6-8-15<\/p>\n
Yes, I can spell; hold on. I want to address the topics of disease and sickness; and of God\u2019s will and whether God allows infirmities \u2013 or whether He visits them upon us at times. Hot-button topics, always. I want to consider spiritual gifts, whether Divine Healing is a grace available to the contemporary church, or whether it was a \u201csign\u201d to heathens and believers only in the first century.<\/p>\n
The questions are not arcane, nor abstract. To the afflicted they can be of burning urgency. To some believers, some factions, they represent attitudes that, for all intents and purposes, define one\u2019s faith. <\/p>\n
My own life-experiences reflect different theological viewpoints. Rather, changing viewpoints through the years. Apart from the Theory of Evolution, about which theory I am a skeptic, my views on Divine Healing have evolved. I am persuaded that God has worked a sort of progressive revelation on my spiritual views.<\/p>\n
I am not being flippant: I believe we always should invite God to inspire us \u2013 to have the Holy Spirit guide and inform us \u2013 as we search scripture and exercise our prayer life, our conversations with Christ. As our faith matures, we are \u201cbaby Christians\u201d when that state is sweet and seemingly sufficient, but eventually we graduate from such mother\u2019s milk and subsist \u2013 require \u2013 heartier spiritual food. The Bible assures us that this characterizes the life of the believer.<\/p>\n
When I became a fervent Christian, born-again with all that implies, including multiple blessings, my wife and I were convinced about God\u2019s invariable will to heal. We never quite ventured into \u201cname it and claim it\u201d territory, but if God can heal, and He answers prayer, and the fervent prayer of righteous men availeth much\u2026 healing was only a prayer away. <\/p>\n
Right? Or a prayer hankie, which could be purchased off the TV ministry. Or a \u201clove offering,\u201d taken up at the preacher\u2019s crusade, with promises of the hundredfold return, not just healing. I saw miracles. I did. A crippled leg extended; deaf ears opened. But when such things did not come, many preachers blamed the sick person\u2019s faith, not germs or viruses or accidents or heredity or self-destructiveness or\u2026 <\/p>\n
Eventually, I wondered why the evangelists who promised perfect health all wore glasses. Surely they were not fashion statements.<\/p>\n
During this time my wife developed illnesses. Diabetes led to heart attacks and strokes. Celiac disease struck. She was listed for heart and kidney transplants. Her faith was never shaken, but at the point of death she received two organs. She believed that God worked a miracle through surgery, science, and doctors\u2019 hands. Healing came. Christ\u2019s promise of \u201clife, and more abundantly,\u201d she came to believe, was about more than money.<\/p>\n
Also in her life she was healed of blindness, and, later, thyroid cancer, when the healing prayers were not as fervent, but they were cases \u201cwhere the doctors can\u2019t explain it.\u201d Spiritual evolution: God was displaying His sovereignty, and we learned obedience.<\/p>\n
Where once we thought that \u201cby His stripes ye are healed,\u201d that Jesus guaranteed Divine Healing for all because of the cross, we came to realize that we should pray as we are instructed, the burdens of our hearts; then trust and obey; and when and if healing comes, to give God the glory. By those stripes \u2013 Christ\u2019s sacrifice, not a preacher\u2019s sermon \u2013 He identifies with us, our fears, and, yes, our pain and infirmities.<\/p>\n
Recently I have been acquainted with close family members and close friends with mysterious, serious, troubling afflictions. How should we pray?<\/p>\n
Always \u2013 for healing. That is the burden of our hearts. There is NO instance in the Bible where God\u2019s prophets, or Jesus, EVER claimed that physical affliction is from the Lord; or that disease is from God; or that sickness is sent to \u201ctest us.\u201d Paul\u2019s \u201cthorn in the flesh\u201d? Just as likely temptations or distractions as illness. So: we pray, believing.<\/p>\n
If healing does not come\u2026 or as we desire\u2026 or as fast as we want\u2026 or at all\u2026 we trust and obey. Our puny selves, with maturing but never matured faith, when it comes down to the paths we walk, cannot even walk without God holding our hands. It should never be, \u201cheal me that I may run away,\u201d but \u201chold me close that I may walk with You.\u201d <\/p>\n
This understanding is not a safety-valve for those who pray and their prayers go \u201cunanswered.\u201d No, it is a mature exercise of faith. <\/p>\n
Why is there sickness in the world? God does not send it. But there is sin in the world; in this broken world there is sickness and death; dangers and strife; hostile natural forces (insurance companies have a nerve calling them \u201cacts of God\u201d). The rain falls on the just and unjust. God does not promise that we would be free of these things \u2013 only that He would be with us, comforting us, increasing our faith, sometimes healing us, always loving us. Holding our hands.<\/p>\n
Does God bring (or even allow) sickness in order to chastise us, keep us in line? God forbid, I say. I know that many believers (orders within the Catholic Church, for instance) believe that sorrow is a virtue and that some people are meant to suffer. I had a friend with many infirmities who memorized the entire Book of James, for its verses that seem to accept and embrace suffering.<\/p>\n
However, it can become, it should become, our duty, when illness strikes, to turn to God, to trust Him, to ask for wisdom, to plead mercy for loved ones\u2026 all the time praying for healing, and acknowledging that He is the Lord who healeth thee. Of course. He can, and He will. Let us not forget the \u201cDivine\u201d component of Divine Healing. He is the God of Understanding.<\/p>\n
And in the meantime, acknowledge that we can\u2019t even walk without His holding our hands. In obedience classes, that would be called \u201cheeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
My son-in-law Norman is going through trials of body, emotions, and his work with family and ministry. In his faith, seeking understanding, he has turned to Proverbs 3, and its following verses. Good prescriptions indeed:<\/p>\n
3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; \u00a0In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.<\/span><\/p>\n 3:19-20 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; By understanding He established the heavens; By His knowledge the depths were broken up, And clouds drop down the dew.<\/span><\/p>\n 3:24-26 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror, Nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught.<\/span><\/p>\n