Whom does God heal?
In John 11, the body of Lazarus, who died of a sickness, was lying in a tomb when Jesus called out in Verse 43, “Lazarus, come out.” Lazarus, according to Verse 44, “came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth.” God healed Lazarus.
Those verses alone almost answer the question. Lazarus, like Jesus, had his faith in God. He wasn’t born sick, he became sick, which is contrary to God’s having created us to be fruitful, as He commands Adam and Eve in Genesis. God knew what Jesus wanted, as Jesus says in Matthew 6:8, “…your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” So God responds, and he heals Lazarus.
Not every ending is as happy as this one, as people who put their faith in God since then can attest to, for God acts to the extent that the desired result is part of His overall Plans. Some people since then have prayed to God until they were blue in the face, that He heal a loved one who was dying of cancer, or who had a heart attack, or was shot, or was afflicted in some other way, but the person died anyway. In my own experience, my grandmother had a heart attack that doctors said she wouldn’t survive, so I prayed to God and He responded. Ten years later, she had another heart attack and died, despite any praying I may have done. She was in God’s Plans to live the first time, but she wasn’t in His Plans to live the second time. I hope that God had taken this good woman into His House, where I may meet up with her again when my time has come. Romans 8: 28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Would God heal someone who was born with, say, a debilitating defect such as a faulty heart valve, or who was born mentally challenged? Consider Psalm 139:14 which says, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” If God created the person with a defect or who is mentally challenged, then from God’s perspective, what is there to heal? He created them that way, so the word “heal” in the biblical sense has to mean to restore a person back to what they were before.
The person who was born with a defect or mentally challenged may stay that way, but that doesn’t mean we need not show our love for them by enabling them to cope. So, we may pray to God to help us in that regard. In all likelihood He had planned that we help them to cope. One might ask how our helping those people fits in with His plans. After all, if they weren’t born, we’d need not spend our time and resources on them. But we do gain, because it shows us what we can do, and how we are able to use our time and resources wisely, and things like this often bring families together who would otherwise have gone their separate ways if they didn’t have someone in the family that requires their attention. And don’t people who come from families that are together, fare better at first than those who were raised on families that were broken and full of strife?
And perhaps God in situations like above, are testing us to see if we will fall under 1 Timothy 5:8 which says, “…if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” For the Bible says that God may test us to see if our faith in Him is solid and endures despite any adversity we may face.
God heals when He believes it is necessary, but that doesn’t mean that those He doesn’t heal won’t dwell in His House, a place that is better by far to live in than any place on earth.
In John 11, the body of Lazarus, who died of a sickness, was lying in a tomb when Jesus called out in Verse 43, “Lazarus, come out.” Lazarus, according to Verse 44, “came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth.” God healed Lazarus.
Those verses alone almost answer the question. Lazarus, like Jesus, had his faith in God. He wasn’t born sick, he became sick, which is contrary to God’s having created us to be fruitful, as He commands Adam and Eve in Genesis. God knew what Jesus wanted, as Jesus says in Matthew 6:8, “…your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” So God responds, and he heals Lazarus.
Not every ending is as happy as this one, as people who put their faith in God since then can attest to, for God acts to the extent that the desired result is part of His overall Plans. Some people since then have prayed to God until they were blue in the face, that He heal a loved one who was dying of cancer, or who had a heart attack, or was shot, or was afflicted in some other way, but the person died anyway. In my own experience, my grandmother had a heart attack that doctors said she wouldn’t survive, so I prayed to God and He responded. Ten years later, she had another heart attack and died, despite any praying I may have done. She was in God’s Plans to live the first time, but she wasn’t in His Plans to live the second time. I hope that God had taken this good woman into His House, where I may meet up with her again when my time has come. Romans 8: 28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Would God heal someone who was born with, say, a debilitating defect such as a faulty heart valve, or who was born mentally challenged? Consider Psalm 139:14 which says, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” If God created the person with a defect or who is mentally challenged, then from God’s perspective, what is there to heal? He created them that way, so the word “heal” in the biblical sense has to mean to restore a person back to what they were before.
The person who was born with a defect or mentally challenged may stay that way, but that doesn’t mean we need not show our love for them by enabling them to cope. So, we may pray to God to help us in that regard. In all likelihood He had planned that we help them to cope. One might ask how our helping those people fits in with His plans. After all, if they weren’t born, we’d need not spend our time and resources on them. But we do gain, because it shows us what we can do, and how we are able to use our time and resources wisely, and things like this often bring families together who would otherwise have gone their separate ways if they didn’t have someone in the family that requires their attention. And don’t people who come from families that are together, fare better at first than those who were raised on families that were broken and full of strife?
And perhaps God in situations like above, are testing us to see if we will fall under 1 Timothy 5:8 which says, “…if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” For the Bible says that God may test us to see if our faith in Him is solid and endures despite any adversity we may face.
God heals when He believes it is necessary, but that doesn’t mean that those He doesn’t heal won’t dwell in His House, a place that is better by far to live in than any place on earth.