“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” (Psalms 139:14 NKJV)
There is only ONE CREATOR of LIFE.
When God forms a human body in the womb of its mother, He does it with His own hands—in secret. “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me.” (Psalm 119:73) He prescribes to each new life its future talents and abilities, as well as its individual scheme for development and longevity.
Before the day of our birth, we are assigned the day of our death—a way and a day—and our time on earth is limited to the dash between those dates. Of course, every human soul ever created will live forever somewhere—but, since the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, we are not intended to live forever HERE. The purpose of our dash of time is to spend it aligning our soul with God, but our earthly body—our soul’s temporary robe of flesh—is born to die. It must eventually get out of the way so that our soul can live forever.
In the meantime, though, can we pray for physical healing? Yes! “Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.” (Jeremiah 17:14 NIV)
All through the New Testament we are reminded to pray. “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matthew 7:7, John 24:13-14) James specifically directed: “Is any sick among you? let (the elders of the church) pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. (5:14-15) In fact, James also said to those who hesitate, “Ye have not because ye ask not.” (4:2 KJV)
Is God’s Word true? Absolutely, every chapter, every verse, every line. Is God a HEALER? Yes, He IS the only Healer, but He also is the only Ultimate Sovereign, and He abides by His Word without exception. He keeps ALL of His promises—not just some—and He is not obligated to keep promises that we have interpreted to mean whatever we wish. Faith prays: “LORD, my will is subject to Your Will—my demands to Your commands.”
What about terminal illness? What does faith look like when one is given a diagnosis of an incurable disease? If we have faith, shouldn’t we demand “by faith” that God heal us? Doesn’t acceptance of a diagnosis and a brave face show a lack of faith?
If that is your question, I would answer it (gently) with a question that Jesus asked: “Where IS your faith?” In other words, where have we placed our faith? Is it in our own expectations … or in God? Is it in the Scriptural words themselves or in the One who said them? God forbid that our faith is so fragile that it disintegrates if He doesn’t meet every one of our demands. Is our faith actually IN our FAITH? … in only what we choose to believe? … only in our own personal interpretation of Scripture?
“Jesus does not say, ‘I will give you anything you ask for.’ Nor does He say, ‘as long as you include the magic words ‘in Jesus’ name,’ I will grant your request.’ Christ promises He will do anything that is asked ‘in my name.’ That implies that the person is asking something consistent with the will and nature of Christ. (John 14:13).” —bibleref.com
The fact is: God created each of us as a human being. Each human has a prescribed lifespan—healings included—not to exceed the number of breaths and heartbeats intended by God for that life. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” (Hebrews 9:27)
Therefore, let us agree, that though God is a HEALER, we won’t be healed of every disease in this lifetime. Jesus raised Lazarus from the DEAD—it’s a fact! But Lazarus eventually died of something else. C.S. Lewis once wrote that he thought perhaps Lazarus got the worst of the deal because he had to come back and go through the pain of death all over again. God can and HAS healed every incurable disease known to man—from ALS to MS—but He has NEVER (and never will) heal us of being human.
We too often think that the prayer of faith is: “Not Thy will but mine be done.” It’s important to understand that our own desires, no matter how noble or altruistic, are not always aligned with God’s perfect and sovereign Will and, therefore, sometimes healing may not be granted though we ask for it with desperate tears.
God desires that we trust Him BEYOND our tears, beyond our wants and needs, beyond our sicknesses, beyond even our life. After all, neither our life nor our bodies are our own to control anyway. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 KJV)
Jesus gave us the perfect way to pray: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42 NKJV)
WHETHER GOD HEALS or DOES NOT HEAL (in this life), we can rest assured that what He does is all according to His inerrant Word, His sovereign Will, and is part of a higher purpose than what we can see. If we believe and trust Him, on the day when God does NOT heal us here, then we will understand it better! At that moment, when we sweep through the gates of Heaven, we will discover that from every disease and every sin, we are forever FREE! We will KNOW He has healed us and saved us once and for all!
Prayer: Dear LORD, You’ve healed me so many times, but I trust You more than my self and my own desires. And so, let my prayer forever be: “YOUR Will is my will!” In Jesus’ name, Amen.
