Why Some Fail to Receive Healing from Christ?

TWENTY-TWO REASONS FOR FAILURE TO BE HEALED

It is so clearly revealed throughout the Scriptures that the Heavenly Father wills our healing. Why do some who seek healing, fail to receive it? This question is in the minds of many honest inquirers. There are several answers to this question, which we will mention briefly. By these answers many have been helped who had previously failed to receive healing. Consequently, they have been gloriously healed.

1.  Insufficient Instruction

The first reason for not receiving healing is ignorance concerning the healing power of the Gospel. Paul tells us that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Many have sought healing from Christ before they heard or knew enough of the Word of God. They have not had a steadfast faith. Those in the early Church were in one accord in the matter of proclaiming all the Gospel. They kept back nothing that was profitable. Paul declared “all the counsel of God.”

We have seen that God’s way of producing faith for healing is the same as that of producing faith for salvation. This is the way for any other blessing. The needy one should first learn, from the Scriptures, what God’s will is in the matter. The hand of faith cannot reach out and take from God what the eye of faith does not first see to be the will of God. Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” It is the truth of the written Word that sets us free. Freedom is the truth known, understood, received, acted on, maintained, and steadfastly believed with an appropriating faith.

Paul tells us that it is “the Word of God, which effectually worketh in [them] that believe.” The Word of God is the “precious seed”; the “imperishable seed.” It is the seed that has the power. It never fails to do its own work. It must be known and received and kept in “the good ground,” the only place the good seed can grow.

Some fail to receive healing because they are trying to get results from the seed, the Word concerning healing, without knowing what that Word is. They try to get results without giving the Word its place, without keeping the good seed in the good ground.” The seed cannot work in us unless it is in by our having known and received it.

God said, “I am the Lord that healeth thee,” and promised to take away all our sicknesses. But, He first said, “If thou wilt diligently hearken … and do all.” This means, to be diligent in the matter of knowing, understanding, and practicing what God says in His Word on the subject of healing. We must know what God offers to us before we can expect to receive it from Him. The knowledge of God’s will must precede faith for His will to be done. Multitudes today do not know that the perfect healing of their bodies is the fully revealed will of God in His written Word, the Bible. To know this, is the only sufficient evidence for appropriating faith.

Those seeking healing can say when tested, “It is written.” They can then quote God’s promises to Satan. This settles the question of God’s will. Without this, their faith cannot remain steadfast. Many sufferers have prayed for healing for years

without success. This is because they have prayed the faith- destroying phrase, “If it be Thy will.” Then later, they have been healed through the truth of God’s Word contained and explained in this book.

The early Church was in one accord in teaching this truth. The believers also lifted up their voices to God in one accord in prayer for “signs and wonders” of healing. They prayed “the prayer of faith” before the sick were brought into the streets of Jerusalem. It was not the faith of a single evangelist, but the faith of the entire company of believers. This brought healing to everyone in the streets of Jerusalem after Christ’s ascension (Acts 5:14-16).

The majority of ministers and Christians today are bound by their traditions of ultradispensationalism on the subject of the ministry of healing. Through their lack of understanding the Word, they are opposed to it as it was taught, preached, and practiced in the early Church.

Church members, as a whole, have not accepted our Lord’s attitude toward sickness as revealed in the Gospels. They cannot pray with one accord for these healing results as the early Church did. In our day, opposition often takes the place of united prayer. Unbelief takes the place of united faith. Unlike the early Church, lukewarmness takes the place of being Spirit- filled. I will ask you the question. Since we are members one or another, may not the blame for the failure of some to receive healing today be largely due to the unbelieving part of Church itself? I believe you will agree to this.

We so often hear it said “the day of miracles has passed.” Suppose it were generally believed that the day of regeneration has passed. How this would hinder the work of the ministry in that part of the Gospel! Christian workers could have no success in saving souls. They would have to first get people to give up the false tradition and put the Word of God in its place. On the other hand, suppose that from infancy we had all been taught the healing part of the Gospel. In this case, I am sure, very few would have any difficulty in evidencing faith for healing.

It is the Word of God that produces faith for healing. We

have had the joy of seeing hundreds healed while they were listening to the truth on that subject. Others have been healed while reading our printed instructions. These answered their questions and removed the hindrances to their faith.

2. LACK OF UNITED PRAYER

The second reason why some fail to receive healing is an enlargement on what we have already said. Christ planned to continue His healing ministry during His absence. This was to be accomplished by His whole Church, which is His Body, not through an obscure member of that Body. He said, “These signs shall follow them,” the Church, not “him,” the individual. Christ had gone away, and had sent His successor, the Holy Spirit. It was not the faith of a lone or solitary evangelist but that of a Spirit-filled Church. This brought healing to all the sick in the streets of Jerusalem.

