Chapter 1. The Christian Doctrine of Sickness.

Chapter 1. The Christian Doctrine of Sickness.

It is important to understand the Christian doctrine of sickness when considering the Doctrine of Healing. Wrong concepts about sickness will lead to wrong claims and assumptions about God’s will and healing. So right at the beginning we need to understand some background ideas.

First we need to go right back to creation. God created this world “very good (Gen 1:31)” and from this we must assume there was no sickness in the experience of man. There was no corruption in the world when God made it. While man lived in covenant relationship with God there was no sickness or corruption. We do not know what mechanisms God placed into the world at creation to prevent degeneration, but it is clear that there was no degeneration. (Stated in Scientific terms: The first Law of Thermodynamics operated in a steady state.)

It was probably the case that men’s bodies once they reached maturity did not age quickly as they presently do, but remained at (or potentially could remain at) a level of fitness that did not decay. This does not mean that men would live forever on earth – the story tells us that man was not an eternal being as such, rather eternal life was resident in the “Tree of Life (Gen 2:9),” and not in the man himself. It is probable that God’s intention was that, at a certain stage, men would be translated (raptured) to heaven, as with Enoch and Elijah.

The earth itself was give to man as a covenant gift of God, to rule, to till and to keep. When man sinned both he and his inheritance, the earth, came under the rule of Satan. The covenant relationship with God was broken and as a result both earth and man came under the consequences of a broken covenant, that is, a curse. There is a curse of futility (Rom 8:20) which is the operation of the Law of Sin and Death (Rom 8:2). As a result things began to degenerate. (Stated in Scientific Terms: The Second Law of Thermodynamics came into operation.) This applied to both man and the physical universe he inhabited. There is no reason to suspect that this degeneration was limited to earth. There is reason to believe the Fall affected the whole structure of the entire universe. This degeneration seems to be compounded by the ongoing sin of mankind.

The second thing we need to understand is the Christian Doctrine of Sickness. The church has, in most cases, held the following view: Sickness entered man’s experience through sin. Sickness is an outworking of the Law of Sin and Death in man’s experience. Sickness is incipient death.

The following passage from the book of Job illustrates well the typical understanding of the relation of sin and sickness to death:

“It is the wicked whose light is extinguished … his lamp dies down and fails him (18:5)”

 “The terrors of death suddenly beset him…disease eats away at his skin,

Death’s eldest child devours his limbs.

He is torn from the safety of his home…

His roots beneath dry up, and above his branches wither…

Such is the fate of the dwellings of evildoers

And the homes of those who care nothing for God. (Job 18:10-21).”

The idea of a man’s “lamp” refers to his human spirit (Prov 20:27). The Hebrew idea is that it is a man’s spirit that sustains his life in the body and maintains health. Sickness is thus a result of some inability in the spirit to perform its God given task; it “fails him.” It is a blockage to the flow of life, or a sign of death at work. Thus sickness is part of the fact that we live in a world that is “Fallen”, i.e. that is no longer operating under the covenant of God.

Sickness then is a result, in the first instance, of sin. Sin is the cause of sickness in the experience of man. This has always been the view of the church. Before sin there was no sickness, as a result of sin we experience sickness. Thus, logically, sin is the cause of sickness.

This does not mean that in every case of sickness we can directly trace back from the particular sickness to a particular sin. Rather it means that, because we live in a sin-laden, fallen, world, we will encounter sickness. It is part of human life in a fallen world.

However, experience has shown that, in some cases, particular sins do bring on sickness. There is often a direct cause and effect relationship between sin and sickness. The difficulty is that a particular sickness may be caused by different sins in different people or by a different combination of sins in different people. It can be dangerous, and abusive, in ministry to draw direct lines of cause and effect without knowing God has specifically revealed such lines.

In Old Testament times there tended to be a direct cause-effect understanding of the relation of sin and sickness. This is what we see in the quote from Job given earlier. Right through the book of Job his three friends were working out of an assumption that goes like this: “If we love and serve God, we will be blessed, but if we sin God will punish us.” That assumption is true, as far as it goes, but the fallacy comes when we reverse the logic: Job has had calamity – his wealth has been taken away, his family killed and he is now sick – so sick he is not allowed to live in the city; he has to live with the lepers on the rubbish dump. Therefore he has committed some great sin.”

