Occasionally, one of the phrases you hear people in the church-world say is, “Well if you just had enough faith, (insert name here) would have been healed.” As you can imagine, this is a loaded statement, and its timing is imprudent. If you’re interested in the topic, you can read our recent article, When God Doesn’t Heal. But what grounds does someone have to make a statement like this, and is it even accurate?
Damaging Words
Envision with me for a moment someone you know who is suffering or has just lost a loved one. To tell that person “you didn’t have enough faith or God could have healed them” is to do the opposite of comfort them. Such a statement is received as an accusation, a demeaning attack on their Christian walk. Now, in addition to struggling with pain, loss, or grief, the suffering person feels judged for their “lack of faith.” Maybe accusation even plants a seed of doubt. Do I have enough faith? Do I trust God enough? Is it because God is not pleased with me that He didn’t heal them? Correcting people with such a careless statement adds to the confusion and grief they are already carrying. It is the opposite of helpful; it’s damaging.
The Holy Spirit desires to comfort people in their sorrows, not add to their confusion or doubt. 2 Corinthians 1:3 says, God is a “Father of compassion” and “God of all comfort;” He “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” The statement—“if you only had enough faith”—is uninvited and poorly timed. It reminds me of Proverbs 26:9, “Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.” It pricks instead of soothes.
Some people may still remark, “Ok, I grant that it’s not compassionate in the moment, but it is biblical.” Such a view is still an oversimplification and does not accurately reflect the complexity of the Scriptures. Let’s try to sort through the clutter. Below are some additional biblical truths to consider alongside this pithy definition of faith.
The Role of Faith?
It is true that sometimes Jesus healed people based on that person’s faith in Him. Jesus told the blind man, “According to your faith let it be done to you” (Matthew 9:29). Yet at other times, without any faith from the person, Jesus simply healed, as in the case of the disabled man (John 5:6–7). At times, it was the faith of friends that put the person in position to be healed, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven,’” (Luke 5:20). And still other times the person struggled to have faith at all, as the father of the demon possessed boy voiced his doubt honestly, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
Occasionally, lack of faith can be an obstacle to God’s healing: “[Jesus] did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith” (Matthew 13:58). And at other times, people had plenty of faith, but it was not God’s will to heal them. See Paul’s conversation with God (2 Corinthians 12:7–10). As a case in point, my wife and I have a dear friend who struggles with epilepsy. She’s been prayed for hundreds of times over the past twenty years. Despite the faith to keep asking, she is not yet healed. I don’t think it’s fair to blame her for a lack of faith.
Faith is ultimately about who, not what.
What seems to be the consistent theme in Jesus’ healing ministry and teachings was not a focus on the size of a person’s faith, but who they put their faith in. Jesus was asking people to trust in Him. He was not asking for superhero faith. Hebrews 4:14 says, “Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess,” faith in our “great high priest who has ascended into heaven.” Our faith is in a Lord who reigns over life, death, and the mortal decay we are trapped in.
Faith is rooted in God’s character, not the outcome.
Faith is most deeply exhibited when a person trusts God even when they don’t understand “what” is happening. Our faith is in the “who,” not the “what.” Will we trust in Jesus—that He loves us, loves to heal, and will heal—even if he doesn’t heal us right now? Paul was given a “thorn in the flesh,” and suffered from bad eyesight that God never healed. Timothy’s stomach was not healed of his ailments. The Asian churches still starved in a famine. There was still a list of widows for the early churches to care for. The saints who were murdered for their faith cried out for vindication and were given none on this side of eternity. It is precious faith when we trust God and cling to Him in the midst of our sufferings. Listen to the Apostle Peter,
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:4b–7)
Our faith is not about our healing but about the Lordship of Jesus being fully completed in its proper time. Christian pastor Watchman Nee died languishing in prison, malnourished and physically devastated by the communists. Yet Christ’s Lordship was fully realized in Nee’s triumph over the grave and in the Chinese church’s flourishing despite persecution.
Faith can be both passive and active.