Today some do not like public healing services. When God had His way, He had the multitudes healed right on the streets. He wanted His compassion to be made known to the world as a basis for faith. God began His works in this dispensation as He wants them continued, through the whole church. Every member should be filled and kept filled with the Holy Spirit.

The greatest number of conversions today are brought about by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and through a Church that is in one accord. This is the way that all were healed in the streets of Jerusalem.

Most of God’s dealings with men, both in saving and healing, are by the outpouring of His Spirit and through a Spirit- filled, united, and praying Church. His method is revealed by the promise, “I will pour out my Spirit,” and the statement, “They were all filled with the Spirit.” A spirit-filled and praying Church produces an atmosphere in which it is easy for God to work. This makes it difficult for the devil to interfere. This atmosphere is the Holy Spirit himself. He is more than a match for the devil.

In the revival belt, during the Finney revivals and other great revivals, sinners fell under conviction as soon as they stepped off the train where a revival was in progress. Mr. Finney tells of

such a unity in prayer that every adult person on a street three miles long was saved, except one. The Christians unitedly prayed for that one, and he was saved.

It is true that individuals are sometimes saved and healed where there is no revival. However, God’s regular way is for His people all to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We read, “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.” We seldom see such a thing now! Some of our theology today causes many people to anchor in past blessings. They do not have a daily renewing of the fullness which constituted the initial blessing. Then Christians were filled with the Spirit. Unless the Church is filled and kept filled with the Holy Spirit it is impossible that the spiritual atmosphere of the meetings can be what it must be. Otherwise, God is limited or hindered. This atmosphere is produced by the whole Church being filled with the Spirit and all praying for the work of Christ. Then the power of God is present to heal as it was at the beginning. God’s way is for the whole Church to be filled and kept filled with the same Holy Spirit who saved and healed those multitudes in New Testament times.

The results of the fulfillment of divine promises are the same in any age. If you want to know how the Spirit acts now, just read how He acted when He had full possession of the Church. The book of Acts is a blueprint by which the Holy Spirit wishes to work throughout His dispensation. The early Christians in Acts 4 were all filled with the Spirit; all prevailed in prayer for “signs and wonders” of healing. In James 5 all Christians are commanded to pray for the healing of the sick, and to do it as earnestly as Elijah prayed for rain. When this was done in the early Church, “the prayer of faith” by the elders was but voicing the prayer of the whole Church.

John says, “This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.” This was proven by the whole company of Christians in the fourth chapter of the Acts. Every Christian today is commanded to be filled with the Spirit, to pray for the outpouring of the Spirit, and to prevail in prayer for the healing of the sick. Every priest should be exercising his

priesthood. The failure of the majority to do this in our day pollutes the atmosphere of the meetings. It makes it harder for the sick to have faith and for the Holy Spirit to work.

The failure of Christians to live and walk in the Spirit limits the Holy One of Israel. Our being filled with the Spirit is the condition for His perfect working. Instead of being surrounded by this atmosphere in our day, a poor, afflicted wife often is surrounded with opposition from her own family. Sometimes she gets opposition from her own pastor and fellow church members. She fails to receive healing, being too weak in mind and body to fight the battle alone. The very ones who are opposing her are the ones who ought to be praying in faith for her healing. We are all to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Those in the early Church met the condition of being filled with the Spirit. Today it is the very ones who are violating these conditions who are asking why some fail to receive healing. The answer is because these very doubters are making it impossible for the Church, to be in one accord in prayer and faith for the sick. The Church is out of tune with God’s program.

A remarkable document is signed by twenty bishops of the Episcopal Church in the Commonwealth of Australia. It gives a wonderful report of the miracles of healing manifested in the cathedrals of that Church in the various cities of that country. In this report they say:

The faith which is needed is not merely individual but corporate faith, the faith of the home, of the ministry and of the whole Church. The Body, not a lone member of it, must cooperate with Christ its Head if its sick members are all to be healed. The most marked groups after the mission, came from parishes where the wave of intercession had been highest and swept farthest…. The world today is waiting for a fresh revelation of the presence and Power of God in the work of the Church and in the life of its members. It has already seen and felt once more the wonder of Divine healing.

Today a large part of the members of the Church, through ignorance, are opposing that for which the early Church

prevailed in prayer. They have not accepted our Lord’s attitude toward sickness. They have not met the conditions for the healing of the sick that God desires. It is these very hinderers who are pointing out the failures for which they themselves are largely responsible.