The whole point of the book of Job is to show that this reverse logic is totally wrong. Right at the beginning we are told Job was sinless and righteous – so much so that God brags about him to Satan. As a result Satan challenges Job’s motives and God allows the situation to test Job’s motives. Even though God says Job was righteous there are many interpreters who go digging around in the book of Job to find some hidden sin in Job that brought the calamity on him. It just shows that some modern interpreters are suffering under the same false reverse logic. Finally, at the end of the book, God does not charge Job with sin. Yes, Job repents (42:6), but not for any specific sin as far as we can tell. Rather the revelation of God’s person shows him how far short he is of God’s glory and he repents for his fallenness and ignorance of God. It seems that God is okay with Job’s questions and doubts, as he does not really reprove Job for them. Rather he says that Job has spoken “what is right”. In fact God says it twice, in case we miss it (42:7, 8).

Because of this false logic Job’s friends became spiritual abusers – over and over again they describe the terrible judgment of God on sin and the sinner and the implication is always, “Job this has happened to you so you must have sinned.” In the same way many modern ministries become spiritual abusers. The danger of spiritual abuse in the healing ministry is always with us and it comes whenever we make a “one size fits all” judgment.

We see the same sort of view in the New Testament: “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life (John 9:1-3).”

Here again the assumption is being made that there must have been some specific sin – either in the man himself or in his ancestry – that caused the blindness. Jesus rebuts the claim. In this case the reason for the man’s blindness was not sin, there was a higher reason.

When I was a Pastor, the people in the church would often quote this verse to me to prove there was no connection between sin and sickness – the root problem was they didn’t believe in healing so they didn’t want to see any way around their unbelief. So their argument was simply that this passage showed Jesus didn’t believe there was a connection between sin and sickness – that was one of the Old Testament ideas Jesus came to debunk.

But it was fascinating to me that they never quoted the following two scriptures: “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."

At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath (John 5:5-9),

“Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you (John 5:14)."

The clear implication of Jesus’ words here is that the crippling disease had its origin in sin and that the man could end up with a worse disease if he continued in the sinful life style that led to his first sickness.

“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.

So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.

Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, `Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home (Mark 2:1-11)."

Again the logical connection here is that the man’s paralysis was caused by some sin, and by Jesus forgiving the sin the man was healed. So even Jesus held to the belief that sometimes a particular sin could cause a specific sickness but this did not mean that every time that particular sickness occurred in humanity that a particular sin was also present.

Spiritual abuse occurs when we make a generalisation from one instance - or even a set of instances - and make it a general rule in all instances.

Let me give you some examples:

Several years ago a couple came through my country from the United States who God was using marvellously to set many people free from depression. Their argument was that depression was caused by unforgiveness, bitterness - depression was, in fact, reverse anger. Many people were set free by their ministry – and many were not.

Now I suffer from depression – it has been a constant struggle since puberty. What I find when I go up for prayer for it is the following: The ministry team know of this connection between forgiveness and depression so the immediate response is to tell me I need to forgive somebody. Now I have forgiven everybody I know for everything I can think of – not just once but many times. But again and again I am told this is the problem. Because I get resistant to such ministry I get labelled and some people choose not to pray for me again.

Of course they get affronted when I reject their “leading of the Lord” but I have been around long enough and moved in the prophetic gifts enough to know that often what appears to be a “word of the Lord” can be actually you remembering something you have been taught. Sometimes it is God reminding you of it, sometimes it is not. No matter what, it feels the same.

But my problem is actually something quite different. The human body is a chemical factory. Sometimes the chemicals don’t work properly. Take for instance in the eyes – many people end up wearing glasses – and its not because there is sin in their lives or they need to forgive somebody – it is because the chemicals in the eyes malfunction for one reason or another.

Now the form of depression I have is similar – the chemicals in the brain that control mood progressively shut down over time – so the depression advances. The process begins at puberty. It is a known medical condition. In my case it was quite rapid in the few years after puberty but since then has been quite slow. Speaking plainly – I had the depression before the hurts I later experienced. In fact the later hurts from rejection in churches were caused by the depression and by this false doctrine that all depression is caused by unforgiveness. Pastors and leaders repeatedly rejected me when they figured out I suffered from depression because they made the assumption – “he must have problems with bitterness, so we can’t let him keep on preaching, or leading worship, or etc.”

