Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt (7 page)
There is more good news about faith. Paul tells us in the Book of Romans that the Holy Spirit is growing fruit in our lives. One of the aspects of this fruit is faith.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... Galatians 5:22-23a
The translators in the New American Standard Bible have chosen to render the Greek word in this passage as faithfulness. However, it is the same Greek word that is translated faith elsewhere. In fact, in many other English versions of the Bible, it is translated faith rather than faithfulness. This simply means that the Holy Spirit is growing faith in the lives of believers. This is really good news. While I may not have faith today for something, tomorrow may be different. I should not become discouraged since the Holy Spirit is at work in me to grow faith. It is the will of God for me to grow in faith and receive the naturally impossible. It is the will of God for my shadows of doubts to disappear.
The apostle Paul also writes that the Holy Spirit bestows a gift of faith.
…to another faith by the same Spirit…1 Corinthians 12:9a
This statement is found in Paul’s list of gifts of the Holy Spirit. Faith is one of nine supernatural grace gifts that the Holy Spirit grants to build the Church. It is no more difficult to receive than any other gift. The Spirit gives supernatural faith at times to accomplish the impossible. This is really good news. God has given me a measure of faith. The Holy Spirit is growing faith within me. The Spirit will give me faith beyond both of these as a gift to build the Church. I should never doubt God’s ability to get things done through me. I am a believer by the grace of God.
Is there any more good news about obtaining and using faith? Absolutely! We can strengthen the faith we presently have by praying. Jude wrote:
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit.
Jude 20
Paul’s encouragement tells us that by praying in the Holy Spirit, we can build ourselves up in faith. This is most likely a reference to praying in our prayer language, an unknown tongue. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that prayer in the Spirit is speaking in tongues. Other verses from Paul in 1 Corinthians indicate the same thing about what happens when we pray in the Spirit. When we pray in unknown tongues, we are edified and built up in faith.
In conclusion, a very small amount of faith in a great God who is reliable, predictable and faithful is all that is needed to heal the sick and injured. God has provided a measure of faith, the fruit of faith, the gift of faith and a prayer language that releases faith. All that remains is dealing properly with doubts. Doubts of different types coming from false doctrines, failures and misinterpretations of Scripture and experiences overshadow simple faith and often prevent God from doing what He would. Casting down these doubts by carefully observing Christ’s example in dealing with sick and injured people and His teaching on those matters should help believers deal with their doubts and allow faith in Christ to rise to help suffering people just like Christ helped them.
6
The
Fear of Presumption Doubt
The Fear of Presumption Doubt follows the Lack of Faith Doubt for an obvious reason. These doubts are near opposites of each other. The Lack of Faith Doubt is concerned over not having enough faith to accomplish what God wishes. The Fear of Presumption Doubt is concerned over having too much faith and going beyond what God wishes.
First of all, we need to review what the New Testament teaches about presumption. However, the New Testament’s silence on the subject is deafening. There are absolutely no warnings about presumption in the New Testament. About the best that we can do in this area is to note that Jesus while being tempted of the devil would not put God to the test by jumping off the Temple to prove that He was the Son of God. He said on that occasion:
Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'" Matthew 4:7 (CF: Luke 4:12)
Obviously putting one’s life at risk can be a foolish test of God. So what else does the New Testament say about testing God? There are only two other passages where the New Testament reveals how we might test God. The first concerns the story of Ananias and Sapphira found in the Book of Acts. In that passage Peter says to Sapphira:
Then Peter said to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out as well." Acts 5:9
What Peter was dealing with in this passage was this couple’s attempt to lie about what they had given to the Church. They tried to deceive the leadership in the Church and that put the Lord to a test. We must observe that this has nothing to do with healing.
