When healing doesn't come

[AndOne]

What do you make of it when a person has had a sickness for many years and has been struggling with pain - and is charismatic and asks continually for God's healing and it doesn't come?

I'm sort of in this situation as a family member of mine has been suffering for many years - and as a Charismatic Christian I have asked for God's miraculous healing but the answer seems to always be "no." In fact the condition has only gotten worse with time. I must say it has gotten frustrating - though I have never stopped asking the Lord for his healing...

 

[Faulty]

Just curious, has that person sought the Lord for healing?

 

[AndOne]

Just curious, has that person sought the Lord for healing?

Yes -

 

[covefromoz]

It's always good to continue to ask for Healing. It isn't wrong to think that the Lord desires this person to be in good and complete health, but God is God and He allows what He will and sometimes that's really hard to accept.

I have a friend and he is a really powerful Christian by any standard. Wherever he goes, it's just completely obvious that he loves Jesus and if you listen to him worship it's just absolutely gorgeous the stuff he comes up with...all from his relationship with Jesus.

Last year he was diagnosed with cancer and then the doctors realized that he had cancer because his body was infected with the HIV virus. He also developed some crazy disease that made his legs swell so bad that he could barely walk. Everyone prayed for healing. Everyone expected him to be instantly healed.

He is still being treated for cancer and still has HIV. But...the guy loves Jesus. He has this wild and funny outlook on having an illness because he believes God WANTS to Heal him, but it hasn't happened yet. So he just takes a day at a time and encourages everyone to continue to pray, and in the meantime he goes on.

Sometimes it's like that with healing. I don't know why, but it just is. I'm encouraged by him. He has these fatal diseases and he doesn't even care, he's just crazy about Jesus, haha. It's amazing.

 

[DrFrank]

It's been my experience that many chronically ill people just pretend to want to be healed while their hidden agenda is to remain disabled in order to create sympathy or an excuse to avoid responsibilities.An example of the latter occurred with my sister who became so angry with her husband that her subconscious mind created a creative way to retaliate against him;chronic illnesses simulation so severe that her husband was required to do much of the housework.

Those who are serious about obtaining healing should seek personal prayers not from friends,family or church members who lack spiritual power but rather from those who have been blessed with the gift of healing from the Holy Spirit.

 

[AndOne]

It's been my experience that many chronically ill people just pretend to want to be healed while their hidden agenda is to remain disabled in order to create sympathy or an excuse to avoid responsibilities.An example of the latter occurred with my sister who became so angry with her husband that her subconscious mind created a creative way to retaliate against him;chronic illnesses simulation so severe that her husband was required to do much of the housework.

Those who are serious about obtaining healing should seek personal prayers not from friends,family or church members who lack spiritual power but rather from those who have been blessed with the gift of healing from the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps the person really is suffering - weather it be a chronic illness or something else. Yet the Lord's answer to prayers for healing is still "no." In my own personal case I am learning that it is wisest not to argue with or second guess the Lord.

To accuse someone who is sufferring of having a hidden agenda is neither loving nor compassionate to them or their situation. Someone who is not loving or compassionate is not behaving in a Christlike manner (Gal 6:2).

It is also not biblical to tell someone to not ask or seek the prayers of Chrisitian friends and family members (Gal 6:10, James 5:16).

 

[covefromoz]

or...they aren't healed because they just aren't healed yet.

Chronic illness for attention? lame.

And while sin definitely allows an opportunity for the enemy to afflict us in some cases, it seems to me that if a person is not healed...well, they just aren't healed yet.

Continue to pray and, like the Apostles, be content in every situation. God desires to Heal his people - but maybe He has a purpose in allowing that healing to take a longer process than just...you know...ZAP!!

 

[FoundInGrace]

God's ways are not our ways

If He seems to be saying no now it's because He has a better plan even though we can not see it and for now being sick is the way that the better plan gets worked out.

I know that as a child I used to pray every night that God would heal my hands, now as an adult I can see that having my hands the way they are has formed who I am now and my relationship with God now and I wouldnt change them because they are so precious as they are. They have been a tool of God working compassion and mercy into my character, and patience and taught me to go to Him to be comforted.

God healed me but not in the way as a child I thought He should, perhaps the healing came as He grew me to find His grace sufficient and His presence more than enough, healing in that I no longer wanted nor saw the need to be healed physically, it doesnt even enter my mind now.

God's ways are not our ways


I do not know what it is to live with pain though, I will acknowledge that, my pain was emotional not physical and God healed the emotional pain too, it must be very difficult to live with pain so I do not answer about that, I only speak from emotional pain.

 

[Bob Carabbio]

"What do you make of it when a person has had a sickness for many years and has been struggling with pain - and is charismatic and asks continually for God's healing and it doesn't come?"

Relatively FEW people (charismatic, or otherwise) who are prayed for about physical conditions are healed (just the FACTS of the matter). Kuhlman estimated 2% of folks who came to her meetings leaf with anything tangible. That seems to be wildly optimistic.

I was told that I had 10-12 years to live in 1991 after my first open heart (Quad). But now after 12 additional heart attacks, another open heart, and 16 stents, and 1/3 of my heart dead - I'm still here, working full time, and pretty much living and acting like a normal 68 year old geezer.

I've been prayed for by anybody, and everybody who feels like doing it for the last 20 years, and I have NO FAITH whatsoever that I'll be healed of the condition. And it really doesn't matter to me all that much. If death comes this evening, I'm ready to leave (I'd prefer that it not HURT too much - pain isn't fun, and I've re-defined a pain level of "10" a few times in ambulances).

I KNOW God heals (I've seen Him do it). I know all of the Scriptures that SAY God heals, and believe 'em all intellectually - but NONE OF 'EM are "mine" at "heart level".