By that judgement let me name a few people who would never have been used by God because of depression – Moses, Elijah, Job, King David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Asaph (Who wrote many of the Psalms), Korah (Who also wrote many Psalms), The Apostle Paul, John Stott, Martin Lloyd Jones, Martin Luther – shall I continue? All these struggled repeatedly with powerful depression.

So why is chemical shutdown in the brain sinful while chemical shutdown in the eyes is not? It’s only a matter of ignorant prejudice. Somehow mental malfunction - or chemical malfunction in the brain – is deemed more sinful than the need to wear glasses because of chemical malfunction in the eyes.

Actually there are all sorts of reasons why people get depressed. Some people get depressed because of occult involvement – either their own or their ancestors. Others get depressed because of a witchcraft curse put on them by other people. Others get depressed because they lose their job, or their child or spouse dies. Others get depressed because of direct Satanic or demonic attack that is not brought about by sin. There are other reasons also, and once a person is depressed they can easily get locked into it and not find their own way out.. So why is there the assumption that depression means unforgiveness?

What happens is that the ministry becomes abusive because the ministers have only a partial understanding of the causes of depression. As a result they make a judgment: one size fits all.

Here is another example:

Several years ago I attended a counselling course. The person taking it had led a counselling ministry in Auckland, N.Z. for 10 years and over that time he and his teams had prayed for over ten thousand cancer patients. In his estimation 40% of all those he or his team prayed for got healed within 48 hours. Now wouldn’t you like to know the key? Wouldn’t you like 40% of the people you pray for who have cancer to be healed in 48 hours?

Now his statement was this: in every case where they got healing there was a root grief crisis in the person’s life in the two years before the onset of the cancer. This had not been resolved. When they, through prayer, brought the grief to God and resolved it, the cancer left. So the root cause of the cancer in these cases was unresolved grief. No demons, no diet changes, no deep sin ministry.

In case you are interested, Christian counsellor, John Sandford, gave the same statistics – 40% healing rate for cancer and in each case the root was unresolved grief. This, at least, might suggest that the cause of cancer in about 40% of cases may be unresolved grief.

The problem then was this ministry went on to say the following: It was his belief that in the remaining 60% of cases they prayed for grief was also the cause but they just didn’t find out what the grief was.

Here again – one size fits all. The ministry becomes abusive. If you can’t find a grief then the accusation is levelled at the person with the cancer that they don’t have enough faith, or they are hiding something and so on.

But what about the other 60%?

Well, the Hallelujah Acres ministry says all cancer is caused by the SAD diet (or Standard American Diet) we Westerners eat of processed food and meat. Just go vegetarian, they say, and your body will heal itself. The problem is not all who adopt their regime get healed.

Internationally acclaimed healing ministry, Bill Subritzky says cancer is always a demon. He has lots of success by casting out demons of cancer and seeing people healed. Undoubtedly demons will always attach to cancer if it is there and in many cases the root cause of the cancer may be direct demonic attack. In such cases throwing out the demon will heal the problem. Not every cancer patient Bill prays for gets healed either. You’ll notice that Bill usually prefaces his comments about demons and cancer with the phrase, “In my experience…” And in his experience that works for a lot of cases.

What about those sailors who were on N.Z. navy ships who were sent to observe British or French nuclear blasts in the Pacific? Most of them have since died from bad cancers. Surely it is easier to see a connection between the radiation and the cancer than it is to blame grief, their diet or demons. After all it is the one common factor.

The fact is this: the same sickness can be caused by different factors, or a combination of different factors in different people. When we make a “one size fits all” judgment we become abusive ministries. We become abusive because – if the person doesn’t get healed – then we implicitly say, “It’s their fault.” It may be because we are not praying for the right thing.

Of course the wise counsellor confronted with a cancer patient will investigate the demonic, the person’s diet, and whether or not there is unresolved grief. You would be foolish not to - since the success rate stats are so high for these approaches to healing cancer. But to take a narrow view that cancer is always caused by one or more of these three and only by these three would be abusive. There are other causes for cancer. One size does not fit all.

The truth is this: sin has a destructive effect in our lives: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life (Gal 6:7, 8).” The Law of Sowing and Reaping was built into the world to increase blessing for mankind. It is a law of increase. Unfortunately, the law is impartial. With the introduction of sin into the equation the Law still operates but it is forced to operate on inputs it was not designed to operate on. The input of righteousness reaps blessing, but the input of disobedience, or sin, reaps a curse. This curse is destructive – always. Thus sin, working through the Law of Sowing and Reaping, is used by Satan to wreak destruction in our being and the result of this can be sickness.

