Does God Really Heal Today?
I have a friend who says, "God is always working on 10 levels at once; if you don't understand that, you will miss the other nine!" When healing doesn't come in the way or timing we would like, we should not despair and begin to believe that God no longer heals. As many famous theologians have attested, it is a grave error to define God only by one's experiences.
Henry Wright, author of A More Excellent Way, says, "If you don't believe God heals in the 21st century, then fine. For you, He won't!" Isaiah said it this way, "‘What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it saying, "Stop, you're doing it wrong!" Does the pot exclaim, "How clumsy can you be?"'" (Is. 45:9, NLT).
It is quite natural to feel disappointed and wearied when healing is prolonged, complicated or doesn't seem to come. Scripture indicates that there are times when we must be carried by the faith of others (see Mark 2:1-12).
However, we are better off going to God in raw desperation, expressing to Him our need and despair, than pretending we are OK, trying to fix our problems ourselves, coming up with an explanation for God's lack of action, or rejecting Him altogether.
Read Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 5:25-34; Job 31:1-40; Job 42:1-17; Psalm 7:1-17. These passages set before us individuals who were desperate enough to need God's answer, no matter what form it took or personally cost. They simply would not and could not give up. They allowed their circumstances to reduce them to the absolute need that is faith.
Faith is being convinced that God is our only hope, and often we arrive at a place of faith after exhausting every other possibility. Our need for healing may be physical, but it may also involve other, eternal factors, as well--including a work of God beyond our greatest imagination.
Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: "For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!" (2 Cor. 4:17). In his letter to the Romans, he declared: "What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later" (Rom. 8:18).
So what then is to be our attitude toward suffering and prayer for healing? We are to seek the Lord's will, in all its vast possibilities, and believe our Shepherd. David gives us a great example of the right approach in 2 Samuel 12:15-23. Selah.
