How Does God Heal Me?

by admin | Apr 5, 2022 | Christianity

In my article, “Walk By Faith“, I shared about how God answered my prayer in providing me a job as a teacher after two consecutive rejections by National Institute of Education. Those two rejections resulted in me being unemployed and setting me back by 2 years in my career. In that article, I also mentioned that I recovered from a very serious case of diabetes without medication in recent years.

In this article, I will share about how God has healed me of various ailments throughout my life including diabetes.

God Heals People Individually

At the start of the current COVID-19 pandemic, a Facebook friend of mine posted a comment on Facebook. He was challenging the senior pastors from some mega-churches to heal the public of COVID-19. Of course, he was a hater of Christianity and he was being sarcastic. He was trying to prove that these “Christian Big Guns” are not that great.

First of all, personally I do not admire some of these senior pastors from these mega-churches. They are not Big Guns nor are they extraordinary spiritual beings. They have flaws just like anyone else. Somehow and somewhat due to the size of their churches, they have gained the attention of the public while some over-zealous church members exalted them to the status of celebrities.

So, do not expect them to have extraordinary healing ability that can heal a nation, much less the whole world, of a pandemic. In fact, that is not the way God heals anybody. Even Jesus did not do anything of that sort. Jesus always heal people individually.

Faith and Healing

So how does God heal and does God still heal today?

My answer is, “Yes! God still heals today just like the way He answers the prayers of those who has faith.” My emphasis here is that faith is essential in receiving healing from God. In fact, faith is how we receive anything from God.

My spiritual awakening began with this biblical verse:

For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Mark 11:23-24

This bible verse started me on my journey in believing God as a prayer answering God. My first prayer request was for my acceptance into National Institute of Education as a teacher trainee, which I have shared in my article, “Walk By Faith“.

In Mark 11:23, Jesus uses the illustration of moving mountains, an impossible task, humanly speaking. The principle can be applied to any situation.

Of course, it can be applied to healing too and there are many promises on healing in the bible.

Whenever I ask God for something, I always lament that it is so challenging to believe God for those things because unlike healing, the bible is filled with promises on healing. The devil and people around me are always challenging me that what I ask God for is not “godly”, such as my teaching job. Well, God can give you any other job … except the one you really wanted the most. God can give you a life partner … but any woman except the one you love the most. Perhaps some woman in her 50s who is either a divorcee or a widow. That is how such people would answer your prayer, … IF … they were God. Thank God that they are not.

As I know that the bible is full of promises on healing, I have no issue believing God in healing me of any ailments. However, that is still not easy like I have shared in my article, “Walk By Faith”. Yes, God will answer your prayers, but you do not know when. Abraham received his son, Isaac, from God only when he turned 99 years old. Between your prayer and the manifestation of your request, you have to keep believing God that He will answer your prayer (in biblical language, God has answered your prayer) and the manifestation will come.

Does God Heal Us Miraculously And Instantaneously?

So does God heal us miraculously and instantaneously? Has God ever healed me miraculously and instantaneously?

The answer is, “Yes, but only sometimes. Most of the time, no!”

I have never feared contracting any terminal disease like cancer even though my mother died of stage 4 colon cancer. Whenever I consult a doctor concerning some ailment that was not some common flu or cough, they will behave very cautious and serious when they learned of my late mother’s death. Perhaps I am one patient unlike many others who behave very calm and relaxed, and does not become panicky from the doctor’s reaction. I felt like telling the doctors, “Relax! Nothing bad will happen to me.”

That was exactly the situation when I was diagnosed with diabetes. The doctor measured my blood sugar level with his glucometer, and I too have bought one and am now using it daily. The doctor’s glucometer indicated, “High” instead of some numerical reading.

The doctor told me, “Your blood sugar level is so high that the glucometer could not measure it. It is probably higher than 30 mmol/L. Go to a hospital IMMEDIATELY! I am serious. Don’t play a fool.”

I look at him calmly in disbelief thinking to myself,

“Relax! Why are you so panic? Are you trying to make me panic?”

Just to let you have a sense of how high my blood sugar level was, a heathy blood sugar level should roughly be between 7.0 mmol/L to 10 mmol/L after meal and between 4.0 mmol/L to 6.9 mmol/L when fasting. Based on what I have shared with other diabetic patients, their blood sugar level are usually just slightly above 10 mmol/L.

Well! I will return to my story of my diabetic condition later while I make a temporary detour to share the main points of this article. Let us discuss first about instantaneous healing.