Some sin has consequences that can be passed on from one generation to another. Thus the compounding effect of sin as it passes through the generations can increase dramatically. Thus a sinful lifestyle may not reap destruction in the sinner’s own life; the full effects are not felt until “the fourth generation (Exod 20:4, 5).” Doctors know about this and will ask you if any other members of your family have this problem. Such curses can go on for many generations. The idea of “3 or 4 generations” does not mean the curse is limited to that, only that it takes 3 or 4 generations for the power of the curse to reach maximum effect. Once the curse is there it can continue forever. So a particular medical problem may be caused by sin your family committed 3-4 or more generations ago.

Because sin was devised by Satan, ultimately all sickness has its origin in Satan. Thus Jesus and the apostles identified sickness as oppression from the Devil: “Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free… (Luke 13:16)?”“…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him (Acts 10:38).” 

This Satanic origin of sickness is also attested to in the ministry of Jesus where he often rebuked sickness as if it were a demon. Sometimes it was caused by a demon, but other times Jesus simply rebuked a sickness. Again, it would be foolish to assume all sickness is directly caused by a demon – and to minister in this way would be abusive. Again discernment is necessary. Demons will try to attach where there is sickness so that they can increase the suffering, but they may not be the cause of the sickness.

Satan is not creative – he did not create sickness, rather what he has done is pervert, or corrupt, God-created microbes so that they cause sickness that God did not intend. Also he uses the destructive power of sin, coupled with the God ordained law of sowing and reaping, as described above. Thus sickness is a perversion of God’s creation – a perversion brought about by the work of Satan, primarily through human sin.

One cardinal fact we need to grasp is the following: God does not give men sickness at any time or for any reason – sickness does not come from God, he did not invent it and he does not use it. God only gives good gifts (Jas 1:17) and, by definition, sickness is a perversion.

However, on occasion, God may allow Satan to bring sickness on a person (as with Job, Job ch 2), but even then the sickness was caused by Satan, not by God. We should not confuse God’s permission with God’s direct action.

So where does sickness come from? It comes out of the nature of our relationship with God. We were created to live in covenant relationship with God. But this covenant was broken by man. The broken covenant brings a curse. “Curse” is a word belonging to the idea of covenant. It means “the consequences of breaking the covenant agreement, or of not keeping faith with the covenant.” “Faith” is another word that belongs to the idea of covenant. Every sickness known to man is listed among the curse of the broken covenant: “If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law… The LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed (Deut 28:59-61).”

We should probably not see this as God directly and personally bringing the curse on people. Rather what is happening here is the operation of the Law of Sowing and Reaping operating on the broken covenant and on human sin. However, because God instituted the Law of Sowing and Reaping, he takes responsibility for its outcomes. God does not give what he does not have to give, and he has no curse. Again, we shall unpack this idea of covenant curse more as the retreat progresses.

Thus Satan is the originator of sickness and there are several ways sickness can come on us:

1. Because we live in a fallen, perverted world wherein Satan has perverted God created microbes that attack us as disease causing germs. If for any reason we allow our body’s natural defences to fall below a certain level sickness can get through. Or the sheer volume of germs around us in the environment may, at times, overwhelm our body’s ability to respond, such as during an epidemic.

2. Because we are living in a fallen world and we are out of harmonious unity with that world by default we may not be living in a healthy way (rest, exercise, diet) and so allow sickness to get through to us.

3. Because of the operation of the law of sowing and reaping on our actions we may sin and thus allow a sickness to attack us or there to be some degeneration or perversion of the physical body or the mind due to sin.

4. Because of the sins of our forefathers leaving an iniquity in the family line which is passed on and operated on by the law of sowing and reaping.

5. By direct spiritual attack on us, Satan can bring sickness on us.

Disease is not the will of God. It is the will of hate; it is the will of Satan. If disease has become the will of Love then love is turned into hate. If disease is the will of God then heaven will be full of sickness.

Disease is cruel. Disease makes slaves of the people who care for the sick. They are robbed of joy and rest. Sickness is not of Love and God is love. Disease steals health, it steals happiness, it steals money. Disease is our enemy; it is a robber.

The fundamental question is this: Is disease God’s will or sent by him? This involves the very character of God himself and therefore the very nature of the universe. If sickness is sent by God how can we believe in a God of Love?

