Does God Heal Today?

by Richard Wiedenheft

Since Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden, people of all races and all ages have experienced disease and death. But many have experienced vibrant health, the healing of disease - even rescue from what appeared to be certain death.

The Bible gives many examples of miraculous healings, particularly during the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. Blind men were given sight, the deaf their hearing; lepers were cleansed; even the dead were raised. This power is available today, because Jesus is alive, seated at the right hand of His Father in heaven. And He cares deeply about His children on earth.

You can experience God's healing power! But for us to understand healing, we must understand sickness and its causes, and the reasons God subjected us to a world in which sickness exists.

Laws of Sickness and Health

In all of God's creation, laws are at work. When we live in harmony with these laws, we are blessed. When we break them, or when people around us break them, we suffer. From Adam to the present, mankind as a whole has broken God's laws. Thus, suffering and disease are an integral part of human existence, and every human being, to one degree or another, is affected.

In many cases, the relationship between broken laws and sickness is obvious. A man who commits fornication not only sins against God, but against himself. His action may result in acquiring a sexually transmitted disease and in making a woman pregnant. The cause is obvious: sin. Lack of vitamin C leads to scurvy. Lack of B vitamins causes rickets. Smoking increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease. Too much alcohol can lead to liver damage.

Unfortunately, circumstances beyond our control affect our health. Because of the sins of mankind in general, we must live in a polluted environment. The air we breath daily, the soil that grows our food, the water we drink, the fact that we spend so much of our time behind glass windows - all these things affect our health.

We can grow our own food and drink distilled or spring water; we can take food supplements to protect our bodies from pollutants and to make up for nutrient-depleted foods. Some of us can move from polluted cities, but there's no way any of us can completely escape the effects of our polluted environment. Our health will suffer to some degree.

When we are sick, we have several things to consider, such as our mental attitude and heredity. Even our relationship with God affects our health. Our bodies were created with natural ways of healing, and our minds, to some degree, can affect our health and even improve it. But our bodies and minds have limitations in making us well. Thus, we need another type of healing.

Divine Healing

Jesus used the miraculous power of Almighty God to heal the sick of His day. After His resurrection, Jesus' followers used the same power, particularly early in their ministries. They commanded healing. They administered the divine power of God in the lives of the sick.

That power is available today. Jesus is just as alive, just as powerful, and just as concerned about people today as He was 1900 years ago. To be sure, He is not walking around our cities in the flesh. But God does heal.

I have personally witnessed His miracle-working power in the lives of people. I have known and have read about many people miraculously healed by faith healers and in healing revivals. I know of people miraculously healed in the privacy of their own homes and through the prayers of people scattered all over the country.

God does heal today!

Calling for the Elders

James 5:14, 15 gives specific instructions for Christians who are sick and seek divine healing:

Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

Christians are blessed with the opportunity, the instruction, to call for elders - leaders within the church - to be anointed and prayed for when they're sick. They can place their physical ills in the hands of their all-loving, all-powerful Creator, who has the power to heal all sickness - even diseases that will not respond to natural or mental healing. Nothing is too hard for God.

Is It Always God's Will to Heal?

One of the arguments suggested by modern healing ministries is that it is always God's will for us to be well, that sickness is the Devil's work. These ministries suggest that if we do get sick, it is always God's will to heal us. Just as it is God's will to forgive all our sins, it is His will to heal all our sicknesses (Psalm 103:3). Scriptures such as John 14:14 ("You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it") and Mark 9:23 ("Everything is possible for him who believes") are cited to show that all we have to do is to believe, that our healing is already established in the will of God.

This line of understanding goes on to claim that if a person does not experience healing, it is because he lacks faith. He must investigate his life to find secret sins that prevent him from receiving the healing God promised.

This concept has been called the gospel of good health. In many respects, it is a reaction to the attitude of some Christians that they should be poor, sick, and downtrodden, that there is some eternal benefit in extreme poverty and suffering.

Sick Saints

The gospel of good health and the scriptures about "Everything is possible" certainly do make a valid point. But they must be understood in the context of the whole of God's Word. The fact of history is, human beings in every generation, including men of powerful faith, have been sick. And all eventually died.

Elisha, a prophet with a double portion of the Spirit and who raised the dead, suffered from a disease that eventually took his life (2 Kings 13:14). Even after he died, a dead man whose body touched Elisha's bones came to life.

Despite the New Testament's numerous accounts of healings, the apostle Paul was denied his petition for removal of his "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). He stated, "Outwardly we are wasting away . . ." (4:16). Paul also referred to having had an illness that resulted in his preaching to the Galatians (Galatians 4:13, 14).

Three of Paul's fellow ministers also suffered sickness. Trophimus was sick, and Paul left him behind (2 Timothy 4:20). Paul encouraged Timothy to drink wine for his stomach's sake and for his "frequent illnesses" (1 Timothy 5:23). Epaphroditis was sick and almost died for the work of Christ, "but God had mercy on him" (Philippians 2:25-30). Note that in this last example, Epaphroditis' healing is described as an act of God's mercy, not of obligation.

Lack of Faith?

From these examples, it is obvious that even men of powerful faith got sick and were not healed immediately; some died from or with their sicknesses! And while one could argue that it was just because of their lack of faith that they weren't healed, the argument seems rather hollow. Not once were their sicknesses attributed to lack of faith.

In that light, it seems presumptuous for modern preachers to claim that all sickness is from a lack of faith, or that a lack of healing proves a lack of faith. Are faith healers today aspiring to a faith so much greater than that of Elisha and Paul?

Eternal 'Good Health'

The Bible reveals that God is interested primarily in eternal "good health." He uses the sufferings and pain woven into the fabric of this human existence to teach us what is really important: "that your faith . . . may be proved" (1 Peter 1:7).

James also wrote:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:2-4; see also Romans 8:21-26; 1 Corinthians 15:42; 2 Corinthians 4:10-17; 5:2-4; 12:7).

God's Perspective

Perhaps we can understand the question of God's will on sickness by considering how we as parents view our children. Certainly we don't want them to be sick or to suffer pain. Yet we recognize that scrapes and bruises are part of growing up, and that children learn valuable lessons by experiencing pain. If you had a choice as a parent, would you insulate your children from all pain and suffering? I certainly wouldn't.

Yet at the same time, it is not my will to see my children suffer. I wouldn't directly bring suffering on them. I want them to see life in positive terms of joy and hope.

The Ultimate Healing

In the same way, God doesn't want us to be sick. He doesn't deliberately cause us to suffer, but He has put us in an environment in which pain and suffering are a part. God can and does heal people today by His miraculous power, but sometimes He does not. We must remember that He is preparing us for real life - eternal life - that lies ahead.

Thus, we should view eternal life as the ultimate healing. Through sickness, we learn love, joy, peace, patience, temperance, goodness, meekness - the ultimate good health until we receive our ultimate healing.

Richard Wiedenheft is principal of Spring Vale Academy in Owosso, MI. Scripture quotations were taken from the New International Version.

© 1996 General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day)