My Experience Of Instantaneous Healing From God

So how does God heal me of my different physical ailments?

There were only two occasions that I received an instantaneous healing miraculously. However, the healing did not last for long.

The first was during my undergraduate days when I was still a Catholic and did not know much about God’s promises on healing. There was an Indian Catholic priest who had the gift of healing and exorcism who visited Singapore. So many Catholics flocked to his meetings hoping to be healed. I went hoping to receive some miracles from God in answering my prayers but not for healing. I was not hoping for any healing although I always had Rhinitis throughout my life.

During that meeting, that Indian priest called out a list of different healings that God was healing people of and that included nasal conditions. I did not take that joyously or reacted like I hit the jackpot. I was hoping for answers to other prayers, to other matters that were bothering me. Nevertheless, days after that, I felt that I did not experience blocked nose like I usually did and when I ate hot, steamy food, my nose did not begin to run like I usually would. So, I did experience a miraculous healing. Nevertheless, the miracle did not last. In a matter of time, my Rhinitis condition returned.

The second miraculous healing was my athlete’s foot. That was during the early days of my working adult life. It was a meeting conducted by a female preacher who preached much about prayer and healing. After some preaching during her meeting, the congregation would go into intense prayer with her. In the midst of praying, she would begin calling out conditions that God is healing people of. She began calling out the condition of itching between the toes. That was my condition.

That was many years back, decades ago. So, I do not remember whether was the healing immediate. All I remembered was that a few days later, my feet stopped itching and all the fungus was gone.

However, like my previous story, the problem returned. What am I trying to point out here?

Instantaneous Healings Usually Do Not Last Permanently

God can heal anyone instantly and miraculously. However, for most instantaneous healing, the healing does not last, unless they are very special cases like restoration of sight to the blind, cleansing of leprosy, etc. If it is some common condition that you, I and someone else are possibly having, such instantaneous healing usually will not last and the conditions will return.

In fact, in the Christian circle, I have always heard of news of cancer patients who had received miraculous healing had their conditions return.

I am not saying that it always happen but they do happen. Why? I will elaborate and explain after building some fundamental understanding.

The Usual Way That God Heals Me

Besides those two times when I received instantaneous healing, most of the times, God heals me gradually. I have experienced my healing by having God imparting to me ideas to heal my body using natural means and how to maintain my health. The benefit of this method is that I know how to overcome the problem when the same thing happens again. 

Case 1: My Sore Throat

I used to have sore throat easily and especially after I began teaching. At first I took honey based on what I heard from others. Somehow, I cannot remember what led me to eat an apple every night. After doing so, I stopped having sore throat that frequently.

More importantly, I realised that it was all those soup and spicy food that I had been eating when I ate out that caused my sore throat and I stopped eating them.

As I stopped eating those food especially drinking the soup that are saturated with MSG, I stopped having sore throat.

Case 2: Fungus Infection (Athelete’s Foot)

When I started working, my pay was very low. I used to buy all those old shoes that were on special offer at extremely low price. After wearing these cheap shoes, my feet began getting infected with fungus. There was yellow puss on the sole of my feet, my toes and between my toes. They itched terribly. 

I had a miraculous healing during a prayer meeting when the preacher called out my healing like I mentioned earlier. However, they came back again. Why? It was because I was still wearing those cheap shoes. I also became aware that whenever my shoes got wet during rainy days, I would begin having fungus between my toes.

Then again, it was like God imparted to me the knowledge and awareness of the cause of my problems. I felt led to add Dettol to hot water and soaked my feet in the hot water. It was an idea that dropped into my head. I had to bear the heat and pain soaking my feet in the hot water. Later, my feet would turn red and slightly swollen from the heat.

After having done that, the skin on the infected areas will eventually dry up and peel off and the fungus will also be gone. Ever since then, I began wearing better quality shoes and kept my shoes clean and dry. Whenever, my shoes get wet and my feet begin to itch, I will once again soak my feet into hot water and Dettol. It never fails to solve my problem of fungus infected feet.

Case 3: My Sinusitis/Rhinitis

Since childhood, I have had a sensitive nose that kept running. I had been seeing a dedicated Ear-Nose-Throat specialist since I was 12 years old, and he had retired a few years ago. Like every doctor, he told me things like my nasal condition will last a lifetime and the condition will not go away. Gradually into the later years of my adulthood, my nose is no longer that allergic. I have stopped medication for a long time and my nose does not run unless it gets badly agitated. 

