Praying For Healing
Praying for healing is Biblical Photo: © Fotolia.com
Wrong theology can lead to real pain for us if we fail to understand the truth of God's Word.
Some Biblical Priciples In Praying For Healing
A careful analysis of Bible passages about sickness and healing shows the following principles -
1. God's general will is that all who are sick should be healed - just as his desire is that all sinners repent & are saved (1 TIMOTHY 2:4).
2. But just as not all sinners are saved, so not all sick people are healed. God's ways are not our ways, and we need to bow before his sovereignty in humble faith that our heavenly Father knows best.
3. God will either take us out of the problem or give us the grace to go through it, as he said to Paul.
4. Healing is not a sign of a person's superior faith, and lack of healing is not a sign of lack of faith.
Paul clearly was a man of faith. In fact his great faith was shown by God's grace in enabling him to carry on his work of evangelism in spite of his physical problems.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Joni Eareckson Tada's worldwide ministry for over thirty years was in spite of being paralysed from the neck down and not being healed physically.
For more on this, go to JONI
So-called faith healers who claim that lack of healing is a sign of your lack of faith are perpetrating a cruel lie. It may be true in some cases, but we need to beware of burdening those already struggling with sickness with false guilt that they are somehow to blame for their lack of healing.
Jesus on The Role of Faith in Healing
Jesus on several occasions says to a person " your faith has healed you." But nowhere in the gospel records do we read of him blaming a person for not being healed through a lack of faith.
Interestingly, when the disciples failed to deliver a young boy from a demonic spirit (MARK 9:14-29), it is the disciples Jesus chides for their lack of faith, not the father or the boy! So the lack of faith may be as much of a problem for the persons ministering as for the person seeking ministry.
5. Sickness is not necessarily the result of sin by a person or his/her family.
In JOHN 9:1-3 the disciples see a blind man and ask Jesus: "Who sinned? This man or his parents?"
Jesus replied: "Neither. This has happened so that God's glory might be displayed."
Healing is an opportunity for God to glorify himself, but he does not perform magic tricks to order like some magician.
6. Sometimes God "heals" a person through death.
Healing of a person suffering the agonising pain of terminal cancer is often seen in their peaceful release from all pain and suffering through death.