The answer is this: Disease is not God’s will but, on occasion, he allows it.

The Old Testament is very confused on this. You can quote statements for and against sickness being sent by God but the main trend is that it is sent by him. This is probably due to the profound sense in the Hebrew mind of the majesty of God – everything that happens is because of his will.

The New Testament takes a different view. The will of God and the nature of God is revealed in Christ. If you examine the activity of our Lord this is clear. He never ascribes sickness to God’s will but quite often does so to Satan, whose works he came to destroy. He does imply healing may be to the glory of God but this is very different to saying God sends sickness. He continually claimed he came to do the Father’s will. Why did he spend so much time healing if sickness is God’s will? Why did he send out the 12 and 70 to heal? Why did he commission his church to heal? Why gifts of the Spirit to heal? If sickness is God’s will then Jesus spent a lot of time fighting God’s will. If sickness is God’s will how could he point to his works of healing as proof he was the coming one from God when questioned by John’s disciples? It is nearly impossible to square the view that sickness is God’s will with the revelation of God as perfect love and our heavenly father.

The only possible evidence for sickness being sent from God is Paul’s “thorn in the flesh – but Paul calls this a “messenger of Satan (2 Cor 12:8)”, not a Fatherly visit.

It is more truly Christian and in accordance with the New Testament to assert that sickness is NOT God’s will. People defend the other view by asserting sickness is a means to sanctification. God can use it in this way. But this is not to say he definitely wills it. And we should not forget that it often has the opposite effect! Sick people, even sick Christians, often get bitter in their sickness, not sanctified.

If sickness is not God’s will, then what is its origin?

Francis McNutt (a Charismatic Catholic writer) in one of his books on healing talks of the situation in South America, which is highly Catholic. When someone gets sick they accept it as the will of God and will say God has sent the sickness. Then they go to the witchdoctors for healing. A complete reversal has taken place. God is blamed for sickness, which the Bible plainly says is a work of Satan, and Satan is sought for healing.

We may be shocked at such happenings, but the truth is most of us have fallen into the same deceptions that brought this about. We need to look at some misconceptions.

Jesus calls sickness bondage: “This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for 18 years (Luke 13:16).” The Holy Spirit calls sickness oppression: “…healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38).” Are they right? Or are those who call it a “blessing in disguise” right? Is Jesus the truth? Is the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth?

The great coup of Satan has been to convince us that sickness, which the Bible clearly states is a result of sin or the direct activity of Satan, is somehow God at work in us, it is God’s fault. So we end up blaming God instead of blaming Satan for our problems. Instead of blaming the Devil for our sickness and fighting him in prayer to be free of it, we end up bowing under Satanically inspired suffering, stoically putting up with it and blaming God for it.

Jesus told a parable about weeds in the Wheat field (Matt 13:24-30, 36-43). The seed sown was the good seed of the gospel of salvation – that Christ has died to save us from our sins and our sicknesses. The enemy came in and sowed weeds that choked out even the expectation of harvest of salvation. Instead of the good news of healing, a miserable interlocking set of arguments encourage us to accept suffering. We do this in the following ways - the following common statements are actually misunderstandings. They are misunderstandings that are encouraged by the Devil himself. They are lies from the pit of Hell.

1. “This sickness is my Cross to bear.”

This idea derives from the words of Jesus: “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27).” The context of this saying is a parable about building a tower. It has to do with the cost of discipleship – the cost of following Christ. It may cost everything we have.

The idea of a cross to bear – really means “to put to death the old life and follow Jesus”. It is talking of a renunciation of a former way of life for the sake of the kingdom. It has no reference to sickness or suffering – context is important. The idea of “bearing our cross” is not used in scripture to speak of sickness. To “bear a cross” is to suffer something for the sole reason that you are a Christian. It is talking about persecution or self renunciation for the sake of holiness. Things that are the lot of all human beings in a fallen world, such as sickness, cannot be considered to be a special “cross to bear.”

2. “God sent this sickness.”

If “God sends the sickness” it must therefore be his will for the person to be sick. Then logically, to seek healing is to oppose God’s will.

It does not matter how we seek the healing – whether by prayer or the doctors – we would still be fighting God’s will. If we really believe God has sent a sickness we are not going to pray to be rid of it. We will instead refuse all attempts to be prayed for and thus alleviate the sickness. Also we would not seek healing from a doctor either. Why involve the poor innocent doctor in your rebellion against God when you are trying to remove something sent on you by God that is God’s will for you? What has the doctor done that you should involve him in your sinful rebellion against God?