Around early in the year 2000, I began digging my ear when I found that there is much wax and dead skin in my ears. Dry wax had accumulated in my ear over the years and I began digging my ears. I dug a little too much and too often, to a point that I peeled off some of the skin in my ears. I believed that I have dug away some thin protective layers inside my ears and my ears got super sensitive. 

Eventually my ears got easily infected when they got wet as I washed my hair. I ended up seeing my ENT specialist from time to time to remove those wax stuck in my ears when my hearing got bad. Sometimes water got stuck inside my ears and my ear drums would get inflamed.

During one of those visits he said, “Funny! Your nose is now alright, but your ears start to have problem.” 

I believed that it was God who had healed my nose but I purposely asked him, “Why? How did my nose get better?”

He replied, “This type of thing very hard to say one lah.”

I believe that as time passes, God has improved the condition of my nose. As for my ears, it was my fault of digging my ears a little too much. After a long time, I believe those protective layers within my ears have grown back and the condition of my ears has improved.

So, I believe that God heals me the way he does by showing me the cause of my ailments and gives me the wisdom to take care of those problems whenever I need to. I can use those wisdom God has imparted to me to maintain my body.

Many of our sicknesses are a result of eating the wrong things and doing the wrong things. God can heal us miraculously but if we do not remove the cause of the sickness, it can and will return just like the case of the fungus between my toes and my sore throat.

It does not make sense for me to expect God to heal me miraculously whenever I experience sore throat just because I have taken food and soup saturated with MSG.

Neither does it make sense for God to heal me miraculously of fungus infection whenever it rains and my shoes get wet or if I choose to wear cheap and dirty shoes.

It simply make more sense for God to enlighten me on how to take care of myself daily and how to avoid those things and situations that will cause harm to my body. Instead of hoping and waiting for a miracle, God teaches me how to heal myself with simple natural means whenever I need to.

The Way God Healed Me Of Diabetes

Here’s the full story of how I found out that I had diabetes.

Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes

I had a very sweet tooth. I liked to add around 3 spoonfuls of sugar to all my beverages and I liked all kinds of sweet stuff and fruit juice. I began waking up around 4:00 a.m. plus in the morning with very bad cramps in the calf of my legs regularly. When I press my finger hard against any surface to rub off stains with a rag, the nerves on my fingers would continue pulsating long after that. Looking back, I suspect that I could be pre-diabetic or was already diabetic when I had such symptoms but I simply did not know.

Months before I was diagnosed, I began to experience hunger pangs in the evening and I ate mixed vegetable rice for dinner regularly. Normally, I eat very little for dinner and would just simply skip dinner if I could. In fact, I seldom consume rice for any of my meals because I would gain weight easily if I were to eat rice on a regular basis.

I began to suffer more and more acute symptoms as time passed. I began having constant urination throughout the day and especially in the night, as frequent as a few times every hour. Just over a few nights after experiencing constant urination, I began losing weight drastically. I lost around 10 kg. The pants that I was wearing would have dropped down to my ankles if not for my belt.

My mouth was extremely dry and thirsty – so dry that my tongue would get stuck to my mouth like Jim Carrey had his tongue stuck to a frozen bar in the movie, “Dumb and Dumber”. My eyesight began to vary. I would gulp down glasses and glasses of cold water but it could never quench my thirst. I began craving for sweet drinks, so much so that I began drinking at least a can of Coke each day when I had stopped drinking Coke for years. For decades in fact.

I stumbled on some YouTube video about symptoms of diabetes and I had 80% of all the symptoms mentioned. Nevertheless, I rejected the thought that I was suffering from diabetes because I believed that God would keep me healthy. I could suffer a little illness here and there but not critical ones and I did not see how and why God would have me suffer any critical illness. That is an understanding I have with my God.

Of course, such understanding can undergo some unusual circumstances like any relationship would, especially between two human beings, not to mention, God and human.

I Was Finally Diagnosed To Be Diabetic

I finally visited a doctor thinking that I could perhaps get something from him that could quench my thirst. The more the doctor asked me about my symptoms, the more he suspected that I was having diabetes and I knew that he was thinking along that line.

I tried to dissuade him from thinking of that giving him my own explanation of why I could possibly be suffering from a very dry mouth. The doctor insisted on checking my blood sugar level.

Earlier on, I have already told you the outcome of the test and the warning the doctor gave me.

