How to Recognize the Source of Healing

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

This week brings us to Acts 3:16.

¹⁶By faith in His name, His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Him has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.

Acts 3:16 (HCSB)

This is Peter speaking to people who had assembled after he and John had healed a lame man (Acts 3:1-16). This type of healing, along with many other things described in the book of Acts, can be a bit contentious among Christians. Is God still in the healing business? Does He still use people like Peter and John to speak His healing? And what role do doctors play in healing - if I took a pill and got better, it must have been the doctor, right? The short answers to these questions are yes, no, and no. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's look at some miraculous healings at other places in the Bible.

In 1 Kings 17:8-24, we read about Elijah and the widow of Zerephath. This is during the time when Elijah had declared to Ahab and Jezebel (through direction from the Lord, of course) that it would not rain until he said it would. There was a famine, and Elijah was hungry. When he arrived at the widow's house, she was about to make the last of her food; once she and her son ate it, they would be completely out with no prospect of any more. Elijah asked her to make him some food first, and she did; from that point on, her flour and oil never ran out for the duration of the famine. However, the widow's son became sick and died. Elijah prayed over him, that the Lord would raise him.

²²So the Lord listened to Elijah's voice, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived.

1 Kings 17:22 (HCSB)

Elijah was succeeded by Elisha, and Elisha had some pretty radical healing experiences himself. In 2 Kings 4:8-17, he passed through a town called Shunem, and when he did, a woman prepared food for him every time he came by, and even set up a room in her house for him to stay. When questioned about why, she said that she recognized him as a man of God. Elisha asked what she would like in return for her hospitality, and she said she didn't need anything. When he pressed her, though, she said that she had always wanted a son, but had been unable to conceive. Elisha told her “At this time next year you will have a son in your arms.” (v. 16) She was incredulous, but a year later, she had a son.

Fast forward a few years (2 Kings 4:18-37), and the boy is growing. Suddenly, one day he complains of severe head pain, and quickly dies in her lap. She immediately calls for donkeys to travel to see Elisha. Elisha tries to send an assistant to hold his staff over the boy's head to bring him back to life, but the mother is insistent that Elisha come himself. Once they arrive at her house, the assistant goes in as Elisha directed, but nothing happened. What Elisha does next I'm pretty sure isn't in any medical textbooks, but it worked!

³²When Elisha got to the house, he discovered the boy lying dead on his bed. ³³So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. ³⁴Then he went up and lay on the boy: he put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand. While he bent down over him, the boy's flesh became warm. ³⁵Elisha got up, went into the house, and paced back and forth. Then he went up and bent down over him again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

2 Kings 4:32-35 (HCSB)

(While these examples are of times that God chose to heal, He does not always make that choice. Both the Old and New Testaments have plenty of times where people died, and were not raised back to life; and, even these people did eventually die “for good.” Don't at all think that because someone prays, even someone who is “right with God” or “spiritual” or a “great prayer warrior,” that God is bound to heal. He alone knows the plans He has for each of us. The remainder of this will focus on times when God does heal, but I wanted to address this before we continue.)

Returning to my questions from the beginning… Is God still in the healing business? The answer to that is an emphatic yes! One of the names of God in the Bible is Jehovah-Rophe, meaning “The Lord Who Heals.” This was used in Exodus 15:22-26, where God provided purification for the undrinkable water at Marah so His people could drink. In Luke 5:30-31, Jesus even used the picture of a physician when explaining why He spent so much time with sinners rather than with those who already practiced religion; if He can fix our sin, can't He also fix our health? Also, over this past year, I have known people who have defeated cancer and overcome a drowning. God is definitely still in the healing business.

Does God still use people, like Peter and John, to walk up to someone and heal them just by speaking? This is where some of the contention comes in. I'm not interested in a deep theological debate, but I will say that I have not seen this in my lifetime. While God could still use men (or women) in this way, He has generally used different techniques for different times. In our day and time, could you imagine the international storm that would be created by someone who did this? It is highly unlikely that this attention would point people towards God, which is the goal of everything God does. Besides, I don't think He needs to, which brings me to the next question.

