I’ve yet to hear anyone disprove that undeniable healing and demonstrable power over demons are inferior to other methods of convincing and captivating the lost world, filled with false religions, atheism, and kinds of deception. (Obviously, I’m not promoting signs apart from Christ-like love and virtues.) It has never been “either/or” but always “both/and”! Which does the devil fear more for the sake of his world system: A. The Church that makes the sinner explain why he/she doesn’t repent and believe the Gospel in the face of undeniable miracles? Or, B. The Church that tries to explain why God rarely heals and works miracles because He is more glorified without them? The Bible is on the side of option A! Christian apologetics should not depend upon eloquently and intellectually explaining away the large percentage of the Word of God which any honest, objective reader can see presupposes God’s involvement with His people to be in verifiable demonstration of His reality. (By God reality I mean that which can only be attributed to the God of the Bible)
As our Provider, God is both our Source and Supplier for all the needs of His creation, and since the miraculous is often of necessity to us (the new birth for starters), God thinks the humanly impossible should be normal and expected in our relationship/connection with Him, right? What we call the supernatural is natural for God. (His nature on display) Jesus called miracles the “works” of the family business. Couldn’t the skeptic (be it of an atheistic worldview or another religion) easily find it very convenient for a Christian apologist to dodge the face value implications of Jesus’ words alone and appeal to God having mysterious, glorious reasons for rarely willing anymore what Jesus always willed to do, because now we have the Bible? How convenient that we have to wait until the afterlife to know those “reasons” for God choosing something “better” or “more effective” than miraculous healing, etc. To me, it seems other religions could also conveniently claim that their “gods” will give their reasons in the afterlife for not demonstrating their reality and power in answer to prayer. Whereas I could give you testimonies of miracles done in Jesus’ name that facilitated the sharing of the Gospel with ease and boldness. (Much more so than trying to explain to sinners why it is rarely God’s will to answer prayer for healing, supposedly; Ironically, the sinner’s ignorance of the Bible promises and Jesus Christ worked in my favor, as a Christian trying to explain the lack of healing demonstration in response to many Christians’ prayers!)
All I’m saying is this: Healing doesn’t hurt the cause! Healing helps reveal Who our Father is. Healing helps the oppressed and afflicted. It helps the Kingdom to be recognized in the earth. It helps the believer/ minister experience the compassion and joy of God. Healing helps provide the world with more undeniable and irrefutable evidence of the Risen Christ. It helps as a bold conversation starter with anyone. Healing helps the Great Commission!
To some degree, we all have experienced the hurt of long-term conditions and untimely loss either personally or of those we love. It seems most painful to admit, “It could have been different.” WhiIe we know logically to say that it could not have been different, is to say that there was nothing else possible by the grace/power of God through faith. We don’t consistently hold that position in any other area of past experience. We humbly admit that there was always more available and possible through God than what we have experienced in areas like our spiritual, financial, relational, and emotional wellbeing. (Even in our good experiences not only the bad) We do not claim these other areas to have been solely in God’s hands and therefore could not have been better in any way. In no other area but the physical does it seem the tendency to think this way.
There are many potentially painful areas of Biblical truth for anyone who has experienced things when God’s will/desire was not fulfilled, such as: divorce, murder of loved one, suicide of loved one, abuse, drug addiction, financial ruin, war, traumatic accident, death of unsaved relative or friend, and the list could go on and on. We should weep with those who weep in such experiences. However, our desire to help those suffering to process well and also to prevent others from further suffering does not allow us to adjust our beliefs and teachings so as to avoid ever dealing with these topics Biblically.
I myself used to think in unbiblical ways concerning God’s will to heal, but the Word of God brought me to a crossroads. It will for every one of us. Here it is: Care more about how people feel? Or how God feels? Believe man’s word or God’s? You see, I reached the painful realization that to say, “There’s no way I (we) didn’t have faith for so and so’s healing. So and so himself/herself believed. But God chose not to heal. God said ‘no’.” is in actuality saying to God, “God, you promised that if I would believe, I would receive. And that if one who believes lays hands on the sick, they shall recover. And that the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. I (we) believed, but you did not keep your Word. You lied, God.” In effect, it is to say, “God, if anyone missed it, it was you.” Though often not that explicit, these statements are essentially implied regularly within the Church! I found that very concerning, even perplexing. How are these statements/explanations not unthinkable to us! The whole issue for me is: Do I care more about offending holy but fallible people? Do I care about offending a holy and infallible God?
Tragically, people have no fear or hesitation to blame our Heavenly Father for disease and death in ways that we would shudder to accuse other human beings. (accusations not without legal consequences, humanly speaking) How many of us have made blanket statements about how the all-knowing God operates without even hinting that we could be wrong/mistaken? Amazing! Not even a humble disclaimer! Proverbs tells us that God hates false witness. Do we realize that slander against God is the devil’s strategy from the beginning? Imagine being falsely charged on just one account of intentionally afflicting a child with a poisonous cancer-causing substance that resulted in years of painful agony and ultimately, his/her premature death. Do we realize the gravity of bearing false witness against God Himself just once, much less thousands if not every case? Even a sincere person’s accusation of physical harm/murder, based on ignorance of truth and innocent acceptance of falsehoods which he heard from who he thought to be credible sources, has devastating consequences for the person accused. (At least until the truth is discovered and the accusation disproven) Misinformed accusations against God made by well-meaning people still produce tragic affects.
Only the God Who is infinitely love would suffer so long these misrepresentations in the area healing (and more) by His family who often does not consider His feelings/emotions. Nothing but God’s strong love could bear up under the hurtfulness of it all. (Not to mention how the lost world treats Him) We could ask ourselves, “Does this healing a hurtful subject to the Father?” The Holy Spirit is often grieved because these false accusations usually are made as an effort to comfort/cope in times of suffering and loss. Yet, the comfort God gives does not contradict His Word. The Holy Ghost Comforter is the Spirit of truth. He will not guide us away from truth in order to comfort us. Therefore, as much hurt as we feel, we cannot take comfort in explanations that are at the expense of truth. When our explanations are embraced at the cost of truth, we actually allow the causes of our hurt to continue, because only the truth makes us free.
To be continued in Part 12…
