There is a large church group who has healing rooms and that is fine, but they have a belief that a person can lose their healing because some who are claimed to be healed later “lost their healing,” because the symptoms returned. Thus it is their fault if it did not stick.
As an Independent Fundamental Baptist, I have been a part of James 5 prayer sessions. Yes, as a hardcore Baptist, since we did not believe that some passages were only for Pentecostals/Charismatics. Some were healed and some were not. Some did find healing through medicine and others did not.
Medicine sometimes worked for awhile and then the disease that appeared to be cured was only in remission and often came back with a vengeance and the person soon died after that. That was what medicine can do. Yet, if God heals, can one lose their healing by sin or lack of faith? Did Jesus or the Apostles ever tell someone they healed that they better take care lest they lose their healing?
I can find only one place where Jesus gave a warning after a healing.
John 5:1 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
Note, He did not say that if you sin you will lose your healing and revert back to the same symptoms. He said to not sin unless a worse thing would happen. We do not know exactly what the disease was or the cause. Because the way Jesus worded the warning it does not seem to have been something like MS or an accident of some kind unless the accident happened in the commission of the sin.
Now if he were made impotent from an STD and went back to a promiscuous lifestyle then he might get the same disease and symptoms or he might get a worse STD with worse symptoms. Even so, he did not lose his initial healing. He reinfected himself. If Jesus had healed him of cirrhosis of the liver and he went back to binge drinking then he could well develop the same disease, but it was not because he did not have faith to keep his healing. It I because he sinned.
Both of these circumstances could take some time to develop. A person who experiences the relapse a few hours later was not healed in the first place. Indeed, a brief relief of some things can be from the excitement of the process bringing the same experience that some have in placebo studies.
Jesus healed everyone He came into contact with and the healed stayed healed. Now, His disciples were not always successful.
Luke 9:38 And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child.
39 And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him.
40 And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not.
41 And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither.
42 And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.
Mark 9:28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
They could not cast the out the demon and heal the boy though we know that they had cast out demons before. Not all come out the same. They were told that with some demons you have to do some preparatory work first. They had the delegated authority, but they may have thought they would access and use the power the same way, not realizing the complexity of their enemy.
There are some in the Charismatic movement that feel that God will and should heal every time a person is prayed for and if not, then something is wrong with the faith of the sick person or the one praying does not have enough faith or is out of fellowship with God. Not so.
2 Timothy 4:20 Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.
Paul was not out of the will of God and certainly had great faith. Trophimus would have enough faith to be healed so the common census among many Charismatics has no basis here.
Philippians 2:25 Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.
26 For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.
27 For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
Whatever Epaphroditus had Paul could not heal him and it was something that worried Paul that it might be fatal. God healed him, but it was not by Paul laying hands on him and it was not instantaneous. Again, did Paul have faith and was he right with God? Absolutely! The close relationship that Epaphroditus had with Paul and with God per Paul’s testimony clearly indicates that he was a man of faith and in fellowship with God.
1 Timothy 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.
Here is another issue. Timothy is instructed to use wine as a medicine, which was a common practice of the day. Timothy had some stomach issues and other infirmities that were chronic. So, why did Paul not heal Timothy of those issues? He still had the same gifts of an apostle. Again, he had great faith and was right with God. Timothy was Paul’s son in the faith so he had faith and was right with God. Why was he not healed? Why use medicine? We may never know.
Nothing is wrong with medicine. Even Isaiah used a fig plaster at the direction of God after He had already told Hezekiah he would live fifteen more years. Why not just an automatic healing? Was he cured by miracle or medicine? I would say both since God gave the prescription, but enhanced it. He messed up a few times after that and he did not lose his healing and neither does anyone else that is truly healed. It is better to admit, that for some reason God did not heal than to create a theology that makes the sick person the problem when healing does not happen. The man at the gate beautiful was hoping for money, not healing, so the healing was not dependent upon his faith,
James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
So we have to come down to this, There is some debate about this passage, but I believe if the person comes to the elders that person has shown faith in the Word. If the person is not healed, I believe that falls on the ones praying for them. Like the disciples, they may not have discerned that what they were dealing with was not a “natural infirmity” from the results of the Fall, which is different than an infirmity caused by a demon so they did not have a time of prayer and fasting before they prayed for the sick. At times, we are called when the person is near death so we cannot fast and pray for several days. That might be an injunction to be regular in that practice so that either we are always ready or at least require less time to prepare.
Verse 16 is sometimes taken wrong and that can lead to some undue embarrassment. Think Matthew 18. Confess to the one you wronged, not to the whole church if it did not impact the church’s reputation in some way. I once attended a meeting at a very strict church in Virginia beach and the lad in front of me stood up and confessed to the church that he had taken undue liberties with his wife before marriage. That was between God and her. As strict as they were, he might have held her hand or kissed her on the cheek, but you know that is not what they were thinking. I questioned why she was just knitting away through that without getting up and confessing that she allowed the undue liberties?
The bottom line is there is nothing that God cannot do today that He has done through the centuries. If He sometimes did not heal in the 1st Century, He does not have to heal every time in the 21st Century. When He does heal the person stays healed, but something worse could happen to them because of sin. If we pray and the prayer is not answered, then maybe we do not have faith or we just did not properly prepare or He said no. There is a time to die. At times, a person with a chronic illness is a better testimony than those of us who are whole. So pray for healing confessing any sin you know and if He heals, He said your sins would also be forgiven. If He does not heal, fast and pray for spiritual warfare fitness and if you are still not healed then commit it to Him as He may have a different plan for you. In any case, trust and see what He will do as it may have more eternal impact than the healing. Maranatha!
