How God Can Use Sickness and Healing to Work All Things Together for Good - Rom 8:28
None of us want to miss out on the wonderful things that God has in mind for our lives. Let us listen to what the Spirit of God is telling us through these examples as we filter them through our understanding of the scriptures. Throughout the ages we know that God has used sickness as well as healing for His purposes. Often God punished idolatry, rebellion, and all forms of disobedience with disease. Take for example, the case of greedy Gehazi in 2 Kings 5:20-27.
When Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, became angry with his master for not demanding payment for healing Naaman’s leprosy, he deliberately lied to Namaan. He said,
"My Master has sent me to tell you something, two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver ($1,000) and two sets of clothes."
When Gehazi returned to his Master, he lied to Elisha about where he had been. But Elijah said, "Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes...? Maaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever." Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and he was pure, as white as snow.
Disease was God’s divine punishment for greed, deceit, and disobedience. Today, many are sick and suffering for similar reasons, but sometimes God allows it for His greater purposes which may not be immediately understood.
Although we must resign our minds to the reality that all the writings and human reasoning will never disclose all the purposes of sickness and healing, we seek to uncover some of the mysteries of God’s will and seek to better understand His personal characteristics.
It is always left to the sovereign will of God who is healed or not and for what reasons. Remember what the Lord told Moses in Deut. 32:29, "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal and no-one can deliver out of my hand." God’s miracles include works of healing, but also works of judgment.
The judgment of God works repentance in mens’ hearts and subsequent salvation. The discipline and chastening of sin gives men a sense of the fear of God and His hatred of all things contrary to His nature. Lest we abuse, misuse, or distort the true message of the grace of God, He allows sickness in our lives to bring us to a closer dependence upon Himself.
Application: He ultimately approves of certain afflictions in order to create greater holiness, humility, and submission to His Spirit’s working in us.
Faith, not always reason, must satisfy us. The ultimate plans of God will be accomplished through the power of His will. It is a matter of our discovering how we can better facilitate His maximum will in our becoming more like Christ and helping the church to fulfill its potentials.
Let us look at some of the reasons why God allows sickness and afflictions to come into our lives:
1. God uses disease to chasten and discipline people for their disobedience.
2. God uses illnesses as a sign of greater judgment coming unless there is repentance and trust in Him.
3. God uses sickness to punish people for their sin.
4. God uses disease to humble the proud.
5. God uses illnesses to warn people of impending disasters and plagues.
6. God uses illnesses to help us to know that His grace is sufficient for us as His power in perfected in our weaknesses.
7. Illness keeps from depending on our own insights, skills, positions, powers, or educations.
8. God can show His power sovereign will through deliverance from sickness, handicaps, and illnesses.
9. God can keep us mindful that His sovereign will is beyond our human finite levels of understanding.
10. God can show how Satan uses illness to afflict His servants, like Job.
11. God can show how show how He is more powerful than the devil through delivering us from illness and suffering.
12. God uses national pestilence sometimes to bring national punishment to a nation for the sins of the leaders.
13. God uses illness to force us to be more disciplined in our study of medicine and scientific cures.
14. God uses illnesses to create in us a greater sense of holiness and intimacy with Himself.
15. God uses illness at times to teach us that sickness is not always a result of sin, but His will in humbling us before Him and causing us to rest.
16. God uses illness in order to bring greater glory to Himself as He did in John 9:1-6, "It was neither that this man sinned or His parents, but it was in order the works of God could be displayed in Him.
17. God uses illness to teach us greater lessons about nutrition, sanitation, and preventative medicine. Proverbs 22:3 says, "The wise man sees the dangers ahead and avoids them, but the naive go ahead and stumble into the pit."
18. God uses illness to test man’s faithfulness or lack of it to God. (Luke 16:10)
19. God uses sickness to show others how God blesses and restores those who call upon His name and claim His promises through faith. It gives light to the simple and encouragement to the fainthearted.
Illustration: 2 Kings 4 tells about a remarkable reward for the kindness of a Shunamite woman. Elisha promised her a son. When God honored the prophet’s promise, it brought great delight to the family. However, the boy became ill and died. Quickly the mother ran to the prophet pleading for him to work a miracle with God’s power. Elisha saw the terrible grief it had caused the family and went into action. He stretched himself over the boy’s dead body. Life was restored to the little boy immediately.
20. God uses illness to purify His church. In the case of Ananias and Sapphira God wanted the early church to remain pure, above reproach, and honest. When the young couple kept back some of the money deceitfully, God allowed Peter to smite them dead. (Acts 4:34-35) There word quickly got around in the Christian circles, One false move before God, and you will suffer.
