Twenty-Two Reasons for Failure to Be Healed.
It is so clearly revealed throughout the Scriptures that the Heavenly Father wills our healing. Why do some who seek healing fail to receive it? This question is in the minds of many honest inquirers. There are several answers to this question, which we will mention briefly. By these answers many have been helped who had previously failed to receive healing. Consequently, they have been gloriously healed.
The first reason for not receiving healing is ignorance concerning the healing power of the Gospel. Paul tells us that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Many have sought healing from Christ before they heard or knew enough of the Word of God. They have not had a steadfast faith. Those in the early Church were in one accord in the matter of proclaiming all the Gospel. They kept back nothing that was profitable. Paul declared "all the counsel of God."
We have seen that God's way of producing faith for healing is the same as that of producing faith for salvation. This is the way for any other blessing. The needy one should first learn, from the Scriptures, what God's will is in the matter. The hand of faith cannot reach out and take from God what the eye of faith does not first see to be the will of God. Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." It is the truth of the written Word that sets us free. Freedom is the truth known, understood, received, acted on, maintained, and steadfastly believed with an appropriating faith.
Paul tells us that it is "the Word of God, which effectually worketh in [them] that believe." The Word of God is the "precious seed"; the "imperishable seed." It is the seed that has the power. It never fails to do its own work. It must be known and received and kept in "the good ground," the only place the good seed can grow.
Some fail to receive healing because they are trying to get results from the seed, the Word concerning healing, without knowing what that Word is. They try to get results without giving the Word its place, without keeping the good seed in the good ground." The seed cannot work in us unless it is in by our having known and received it.
God said, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," and promised to take away all our sicknesses. But, He first said, "If thou wilt diligently hearken ... and do all." This means, to be diligent in the matter of knowing, understanding, and practicing what God says in His Word on the subject of healing. We must know what God offers to us before we can expect to receive it from Him. The knowledge of God's will must precede faith for His will to be done. Multitudes today do not know that the perfect healing of their bodies is the fully revealed will of God in His written Word, the Bible. To know this, is the only sufficient evidence for appropriating faith.
Those seeking healing can say when tested, "It is written." They can then quote God's promises to Satan. This settles the question of God's will. Without this, their faith cannot remain steadfast. Many sufferers have prayed for healing for years without success. This is because they have prayed the faith destroying phrase, "If it be Thy will." Then later, they have been healed through the truth of God's Word contained and explained in this book.
The early Church was in one accord in teaching this truth. The believers also lifted up their voices to God in one accord in prayer for "signs and wonders" of healing. They prayed "the prayer of faith" before the sick were brought into the streets of Jerusalem. It was not the faith of a single evangelist, but the faith of the entire company of believers. This brought healing to everyone in the streets of Jerusalem after Christ's ascension (Acts 5:14-16).
The majority of ministers and Christians today are bound by their traditions of ultradispensationalism on the subject of the ministry of healing. Through their lack of understanding the Word, they are opposed to it as it was taught, preached, and practiced in the early Church.
Church members, as a whole, have not accepted our Lord's attitude toward sickness as revealed in the Gospels. They cannot pray with one accord for these healing results as the early Church did. In our day, opposition often takes the place of united prayer. Unbelief takes the place of united faith. Unlike the early Church, lukewarmness takes the place of being Spirit- filled. I will ask you the question. Since we are members one of another, may not the blame for the failure of some to receive healing today be largely due to the unbelieving part of the Church itself? I believe you will agree to this.
We so often hear it said "the day of miracles has passed." Suppose it were generally believed that the day of regeneration has passed. How this would hinder the work of the ministry in that part of the Gospel! Christian workers could have no success in saving souls. They would have to first get people to give up the false tradition and put the Word of God in its place. On the other hand, suppose that from infancy we had all been taught the healing part of the Gospel. In this case, I am sure, very few would have any difficulty in evidencing faith for healing. It is the Word of God that produces faith for healing. We have had the joy of seeing hundreds healed while they were listening to the truth on that subject. Others have been healed while reading our printed instructions. These answered their questions and removed the hindrances to their faith
The second reason why some fail to receive healing is an enlargement on what we have already said. Christ planned to continue His healing ministry during His absence. This was to be accomplished by His whole Church, which is His Body, not through an obscure member of that Body. He said, "These signs shall follow them," the Church, not "him," the individual. Christ had gone away, and had sent His successor, the Holy Spirit. It was not the faith of a lone or solitary evangelist but that of a Spirit-filled Church. This brought healing to all the sick in the streets of Jerusalem.
