The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Phil.4:5-8).

This familiar quote from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi has a great deal to say to us today related to faith and peace. We have had a week of challenging news from friends who have been struggling with life threatening illnesses, emotional burdens, and relationship issues. Everything seemed to oppose our prayers and our hearts this week and move in the wrong direction. Maybe you have had a similar week or month so I thought we might reflect on these verses this morning.

The first part of the good news is that the Lord is at hand. Paul was not speaking about Christ’s imminent return but about the fact the God stays close to his children – within arms reach. In fact, he may stay even closer in times of struggle and pain. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Ps.34:18). “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Ps.147:3). God is close. He is not unaware. He hears our prayers and our cries even though he sometimes seems silent. He is there.

I know in my own life, during times of struggle, God may have seemed silent because I was not listening. I was doing all the talking as I offered up my prayers and quoted scripture to God and made my case for how things should turn out. I suspect I wasn’t listening because I was afraid of what I might hear. I may have been afraid that God would tell me something I didn’t want to hear. I don’t want to hear some things because I am not seeing life with God’s perspective. I’m reminded of God’s words to Isaiah. “The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil “(Isa.57:1). God’s expressions of love do not always match my desires because my desires are often all about me. Sometimes I need to hear from the Lord to readjust my focus so in the midst of my struggle or my pain I need to pause and listen rather than just crying out. Nevertheless, we must know that the Lord is at hand and there is grace for every struggle.

Next, Paul (who struggled and suffered more than just about anyone) reminds us to pray and ask God for all kinds of things but to baptize those prayers in thanksgiving. Especially, in the midst of our struggles, we can get so focused on the issue at hand that we forget the blessings and the faithfulness of God that still stand in every other part of our lives. When we are focused on our pain we begin to wonder if God really loves us although the expressions of his love are everywhere. Thanksgiving reminds us of God’s love for us and we must remember that God’s love is constant. He does not give it one day and withdraw it the next because we haven’t been perfect or because he is having a bad day. The Lord, who is love, at hand.

The certainty of God’s love and closeness is what opens our hearts to a peace that passes understanding. It is a peace that transcends our circumstances and reminds us that no matter what we are going through, a God who loves us is in the mix and his grace will be sufficient if we choose to trust him.

Finally, Paul instructs us to choose what we think about. Many of us believe that we have no control over out thoughts and some nights when I am trying to get to sleep I feel the same way. But, we are told to choose our focus and to take every thought captive (2 Cor. 10:5) so it is possible. Have you had any conversations lately with people who say they don’t watch the news anymore because it is just one negative and threatening thing after another? They have sensed that what they are watching is affecting their emotional and spiritual well-being. They are choosing not to give those issues center stage in their thought life anymore.

We need to make many choices like that and not be passive about our focus so that random thoughts are free to bounce around in our heads. Many of those thoughts will likely be from the enemy. We typically cannot choose to think about nothing (although men can certainly do that from time to time) but we can only shut down negative thoughts by choosing to focus on something positive…something good, lovely, honest, inspiring, etc. Read scripture, read or listen to faith-filled books, talk to positive people, praise God with thanksgiving for his faithfulness even when you don’t understand what is going on. If you have a prayer language then pray. I find it almost impossible to focus on the negative or be fearful when I pray in tongues.

Paul simply reminds us in this passage that we have a choice about what we believe and to a great extent how we feel since emotions are released by our thoughts. Choose your focus. Choose the topic. Listen to God from time to time. I cannot always have faith in the outcomes I desire but I can always have faith in the love and the goodness of God. A life of thanksgiving reminds me of that. Be blessed today and choose your focus. The Lord is at hand.

One of the keys to a growing relationship with the Lord and the power of the Spirit flowing through us is the practice of confession and repentance. Confession is the act of agreeing with God about sin and repentance is a commitment and often a recommitment to align our hearts and actions with the will of God.

David’s confessional psalm (Psalm 51) after his sin with Bathsheba has always impressed me with his lack of self-justification. Because of the gravity of the sin and his fear of the possible repercussions for him, Bathsheba and the nation, David kept quiet for nearly a year after his sins of adultery and murder. When God finally confronted him through Nathan the prophet, David made no excuses but fully owned his sin and the consequences.

