Healing: When We Don't Know What We Don't Know

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong

 unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

 (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Why don't more people get healed? Why are some healed while others are not? Why are very shallow and worldly Christians sometimes healed while more sincere and dedicated people have not yet received healing?  Why didn't God heal your loved one that you prayed for?

These are some of the many questions you will face when you minister healing and deliverance. There are many variables that affect healing. A "variable" is a factor that causes different results.

God has promised healing in His Word. We must remember, however, that every promise of God is conditional on the response of man. This is why it is important to understand the variables that affect healing.

Variables in the ministry of healing are reasons why some people get healed and others do not.  It is important to remember that you will never have the answers to every question or problem you encounter in healing and deliverance.  Not only that, all is subject to the will of God and His sovereignty.

Our human nature wants to understand everything. The first temptation of Eve by Satan centered on this very issue. The desire to know all things stems from rebellion over unanswered questions. This problem of human nature is one you must conquer in order to minister healing and deliverance effectively.

The Bible reveals some variables that affect healing and deliverance, but you will never have answers to every question in this area. If you did, you would have no need of faith. The Bible is clear that some things are revealed to us, while others are not:

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)

In healing and deliverance, you must learn to put aside unanswered questions and leave the secret things with the Lord.

Healing and deliverance are part of the Gospel just like salvation. When you minister healing and deliverance and some do not receive, you may be tempted to give up. But consider this: Do you stop preaching salvation just because everyone who hears the message does not get saved?

Why then are we so quick to stop ministering healing and deliverance because not everyone receives? Most likely because in healing and deliverance, pride enters in. You tend to be embarrassed when you pray for a visibly sick person and they do not instantly get healed. Others can see this because it is external. If someone responds for salvation but does not really repent in their heart, people cannot see it because it is internal. Your pride is affected by what people can see externally.

You will never have answers for all the variables that affect healing any more than you will for the factors that affect responses to salvation. Some get saved, some do not. Some get healed, some do not. However, the Bible does reveal some of the variables that affect salvation just as it does healing and deliverance. It is important for you to understand these so you can help others work through them to receive healing.

Here are some of the most common variables:

ü  LACK OF TEACHING

Lack of knowledge about healing, its principles, source, how to exercise faith, and receive it can affect healing. God said:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6)

Jesus said:

Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.   (Matthew 22:29)

Some people do not receive healing because they do not understand God's Word and His power.   Faith for healing comes by hearing the Word of God concerning healing

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  (Romans 10:17)

The Bible calls the Word of God the seed. Some people try to reap a harvest of healing without the Word of healing being planted in their hearts. The seed cannot work unless it is in you. Before saying "I am the Lord that healeth thee," God first said, "If thou wilt diligently hearken unto my Word.”  (Exodus 15:26)

The Word precedes healing

How many people would get saved if they never heard a message on salvation? How many would get saved if the main points of a salvation message were:

            ·          It may not be God's will to save you.

            ·         Your sin is for God's glory.

            ·         The day of salvation is past.

Yet we hear these statements about healing:

            ·         It may not be God's will to heal you.

            ·         Your sickness is for God's glory.

            ·          The day of healing is past.

People must be taught the Word of God regarding healing just as they are taught about salvation. It is the seed of the Word about healing that brings forth a harvest of healing.

ü  UNBELIEF

Unbelief may result from. . .

            1.         Thinking God cannot heal.

            2.         Thinking God can heal, but He may not choose to heal you.

            3.         Thinking God can heal, and He may heal you, but not now.

            4.         An environment of unbelief that prevents healing.

There are several Biblical examples of how unbelief hindered the work of God. In the city of Nazareth Jesus. . .

. . . did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.   (Matthew 13:58)

Jesus was amazed that people would not believe:

And He marveled because of their unbelief. . .   (Mark 6:6)

The Bible says:

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. (James 1:6-8)

Read the account of the healing of Jarius' daughter in Mark 5:35-40. You will discover that those who hindered the environment of faith were put out of the room while Jesus ministered healing.  Communal unbelief is one of the main reasons we do not see healing and deliverance flowing in our churches as God intends. We are members one of another. If part of our spiritual body does not believe in healing, this unbelief hinders its flow in our midst.