Returning home, I sought for advice and opinion from a platoon mate I met back during my Basic Military Training days, who is a doctor. He told me stuff like what any doctor would.

“If you continue to have such high blood sugar level, in years to come, you would be blind and your limbs would have to be amputated.”

Well, thank you very much! Most people would probably be frightened into doing anything doctors asked them to do. They would feel like they have been given a death sentence, but not me.

I Chose To Rely On God Instead of Medication

So, did I go to the hospital? No, and I refused to take medication. Instead I stopped consuming sugar totally and reduced drastically my intake of carbohydrates. I searched YouTube for videos on how to manage diabetes and I began doing things like consuming apple cider vinegar. I went on the ketogenic diet route but not thoroughly.

I would say that I am more on a low carb diet. I bought a glucometer to measure my blood sugar level twice daily. Once in the morning when I wake up and once before I go to sleep. Within around two months, my blood sugar level dropped down to normal.

As to why God has allowed me to contract diabetes, I believe that God wanted to arrest my attention to my eating habit. God started me on eating correctly and healthily by avoiding sugar and carbohydrates.

A side note here. Before I was diagnosed with diabetes, I once thought to myself, “Could I ask God to slim me down?” He did. From that period when I contracted diabetes, it was a super-fast slimming process. I lost around 10 kg over a few nights. Ever since then, I have been watching and maintaining my weight by restricting the intake of sugar and carbohydrates.

How Was God Involved In My Healing

Now how about many other people who had diabetes and had also regained their health from taking a ketogenic diet. Many of these people are probably non-Christians and do not believe in divine healing. The process of my recovery from diabetes sounds too natural and God did not seem to have an active participation in it.

It may have sounded very simple to you how I have recovered from diabetes that it hardly sound miraculous. It does not sound like God was involved or needed to be involved in it. Well, I have shared my dietary approach in recovering from diabetes with other diabetic patients. They should have jumped for joy to learn that they could recover from diabetes too when they heard of my testimony, shouldn’t they? So, do they take my simplistic approach to recover from diabetes like I do? No, I have not come across even one.

I have thought to myself that these are the possible reasons why they did not follow my advice.

• They do not wish to give up eating what they like to eat.
• It sounded too simplistic that they do not believe that it would work.
• Like many people of our era, doctors are like god-like figures to them that they would rather take the advice than to listen to anything else. Many people even seek for advice from doctors on things that doctors are not exactly qualified to comment on.

I have even shared about my recovery from diabetes to another diabetic patient who considers himself to be spiritually more mature than I am, but he would rather continue to be taken care of by his doctor. I mentioned these things to highlight how God has a part in my healing in case my recovery sounded too simplistic.

In comparison with other diabetic patients, I was in a very dire situation. I don’t think many diabetic patients’ blood sugar level are as high as mine was. My blood sugar level was extremely high compared to an average diabetic patient. However, I was not panic at all when I was diagnosed with diabetes. My subconscious conviction that my God would take care of my health has caused me to react so calmly and believed that I can regain my health naturally either through a miraculous healing or just naturally through controlling my diet.

In the case of a person who does not believe that God is a healing God, he/she would be panic in such a critical condition and think to himself or herself, “What if dieting does not work? Would I die? Would I become blind? Would my kidney fail to function? Perhaps I should take the doctor’s advice and go on medication.”

I could have those thoughts running wild in my head too. However, I did not because I have settled in my heart and my mind long ago that God will not let those things happen to me. If I were to go through a critical illness and drop dead, then God will raise me up.

The challenge I have is never whether God will heal me but when will God heal me. Before he does, I have to endure the pain and discomfort in my physical body.

If I were to share my thoughts on this matter with anyone including Christians, they would either caution me or think that I am crazy. Hence, I could so calmly and resolutely refuse to take medication and refused to be admitted to the hospital when my doctor sternly told me to do so.

At this point, many people would be thinking that I am being too extreme for refusing to take medication. Please do not get me wrong. Usually for some simple ailments, I would accept medication when I know that the medication would help me to recover in a short period of time, such as a headache, cough or fever.

However, in the case of diabetes, I know that the medication will not cure diabetes. It only serves to treat the symptoms and not the cause. In fact, it is widely known that the medicine for diabetes has very bad side effects causing cardiac arrest and even pancreatic cancer. Not too long after I have recovered from diabetes, Singapore banned some of these drugs because they cause cancer.