21. God uses illness to show that it entered the world through sin in the garden of Eden. Only through the power of God and Christ’s redemptive atonement can we receive an ultimate cure for the cause of all sickness - sin.
22. God uses sickness to remove unjust rulers. In Acts 12:22-33 we learn about boastful King Herod who loved to hear such human praises as, "It is the voice of god, and not of a man." The king believed that he had some measure of divinity. The Bible tells us that, "Immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he did not give God the glory: and he was eaten with worms, and gave up the ghost."
23. God uses sickness to punish men trying to use Satanic powers through deception and to effect repentance. In Acts 13:4-12 Paul and Barnabas met a met named Elymas who hindered and opposed the preaching of the word of God.
Finally, Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked at Elymas straight in the eye and said, "You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun!
Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord."
24. God uses sickness to deal with a lack of reverence to the Lord. In Cor. 11 we are told about the careless attitude of some of the church members in Corinth when they approach the communion service. The Bible tells us that God judged their flippant attitudes with sickness and even death. Their sin was threefold:
a. Some were out of fellowship with God and with one another. (vs. 18)
b. Some were living in deception and had accepted doctrinal heresy (vs.19)
c. Some had serious attitudinal problems toward God and the leaders that they refused to confess and get right with God and their elders. (vs. 21)
The Bible says, "To approach the Lord’s table carelessly is to drink judgment upon themselves and fail to honor the Lord in a worthy manner."
25. God uses sickness to show connections between physical and spiritual healing. When Jesus healed a man by spitting on the blind man’s eyes and by laying hands on him, the main regained his sight. (Mark 8:23) God wants us to realize that it is just as serious to be spiritually blind as it is to be physically blind. Both restorative acts ultimate are from God who heals and restores our ability to see physically and spiritually discerned things. (I Cor. 2:14-16)
26. God uses sickness to show that He can heal through the gifts of healing. These gifts are for the purpose of profiting the whole body of Christ and to give witness to God power to the unbelievers. (I Cor. 12:7) One must be controlled by the Holy Spirit in order for the gift to be used according to the will of God. The gifts and callings and ministry of healing is commanded by the Lord to His church. It is not an optional ministry for a Christ centered church. Some people will receive proficiency for healing certain diseases while other men will be facilitated in bringing healing to other illnesses. These gracious endowments cannot be given out like the opening of a tin of milk to be served whenever we desire it. Gifts of healing are given by God alone when and how He desires them to be administered. Gifts of healing are given through a channel of God for the purpose of completing the work of God for His glory.
27. God uses illness to end our lives and bring us to Heaven forever.
God Gives Us New Testament Health Guidelines For Preventative Medicine
1. Why are Preventative Health Measures Needed? Listen to the testimony of why Magic Johnson, the famous Basketball Hero of the Los Angeles Lakers said in Sports Illustrated after he contracted the HIV virus that will eventually give him the deadly disease AIDS:
"I am certain that I was infected by having unprotected sex with a woman who has the virus. The problem is that I can’t pinpoint the time, the place of the woman. It’s a matter of numbers. Before I was married, I truly lived the bachelor’s life... as I traveled around National Basketball Association cities, I was never at a loss for female companionship... I confess that after I arrived in Los Angeles, in 1979, I did my best to accommodate as many women as I could - most of them through unprotected sex."
Magic Johnson is reaping what he sowed in his immoral lifestyle. His habitual fornication has caught up with him. He deliberately and recklessly played a game of Russian roulette with his own life and the lives of the women he had sexual relations with. Today, he is suffering the consequences of his lustful desires. The same is true with people who are risking their mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health through adulterous relationships. Yes, confession cleanses us from unrighteousness as I John 1:9 tells us, but it will not erase the consequences of our deeds. These acts will have repercussions that will follow one the rest of their lives.
The same results would be true for someone who overeats, smokes, or drinks alcohol in excess. If someone deliberately cheats, lies, or steals there will be effects that will influence everyone in close association with that person. This is part of the reason why the body of Christ has definite responsibilities to practice preventative health measures and give stern teachings in this area, lest the problem infect the whole church.
The Bible gives us several procedures for staying healthy. God recognized long ago that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of curative medicine. The Lord realized that if people were able to utilized his wisdom in disease prevention they would be able to accomplish much more for Him. He has a vested interest in our health and well-being.