Today some do not like public healing services. When God had His way, He had the multitudes healed right on the streets. He wanted His compassion to be made known to the world as a basis for faith. God began His works in this dispensation as He wants them continued, through the whole church. Every member should be filled and kept filled with the Holy Spirit.
The greatest number of conversions today are brought about by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and through a Church that is in one accord. This is the way that all were healed in the streets of Jerusalem.
Most of God's dealings with men, both in saving and healing, are by the outpouring of His Spirit and through a Spirit-filled, united, and praying Church. His method is revealed by the promise, "I will pour out my Spirit," and the statement, "They were all filled with the Spirit." A spirit-filled and praying Church produces an atmosphere in which it is easy for God to work. This makes it difficult for the devil to interfere. This atmosphere is the Holy Spirit himself. He is more than a match for the devil.
In the revival belt, during the Finney revivals and other great revivals, sinners fell under conviction as soon as they stepped off the train where a revival was in progress. Mr. Finney tells of such a unity in prayer that every adult person on a street three miles long was saved, except one. The Christians unitedly prayed for that one, and he was saved.
It is true that individuals are sometimes saved and healed where there is no revival. However, God's regular way is for His people all to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We read, "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." We seldom see such a thing now! Some of our theology today causes many people to anchor in past blessings. They do not have a daily renewing of the fullness which constituted the initial blessing. Then Christians were filled with the Spirit. Unless the Church is filled and kept filled with the Holy Spirit it is impossible that the spiritual atmosphere of the meetings can be what it must be. Otherwise, God is limited or hindered. This atmosphere is produced by the whole Church being filled with the Spirit and all praying for the work of Christ. Then the power of God is present to heal as it was at the beginning. God's way is for the whole Church to be filled and kept filled with the same Holy Spirit who saved and healed those multitudes in New Testament times.
The results of the fulfillment of divine promises are the same in any age. If you want to know how the Spirit acts now, just read how He acted when He had full possession of the Church. The book of Acts is a blueprint by which the Holy Spirit wishes to work throughout His dispensation. The early Christians in Acts 4 were all filled with the Spirit; all prevailed in prayer for "signs and wonders" of healing. In James 5 all Christians are commanded to pray for the healing of the sick, and to do it as earnestly as Elijah prayed for rain. When this was done in the early Church, "the prayer of faith" by the elders was but voicing the prayer of the whole Church.
John says, "This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us." This was proven by the whole company of Christians in the fourth chapter of the Acts. Every Christian today is commanded to be filled with the Spirit, to pray for the outpouring of the Spirit, and to prevail in prayer for the healing of the sick. Every priest should be exercising his priesthood. The failure of the majority to do this in our day pollutes the atmosphere of the meetings. It makes it harder for the sick to have faith and for the Holy Spirit to work.
The failure of Christians to live and walk in the Spirit limits the Holy One of Israel. Our being filled with the Spirit is the condition for His perfect working. Instead of being surrounded by this atmosphere in our day, a poor, afflicted wife often is surrounded with opposition from her own family. Sometimes she gets opposition from her own pastor and fellow church members. She fails to receive healing, being too weak in mind and body to fight the battle alone. The very ones who are opposing her are the ones who ought to be praying in faith for her healing. We are all to "bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
Those in the early Church met the condition of being filled with the Spirit. Today it is the very ones who are violating these conditions who are asking why some fail to receive healing. The answer is because these very doubters are making it impossible for the Church, to be in one accord in prayer and faith for the sick. The Church is out of tune with God's program.
A remarkable document is signed by twenty bishops of the Episcopal Church in the Commonwealth of Australia. It gives a wonderful report of the miracles of healing manifested in the cathedrals of that Church in the various cities of that country. In this report they say:
The faith which is needed is not merely individual but corporate faith, the faith of the home, of the ministry and of the whole Church. The Body, not a lone member of it, must cooperate with Christ its Head if it's sick members are all to be healed. The most marked groups after the mission, came from parishes where the wave of intercession had been highest and swept farthest.... The world today is waiting for a fresh revelation of the presence and Power of God in the work of the Church and in the life of its members. It has already seen and felt once more the wonder of Divine healing.
