HEALING; FROM A TO Z

   He seemed nervous and slightly agitated.  Then I realized this young Amish father was probably afraid that his church leaders would find out that I, an "English" person, had prayed for his child who was facing surgery.  The "A" in our title stands for Amish.  Many of them believe it is wrong to pray for healing.  The word fatalistic comes close to describing them.  They believe it is a sin to presume upon God.  When Susan and I gave God the credit for a successful morning deer hunting an Amish bishop pointed his finger in my face and said: "don't you be presumptuous!"  When I saw him again seven years later his attitude toward me had softened considerably.  Seven years after that he asked me to pray for safe travel for him and his wife!"  But, nevertheless, the Amish aversion to praying for healing represents one extreme.

   Standing on the opposite extreme is the teaching that quotes "by His wounds I have been healed" and maintains that failure to receive healing is none other that failure to believe and claim this truth.  The "Z" in our title would then stand for zealous.  In some instances these folks may be correct.  There are probably more times than we can count that God stands willing to do for the believer much more than the believer is willing to believe!  It is the attempt to make a universal application of this that is impossible to square with the whole testimony of Scripture. 

   It is at this point that you, the reader, probably think that that I am going to say that the truth lies in the middle of these two extremes.  But I am very reluctant to come across that way.  That could easily sound very arrogant on my part.  The total Scriptural witness on the matter of healing is difficult to place in rigid categories.  There might conceivably be times when it would be wrong to ask for healing.  So the Amish attitude might not always be wrong even if it normally is.  And there are certainly some times when failure to believe God prevents a miracle of healing from taking place.  So the zealous are not always wrong.  We could stop right here and say that we have just seem how utterly dependent we are upon the Holy Spirit to know which Scripture applies to our situation.

   Many thousands of Christians pray for healing with the words "If it be Your Will".  But certainly sometimes that could easily be a pious cover for unbelief or not actually seeking the will of God on how to pray.  Just about any position on healing that a Christian may take can be supported by quoting some passage of Scripture isolated from other passages that bear on the issue.  I started out on this journey by witnessing a group of elders anoint and pray for a young woman who was going blind.  Within a short time she was reading without glasses.  I was only 17 years of age at that time and had never witnessed anything like this.  I had grown up among those who sometime prayed for the sick but with little expectation of anything happening.  Some would build their entire beliefs about healing on one experience like I witnessed.  Others would simply dismiss it as rare and remain unconvinced.  Eventually I drifted into what is known in theology as a cessationist position which is all too common.  This is the belief that miracles and miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit were only for the Apostles and have ceased to exist.  I came to repent of that attitude, but only very, very slowly.

   When our three children were still very small Susan developed a condition for which she was referred to an orthopedic surgeon who happened to be a Christian.  While we were in his office he called in another surgeon who was also a Christian.  After thoroughly examining Susan they said, "We have done this surgery successfully on a number of persons but we believe that God wants to heal you."  They joined hands with Susan and I and prayed for us.  Within weeks Susan was completely healed of that problem.  In retrospect I cannot understand why my attitude toward healing did not soften and change right then.  But in some inexplicable hardness of the human heart I continued in a generally cessationist mentality for several years. 

   Where do I stand now?  I take seriously the passage in James 5 about anointing and prayer for the sick.  I do not explain it away as many cessationists do.  But I have come to see that the most important factor in that passage is "confess your sins one to another that you may be healed".  I believe that there is an ebb and flow to miracles in history and in locations.  I believe that the most persecuted and impoverished believers are the ones most likely to see miracles, but certainly not the only ones.  I do not believe that the absence of a healing miracle is necessarily a sign of unbelief.  The great Apostle Paul, in his last letter, said "Trophimus have I left at Miletus sick".  He did not agonize over why Trophimus was still sick, he just mentioned it as a fact of life without assigning some great doctrinal significance to it.  I believe that you should be very suspicious of people who urge you to quit receiving a certain medical treatment and "trust God for your healing".  Unless you clearly discern the Holy Spirit telling you to break off a certain medical treatment then you should follow the words of Jesus, "Those who are sick need a physician".  (I have intentionally avoided giving Scripture references in the belief that those who want to seriously pursue this matter will look them up.)

   I believe in praying about sickness in myself and others with thanksgiving.  I thank God that this illness or injury did not take Him by surprise; that He knew it before the world was created; that he permitted it for purposes that will ultimately work for my or your good.  I thank Him that He will give wisdom on what to do about this condition; that I and you do not have to walk in darkness but can have the light of life each step of the way.  I thank Him when I live through a day without any illness or injury.  I pray for people He brings to my mind with a prayer that may go something like this:  "Father, if there is one cancer cell beginning in that person's body please destroy it.  If there is a congenital condition unknown to them, please heal it.  If they are about to be injured, please prevent it."  These are a few examples of how I talk to our Father.

   Some of you reading this know that Susan was diagnosed with malignant lymphoma in December 1988.  Was she miraculously delivered?  Or, was she treated successfully with appropriate therapy?  The answers are "yes" and "yes".  Many, many people have not survived what she had.  She had four reoccurrences of this condition.  It has been five years the last occurrence.  God has taught us much over the last 28 years.  We see clearly how fragile life is.  We are well aware that what James called the "powerful and effective prayers of righteous persons" ascended to heaven on our behalf.  We are more aware than ever that there is no hard and fast doctrine about healing that can replace our total dependence upon the Holy Spirit to show us each step to take and which Scripture most applies to our situation.  (Please feel free to send me a message through social media about this topic or of a need to pray for you.)