In ancient Israel the Jews were given several preventive regulations to avoid diseases from spreading and infecting the communities. They were taught disposal regulations with their waste. They were taught the importance of requiring washing in running water after contact with disease or death. Ceremonial and ritual cleansing were instituted for spiritual and physical health reasons in the Old Testament. Even circumcision reduces male and female incidence of cancer.
Always, God rated healing as second to staying healthy through preventive practices. Often eating practices as well as the selection of foods were regulated by laws in family and religious festivals for health reasons. (Deut. 14:29) When the Israelites found themselves in strange environments they were told to stay away from foreigners who may infect them with venereal diseases and other kinds of contaminants that they had not acquired immunities for. Always personal and community cleansing were emphasized in order to promote cleanliness of body, soul, mind, and spirit.
Listen to some of the following health related injunctions from the pages of the Old Testament. You will agree that there is a close correlation between mental and spiritual and physical health implied in each of the following verses:
1. Josh. 1:8 - "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. For then you will make your ways prosperous and then you will have good success."
2. Prov. 3:7,8 - "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones."
3. Psa. 103:3-5 - "Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
4. Prov. 10: 2 - "Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry but he thwarts the craving of the wicked."
5. Prov. 17:22 - "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."
These are representative verses declaring the will of God for preventative medicine in the Old Testament. They teach us the importance of a positive, believing attitude that trusts in God to protect us from unnecessary sickness. God’s ability to heal includes that capacity to keep us healthy as well. The prevention of disease is always better than the cure of the disease as it indicates that God is doing many things we are not even aware of in constantly intervening on our behalf to shield us from greater harm.
As we obey God’s rules, Spirit, and His word we have a great advantage over those who do not in preventing all kinds of illnesses to come into our lives.
The New Testament puts plenty of emphasis on one’s attitudes toward circumstances, ideas, and other people as a means of disease prevention. Failure to pay attention to these principles of love, service, and intimacy with Jesus Christ spell eventual trouble for all. A wholistic look at life is the general theme of the New Testament’s transformation of one in Christ.
When one is born into the family of God all things are passed away and all things are become new. This implies that a Christian will be one whose judgmental attitudes toward his fellow believers will effect him socially, mentally, spiritually, and physically. This is one of the reason why John warns us in I John 4:18-20, "If anyone says he loves God, but hates his brother he is a liar and the truth is not in him." The New Testament writers were mindful that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit whom we have from God and we are not our own, we have been bought with a price.
It is our obligation and nature to glorify God in our bodies. Any contradictory action or attitude to our new nature will spell destructive consequences to a believer. This is why we need to carefully follow the advise in the New Testament regarding our spiritual, physical, emotional, and social well-being within the context a productive body of Christ. Listen to some of the following guidelines for New Testament health:
1. I John 1:3 - "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete."
2. John 15:10,11 - "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told yo this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."
3. Phil. 2:1,5 - "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ... be likeminded having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose... Have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus."
There were also specific preventative measures given to prevent abuse of moral and ethical behaviors for health’s sake:
1. There is to be moderation in eating and discipline in working - 2 Thes. 3:9,10 says, "We labored day and night so as not to be a burden to you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
2. There is to be an avoidance of addictions - Rom. 6:14 and I Cor. 3:17 says, "Do not offer your body to sin.. but rather to righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple."
3. There is to be no fornication - I Cor. 6:13,15 says, "The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Flee sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body."
4. God wants the normal family - loving relationships to be the bedrock of society - Eph. 5:22-33 says, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the church, his body of which he is the Savior. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with the water through the word."
5. Individuals are to present themselves to God, in the context of the body of Christ, for service for the advancement of His kingdom and righteousness - Romans 12:1 and Matt. 6:33 - "But seek first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well."
6. Eph. 4:12-16 says, "Become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching... Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does it work."
It is always in the context of spiritual growth, love, faith, hope, and obedience that the New Testament puts its preventative medicinal emphasis. It is erroneous to think that cross-cultural evangelists can only use curative techniques for demonstrating the power of God.
Case Study 9 - One evangelist showed the people how his wife could deliver a healthy child by observing New Testament guidelines rather than those accepted practices of the villagers. All during the wife’s pregnancy the village women and elders warned the missionary and his wife, "If you do not take your wife to the smoke house and have the proper solutions fed to her, the baby will be possessed with evil spirits. We plead with you for the sake of peace in our village to submit to the practices of our community!" The missionary and his wife staunchly refused to yield to the cultural practices of offering sacrifices to the spirits in order to insure a safe delivery and a healthy baby. Instead, they believed God that the ordinances in scripture and those they learned from preventative medicine courses given through a community health programme, were all they needed. Six months later when the wife delivered a healthy baby girl in Boko land, Nigeria, the people were amazed at the mother and child were so healthy. Within months, the entire village abandoned their idolatrous pre-birth practices and accepted Christ as one who could deliver children with a standard greater than they had ever known.
