While those involved in healing ministries agree on many fundamental points, one point on which there is some divergence is their interpretation of why God does or doesn’t heal each person who is prayed for.
The healing evangelists and theologians whose material we studied on the topic of healing—with the exception of Curry Blake—all believe that while God heals, one should not expect that every time you pray for people they will be healed instantly, or in some cases even in this life.
Curry Blake teaches that the person who prays is the one responsible to have the faith for the healing, and if the person isn’t healed, then the fault lies with the person praying. He teaches this to those who are participating in or are entering into the ministry of healing. I don’t think that he’s making an across-the-board statement that, for example, if Christian parents (who aren’t involved in a healing ministry) are praying for their sick child and the child doesn’t get well, or even dies, it’s the parents’ fault for not having enough faith.
There are others (none of whom I have quoted in this series) who believe that if someone is prayed for and doesn’t recover, then the fault lies with the sick person for not having enough faith. Some also believe that in a case where a child of Christian parents dies, the parents or others who prayed are responsible for not having enough faith.
John and Sonja Decker, Don Dunkerley, as well as various theologians whose work I studied, and many other Christian teachers, all believe that God miraculously heals, but that He doesn’t heal every time; that there are times when He chooses not to do so for reasons that are His. They explain that God is sovereign, that He has His reasons for what He does and allows, and that those reasons are often beyond our comprehension.
They also comment that it’s unfair and cruel for people to blame a parent for not having enough faith for a child’s healing. It’s very interesting that both Curry Blake and Don Dunkerley had a child who died, and that this loss was instrumental in starting them off in their healing ministries.
Curry Blake teaches that God won’t fail His Word, and that when you pray for someone’s healing, God will heal, and if He doesn’t, there is something wrong—not with God, but with the faith of the person praying. He says:
So if you don’t get anything else, just get perseverance, get that tenacity, get that grit to just dig in and go, “The Bible says this [that if you pray for the sick, they will be healed], and it will be this no matter what.” And you just keep on plowing through. If anything gets in your way, if you ever hear a “no,” it’s the Devil. Do you understand? Because God won’t say “no,” because all the promises are in Christ yea, and in Him, Amen. So if you hear a “no,” it’s not Jesus, it’s not God, because they say the same thing. It’s a devil. So just refuse to take it. And when you do, you watch what happens.[1]
Jesus was not just saying, “I will do it.” He was saying, “I will always do it because it is My intense desire and longing to act on My nature, which is to deliver.”[2]
I do not believe in “hindrances,” as used by most Christians. It usually goes along with … “God won’t heal you until …” There is no reason why God won’t heal you. God is not the one holding back your healing. Even the Devil can’t hold back your healing any more than he could hold back your salvation once you decided to get saved. The only way the Devil can hold back your healing is by convincing you that you are not healed and that God has a reason for not healing you. We usually call these reasons “sacred cows,” because they are the traditions of man (and the doctrines of devils) that must be destroyed.[3]
It’s kind of like this: When they get healed, give glory to God. If they don’t get healed, it’s your fault. That’s a pretty good deal on God’s end, but that’s kind of what you have to think about, and then you have to realize what’s going on.[4]
Your Commander in Chief has given you everything you need to win, and any time you don’t win, it’s because you failed to use a tool or a weapon that He has provided. Simple as that.[5]
John and Sonja Decker have a different point of view:
The truth is, the Lord has provided a means by which His body, working with the Holy Spirit, can facilitate healing in those coming to Him in faith. He is not only able to heal us, He is willing. We contend in prayer with the best understanding and leading we have, and leave the rest in the hands of a gracious and loving Lord.
God in His infinite wisdom has the answer for those who are not healed. This remains a mystery to any honest minister who preaches that Jesus Christ is our Healer. Our experience is that not everyone is healed. Many are, but not all.
When we carefully examine the God of the Old Covenant, there were sometimes conditions surrounding the God who heals. Jesus Christ inaugurates the New Covenant with better promises, one of which is healing. He is the same sovereign God of both covenants. We must rely on His mercy and not on our desire, our effort, or our faith formulas.
To not include this biblical principle in our discussion regarding divine healing is to ignore the sovereignty of a loving God who ultimately decides who receives healing and who does not. We pray for the sick, not because He guarantees healing; we pray because He has declared that He is willing! The final outcome rests with Him.[6]
Dunkerley expresses his belief in this way:
When Jesus said of us, “They will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:18), He did not say that everyone would get well or that those who did would be healed instantly.
In the same passage He promised deliverance from potentially fatal accidents (snakebites) and from those who would murder us for the sake of the Gospel (deadly poison). But surely Christians have died in fatal accidents; and Jesus taught that many would be martyred for the faith (Matthew 24:9).[7] He specifically predicted the martyrdom of Peter (John 21:18–19).[8] The promised healings and rescues will happen often enough to commend the Gospel to unbelievers, but they are not promised for every single instance.
The Kingdom of God came with the first coming of Christ, who preached that “the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). He demonstrated the power of that Kingdom as He advanced it against the kingdom of darkness by healing the sick and casting out demons (Matthew 4:23–25). But the Kingdom of God did not come in its fullness. That awaits the Second Coming of Christ, “when He hands over the kingdom of God to the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Corinthians 15:24–25).
