Healing Tidbits
or
Miscellaneous Teachings On Healing

This lesson is part 3 about a real life "healing" incident that took place in GodSpeak's prophetic chatroom. A man prayed for a lady for healing, and he tried to encourage her faith as he prayed. At first she was in agreement with his ministry, but at some point she felt that he was inappropriately attempting to instruct her, and she became offended. She sent me an email complaining about this incident, and that led us to a brief discussion about healing prayer and the role of faith in healing. I explained that in some cases, we can have a wrong expectation that God doesn't want to heal us, and that can hinder our healing.

She gave an insightful reply, part of which I want to include in this lesson because I am going to talk about it in more detail.

I honestly wonder why God would trouble Himself with healing me. I believe for sure that God can heal me. No doubt...But does He want to?

So what do I need to do to receive healing? I would love to be healthy so I can do all those things I find joy in.

What is faith? I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I believe that He died on the cross for me and that He rose again! Isn't that enough?

The last lesson addressed her second question about what faith is. She did not seem to understand that there are different types of faith, and she equated faith to "faith in Jesus for salvation." In the last lesson, I likened faith to golf, and suggested that there are different types of faith, just like there are different types of golf clubs. In golf, we have to use the right golf club for the given situation, and in the Christian walk, we have to use right type of faith for the given situation.

We face different obstacles as we walk the path the Lord has chosen for us. Sometimes, we face a great danger, and we learn to have faith in Him as our protector. At times we face great lack or need, and we learn to have faith in Him as our provider. Other times we may have physical sickness, and we learn to have faith in Him as our healer. Every one of these is a faith in God, but each approaches Him from angle, focusing on a different aspect of God's nature and character. We can know and trust one aspect of God's nature, but not yet have "faith" in a different aspect of His nature. For example, some people find it easy to trust God for provision, but hard to trust Him for healing, and visa versa.

Experiential Faith

The best way to "gain" faith in a given area is to personally experiencing God's faithfulness to us in that area of our life. Faith is different than "head knowledge," but many people confuse the two. Head knowledge is when we know what God says about a given topic intellectually, from reading about it in the bible. The bible tells us about His character and nature, and about what He will do for us. While we can "know" these things in our head, we often don't fully believe them in our heart. We may have faith that God provides for His children--until we have a desperate need. Suddenly the question becomes, "Yes, I know that God can provide for His children but will He really provide for me in my current situation?"

At first all we have to carry us through is that head knowledge, and it is kind of shaky. There is a difference between knowing something about God's faithfulness and actually experiencing it. So we get into a desperate situation, and we find ourselves struggling to "have faith." We have to keep reminding ourselves over and over about what the bible says about God's willingness and ability to provide, and we hope it is true for us, but we are not really 100% convinced that it is. As a result, we do things to supplement our "head knowledge" type of faith. Perhaps we take our need to all of our friends and ask them to urgently intercede for us. Or we may strain our brain to come up with contingency plans (E.g., what to do if God doesn't come through). Or we may simply worry, stress about our situation and and be filled with anxiety.

Then God comes through for us. He meets us in our place of need, and we experience God's provision in that situation. And something changes in our heart. Suddenly we know with confidence that God really will provide--We know it because we have personally experienced that provision. Before we just had facts about God (or head knowledge). Now we have an absolute inner confidence and certainty of His faithfulness in this are because we have experienced it in our own life.

That is a description of what experiential faith is about. Now let's switch gears and talk about how experiential faith relates to healing. Basically the same principle applies. Let's go back to our example of the lady in the chatroom who needed a healing but wasn't sure if God really wanted to heal her. She theoretically believed in healing, but she asked the question: "Why God would trouble Himself with healing me? I believe for sure that God can heal me. No doubt...But does He want to?"

Most of us have that same question at some point in our lives. We knew about His ability to heal the sick today (head knowledge). But when we came to need His healing in our own life, we wondered if He would really do it for us personally. Then when God actually touched us with His healing power and made us better. Then we realized that He is indeed willing, and that realization changed our perspective. In other words, next time we need a healing, we are not limited to just draw from our head knowledge. We have personal experience to draw from, and that gives us confidence. There is something inside of us the expects Him to heal us again, because He did it before. There is a confidence that He is both willing and able to heal. Therefore, we find it easier to have faith for healing and we find it easier to believe that He really does want to heal us.

The Power Of Condemnation To Hinder Healing

But there is another factor that enters into this...condemnation and rejection. These things are "faith killers" because they are designed to convince us that God doesn't want to heal us.

Condemnation tells us that we don't deserve to be healed because of this or that. Rejection tells us that God doesn't love us enough to heal us. Both of those things are lies from the devil, and God doesn't want us to believe those lies. In fact, God has already told us the truth about both of those things in His written word, the bible.

The best thing to combat the lies of the devil is the truth of God. Keeping that in mind, let's look at what it says about condemnation:

Psalm 34:22
The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

Isaiah 54:17
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn.

John 3:17-18a
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned.

Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

1 John 3:20
For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

You could sum it up by saying that God went way out of His way to keep us from being condemned. So if the voice of condemnation speaks to you and tells you that you are not "good enough" to be healed, you know from the bible that this is a lie. When the thought that you don't deserve God's healing touch crosses your mind, remind yourself of what God has said about that in His written word, the bible. Then you will know that what you heard is not the voice of God, but the lies of the enemy. In fact, the truth of the matter can be found in Psalm 103:2-4, which says:

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,

In short, God's will is not to condemn us, but to heal us and to restore us. Keep that in mind the next time that you hear a little voice whispering in your ear, telling you that you don't deserve for God to heal you. It has never been about what we deserve; healing has always been about the grace and mercy and love of God.

Now that we have the lies of condemnation out of the way, lets deal with the lies of rejection in the same manner. Those lies say things like: God may love everyone else (and may heal everyone one) but you are different. There is something defective about you that keeps Him from loving you, and it prevents Him from wanting to heal you.

Of course, those lies are just as unscriptural and untrue as the condemnation lies. But rejection is so prevalent in our culture that it is (unfortunately) too easy to believe them. So let's look a little at what the bibles says about God's love for us. Remember, the following verses are just a small portion of what the bible says about God's love for us:

Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God in your midst [is] the Mighty One [Who] will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 16:26-27
26 In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.

Romans 5:5
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Galatians 2:20b
Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Ephesians 2:4
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.

Ephesians 3:18-19
[I pray that you] "may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Ephesians 5:2
...Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Titus 3:4-7
4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

1 John 3:1a
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

1 John 4:9-10
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:16
...God is love...

Jude 1:21
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

If you are one of the many people who struggles with the devil's rejection lies that God doesn't want to heal you, then I hope that the power of God's love has begun to soak in as you read these verses and break the power of those lies. The truth of the matter is that the God who loved you enough to save you also loves you enough to heal you.