No Christian really believes sickness is God’s will – if they did they would not go to the doctor to get some cure or alleviation of the sickness or pain. They would just grin and bear it.

3. A discipline from God.

This idea is derived from Hebrews 12:5-6: “My son do not make light of the lord’s discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves and punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

The idea here is that sickness is somehow a punishment from God – either for not learning a lesson he has tried to teach us, or for a sin we have committed.

To this idea we can ask one of two questions:

(i)          “What is God trying to teach you?” It is fundamental to education that the teacher tell the pupil what they are trying to teach them before they discipline them for not learning it. If our teachers tried to punish children for not knowing what they had not communicated they would be fired for abuse. Surely if God is trying to teach us something he would communicate it first and if some sickness was the result of not learning the lesson he would let us know that was the case.

(ii)         “What is the sin God is punishing you for?” One would think that if God was using sickness to discipline you then he would also reveal the connection between the sickness and the sin so that you could repent and be healed. To punish a child for a wrongdoing without clarifying what the wrongdoing was is nothing but abuse.

With both of these we wind up with an idea of God who is an abuser, not a God of love.

4. “God is treating me as a son and disciplining me with this sickness.”

Again this idea comes out of Hebrews 12 (above). But what parent would discipline their child by giving them a sickness or a physical disability? No loving parent would do so, so why attribute such to God, who is perfect love? Such would be considered to be abuse.

5. “This sickness is a blessing from God.”

This statement is directly contradictory to what the Bible says, so is absolute rubbish. The Bible says (quoted above) that every sickness is part of the curse. God does not “bless” us with sickness as sickness is a “curse” – and the words “blessing” and “curse” are opposites.

It is foolishness to seek healing from sickness if you think your sickness is a blessing placed on you by God. Why would you want to get rid of a blessing that God has placed on you? If sickness is a blessing, hang on to it, cultivate it – make it grow. But be consistent. Don’t call it a blessing on Sunday in church and then go to the doctor on Monday and ask him to remove your blessing. That doesn’t make sense.

 (The above shows how absolutely stupid the argument is that sickness is a “blessing from God”. No one actually believes this – even though many Christians insist on saying it. They just have not logically thought through the implications of what they are saying.)

6.  “If God wants me well, he can heal me.”

This sounds spiritual, but it is contrary to scripture.

God has provided for us all sorts of blessings in the form of promises. His purpose is that we should enter into what he has promised by claiming the promises and fighting the good fight of faith. At new birth we receive “every spiritual blessing” from God (Eph 1:3) and these cover every area of need we may have in life (2 Pet 1:3). These blessings come in the form of “promises” (2 Pet 1:4) and it is by entering into the experience of the promises that we “participate in the divine nature.” Spiritual growth is thus the entering into the experience of what we HAVE ALREADY BEEN GIVEN in Christ at conversion. This is true for every blessing God has given us. God expects us to pursue his promises because in that pursuit he can change us.

Thus to say, “If God wants me well he can heal me” is to make physical healing an health a special case different from the rest of the provision of God for our lives. In short, it is to deny the word of God. God’s word says, “He has given us everything we need for life (2 Peter 1:3)” and this provision is through his “promises (2 Pet 1:4)”. Surely physical health and healing are to do with “life”.

It sounds spiritual to say “If God wants to heal me he can” but if health and healing are promises that we have to fight the good fight of faith to experience then we are just avoiding spiritual responsibility. In fact what we are doing is justifying our rebellious resistance to God by spiritual claptrap. Instead of praying through the promise we are allowing ourselves to be spiritually lazy and slide out from underneath the responsibility we have to pursue spiritual growth.

7. I prayed for healing once, if God wanted to heal me he would have done so then.

This is related to the last point. We don’t necessarily expect to receive from God what we ask for the first time we ask. The Bible is full of commands such as: “Ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking – for he who asks and keeps on asking and he who seeks and keeps on seeking will get the answer to their prayer (Matt 7:7, 8).” The context of this statement is that of God as a loving father – would he give you a stone if you asked for bread? But there is a need to keep asking.

Jesus told several parables about the need to be insistent and persistent in prayer if we want to get the answer.

