We talked about offense in our last lesson, sharing a real life scenario of how one lady became offended when someone prayed for her healing. The man who ministered the healing prayer used an interactive prayer model (interview, pray, check for feedback, and then pray some more based on what is happening). The lady initially thought that she had faith for the healing, but she did not understand the prayer model. The first time that he paused for feedback, she assumed the prayer session was over and that God had not healed her. Her faith for healing at that moment "died." The man praying tried to build her faith back up to a level where he could continue praying for her, but his attempt to do so offended her. Since this happened in a GodSpeak sponsored chat room, she brought her "concern" over this incident to my attention.
I started by trying to explain the interactive prayer model to her, as well as explaining why faith is important in healing. As we interacted, I discovered that this lady had "faith in Jesus" for salvation and provision, but she did not really have faith for her own healing. She was not aware that there were different types of faith; she did not understand that faith in Jesus for salvation is not the same as the mountain-moving faith for miracles that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 17:20. She did not realize that believing in Jesus as her savior is not necessarily the same thing as believing in Him as her healer. She thought she had "faith" for healing at the start of the prayer because did not distinguish between different types of faith.
Let me clarify this a bit. Just believing in Jesus (salvation-wise) is not enough for most physical healings. If it were, then when a person received Jesus as their Lord, they would instantly receive physical healing and deliverance at the same time. All new believers would be instantly healed of whatever sickness or infirmity they had, and it would happen at the instant they believed in Jesus.
Likewise, if the "believing in Jesus" necessary for salvation is not the same type of "believing in Jesus" required to do the miracles that Jesus did (as per John 14). If it were, then His disciples would not have had a problem healing the demonized boy in Matthew 17.
The disciples believed in Jesus when they tried to heal the epileptic (and demonized) boy, but they could not heal him. Jesus was up on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter and James and John when this happened. When He got back, the first thing He did was to rebuke their faith and call it "little." He wasn't talking about salvation faith in Himself, but about faith for that type of healing. The disciples already believed in Him enough to abandon their jobs, families, possessions to follow/serve Him.
Then Jesus healed the boy. The disciples came to Him afterwards and asked why they couldn't heal him, and Jesus said it was because they did not have enough faith. You can read the account in Matthew 17:14-20.
Now back to this lady and her faith. She did have "faith" in that she believed He was God of all creation who did heal the sick while He walked the earth, and Who purchased her salvation and forgave her sin. She had faith (of sorts) in healing, in that she believed that God still healed the sick today--sometimes. But she did not have faith for her own healing. In short, she did not believe that Jesus wanted to heal her personally.
(I think that the man praying for her had sensed that, and he tried to build up her faith.)
I tried to explain why we sometimes pause in healing prayer to build faith as we pray for healing. Here is an excerpt from my email to her:
When we pray for someone for healing, we like to encourage them and help build their faith to receive the healing. That isn't to say you don't have faith, it is to say that the way he ministered is considered a standard and correct way to minister healing.In some cases there is warfare that prevents a healing. If so, the healing ministry/prayer won't work, and it is a job for the intercessors and prayer warriors. But in other cases, it is a matter of a person having a wrong expectation (because the enemy has lied to them, and they believed the lies). Some of those lies include thinks like: God will heal others but not me, God wants me to be sick so I can learn something, God is mad (or upset or disappointed) with me for some reason and that is why I am sick, etc.
I am not saying that you have bought into any of those lies--I don't know you in the natural and God hasn't given me revelation in the spirit about your situation.
But there have been many times when I have prayed for someone with no results, and asked God what happened and He said it is an issue about their faith or beliefs. Then I addressed some of those lies and explained why they were not true, and suddenly something snapped in the spirit as the power of the enemy's lies were broken, and the healing came without me needing to pray again.
If the man praying for you had experiences like mine, he might have just been covering some basics about expecting God to heal us to release faith, just in case that happened to be an issue in your case. It is just a matter of caring for the person and not wanting them to suffer physically if it is something as simple as the enemy has been whispering his lies into their ears.
I don't think he meant to offend you or to put you down or to accuse you of not having faith. I think he was just trying to share some of the "healing basics" with you in case it might help you get breakthrough. It is one of the things that people who minister healing often are taught to do.
She wrote back something very honest and insightful:
Okay...sigh. But I don't believe in believing in the thing itself. I believe that it is the faith in Jesus that is the important. Someone said to me that having faith "for" something isn't even Biblical.I honestly wonder why God would trouble Himself with healing me. I believe for sure that God can heal me. No doubt...But does He want to?
Okay I have problems with disbelief. I would love to receive healing!
[Then she went on to detail the things she needed healing for, and how the infirmities had negatively impacted her life, preventing her from doing the things she loved to do.] Then she ended with:
So what do I need to do to receive healing? I would love to be healthy so I can do all those things I find joy in.What is faith? I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I believe that He died on the cross for me and that He rose again! Isn't that enough?