It is not uncommon today to find those, who ought to be doing the works of Christ, warning the sick to stay away from places where the works of Christ are being done. Would it not be better for them to warn the people against going where confirmation or baptism or church membership or reformation are put in the place of the new birth?

3. COMMUNITY UNBELIEF

The third reason why some fail to receive healing from Christ is community unbelief. Jesus worked miracles and healed all that were sick. When He came to His hometown of Nazareth where He had been brought up, “He could not do any miracles there … [because of] their unbelief” (Mark 6:5-6 Weymouth). Think of it! Christ Himself, under the full anointing of the Holy Ghost, was hindered by community unbelief. Since this is true, is it strange that today some in any city should fail to receive healing? In Nazareth God would not allow the gift of miracles to operate through Christ where, by their unbelief, the people were making Him a liar. Why should He do so today? Paul had better success in working miracles among the heathen than Jesus had in His hometown (Acts 14).

On the subject of healing, people have been taught today to believe in traditions in the place of the plain Word of God. This has turned the whole world into a veritable Nazareth of unbelief. I mean by that, today community unbelief is almost general. Those who preach the full Gospel and pray for the sick are obliged to labor in a Nazareth of unbelief. We can get only as far as we can get rid of the “traditions of men” regarding healing. We have to teach the people what the Scriptures actually teach on the subject. By doing this, I boldly say that Jesus Christ (not ourselves) has had greater success in working miracles in all the cities where our revival campaigns have been conducted than He

had in Nazareth, His own hometown. Now, don’t misquote me. I am not saying that we have had success. I am talking about what Christ has done. Whenever and wherever the people have been enlightened by our ministry, they know their privilege in the matter of healing.

The fact that Christ could do no miracle in Nazareth only Proved the unbelief of the people. If, as some are teaching, the sick are to be healed without their faith, why didn’t Jesus go ahead and heal the sick in Nazareth? The Bible answers, “because of their unbelief.”

Some Christians today explain the failure of some to receive healing by calling in question Christ’s willingness to heal all Persons. They should then call in question His willingness to save all sinners, in order to explain the fact that so many in the churches are unsaved.

Upon a certain occasion only one woman in a great throng touched Jesus with faith for healing. Later on, whole multitudes did so. It is a matter of enlightenment and faith.

The nine disciples had failed to deliver the epileptic boy mentioned in the Gospels. Some theologian of that day, if he were like many of the theologians of these days, might have seized upon that failure. He might say, “There, now we have the proof that it is not always God’s will to heal.” But the father wanted the boy to be healed. The boy himself wanted to be healed. The disciples, divinely commissioned to cast out devils and heal the sick, wanted him to be healed. Under similar circumstances today someone would say because of such a failure, “It is not God’s will that such an one should be healed.” They would make theology out of the failure. But Jesus came down from the mountain and delivered the boy. This proves it to be God’s will to heal, even when His accredited representatives had failed to heal. Why not make theology out of this?

When the father of this boy said to Jesus, “If Thou canst do anything,” Jesus refused to take the responsibility for any failure. He said, “If thou canst believe….” Then the father cried out, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” Of course, he received

the help asked for. He succeeded where the apostles had failed. Christ delivered the boy.

The fact is that in the healing ministry we are compelled to labor in the face of almost universal unbelief. Those who preach only the salvation of the soul part of the Gospel are laboring in the midst of the almost universal acceptance of that doctrine. However, God is giving proofs of divine healing as bright and as convincing as the proofs of regeneration. This is with not nearly so much teaching to produce faith. When I think of the lack of teaching on divine healing, and the unspiritual condition of the churches, I am not surprised at the lack of faith, because of their general attitude toward this part of forgotten orthodoxy. Instead of wondering why some are not healed, I marvel at the success God is giving to those who pray for the sick. I have seen many deaf mutes healed when scarcely a person in the audience expected the healing.

Thousands now testify that they have been divinely healed and are in good health physically. The general average of professing Christians in any church is not always spiritually healthy. Would not the physical health of those who testify that they have been divinely healed compare favorably with the spiritual health of those who oppose the Gospel of healing? Is the average professed Christian any better proof of the doctrine of regeneration than those who testify to having been divinely healed are of the doctrine of divine healing? They ought to be, because they have heard that part of the Word of God all their lives. The majority of those who are healed when we pray for them, have heard the plain teaching of the Word of God concerning divine healing for only a few days. There are many today who have been divinely healed after having been deaf and dumb from birth. They can hear better physically than the average church member can hear spiritually. I have seen many who could not walk a step until after they had been prayed for, who are now walking better physically than the average Christian is walking spiritually. The average Christian, all of his life, has heard the Word of God, which teaches the healing of the soul, whereas these others have heard only a few times the Word of

God, which teaches the healing of the body.

