Healing
There is much confusion regarding some Christian truths. Here is our present understanding of the ministry of Christian Healing, it’s availability, it’s reception, and the need to stand firm in the good of it day by day.
Some people are healed, spiritually, emotionally, and physically as a result of prayer, laying on of hands or God’s sovereign intervention in some way. However it is also true others do not experience healing immediately or in the long term. If from our perspective, we do not seem to have received the answer that we hope for, we shouldn’t say God has not answered, but rather continue seeking him in prayer.
It seems to us that scripturally we can confidently make the following assertions:
1. Salvation and healing are available to all because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the Cross. It is God’s declared word that He has no desire that any should perish and that all should be saved, and yet it is also clear that not all are saved.
In the same way we believe it is the heart of God to bring healing to those he has created, who for a variety of reasons have been affected by disease and sickness, yet recognising that not all may be healed.
2. Healing and salvation are accomplished facts from God’s perspective. Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient to achieve both, yet both need to be received by faith as a gift, and not demanded as a right.
There may be a variety of things that God wants to deal with in a person’s life before that gift of healing can be received.
For example: repentance over wrong actions or heart-attitudes, bitterness or unforgiveness, the need to change our lifestyle and habits, or the way we eat, drink, exercise etc. Others need to realise the importance of rest because of doing more than the Lord asks of us.
3. We recognise that not all people are healed for a variety of reasons. For example: eating or drinking the Body and Blood of the Lord unworthily. Often it can be right to seek the Lord to discover the reason, and such revelation may bring about a change in the direction of prayer and ministry.
We need to be very careful that we do not wrongly impose our discoveries, should we make any, upon other parties involved. For example seeing unbelief or lack of faith in our own heart is one thing, but suggesting the same to an individual being prayed for, or to a group who may be involved in prayer or other ministry is quite another, and be destructive rather than helpful. We should beware of pointing the finger, it is unhelpful.
4. Mankind is born into a fallen world. As a result, sickness may come upon a person purely because we are part of a creation that is in bondage to decay. We see that Christ himself refused to align himself with the belief that all sickness and disease is a direct result of an individual’s sin or disobedience (John 9:1-2).
However some sickness does come as a direct result of failing to look after ourselves properly and healthily, or because of sinful activities or lifestyle of some kind.
So it can be that even when we repent over every known sin, and endeavour to take care of ourselves properly, fulfilling all the spiritual conditions we perceive to be correct that healing may still not take place. This remains a mystery, and should not be an opportunity for accusation, condemnation or recrimination.
We positively encourage an examination of the heart, as well as calling upon the leaders of the church to anoint with oil and pray for God’s healing. We are willing to pray for all requesting healing, looking unto Jesus, The Great Physician, the giver of gifts of healing.
