"I wasn't healed!  Why?"

by Garry D. Pifer

Over the years many have gone to the elders and were anointed and prayed for.  They understood that this was a command from God.  They waited, they importuned, they begged God to heal them.  And, yet they didn’t feel better, they didn’t get better.  Finally, they assumed that it wasn’t God’s will to heal them now, that for some reason God must want them to remain sick.  Others have called for the elders almost as a matter of superstition.  They may have done it as an after thought.  Their first thought and action was to go to the doctor or physician.  If or when they got better they somehow attributed it to God having worked through the doctor. Still others, never having been healed and not aware of anyone close to them being healed, have concluded that God isn’t healing today at all.  I’m afraid that most of us conclude that it is God’s fault that we aren’t healed.  We don’t want to admit that there must be something that we need to do that we aren’t doing.  It is so much easier to point the finger elsewhere, even if it is at God.

What are the reasons there aren’t more people being healed?  In our last study we covered numerous Scriptures that state very clearly that IT IS GOD’S WILL TO HEAL!  That being the case, why aren’t we experiencing many wonderful healings?  In this study we will look at a number of reasons.

In none of the numerous Scriptures we looked at did we find an unconditional promise from God to heal us.  Maybe we weren’t noticing but there were a number of conditions God said we need to be meeting.  Yes, it is His will, His desire, His pleasure to bestow upon us His many gifts and blessings, health and healing among them.  However, He tells us what it is that He requires and expects from us. But waiting until we are ill to begin doing what He expects is an error on our part. 

Obedience was, and is, a required condition.  Notice again what I AM told the Israelites, Exodus 15:26.  “IF thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes...”  The Apostle John tells us that obedience is required to receive any of God’s blessings.  “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” (1 John 3:22) We looked at the “blessing and cursing” chapter, Deuteronomy 28.  Very clearly it points out that blessings come “if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.”  (Deut. 28:2) The curses, including sicknesses, would come “if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes...)  (Deut. 28:15)  Many other Scriptures stress this requirement.

As I covered earlier, “A” primary reason ( not the only reason)  is that we haven’t understood and had the real believing faith that is necessary.  Not understanding the will of God it is impossible to come in real faith, conviction, confidence, and assurance. Even knowing God’s will and coming in faith isn’t enough IF we don’t TOTALLY and COMPLETELY trust God.  That faith has to be steadfast and continue until we receive our request.  When we have received it there is no longer a need for faith.  James helps us understand.   In chapter 1 and verse 3 of the book of James he tells us that “the trying of your faith worketh patience.”  God doesn’t always give us an immediate answer to our prayers.  He wants to know if our faith is absolute or do we waver.  In verse 6 of the same chapter we are told “But let him ask in faith nothing wavering.  For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”  And, then in verse 7 he tells us what the outcome will be if we are wavering and doubting.  “For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”  God wants us to put complete trust and faith in Him.  In verse 8 James continues, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”  James uses this phrase, “double minded,” twice in his letter, the only places the Greek word dipsuchos, is used in the New Testament.  It means wavering, uncertain, doubting, divided in interest.  One translation renders this “of two minds.” And in chapter 4 and verse 8, where the phrase is also used, it is rendered “you who are half-hearted towards God.”  God wants and requires us to put our complete trust and faith in Him, knowing and believing His Word, His promises.

Matthew 21:21-22    “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this [which is done] to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.   And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

He says that when we ask in faith it must be without doubting.  He further states that “whatsoever” we ask in prayer if we do so believing we will receive.  The word “belief” and the word “faith” are from the same root word in the Greek.  The root word is pistis, #4102 in Strong’s, and most often is translated “faith.”  From this root comes pisteuo, #4100 in Strong’s, and is most often rendered “believe.”  Again, I repeat myself, we can not have faith unless we know the will of God.  Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God.  The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 that we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  That is accomplished by replacing the thoughts and way of thinking of the flesh with the words and way of thinking of God.  And, notice what he says that does for us, last part of verse 2, “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”  To know God’s will we must fill our minds with His Word.  That in turn builds our faith.  We know God’s will, we are then able to trust Him completely, totally, without reservation, without wavering, without being “double minded.”

I’m going to make a statement about being “double minded” or of “two minds” that many will automatically and probably immediately disagree with.  I would just ask that you prayerfully think and meditate upon it, and honestly look at what you believe and feel and what the Bible is saying to us.  And, my statement is this; one can not truly be trusting God in real believing faith and then go to the physician for his medicines, potions and surgeries.  That is being double minded.  Either you have absolute faith in God, the I AM of the Bible, or you don’t.  As I said, many of you will disagree with that.  But, I ask, where did you get your belief that going to the doctor is compatible with having faith in God?  Was it from Scripture?  Or, if you are honest, wasn’t it from the teachings of men and  organizations? We will address this subject in more detail in a separate study.

As we covered earlier, Jesus bore our sins, our pain and our sicknesses in His body.  He took them all away.  We must come acknowledging and accepting that fact, trusting Him totally in faith for our healing.  But, when we  then go to the doctor for his treatment, we are taking back what had been borne away.  We are not wholly and completely trusting, not truly asking in faith, but we are wavering, we are double minded and unstable in our ways.  As James tells us, “For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”  (James 1:7) This is a major reason many do not receive healing and conclude that God isn’t healing today, that His will has changed, that God wants us to remain sick. 