Most men or women who faced such dire consequences would have made an attempt to spread the blame around, excuse his or her behavior or at least minimize it in some way. It would have been easy for David to point out Bathsheba’s culpability in bathing outdoors where she might be seen or her eager willingness to come to his apartment. After all, David was just a man and couldn’t help himself after she threw herself at him the way she did. He might have blamed Uriah for not being a husband who met his wife’s emotional needs so his failure as a husband actually set up both of them for an inevitable affair. Not only that, but it was a one-night stand based on impulse – not a long-term, premeditated affair. David could have confessed his years of struggle with sexual addiction and checked into a clinic for 30 days. He could have easily tried to justify himself and excuse his actions as being only human.

However, David simply owned his sin and entrusted himself to the mercy and unfailing love of God. He made no excuses. He simply declared his sin and took full responsibility for his actions. He responded with godly sorrow and asked for cleansing and mercy rather than attempting to convince God that he simply couldn’t help himself or that he was the real victim in some twisted view of reality. God’s response was immediate forgiveness and a promise to walk with David through the consequences of his actions.

I see many believers today who do not walk in an intimate relationship with God or who are not filled with the Spirit because they continue to justify or excuse sin in their lives. Godly sorrow for sins is hard to come by in a culture that wants to hold no one responsible for their actions and excuses sin based on past wrongs done to the person, genetic predispositions, or brain chemistry. We live in culture of double and triple standards that makes everything a “shade of gray” where right and wrong have no meaning and, thus, the idea of confessing a wrong and repenting of it loses all meaning.

The recent tragedy in California where white policemen shot and killed a young black man demonstrates our confusion. As soon as word got out that a white policemen had shot an unarmed black youth, many leaders in the black community immediately decided that the cop was a racist who had gladly shot down a black man in cold blood. Racism is about unwarranted stereotypes that project negative qualities on an entire race or class without considering the individual.

In California, the racism was first apparent not in the policeman but in the community that quickly assumed that every white cop would gladly gun down a black man if given the chance without looking at the facts or the individual. But no one called that rush to judgment racism. No one pointed out the double standard and so many judged (possibly unjustly), many rioted, many stirred the waters of racial hatred and no one called it sin. The white policeman may, in fact, turn out to be a racist but his sin cannot justify or excuse the racism and sin of others or nothing changes. Sin is sin and needs to be owned and confessed in order for God’s grace to touch a life, a situation, a neighborhood, or a nation.

Two people will never be reconciled and two races will never make peace until they both acknowledge their sins and their need for the blood of Jesus. We can no longer excuse or rationalize sin and refuse to hold anyone responsible for their actions because God still holds them responsible. The answer to sin is not excusing or denying but confessing and repenting. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 Jn.1:9-10).

The Spirit of God brings healing and transformation when we own our sins and lay them at the foot of the cross. We cannot give away what we do not own. We cannot give our brokenness or sinfulness to Jesus until we own it. If you’ve ever thought that you wanted to be like David, it starts with no excuses. Be blessed and know that God is so willing to forgive when we acknowledge how much we need it.

I was browsing through Kris Vallotton’s Book, How Heaven Invades Earth, when a quote, set apart in the middle of the page, caught my eye. It read, “To a powerless church signs have become something you nail to a stick.” His point was that churches who do not display or even believe in the present supernatural works of God will try to change the world by picketing abortion clinics or by covering their car with bumper stickers proclaiming their disapproval of one group of sinners or another. He goes on to say, “I think it just makes us feel like radical Christian’s when we take a stand for righteousness.” He then explains his concern that we may be actually hurting our cause by destroying any value we have with the group we are opposing.

I believe in Christians being politically active and being salt and light in the world. I believe in passing laws that retrain sin. But I also know that you cannot legislate morality and you cannot win people to a cause by only telling them what you are against and by proclaiming what horrible sinners they are. Perhaps, many Christians and some churches have reverted to the weapons of the world because they have no faith in divine weapons to tear down strongholds.