Today a large part of the members of the Church, through ignorance, are opposing that for which the early Church prevailed in prayer. They have not accepted our Lord's attitude toward sickness. They have not met the conditions for the healing of the sick that God desires. It is these very hinderers who are pointing out the failures for which they themselves are largely responsible.
It is not uncommon today to find those, who ought to be doing the works of Christ, warning the sick to stay away from places where the works of Christ are being done. Would it not be better for them to warn the people against going where confirmation or baptism or church membership or reformation are put in the place of the new birth?
The third reason why some fail to receive healing from Christ is community unbelief. Jesus worked miracles and healed all that were sick. When He came to His hometown of Nazareth where He had been brought up, "He could not do any miracles there ... [because of] their unbelief" (Mark 6:5-6 Weymouth). Think of it! Christ Himself, under the full anointing of the Holy Ghost, was hindered by community unbelief. Since this is true, is it strange that today some in any city should fail to receive healing? In Nazareth God would not allow the gift of miracles to operate through Christ where, by their unbelief, the people were making Him a liar. Why should He do so today? Paul had better success in working miracles among the heathen than Jesus had in His hometown (Acts 14).
On the subject of healing, people have been taught today to believe in traditions in the place of the plain Word of God. This has turned the whole world into a veritable Nazareth of unbelief. I mean by that, today community unbelief is almost general. Those who preach the full Gospel and pray for the sick are obliged to labor in a Nazareth of unbelief. We can get only as far as we can get rid of the "traditions of men" regarding healing. We have to teach the people what the Scriptures actually teach on the subject. By doing this, I boldly say that Jesus Christ (not ourselves) has had greater success in working miracles in all the cities where our revival campaigns have been conducted than He had in Nazareth, His own hometown. Now, don't misquote me. I am not saying that we have had success. I am talking about what Christ has done. Whenever and wherever the people have been enlightened by our ministry, they know their privilege in the matter of healing.
The fact that Christ could do no miracle in Nazareth only Proved the unbelief of the people. If, as some are teaching, the sick are to be healed without their faith, why didn't Jesus go ahead and heal the sick in Nazareth? The Bible answers, "because of their unbelief."
Some Christians today explain the failure of some to receive healing by calling in question Christ's willingness to heal all Persons. They should then call in question His willingness to save all sinners, in order to explain the fact that so many in the churches are unsaved.
Upon a certain occasion only one woman in a great throng touched Jesus with faith for healing. Later on, whole multitudes did so. It is a matter of enlightenment and faith.
The nine disciples had failed to deliver the epileptic boy mentioned in the Gospels. Some theologian of that day, if he were like many of the theologians of these days, might have seized upon that failure. He might say, "There, now we have the proof that it is not always God's will to heal." But the father wanted the boy to be healed. The boy himself wanted to be healed. The disciples, divinely commissioned to cast out devils and heal the sick, wanted him to be healed. Under similar circumstances today someone would say because of such a failure, "It is not God's will that such a one should be healed." They would make theology out of the failure. But Jesus came down from the mountain and delivered the boy. This proves it to be God's will to heal, even when His accredited representatives had failed to heal. Why not make theology out of this?
When the father of this boy said to Jesus, "If Thou canst do anything," Jesus refused to take the responsibility for any failure. He said, "If thou canst believe...." Then the father cried out, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Of course, he received the help asked for. He succeeded where the apostles had failed. Christ delivered the boy.
The fact is that in the healing ministry we are compelled to labor in the face of almost universal unbelief. Those who preach only the salvation of the soul part of the Gospel are laboring in the midst of the almost universal acceptance of that doctrine. However, God is giving proofs of divine healing as bright and as convincing as the proofs of regeneration. This is with not nearly so much teaching to produce faith. When I think of the lack of teaching on divine healing, and the unspiritual condition of the churches, I am not surprised at the lack of faith, because of their general attitude toward this part of forgotten orthodoxy. Instead of wondering why some are not healed, I marvel at the success God is giving to those who pray for the sick. I have seen many deaf mutes healed when scarcely a person in the audience expected the healing.