Are all who have been baptized washed from all their sins? No, but those who have faith are. What water is in the ordinance of Christian baptism, oil is in the ordinance of anointing the sick for healing.

Suppose someone should say to me, “So-and-so was anointed but was not healed.” I would answer, “So-and-so was baptized but was not saved and was not healed from the disease of sin.” If a man should say to me, “I know a man whom you anointed whose body was not healed,” I would say to him, “I know a man whom you baptized whose soul was not healed.” Thousands who have been baptized have never been regenerated. This is infinitely worse than for a Christian to fail to receive healing for his body.

Some say, “If so-and-so should be healed, I will believe in divine healing.” Why not be consistent? Say, “If so-and-so should get saved, I will believe in salvation.” This is the same as to say, “I will believe so-and-so’s experience in preference to God, the Bible, and the experiences of all the other thousands who have been saved and healed.” After God has healed thousands from all their afflictions, why not say to Him, “I will not believe unless you heal one more.”

Would you reject the doctrine of consecration because some church members are not consecrated, while thousands of others are? I heard a minister say, concerning the work of another evangelist, “So-and-so was anointed and prayed for, but died without being healed.” Yet this same minister baptized so-and-so and took him into the Church, thereby proclaiming to the world that his soul had been healed from the disease of sin. But the man died without the new birth, and his soul was lost. This is infinitely worse than for a sick Christian to fail to be healed and to die and wake up in glory.

Suppose the testimony of those of us who say we have been healed is rejected, because after a careful examination by a medical expert, it could be shown that we fall short of physical perfection. To be consistent, why should we not have a spiritual

expert with spiritual discernment, such as the apostle Paul had, examine those in the modern Church who oppose the gospel of healing. Let him reject the testimony of all those among them who do not measure up spiritually to what the Bible represents a healthy soul to be.

After witnessing the miraculous healing of thousands, I am convinced that the proofs of healing are as bright and convincing as are the proofs of regeneration. Yet I do not base any doctrine on these answers to prayer. I, for one, will preach all the Gospel if I never see another man saved or healed as long as I live. I am determined to base my doctrines on the immutable Word of God, not on phenomena or human experience.

No minister can get results until, by preaching the Word of God, he can produce faith for what that Word offers. Sixty thousand churches in the United States reported no conversions in a whole year. However, I am not going to offer this fact as a reason for fighting the doctrine of regeneration, or any other part of the Gospel.

Some say, “We believe in healing, but we do not believe in parading it.” I have noticed that some who fail to rejoice with those who succeed in receiving healing from Christ are quick to parade a failure. They say nothing about the successes. To me it is a mystery how any Christian can fail to rejoice when a poor afflicted person has been healed by Christ. I not only rejoice when a sufferer has been healed by Christ, but I am glad to parade God’s mercy to the world. “Make known His deeds among the people” is the command of God. Jesus commanded the demoniac, out of whom He cast the devil, to go back to his own community and tell what great mercy Christ had shown him. The Scriptures tell us that he published throughout Decapolis this mercy of Christ. In the next chapter we read of multitudes in Decapolis being healed by Christ. The multitudes glorified the God of Israel.

4.  The Traditions of Men

The healing part of the Gospel is hindered and even made void y the traditions of men. Jesus said to the Jewish teachers of

His day, “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” In our day most preachers have done worse. They have made void a part of the Gospel by their traditions.

One tradition is that God is the author of disease and that He wills the sickness of some of His worshipers. It is a mystery to me how anyone can hold this view in the face of the Scriptures and the ministry of Christ. For three years Jesus healed all that were oppressed by the devil, or at least all that came to Him for healing.

If sickness is the will of God for His worshipers, then every physician is a lawbreaker, every trained nurse is defying the Almighty, and every hospital is a house of rebellion instead of a house of mercy. If God wants one to be sick, it is a sin for that one even to want to be well, because we are to love the will of God, whatever that will may be.

Another tradition that is responsible for thousands dying a premature death after years of physical agony is the teaching that we can glorify God more by remaining sick and exhibiting patience than we can by being divinely healed. An honest but unenlightened minister will often kneel at the bedside of one suffering with arthritis or cancer or some other dangerous disease. He prays, “Lord, since in Thy loving providence Thou hast seen fit to lay Thine afflicting hand upon our dear sister, give her fortitude and patience to bear this affliction.” He does this instead of obeying the plain command to anoint “any sick” in the Church and to pray “the prayer of faith” for their healing (James 5:14-15). John Wesley said this method was the only process of healing in the Church until it was lost through unbelief.

