Saturday, March 17, 2012

Why Doesn't God Heal Everyone?

I get a lot of people asking me why God doesn't heal everyone and my answer is not always accepted. It is not a matter of God not wanting to heal everyone, because he does, the problem is we don't think he wants to heal everyone. As crazy as it sounds there is a great lack of faith and understanding in this area. But I do want to clarify my point concerning this matter because such a stand can alienate a number of people who have a great deal of faith in other matters of living.

First of all, our physical condition is not God's primary concern. Ouch. Our Father's first priority is to prepare us for eternity because, face it, eternity is much longer than the few short years we have here. He is more concerned about our heart condition, the shape of our soul, the relationship we have with Jesus. When Jesus stepped into the public light and became anointed with the Spirit, his priority was not healing but the casting out of demons and the preaching of the Good News. When his twelve disciples came back from an outing he sent them on, and they were all excited because they had healed people and cast out demons, Jesus told them to be more excited about their names being written in the Lamb's Book Of Life. When the paralyzed man was lowered down through the roof to get to Jesus, Jesus' first reaction was not to heal him but to forgive his sins. Healing came after.

Yet, Jesus could not walk through the cesspool of humanity without being moved by man's condition, both spiritually and physically. He taught to open our eyes, but he healed out of simple compassion. God loves us. He cares deeply about us. His priority for us is eternity but he is stilled moved by the condition we live in, the diseases that attack us. So Jesus equipped his people to continue to act in compassion, to do what he did, to reach out in love, to bring relief to a suffering humanity. Look at his compassion. It is everywhere you read in the gospels, it became a big part of what Jesus did.

So why doesn't God heal everyone? people ask. In compassion I believe God is willing to heal everyone, but not everyone is willing to accept it. Believe it or not, it is possible to refuse things from God. It is possible to say no to God. We can do it without even realizing we are doing it. We do it with the simplest thought of doubt. If we can refuse the greater blessing of salvation then it is a simple matter of turning away the blessing of healing. Just as it requires faith to accept Jesus and receive salvation, it requires faith to be healed. The thing is, I don't think the probably is needing to be convinced God heals but instead that God loves us.

Most people miss out on the many blessings of God because they are not convinced that these blessings are meant for them. They feel, knowingly or unknowingly, that there is something about them that disqualifies them from God's love. They believe God loves everyone else but not them; that they are not deserving of that love. Ha! The cold hard fact is that none of us are deserving of his love, but that hasn't stopped him from loving every single person on the planet, regardless of their actions. He loves us and Jesus dying in our place is proof of that, but until we are absolutely convinced of this love, and understand the completeness of this love; I mean the absolute completeness of it; we will continue to refuse certain blessings God wants us to have.

His priority is eternity for us but if he has given us his very best, does it not make sense that he will not refuse us any good thing? God is not roaming around to see who he can heal because he is occupied with our eternity. Jesus did not walk around looking for people to heal, but when he was asked to heal he said he was willing and acted upon his compassion. If we ask, knowing that he is willing, then we will see him act in compassion. I am not saying people lack faith necessarily but it is more a lack of understanding of God's compassion and his willingness. He has even empowered us to be vessels of healing. We need to discover more about his heart by descending deeper into his love.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:16-21)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I stumbled upon this article, and as a 25 year old who has had heart defects all my life, and now being told that it's going into failure and that I have a fatal heartbeat, this helped me understand a lot. I've been asking all summer "why wont God heal me?" Thanks so much!

VinnyF said...

Pastor Paul, I am a Christian and I find no solace in the many excuses people give for why Jesus doesn't heal today. The scripture gives testimony that Jesus 'healed them all'. The 'faith' required in Jesus' day was to simply show up. The answer may be that the body lacks people anointed to heal. I've been prayed over, anointed by elders, saturated with the Word etc. - but I continue to suffer with diabetes. Surely, if Jesus could heal the lepers and raise the dead, He can heal diabetes. The fact is, if the promises of Jesus and scripture are true, I see no reason for why Jesus does not heal everyone who comes to Him. My faith in God and Christ is diminished because I see no 'consistent' reality in His healing promises.

Unknown said...

Also it is very possible that if one is healed then one may get into a situation that may keep one away from being ready to meet Jesus.

One time I heard of a man who got healed very well and got his job back and wife back and got rich. He bought a cottage and and as he drove by the church - he said thanks for healing- I am off to a cottage and he walked away from God. What a tradegy..

Also I am severely hard of hearing and I had ask God many many times to heal me - he never did - NOW I KNOW WHY AND HERE IS WHY:

Because of my severely hard of hearing I could only take certain job and had to take that low job. But in the low job I had a co-worker who was a Christian and he handed me a book on Bible Prophecy and man that was it - I got saved and found Jesus. Had I not been severely hard of hearing I could have landed at a higher job and there might have been not a christian!

InkDraft said...

Pastor Paul, Thank you so much for this post. I have believed this same thing about healing for a very long time. I have had Christians get very angry with me when healing comes up and I say that I believe that God wants to heal everyone but everyone doesn't want to be healed. I also say that true healing from God never just involves the physical. Much illness is caused by wrong attitudes, habits and thinking and often we aren't aware of our erroneous beliefs and behaviors and God will deal with those before He get to the physical healing but if you are willing to go the whole route and deal with your own heart with God's help (it goes VERY deep by the way and can be VERY painful to face yourself) you will receive healing. I have recently been place in a life situation where my belief in God wanting to heal everyone is being put to the test. I believe that God has healed me 2,000 years ago on the cross (by His stripes we hare healed) and He is now dealing with the condition of my heart and then my healing will manifest. According to your faith be it unto you. Thank you Pastor Paul for your faithfulness in expressing that God loves us and does want to heal everyone.

moshrabbi121 said...

Hi there! I simply would like to give an enormous thumbs up for the nice data you might have right here on this post. I will probably be coming back to your blog for extra soon. bovada casino