Many of us don’t truly commit sickness and pain to our Savior.  We take possession of them, we somehow want to hang onto them.  We refer to them as “my heart problem,” or “my arthritis,” or “my diabetes.”  Once we have committed them to Jesus we need to let go totally.  We must leave them with Him.  We have got to look past the symptoms to the promises and the will of God, accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

James also tells us that faith without works is dead.  I think some have used this as an excuse to seek medical treatment.  That is not the “works” God wants to see.  Most of us remember the story of Naaman who was a leper.  The man of God gave him some “works” to do.  He was told to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan.  This seemed strange and perhaps foolish to Naaman but when he was finally persuaded by his servants to do so he was healed.  (See 2 Kings 5:1-14.)  Jesus was met by 10 lepers.  He gave them some “works” to do.  They were told to go and show themselves to the priest.  This of course was an act that would have been done after being cleansed of the leprosy.  They went as instructed.  They performed the “works” they were given and “as they went” they were cleansed.  One, seeing that he was healed, turned back to Jesus giving him glory and thanks.  (Luke 17:12-19.)  What are we told to do?  We can all recite from memory James 5:14.  “Is any sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:”

Most of us have not fully understood what James is telling us.  Because there is so much contained in these verses a separate study will be devoted to this passage.

Another extremely important “work” that we must be doing is giving God thanks.  Knowing that healing has already been done, laid up for us to claim, we can and should give God thanks before we actually see it with our eyes or feel it in our bodies.  That is a part of having true faith.  Notice some Scriptures.

Philippians 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

As I just mentioned, our healing has already been accomplished.  Jesus bore our pain and sickness away, along with our sins.  But, we often don’t recognize that or we forget it.  We beg and plead and agonize with God to heal us rather than acknowledging that it is done and praying the prayer of faith with thanksgiving.

There are still a few other reasons why many of us haven’t been healed.  James tells us of one of them in chapter 4,  verses 2 and 3.

James 4:2-3  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts.

Some times we simply haven’t asked.  But, more often we haven’t asked properly or for the right reasons. Or, as James puts it, we “ask amiss.”  We have only a selfish reason for seeking God’s healing.  We need to be desiring it so that we can be serving and ministering to others as God directs. We should want to glorify God in our bodies, we should want them whole so that we can bear much fruit. (I Cor. 6:20 and John 15:8)

It may appear humorous but I believe a valid question to ask, why should we expect God to grant our request to heal our bad eyes if all we do is sit and watch countless hours of television?  Or, heal our bad back just so we can be more comfortable sitting in our “La-Z-Boy” watching hours of TV and eating snack foods?

Another major reason why some aren’t healed is revealed by the Apostle Paul.  In his first letter to the church at Corinth he told them that the cause or reason that many were weak and sickly among them and that many had already died was that they weren’t discerning the Lord’s body.  (I Cor. 11:29-30) In verses 23 and 24 Paul recounts how Jesus on the night He was betrayed took bread and explained that “this is my body,...”  Coming to verse 27 he tells us that anyone who eats (and/or drinks)  “unworthily” shall be guilty of the body (and blood) of the Lord.  This is repeated in verse 29.  The word “unworthily” is defined by Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical words as “treating it as a common meal, the bread and cup as common things, not apprehending their solemn symbolic import.” In other words, if we are eating and drinking without recognizing that we are doing it “in remembrance” of Jesus and are showing His death until He comes, we are not discerning the Lord’s body.  (For a more in depth look at this please read the  study entitled, THE LORD’S SUPPER, WHAT IS IT?)

From this account in 1 Corinthians 11 we also see that they were not treating one another as they should have been.  It is obvious that they were not seeing one another as members of the Church, the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23), in the proper way.  In this way, also, they were “not discerning the Lord’s body.”

Although the Bible is filled with God’s promises and assurances of His will and desire for our physical healing and the understanding that it has already been accomplished through the stripes of Jesus Christ, God is MORE concerned about our spiritual health than our physical.  One individual, whose writings I have profited from, states that there is a spiritual counterpart to the physical ailment we are experiencing.  While I can not prove this with chapter and verse, I believe this is most likely true.  God wants us to deal with the spiritual before He gives us the manifestation of the physical healing  As this individual expresses it, first comes the dealing,  then the healing.  In addition to asking for God to intervene in our lives and restore our physical bodies we need to be praying for Him to reveal the underlying spiritual problem, to grant us repentance and the power of His Spirit to correct that problem.  Although Jesus is addressing something a bit different, I believe there is an applicable principle contained in Matthew 18:8-9.  He said that it was better “to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting (age lasting) fire.”  It can as accurately be said that it is better “to enter into life not having been healed of a physical affliction than to be healed physically and not having overcome the spiritual problem.”  That of course well subject us to the age lasting fire of God’s judgement and chastisement.

Thankfully God is love and a God of mercy.  He shows mercy unto whom He chooses to show mercy.  He  many times chooses to intervene in our lives and perform wonderful miracles and healings without us “meeting all the conditions.”  And for that we can be ever so thankful.  But, it behooves us to seek to walk with God in a close relationship, to be doing those things that are pleasing in His sight, and above all come to believe and trust Him totally and completly.