When I was suffering from diabetes, there were more than one person who had cautioned me with the possibility of dying. My vision was blurred and my kidneys and bladder were very weak from constant urination. My body was truly weak and tired. However, never for a moment have I thought to myself, “I think I have come to the end. I’ve never thought that I would come this way (dying) and so soon.”

I believe that many people in my situation would get panic and accept any treatment from the doctors and consumed any medication the doctors would throw at them, which would actually make them worse. Even many diabetic patients who are taking medication actually have a blood glucose level of around just 13 mmol/L. Mine was over 30 mmol/L!

Now that I am well and healthy, looking back at my situation then, I could imagine how serious my physical situation really was. I was in a very dangerous situation. My sudden and acute weight loss was an indication of Ketoacidosis.

So how did God heal me?

God Imparted Wisdom And Instilled Discipline

Once again, God imparted wisdom and guidance to me from natural sources – YouTube videos which are abundantly available nowadays. When I began taking low carb diet, it was an act of common sense to cut down my sugar intake since my body was already having too much sugar. Nevertheless, my body was very weak and tired. My eyesight suffered terribly along with many other problems, such as fungus infection, cramps, etc. I believe that those cramps were indication that my nerves were somewhat damaged.

Did I want a miraculous healing from God that was instantaneous? Yes! I wanted to. My body was suffering. I was hoping that my pastor would call out my healing during Sunday Service.

Very frequently, my pastor would regularly be led to call out healings that God is performing during the service. However, he did not mention diabetes. I was disappointed, perhaps just a little, but not panicky. Nevertheless, I could see my blood sugar level dropped quickly and steadily as I controlled my diet.

After my blood sugar level had returned to normal, my body was still weak and was suffering from a few complications that took time for me to recover fully.

Looking back, God did not give me an instantaneous healing. However, He was training me to eat properly and instilled in me the discipline to avoid food that would harm my body. If I have not learned what food to avoid and developed the discipline to avoid them, within a short time, I would have suffered from diabetes again, or perhaps something worse even if God had given me a miraculous healing.

Just for your information, cancer is related to high sugar intake too. Today, I am healthier and mentally more alert than I ever was. I am also slim. I know how awful and discomforting it is to carry a big tummy around with you.

Why Did God Allow Me To Suffer From Diabetes

Didn’t I mention earlier that I believe that God would never let me suffer nor die from a critical illness? So why did God allow me to suffer from diabetes? Well, looking back, I believe God allowed me to go through that period of suffering from diabetes and then recovering from it for two reasons:

God Wants Me to Maintain My Health Through Better Eating Habits

I have mentioned earlier that God has guided me and instilled in me the discipline to eat more healthily.

Having understood that overconsumption of sugar, carbohydrates and highly processed food is bad for the health, I have learned to avoid them. Doing so has improved my health and will prevent me from contracting other critical illnesses in future. It also prevents me from getting overweight.

A side benefit I got from having diabetes was losing that 10 kg that I was unable to get rid of for a long time. Like I did mention earlier, I was thinking if God would answer my prayer to reduce my weight. Perhaps God did answer that prayer in an unorthodox way.

God’s Signal For Me To Resign From My Job

For more than a decade, I have been wanting to resign from my job and begin doing something else. Nevertheless, I kept procrastinating year after year. During the last few years of my teaching career, I had been having classes after classes of very bad students and nasty parents. A close friend who is also a teacher has been telling me that it could be God’s way of telling me that it is time for me to leave my job.

I would say that the last year of my career, I had the worst class that I ever had in my life. The worst students in the whole school were transferred to my form class one after another. It was like a conspiracy against me and some sinister scheme was ongoing.

The things that these students did to me were really bad. However, would I just continue for another year when these students had left the school? I might, I probably would. Just like I did after the previous batch.

I had a very bad class in the previous batch, the worst class in that cohort. I thought to myself, “It looked like I had the worst class I ever had. Who could possibly be worse than them. I had hit rock bottom and it could only go up.” How wrong I really was! Things did not turn for the better. It became even worse.

When I suffered seriously from diabetes, my kidneys were so weak from constant urination that I felt like my kidneys would probably fail if my situation persisted. My eyesight was getting from bad to worse. It came to a point that I could not read anything unless I changed my glasses, and I actually waited for about a week before my new pair of glasses were ready. I felt that if I continue straining my eyes to mark so many assignments, tests and examinations, my eyesight would get even worse. I could not possibly continue in my job without my situation getting worse. I had to resign and let my body recover. That was the reason I gave my immediate superior when I informed him of my decision to resign.

