Faith, hope and healing

Around Wycliffe I am sometimes seen as a bit dodgy because of my views about miraculous healing. I believe that when Christians ask God to physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally or any other -ally heal somebody, they can do so in the confident expectation that God will do so. This is seen as dodgy or weird mainly because quite manifestly God does not always do so. Such a view is also sometimes associated with 'name it and claim it' theology which asserts that you can have anything you want if you just have enough faith that God will give it to you: health, wealth and happiness are yours from God's cosmic sweetshop in the sky.

Well, to some extent that is what I really do believe (except for the wealth part). Before you reach for your stones to throw at me, here's the reason.

The 'confident expectation' I mentioned above is a combination of two Christian virtues: faith and hope.

Christian faith is faith that God became human in Jesus because he loves us. In becoming human, God reveals to us what he is like in a way we can understand, i.e. in a human way. And one of the things that Jesus reveals is that God hates sickness and loves people. Jesus shows us, in short, that it is God's will to heal. If you believe that it is not God's will to heal, then you are in effect saying that Jesus does not really reveal God.

Christian hope is hope that in Jesus the kingdom of God has begun to break in. Therefore we can always trust that God wants things to be his way - on earth as it is in heaven. Sickness is not God's way, it is not part of God's plan of things. Hope is therefore the expectation that the kingdom of God (i.e. things being the way God wants them) can advance now, can break in now into our situation, into our lives and our needs. Hope refuses to be frightened into giving up by circumstances and experience. The challenge is always: will you let your experience dictate your theology or will you let the life of Jesus dictate your theology?

Does this mean that we should tell people that God will always heal them? No - this would be a lie (there are plenty of examples in the Bible where sick people are not healed). But it does mean that we should pray expecting God to do something, that we should believe that God really is interested in our lives, that we should hope against hope i.e. even when humanly speaking the situation is impossible - because all things are possible for God.

Comments

[Gordon Hickson]

Great post Sean.

Gordon Hickson

[Jonathan Mobey]

Since it is God's will that none should perish but have eternal life, must we be universalists? There are plenty of biblical arguments against.
Since it is God's will that we should all be perfect (as our heavenly Father is perfect), must we assume that moral perfection is possible in this life? 1 John 1 suggests not.

A simplistic notion of God's will to heal is not sustainable. Even the most astonishing, 'complete' healing is temporary - for all die. Some disease or other gets us all eventually!
We should certainly hope (in a 'Christian' way) for what is promised. But God has not promised to always heal our earthly diseases. So we should not hope for that.

The anticipation of the fulfilment of God's will cannot be limited to this world. That is the key. Anything in the 'now' is but a hint of the glorious 'not-yet': it is that for which we should hope.

[Tiffer Robinson]

I would agree that sickness is not in Gods plan, but at the same time nor is sin, or genocide, or earthquakes, etc etc, and yet they are a reality. God has assured us that he has healed, is healing and will heal us (to completely destroy a well known phrase). Sometimes that healing is more obvious than other times, although ultimately we will be healed, whether at the next prayer service, at the kitchen sink or in the resurrection.

I think a lot of problematic thinking about this comes down to seeing heaven as having little to do with our bodies. If we really believe in resurrection then we have to rethink Gods plan for our bodies.

And it's ok, you aren't a fruitcake. Or at least if you are one you know about it!