A Christian Perspective of Healing – Part 2

By Pastor William R. Cunningham
Sunday February 26, 2006

Scripture Lesson: 

Luke 18:1-8 (NKJV) -- {1} Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, {2} saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. {3} Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ {4} And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, {5} yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ” {6} Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. {7} And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? {8} I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Introduction

I brought up quite a bit of information in regards to spiritual healing.  However, my position was from a Christian context.  However, even with that we must be careful in how we approach this topic because it is easy to get into New Age thinking or the false teachings of healing ministries.

Further research has revealed that many of the spiritual healings in regards to prayer and intercessory prayer could be attributed to chance.  In other words there are others that would say that the results of the prayer tests that we discussed last week are not conclusive.  They also suggested that the positive results attributed to prayers could have been simply the result of chance.

Can we prove this either way?  No we cannot.  Then why bother to pray for healing or health?  Why not just live and do whatever we want to do?  Why bother to pray at all since some suggest that it really doesn’t make a difference?  We are told to pray, but does it really matter?  Does God answer prayer today or is everything just a matter of chance?

I would like to discuss the issues presented in the above questions.  I would like to take a realistic approach to the topic of prayer.  What does prayer accomplish for us in our real everyday life?

Why Pray?

Why should we pray?  Does prayer really accomplish anything?  We pray for the sick and yet most remain sick.  Can we really attribute the healing of those we pray for to prayer itself?  Perhaps the person would have recovered anyway.  We found in last weeks discussion that some doctors seem to have found a correlation between praying for someone and that person’s healing.  However, other doctors suggest that the results of such experiments are not conclusive.  So then again, why pray?

We should pray because God said to pray?  I suggested in the last discussion that there appears to be much more to prayer than what we may think.  Perhaps there are activities in the spiritual realm that are induced by our prayers.  Consider the following scripture for example.

Revelation 5:8 (NKJV) -- {8} Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Revelation 8:3-4 (NKJV) -- {3} Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. {4} And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

Here we see that the prayers of the saints have a somewhat tangible attribute to them.  They were not mere requests from a mental or emotional perspective.  They were real.  They were a “something” that went before the Lord.  So our prayers are not just abstract ideals or religious practices, but real entities that God can receive.

We saw in our scripture lesson that Jesus basically taught us that we should always pray and not give up.  The parable seems to suggest that prayer is not necessarily a question-and-answer type of situation.  The parable suggests that prayer and the results of those prayers may indeed be a process.  I think that this is very important when we think of prayer.  The scripture lesson also suggests that true faith is in enduring while praying.

However, before we digress here, let me say that we should pray because Jesus said so.  Prayer is how we interact with God.  Prayer is like a converter from physical/mental to spirit.  In other words, we can take real physical situations and express them mentally through the medium of prayer. 

What Does Prayer Accomplish?

This is difficult to say because how would we know?  In other words, how would I know that my prayers for someone affected the outcome for that person?  Would the outcome be the same if I had not prayed?  What about the things that I prayed for, but didn’t get?  Did my prayers accomplish anything or was I just looking for the wrong thing?

I believe that since Jesus said we should pray and that prayer is revealed to us throughout the Bible that we should indeed pray.  Therefore, that suggests that our prayers do accomplish something else they would be meaningless and the Bible would be instructing us in futility.

Jesus said that we should always pray.  He didn’t say that God would answer those prayers at least in the way that we want him to.  He said that we should pray and not give up.  Now I want you to look very carefully at the following scripture.

Matthew 26:39 (NKJV) -- {39} He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Matthew 26:42 (NKJV) -- {42} Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

Jesus wanted the cup to pass from him.  That is, Jesus did not want to have to go through the agony that he knew he would go through.  However, in the end he yielded to God’s will even though it meant pain and his death (though He did rise again).  We find sometimes that people prayed and their prayers were not answered.  Consider the following.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NKJV) -- {7} And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. {8} Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. {9} And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. {10} Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Here Paul was troubled about something.  There is much speculation as to what the thorn in the flesh was.  In any case it was something that he wanted to be rid of.  Paul prayed for that, but did not get it removed.  We might say that Paul’s prayers were not answered, but it also appears that the will of God superseded his prayers.

I am also reminded of the many people who were persecuted and killed for their faith.  Surely they prayed for themselves and surely others prayed for them and yet they still were killed.  Paul was eventually killed. Peter and many of the apostles were eventually killed.  Many early Christians were killed.  Many Christians today are killed and yet I am sure that there are people all over the world who prayed for them.