Don't doctors heal more people than God these days? No. God has revealed medicine and the human body to physicians; He has granted drug makers the knowledge that they have, and the doctors the knowledge as to when their application is appropriate. He created the earth and everything on the earth; even if a drug is synthesized, it's synthesized using material He created. This reminds me of a joke that I heard a while back - a group of scientists gets together and decides that they're now smarter than God. So, one of them goes up to God and says, “You know, with human cloning and all the things we can create, we don't really need You anymore.” God replies, “Then why don't we have a man-making contest - and let's do it old-school, like I did with Adam.” “No problem,” says the scientist, and he bends down and picks up a handful of dirt. “No, no, no,” said God, “get your own dirt!”

So, then, we see that all healing does come from God, whether He chooses to make cancer disappear, or whether He uses ibuprofen and a physical therapist, or whether He uses a replacement limb. Recognizing Him as the source for all healing, not just the miracles, enables us to more greatly see His hand at work in our lives, and in the lives of those around us.

How to Serve God by Serving Others

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

(Since 3 John does not have 3 chapters, this “3:16” isn't an actual 3:16.)

⁵Dear friend, you are showing your faith by whatever you do for the brothers, and this you are doing for strangers;

3 John 5 (HCSB)

The book of 3 John is a letter written from John to Gaius, a believer who was doing good things. A group of believers, led by Demetrius, was visiting in his area, and John wrote this letter to commend Gaius on how he was helping them. Helping other people, especially those you don't know and those doing God's work, is a recurring theme throughout the Bible.

When Jesus was sending out His disciples, He proclaimed a blessing for those who would welcome then and support them.

⁴⁰“The one who welcomes you welcomes Me, and the one who welcomes Me welcomes Him who sent Me. ⁴¹Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. And anyone who welcomes a righteous person because he's righteous will receive a righteous person's reward. ⁴²And whoever gives just a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple - I assure you: He will never lose his reward!”

Matthew 10:40-42 (HCSB)

Just a cup of water! That's not hard at all, yet Jesus said that it will be rewarded. In Hebrews 13, the author encourages hospitality.

¹Let brotherly love continue. ²Don't neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.

Hebrews 13:1-2 (HCSB)

Would you give an angel a hand if you could? By helping others and being hospitable, you may actually have the ability to help an angel! And, even if you never come into contact with one (and I'm not really sure how you would know even if you did), by being hospitable to others, you can do the work of an angel for them.

Finally, let's look at an Old Testament example of hospitality.

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹“Get up, go to Zarephath that belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.” ¹⁰So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow woman gathering wood. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup and let me drink.” ¹¹As she went to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”

¹²But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I don't have anything baked - only a handful of flour in the jar and a bit of oil in the jug. Just now, I am gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.”

¹³Then Elijah said to her, “Don't be afraid; go and do as you have said. Only make me a small loaf from it and bring it out to me. Afterwards, you may make some for yourself and your son, ¹⁴for this is what the Lord God of Israel says: 'The flour jar will not become empty and the oil jug will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the surface of the land.'”

¹⁵So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah. She and he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶The flour jar did not become empty, and the oil jug did not run dry, according to the word of the Lord He had spoken through Elijah.

1 Kings 17:8-16 (HCSB)

This kind lady was willing to give up nearly all the food she had in her house to help Elijah; yet, her kindness was rewarded by God's provision over many, many days. And, in the remainder of this chapter, 1 Kings 17:17-24, her son dies, but is then raised by God through Elijah! That's quite a reward, just for the simple act of giving up a little food.

“Random acts of kindness” is the idea that you do something nice for someone else, with the hope that someone else will do something nice for you. Mysticism has the idea of “karma,” where the things you do (for good or bad) determine how the rest of the world treats you. Neither of these come from the Bible - we should do nice things for other people “just because,” not to get a reward; and blessings from doing good come from God, not some nebulous “spiritual balance” that we can manipulate.

However, the prevalence of this theme, both in the Bible and outside It, show us that God blesses those who bless others in His name. Look for opportunities to bless others - you never know who you may be helping!