Church communities influenced by Calvinism tend to see faith as a passive trust in the sovereignty of God, while Arminianism tends to see faith as an active participation in God’s desire to heal and change the earth. Both of these are beautiful expressions of faith in the Lord, and we should nurture both. We can pray and ask God to change our situation and believe in His generous healing. Yet, if He doesn’t heal immediately, we can trust in God’s providential care, His victory over our imprisonment, and His compassionate character. God told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Faith for various kinds of healings.
Jesus’ healings revealed a measure of creativity and spontaneity: mud in ears, spitting, a simple command, touching of tassels, deep prayer, speaking it from afar, laying on of hands, and reaching into the mouth. Jesus is not boxed in to healing the way you think a person should be healed, or when you think they should be healed. Whether healing is instantaneous or evolving, or whether it’s actualized in this life or the next, that is ultimately up to the Lord. God does things instantaneously, and at other times, through the slow evolution of systems and science. God created our bodies to heal themselves, commands us to pray for supernatural healing to override natural processes, and gives us minds to partner with science to heal through medicine. Each of these is a tool in God’s medicinal apothecary.
There are indications that even our land and planet can become defiled and sick (Leviticus 18:25), or healed through atonement and sabbath rest (Numbers 35:33; Leviticus 26:35). Our planet groans under the degrading tyranny of evil (Romans 8:20–21,26). Some healing will come through restorative management and spiritual cleansing (Ezekiel 47:1–12). Other effects of the curse of sin won’t be undone until the new creation (Revelation 21:1–4).
Faith is a muscle we exercise.
So how do we nurture an active trust and belief in Jesus’ power to heal, and an active seeking of His healing power in people’s lives? That is a big conversation and not the central focus of this article. I believe that a supernatural way of life has to be practiced. It is not enough to teach about healing; we have to create a culture of expectancy that acts on God’s promises. Kenneth E. Hagin coaxes people into action as he distinguishes the difference between hope and faith: “Hope says, ‘I’ll have it sometime.’ Faith says ‘I have it now.’” Faith acts. Yet, it is easy to experience faith fatigue when we don’t see people get healed nine out of ten times. Don’t miss the obvious, however, we still see Jesus heal enough times that it reminds us to keep pursuing wholeness for ourselves and others.
A practical pathway.
Our desire at Petra Church is to nurture trusting faith in the Lord. It is He who made us and can heal us. Our first step is to seek Him. Keep your eyes on Him and look to Him for life and healing. Secondly, we seek healing by following God’s instructions. He instructed His disciples to lay hands on the sick (Luke 10:9), and He instructed the sick to ask other believers to lay hands on them and pray in Jesus’ name (James 5:14–16). That’s a culture and a habit of praying for healing in Jesus’ name that we practice in our homes, in small groups, and in public spaces.
Thirdly, if we’ve asked the Lord to change our situation and He hasn’t, then we continue to trust Him. We ask Him to guide us on the path to wellbeing. He is our healthcare professional. It is His wisdom to lead, not ours. Sometimes we are looking for physical healing, and God is using the pain to drill deeper into emotional or spiritual maladies. Or maybe He does want to heal our body through medicine, a change in diet or lifestyle, chemotherapy, hormone supplements, etc. We can explore the wide range of healing options available to God.
Fourthly, throughout the medical process, we maintain our faith that God is our Life Giver. Medicine, food, and doctors are just the tools in God’s hands. Counselors, therapists, and deliverance are just tools of His salvation process being worked out in our lives. No cancer, diabetes, or diagnosis holds my life in its hands. Jesus holds my life in His hands. God has ordered my days, and for His reasons. The Author of Life can also extend my season on earth as He did for Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:1–6. Yet even if God doesn’t, I trust that He owns me. As Jesus proclaimed, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
RESOURCE:
If you’re looking to read a more intricate conversation about faith for healing, what it is, and how to exercise it, consider reading Paul King’s book Only Believe. In it, he chronicles the historical development of the Word of Faith movement, including its theology, practices, and critiques.
Tags: faith, trust, hope, salvation, belief, doubt, healing, miracles, comfort, prayer, resurrection, life, sovereignty, providence, eternal life, practice, medicine, homeopathic