There is added benefit in the New Testament for those who want mental and spiritual health through right thinking and believing.
God is able to defeat the giants of our fears, anxieties, and distortions of truth when we learn to program our minds to His thoughts. His peace replaces our turmoil; His love replace our hostility; His grace replaces our legalistic judgmentalism; His purpose replaces our self-centeredness; His Spirit takes over the throne of our lives through a submission to His will, ways, and word. Here are some of the specific verses given in the New Testament to insure a healthy state of body, mind, soul, and spirit for anyone willing to trust in Christ as their Savior and Lord:
1. Phil. 4:8,9 - "Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right, think about things that are pure and lovely and dwell on the fine good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about." (Phillips) Our state of mind replaces the ugly things of life that cause us so much needless problems with the fixation upon Christ’s goodness, grace, holiness, and love.
2. John 16:33 - "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We can triumph even when circumstances have turned against us, because He has overcome all the evil in the world through His death, burial, and resurrection.
3. Phil. 4:13 - "I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me. I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength to me. I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiencies." Through Christ we are given automatic sense of healing, strength, and sufficiency for any situation.
4. Gal. 5:22,23 - "But, (IN contrast to all the fruits of the flesh that cause so much personal and social ill) the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Through abiding in the Spirit, we can overcome much illness, sickness, and suffering through these powerful manifestations of His working in and through us. This way we are focusing more on what the Spirit is doing than what gifts we are dependent on for miracles. Without this understanding of the New Testament’s emphasis we will produce an immature set of believers who are waiting for the next supernatural intervention from God excusing themselves from the responsibilities of bearing fruit through the abiding in the vine in obedience to Jesus Christ.
Factors That Enter Into The Healing Ministry
1. Allow the ministry of healing to come from out of the ministry of the church, its leaders, and its prayer groups. The church has a unique role in channelling the power of God to the world. As Christ is the head over all things and the head of the church, we must recognize the importance of working through the procedures of the church in its overall ministries. Eph. 1:22 says, "And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." Don McGavaran, the father of the modern church growth movement has said the following about the healing ministry of the church:
"I do not come from a church background that emphasizes healing. In fact, we have been a bit critical of it. Yet in my research I have discovered the winning of the lost has come in great numbers where men and women have healed in Christ’s name. Amazing church growth has resulted." (Witty, p. 178)
2. Let people CALL for the elders or leaders of the church to come and lay hands on them, praying for physical and spiritual restoration. One never knows if he is guilty of certain sins of omission or commission. By calling for the elders to come and pray over people, there is an admission of need for representatives from Christ’s church to restore one to complete unity with God, His purposes, and His people. The calling is an indication of need, but also trust in God for His capacities to administer His Holy Spirit’s power in visible ways. This allows our prayers to received amplified effects as indicated by Jesus’ revelation of the powers released through group prayer in Matt. 18:19 when He said,
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."
Illustration: Over the years, I have consistently met with two or three of my closest friends to pray over crucial matters of concern to our personal lives and ministries. We have seen more answers to prayer from this endeavor than any other single aspect of our lives. There is definitely rewards for obeying this critical injunction from Jesus in all aspects of life and ministry, especially in healing.
3. Be certain that the provisions of healing the mind, body, soul, and spirit are in Christ’s atonement. (Isa. 53:4,5; Matthew 8:16,17; I Peter 2:24) Notice what happens in Matt. 8:16, 17:
"When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases."
Through Christ’s atonement He gave the capacity to heal sickness by eradicating the basis for all illness - sin. He experienced Calvary so that we could be set free from the bondage and effects of sin. No matter what the sickness or how severe, Christ provides the root solutions to it through his atoning work on the cross. He was taking away Satan’s powers to inflict disease through sin with His finished payment for the sins of the world. We must go in His name, confidently proclaiming the powers of the
atonement to release people from the captivity to sin.
4. Repentance and forgiveness of sins is critical in the healing process. James 5:15,16 says, "Confess your sins one to another and you will be healed." There is a cathartic and restorative element in seeking forgiveness and restoration of fellowship with God and man. There is a large measure of healing in the realization that we are loved, accepted, and reconciled with our brothers in Christ. This healing is a wholistic healing.