Vallotton raises the question of how Jesus would have dealt with an abortion clinic or a same sex marriage lobbyist or Islamic terrorists. I was reminded that Paul instructed Timothy about such matters. “And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Tim.2:24-26).

A key thought in that passage is that men who oppose the gospel and what is good have often been trapped by the devil and are living under the power of deception. Arguing with them or slandering them will not change their minds but will only reinforce their beliefs that Christians are intolerant hypocrites unworthy of consideration.

Paul, the former persecutor of the church, wrote, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom.12:17-21).

Perhaps, the greatest power the church possesses is love and the power of the Spirit that keeps us from being overcome by bitterness, resentment, and hatred toward those who have been overcome by evil. It is the love and compassion of God that releases the power of miracles and the kindness of God that calls men to repentance. When we align our hearts and tactics with the world, we begin to misalign ourselves with the Father and his power cannot flow through us into a world that desperately needs his touch.

When I see Christians on social media calling on us to annihilate ISIS without mercy, I understand the feeling. My flesh jumps to agree but the Spirit reminds me that Jesus died for those men and their families too. Do we just stand by then and do nothing as genocide unfolds? No…we act and even go to war if necessary because we are also commanded to protect the weak and the oppressed.

But as we do so we must guard our hearts so that we do not become like the ones we oppose. We also pray for God to destroy the spirit that is behind ISIS because we do not war against flesh and blood. We pray that Jesus will reveal himself to these men and we pray for open doors for the gospel in the Middle East and in America.   Ultimately, the kingdom advances one heart at a time and one life at a time. That is why Jesus said that his kingdom is within. In a sense, these cultural battles and even world wars will only be won when men surrender to the Prince of Peace in their own hearts. If a man who is willing to blow himself up for an impersonal God could be won for Jesus, how much more would he be willing to live for the God who died for him?

Christians must promote righteousness in the land, vote on election days, support causes that defend Christian liberty in the courts, and even go to war. But somehow, by the power of the Spirit, we must not hate or despise those entrapped by the devil and we must find ways to overcome evil with good. We must declare what we stand for (the gospel) rather than what we stand against. We must oppose evil while loving our enemy. Is that possible? Yes, but only by the power of God. We are certainly in a time of testing for such things so pray that God will show us the way so that this evil will be overcome in our generation – “not by power or might but by my Spirit sayeth the Lord.”

In the past few months I have read two books (or parts of two books) that have referenced Nadab and Abihu as illustrations of God’s response to carelessness in believers. I acknowledge that “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come” (I Cor.10:11), but we must be careful that what we learn is what God intended.

The passage that encompasses Nadab and Abihu’s demise says, “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev.10:1). No doubt, applications for the priesthood dropped off severely after this event but what actually precipitated God’s judgment?

The books I have seen lately that reference this event take the same line that I was taught when I first became a believer. The argument goes that these two sons of Aaron had not been careful to prepare the sacrificial fire and incense exactly as God had commanded. This carelessness with God’s clear commands brought his wrath down upon these two men. The application has always been that we must be extremely careful to know and interpret God’s word correctly or we will incur his wrath. The practical outcome of this view has been more than having great respect for God’s word, however. The outcome has been a theology that emphasizes pure doctrine above all else in our faith and even suggests that our pure and accurate doctrine is what makes us acceptable to God. This view suggests that we are saved by grace but stay saved by correct doctrine. This essentially places doctrine above relationship and makes God a vengeful teacher who brutally punishes his students if one word is misspelled, one comma is misplaced, or one preposition is left hanging.

That view is what cause denominations to refuse fellowship with other denominations whose theology does not perfectly match their own and makes us more concerned about correct doctrine than love, mercy and justice. It is true that we must agree on some doctrines – but those are essential doctrines about Christ – his deity, his incarnation, his resurrection, his sinless life, and the sufficiency of his sacrifice. Those who deny these truths are in a very dangerous place but that does not mean that our salvation hinges on a correct understanding and teaching of everything else in the Bible – forms of worship, translations of the Bible, end-times theology, etc. If it does, then we are saved by correct doctrine rather than by grace and we live a fearful life wondering what carelessness or error has cost us our salvation or will soon bring God’s wrath upon us.