There are reasons why we need to keep asking including:

(i) Satan may be opposing the prayer so we need to battle through - as with Daniel (Dan 10). The angel with the answer was opposed by Satanic angels for three weeks and Daniel had to pray him through.

(ii) In the process of seeking God, God is able to change us (sanctify us) and this may be necessary before we can get healed. This will be particularly true if the sickness is caused by sin or faulty lifestyle.

(iii)     The sickness may have a cause and through the process of extended seeking God for healing God may reveal to us the cause so we can repent and change.

(iv)    God may simply be wanting to grow our faith by testing through delay.

We understand these reasons for delayed or unanswered prayer for every other blessing or promise God has for us. There is no difference with healing. Yet somehow the Devil manages to convince many Christians that it would be a “lack of faith” to go and receive prayer again for healing if they have had prayer once. Yet they would not consider it a lack of faith to keep on praying for God to answer other prayers, such as the salvation of loved ones. Abraham kept on asking God about a son for over 30 years!!!! And he is our great example of faith.

The Devil is keeping many Christians sick because they have been deceived by Satan into not continuing to seek God for healing.

8. The Bible says we will experience affliction and tribulation.

This is true – but neither of these words are used in the Bible to designate sickness – they mean troubles such as we find in the world as a result of our Christian faith – persecution is the primary meaning.

One key passage is James 5 where the two ideas of affliction and sickness are put side by side – but the attitude approach we are to have towards each is different. With “trouble” or affliction we are told we are to “pray (Jas 5:13)” and to “be patient (Jas 5:10)” in the face of suffering. With sickness we are told to “call for the elders of the church top pray over him and anoint him and the prayer of faith will make the sick person well (Jas 5:14, 15).” Two different things require two different responses. We may not be set free from affliction or persecution but we will be given grace to stand in it. The same is not suggested of sickness – we are to ask for prayer for healing and the expectation is we will get healed. This scripture has more to teach us so we will come back to it.

9. Divine sovereignty, or Divine determination.

This is the idea that God personally and with careful forethought determines the birth, health and death of every individual. The root idea is that “God controls all events.” This logically implies that he decrees pain or comfort wherever they are found. So if I am sick then God must have ordained it. This divine determinism is most frequently found among those who identify themselves as Calvinists, but it is not confined to them alone.

This is a false understanding of God and his relationship to the world. It is more like Moslem fatalism or a Hindu pantheism than a Christian understanding of the relation of God to creation. If held consistently, it makes prayer for the sick futile or irrelevant. In fact, it makes all prayer irrelevant and futile, as God has already predetermined everything.

The Christian doctrine of God and creation is not the idea that God controls everything that happens. Rather it is as follows:

(i)                   God created the world as an entity that is not himself but has an epistemological distance from himself.

(ii)                 God then gave earth to man to rule – so mankind could make real decisions apart from God that actually would cause things to happen. Thus not all things on earth are caused by God – man is the cause of much that happens on earth and some of these are now not God’s will.

(iii)                Man sold control of earth to Satan so that much of what happens on earth now is the will of Satan, not God.

(iv)               God still respects the gift he gave to man so he does not normally intervene on earth – unless he is asked to. Prayer is asking God to intervene.

Divine determination is seen in statements such as, “While we don’t understand why this has happened it fits into Gods secret plan.” But there is no secret plan – God’s plan has been revealed in Christ. There is no other plan.

Or, “The Lord took him.” But if someone else tried to take a loved one, we would break their necks to stop them. Why ascribe such ideas to God?

This kind of thinking not only chokes out the viability of healing prayer during sickness. It undermines healing prayer by breeding despair and passivity. It is pastorally destructive by fostering hostility towards God. It poisons the heart in the process. Resentment towards God in some form is inevitable. We do not develop such resentment is we remember that God reveals himself to us as a loving, heavenly Father who desires to bless and heal.

Human history, as the Bible reveals it, is determined not simply by the decrees of a sovereign God but to a large extent by the choices of people and of Satan and his forces. Since God’s will is not done in other areas of human life why assume it is in the area of sickness and healing? Gods will is done perfectly in heaven – but that is not the case on earth yet. But where we see God’s will being perfectly done, i.e. in heaven, there is no sickness, death or pain. Shouldn’t that tell us something?

10. God works through sickness to accomplish his will.

In itself this is a true statement, but the implication hidden behind it is not. This does not necessarily imply the sickness is his will. Nor does it imply that he doesn’t want to heal. God can work through anything and everything to accomplish his will, but this does not imply that everything is his will. It just means God is smart enough to be able make good out of evil. It does not mean he intended the evil.