Many are taught that one can glorify God more by remaining sick than by being healed. If this is true, then Jesus did not hesitate to rob His Father of all the glory He possibly could. He healed everyone that appealed to Him for help during His entire earthly ministry. His successor, the Holy Spirit, was sen down to augment what Christ had begun to do and to teach. He did not hesitate to rob

God of all the glory He could by healing everyone in the streets of Jerusalem (Acts 5:15-Paul did not hesitate to rob God of all the glory he could by healing all the other sick on the island of Melita.

The most common and threadbare tradition is the worn- out statement, “The age of miracles has passed.” Of all the present-day traditions of the elders or ministers, this is the most foolish, illogical, and unscriptural of any that I know. The Holy Spirit, in whose age we are now living, is God’s only Miracle-Worker, the only administrator of the Father’s will. He is the One who healed all the sick multitudes who came to Christ for healing during the days of His flesh. All the miracles ever wrought until the day of Pentecost were accomplished by the Spirit, the Miracle-Worker. This was before He had entered officially into His own dispensation.

The age in which we live was intended by our heavenly Father to be the most miraculous of all the dispensations. It is the Miracle-Worker’s age; the Holy Spirit’s dispensation. During this age the great promise is that God will pour out the Holy Spirit, the Miracle-Worker, upon all flesh. This is the only age in which the Miracle- Worker would incarnate Himself in us. This is the only age in which the nine gifts of the Spirit, including the gifts of faith, healing, and miracles, were to be distributed to every man severally as He, the Holy Spirit, will. Jesus declared that the works that He was doing would be continued and that even “greater works” would be done by the Holy Spirit, the Miracle-Worker. This was after He entered office during Christ’s exaltation. This is the Spirit’s dispensation.

How absurd and ridiculous for any professed Bible teacher to pick out this, the Miracle-Worker’s age, as the only age when miracles are not to be done! How absurd for such a one to teach that the Holy Spirit will work miracles in every age but His own age! This is a “better” dispensation, with a “better” Priest, “better covenant…

better” promises, and “better” everything than any previous age.

Some talk as though the present age is not the Holy Spirit’s age. There is but one dispensation of the Holy Spirit, and that one lies between the first and second advents of our Lord. It is true, we are living in the Laodicean or lukewarm period of the Spirit’s dispensation. At the beginning of the age the Church was in her Spirit-filled period, and we are now in the lukewarm period of the same age. But, for one (and, thank God! there are many others like me), I am going to base both my preaching and my practicing on the preaching and the practicing of the Church during her Spirit-filled period. This is better than operating on the preaching and practicing of the Church during her lukewarm period. I would rather labor to lift the true Church up to the Bible standard of the first century than to try to make the Bible fit the standard of the lukewarm Church of the twentieth century. In previous discourses we have seen that God has worked miracles in each of the centuries since the closing of the Scriptures, down to our day. This worn-out tradition that we are considering is entirely set aside by the facts of history.

Another tradition is that it is not God’s will to heal all. In previous chapters we have answered this objection from every conceivable angle. If it is God’s will to heal only some of those who need healing, then none have any basis for faith, until they shall have received a special revelation that they are among the favored ones. If God’s promises to heal are not for all, then no man can ascertain the will of God for himself from the Bible. Are we to understand from such teachers that we must close our Bibles and get our revelation directly from the Spirit before we can pray for the sick? Cannot the will of God in this matter be ascertained from the Scriptures? This would be virtually to teach that the whole of the divine activity on the line of healing would have to be governed by direct revelations

from the Spirit instead of by the Scriptures.

Still others are hindered from receiving healing by being taught to add to their prayer for healing the faith- destroying phrase, “If it be Thy will.” There is only one case given in the New Testament of one asking for healing in this way. That is the case of the leper, who said, “If thou wilt, thou canst make me whole.” This man could not have prayed otherwise because he was not yet informed as to the will of God in the matter. Jesus did not heal this leper until He had added to his faith the fact that Jesus could heal him, then the faith that Jesus would heal him. The “I will” of Jesus canceled the “If” of the leper. It is impossible for one ever to pray with faith until the “If” has been removed from his prayer. To have real faith is to be “fully persuaded” that God will do what He has promised to do. No one is ever “fully persuaded” when he adds to his prayer, “If it be Thy will.” Since God has revealed His will in this matter by His promises, for us to say, “If it be Thy will,” when praying for healing is the same as to say, “If it be Thy will to keep Thy promise.”