So the Kingdom of God is here and, in another sense, not yet. The sick are healed, but not all of them, and not all instantaneously and completely. The presence of the Kingdom encourages us to pray for ourselves, that it may be true of us that “the power of the Lord [is] present . . . to heal the sick” (Luke 5:17). The absence of the consummated Kingdom keeps us from discouragement when we do not see the powerful results we would like.[9]
We have many questions about the mysteries of God’s sovereign will. Perhaps the best answer is the one Moses gave: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
God has revealed many things to us, but there are secret things He has chosen not to reveal. The answers to our questions about why evil exists, why all are not brought to Christ, why some (including some very righteous persons) suffer and others do not, why some we pray for are healed and others (whom we may pray for more earnestly) are not—all these are included in the realm of the secret things.[10]
As you can see, there is a major difference in outlook between what Curry Blake teaches and what others teach on this particular issue. It must be pointed out that all of those quoted have successful healing ministries. Clearly, whether one believes that everyone should get healed when they get prayed for, or believes that there are times when some people don’t get healed because God chooses not to heal them at that time or in their lifetime, doesn’t affect whether the Lord uses these men and women in their healing ministries.
Both points of view can have their downsides. If you believe that God will always heal the sick person when they are prayed for, without exception, then when He doesn’t, you have to place the blame somewhere and assume a lack of faith on someone’s part. In a sense it both limits God and opens the door for condemnation on the part of whoever gets the blame for the failure.
If you believe that there are times when God chooses not to heal in this life, then when you pray for the sick and they aren’t healed right away, it might be easier to give up and not keep praying and fighting for healing, when perhaps more persistent prayer would bring healing.
In listening to and watching Curry Blake’s classes, something that I found inspiring and faith-building was his conviction regarding God’s Word—if God said it, it will happen, no ifs, ands, or buts. There is a certain uplifting simplicity within this stance. Maria and I agree that what God says, He will perform; that His Word is settled in heaven; that His promises are promises we can stand on. We also believe that God is God, that He is almighty, that His ways are higher than ours, and that in His divine wisdom and understanding, He may have reasons which are beyond our understanding for not healing someone when we pray for them. We believe that the ever-compassionate and loving God sometimes does or allows things that to our human way of thinking don’t seem fair, or may seem as if He is failing to keep His word or answer our heartfelt prayers. We believe that’s His prerogative, that He knows more than we do, that He knows the future, that He has His reasons, and that His reasons are based in love. Trusting God, even if it seems to us that He’s not keeping His word or answering our prayers, takes faith—perhaps as much faith as it does to believe God for His healing.
In his teaching, Curry Blake states that no one ever learns anything from sickness, that nothing good can come from being sick.—That since sickness is originally due to the fall of man, to the disobedience of Adam and Eve, and is part of the curse, nothing good can come from it.
Others with healing ministries teach that God can and does use sickness in some cases to draw those who are sick closer to Him; that when God doesn’t heal, the patience and faith the sick person needs to sustain them through the illness can draw the person closer to the Lord, and it often does.
While we can admire the conviction with which Curry Blake teaches, his passion for healing the sick, and his faith in God’s Word—all of which inspire us to trust God for healing and instill in us a greater desire to pray for the sick—at the same time I find roadblocks in his definiteness. My personal experience has taught me that not everyone who gets prayed for gets healed, and that those who endure sickness and pain often do gain important lessons or spiritual growth from the experience. I’ve seen and read about the lives of those who have physical infirmities and because of those infirmities have helped countless others find the Lord. In times of sickness, I have learned things about myself, or about my connection with the Lord, which have helped me in the long term.
While it’s a good thing to stand on God’s Word, to know that God has promised to, and does, answer prayer, I think it’s important to face certain truths—such as that not every prayer is answered in the manner we expect, and that sometimes God chooses not to answer immediately or in a way that we see it as His answer. God is greater than we are, and while we should claim His Word and stand on it and trust Him thoroughly, we need to understand that His ways are higher than ours and that He, in His infinite love and wisdom, may do or allow things in our lives or those of others that we don’t understand.
To demand that God answer every prayer for healing in a way that we expect, and, if that prayer is not answered, or is answered differently than we would have hoped, to put the blame on someone, in my opinion takes away from God’s power, from His sovereignty. It’s saying that we know better than God. God has more dimensions than we do. He knows so much more than we do—He knows supremely better than we do what’s best for each individual.
I believe that God heals people who are prayed for. Sometimes He heals instantaneously, sometimes progressively. Some He heals in this lifetime, and some He heals eternally through taking them home to Him. Whether God heals someone in this lifetime or in eternity, He is compassionate and loving. I believe it’s best to follow His Word by praying for the sick in obedience to His commands, trusting that as you pray, God will answer, and then leave the way He answers in His hands, and not try to place blame on someone—yourself, or others—if a healing doesn’t take place every time.
At the same time, we also need to remember that there are many promises of healing in God’s Word; that Jesus, the apostles, many believers in the early church and throughout Christian history, including nowadays, have used healing in their witness, as well as for one another. They have prayed for the sick and people were supernaturally healed. What I admire about Dunkerley, the Deckers, Blake, and those in TFI who have taken up this ministry of healing as part of their witness, is their passion for healing, their desire to use God’s power for physical healing, and through it the greatest healing of all—salvation. I may not agree with everything these healing evangelists teach, but I love that they pray and expect to see God’s hand move to heal, even if they know He may not heal in this life every time. I love that they stand on God’s promises and pray for the sick, and as they do so, some of those they pray for are supernaturally healed. I admire their faith and their willingness to minister to others in such a wonderful way. I believe that they have found a powerful way to preach the Gospel, one which many more Christians, including TFI members, could utilize.
(Next in this series: In Conclusion)
[1] DHT Video 9.
[2] DHT Manual 4.
[3] DHT Manual 4.
[4] DHT Audio 5.
[5] DHT Audio 7.
[6] DWJD 3.
[7] Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake (Matthew 24:9 ESV).
[8] “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This He said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this He said to him, “Follow Me” (John 21:18–19 ESV).
[9] HE 53–54.
[10] HE 68.
1 Comments:
I found your article very helpful thank you
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