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01/17/2007

Gifts of the Spirit - The Gifts of Healing & Miracles
When God Says No-II

As we close out healing today, there are four basic lessons that I want you to take away from this lesson. The first is that if you have a “thorn in your flesh” have you even asked God to heal you? You see many of you may never go to a doctor, but it is my guess that many more of you will never go to God with your request. It is also possible that you may go to God, but only once and then give up. Paul tells in 2 Corinthians that he went to God three times asking that his thorn be removed. I don't believe that Paul went and asked like this: “God will you heal me? No, well ok.” He went in deep reverent prayer and asked God fervently to remove this thorn. He was probably on his knees or prostrate before the Lord. And he did this three times.

It is important that we understand that sometimes God wants us continuously praying to Him. Jesus even tells us a parable to affirm this. Luke 18:1-8:

¹ Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

⁴ "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "

⁶ And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

Jesus even begins this parable by stating that it demonstrates that we should keep praying and never give up. Jesus is telling us that if we have a just cause before God and we come to Him He will bring true justice. I do not honestly know if the healing you are looking for is just or not, but God wants you before Him as Judge, not taking no for an answer unless He has told you that His grace is sufficient for you.

The second lesson I want you to learn is that if you have asked, and God has told you no you can be confident that God will make a way through whatever it is that you are going through. This is what we will refer to as sustaining grace. I will tell you that in my opinion this grace is actually even more powerful that healing grace.

I want you to consider this. Paul was beaten, flogged, stoned, ridiculed and persecuted and yet he still kept speaking boldly for the Gospel. God provided him with such an amazing grace that he kept moving forward in speaking the Gospel. That is not even considering that Paul still had this thorn. That seems totally amazing to me that he kept persevering through all this. That is sustaining grace.

As you are moving forward in life I want you to ask yourself if God is not going to remove my thorn, will He see me through it, whatever it is? You should know the answer to that question is yes, and if you keep seeking Him to take you through this I guarantee you that your relationship with God will be drastically changed. You will have an amazing prayer life, and God will change your relationship with Him.

If you read Psalm 23 you read a prayer that David wrote that speaks of this sustaining grace. He speaks of walking through the shadow of valley of death and fearing no evil. Why? Because he knows he has a thorn but also knows that God will take him through it. Can God take you through your thorn? You should ask Him to do so.

Our third lesson I want you to leave with is that if God does not bring healing, he will bring other things to you. What I mean by this is that God never leaves you void, so if healing for your affliction is not in His plan, His plan includes giving you something else. Most importantly to you is that if you seek it, it will include a deeper intimacy with Him.

If you start talking to God, I guarantee you that He will start talking back. He will also use that as an opportunity to build a closer relationship with you. I must tell you honestly that sometimes healing does not occur because if it did we would stop talking to God. There are many instances recorded in the Gospels where people were healed by Jesus and then never spoke to Him again. They had what they wanted from God and felt no further need for Him anymore. In Luke 17:11-17 we are told of the story of ten lepers that approach Jesus to ask for healing. Jesus heals all ten, but only one returns to give praise to God, and He was not even a Jew. This is the road that many of us would take if we were healed. We would take our healing, and not bother with God again until the next crisis arises.

As harsh as this may be to say I will tell you sometimes Jesus will not bring healing to you or to the person you are praying for because this may be the only way you will speak to Him. He may leave that friend of yours unsaved or your child ill, because He knows if He does you will be sitting at His feet day after day fervently praying and speaking to Him. It is not that He does not care about the person you are praying for. It is simply that He cares so much for you that He wants you continually coming to talk to Him and building a stronger relationship.

When God does not heal what He brings is a transformation in you that makes you more Christ-Like in character. God spoke to Paul about his affliction in 2 Corinthians 12:9:

⁹ But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Jesus tells Paul that he would be made stronger by his total reliance on the Lord. That the weakness he had would actually make him stronger. This happens because to make it through this affliction Paul would have to become more and more reliant on God and that would lead to him becoming more like God. Let's remember that a Christian is someone who is “Christ-like.” If affliction makes us closer to being like Him we should say Praise the Lord!

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Not being healed may also bring us a confounding and confusing effectiveness in our ministries. It may actually make us more effective and more able to speak and exclaim the Gospel message. I remember reading about a man who had a terrible case of cancer. The doctors had told him he had three months to live, and he was obviously a bit distraught facing his own mortality. After a few days though he realized that these three months were going to give him the opportunity to live for Jesus. He was freed from his worldly bonds, and so he spent every day speaking to people about how God was blessing him. People were obviously quite amazed, that this man who was about to die, was speaking so boldly for Jesus, and talking about how thankful he was to God for his race being close to ending. Literally thousands came to Christ through this man and his testimony. People came from all over to listen to him and left amazed at what they had heard. Christ was written all over this man.

If not afflicted in such a way this man does not speak for Jesus and people are not saved. His ministry became amazingly effective and he changed lives. This may be what God is doing through you. It does not have to be physical healing. You may be struggling financially or relationally and this may open you to speak boldly for Jesus.

In Psalm 119:71, it is written:

⁷¹ It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.

He reveled in his affliction because it made him focus on God more. It sounds confusing, but there is freedom in affliction if you let it be. There is transformation that can occur if we seek God.

The other part of what God may give you is a complete obsession with the Kingdom of God . This is the kind of obsession that stops you from being concerned about worldly things and instead makes you focused on the things of God. Where you become obsessed with God's ways and knowing His plan.

You know I live in an amazing country. There is more Christian book stores, radio stations and Bible colleges in the United States than any where in the world. Christians CD's are sold everywhere, there are numerous web sites dedicated to God and TV stations where I can see and hear about God any time I want. Yet there is very little Christian living that goes on in this country. There is so much secularism and “religion” that God is almost unimportant. Affliction is the kind of thing that gets people moving for Jesus and focused on God.

The 9-11 tragedy was just that…a tragedy. But it got people moving for Jesus. It got people to become more obsessed with God. Affliction may just do that for you as well.

The last lesson I want you to learn is that if God does not take away your thorn now, eventually all thorns will be removed. God's ultimate plan is complete and total restoration, and that means for your challenges as well. If we are obsessed with the ways of God, and not as concerned about this physical life we will see that God will restore all things and make us all whole.

I want to close with a personal note. I found it interesting that God was having me speak on healing at this time, considering that my mom died last week. My mom had been battling cancer and five years ago they told her she had 4-6 months to live. But she made it five more years before she finally passed away last week.

I got to see the healing power of God in action. I got to see God move back the clock on my mom's life, but that was not forever. God laid her to rest and she will be joining him one day. But the healing was still there. And through her final affliction my mom got closer to God. That is what I am most happy about.