Good News for All

If Bible healing by faith is real why are some people not healed ?

Bill Prankard is a well known Canadian evangelist whose experience of a Kathryn Kuhlman event led directly to his own involvement in healing ministry. Bill responded to this question out of his own experiences in an honest and straightforward manner with three simple words, "I don't know." God alone knows why things happen the way they do, and hopefully you will get an opportunity to ask him about this some day.

I have seen a lot of people receive prayer. A few were healed as a result, either immediately or soon after. We were hosts to evangelist Melvin Banks and saw packed meetings in which dozens, nearly everyone present with a need, received a touch from God every night for a week. I find it easy to be skeptical when hearing about a miracle, but somewhat harder when I see one in person. Yet, to experience a healing myself is another matter entirely. I do not question the reality of healing in the name of Jesus because I have experienced it. If Bill cannot answer the "Why" question then I certainly can't, but perhaps I can shed a bit of light on the topic.

So, why DO people get healed ?

I was on my way to an evangelistic meeting where I was expected to open with an introduction that should include some personal account of spiritual significance. A CD with a gospel message was playing as I drove, and the message got me thinking that I ought to have something current to talk about rather a "how I met Jesus" story from long ago.

A bicycle accident several years earlier had injured my neck. An hour of driving would typically make it stiff and sore, and by this time it was beginning to bother me. The combination of neck pain and the CD message inspired me to lay my hand on my neck and ask God for an up to date healing miracle story I could tell. Immediately, the neck pain went. It just vanished, instant and complete, and it has never recurred. I told the story that evening at the meeting. God did it for me to encourage others to seek God for themselves.

When Jesus healed people he expressed his compassion for the sick, but one of the key reasons was physical evidence supporting his authority. Authority to forgive sins. Authority to teach and do things that challenged the religious leadership. Proof that he really was the Messiah, not just another crackpot preacher. The miracles and healings in the Book of Acts served essentially the same purpose. The same kind of evidence should be present as part of our experience. Jesus commanded us to produce it as his representatives. We need to be equipped in this way to be fully effective in carrying the salvation message to a secular culture which questions everything.

Healing may benefit me, but its primary purpose is to serve God. We are too egocentric in our perspective. We make healing about us, because we have a need, because we are inconvenienced, because it hurts, or maybe because life is at risk. Our reasons and our pleadings are all about us when they should be about God. We are in covenant with him which means we should put his interests first. We should be looking for ways to make his intervention in our lives produce an experience we can use to promote the good news of salvation for all the world. It is the job he gave us, and healing is meant to support that message, not to make our lives easier. We need to get with the program and stop being so self-centred.

A few years later I was asked to give that testimony about my neck to a "healing school" group. Some years earlier a windsurfing accident had subluxed my shoulder. It was much improved but rotating or overstressing it was an ongoing problem. Here was an opportunity to get a more current testimony! Several hours before the meeting, I put my hand on the shoulder and asked for healing in the name of Jesus. It gradually improved but was not fully restored ‐ maybe about 50% better. As time dwindled away the following paraphrased dialogue with the Holy Spirit ensued,

• Thank you for the improvement, but I don't feel it is good enough to tell people about a job half done
• Are you saying I need to do more?
• What I have now is kind of vague, half-baked, unsatisfactory.
• Do you want this for yourself, or for me? Be honest, now ...
• It began as wanting it for you, but of course I want it for me too, but it is really for you.
• Do you want something that will impress the people and validate you, or do you want it for their benefit?
• Ouch. [Now en route to the meeting.] Alright, I can be humble and go with the old story. But I really think it would be better to have something more current. I would like to tell something fresh for their sakes.
• Is that any better?
• Thank you for more improvement. It feels like about 80% now. It is good enough for me, but I would not be happy presenting this as your work. I'm sorry, but I want more ‐ not for me, but for you.

Driving into the car park I saw a vacant spot near the front and without further thought or care I quickly turned the steering wheel rotating the bad shoulder in a way that normally would have hurt too much to do. Shoulder pain would typically prevent me doing that, but I was amazed to find it painless and completely fine! I told both stories ‐ about the neck and the shoulder.

These experiences helped me better appreciate the attitude I need for receiving from God. The reasons why I want healing are the core issue, and those reasons tell me a lot about my relationship with God. Addressing them helped me readjust my priorities and focus. We all tend to be too selfish in our outlook and behaviour. Things that go wrong in our lives are reminders and opportunities to seek God. Plenty of things go wrong, not all of them health related, and each is an occasion to learn from God, work some beneficial change, and gain a useful story to share.

What must I do to be healed ?

The point is that we are in a covenant relationship with God. That basically means we have agreed to look out for God's interests by placing them first, and not stint in applying ourselves and our resources toward his goals. In return he has committed to serve our interests and deploy the resources of heaven to doing the best possible for us. His idea of 'best possible' may not be ours, since he is wiser than we are with a longer term and much bigger view of things. We must trust, even if we do not understand. As Jesus said, stop worrying about your needs and put your heart into the kingdom.

The Book of Job deals with the general topic of why things go wrong in life, why people suffer, and why God may seem silent and remote. God is not the cause of our troubles. Victim blaming and shaming is both wrong and pointless. The conclusion in Job is that if it does not always make sense to us, God still knows what he is doing. Getting our eyes off ourselves and our problems and onto God may humble us enough for deliverance to serve a useful purpose.

It may seem that I am making excuses for failed prayers, or putting the blame on the sick for lack of faith. That is not my intent at all. I am telling my experience of how I needed to change my attitude of accepting my problems and living with them into one of, "Can God use this to show others he really cares and wants to be involved." A lot of healing teaching seems to center on us and draw attention to the problem by zeroing in on what we must do to build faith and get it fixed. Having more faith is a good idea, but Jesus said we only need a tiny bit to get big results. Faith is very simple. We have a covenant with God. His faithfulness to that covenant means things will be OK and we do not have to worry over our problems. Faith means I focus on doing my part of the covenant as God's representative by taking care of his interests how he directs, and trust him to look after my interests.