Hidden sins will certainly manifest themselves eventually. Without a willingness to personal confess all known and unknown sins to God, people are prohibiting the Spirit of God from doing His complete restorative work.
5. Having a right relationship with God is the key to healing. Matt. 13:15 says:
"For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would HEAL THEM."
Sometimes illnesses are allowed by God to bring people to the realization that they need to be born-again, which is far more important to physical healing.
Case Study 10 - A woman came seeking healing of the tremendous pains in her abdomen due to complications in her pregnancy. She was afraid that this may mean that her child would suffer physical deformities for its entire life. When she asked me for prayer I thought, "I’m too busy to get involved with all of her background problems, so I’ll just pray for her and dismiss her. But as I began to pray, I became convicted that the woman needed to know the gospel before I went on, so I stopped and inquired about the woman’s spiritual background. She said, "I have gone to church all of my life, but I still do not know if I will go to heaven when I die!" After sharing the simple truths about forgiveness of sins and how God’s grace through faith can save her from all sins, she prayed to receive Christ." After several months, I learned that all of her pain had vanished and she had successfully delivered a baby boy, free from any physical problems."
6. Faith is essential for people to receive healing. Sometimes that faith comes through the person praying for the individual, but most often it comes through the person seeking to be healed. Jesus turned and saw the woman who had touched his cloak seeking healing for her suffering from serious bleeding and said, "Take heart daughter, your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment on." Others like Jairus took encouragement from this incident and too gain faith in Jesus to have his daughter healed. Faith is often a neglected aspect in healing, by many thinking that God will heal if He so desires. This fatalistic mentality has often subtly hindered people from experiencing the full power of the Holy Spirit’s restorative powers.
7. Occasionally God guides a person through special revelation, words of knowledge, or impressions from the Spirit of God about who to pray for and minister to. God speaks to people in various ways in order to direct them in the ways He wants them to go. (Psa. 32:8)
Case Study 11 - Floyd McClung, Director of International Operations For Youth With a Mission tells a story about his wife Sally’s first missionary experience in the Samoan Islands. The senior missionary supervising the work, took out a map and indicated several villages they could evangelize. But, pointing his finger at location he said, "No matter what you do, don’t go to this one. We have tried. the chief is hostile and has declared his village a closed village. He has surrounded the village with several packs of wild dogs to keep stranger out."
When the teenagers prayed, they received a word of knowledge in which God told them to go to that particular village. They had all the normal human fears and misgivings, but they decided to obey. As they approached the village the dogs charged, but when they got near to the missionaries, they turned and ran back into the bush, just as if angels or some other supernatural force was chasing them. In three hours, the chief, for whom this had been a legitimate power encounter, accepted Christ. Of 500 in the village, 300 became Christians. The village now has the largest Assemblies of God church in the Samoan Islands." (Wagner, p. 232)
Special revelations from God should be confirmed with the scriptures, but the Spirit speaks to everyone in unique ways. Some may be led to pray for people in public, others in private, still others by anointing the person with oil in the presence of many witnesses. We must be aware that as the Spirit of God leads, there we should follow implicitedly!
8. Here is just a brief list of some of the other common hindrances why God may not answer prayers for healing:
a. Unconfessed sin, bitterness, or grudges held against someone.
b. People are lacking a spirit of generosity, hospitality, or service.
c. Selfishness pervades someone who is jealous of another’s success in the ministry and refuses to cooperate in attitude, faith, or unity of purpose.
d. Ignoring the expressed guidelines of scripture.
e. Insensitivity to the Spirit of God’s leading, convicting, and comforting ministries.
f. Failure to understand the cultural, social, political, emotional, linguistic, interpersonal dynamics of the people you are dealing with.
g. Inability to pray with faith through the power of Jesus name, claiming the blood of His atonement as the basis for healing and restoration.
h. Failure to recognize God’s sovereign plan in healing some and not healing others.
i. Counterfeit healers who are not in will of God or are pretending to represent Jesus and His power.
j. Family relationships are hindering the prayers of its members.
k. Demon possession or oppression that has not been dealt with.
l. Failure to approach the Lord with prayer and fasting.
m. Failure to abide in Christ and in His word and ministry of the body.
n. A lack of knowledge about the healing ministry and its basis in the scriptures.
o. A denominational prejudice that healing is mainly for the Pentecostals and Charismatics.
p. A lack of obedience to expressed commandments regarding healing.
q. A lack of teaching, experience, and models of Godly people who have shown God’s anointed hand of blessing through healing ministries.
