve seen healed, I’ve never seen anyone healed from that kind of prayer.’ My point here is that we can’t take it personally or give up if someone isn’t healed when we pray. 5. Never blame the person who you’re praying for. Let love and compassion guide you. Why Some Aren’t Healed | 10 6. Sometimes God wants us to go to the doctor. One pastor who believes deeply in divine healing and the gifts of the Spirit said that on one occasion when he felt a little funny and received prayer for healing got a word of wisdom to go to the doctor, and God used the doctors to identify the problem and perform successful triple bypass surgery. That was a bit of a practical digression from the topic of why some aren’t healed, but they are important because our faith is an active faith, not a passive one. And some reasons people aren’t healed have to do with issues of faith. As I start to wrap up, another reason we may not see instant healing is God’s timing. We talked about an eternal perspective, and God sees the end from the beginning and everything in between. Elizabeth was barren for many years and praying for her womb to be healed, but God waited until the right moment to heal her and bring John the Baptist into the world. Although healing is important, it is not the most important experience that can happen in a person’s life. Salvation, spiritual growth, and the advancement of the kingdom of God are far more important than an individual simply experiencing physical health. Therefore, there are undoubtedly times when God gives spiritual purposes precedence over physical blessings. Sometimes individuals must persevere in contending for their healing as they trust in God’s perfect will and timing, knowing that perseverance brings the character of God and a hope that doesn’t disappoint. The Scripture demonstrates that sometimes individuals living with sickness or infirmity reveal the power and strength of God through living by faith in the sufficiency of His grace. Paul mentioned that he pleaded with God three times to remove a “thorn in the flesh” that had caused him great weakness. However, God responded, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Why Some Aren’t Healed | 11 Scholars disagree as to whether or not Paul’s thorn in the flesh was sickness. Regardless, he makes direct mention in the next verse that God reveals His strength through those who persevere in the midst of infirmities: “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in 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” (2 Corinthians 9-10). Through faith, the strength of God is made evident in the midst of sickness. And then, of course, some people aren’t healed because of God’s sovereignty. By that, I mean that we don’t always understand why healing doesn’t come, but God does. The psalmist wrote in praise to God that “My times are in Your hand…” (Ps. 31:15). Job, in the midst of anguish, lamented to God that for man “Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass” (Job 14:5). Both verses point to the limits of human understanding in the light of God’s wisdom, will and sovereignty. In other words, there are aspects of our lives that God understands, but we do not understand or fully know. Regardless, we trust that God is good and in control. Ultimately, until Christ’s return, each human will face death. Every human is born into a fallen world and into a corruptible, perishable body. Although every human in Christ is a new creation, our bodies are still perishable and corruptible. Therefore, “…this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53). This transformation will occur “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (v. 52). It will be at that moment, “…when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is Why Some Aren’t Healed | 12 written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (v. 54). Death has been defeated at the cross, and it will disappear with the resurrection of our bodies. Until then, though, we all will face some manner of sickness leading to death. Every believer should seek the healing power of God. God has demonstrated His healing power throughout the Bible and the history of the church. His desire and ability to heal is present today. All believers should actively exercise the faith God has given them to seek and receive the healing power of Jesus. However, it is important to remember that human understanding is limited in comparison to the vast and infinite wisdom of God. Consequently, there are times when we cannot fully understand or comprehend why someone remains sick or is not healed. Despite our comprehension, we can have confidence that the character of Christ and the good news of the kingdom of God will be revealed through every believer who continues to live for God by faith. Sometimes, we simply do not know why people are not healed. In these moments, we trust the goodness and the sovereignty of God. We also trust the power of the cross, that although our bodies may face death, in Christ we are forever alive.5 Sickness since the fall is part of the human experience. No one escapes it. So we pray, as we are instructed in the word, for healing. We are told to pray in faith even if doubt wants to whisper in our ears. We rely on the Word, listen to the Holy Spirit, and ask in the Name of Jesus. We trust the outcome to Him because we are all imperfect, flawed conduits of His power. But we don’t pray weakly, hedging our bets, because that’s not how Jesus taught us. We step out of the proverbial boat in faith, fixing our eyes on Jesus even when the storm of sickness and pain and trials surrounds us. Like a soldier on D-day, victory is assumed eventually, but the bloody battles until Hitler’s fall remained. 5 Van Cleave, Nathaniel M., and Guy P. Duffield. Foundations of Pentecostal Theology. Foursquare Media, 2019. Why Some Aren’t Healed | 13 Praying for the sick can get ‘bloody;’ it can turn into a messy extended battle. Failure sometimes happens, battles and soldiers are lost or wounded, but the soldier fights on. One Pastor shares a story about one of his mentors. He writes: one of my heroes was a man named Floyd McClung. As a Youth with a Mission student, I sat under his anointed teachings and saw firsthand his amazing work and ministry. A few years ago, Floyd went into a septic shock and affliction that continues today. If anyone ever received prayers for healing (strong prayers that worked, not weak ones) it was Floyd. Yet Floyd remains unhealed as of this writing. His wife Sally is a cancer survivor and knows the real struggle from every perspective. She writes, ‘There has been a depth of fellowship with the Lord the last few years that has been beyond anything I’ve ever known. Of course, I’ve needed Him so much more, too. The pain and the need have pressed me close to His heart in a precious way. I’ve found that so much depends on my attitude. I won’t find the beauty of the season if I’m grumbling about it. But if I’m willing to receive both the good and bad from my Father’s hand then He’ll open my eyes to see the gems and jewels He has for me when the road is rocky and hard.6 2 Corinthians 4:17 NLT For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 1 Peter 4:12-13 MSG Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner. The kind of kingdom warrior that ushers in the return of Jesus Christ will be someone who believes in the full healing power of God, yet also understands that 6 Stott, Jerry, and Robert Hunt. Positioned for the Gifts: Preparing Us for Extraordinary Power and Compassion. Edited by Laurie De Revere, Foursquare Missions Press, 2019 Why Some Aren’t Healed | 14 the fullness of it is yet to come. Until then, we fight sickness and disease as Jesus gives us His power to do so. And in closing, one writer says, ‘Jesus is God’s wounded healer. Through His wounds, we are healed. Jesus suffering and death brought joy and life. His humiliation brought glory, and His rejection brought a community of love. As followers of Jesus, we can also allow our wounding to bring healing to others.’ God loves you, God is for you, and God sees each and everything you go through with His eternal perspective and perfect love. And we know that this life is a spiritual refining process, and glory in the fullness of His presence is just around the corner. Amen. Why Some Aren’t Healed | 15