Another unscriptural premise, which has sent thousands of sufferers to premature graves and kept multitudes of others from receiving healing, is the modern teaching that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was some kind of physical trouble. The falsity of this position is shown in the following chapter, Paul’s Thorn.

The expression “thorn in the flesh” is not once used in either the Old or the New Testament except as an illustration. The figure of the “thorn in the flesh” is not in one single instance used in the Bible as a figure of sickness. Every time the phrase is used in the Bible it is specifically stated exactly what the thorn in the flesh” was. For instance, in Numbers 33:55 Moses spoke to the children of Israel, before they entered the land of Canaan. He said, “If ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes,

and thorns in your sides, and shall vex ye in the land wherein ye dwell.”

Here the Scripture itself plainly tells us what the “pricks” in the eyes and the “thorns” in the sides of the Israelites were. They were the inhabitants of Canaan that had been spared, not eye trouble or sickness. God was only using this as an illustration to show that as a thorn sticking in the flesh is annoying, so the Canaanites, if allowed to remain in the land, would be a constant annoyance to the children of Israel. In all the other places in the Bible where this expression is used, the thorns are personalities.

In each of the other instances the Bible definitely states what the thorn was. In this particular instance Paul definitely states what his thorn was. He said it was “The messenger [Greek angelos] of Satan,” or, as translated by others, “the angel of the devil,” “Satan’s angel,” etc.

The Greek word angelos appears 188 times in the Bible. It is translated “angel” 181 times and “messenger” the other 7 times. In every one of the 188 times where this word is used in the Bible, it means a person, not a thing. Hell was made for “the devil and his angels.” An angel or a messenger is always a person that one person sends to another, never a disease.

Paul not only tells us that his thorn was an angel, or messenger of Satan, but he also tells us what that angel came to do. He said that he was sent “to buffet me,” in the same way “the waves buffeted” the boat, and the soldiers “buffeted” Christ. Weymouth translates this passage in this way, “Satan’s angel dealing blow after blow.” Buffeting means giving repeated blows. If Paul’s buffeting was a physical one, it would have had to be a succession of diseases, or the same disease repeated many times. Otherwise, he could not have termed it buffeting.

In speaking of this messenger or angel, Rotherham’s translation uses the personal pronoun he. Weymouth’s translation says. “As to this, three times I besought the

Lord to rid me of him. These two pronouns, as well as the word “angel” or “messenger,” prove what Paul’s thorn was. He himself plainly shows, that it was a satanic personality, not a disease. Paul could not have used the personal pronouns he and him when speaking of a disease, because there is no personality to disease. Paul enumerates almost every kind of trouble one can think of as his buffeting, but disease is not on the list.

Jesus revealed to us the unchanging will of God by what He did. He healed every sick person that ever applied to Him for healing, but He did not promise to take away the buffetings or persecution. Paul was the most prolific teacher in the Bible on the subject of divine healing.

Another tradition that has hindered the ministry of healing is the teaching that Jesus healed the sick as the Son of God, not as the Son of Man. Such teachers believe that as we are not Christ, we cannot expect such works today. The Scriptures teach us that Jesus, the Son of God, emptied Himself and became like unto His brethren in all things, except as to sin. He speaks of Himself as “The Son of man” about eighty times. As the Son of Man He said, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” This certainly was not true of Him before He became the Son of Man. All things were made by Him and for Him. We have already seen that Jesus did His works in reliance on the Spirit. He “began both to do and teach, until the day He was taken up,” what He Himself promised in John 14:12. These things He would continue and augment in answer to the prayers of the Church when He was glorified. The very words here quoted from Acts 1:1, “Jesus began both to do and teach,” prove that what the Lord “began” both in doing and teaching was to be continued by the Holy Spirit operating through the Church.

5. BREAKING NATURAL LAWS

The failure of some to receive healing is because of the breaking of natural laws. Let it be remembered that natural laws

are God’s laws and that they are as divine as are His miracles. Nature is God in action, but not miraculously. Because of their ignorance of natural laws some are not supplying their bodies with required nourishment, or they may be overeating, while asking God to heal them of stomach trouble, and thereby hindering the answer to their prayers. After God had revealed Himself as Jehovah-Rapha, our Healer, the conditions He imposed were that the people observe His laws of health. There are times when sufferers who are ignorant of dietetics and other simple requirements, need the advice of someone who is qualified to give advice in such matters.

6.  Unbelief of Elder or Minister Who Prays

Some are not healed because of unbelief on the part of the elder or minister who prays for them. Christ’s disciples, although divinely commissioned to cast out devils and to heal the sick, failed to deliver the epileptic boy. When Jesus came down from the mountain He delivered the boy and rebuked the disciples for their unbelief.