So what is Nadab and Abihu all about if not the judgment of God on those who offer strange or unauthorized fire? A few verses later the text says, “The Lord said to Aaron, ‘You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.’” (Lev.10:8-9). I believe this is a clear indication that the sin of Aaron’s sons was not a sincere misunderstanding of the commandments for the ritual but was drunkenness with a disdain and total disregard for the holiness of God and their own holiness as priests. Their problem was a matter of the heart rather than a doctrinal problem.

To hold the position that doctrinal correctness in every area of scripture is what makes us acceptable to God makes other events inexplicable. Remember when David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and danced before the Lord. He wore priestly garments as he led the procession of the Ark. Those garments were only for the tribe of Levi. David was of the tribe of Judah. Hezekiah clearly admitted that the people were unclean according to the rules of the sanctuary and unfit to keep Passover but God allowed them to keep Passover anyway with his blessing. No commandment I have read authorizes the drinking of wine at Passover but Jesus certainly did so without penalty or sin. Each of these seem to violate the letter of God’s law but their hearts were turned to God. No fire for them! Does that mean we can be careless and uncaring about the word of God? Absolutely not. But we do need to know that imperfect understanding and mistakes when one’s heart is turned toward God does not bring his wrath.

Many believers are afraid to receive any new teaching if it varies from what they have always been taught. Many whose hearts have yearned to see the power of God expressed in their lives have shied away from the gifts of the Spirit because they were told such expressions are “strange fire.” We should obviously test the spirits, as John says, but when we seek God with all of our hearts his Spirit is faithful to lead us into all truth even if we stumble a bit on the way. Fear of a wrathful master is what kept the servant from investing the talents that were entrusted to him and the same fear cost him what his master had given him.  Those who discovered Jesus had to push past the doctrines of the Pharisees that they had been taught all of their lives. God always wants to give us a greater understanding of who he is and what his Spirit has for us. God is always up to something new and he is always looking for new wineskins.

For many years I have felt that a popular “end-times theology” undermines the mission of the church and contradicts a great deal of scripture. I also believe that it can seep into our own personal view of life and undermine our own victorious mindset as well. This particular theology was popularized in the 70’s and really launched into the psyche of the church by Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth. This view depicts the last days as a dismal day for the church and believers everywhere. It promotes a view of a one world order, the anti-Christ, and the downward spiral of all nations and cultures into an abyss that can only be redeemed by the coming of the Lord and the rapture of the saints who have become powerless in the face of all that evil.

The damaging part of this theology in my mind is the inevitability of the outcomes and the powerlessness of the church to stand against it. The power of evil is so overwhelming that the only thing to do is to bunker in and pray for the Lord’s quick return. Too often that is also translated into the lives of individual believers so that they “check out” and give in to the world system rather than working to redeem it and establish a glowing and victorious bride for the Lord to retrieve. That theology can and has instilled a sense of futility and hopelessness in the hearts of many believers.

There is also a dynamic that sociologists and psychologists call a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” Simply stated, it means that we often act in ways that confirm the beliefs we already hold about ourselves or others. For instance, if a child experiences the loss of a parent, he or she may come to believe that they will eventually lose anyone that they come to love or depend on. In response to that belief, this child may grow into an adult who never fully commits to a relationship or who never fully engages emotionally with anyone because they believe that person will eventually leave them or that they will lose them to some tragedy. Because they never commit to a relationship or connect emotionally, their relationships keep ending and those who attempted to connect with them move on. When those relationships end, the individual is all the more convinced that their beliefs are true and inevitable.

When Christians believe that poverty, evil, tyranny, persecution, unbelief, and the demise of Christianity on the earth are inevitable they withdraw from the battle. When they withdraw, evil wins and they believe all the more that the end is near and there is no use trying to save America much less the world. With this mindset, believers who are supposed to be more than conquerors withdraw from the cultural battles, stay out of politics, retreat from championing social justice, and even fail to vote because they think it won’t matter. Believers with this view cease to be salt and light in the world and simply forfeit the battle to the enemy.

