One of the most common questions we tend to ask is to do with faith, suffering and healing. That’s probably because our health can be so often where we face suffering and where faith is tested. Even if we don’t face persecution, we are likely to face ill health at some point and will know people will chronic, serious and terminal conditions. Add into the mix the different experiences we have. Some of us will have experienced healing, some of us will not. Some of us will have heard people describe multiple incidents of healing whilst wondering why it seems to never happen to us – either for ourselves or for those we pray for. Many of us will have mixed experiences of times when healing seemed to happen and times when it clearly didn’t. On the occasions when it did seem to happen, we may still have questions -was it an out and out miracle, a previous misdiagnosis, natural recovery or the affect of treatment? Is it possible sometimes for healing to be caused by a mixture of things? Can prayer and medicine both play a part?
Different views
To make things further complicated, there are different views amongst Christians about whether or not we can expect healings and miracles. Some Christians and churches teach that all of the gifts and signs that we consider supernatural ended with the completion of the New Testament, including tongues, prophecies, visions and dreams. This is called cessationism. The argument is that the signs and gifts were given to help authenticate the ministry of the apostles and the Gospel (Hebrews 2:4) and enable revelation and faith until the revelation of Scripture was completed (1 Corinthians 13:10). However, whilst there was a specific authentication of the Gospel and the foundation of the church and whilst these things will cease when things are complete and perfect, this seems more likely to refer to Christ’s return than the completion of Scripture.
Some Christians argue that healing is offered within the atoning work of Christ. This is based on Isaiah 53:5. If Jesus’ death brings healing, then Christians should expect to be healed and in fact some who hold to the Divine Healing position would argue that Christians not only should expect to be healed but in fact not get sick at all.
A variant on this view is what has become known as the Prosperity Gospel. We can distinguish the prosperity position from the divine healing position on two counts. First, that the emphasis moves from healing as being something that accompanies salvation, a side benefit of the Gospel to wealth, health and success being the central objectives of the Gospel. Jesus comes to save us from suffering, sickness and failure and give us prosperity. Secondly, the emphasis here is on “the word of faith” and in fact, the approach is sometimes referred to as “the word of faith movement.” This movement teaches that if we exercise enough faith and use the right words to claim our health and prosperity then God must answer. We name and claim what is ours by right. There are two immediate and obvious problems with this. First, it places blame and shame on those praying and those receiving prayer if healing doesn’t happen. The person must have lacked faith. Second, it minimises God so that he in effect becomes like a genie, subject to our bidding. Worst of all, it replaces the Gospel with a false gospel.
However, is there something in the Divine Healing position? Well, Isaiah 53’s main point is probably not that we get forgiven for sin and we get healed from sickness as well. Rather, sickness there would identify a lack of wholeness. Certainly, this seems to be how 1 Peter 2:24 takes it, our healing is that we “die to sin and live to righteousness.” However, Matthew 8:17 links Jesus’ healing ministry to fulfilment of Isaiah 53. So, there does seem to be a link between physical healing and the Cross. What exactly is that link? Well, we will return to that later. First though it is worth touching on what we see in Scripture.
What does Scripture say about healing and what was the experience of the early church?
The Old Testament links health and healing to God’s covenant with his people Israel. The promise is as follows:
“If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”
Notice that the connection is with the curses and plagues that God used to judge Egypt. God s setting up a distinction between life, blessing and wholeness in his presence in the promised land or curse, death, exile and disease outside of the land for those who break the covenant.
Two particular Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha are marked out as working miracles, healing the sick and even raising the dead. It is not always the case that prophets also do signs and wonders, although the sense seems to be that Jonah’s miraculous deliverance is a resurrection from the dead. It is particularly in the life and ministry of Jesus that we see signs and wonders, healings, deliverances and even the dead raised including Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus.
Then in Acts, we see a continuation of healing. Peter and John heal the lame man and through Paul, Eutychus, a young man who falls to sleep during the apostle’s preaching and falls to his death out of a window is brought back to life. Note that I’m not making a case for longer sermons in order to give more opportunities for miracles! When miracles do happen, the apostles are keen to use them to put the focus on Jesus, his death and resurrection.