The third place in the New Testament that reveals what the New Testament considers a test of God is also found in the Book of Acts. Here Peter warns about putting God to a test:
Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? Acts 15:10
The circumstance that Peter is dealing with is that God had forgiven the Gentiles by faith in Jesus Christ and now some Jewish believers wanted them to begin to observe the Law of Moses. Peter refers to the Law of Moses as a yoke. Peter says that this is testing God since He already cleansed the Gentiles by faith in Jesus Christ. Again this has nothing to do with healing. The three places that speak to testing God have nothing to do with healing.
There is a place where concerns about presumption might have an application in healing ministry. Occasionally some foolish person will put their life at risk when they are seeking healing. We highly encourage anyone with a life-threatening condition to continue medical care until they have a verified healing. However, this is not where the doubt lies that we are discussing here.
The Fear of Presumption Doubt concerns ministry to the sick and injured that might be outside of the will of the Father. This doubt is generally built upon the first three doubts that we considered. It is built upon the idea that God’s
will might
be different for different people. It is built upon the idea that God might have a purpose for sickness and injury in the life of believers. It is built upon the idea that there might be a specific timing to be healed. All these ideas have been refuted in previous chapters and when they are rejected, the doubts concerning presumption begin to deflate.
Those concerned about presumption often fail to note that there are many specific promises of healing to believers. For instance, consider this promise:
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. James 5:14-15
There is absolutely no concern in the verses above about presumption. There is no concern over the will of God, the purpose of God or the timing of God. The only issue is praying the prayer of faith. How can one be presuming anything about God’s willingness to heal sick and injured persons if there are promises like the one above? The Father’s will is revealed in Jesus Christ. Christ always healed everyone who came to Him. Did He presume something of the Father?
Obviously not.
There is no presumption possible when praying for the sick and injured. God has repeatedly and consistently revealed that His will is for them to be well.
In the last chapter on faith, we reviewed several statements of the Lord Jesus Christ that encourage us to faith. In fact, the New Testament seems to be full of encouragement and examples of bold faith. It is difficult, if not impossible, to be worried about presumption and have bold faith at the same time. They are mutually exclusive. One cannot exist in the presence of the other. This shadow of doubt needs to be removed if bold faith for the miraculous is desired.
What other evidence exists that God is not concerned over presumption in matters of healing and miracles? We noted in the last chapter that there is a great variety and flexibility in the will of God. God is obviously willing to do many unusual things in response to bold faith. Many people in the New Testament seem to be in control of their own healing. They received because of bold faith and demonstrated absolutely no concern over presumption. In fact, they often presumed that they should be healed. The woman with the issue of blood decided for herself that she would be healed. Christ didn’t intend to heal her. She approached him from the rear. Christ didn’t even know who was healed until after she revealed herself
[x]
. Others such as the centurion, who believed for his servant, seemed to be very much in control of the circumstances of healing. His faith dramatically changed the circumstances of his servant’s healing. He got a greater miracle than Christ had initially planned.
[xi]
What we see in these two examples above are people who had no concern over presumption. In each case, they presumed that the will of God was healing. They had no thought that God might have a purpose in sickness and injury. They created their own timing by coming to Christ as Healer. They did not doubt either the capacity of Christ to heal or His willingness. What is apparent from the New Testament is that presuming God wishes to heal is the only reasonable conclusion. It is as reasonable as presuming that God wishes to save the lost.
Occasionally, we will encounter a person who his cloaking his doubts by presenting a noble motive to be healed. Often they are unaware that they are doing this. Over the years, we have seen people initially fail to receive healing when they presented a spiritual motive
like I want to be healed for the glory of God
or
I want to be healed so that I can raise my children for Christ
. While sounding noble on the surface, most often these statements reveal that the person has doubts about God wanting to heal them simply because they are sick or in pain. They may be afraid of presumption. They feel that they must motivate God to heal them by having a higher purpose for their healing. We often help them capture their doubts by reminding them that Jesus’ motive for healing was profoundly simple. He had compassion on those who were sick. Christ didn’t require a noble purpose on the part of those who were sick, injured or in pain before they received healing. He only required them to come in simple, child-like faith in Him.