7.  An Evil Spirit Must Be Cast Out

Some are not healed because their affliction is the work of an evil spirit that must be cast out. Jesus did not heal the epileptic disease but cast out the epileptic spirit. He also cast out the deaf and dumb and blind spirits. He says of those who believe, “In my name they shall cast out demons.” Many times we have seen people instantly delivered when we rebuked the afflicting spirit. We spoke representatively, in Christ’s name, or by His authority.

8.  The Sick Person’s Sin

Some fail to receive healing because they regard iniquity in their heart. These should learn to say with David: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” God has not promised to destroy the works of the devil in the body while w e are clinging to the works of the devil in the soul. Unconfessed sin hinders people from receiving God’s mercy. His Word tells us, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

9. LUKEWARMNESS OF THE CHURCH

In this Laodicean period of the Church, lukewarmness is one of the great hindrances to healing. After Christ was glorified, He sent down the message, “I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.”

The best thing for us is to be red hot for God. The next best thing is to be cold. But, it is fatal to be lukewarm, for the Lord said He would spew out the lukewarm.

Lukewarmness is a much worse disease than cancer; therefore God wants to heal lukewarmness first. He has promised and is waiting to heal our backsliding and flood our hearts with His love. God says of the man whose heart is hot with love for Him, “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him.” Serving God with gladness and cheerfulness of heart was the condition for healing in Old Testament times. Surely the standard ought not be lowered in this day of grace!

10.  Unwillingness to Surrender to God

Some fail to receive healing because sickness and affliction are the natural result of a heart that is not willing to follow God into the center of His will. When man surrenders his will to his loving father, healing follows. It is God’s will that we learn the pleasure of serving Him and living out His divine program for our lives. It is impossible to pray “the prayer of faith” for those who are unwilling to be led into the glorious center of God’s will.

11.   An Unforgiving Spirit

An unforgiving spirit, or holding a grudge, hinders some from receiving the Lord’s healing. Jesus said, “If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.” The first thing we need and the first thing God wants to grant us is the forgiveness of our sins, but God cannot forgive us when we will not forgive others. If He cannot forgive us, He certainly cannot heal us. Many times we have seen the afflicted healed “in the twinkling of an eye” when they were ready to forgive those who had wronged them.

12.  A Need to Seek Forgiveness

Wrongs that have not been made right hinder the faith of some to receive healing. Those who have wronged their neighbor in any way must ask his forgiveness. We have known many who, terribly afflicted, were healed as soon as this was done.

13.  Lack of Diligence

Some have no diligence when seeking God for healing. God “is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” We have known sufferers to undergo as many as a dozen or more operations without any positive promise of being healed. Yet in coming to God for healing, which He positively promises to give, many do not come with anything like the diligence shown by those who apply for help from man.

14.  Seeking Miracles, Not Healing

Because of improper instruction, many fail to be healed because they endeavor to confine God to miracles. Because they are not made well and strong in an instant, these people cast away their confidence.

God differentiates between a miracle and a healing. If every man, wasted with disease, were made strong and well in a moment, there would be no healings. They would all be miracles. When enumerating the spiritual gifts, Paul speaks of gifts of healing and also of miracles. Christ could do no miracle in Nazareth because of the unbelief of the people, but He did heal a few sick folk there. Confusing healings with miracles is a very common hindrance to healing in these days, when there is so little clear teaching on the subject.

15.  Watching Symptoms

Some weaken their faith by watching their symptoms. Instead of doing this, they should become strong in faith, like Abraham of old, by looking unto the promise of God. God has made His Word the only basis for faith. Some people defeat their own healing by making their feelings the basis for faith.

16.  Failure to Act on Faith

Others fail to receive healing because they do not act their faith. “Faith without works is dead.” It is not God’s turn to move until we have faith with corresponding actions. The literal translation of Mark 11:22, “Have faith in God,” is “Reckon on God’s faithfulness.”

The full exercise of faith means that we think faith, speak faith, act faith. To the blind man, Jesus said, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.” This act gave the man an opportunity to exercise faith in heart, mind, and body. He was not healed until he had first given this visible expression of his faith. He believed the healing was his before it was manifested.

It was the same with Naaman, the leper, and also with the ten lepers. Jesus said, “Go, shew yourselves to the priests.” The record is, ‘As they went, they were cleansed.” A visible expression of faith, including their heart, mind, and body, was required before their healing was manifested. Some miss being healed by reversing this divine order.

17.  Lack of Confidence

Others, when tested, cast away their confidence. They fail to see that, as with Abraham, their faith should be perfected by the test, not destroyed.