Kris Vallotton adds an interesting insight into this same dynamic in his book, How Heaven Invades Earth, (p.204). “But what happened to destiny when our prophetic people were taught that there wasn’t supposed to be a future because the end of the world was near? They stopped prophesying into the future. And what took place in the absence of the Holy Spirit’s prophetic intonation is absolutely frightening; a visionary vortex, or vacuum was suddenly created that sucked every kind of dark, foretelling spirit into it. This has resulted in the worst psychic resurgence since the days of Daniel. We have Wiccans, New Age people, fortune tellers, astrologers, and psychics all sharing their insights in the highest offices of the land.” That used to be the role of God’s prophets but we left the playing field.

When God’s people leave the playing field the enemy regains his swagger. We are promised that if we resist the devil he will flee from us but this particular theology teaches that there is no point in our resistance. There is another centuries-old theology that declares a triumphant church on the earth that welcomes back the groom rather than a church that has scurried off the field because she was helpless against the one Christ has already defeated. Those who know that they are more than conquerors do not surrender to a bully or a tyrant but stand and fight knowing that they will win because their champion is Jesus Christ who has all authority in heaven and on earth. They don’t give in to injustice, false religion, abortion, violence, deceit, divorce, or any other works of the devil. They don’t give in on a personal level nor do they abandon the culture in which God has commanded them to be salt and light. All the gifts, the power, and the authority Christ has delegated to his church are not just for the church to be exercised behind high walls. They have also been given to redeem the culture and finally the world. We have been letting the devil push us around too long. It’s time to push back.

In this last installment of this series on Healing Prayer I want to talk about how we pray for healing. How we pray has a great deal to do with how we view God and how we view his willingness to heal.

I have to admit that when I began to pray for supernatural healing I did so with great uncertainty. I was uncertain about God’s willingness to heal and whether my standing with God was sufficient to merit his response to my prayer and whether my prayer was adequate for healing. Part of my uncertainty came because I still tended to separate what I saw in Jesus from my understanding of the Father and the fact that there seemed to be very different views of healing in different denominations. Basically, I was confused and because I was confused I was uncertain.

Here are the things about which I am now certain.

• God by nature is a healer and so he is always willing to heal when it does not violate his own spiritual laws regarding healing or answered prayers.
• God has the same heart for healing that we see in Jesus because those who have seen Jesus have seen the Father.
• When I pray for healing I do not need to end with the disclaimer “If it be thy will.” It is his will.

Since God is good and always willing to heal I don’t have to persuade him, nag him, coerce him or impress him when I pray for healing. I don’t need to get loud, quote scriptures for an hour, or impress God with my faith. I also don’t need to impress him with how much the person for whom I am praying deserves to be healed. Most of the people Jesus healed probably didn’t have a resume of righteousness and good works to attach to their application for healing. Jesus healed them because he had compassion on them not because they were righteous.

When we pray then how do we pray? I think we pray simply and confidently and we do so in the name of Jesus. We can certainly invite Jesus or the Holy Spirit to come and heal although that is not what Jesus told us to do. He told us to heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons in his name. The first way of praying suggests that we have no authority to heal and that all we can do is appeal to Jesus and hope that he shows up. I don’t think that is a bad prayer because we do need him to show up. The difference is how we view our part in the equation. Biblically, I think Jesus does show up through his Spirit and his Spirit heals through us.

We, then, should probably begin with a prayer asking Jesus to be present. We do that more for the one over whom we are praying than for ourselves. I think we should ask Jesus to show us anything that might hinder the healing we are asking for and then spend a few minutes to discover if there is unrepented sin, unforgiveness, demonic activity, sins of the Father’s to be dealt with, etc. If we discover anything then we should deal with it by the blood of Christ and our authority as believers. Having done that, we can simply command healing in the name of Jesus as we lay hands on the person and anoint them with oil if we feel we should. We can command eyes to see, ears to hear, legs to grown, cancer to leave, tumors to shrink, blood chemistry to submit to the Lordship of Jesus, muscles to be strengthened, pain to disappear, etc. in the name and authority of Jesus.

I believe we can quote a few scriptures to encourage some faith and to align our thinking and expectations with the word of God and simply pray what is on our hearts for the person. The entire prayer might be thirty seconds. Check out the prayers you see in the New Testament for healing. They typically are very brief and take the form of a command. We can pray all we want in our prayer closet for healing gifts or the healing of a loved one but when we minister healing, the examples are brief, confident, commanding, and in the name of Jesus.

