UPDATE: Since posting, I have spoken to my friend, Ben Ratchford whom I quoted below. We had a good conversation and he was able to state in more detail, what His post was about. While my brother and I probably don’t agree theologically at every point, I was glad to hear that we agreed on the main point that I wanted to get across which is that God doesn’t always heal us here and now. He wanted to make sure not to be lumped in with folks who do believe that it is *always* God’s will to heal here and now. He does not believe that. To be sure, it was not my intention to imply that by speaking toward folks who do teach that nonsense, that Ben would be lumped in with them. That is not the case and I am happy to make that clear.
Here are some quick thoughts on physical healing. Recently a pastor acquaintance of mine, who is currently holding a series of *”Miracle Services” said this:
Growing up in church, I have heard many people pray. Some in a very soft tone and others shouted to the rooftops. Some prayed with confidence and boldness, while others prayed with timidity and hesitation. But no matter the style or the sound, it was very often that I heard prayers ended with, “If it be thy will.” I often wondered why we spent all of that time praying only to end with a statement that made us unsure of our what we had just said.
*(NOTE: I put “miracle services” in quotes because that is what he calls the services, not because I am trying to imply anything. I will state my peace plainly because I have no need to be ambiguous about this subject.)
Praying, as Jesus taught us, “Your will be done” or saying as James teaches us “*If* the Lord wills” isn’t by necessity equal to doubting or timidity. The fact of what Jesus and James teach about those phrases plainly disproves that notion. Of course people can doubt and say any number of things in their prayers, but to include “If it be Your will” isn’t inherently an indication of doubt. Therefore I don’t agree with my friend’s implied premise that ending a prayer with “If it be Your will” is inherently a negative thing.
In fact, I would lean toward including that confession (after all, that is what it is) in most, if not all of our prayers. The fact of the matter is we finite creatures don’t always know the will of our infinite God. The pastor went on to say:
Please understand me. I know that the people meant well. They were attempting to show humility in their prayers. They were showing that even though they wanted certain things to take place, they truly wanted the will of God. The problem I have with that statement is it shows I do not really know what God’s will is…
If I know His will in advance, then I will pray in faith. If I do not know His will in advance, I will pray with uncertainty…
Knowing His will brings about total confidence when I pray. Instead of saying, “It if be thy will,” I should begin to say, “Lord, what is your will? Show it to me clearly so I know exactly how to pray.” If we start at the will of God, we will surely end with our miracle.
Again, we are not God and therefore, we don’t (and can’t) always see the intricacies of the big picture—we can’t always know with certainty His immediate plan for our life. For example, God chose to heal the woman with the flow of blood when she touched His hem, this means that God chose not to heal her years prior all the time she prayed and believed.
This is the point I want to make clear. When it comes to bodily healing, it isn’t *always* God’s will to fix us. In other words, He doesn’t always heal this mortal flesh here and now. As the psalmist declares, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26).”
We are peddling cheap grace and an impotent gospel if we are teaching or implying that it is *always* God’s will to heal these tattered and frail jars of clay here and now. We would do good to remember that everyone Jesus healed eventually died. Everyone Jesus raised from the dead, died again.
God’s will is always for our complete healing, this is true, and what that means is that He removes our black, sin-poisoned heart of stone and replaces it with a love-saturated, heart of flesh. Our real disease isn’t cancer, or diabetes, or depression or even dying, our real disease is sin. He accomplished our miracle, our healing (past tense) at the cross (life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension) and yet, every believer, that is to say, everyone who is in Christ, will all still be planted, in faith, in the ground baring His return. This reality of being in Christ—of having the very Spirit that raised Him from the dead, dwelling in us, of course carries with it the promise both explicit and implied that one day our precious and powerful Christ will put away His final enemy death (1 Cor. 15:26), and give us glorified, imperishable bodies of flesh that will never grow old.
One day we will meet again, victorious saints that have been planted with bodies that were eaten away by cancer or it’s tolling treatments. Conquering saints who’s tattered tents have wasted away due to MD or Parkinson’s or some other degenerating disease. We’ve seen Believers, our loved ones, who have gone to the grave because of sudden, unexpected bodily trauma or perhaps slow degradation where their tired organs finally fail them even as their God did not. These believers didn’t miss God’s will for their life because they didn’t “walk in total, divine healing.” Their bodies failed. They died. And they were perfectly in the center of God’s will for their life if they were perfectly in Christ who is their life imperishable.
If we are preaching or implying or believing that while we are in these tents, God wants to heal every sickness every time, it seems we have missed something significant in the Biblical narrative of redemption, something significant about our sovereign God (i.e. Ex. 4:11), namely that there will indeed be suffering in this world (John 16:33), and that too must be part of God’s will that we are taught to pray for (Mt. 6:9-13).
On the surface, it is not always an easy thing to accept, that God would perhaps not desire to heal our sickness here and now or remove us from suffering. I hope that the many stories in our Bible that bear witness, to borrow a phrase from John Piper, to God’s sweet and bitter providence, would allow us to more intensely and intentionally lean into Him. I pray that understanding and affirming that we suffer under the Hand of our God isn’t a discouragement to us, rather that it be comfort and joy to us just as it was for Job and Joseph and Ruth and David and Jesus and to all of our heroes of the faith. To know that under His mighty and merciful hand, He has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:9). To know that when we are under His hand, He is close to us, and He is working all things for His glory and for our good.
It would be naive of me to believe that emotionally this is an easy thing to just start believing. This isn’t just 1 2 3. We have to start where we are, where our feet touch the ground. So let me just end by praying for us, that the peace of God which surpasses all understanding would guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Or here…