Healing Failures

By Pastor Stephen Piersall
God's Preservation Ministry http://sfprs.org/

Healing is one of the most controversial subjects in the Bible. Not that God is confused, but we and our many different denominations and religions have various interpretations as well as translations. Let us first read "The Great Commission":

Mark 16:14-20 NASB

14 Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 He who believes and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 19 So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.

This is the commandment that Jesus left us with upon his ascending into Heaven. It is by far one of the most dynamic and prominent areas of any church deliverance ministry. While casting out demons, it is just as significant, to minister to the impassioned wounds. Rousing wounds are one of the most common reasons that deliverance can fail or demons seem to keep coming back and regaining inhabitation within the person.

Our goal is not to forget a hurtful event or trauma, but to receive healing for that event, where the Holy Spirit removes the arrow from it. When we look to the past upon a healed wound, we can see it in a different way, because it has been healed and is no longer painful to look at.

The Holy Spirit within you is the one that HEALS! The believer who has already accepted the gift of Salvation from Jesus must stand in faith 100%. The Holy Spirit responds to your level of faith and every divine healing that ever took place happened with the Holy Spirit when the believer acted on God’s word. What about when healing fails? What went wrong?

It is important to understand that God has not failed you, and He is not short on healing power. When demands are made on the power of God, the healing virtue of Jesus Christ will flow into a person’s body and make it whole. In John 5, the story is told about a man who had an infirmity for 38 years. This story, perhaps, gives us the best picture of the obstruction that even today’s believers face when it comes to wanting to be healed, and yet, not being able making it happen when we want it, and need it, the most. We read that day after day the invalid man lay by the pool of Bethesda hoping somehow to be the number one person in the water after the angel stirred it, because if he was the first to make it in, he could be healed. But then along came Jesus. He asked the man, “Do you want to become well?” The invalid answered saying, “Sir, I have nobody when the water is moving to put me into the pool…”

The significant detail in their conversation at this point is that the man was so focused on the problem of not being able to get into the water before someone else, that he never even considered placing a demand on Jesus to help him and to get him healed. Like this man, many believers today desire to be healed, yet they have not willed to be healed. What’s the difference?

The difference is that willpower is what makes a demand on the power of God. After all, God has sent His Word, and according to that Word, healing has already been purchased by the blood of Jesus. So, the rest is up to us. We must act on this new blood covenant to get the results we desire. Still, for those times when it seems God’s healing power has somehow been hindered, and it just is not flowing through our lives. The Bible points out some problem areas that may be the reason for this lack of healing or health. Some of those problem areas include:

• Failure to forgive others (Mark 11:25-26)

• Failure to keep the commandment of love (John 13:34)

• Lack of knowledge and lack of vision (Hosea 4:6); Proverbs 29:18)

• Lack of discernment of the Lord’s body when taking communion (I Corinthians 11:23-32)

• Lack of integrity in your heart (Psalms 25:21)

Sometimes we have to Let God be God, as he may have allowed the illness or death to occur for reasons we could not foresee. Still we are to pray until God let’s us know to stop.

Since we know there is no failure with God, it is obvious that when believers do not receive their healing, the problem must lie elsewhere. Keeping this in mind, we need to realize that healing largely depends on a firm stand on the fact that your prayer has been heard, and that it has been answered. The challenge, then, comes in not wavering from God’s Word.

Beware of False Prophets! In all things we do, we must pray and ask God for discernment. I know of some people who claim to be “Demonologist” and use hypnosis in their method of casting out demons and provide healing. I know of others who are talking the talk, but in real life do not walk the walk. Some that yearn to be a Pastor, but do not have their personal lives in order. We can NOT have permanent success with Healing and deliverance unless we ourselves are right before God. Bottom line, just be careful and do not just jump in without testing the waters. PRAY!

These two websites will shed some more light on the subject of why healing may or may not work:

http://www.greatbiblestudy.com/inner_healing_101.php

http://www.greatbiblestudy.com/healing_gods_will.php