I think it was God’s strong signal for me to resign once and for all and to begin moving in a new direction.

People Who Oppose Divine Healing

Why do people oppose divine healing?

Who are the people that oppose divine healing?

People Who Wants To Have Control Over Their Own Lives

People oppose divine healing because for the moment, they have no need for divine healing. They would go to a doctor to treat their minor ailments. If they ever fall sick, it is not something that is life threatening. Moreover, people like to be in control of their own life, including their health and longevity.

The keyword is “CONTROL”. 

That is why even when they are critically ill, they still want to have that control over their own life no matter how limited that control is, so long as the doctor has not pronounced a death sentence over them, or when their sicknesses have not begun to incapacitate them and cause them excruciating pain.

Another reason is that they do not like the idea of having to confront the question of whether a God exists and begin having to communicate with this God. Especially preparing to meet a creator that they have always neglected, ignored and denied. These people are usually atheists.

There are other people who belongs to non-Christian religions who believe in that they can receive healing from their gods too. I will not dispute with them and I am not out to challenge or convert any non-Christian explicitly. I do believe that people of other religion can experience healing too. Reverend Paul Yonggi Cho, the Korean pastor who has the largest church in the world addressed this in his book, “The Fourth Dimension”. However, If these people choose to believe in Jesus, I would congratulate them and welcome them into the family. If they choose not to, I will not fight with them. 

Their message is: “DO NOT TRY TO CONVERT ME INTO CHRISTIANITY!”

“Fine!” I will not do that. Being a Catholic formerly, I have a very different attitude and approach from many Christians towards non-Christians.

I am cool with that!

I need not be told that explicitly but I do hear these people and I am very much aware of it. Let me state here that I am not overly zealous and eager to convert anyone into Christianity. However, I would like to share what my God can do and has done for me.

I once reached out to a church member’s father who was suffering from cancer. When some other church members who visited him with me, they spoke out strongly to him, he reacted negatively and strongly. However, he would not refuse any prayer so long as we were not trying to convert him.

With hindsight, I should have tried reaching out to him on my own instead of having others accompanied along. I was very young and being an introvert, I felt inadequate reaching out to other people especially older people.

I also had a colleague who is a very well-mannered and helpful gentleman. He told me that he too had been healed of some growth on his neck in his younger days after consuming some holy water from his temple. So he too believes that his religion provided his healing too. I have no issue with that. He too is glad to know that I am a Christian who will not push others in the matter of religion.

Christians who are reading this would probably want to say to me, “We should tell them to believe in Jesus to receive their salvation!”

Let me keep this to the current situation of non-Christians that we are praying for their healing who resist being preached to.

Ask yourselves this. How concerned are you as a Christian for that person’s healing and salvation? Are you going to lose your sleep and your meals over his/her salvation and healing? Will you stay up all night long praying for his/her salvation and healing? I guess not.

It is easy to tell another person harshly but are you truly concerned for him/her? Is it a matter of winning an argument, that you are right and he/she is wrong? Are you willing to sacrifice for him/her?

If you are, I suggest that instead of telling another person harshly and pushing him/her to believe in Jesus, you should be spending your time praying for that person instead of challenging him/her and telling him/her off. It only causes that person to become more resistant.

Christians From Churches That Do Not Believe In Healing

Another group of people who not only do not believe in divine healing but also strongly oppose the teaching of healing are Christians of certain churches. To non-Christians, this sounds very strange. Why?

The teaching and experience of healing in the Christian Church were lost for many centuries. The teaching and experience of healing was restored to the churches just a little over 100 years ago. The basis of all Christian teachings are based on faith, what you believe. If you choose not to believe, you will not receive. Everything we have and can receive from our God is based on faith. Not a single Christian who is still alive has ever seen Jesus Himself (except for those who happened to receive spiritual visions) but they choose to believe in Jesus, whom they have not seen. 

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6

So if a church chooses not to believe in healing, then divine healing will not manifest in the church and among its members. Churches that believe in divine healing are usually the relatively modern Charismatic Churches. The more conservative churches and those denominational churches that have a longer history, usually do not believe in divine healing.

Christians who belong to churches whose leaders do not believe in healing, will not believe in healing because that is what they are taught. Now why would they choose not to believe in healing even though the bible mentioned so much about healing?