As you can see from her response, she is a mature believer who really loves and trusts the Lord. There is no doubt or question that she believes in Jesus and is saved. She also seems to believe that God can still heal today, and she really desires to be healed. She understands that we need faith to approach God, but she doesn't understand that there are different types of faith, or that you have to apply the right type of faith to a given situation. That is why she asks her question about faith: "I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I believe that He died on the cross for me and that He rose again! Isn't that enough?"
I am going to use golf as an analogy to try and address her question. I don't know much about golf, except for the basics. So those of you who are golf experts, please be patient with my simplistic analogy. A golf course (just like real life or the Christian walk) has many different types of obstacles and challenges built into it. The object of golf is to hit a ball with a golf club to make it go into a specific target or hole, despite those obstacles. The golf club is an analogy for faith--the thing you apply to the ball to get the desired result. You cannot play golf without a golf club, just like you cannot come to God without faith.
The golf club is the "tool" you use to play golf, just like faith is the "tool" you use to approach God in a way where you can draw on His power and anointing for a given situation.
A golfer does not go to the golf course with just a single golf club--he brings a whole bag of them. Why? Because there are many different types of challenges on a golf course, and he needs a different type of golf club for each one. There is, for example, a club designed for power, used to send the ball long distances. The golfer would use that type of club when he first "Tees off." There is another type of club that the golfer uses when the ball is relatively close to the target (hole), because he wants accuracy for this shot. The golfer would not use the "accuracy club" when he first starts, because he is too far away from the hole, and that club wont move the ball close enough to the hole to be useful. Likewise, he would not use the "distance club" when the ball is just ten feet from his target. He will choose the right type of club for the given situation.
Believing in Jesus as savior is like that "distance club." You can't get started in the game without it. You cannot approach God if you don't believe in Jesus and receive Him as your personal Lord and savior. There is not any remission for your sins if you don't allow the blood of Jesus to pay the price for your sin. In short, you can't start the "game" without a salvation-type of faith.
But once you are "in the game," then Jesus expect you to become His witness and He wants you to grow and mature--both in character and in faith. You will find that a lot of different types of challenges will come up as you walk this out in your day-to-day life. And a part of that "growing" process is to learn to trust Him in many different areas of your life. Each one is an aspect of faith in God--but each one touches on a slightly different need/situation. To follow the golf analogy, God causes us to mature in different types of faith (golf clubs) so that we will have the right one for every situation that we face.
So having faith in Jesus as savior is absolutely necessary--we cannot get into the game without it--but it is not enough. We must also have faith in Him as our protector, as our provider, as our healer, and so on. When we are in a situation where we need provision, we must pull out the "faith in God's provision" golf club, and use that. When we are in a situation where we need healing, we must pull out our "faith in God as our healer" golf club and use that one.
I will develop this more in our next lesson, and also address the "Does God want to heal me?" part of the question.
Does God Really Want To Heal Me?
This lesson is part 3 about a real life "healing" incident that took place in GodSpeak's prophetic chatroom. A man prayed for a lady for healing, and he tried to encourage her faith as he prayed. At first she was in agreement with his ministry, but at some point she felt that he was inappropriately attempting to instruct her, and she became offended. She sent me an email complaining about this incident, and that led us to a brief discussion about healing prayer and the role of faith in healing. I explained that in some cases, we can have a wrong expectation that God doesn't want to heal us, and that can hinder our healing.
She gave an insightful reply, part of which I want to include in this lesson because I am going to talk about it in more detail.
I honestly wonder why God would trouble Himself with healing me. I believe for sure that God can heal me. No doubt...But does He want to?
She also asked:
So what do I need to do to receive healing? I would love to be healthy so I can do all those things I find joy in.What is faith? I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I believe that He died on the cross for me and that He rose again! Isn't that enough?
The last lesson addressed her second question about what faith is. She did not seem to understand that there are different types of faith, and she equated faith to "faith in Jesus for salvation." In the last lesson, I likened faith to golf, and suggested that there are different types of faith, just like there are different types of golf clubs. In golf, we have to use the right golf club for the given situation, and in the Christian walk, we have to use right type of faith for the given situation.
We face different obstacles as we walk the path the Lord has chosen for us. Sometimes, we face a great danger, and we learn to have faith in Him as our protector. At times we face great lack or need, and we learn to have faith in Him as our provider. Other times we may have physical sickness, and we learn to have faith in Him as our healer. Every one of these is a faith in God, but each approaches Him from angle, focusing on a different aspect of God's nature and character. We can know and trust one aspect of God's nature, but not yet have "faith" in a different aspect of His nature. For example, some people find it easy to trust God for provision, but hard to trust Him for healing, and visa versa.