What would be the rule or guiding principle about testing God in matters of healing? Placing one’s life or a family member’s life in danger constitutes testing God. God’s will is not unclear in matters of healing. We can presume God wants us well. It simply means that we must be sure that we have fully received healing.
Taking a risk with your health does not constitute faith. Desperate risk-taking will never compel God to do anything. He has already done what is necessary by sending His Son to
Calvary
. Taking a serious risk with your health may only be the devil using misunderstanding, impatience and fear to drive you to a foolish test of God.
What about going to a doctor?
Going to a doctor when you are seriously ill or injured is not a failure of faith if you understand medicine’s limitations.
Jesus validated doctors as legitimate help to sick people. He declared:
It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. Matthew 9:12b
Sick people should get as much relief from pain and the medical care needed while seeking for complete and total healing by the Great Physician, Jesus Christ.
7
The
Misinterpreted Experience Doubt
Consider a modern parable: The Kingdom of God is like a man named Jim who lived in a two-story house a few blocks away from a baseball field. He had a large picture window in an upstairs family room that faced the outfield of the baseball diamond. While the field was a distance away, throughout the spring and summer, Jim could see baseball games taking place on this field from this window. His window faced the outfield so it was really too far to see much of anything happening on the field. Once while he was downstairs, he heard glass break. Jim immediately went upstairs and saw the broken glass and a baseball sitting in the middle of the room on the floor. He looked out and saw through the broken window that there was an organized baseball game going on. He went over to the field and found an adult coach and complained about his broken window. The coach denied that any of the teenagers had hit a ball in the direction of his house. Several other adults agreed with the coach and also denied that any of the teenagers had hit a ball near his house. Jim was clear that he was not going to persuade them even though he was sure that a member of the team had broken his window. He went back to his house angry and dismayed that the adults would not take responsibility for his broken window.
After paying a large deductible, Jim’s insurance replaced the expensive window and the incident was near forgotten until another baseball found its way through the window during another baseball game. With baseball in hand and with righteous indignation, Jim went to the baseball diamond. He found the one of the same teams playing and the same coach that he had spoken to before. Jim showed the man the baseball and asked what they might do to prevent his window from being broken. Again, the coach denied that any balls had been hit the direction of his house and pointed to the ball in the man’s hand and said
That
is not the brand of baseballs that we use in these games. We use this brand. The coach showed Jim a baseball that did look a little different. The coach continued Sir,
you
should think about how far it is from here to your house. There is not a kid on this team or even in this state that can hit a ball that far. It would be difficult for a major leaguer to hit one that far.
As Jim stood there and absorbed these new facts, he realized that he must have interpreted the circumstances wrongly. What then was actually happening? He didn’t even have a small clue but determined to know the truth. Jim went to a local store that carried security equipment and purchased a video monitoring camera device. He set this device up so that it would secretly record a wide area of his yard and would include the picture window.
A few days after Jim had replaced the picture window for the second time, he heard a crash. As expected, he found a baseball in the middle of the room and there was a baseball game going on at the diamond a few blocks away. He immediately checked the recording and to his surprise found that Robert, a teenage neighbor boy that Jim knew, had slipped around the edge of his house and threw a baseball as hard as he could into the window and then ran around the edge of house.
Jim called the police who determined after interviewing Robert that he was angry with the coach and team because they would no longer allow him to play because of violent behavior toward the other teenagers. Not only had Robert broken this window three times, he had also broken other neighborhood windows with baseballs. He was seeking revenge. Robert intended for the baseball teams to be blamed for the broken windows and hoped that they would have to stop playing baseball in the neighborhood. However, the truth was known, the accusations against the team dropped and Robert was punished.
A Misinterpreted Experience.