If a church leader believes in healing and teaches his church members that God still heal His people today like it was in the bible, his members will also believe in healing. Consequently, they will expect their church leaders to pray for them for their healing. This will put a tremendous amount of pressure on the church leader to “perform healing”.

So could you see the point that it is easier to tell your members that God no longer heal today than to tell them that God still heals and be placed under tremendous pressure by your members to “perform healing”? 

The reality about healing is like what I have mentioned, not all healing are instantaneous. What a church leader should have done is pray in faith with his members but the healing can either be instantaneous or the healing can manifest gradually over a period of time. In addition, the church leaders have to be faithful to what the bible teaches and in turn teaches their members to grow in faith and believe God for their healing. The leaders should understand that it is not them who is performing the healing but God performing the healing.

Worse still, those church leaders who teach that God no longer heal His people today, are insecure to the point of being envy of other churches that teach on healing. These leaders are afraid that their members will leave their church to join another that believes in healing. As a result, they began condemning other churches and their leaders, so much so as accusing other church leaders of preaching heresies. 

Like I have always said, you can believe and tell others that God does not heal nowadays and God does not answer prayers so long as you are not in a desperate situation. The moment you are faced with a life threatening situation, would you still believe what you have been telling others?

Factors That Determine Healing

Many people who do not understand teachings on faith and healing has put their focus wrongly on the person who prays for another person who needs healing. This has resulted in undue pressure on the person who is praying for another and is also the cause of failure to receiving healing from God.

When a person prays to receive healing from God, it is a matter between two parties: God and that person. The crucial element here is that person’s faith.

When a person prays for another person to be healed, then the matter involves three parties: God, the person who prays and the person wanting to be healed. This would involve the faith of the person praying and the faith of the person who wants to be healed. Usually, the person praying is the person who is stronger in faith. The person who wants to be healed is usually weaker in faith and that is why he/she requires another person to pray for him/her. This somewhat tends to put some form of pressure on the person praying.

However, the stronger determining factor is the faith of the person who wants to be healed. Thus, the responsibility lies greater on the person who wants the healing. It is easier for the person who is prayed for to receive healing if he/she is either a non-Christian or a young Christian. So if that person has been a Christian for quite a while, God would expect that person to grow in faith in order to receive his healing. Just like I have shared thus far, the healing would probably be gradual and he/she has to follow God’s leading to grow in faith in receiving his/her healing.

The Logic Of Christians Who Do Not Believe In Healing

I had a colleague who was a very close friend and we shared similar values. However, he comes from a church that does not believe in healing. I am aware that he is a Christian from a more fundamental and conservative background but he is wise not to enter into any disagreement with me in areas that we differ in our Christian views.

Logic #1: You Cannot Die If You Do Not Get Sick

Before I began manifesting those serious signs and symptom of diabetes, I once shared with him about my views on healing and how I believe that I will never die from any critical illness. That was the only time when we had a moment where we entered into quite strong disagreement.

His logic was this: “Do you mean that you will never die?”

I do not mean that I will never die. However, I need not die from sickness. If it is time for me to leave this world, I will leave by having my spirit departed from my physical body. It is unnecessary for me to have sickness destroy my body just so that my spirit can leave my physical body. Quite a number of well known Christians have left this world without sickness.

When I came down with serious signs and symptoms of diabetes, and eventually diagnosed of diabetes, he kept encouraging me to go to the hospital or seek another opinion from another doctor. However, I felt that it was unnecessary and I knew what I was doing. During that period, he tried his best to be supportive towards me.

Many Christians would oppose me and caution me against my decision. I remained calm and assured throughout that period although it was obvious that I was weak, tired and experienced many difficulties.

Nevertheless, he saw how I eventually recovered within two months. It all seemed so natural that people would not regard my healing as something miraculous. We never talked about the issue of my belief in divine healing.

However, I wonder to myself, has it changed his perspective on divine healing? Has my calmness and confidence in recovering from my diabetic conditions despite what I went through impacted him? Perhaps he could have thought to himself that I was “lucky”. I would rather wish that my experience had shed some light that God still heals people today.

After all, what is Good News? That God still heals today or God no longer do so?

Logic #2: You Must Not Take Medication If You Believe In Healing

Another reason why some Christians oppose the teaching of healing is because they think that it is irresponsible to tell another Christian to refuse medication. In doing so, they would be responsible for the deterioration of his/her health and perhaps death.

It is totally a misunderstanding that any Christian who believes in healing will ask anyone to refuse medication. A Christian will only pray for another person to be healed but will never tell that person to stop taking medication. Whether that person wants to take medication or not, it is totally his/her decision.