We don’t understand the will of God, but ultimately Father knows best.  We don’t know why God allows things to happen the way that they do, but we have to rest assured knowing that God indeed loves us and cares for us.

The Good Things

Sometimes we are blessed when we pray.  This really means that sometimes the outcome is more what we expected than not.  I can recall many things that I prayed for, but did not get.  I can think of the many situations that I prayed for and could not get out of, but had to go through.  I prayed many times to be healed, but remained sick. 

However, I can also look back on my life and recall the situations that I did pray for and did get out of by no power of my own. I was laid off from my job back in 2003 and yet now I am working at the best job of my entire life.  I prayed to God for a truck for many years and talked about it all of the time and yet last year (2005) I was able to purchase a truck.  My wife and I prayed for a house in the suburbs and we were eventually and suddenly living in one.  The first house was the same way.

The point here is that our lives are full of bad and good things.  Sure we pray for things that don’t work out or at least not the way that we want.  There are times that we do pray and things do work out even still not necessarily how we expected it or when.  I mentioned previously that the Apostle Peter was eventually killed.  However, consider the following.

Acts 12:5-10 (NKJV) -- {5} Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. {6} And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. {7} Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. {8} Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” {9} So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. {10} When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

Here we see Peter in prison.  People prayed for him and he was broken out of prison with the help of an angel.  Did the prayers do it was God going to do that anyway?  If nothing else it was God’s will that was the reason behind Peter breaking out of prison.  I say this because of the following revelation from scripture.

1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV) -- {14} Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. {15} And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

The Will of God is Accomplished

The important thing about prayer is that God’s purpose will be accomplished.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that everything that happens is God’s will because we have to remember that the world is corrupted by sin.  It is not God’s will that people are maimed by wild animals or are killed by natural disasters.  It is not God’s will when multitudes of people are killed by tyrants.  Those are the affects of sin.

Why do the bad things happen and why can’t prayer stop them?  We don’t know.  We only have to rely on what God tells us and that is all what is important.

We Don’t Know Why All Prayers Don’t Seem To Work

The same thing pertains to healing.  We pray for healing.  Sometimes we recover and sometimes we don’t.  The important thing is to know that God’s will is ultimately what’s important.  However, that seemed kind of strange to me because God could heal us if he wanted to.  So why isn’t it such that if a Christian prays for someone that that person would be healed of their infirmities?  Why can’t the prayers of true Children of God effect healing in the body every time?

The fact of the matter is that we do not know.  The Bible shows us where prayers resulted in healing and deliverance.  We also find instances where prayer still resulted in death and destruction.  We just do not know, but we should still rest in our faith in God and know that God loves us and is doing all sorts of things for our benefit.

What We Do Know

We do know the following about God.

1. God loves us
2. He demonstrated his love for us by dying on the cross as a man for the sins of the world
3. He revealed himself to us and reached out to us when in fact he didn’t have to
4. His grace has extended to us so that we could have an eternal relationship with him.

We can rest in the knowledge that God truly cares for us even when we are sick and hurting and even when we are blessed and prospering.  God loves us and cares for us and ultimately we will be with Him for all eternity.  Nothing on earth could compare with that.

Romans 8:18 (NKJV) -- {18} For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Even the tribulations that we go through on earth could be for a purpose.

Romans 5:3 (NKJV) -- {3} And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
Again, we don’t know why prayer doesn’t appear to be the panacea for all of our sicknesses and diseases.  However, we are still to pray continually because God said so.  There is something more to prayer than what we may think.  Prayer is more than request and answer exercise.

Conclusion

Keep praying.  There have been studies that suggest that prayer really makes a difference in the healing of the body.  There are also those that suggest that those tests are not conclusive.  However, above all of that we know that Jesus said that we should always pray and never give up so keep praying.

There appears to be much more to prayer than what we may think. Perhaps it isn’t for the purpose that we may think, that is, merely for delivery, healing, blessings, etc.  Perhaps the purpose of prayer is much more than that or more precisely much more eternal than that.  The bottom line is to pray and know that God loves you.  The conclusion of the whole matter is simply to revere God and do what He says.  There is nothing else lasting that we can do anyway.

Don’t concentrate on the things of this earth because nothing on earth, neither good or bad could compare with the joy that we will have with God for all eternity.  Be blessed and pray.  Amen.