I’ve been praying and wrestling with the topic of healing lately. Is the the will of the Lord to heal every time, or do we need to pray “if it is Your will”. These are a few of the questions that have been running through my head. Mostly because if it is His will, then why am I not believing it? Why am I not praying for people? So it really makes me confront my disbelief.
My friend Wesley read this book that has brought him some clarity on this topic. And he gave me the link and I am reading it right now. It is amazing!
Ex. 15:26 tells us one aspect of who God is. He says that He is our Healer. He is specifically talking to Israel in this passage, and He is still talking to them, but those of us who are His children, we have been grafted in, and so He is our Healer too! Do we acknowledge Him as our Healer? Not very often. Why do we not see people healed? Who actually believes that He is going to do it? I know that I really struggle with this.
Well this book by G.C. Bevington, is a testimony to God’s faithfulness in healing. This man really lived prayer and fasting. And healing was an overflow because of his perseverance in prayer and in faith! I am being challenged every time I read this book! Well it is free! So I encourage you to read this book!
Another really encouraging thing about this book is the way that Bevington lives his life. He never does ANYTHING without praying and asking the Lord and if he does something other then what the Lord is telling him, the Lord always shows him this and then he is obedient. He doesn’t move, even if he has to wait for days, until the Lord tells him where to go. He never has money or a place to sleep, but He goes in faith knowing the Lord is going to provide for him. I want this kind of faith. Especially for the lifestyle that I know the Lord is calling me to. I am to give myself to prayer and fasting. And to do this, I have to be completely dependent on Him! For everything, my food, money, clothes, gas, a place to live. Because I am not “doing” anything. I myself, and not doing anything that I can fall back on. I have no security, but Jesus Christ! Thank You JESUS! Make me more dependent on You! Increase all of our faith!
I have also struggled very deeply with the Lord’s role in healing. There is no doubt that He is our healer, the great physician. But i also know that he has called us to die to ourselves for the sake of living for him, so is also a crucifier. The seemingly paradoxes of God are something we should continously reflect on. If i am to die to myself then isn’t praying for healing for myself selfish and contrary to the true healing that God died for me to have? If i pray for others to be physically healed, am i being selfish because a healing miracle is something that would increase my faith and give me something to rejoice about? What if it’s God’s goal, as it was for Christ and the apostles, that there is great glory for him in our suffering, and that my prayers for healing are against his goal of glory. I think the right prayer is His will be done, and that he is glorified through our suffering and in our healing. Yes, he is our healer, and yes he physically heals for his glory, but more importantly the healing that he cares most for is the ressurection of our souls to new life in him. This is what i truly believe, “by his stripes we are healed” means! Thank you Jesus for our suffering and your healing!