Experiential Faith
The best way to "gain" faith in a given area is by personally experiencing God's faithfulness to us in that area of our life. Faith is different than "head knowledge," but many people confuse the two. Head knowledge is when we know what God says about a given topic intellectually, from reading about it in the bible. The bible tells us about His character and nature, and about what He will do for us. While we can "know" these things in our head, we often don't fully believe them in our heart. We may have faith that God provides for His children--until we have a desperate need. Suddenly the question becomes, "Yes, I know that God can provide for His children but will He really provide for me in my current situation?"
At first all we have to carry us through is that head knowledge, and it is kind of shaky. There is a difference between knowing something about God's faithfulness and actually experiencing it. So we get into a desperate situation, and we find ourselves struggling to "have faith." We have to keep reminding ourselves over and over about what the bible says about God's willingness and ability to provide, and we hope it is true for us, but we are not really 100% convinced that it is. As a result, we do things to supplement our "head knowledge" type of faith. Perhaps we take our need to all of our friends and ask them to urgently intercede for us. Or we may strain our brain to come up with contingency plans (E.g., what to do if God doesn't come through). Or we may simply worry, stress about our situation and and be filled with anxiety.
Then God comes through for us. He meets us in our place of need, and we experience God's provision in that situation. And something changes in our heart. Suddenly we know with confidence that God really will provide--We know it because we have personally experienced that provision. Before we just had facts about God (or head knowledge). Now we have an absolute inner confidence and certainty of His faithfulness in this are because we have experienced it in our own life.
That is a description of what experiential faith is about. Now let's switch gears and talk about how experiential faith relates to healing. Basically the same principle applies. Let's go back to our example of the lady in the chatroom who needed a healing but wasn't sure if God really wanted to heal her. She theoretically believed in healing, but she asked the question: "Why God would trouble Himself with healing me? I believe for sure that God can heal me. No doubt...But does He want to?"
Most of us have that same question at some point in our lives. We knew about His ability to heal the sick today (head knowledge). But when we came to need His healing in our own life, we wondered if He would really do it for us personally. Then when God actually touched us with His healing power and made us better. Then we realized that He is indeed willing, and that realization changed our perspective. In other words, next time we need a healing, we are not limited to just draw from our head knowledge. We have personal experience to draw from, and that gives us confidence. There is something inside of us the expects Him to heal us again, because He did it before. There is a confidence that He is both willing and able to heal. Therefore, we find it easier to have faith for healing and we find it easier to believe that He really does want to heal us.
The Power Of Condemnation To Hinder Healing
But there is another factor that enters into this...condemnation and rejection. These things are "faith killers" because they are designed to convince us that God doesn't want to heal us.
Condemnation tells us that we don't deserve to be healed because of this or that. Rejection tells us that God doesn't love us enough to heal us. Both of those things are lies from the devil, and God doesn't want us to believe those lies. In fact, God has already told us the truth about both of those things in His written word, the bible.
The best thing to combat the lies of the devil is the truth of God. Keeping that in mind, let's look at what it says about condemnation:
Psalm 34:22
The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.Isaiah 54:17
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn.John 3:17-18a
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned.Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.1 John 3:20
For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
You could sum it up by saying that God went way out of His way to keep us from being condemned. So if the voice of condemnation speaks to you and tells you that you are not "good enough" to be healed, you know from the bible that this is a lie. When the thought that you don't deserve God's healing touch crosses your mind, remind yourself of what God has said about that in His written word, the bible. Then you will know that what you heard is not the voice of God, but the lies of the enemy. In fact, the truth of the matter can be found in Psalm 103:2-4, which says:
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,
In short, God's will is not to condemn us, but to heal us and to restore us. Keep that in mind the next time that you hear a little voice whispering in your ear, telling you that you don't deserve for God to heal you. It has never been about what we deserve; healing has always been about the grace and mercy and love of God.
Now that we have the lies of condemnation out of the way, lets deal with the lies of rejection in the same manner. Those lies say things like: God may love everyone else (and may heal everyone one) but you are different. There is something defective about you that keeps Him from loving you, and it prevents Him from wanting to heal you.
Of course, those lies are just as unscriptural and untrue as the condemnation lies. But rejection is so prevalent in our culture that it is (unfortunately) too easy to believe them. So let's look a little at what the bibles says about God's love for us. Remember, the following verses are just a small portion of what the bible says about God's love for us:
Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God in your midst [is] the Mighty One [Who] will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.John 16:26-27
26 In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.Romans 5:5
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.Galatians 2:20b
Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.Ephesians 2:4
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.Ephesians 3:18-19
[I pray that you] "may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."Ephesians 5:2
...Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.Titus 3:4-7
4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.1 John 3:1a
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!1 John 4:9-10
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.1 John 4:16
...God is love...Jude 1:21
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
If you are one of the many people who struggles with the devil's rejection lies that God doesn't want to heal you, then I hope that the power of God's love has begun to soak in as you read these verses and break the power of those lies. The truth of the matter is that the God who loved you enough to save you also loves you enough to heal you.