My last entry about the man calling the radio station asking about unanswered prayer caused quite a lot of response!  I told you I would give you some of my thoughts – here is part one (more to follow). 

Speaking with admittedly a broad brush, for the sake of discussion, Western Christianity is pretty much split into two camps.  The “faith camp” and the “suffering camp”.  The faith camp believes God desires to heal and does indeed heal today.  The suffering camp believes God may or may not desire to heal and may or may not heal today. 

The faith camp goes to extremes when they condemn people who remain sick as being faithless (which is not totally scriptural). The suffering camp views everything that happens to them as being from God, so if a person is sick and not healed, it must be God’s will (which is definitely not scriptural at all). 

So what does a person who loves God do when they are faced with a situation of unanswered prayer for healing?  They have prayed and prayed, stood on the Word, stood in umpteen prayer lines, been on every church’s prayer list and done all they know to do, to no avail. 

Since we know God is not ever wrong, thank You, God!  And we know His Word is very clear – sickness is a curse (Deuteronomy 28:15-68) and Jesus became a curse for us so those who believe can be free of the curse (Galatians 3:13).  So, where does that leave us who need answered prayer?  The fault lies with us, with the devil, or a combination of the two – it cannot be God!  

Since I am a practical person and always want to know “what does it look like in real life?” let me show you some examples: 

Lack of Knowledge

The bible says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”  Hosea 4:6    God is saying HIS own people are destroyed!  He puts the knowledge there for us, but it is up to us to diligently find it, and to act on it when we know what it is.  One of my favorite preachers always says, “When people say ‘I’ve done all I know to do and it still isn’t working’, I tell them ‘Then you don’t know all you need to know!’  They need to seek more.” 

An old friend of mine suffered for years, since childhood, with gastrointestinal trouble.  She would literally vomit every morning and have to lie in a tub of water for a long time, just to be able to get up and face the day.  She was reed-thin and could not gain weight.  She had seen doctor after doctor for over three decades.  She was a woman of faith and was determined to receive healing, but it never came – she was always disappointed and ended up questioning God, much as the man in the blog entry I posted last. 

One day she met a Christian chiropractor and a nutritionist.  Immediately, the doctor took her off of all wheat, chocolate and dairy, even before doing any other tests.  Within the week, she was vastly improved!  Working with this doctor some more with regard to nutrition, and following the instructions, completely healed my friend!  Over that first year, she put on weight, grew a healthy glow, and threw up only three times (versus 365).  And that was only when she cheated and ate things she knew she shouldn’t. 

God was not withholding healing from her all those years – He had it for her all along.  It was up to her to seek out knowledge and make the wise decision to act on it when she did. 

God is good!     Proverbs 2:6 says, ” For the Lord gives wisdom, from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”  Proverbs 8:10 says, “Choose My instruction rather than silver, and knowledge over pure gold.”

 Stay tuned for more………  Keep the faith!