If we begin to labor in prayer over the sick person then we easily slip into the mindset that we must persuade God to do something he really doesn’t want to do – which undermines our first premise that God loves to heal because it is who he is. We may need to pray several times or on several occasions but our assumption must be that God is willing. Because God partners with his people, our prayer and our faith release his power for healing and it only takes a word.

I hope this short series on healing prayer has been helpful.

So far, in this series of blogs on healing prayer, I have attempted to make the following points:

• It is the nature and heart of God to heal.
• Illness and disability are the result of sin, directly and indirectly, and fall under “the works of the devil.”
• Although God is willing to heal, there are things that can restrict his response to our prayers.

Issues that may restrict God’s response to healing prayers are: (1) a lack of faith on the part of the one ministering healing or the one receiving healing when there has been ample opportunity for faith to develop. (2) Sin that has not been dealt with through the blood of Christ because it has not been acknowledged or confessed by the one who needs healing. (3) Unforgiveness in the heart of the one needing healing. (4) the failure of those needing healing to even ask for healing.

In addition to the above hindrances to healing, demonic spirits can play a significant role. Numerous times in the gospels, individuals came to Jesus with physical conditions or disabilities such as blindness, deafness, muteness, seizures, back pain, insanity, etc. and Jesus cast out a spirit. Healing then followed the deliverance because the presence of those spirits of manifested as illness. Until a spirit of infirmity is driven out, healing will not occur or will not be sustained.

The spirit is present because something in the life of the individual has given that spirit some ground or legal right to afflict the person. Sometimes the individual has opened the door through unrepented sin or unbelief. Others may be afflicted on the basis of the “sins of the Fathers” or curses spoken over them by those who have had spiritual authority in their lives and sometimes as a result of trauma and fear. In each case, unrepented sin or a curse must be dealt with by confession, repentance, and the blood of Christ so that the authority of the spirit to afflict the individual can be taken away. When that has been accomplished, deliverance can occur and healing may follow.

In addition, there may be times when healing does not occur and we will not know the reason. Those times can be reduced when we help sick people deal with the cause of their illness through a spiritual assessment, repentance, confession and dealing with any spirits who may be manifesting as an illness. When we pray for healing, we typically assume that a spirit may be involved and so simply command any afflicting spirits to leave so that our healing prayers will not be hindered if, in fact, a spirit is the source of the condition.

We need to remember that some supernatural healing is instantaneous while some is progressive. We should not always assume that healing has not occurred if it didn’t happen immediately. Authentic healings can also be lost because of fear and unbelief about healing that did occur. However, experience also tells us that there will still be some mystery as to why some were healed and others were not.

Although some mystery about healing will continue to exist. I am still convinced that healing should be the rule in the church and not the exception. A careful reading of scripture suggests that believers are not immune to illness because we live in a fallen world but when it comes, we can expect healing.

If healing does not occur, we should begin to look for hindrances that have prevented the healing so that God’s grace can flow unobstructed. If we can discover no reason for healing not to occur, and yet someone we love is not healed, our response must be to take no offense at God and continue to pray for others to be healed. If we believe in the supernatural ministry of God, we will have to be willing to live with some unanswered questions while we continue in faith.

In Monday’s blog I will discuss how we pray. Be blessed in Him.

The love of God is unconditional but the grace of God comes through faith. A lack of faith in those who should have some reasonable level of faith hinders healing. In addition, answers to prayers may also be conditional. For instance, in my last blog I quoted James when he said, “You have not because you ask not.” We are told that God knows our thoughts and our heart’s desires before we utter a word but asking in prayer still seems to be the normative condition for God responding to our desires or needs. There are additional conditions that hinder answered prayed and healing if they are not met.

In his letter, James reveals several of these conditions that, if not met, may hinder healing. “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (Ja.5:14-16).