Thousands now testify that they have been divinely healed and are in good health physically. The general average of professing Christians in any church is not always spiritually healthy. Would not the physical health of those who testify that they have been divinely healed compare favorably with the spiritual health of those who oppose the Gospel of healing? Is the average professed Christian any better proof of the doctrine of regeneration than those who testify to having been divinely healed are of the doctrine of divine healing? They ought to be, because they have heard that part of the Word of God all their lives. The majority of those who are healed when we pray for them, have heard the plain teaching of the Word of God concerning divine healing for only a few days. There are many today who have been divinely healed after having been deaf and dumb from birth. They can hear better physically than the average church member can hear spiritually. I have seen many who could not walk a step until after they had been prayed for, who are now walking better physically than the average Christian is walking spiritually. The average Christian, all of his life, has heard the Word of God, which teaches the healing of the soul, whereas these others have heard only a few times the Word of God, which teaches the healing of the body.
Are all who have been baptized washed from all their sins? No, but those who have faith are. What water is in the ordinance of Christian baptism, oil is in the ordinance of anointing the sick for healing.
Suppose someone should say to me, "So-and-so was anointed but was not healed." I would answer, "So-and-so was baptized but was not saved and was not healed from the disease of sin." If a man should say to me, "I know a man whom you anointed whose body was not healed," I would say to him, "I know a man whom you baptized whose soul was not healed." Thousands who have been baptized have never been regenerated. This is infinitely worse than for a Christian to fail to receive healing for his body.
Some say, "If so-and-so should be healed, I will believe in divine healing." Why not be consistent? Say, "If so-and-so should get saved, I will believe in salvation." This is the same as to say, "I will believe so-and-so's experience in preference to God, the Bible, and the experiences of all the other thousands who have been saved and healed." After God has healed thousands from all their afflictions, why not say to Him, "I will not believe unless you heal one more."
Would you reject the doctrine of consecration because some church members are not consecrated, while thousands of others are? I heard a minister say, concerning the work of another evangelist, "So-and-so was anointed and prayed for, but died without being healed." Yet this same minister baptized so-and-so and took him into the Church, thereby proclaiming to the world that his soul had been healed from the disease of sin. But the man died without the new birth, and his soul was lost. This is infinitely worse than for a sick Christian to fail to be healed and to die and wake up in glory.
Suppose the testimony of those of us who say we have been healed is rejected, because after a careful examination by a medical expert, it could be shown that we fall short of physical perfection. To be consistent, why should we not have a spiritual expert with spiritual discernment, such as the apostle Paul had, examine those in the modern Church who oppose the gospel of healing. Let him reject the testimony of all those among them who do not measure up spiritually to what the Bible represents a healthy soul to be.
After witnessing the miraculous healing of thousands, I am convinced that the proofs of healing are as bright and convincing as are the proofs of regeneration. Yet I do not base any doctrine on these answers to prayer. I, for one, will preach all the Gospel if I never see another man saved or healed as long as I live. I am determined to base my doctrines on the immutable Word of God, not on phenomena or human experience.
No minister can get results until, by preaching the Word of God, he can produce faith for what that Word offers. Sixty thousand churches in the United States reported no conversions in a whole year. However, I am not going to offer this fact as a reason for fighting the doctrine of regeneration, or any other part of the Gospel.
Some say, "We believe in healing, but we do not believe in parading it." I have noticed that some who fail to rejoice with those who succeed in receiving healing from Christ are quick to parade a failure. They say nothing about the successes. To me it is a mystery how any Christian can fail to rejoice when a poor afflicted person has been healed by Christ. I not only rejoice when a sufferer has been healed by Christ, but I am glad to parade God's mercy to the world. "Make known His deeds among the people" is the command of God. Jesus commanded the demoniac, out of whom He cast the devil, to go back to his own community and tell what great mercy Christ had shown him. The Scriptures tell us that he published throughout Decapolis this mercy of Christ. In the next chapter we read of multitudes in Decapolis being healed by Christ. The multitudes glorified the God of Israel.
To Be Continued.
Author: Fred Francis Bosworth. From the Christ The Healer Book.
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God willing, more will be posted soon. All glory to Jesus alone.