Perhaps the most common objection to all of this is one that is not based on God’s Word, but on people’s experiences. It usually goes something like this: “I knew a wonderful Christian woman who prayed to be healed of cancer, yet she died. That proves it is not God’s will to heal all.”

We should never attempt to determine God’s will by anything other than His Word. For example, if you traveled back in time and watched the Israelites wander in the wilderness for forty years while the land that flowed with milk and honey waited just across the Jordan River, you may have concluded that it wasn’t God’s will for Israel to enter the promised land. But if you know the Bible, then you know that was not the case. It was certainly God’s will for Israel to enter the Promised Land, but they failed to enter because of their unbelief (see Heb. 3:19).

What about all the people who are now in hell? It was God’s will for them to be in heaven, but they didn’t meet the conditions of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus. So, too, we cannot determine God’s will concerning healing by looking at sick people. Just because a Christian prays for healing and fails to receive, that doesn’t prove it isn’t God’s will to heal all. If that Christian had met God’s conditions, he would have been healed, or else God is a liar. When we fail to receive healing and then blame God with the excuse that healing was not His will, we are no different than unbelieving Israelites who died in the wilderness claiming it wasn’t God’s will for them to enter the Promised Land. We would be better to just swallow our pride and admit that we are to blame.

As I stated in the previous chapter about faith, many sincere Christians have wrongfully ended their prayers for healing with the faith-destroying phrase, “If it be Thy will.” This plainly reveals that they are not praying in faith because they aren’t sure of God’s will. When it comes to healing, God’s will is very plain, as we have already seen. If you know God wants to heal you, there is no reason to add “if it be Thy will” to your prayer for healing. That would be equivalent to saying to the Lord, “Lord, I know you promised to heal me, but just in case you were lying about it, I ask you to heal me only if it actually is Your will.”

It is also certainly true that God may discipline disobedient believers by allowing sickness to afflict them, even to the point of allowing their premature death in some cases. Such believers obviously need to repent before they can receive healing (see 1 Cor. 11:27-32). There are others who, by neglecting to take care of their bodies, open themselves up to sickness. Christians should be intelligent enough to maintain a healthy diet, to eat moderately, to exercise regularly, and to take necessary rest.

Although the subject of divine healing is somewhat controversial, it is certainly not one that is obscure in Scripture. In fact, one-tenth of all that was written in the four Gospels concerns Jesus’ healing ministry. There are promises for divine healing in the Old Testament, in the Gospels and the New Testament epistles. Those who are ill can find great encouragement in a wealth of faith-building scriptures.

It has been my general observation around the world that where churches are full of highly-committed believers (true disciples), divine healing is much more commonplace. Where the church is lukewarm and sophisticated, divine healing is a very rare occurrence.^[1] All of this should not surprise us, as Jesus told us that one of the signs that will follow believers is that they will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover (see Mark 16:18). If we were to judge churches by the signs that Jesus declared would follow the believers, we would have to conclude that many churches consist of no believers:

And [Jesus] said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:15-18).

The disciple-making minister, imitating the perfect ministry of Christ, will certainly use his gifts to promote the ministry of divine healing within his sphere of influence. He knows that divine healing furthers God’s kingdom in at least two ways. First, healing miracles are a wonderful advertisement for the gospel, as any child who reads the Gospels or the book of Acts would understand (but which many ministers with advance degrees seemingly are unable to comprehend). Second, healthy disciples aren’t hindered from ministry by personal sickness.

The disciple-making minister also needs to be sensitive to those members in the body of Christ who desire healing but who have had difficulty receiving. They often need tender instruction and gentle encouragement, especially if they have grown adverse to any healing message. The disciple-making minister faces a choice: he can avoid teaching on the subject of divine healing altogether, in which case no one will be offended and no one will be healed. Or he can lovingly teach on the subject and risk offending some while helping other to experience healing. Personally, I’ve opted for the second option, believing that it follows Jesus’ example.

^[1] In some churches in North America, a minister would take great risks to teach on this subject due to the heavy resistance he would encounter from the so-called believers. Jesus, too, met resistance and unbelief at times that hindered His healing ministry (see Mark 6:1-6).

We know that Paul told Timothy to use a little wine for the sake of his stomach and his frequent ailments (see 1 Tim. 5:23).

Actually, Paul told Timothy to stop drinking water and to use a little wine for the sake of his stomach and frequent ailments. This would seem to indicate that something was wrong with the water. Obviously, if you are drinking contaminated water, you should stop drinking it and start drinking something else, or you will probably have stomach problems like Timothy.