From this text we discover that unconfessed sin can get in the way of healing. His counsel is to confess our sins so that we might receive prayer and through that prayer we receive healing. He has just mentioned calling the elders so that their anointing and prayer of faith might be offered for healing. Notice that if the elders pray without faith, healing will be hindered. I have seen many church leaders pray for healing with little to no faith that it would occur and it did not. He ends that instruction with “If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.” The implication is that unrepented and unconfessed sin can open the door to sickness. We know that is true when guilt, stress, and worry compromise our immune systems. It also gives Satan legal access and the legal right to attack us with illness through spirits of infirmity.

In order to receive healing, we need to make sure we have dealt with any sin in our life – especially unforgiveness. Remember the psalmist, speaking of covenant children, declared that God forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases (Ps. 103:3). The fact that he mentioned forgiveness of sins before healing is not an accident. Isaiah declares, “your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:2).

Another serious example of this principle is found in I Corinthians. “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor.11:28-31).

Some in the church at Corinth were abusing the Lords supper by taking it while at the same time abusing weaker members of the church. Their sin brought the judgment of sickness on them. God calls them to self-examination and repentance so that the judgment might be lifted through healing.

How often do we pray for physical healing without doing any assessment of the spiritual health of the person for whom we are praying and then leave disappointed that God did not heal. But was there unbelief, unrepented sin, rebellion, unforgiveness, a disregard for the people that Jesus died for, etc.? Those things that come to us as a result of sin will typically not be healed until the sin is dealt with.

The problem is not in the prayer or the faith of those offering the prayer but in the spiritual condition of the one who is ill. Let me say right away that not all illness for disability is a result of anyone’s personal sin but some is. In addition, we see a number of people in the gospels come to Jesus with long term illnesses and disabilities that were caused by spirits of infirmity. They were not healed until the spirit was cast out. I will discuss demonic hindrances to healing in Friday’s blog. In the meantime, be blessed.

If it is God’s heart to heal his people then why does God not heal all those for whom we pray? That is a very legitimate question and a question that we must grapple with if we hold the position that God still heals. Although we may not be able to answer that question fully or with absolute certainty, scripture does give us some specific insights.

First of all, God may not heal if we do not ask. “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (Ja.4:2). I’m amazed at how many people turn down prayers for healing. It is not unusual to run into people who have been taught that God no longer heals supernaturally. Some have additionally been taught that any “so-called healing” is a fraud or from the devil. These individuals have no faith for healing at all or are afraid they will be deceived in some way. When sick, they will go to doctor after doctor but never approach the Great Physician.

Secondly, we know that faith is involved. Matthew tells us that when Jesus returned to Nazareth after beginning his public ministry “he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith” (Mt.13:58). The question arises, “Does healing depend on the sick person’s faith or the faith of the one who is praying?” Biblically, it seems to depend on the situation.

In Nazareth the problem certainly did not reside in the faith of Jesus. Therefore, there were not many miracles because the people there did not believe. At other times, Jesus healed people who had no faith at all because they didn’t know who Jesus was until after they were healed. In John 5, we have the account of the lame man lying by the pool of Bethesda. Jesus asked the man if we wanted to be healed and the man explained that when the waters were stirred in the pool, he had no one to help in get in. From the text, it seems that he did not know about Jesus or did not know that the man in front of him was Jesus. His faith was in the pool not the healing power of Jesus. Yet, Jesus healed him. We can even say that God does not heal because of our righteousness because after healing the man, Jesus warned him to stop sinning or something worse might happen to him.

In James 5, the church is told to call the elders when illness occurs so that they might anoint the sick with oil and pray over them for healing. He then says, “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well” (Ja.5:15). In that case, the faith of the elders (the ones offering the prayer) seems to be the key. And yet in many accounts of healing in the gospels, people were healed because of the faith they displayed.

It seems to me that if a person should have faith because they were brought up in a faith environment or because God has done previous miracles in his or her life, then some faith is a condition for healing. Others who don’t know the Lord or who have had little opportunity to grow in their faith may be healed as an opportunity to create faith or to bring them to Christ. The fact that faith does play a part in healing then begs another question. “How much faith is enough faith and on what should my faith be based?”

