It’s time for followers of God to begin curing cancer, and
stop just trying to treat its symptoms.
The healthcare and pharmaceutical industries in this country spend
millions in research to find treatments for disease – there is great money in
treatments – almost none in cure’s. If
there is ever progress finding a medical cure, it will likely come from a
country who supports universal health-care, as they have the financial
incentive to eliminate disease not just provide treatments. Christians spend a great amount time praying
to treat the effects of cancer rather than praying to cure it. We ask for God to reduce our pain. We ask for His comfort to be with the
families of the afflicted. And then we
couch these weak prayers with our backdoor excuse to let God off the hook for
NOT answering with “but let Thy will be done”.
When prayed aloud these words smack of lack of trust in God,
or perhaps a misguided belief that God would wish these pains upon us. God is not trying to punish us with our
diseases now, any more than He did in the time of Christ – when He was asked
the question – “who sinned, this man or his parents?” for the infirmities the
paralytic suffered. While on this earth
Christ walked through villages and healed every single person there of every
single disease. I’m sure not all these
sick people even believed in Christ prior to being healed. Therefore healing is not even a question of
having enough faith (from the sick person at least). It is about having faith (from the person
asking for the healing). What was the
will of Christ when it came to healing – Heal everyone. He did not walk through these villages and
say comforting words to the families of the sick. He did not pray aloud and offer His Father a
way out of answering His prayers. He
boldly offered healing. Only those who
refused His help were left unchanged.
He asked some to take His hand and walk again. Think of that for a minute. We cannot heal ourselves; we must look to a
higher power to be healed (whether from the condition of sin, or the condition
of physical disease). We reach out to a
beckoning God and find healing, not just comfort, or a reduction in our pain,
we find complete and utter healing. This
was true even for those who were born in a condition where they had never
experienced walking. The Disciples of
Christ followed his example and also boldly extended offers of healing to the
sick. Peter did not stop outside of the
temple to pray and ask if it was God’s will to heal the beggar asking for
help. He did not cause the beggar to
wonder about the character of Jesus. He
simply offered the beggar healing in the name of Jesus, no questions asked. We serve the same God, who wants the same
things for His people now as He did in the days of the early Christian
church. Complete health. Complete joy.
This idea of praying for God’s will to be done is most often
found in the prayers of Christ in Gethsemane.
At this point in His life, the weight of the sins of the entire world
were upon His shoulders. He was in
agony. For the first time He realized
and felt a separation from His Father (the definition of Hell as discussed
earlier). His human nature longed to
find another way to redeem man, and He cried out “Let this cup pass from
me”. Had this been His last request,
unmodified by what He spoke next, our hope for Salvation would have ended. But the Divine nature in Him knew already the
answer to His question; and so He further stated “But nevertheless, not my
will, but Thine be done”. This was an
oral submission to the will of God, not a question as to what God’s will was in
this situation. Christ had to die for
us, in order for us to be saved.
Therefore His suffering was inevitable.
We are not in Christ’s situation or place. We are constantly seeking the will of God,
and our prayers are always voiced with a willingness to accept God’s answers no
matter what they are, even when they conflict with what we want. But this does not imply that God wants us to
suffer. He may use our suffering and
work out a greater good, but this is not because He prefers us to suffer. His will is for our healing. His will is for us to live well, not to live
in pain. This is the whole point of
Salvation. How can we claim Salvation
and still believe that God wishes us to suffer needlessly. These ideas are mutually exclusive. Our death in this world may be inevitable,
but this is due to our condition of evil, not due to divine intent. It was God who placed the tree of life in the
Garden of Eden. He intended us to live
in perfection forever and ever. Our
choice to break trust and embrace evil, forced a new plan on God and us.
Of course it is impossible for “us” to heal anyone because
of anything we have in ourselves. We
possess no supernatural abilities of our own.
In short, if healing is to be offered, it is to be offered as an
extension of the will of our God. It is
our God who heals, not us. So when the
healing comes for those who we have asked, we must be sure not to take the
credit for it. God must get ALL the
glory. It is not about how great we can
pray, or how awesome our faith is, or how close to God we are – it is about the
glory of God. Remember that in the end
of time there will exist on earth a group of people who are able to heal in
God’s name – but have no clue what it means to follow God, by loving the less
fortunate. Christ was no
respecter-of-persons, meaning He did not seek out the rich and perform miracles
for them, to benefit Himself. No, rather
He performed miracles for poor and the destitute as well as the rich. He healed Romans, and Samaritans, as well as
Jews. He came to save us ALL. He did not restrict Himself to only those who
claimed to follow Him. But He reached
out to everyone, even His enemies. And
He wept for those who refused Him.
Moses, Abraham, David, Daniel, Jonah, Samson – all the
patriarchs of the Bible; Ruth, Ester, Mary, Miriam, Dorcus – all those great
women of faith; where are the heroes of today?
Will there be one who reads this simple blog and gets up off his/her
knees, travels down to the local hospital and proceeds to cure every sickness? If this sounds far-fetched to you, it
probably won’t be you who does it. I
seek the Moses of our time. I seek the
Daniel of our time, who is able to so firmly trust in God, that they KNOW
beyond all doubt what God is able to do.
The key ingredient all these characters of distinction had was NOT the
perfection of their character. They ALL
had flaws. The Bible is honest about
them, and does not try to paint them as perfect. What they all did have however, was the
willingness to be used by God. The
willingness to submit to the will of God.
And through this willingness were worked some of the greatest miracles
the world has ever seen.
So why do I search for spiritual greatness in this time of
horrific evil? Because before He left,
Christ stated that at the end-of-time we, His followers, would do even GREATER
miracles than He did while on this earth.
What a promise! Christ raised the
dead, healed entire villages, cast out demons, cured incurable / infectious
diseases, he fed the hungry in great numbers – and He did even more than that –
He spoke peace to us. He spoke hope to
us. He defined love for us. He did not condemn us as we deserve, but He
saved us as we do not deserve. He gave
us ALL life for the taking. Since His
words are ALL true. Since His promises
can be counted on, always. In this world
of evil we live in, there are some who are learning the lesson of
humility. The faith they have been
given, is greater than that of a mustard-seed.
And perhaps now it is time for them to step forward and begin to
accomplish in our prayer life, the real needs of our world. Perhaps now is the time to step out of our
spiritual lethargy and become a flame with the passion for a suffering
world. Let us approach the throne
boldly, and begin asking for what we really need. Let us demonstrate to an unbelieving world,
that our God is real. We do not follow
after the superstitions of humans, but after the love of the divine. We can KNOW He wants to help us. We can KNOW He wants to give us more than
comfort – He wants to heal us. Who is bold
enough to ask for it? …
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