The Bible says, "These signs shall follow THEM that believe." This verse is speaking of believers (the Church). The verse does not say "him that believes," referring to an individual. It was not the faith of one or two solitary evangelists that resulted in the healings recorded in the book of Acts. It was the faith of a Spirit-filled Church as a whole.

If Jesus could not do mighty works in Nazareth because of their (communal) unbelief, is it not also true that our communal unbelief hinders healing? Today a large part of the Church is opposing that for which the early Church prevailed in prayer. They have not accepted the Biblical attitude towards sickness. They have not been taught the Word of God about healing. Yet, they point to those who fail to receive healing as an accusation against those trying to minister healing. But it is a failure for which they communally are largely responsible.

We see more coming to salvation because there is almost universal acceptance of the doctrine of salvation in Jesus-based churches. But we do not see many healings because we are often compelled to labor in the face of tradition, rejection, and unbelief.

Those who preach the full Gospel of salvation with healing and deliverance are often obliged to labor in a "Nazareth" of unbelief. As a people of God, like the father who beseeched Jesus on behalf of his sick daughter, we need to cry out,

Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. (Mark 9:24).

Unbelief is the attitude that God cannot or will not do something. Absence of unbelief does not necessarily mean you have faith. For example, an atheist does not believe in God. An agnostic is neutral. The lack of unbelief on the part of an agnostic does not mean he has faith in God.

If communal unbelief does not affect the flow of the healing ministry, why did Jesus not minister in fullness in Nazareth?

ü  LACK OF FAITH

You must replace unbelief with faith in God because it is the prayer of faith that raises up the sick:

And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.  (James 5:15)

 You must appeal in faith, speak words of faith, and act in faith. You must walk by faith and not sight. "Walking by sight" is looking to the condition of your body or symptoms. Satan tries to prevent healing by getting you to look at symptoms and to others who claimed to be healed, but were not.

It is not faith in your faith or faith in the faith of another. Faith does not heal. It is God who heals. Paul perceived the crippled man had faith to be healed by God (Acts 14:8-10). It does not take a "great amount" of faith to be healed. Jesus said faith the size of a mustard seed was very powerful. 

And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.   Luke 17:6

Jesus met people at the level of their faith. Where they felt it was necessary to have His bodily presence, He went. Where they believed his presence was not necessary, He spoke the Word from a distance and healing occurred.

When the sick are not healed, people usually try to say lack of faith is the reason. But there are many other variables to consider.  Jesus never condemned people who sought healing for their lack of faith. In the Biblical record, sometimes faith was a factor in healing, while other times it does not seem to be a factor.

ü  LACK OF POWER

Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power by the Holy Spirit. 

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.  Acts 1:8
Sometimes healing does not occur because of lack of power of the one ministering. Perhaps they have not received the endument of power by the Holy Spirit described in Acts 4. Perhaps they substitute love and sympathy for the sick in place of power. They may pray prayers of comfort rather than healing prayers. Their lack of power may result from doctrinal error or tradition.

ü  PERSONAL UNCONFESSED SIN

The Bible confirms a direct relationship between individual sin and sickness in some cases.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16)

King David said, 

"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."  (Psalms 66:18)

God has not promised to destroy the works of Satan in the body while a person is clinging to the works of the Devil in their soul.  If there is iniquity in the heart of the one who is sick, he may not be healed. If there is iniquity in the heart of the one ministering, healing may not occur because the Lord is not hearing him.

An unforgiving spirit or holding a grudge hinders healing. Jesus said,

"If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses."  (Matthew 6:15)

If God cannot forgive you when you do not forgive others, He cannot completely heal you, for healing involves wholeness of soul, spirit, and body.




Bible Study



07/21/15
04/08/20