We are made partakers of God’s promises on the condition that we hold the beginning of our confidence steady until the promises are fulfilled (Heb. 10:35). If the Word of God is the reason for our faith, then it is never right to cast away our confidence in it.

18.  Not Receiving the Holy Spirit

Some fail to receive healing by neglecting to receive the Holy Spirit. He was sent to impart to us the blessings of redemption. In Romans 8:11 Paul tells us that our mortal (not actually but judicially dead) bodies (also) are to be given life by the Spirit that dwells in (not outside of) us. Since our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost applies the healing, we might say that He is the carpenter who repairs the house. Some

are consciously keeping the carpenter outside of the house while asking Him to repair it on the inside. Paul said, “The body for the Lord” before he said, “The Lord for the body.” We must present our bodies a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1) and let them become the temples of the Holy Ghost if we want them healed. This reason for failure does not usually apply to those who are untaught as to their privilege of being filled with the Spirit.

19.  Lack of Faith

Some are not healed because they substitute their belief in the doctrine of divine healing for personal faith to be healed.

20.  Failure to Receive God’s Promises

Some are not healed because of their failure to receive the written promise of God as His direct Word to them. They fail to recognize that faith interprets the Word of God as the voice of God. In Psalm 138:2 we read, “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”

21.  Waiting tor Healing to Believe

Some will not believe that their prayer for healing has been heard until they have experienced and seen the answer. Christ has not promised that our healing shall begin before we believe that He has heard our prayer. Some suppose that they must keep on praying, and not believe that their prayer has been heard, until they are well. This is exactly the opposite of what God requires.

In Mark 11:24 Jesus tells us exactly the conditions He requires for our appropriation of the blessings He has promised. He says, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” That is, “ye shall have them” after you believe He has heard your prayer. As Jesus said, “I thank thee that thou hast heard me,” while Lazarus was still dead; so we should be able to say, “I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me,” while we are still sick. “Ye shall have them,” is your answer from Jesus. It is also your Proof that your prayer has been heard.

As we have already remarked, faith interprets the Word of

God as the voice of God. God has not promised that our healing shall begin before we believe that He has heard our prayer. we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.” If this is true, then we must believe that our prayer has been heard when we pray. We must be able to say, “We know we have the petitions that we desired of Him,” not because we see the answer, but because “God is faithful, who also will do it.”

Abraham did not keep on praying for the birth of Isaac until the child was born. Instead, he kept on believing and glorifying God for His Word in the matter.

More than once we have read that it was after Solomon had “made an end of praying” that the blessing came.

Jesus, at the grave of Lazarus, had “made an end of praying.” Before Lazarus came out from his tomb, Jesus said, “I thank thee that thou hast heard me.”

Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel had “made an end of praying.” They were all praising God “with a loud voice” for the answer to their prayers before they went out to do battle with the three great armies. Their faith was “the evidence [or assurance] of things not [yet] seen” (Heb. 11:1).

The one hundred and twenty had “made an end of praying.” They were all “continually praising and blessing God” when the Spirit was poured out upon them.

It is supposed to be the “end of praying” when one has been anointed for healing. If one who has been anointed really has faith, we will hear nothing from him but thanksgiving until he has been healed.

When a child begs her mother for a new dress, and the mother says, “I will get it for you,” the child quits asking before there is any dress in sight. Instead of continuing to say, “Please give me a dress,” she says, “Goody! Goody!”

Perhaps I should say here that after commitment, one must not become indifferent. One’s trust must remain active. It must be like that of the children of Israel when they marched around the walls of Jericho and blew their rams’ horns. It must be like

that of Jehoshaphat and his men. After they had “made an end of praying,” they went out to battle, singing praises to God.

The healing of the ten lepers came while their trust was still active.

God said to the dying Israelites, “Every one that looketh shall live.” This word looketh is in the continuous present tense. It is not a mere glance, but a continuous “stare.”

Moses “endured as seeing [continuously seeing] him who is invisible.”

It was a “steadfast” faith that brought the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Abraham became strong in faith by looking (continuously) unto the promise of God.

If we allow our trust to become inactive, it will weaken; if we keep it active, it will continually grow stronger.

22.  Focus on Improvement, Not on God’s Promises

Some hinder God by basing their faith on their improvement after prayer rather than on His promise. They do not realize that there is no other reason for faith as good as the Word of God. They do not understand that God wants to train every Christian to believe Him when everything they can see, except His promise, is to the contrary. Amen, and Amen!

Taken by permission from FF Bosworth Ministries. All rights reserved to Life Changing Truth.