I happen to be writing this sentence in a city in Germany. When I departed from my hometown in the United States last week, I left numerous sick people behind me. I left hospitals full of sick people. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t God’s will for all of them to be healed. Just because Paul left one man sick in a city he visited is not proof that it wasn’t God’s will for that man to be healed. What about the hoards of unsaved people whom Paul also left behind? Does that prove it wasn’t God’s will for them to be saved? Absolutely not.

Some people want us to believe that the only reason Jesus healed was to prove His deity. Now that His deity is well established, He supposedly no longer heals.

That is completely incorrect. It is true that Jesus’ miracles did authenticate His deity, but that is not the only reason He healed people during his earthly ministry. Many times Jesus forbade people whom He healed to tell anyone what had happened to them (see Matt. 8:4; 9:6, 30; 12:13-16; Mark 5:43; 7:36; 8:26). If Jesus healed people for the singular purpose of proving His deity, He would have told those people to tell everyone what He had done for them.

What was the motivation behind Jesus’ healings? Many times Scripture says He healed because He was “moved with compassion” (see Matt. 9:35-36; 14:14; 20:34; Mark 1:41; 5:19; Luke 7:13). The reason Jesus healed is because He loved people and was full of compassion. Has Jesus become less compassionate since His earthly ministry? Has His love diminished? Absolutely not!

This objection is used by some who have taken a verse from the story of the raising of Lazarus as a basis to claim they are suffering sickness for God’s glory. Jesus said concerning Lazarus:

This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it (John 11:4).

Jesus wasn’t saying that God was being glorified as a result of Lazarus’ sickness, but that God would be glorified when Lazarus was healed and raised from the dead. In other words, the final result of the sickness wouldn’t be death, but rather that God would be glorified. God isn’t glorified in sickness; He is glorified in healing. (See also Matt. 9:8; 15:31; Luke 7:16; 13:13 and 17:15, where healing brought glory to God.)

Praise the Lord! If you’ve read the end of Job’s story, you know he was healed. It wasn’t God’s will for Job to remain sick, and it isn’t God’s will for you to remain sick either. Job’s story reaffirms that God’s will is always healing.

That is impossible in light of all the scriptures we have considered. If you’ve been persisting in disobedience, it could be true that God has permitted your sickness in order to bring you to repentance. But it is still not His will for you to remain sick. He wants you to repent and be healed.

Additionally, if God wants you to be sick, then why are you going to the doctor and taking medication, hoping to be healed? Are you trying to get out of “God’s will”?

Some object to my explanation of Paul’s thorn, saying, “But didn’t Paul himself say to the Galatians that he was sick the first time he preached the gospel to them? Wasn’t he speaking of his thorn in the flesh?”

Here is what Paul actually wrote in his letter to the Galatians:

But you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself (Gal. 4:13-14).

The Greek word translated illness here in Galatians 4:13 is asthenia , which literally means “weakness.” It can mean weakness because of sickness, but it doesn’t have to.

For example, Paul wrote, “the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:25, emphasis added). The word that is translated weakness in this instance is also the word asthenia . It would not make any sense if the translators had translated it “the illness of God is stronger than men.” (See also Matt. 26:41 and 1 Pet. 3:7, where the word asthenia is translated weakness and could not possibly be translated sickness ).

When Paul first visited Galatia, as recorded in the book of Acts, there is no mention of him being ill. There is mention, however, of him being stoned and left for dead, and he was either raised from the dead or miraculously revived (see Acts 14:5-7, 19-20). Surely Paul’s body, after he was stoned and left for dead, would have been in horrible condition with cuts and bruises all over it.

Paul did not have a sickness in Galatia that was a trial to his listeners. Rather, his body was weak from his recent stoning. Most likely, he still carried the reminders of his persecutions in Galatia when he wrote his letter to the Galatians, because he ended his epistle with these words:

From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus (Gal. 6:17).

But if that is true, some ask, then why isn’t everyone healed? The answer to that question is best answered by asking another question: Why are not all people born again? All are not born again because they either haven’t heard the gospel or else they haven’t believed it. So, too, each individual must appropriate his healing through his own faith. Many have never yet heard the wonderful truth that Jesus bore their sicknesses; others have heard but rejected it.

God the Father’s attitude toward sickness has been clearly revealed by the ministry of His beloved Son, who testified of Himself,

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner (John 5:19).

We read in the book of Hebrews that Jesus was the “exact representation of His [Father’s] nature” (Heb. 1:3). There is no question that Jesus’ attitude toward sickness was identical to His Father’s attitude toward sickness.

What was Jesus’ attitude? Not once did he turn away anyone who came to Him requesting healing. Not once did He say to a sick person who desired to be healed, “No, it’s not God’s will that you be healed, so you’ll have to remain sick.” Jesus always healed the sick who came to Him, and once they were healed, He often told them it was their faith that had healed them. Moreover, the Bible declares that God never changes (see Mal. 3:6) and that Jesus Christ “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).