SO in the meantime, I'll just go on living as though I wasn't dying. "Victory" isn't when the "problem" goes away - it's when the "problem" simply doesn't matter any longer.

 

[Bob Carabbio]

"Is that not surrender?"

OF COURSE IT IS!!!!!! when there's nothing left to do, and nowhere to go, then you "Surrender" to the prevailing conditions, and just keep on keeping on.

Oh, and if you read the New Testament, you'll find that MANY if not most of the folks that Jesus, or the apostles healed - had no "faith". They were just healed by the power of God. Like our youth pastor - hours from death with stage 4 Cancer, already in "hospice", - and then he "just got better".

 

[AndOne]

Then there were questions, not the least of which was why didn't God heal her as He promised. What a mess.

I can definately relate to this statement. Though I'm no longer a part of the WoF movement I grew up in it and I think it has left a lasting impression on me - despite the fact I know its wrong and unscriptural. In dealing with an immediate family member who is constantly suffering I keep expecting healing (a subconscious left over from youthful days with the WoF I think) after I pray. I am constantly having to fight this mindset and I keep having to go to Romans 8:28 for comfort in the midst of what seems to be unanswered prayer - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

That said - I do still believe that the gifts are just as much for today as they were for the early church. I am still charismatic - which makes my situation quite precarious - but just because the Lord does not grant my request for healing (at least not now) does not mean he won't do it for another brother or sister.

 

[Alive_Again]

The Word says that Paul's thorn was a messenger from Satan. Messengers speak not make people sick.

If we're required to give God our best to get His best, then we have to judge ourselves and find out why we don't arrive sometimes.
<edit>

 

[FreeinChrist]

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[Hisbygrace]

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[AndOne]

The Word says that Paul's thorn was a messenger from Satan. Messengers speak not make people sick.

Who the messenger is from is not the issue of the discussion. The issue is that God did not remove the thorn after Paul asked Him too. There was a reason it wasn't removed.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

The Word says that Paul's thorn was a messenger from Satan. Messengers speak not make people sick.

If we're required to give God our best to get His best, then we have to judge ourselves and find out why we don't arrive sometimes.
<edit>

That's right. The thorn in the flesh was not sickness at all. Some commentators believe that it was the constant persecution that Paul experienced through his ministry.

 

[KM Richards]

When healing doesn't come

Healing is in the Holy Spirit, and He's always present to heal...since Jesus paid for us to have it...problem is, many don't know how to receive...and, many are sowing bad seeds in their body in terms of not eating organic foods and bad habits such as smoking, unforgiveness, not meditating on God's promises concerning healing and watching TV all the time, etc

You have to remember that nobody knows a person's heart except that person and God and only the Holy Ghost can pin point the key issue(s) that are the cause of healing not being received...it's always a reception problem, cause God is broadcasting!

I recommend that you fast, pray, and seek God for the answers...it's gonna take time, you'll learn lots of good stuff, and if they don't receive don't get shipwreck faith over it!

Seek, and you'll find...I'd start right there, jus you and the Holy Ghost and your Bible and a Greek and Hebrew dictionary! And, the food you would normally eat while fasting...be sure and bless someone with it that is in need.

 

[LinuxUser]

What do you make of it when a person has had a sickness for many years and has been struggling with pain - and is charismatic and asks continually for God's healing and it doesn't come?

I'm sort of in this situation as a family member of mine has been suffering for many years - and as a Charismatic Christian I have asked for God's miraculous healing but the answer seems to always be "no." In fact the condition has only gotten worse with time. I must say it has gotten frustrating - though I have never stopped asking the Lord for his healing...

Sometimes it is not His will to heal for reasons known only to Him. Paul had a thorn in the flesh that was never healed and many people never get healed, sometimes it is not a need even though we think it might be.

 

[Simon Peter]

Healing is in the Holy Spirit, and He's always present to heal...since Jesus paid for us to have it...problem is, many don't know how to receive...and, many are sowing bad seeds in their body in terms of not eating organic foods and bad habits such as smoking, unforgiveness, not meditating on God's promises concerning healing and watching TV all the time, etc

You have to remember that nobody knows a person's heart except that person and God and only the Holy Ghost can pin point the key issue(s) that are the cause of healing not being received...it's always a reception problem, cause God is broadcasting!

I recommend that you fast, pray, and seek God for the answers...it's gonna take time, you'll learn lots of good stuff, and if they don't receive don't get shipwreck faith over it!

Seek, and you'll find...I'd start right there, jus you and the Holy Ghost and your Bible and a Greek and Hebrew dictionary! And, the food you would normally eat while fasting...be sure and bless someone with it that is in need.

Hi KM,

As you are a WoF believer, and this is a Non-WoF forum, you are not allowed to teach against or debate Non-WoF theology in this forum.

This forums Non-WoF theology is found here:

http://www.christianforums.com/t7396530/

It includes:

2. We believe in praying for healing as a significant part of our ministry. However, following on in the example of the Apostle Paul, we believe that healing does not always occur, and that God does not come at our bidding, but rather he works through us serving him in prayer

You may ask questions, or post in fellowship.

But based on your thread here:

http://www.christianforums.com/t7571408/

I think you knew this already.

Thanks,
Simon

 

[CGL1023]

I see something questionable about your assumptions regarding biblical healing.

Peter declares that 'by whose stripes ye were healed...' (1 Peter 2:24). This means that healing is a finished work as of 2000 years ago. You declare in faith that healing already belongs to you, you receive it by faith as done and you stand in faith, without wavering.

The faith I speak of is the faith that knows God will perform His word, for you, on your behalf, every single time you put the Word of God to work. Remember, God is not a liar; God cannot lie.