11.                Even if God should occasionally heal the sick it would not be through your prayers (or for you) for you are not good enough.

This objection has several problems.

First it reduces the question of healing to personal judgments about the worthiness of self or others (about whom we really know nothing about).

Second it reduces the healing power to something human – the people praying or being prayed for – instead of being an act of faith in God, who alone is able.

Third, it makes the goodness of God TO us dependent on our goodness instead of on his love and grace towards us. The healing power has nothing to do with how good we are, but has everything to do with what Christ has done for us. This objection ends up being an absolute denial of God’s salvation on the Cross through Christ. None of us are ever “good enough” to be saved by God’s grace. We might as well say, “Even if God should save people from their sin it would not be through you or for you as you are not good enough.” The point is none of us are ever “good enough.” Even the greatest preachers and saints have to be saved entirely by grace.

The fact is God has chosen to heal the sick through the work of Christ as an act of his grace. Also he has invited ordinary sinful, but saved, men and women to be part of this healing process by asking them to pray, believing, for those who are sick.

12. The ideas of miracles of healing, demons and etc., are a hold over from the age of pre-scientific explanations. It is all superstition. We have medicine now to help us.

What happens when you, like I did, get a rare form of cancer that the doctors couldn’t recognise, couldn’t treat and sent you home to die? How does your faith in modern science, medicine and the doctors hold up then? Wouldn’t you want something more than just the best of human efforts?

The attitude of most Christians today with respect to healing is more shaped by pagan thought than by Christianity. It reflects Roman stoicism more than the doctrine and practice of Jesus. It reflects the pagan idea that the body is somehow evil and so deserves” to suffer.

13. What about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”?

He prays for it to be taken away initially. He ceased praying when he learned there was a purpose to it – for the sake of the kingdom. He calls it an “angel of Satan” - not a blessing sent by God. There is no indication that it was a sickness. He does not list sickness among the things he suffered for the sake of Christ so this would eliminate sickness as an explanation of what it was. It was probably some form of demonic harassment that stirred up persecution wherever he went. The use of the phrase “thorn in the flesh/side” in the Old Testament always indicates persecution from other people.

Also it was given “because of the abundance of revelations” he had received. One would expect any person who undergo this sort of attack would have had a similar level of revelations.

14. What about the epileptic (Mark 9)?

What about him? Jesus healed him – and he was angry that the disciples hadn’t done so. His expectation was that they should have been able to. The disciples expected to be able to also and were embarrassed at their failure. Nothing in this episode suggests Jesus is someone unique in the work of healing. Rather it reads as if he is training his disciples to cure people as part of their ordinary ministry.

2.   What about Job?

It is specifically said that Satan caused his illness. The fact that he later had ten more children indicates that he was healed by God after the test was over – otherwise he could not have left the rubbish dump and returned home. The episode of Job tells us that we may, on occasion, be afflicted by Satan with illness as a test. But remember the test came because God bragged about how righteous Job was! We would not expect such a test unless we were living exceptionally righteous lives.

Prayer of renunciation of false beliefs concerning sickness.

Father God, I come to you in Jesus name to renounce false beliefs regarding sickness.

I renounce all ideas that somehow sickness is your will, or is sent on man as part of your plan. I agree that heaven has no sickness and you cannot send what you do not have to send.

I renounce the idea that sickness is a tool of your discipline.

I renounce the idea that sickness is a cross I have to bear.

I renounce the idea that somehow sickness is a blessing. I acknowledge the truth of your word which says every sickness is a curse.

I renounce the idea that any sickness is your determinative will. You do not “will” sickness on us.

I affirm that all sickness is the work of Satan and is the perversion of those things God created for our good – the natural order and the laws of sowing and reaping which you instituted to increase blessing to us. I affirm sickness as being caused in this world through man’s sin and the fact that this natural world is in a “fallen” state.

I agree with your word that You, Father are a loving Father and that you want to heal us.

I affirm that healing is found in your love for us and not in anything we have done. I acknowledge that healing was purchased for us by the perfect work of Christ and so it does not depend on how good I am or on anything I do.

I affirm it is your will to heal ME and I ask for you to increase my faith so that I can receive healing from you.

Thank you Father, In Jesus name. Amen.