Healing Discernment

Christians need to cultivate a healthy skepticism toward everything that cannot be supported by the plain teaching of the Bible. Belief is faith only when it has God's revealed truth for miracles; beyond that it may be fully as injurious as unbelief itself. "Test everything. Hold on to the good." (First Thessalonians 5:21). When so-called preachers call in the aid of childish stories and shaky illustrations to prove its truth, they do no more than to reveal their hidden unbelief and air their weak credulity. I am praying that God deliver us from those who are masking as God's servants while they resorting to untruthful practices. Christians cannot do the work of the Lord using Satan's tactics and we Christians should be aware of such tactics. Investigations of the past have revealed that so-called servants had been hiring healthy persons to come up on stage and pretend to be healed. This was done, they explained when faced with the deed, to "encourage weak faith." Thus lying and deception were deliberately made a part of the appearance methods of the Holy Spirit. There are others who uses "ministries" on the power of money and personality, yet testify that they are trusting in the power of the Spirit. This is one of Satan's greatest tricks and many introduce into their so called "Christian" work every gimmick known to the world, and so destroy the very thing we Christians cherishes. written in Scripture, an apostle’s own words, is a warning about Christians who used to call themselves Paul’s equals: "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds." (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Satan needed to counteract the truth. So he developed lies about God, eternal destiny, and other spiritual truths. The best way to interpret the concept of healing is to let Scripture interpret itself. Peter did just that when he wrote "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24). Peter makes it obvious that the wounds that are healed are spiritual not physical. The Bible contains a number of examples of righteous people who were not healed. Paul admits that "Trophimus I left sick at Miletus" (2 Tim. 4:20). Paul had to rely on God's mercy that his friend Epaphroditus' deathly illness had run its course sparing his life (Phil. 3:25-26). It appears that Paul was unable to help Epaproditus himself. Moreover, Paul was unable to heal himself. In Gal. 4:13-14, he writes "As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself." Paul also suffered from a "thorn in the flesh" which he unsuccessfully petitioned to have the Lord remove (2 Cor. 12:7-9). Neither the example of Paul nor anyone else indicated that they were under the impression that healing here now was guaranteed to all or that it was in any way associated with Christ's work on the cross. They simply accepted their situations and trusted in God's grace for sustenance. The basic theology is that God does not guarantee healing for all believers, at least not in this life, all believers will eventually be healed of all physical aliments as well as spiritual aliments. But just as we still possess a sinful nature, we also possess a body still in bondage to decay. The perfection of all things was brought about the work on the cross; it just has not yet manifested itself and will not until the return of our Lord. Christ did not guarantee physical healing for all. We are still living inside our sinful body with our sinful natures and are still subject to the laws of decay. With many people around the world are SAVED.... it should be noted that there are still many people are not physically healed. It’s a wonder if Faith actually guaranteed, there will be more people physically healed. God does heal but only according to His will, not ours. Those who are not healed are not at fault. Its not about lack of faith or our sins or anything like that. The bible explains that each of our faith always pleases God, because it comes to grips with our own reality. Please be careful how you use the word "faith". Faith is not supposed to be competitive. Faith is not supposed to be 'works'. Faith is supposed to be having a personal relationship with our Savior, God, Holy Spirit... trusting our God that He will provide whatever we need. Don't let anyone discourage you from your joyful relationship with God. Determining a reason why a person is not healed or is struggling If you know someone who is suffering, be careful what you say and keep in mind that your best guess as to the reason for someone's suffering is likely to be way off. Ever heard? "If you are not healed, then your faith in God is not strong enough." "If you are sick, then you must have sinned." There is one person in the Bible that told one person that he believed that if someone's life is messed up, then there is obviously a cause. Later God rebuked this man saying, "I am angry with you and your friends, for you have not been right in what you said about me, as my servant Job was". (Job 42:7) __________________ Sometimes the struggle is exactly what we need to become what God intends us to be (Joanie Yoder, Our Daily Bread) "I have relinquished my destiny to God's will. Nothing, praise God, not even cancer, can thwart His will. I may have cancer, but cancer doesn't have me-God alone has me. So in this light, I would value your prayers that Christ may be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death." Joanie Yoder (Died of Cancer 10/15/2004).