Faith And Healing

Western Thinking

Faith is important in praying for the sick. We need to put our faith in Jesus and in His faithfulness, as we learned in the first lesson.

Unfortunately, Western society makes that difficult for many of us. We have been trained in the "Empirical Method" or scientific approach) since we were very little. We have been told over and over that there is no such thing as magic, including miracles, and that everything is cause and effect. We have been taught that there is a natural explanation for everything. And scientific method frowns heavily on things it can't quantify, measure, predict and manipulate - like faith.

This is complicated even further because we have made wonderful strides in medical science. Don't get me wrong, doctors and medicine are very good things. In fact, I believe that God "invented" medicine. Rev. 22:2 talks about a tree from God's river where "the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." Some interpret this as a reference to herbal medication. And we know that the apostle Paul, who moved very heavily in miraculous healings, advised Timothy to takes some medicine for a stomach disorder, possibly dysentery. He says in 1 Tim. 5:23, "Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses." Doctors and medicine are a good thing. They saved my life when I was 6 years old and if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here today.

But the problem with the medical profession is that many of us have come to look at it as the only source of healing. God heals through doctors and through medical technology. But He also heals supernaturally. We need to stop being one-dimensional. When we are hurt or sick, most of us will call the doctor before we will pray. Calling the doctor is not bad, but it is wrong to assume that God won't heal us. John Wimber is considered by many to be the father of power evangelism, of everyday believers praying for the sick and seeing them healed. John had a favorite saying that I love to quote. "When I have a headache, I pray and I take an aspirin. Whichever one works first is fine with me!" In other words, John did not divorce or separate God's healing and the medical profession. He relied regularly on both of them.

And it is important for each of us to trust in God's healing as well as to trust in doctors and medicine. We should believe in both of them with equal gusto. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done for many Western Christians. It's like we have two theologies. We have what we believe in our heads and what we believe experientially.

We read that Jesus healed the sick and we believe it. We read that God does not change (Mal. 3:6) and we believe it. So we give mental assent to the notion that God heals. That is our "head theology."

But we also have a theology based on our experiences. For most of us, our experiences tell us not to believe it unless we can see and measure it. Our experiences tell us that if we are sick, the doctor can usually help us. Our experiences tell us that if the doctor can't cure us, we must either remain sick or die. We have been trained against having faith that God can and will heal us.

Unfortunately, when we are sick or we are in crisis, our "head theology" falls by the wayside and we rely on our experiential theology. Since healing is not a day to day norm in many Christian's lives, they rely solely on the doctor. They may pray in addition to seeing the doctor, and if God chooses to heal them, they are usually very surprised. That is because we, as westerners, have been taught not to believe in supernatural healing. And that thinking pattern can get in our way when we pray for the sick.

How Doubt Affects Physical Healing

We are all familiar with the story where the disciples could not heal a boy because of their lack of faith. The entire story is found in Matt. 17:14-20 (and also in Mark 9). In short, a man brought his son to Jesus for healing, explaining that he had already tried the disciples, but they could not heal the boy. Jesus' immediate response was to chide people in general for their lack of faith (verse 17). Then Jesus healed the boy (verse 18). I find it very interesting that Jesus rebuked pretty much everyone for the lack of healing. He did not direct the rebuke just at the disciples (though he did tell them that it was their lack of faith that prevented them from healing the boy in verses 18, 19). Jesus' rebuke included the father, the boy and the onlookers. It seems that not a single person present had the faith to heal the boy.

This demonstrates that lack of faith can keep someone God wants to heal from being healed.

Jesus rebuked the disciples for lack of faith many times: Matt. 6:30, Matt. 8:26, Matt. 14:31, Matt. 16:8, Matt. 17:20 and Luke 12:28. It was important to His plans and purposes that His disciples learn to have faith, because He planned to use them to spread the gospel to the entire world. It was always His plan to have them demonstrate God's power along with the proclamation of the gospel so that people would believe and be saved.

It was a long and slow process for the disciples to learn to have faith. Doubt and fear got in the way many times. But Jesus did not give up on them. He kept working with them, and He will keep working with us. He wants to demonstrate His power through us just like He did through His disciples and through the early Church.

Factors in Doubt and Unbelief

Peter had started successfully walking on water. But he began to take his eyes off of the Lord and focus on the impossible circumstances. When Peter did this, his faith waned and he began to sink. Matt. 14:30-31 describes it this way, "But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, 'Lord, save me!' And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' "

When we put our attention and our focus on Jesus, we move in faith and we can do the impossible with Him. But when we take our eyes off of Jesus and focus on the "impossible," our faith wanes and we fall flat on our faces. (Why do you think the Lord parted the Red Sea and had the Israelites cross at night? I believe He wanted them to cross in the dark so they would not be overcome with fear, seeing the tower of water on each side of them, and give way to fear and unbelief.)

Lack of faith produces fear in situations where God wants to work a miracle. Jesus allowed the disciples to end up in the midst of a fierce storm because He wanted to demonstrate to them how He had authority over the wind and the sea. But they did not have faith and they were terrified. Mark 4:39-41 says, "Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Peace, be still!' And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?' And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, 'Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!' "

When God wants to work a big miracle, He has to put us in miracle-producing situations. In other words, He has to put us in desperate situations to bring a miraculous deliverance that glorifies His name. When faith gets in these miracle producing situations, it says, "Ok, God, how are you going to glorify your name in this one? What are you planning to do?"

But when doubt gets into these same situations, the questions change. "God, why have You abandoned me?" "God, don't You love me any more?" "God, why aren't You taking care of me?" The focus becomes on us and on the situation. And when our thinking does focus on God, it is in a negative way. We tend to accuse Him of not being faithful, of not caring, of not being able or willing to help us. We think He does not have our best interest at heart. Isn't it interesting how faith and doubt have such different perspectives of the same situation?

Lack of faith is looking at things from the human perspective instead of from God's. We think of our limitations instead of God's abilities. Jesus commented on this in Matt. 19:26 and Mark 10:27: "But Jesus looked at them and said to them, 'With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.' " Luke 1:37 says, "For with God nothing will be impossible." Luke 18:27: "But He said, 'The things that are impossible with men are possible with God.' " God's perspective is a "can-do" perspective, but doubt's perspective is summed up by "I can't."

So how does all of this relate to healing? Doubt says, "I better not pray for that person because they might not get healed." But faith says that it is not our ability that heals the person, but God. Faith is turning the situation over to God and allowing Him to do the impossible in the person's body. Faith prays and leaves the results to God.