Why Are People Not Consistently Healed?

I’ve been asked God to teach me more and specifically to give me wisdom to understand healing. I don’t mean to understand ‘how to heal people’ as so many Christians seem to pursue. I’ve been petitioning with God to help me understand why sometimes we pray, and we see people healed, and why sometimes we pray, and we do not see people healed. I’ve been asking God to help me comprehend His will with healing people. I’ve read and heard many people who believe it is always God’s will to heal the sick, 100% of the time all the time. I’ve also read and heard many people explain that sometimes God will allow someone to be sick in order for them to be drawn closer to Him, to learn, or to grow in their walk. I see the logic and the ‘biblical’ argument for both of these beliefs, and yet I am not satisfied with either of them. Neither of them answers my heart’s question of – how do we know when it’s God’s will to heal someone and when it’s not? Why do some people never receive their healing? 

I’m sure this is a question I may not have fully answered until I meet Jesus face-to-face, but God has been faithful in slowly revealing things to me in His word to help ease my heart’s questioning. What a good God we serve, right? 

Today, God told me to read John 9 during my morning prayer time and I didn’t really know what it would be about, or that it would be an answer to my questioning of healing until I opened my bible! John 9 is the beautiful story of how Jesus healed the blind man, who was blind from birth, by making mud and smearing it across his eyes.  

The first thing that sticks out to me here is that Jesus immediately answers the question people often have regarding why people are sick; Jesus clearly says that sickness is not inherited from ‘generational sin’, nor is it possible that a baby could sin in the womb thus rendering them sick upon birth. This is a challenging thought as I think so often we have become indoctrinated to believe that children who are born with a sickness or disability are that way because of parental sin, or generational curses. I think to one of my dear friend’s whose daughter has cerebral palsy and who has spent such a large portion of her life in guilt because she believed it was her sin, her words spoken, her thoughts, that caused her daughter to be born with CP. What if the beautiful truth were that this precious girl was born with CP to show the world God’s glory? I think of all the children I see daily with Autism and Down’s Syndrome who are so often looked upon as a curse in this culture; what if they were born to glorify Jesus Christ as the Messiah and saviour to the Arab nations? What if the truth of why we see such a high prevalence of Autism in the Middle East is not to do with parental sin but instead to do with God bringing home His Arab children when the time arrives?  

The beggar man in John 9 was born blind and we read in verse 21 that he was now an adult, so we know he had suffered for many years of his life, and what was the reason for his suffering? 

“…it happened to him so that you could watch him experience God’s miracle.” (John 9V3) 

It brings enlightenment and value to the belief that sometimes we will be sick, sometimes for what seems like an unfair length of time, not because we are unworthy, dirty, sinners. But simply for the Glory of God to be manifest in our lives and in the lives around us. Remember Jesus said “so that you could watch him…” This clearly signifies to me that not only does the person receiving healing meet the manifest power and glory of God, but those who are onlookers also experience and taste Gods goodness. There is a benefit to suffering beyond what we can truly comprehend. These are difficult and somewhat uncomfortable thoughts to sit upon. To believe that God would allow someone to be born to suffer only to reveal His glory. But, in a sense, is this not what Jesus’ life was? A life born to suffer only to reveal to us the glory of God. 

As I continued reading through John 9 it became apparent to me that this blind man went through a journey of encountering Jesus which started with a physical healing and leading through to a spiritual revelation and ultimately salvation. This blind man did not approach Jesus; he had not asked Jesus for healing. Nope. Jesus had seen this man. Isn’t that amazing? That when we are suffering, when we are sick, we do not even need to cry out and plead with Jesus to come to us. He already sees us! I think this completely lays waste to the argument that the person in need of healing has to ‘come to God first’ in order to receive their healing or has to ‘desire’ to be healed. These are beliefs which I honestly had held at one point in my journey with God. However, it is so clear that this is untrue. This blind man did not desire Jesus, did not request healing, did not even know of His need for Jesus. In fact, this man when thrown out of the temple, still did not know of his need for Jesus. He did not pursue Jesus, even after Jesus had healed him. Only do we see this man fall down and worship Jesus when Jesus fully revealed Himself in V38; 

“Then the man threw himself at His feet and worshipped Jesus and said “Lord, I believe in You!”” 

This man’s journey progressed from not knowing Jesus or desiring Him, to an encounter with Jesus which changed his life. The once-blind man stated that he had met a man named Jesus when he was questioned on how he was healed. I think for me, this is one of the most beautiful parts of this chapter. We see the reality to that there is no formula, no specific prayer, no specific words that can bring healing. It is simply one word, one person and His name is Jesus. An encounter with Jesus was enough to leave this man changed forever, and I can certainly say that that has been true in my life as well. It is not through a specific pastor, minister, or apostle that we will receive healing. It is only through an authentic encounter with the person or Jesus Christ.  

Whilst it cannot be denied that certain pastors, ministers, or apostles have a ‘healing anointing’ – I’m thinking of people such as Smith Wigglesworth, John G Lake and Benny Hinn to name a few– perhaps the reason they have such a ‘healing anointing’ is because they have had, and continue to live in, an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ and through this encounter they usher other people into His presence, and it is the presence of Jesus that brings healing. Perhaps this also leads to the challenging thought that one reason we do not see people healed when we pray for them is because we are not abiding in a continual encounter and relationship with Jesus? Perhaps we are not filled with enough of His presence to pour out into others in a manner that will meet their needs. 

There is so much more we can gain from John 9; like how Jesus used a physical healing to provide an analogy for the spiritual healing and judgement He came to deliver (V39-41). We can also see how the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees lead to them refusing to acknowledge Jesus and actually persecuting the once-blind man (V34). However, for the purpose of this discussion on healing, I will not delve deeper into these areas. 

So, what conclusions can I draw and what answers has God given me through John 9 today? Honestly, I am still unsure. I believe I need to spend much, much more time studying this passage to truly hear the fullness of what Jesus is speaking to me. However, what I can say for certain is that God’s will is to heal, through encountering Jesus, for His glory. I can also say that I do believe there will be times we will meet people, or we ourselves, may suffer a sickness in order for God’s glory to shine. And it is our responsibility to magnify His name and praise Him in these moments of suffering sickness; resting in the knowledge that He will heal us, He will be glorified, and we will see the goodness of God in that moment.