Perhaps back in the early 20th century, some famous healing evangelists had asked some people they prayed for not to take their medication. As for those healing evangelists, they were expecting the people they prayed for to receive an instantaneous healing. So there would be no need to take any medication thereafter. As in the case for some unknown Christians who had prayed for others to receive healing and asked them to stop taking medication, they were acting out of ignorance and gives a bad name to Christians who believe in healing.

In my case, I chose not to because the medication for diabetes has very bad side effects like I have mentioned earlier. In fact, the medication for most critical and terminal illness only treat the symptoms and they have extremely bad side effects.

I myself have decided that I will not accept such medication. If anyone else who asks God for healing but wish to take medication as well, it is his/her decision. Nobody will stop him/her.

The Attitude Of Christians Who Do Not Believe In Healing

In the first few years when I came to learn and understand more about Mark 11:23, that God answers prayers and God still heals us today, I was very open in sharing what I believe with other Christians.

I recalled sharing what I believe with a classmate back when I was in National Institute of Education. It ended up in a long conversation that lasted more than an hour where she was cautioning me against what I was believing in. Finally she breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that she had won in our conflict when I said, “Of course God will guide me and even stop me if I am asking God for the wrong things.” She was so glad that she said, “It is good that you know that God can stop you.” 

The problem with many Christians is that they always think that other Christians are doing the wrong things, wanting the wrong things – a holier than thou attitude. Instead they should adopt these two attitudes.

• If a person is truly a Christian, he/she would have enough common sense and the right attitude to want and do the right thing. If they are wanting and doing the wrong things, God will not let them progress nor prosper.
• God will guide, train and discipline his own children in growing spiritually and moving in the right direction. They do not have to and nor do they have the right to judge another Christian’s intention.

So what happened to this classmate of mine who thought that I was believing in some teachings that is so dangerously wrong?

Well, I do not know when did she join the same church as I am currently in. One day she shared publicly in church that her young son had brain tumour and she went through a trying period believing God to heal her son as the church pastor prayed with her family for her son’s healing. The testimony was that her son was miraculously healed.

I am not gloating over the challenges she had to go through but I am hoping if she has finally realised what it means to desperately need God to touch your situation when you are faced with one.

So you see, whatever teaching it is, be it faith or healing, it does not matter so long as others are facing the trial and not yourself. The moment you are smacked with a situation where you need God to reach down from heaven and touch your situation, it becomes a totally different matter.

Otherwise, it is always so convenient to caution and warn others that they are believing in some wrong teaching. It is so easy to just wag the finger.

Summary and Conclusion

To sum up, how does God heal and why does He do so in different ways?

God through His wisdom and mercy, imparts to us wisdom to maintain our health and heal our bodies through natural means when it could be done naturally. It does not make sense for him to perform miracles after miracles in our life if we remain ignorant, ill-disciplined and continue to do things that will harm our bodies. God can heal miraculously but it occurs rarely. Such miraculous act is out of our control.

God also heals us supernaturally if it is beyond our natural means of helping ourselves but sometimes this may take a long time. Although God heals us supernaturally but the process can be gradual, like my nasal condition.

We have to understand that instantaneous healing is a miraculous act that defies nature. Miracles do not happen regularly and there are conditions to be met for miracles to occur. What are these conditions is beyond our discussion here.

God taking us down the path of gradual healing is also His process of guiding us to grow in our conduct, our understanding and our spiritual maturity. I could also say that the gradual process God takes us through in our healing is God’s way of leading us to “Walk in Faith and Grow in Faith”.

God also heals miraculously and instantaneously. These are rare act and certain conditions are necessary for them to take place. Usually, miraculous healings occur during meetings.

The purpose of such miraculous act is to demonstrate God’s love and mercy to those who are suffering and for Him to convert the unbelievers. The people who are healed could be the unbelievers so that they could experience God’s love and mercy.

The unbelievers who are not in need of healing may be the people who witnessed God’s miraculous acts, so that they would believe in Him. It is like in the days when Jesus was walking the earth and He healed many. Those He healed came to believe in Him. Some who witnessed these miracles came to believe in Him.

Of course, there are those who witnessed the miracles and yet continued not to believe Jesus but opposed Jesus even more strongly. The same is true today not only spiritually but naturally.

You can perform a good act where people appreciate your action. Some others will still criticise you and call you a hypocrite.