A Proper Christian Perspective on Healing

Is God the author of disfunction, sickness, disability and suffering?

A wide spectrum of opinion exists within the Christian community on the subject of healing. One popular opinion is that shortly after the death of the apostolic fathers,Guest Posting God stopped healing; Christians today are sent forth to preach the Gospel (the Great Commission) but not to heal the sick. Another view is that God gives you sickness, injury, disability and brokenness of spirit so that you, like Jesus, will have a cross to bear. But the most Biblically defensible perspective is expressed in these three excerpts:

All humanity is the creation of a loving God who wills for everyone wholeness, health of the total person, body, soul and spirit. When we pray for healing, we are to pray, “Thy will be done,” not “If it be thy will.” All sickness and all brokenness is contrary to the will of God. At no time is sickness a part of His purpose or plan for any part of His creation. Our primary purpose in the Healing Ministry is to see God’s will fulfilled in the restoration of wholeness. (Order of St. Luke Handbook, page 10)

Are there times when it is not God’s will to heal and when we should pray, “Let what you want be done?” This is one of the most misunderstood prayers in the Bible. Our Lord’s Prayer in Gethsemane has nothing whatsoever to do with the healing of the sick. That prayer had to do with the sin burden of the whole world. a course in miracles was taking on himself the sins of the whole world… It is almost blasphemy for a person with a disease today to think that the bearing of a pathological condition is part of Gethsemane…You are not passing through Gethsemane because you are dying of cancer. 

You are suffering because the law of God has been broken somewhere. Maybe you had nothing to do with it…Disease is the enemy. Jesus regarded disease as the work of the devil…You may say that you have learned some valuable lessons through pain…but don’t say that loathsome disease is God’s will for mankind. Yet, out of our foggy thinking and our ambiguous theology, we have sometimes gone to the sick room and tried to comfort a sick person by saying, “Well, no doubt, this is God’s will. Just be patient under the hand of God! (John Gayner Banks, “Healing Everywhere” p. 204 – 207)

In the early days of my ministry I found myself saying to a bereaved family, “I don’t know why God took your husband but someday we will know.” Later the spirit of God broke through into my life and I became shocked and embarrassed at the words of comfort that I had used…What I was saying was really this, “I don’t know why God was so unfair, so cruel and so unloving.” The force of this erroneous theology struck me with a desire never to use it again or to agree with those who did…It is outrageous that God is condemned for every misfortune, disappointment, accident, tragedy or untimely death…Satan comes to inflict people with disease and misery. God comes to bring healing and joy. (Rufus J. Womble, “Wilt Thou be made Whole?” chapter 16).