However, it is not always the case that healing happens. Paul will talk about his own thorn in the flesh, which many think was some form of eye disease. He asks God to remove it but instead God tells him that there is enough grace for him in his weakness. He will leave Trophimus, one of his companions sick at Miletus and rather than telling Timothy to seek healing because of frequet illness advises him to “take a little wine for your stomach.” Perhaps this is an encouragement towards common sense. We are not to use healing as an excuse to ignore the best advise for healthy living in our context.
The Christians are still encouraged to seek prayer for healing. James 5:13-16 says that if people are sick then they should go to the elders’ for prayer. This prayer is able both to bring healing and when there has been sin, forgiveness. It is possible that in some cases there will be a direct link between the sin and the sickness. Anointing with oil may be symbolic of God pouring out his healing, a visual aid to faith but may also be used for its healing properties.
Pulling things together
We can sum things up as follows. First, God’s purpose is for a good and perfect creation without death and therefore without sickness and decay. Sin came into the world and with it, death. Decay, suffering and sickness are part and parcel of death and dying. Therefore, if God’s redemption pays the penalty for sin and deals with the problem of death, this means that the process of death and dying will eventually be reversed.
Ultimately, in that respect, we look forward to the day when Christ will return. That’s when we will be made whole and have resurrection bodies free from sickness, suffering, decay and death. Until then we live in a world where death is still presence. Each of us will die and this means we will experience sickness too. Christians are not free from suffering. We live with the consequences of the Fall.
This means that we are to “count it all joy when we go through trials.” Christians are to see the purpose of suffering and appreciate that there is blessing in it. God uses these things to produce endurance and hope in the believer as we learn to cling to Christ in our circumstances (James 1:2).
At the same time, we can see how the future is breaking in now. We begin to experience foretastes of that future day. That’s why we see healings now. These are wonderful signs pointing us to the greater day to come.
What we begin to see here is the link between promise and faith. Our faith is not just in promises but in The Promise. This is what people like Abraham were commended for. They believed the promise that Christ would come bringing salvation, forgiveness and resurrection. This is where our faith should be too, the explicit promise that we have been forgiven and we look forward to resurrection.
This helps us to approach those next level promises too. Especially where we are not sure. What I mean is that there is a general promise of healings and also that sometimes we have a prophecy or word of knowledge that we interpret to promise healing. As these are fallible, it is possible that we have misheard or misinterpreted. It’s important that we don’t get locked into holding tightly to these things because sadly Christians become disillusioned when they think God has failed to keep a promise he never made. We can hold lightly to those things.
We trust God’s big promise to bring us safely through to resurrection which is ultimately where we are healed. We can also trust God with our circumstances, whether that is to heal or not. If it is not to heal, then we trust that this is part of his good purpose.
Practically, how do we approach sickness and healing
I think we can sum a practical approach up as follows. First, we can have faith to face our own sufferings and be joyful in them. Secondly, we can have faith to offer help to others, including through praying for them. Thirdly we can have faith to ask for prayer for ourselves if we want healing.
Whenever someone asks me for prayer, I always ask them what they want. This is what Jesus would do. If they say that their desire is to be healed, then that’s what we pray for. I believe that God is our good father and so he wants to hear us express our desires and wishes. We pray believing that God is able to heal.
For those of us praying, it is important for us to listen. We need to be hearing from God, what is he saying, is he identifying things for us to pray about? We also need to be listening to the other person. What are they saying? Are they asking for prayer for healing or for something else such as peace in their circumstances.
We also know that God may have a different plan. If God does not heal, then that is because he wants to bring something that is for our good and his glory. This may be that through suffering we will grow in our hope. We will find joy in suffering. It may be that through our suffering, we will be able to witness to others. It may be that God’s plan is to take us home to be with him.
So, we will want to talk about the different ways in which God might answer the prayer. It is important therefore that if a person is dying that we talk to them about whether they are ready to die. Do they have peace with God? Do they have assurance of salvation? Have they any outstanding matters they need to resolve?
Conclusion
Our trust in God’s ultimate promise helps us to have faith through present circumstances. We can have faith that God will answer our prayers. Sometimes he will answer them by healing, sometimes he will answer them by not healing. The important thing is that however he answers, he remains good and faithful.
Faithroots 