Let me begin by saying that I do not believe perfect or absolute faith is required. Remember the man who confessed, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief” (Mk.9:24)! Jesus healed his son even in the face of imperfect belief. It appears from scripture that in most cases, the faith required was the faith it took to come to Jesus and ask. I can’t imagine that all the people that flocked to Jesus in the gospels and received healing were all righteous people showing up with amazing faith. But they did have enough faith to come and to ask.

I also believe that faith progresses for healing. My faith begins with some belief that Jesus exists and that he has power to heal. I then need to progress to a belief that Jesus not only can heal but also will heal because he is good. My faith ultimately is in the goodness of God which I then believe will be expressed through healing. I cannot always be certain that God will heal me but I can be certain that he is willing to heal me when hindrances to healing have been removed. More about those hindrances in my Wednesday blog.

It is significant that God gave gifts of healing to the church. “To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers…” (I Cor.12:9, emphasis added).   “Gifts of healing” are mentioned two more times in I Corinthians 12. It is significant because God gave gifts to the church that reflected his nature, his heart, and his Spirit. God gave gifts of healing to the church because he wanted his people healed and unbelievers brought to Jesus through the grace of healing.

It is also important because some believe that “miraculous gifts” were given only to Jesus and the apostles to confirm the deity of Christ and to establish credibility for those through whom the Spirit would pen the inspired Word of God. If that had been God’s only intent he would have given healing gifts only to the Jesus and the apostles but he gave these gifts to numerous unnamed individuals in the church who wrote none of the New Testament. Yet they healed.

It is interesting that he gave gifts (plural) of healing. The heart of God desires to heal all kinds of hurts and illness in our lives for he is Jehovah Rapha. Jesus not only came to heal the sick but also to “heal the broken hearted” (Isa.61, Lk.4). I believe God gives gifts of healing to his church that minister not only to sick people but also to emotional pain, broken relationships, and demonic affliction. In the gospels the term “healing” was applied to illnesses, physical disabilities, casting out demons, and the healing of broken hearts or emotions.   Different individuals in the body of Christ seem to be spiritually gifted in different ways to address all these areas of pain and brokenness. If God is the God who heals us, it makes sense that his Spirit will equip the saints to heal people in all the ways that Jesus healed them.   Again we can be confident that it is God’s desire to alleviate pain and suffering in this world through healing since he equipped his church to do so in many forms.

Another interesting perspective on healing gifts held by many is that the gift of miracles ministers instantaneous healing while healing gifts release more gradual healing that occurs over days or weeks. Either way healing occurs but sometimes we place a standard on spiritual gifts that the Bible does not state. If we believe that all supernatural healing is instantaneous then we may miss much of what God is doing. I have heard numerous men with powerful gifts of healing and miracles say that probably 50% of those for whom they pray that are healed, experience healing over the next few days rather than immediately. I wonder how many of us have gifts of healing that we are unaware of because people we prayed for got better the next day so we didn’t see it or because they did not report it to us, so we assume nothing happened in response to our prayers. We then assume God has not given us the gift. Perhaps, we need to pray for the gift of miracles as well as gifts of healing.

Gifts of healing differ from prayers for healing. The gift resides with the person. Like other gifts such as mercy, administration, wisdom, prophecy, etc. the gift rests on the person. The Spirit may not always release power for the gift because of conditional restraints (lack of faith, unrepented sin, unforgiveness, etc.) but the gift resides and will impart healing when conditions are met.

In addition to gifts of healing, James counsels us to call the elders of the church if anyone is sick and assures us that their prayer of faith will restore that person to health. He then goes on to give a general admonition to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another that we might be healed (James 5:16). He did not say we should confess that we might be forgiven but rather that we might be healed. The admonitions seem to be for all believers not just those with gifts of healing so that any believer can pray for another believer who has dealt with sin issues in his or her life and anticipate healing.

The tenor of the New Testament is that when believers got sick, they were typically healed. When people were not healed it raised questions because healing was the norm not the exception. To the contrary, the American church wonders what happened when someone is healed. Again, my point is that God has given healing gifts to his church because he wants people healed and so is quite willing to give the gifts or answer our prayers of faith. May we have a hunger for those gifts and faith to step out and pray with confidence because we know it is God’s will for hurting people.