Many times in healing ministry, we encounter someone with a story of how God wished them or someone they loved and respected to be sick for a specific reason. This kind of idea is difficult to dislodge but it must be if we are to have faith for healing. What has happened is that they have misinterpreted an experience or a revelation. For example, their Aunt Matilda was a wonderful Christian with cancer. Aunt Matilda confessed to believe in healing and yet eventually died from cancer. While she really did believe in healing, she also believed that God was doing a deeper work within her through her illness. She could even explain what a blessing cancer had become to her. She believed the darkness, the shadows of her doubts, to be light. She was very convincing since she believed these things sincerely. She convinced all her loved ones about this. Each new grace and mercy that came to her while she was sick was attributed to the work of God through the cancer. So when she died, everyone remembered the great grace and the positive attitude she had toward the sickness and assumed that she was correct that God was at work in her sickness. Her friends and relatives still tell the story of how God used cancer in her life as a blessing. Of course, as we have covered in previous chapters, she clearly misinterpreted her experience and caused others to misinterpret it right along with her. How do we know she was wrong?
Simply this
.
What she believed does not match up with what Christ revealed of the will of the Father. She accepted ideas that create serious doubt and prohibit healing. It wasn’t God’s will for her to have the cancer even if He showed her grace and mercy during it. Her attitude of acceptance of the cancer does not match up with Christ’s attitude toward sickness. In each and every case, Christ and His disciples treated sickness as an enemy and not as a blessing. Matilda attributed the sickness to God when the Scripture frequently attributes sickness to the devil. Indeed, about one-fourth of Christ’s healings were actually Him casting out a demon causing the condition. While Matilda was a wonderful Christian, she did not truly understand what was happening to her. She had a false foundation of unscriptural but popular ideas about God, the nature of sickness and the availability of healing. These ideas created serious doubt. That doubt overshadowed her faith in Christ as Healer and prohibited her from being healed. Thankfully, our fictional Aunt Matilda, if she were a real person, would await us in Heaven. She would know now that Christ would have healed her if she had not had misconceptions of God’s will, purpose and timing, and had not misinterpreted her experience.
Sometimes when someone like Matilda dies from sickness, those who loved her will want to defend her faith. People like Matilda should never be attacked or defended. These kinds of discussions are very counterproductive for the
Kingdom
of
God
. We can honestly say that sick Christians and those around them often do all that they know to do. They are sincere and there should be no condemnation. Beyond this, everyone should humbly and reasonably admit that there are some things that we do not fully understand about healing and if we knew those things, we might have had a much more glorious outcome with people like fictional Aunt Matilda.
A Prophecy that Promised Pain.
In an actual situation a few years ago, we encountered
a
excellent Christian leader who was in serious pain for several years. He had been to the doctor for his pain and nothing seemed to help. At times, he was in so much pain that he was unable to perform his ministry and it sometimes negatively impacted his relationship with his family. When we encountered him, he desperately wanted to be helped but had a serious doubt that was difficult for him to remove. A few months before his pain came, he was in a meeting where a well-respected man of God gave him a prophecy that he was soon to be in serious pain. According to the prophecy, God was going to do a special work in him as a result of this pain. A few weeks later, the pain came and because of what appeared to be a fulfillment of this prophecy, he did not resist in any way. Days, weeks and months went by as he suffered along until he could bear it no longer and asked for help from us. The first thing that I said to him was that I didn’t believe that this particular prophecy was from God. (I do believe in the spiritual gift of prophecy and I do respect the minister that spoke this prophecy but not this prophecy.) This respected minister spoke something in the prophecy that was not revealed in the ministry of Christ. In fact, what he said was exactly opposite of the ministry of Christ. Christ never gave people pain. Christ delivered people who came to Him from pain. However, the minister in pain could not initially accept that this prophecy was false. It took six weeks of meetings with him and confrontation with what Christ revealed of the Father’s will for him to come to the conclusion that his pain was not sent from God. On that particular day, we were able to get him delivered and healed. Up to that point, there was little capacity to help him because he doubted that God wanted him to be pain-free. Because he had some doubting doctrines as a foundation, this prophecy, although false, fit with what He believed about God using pain and therefore he accepted the pain. What we believe really happened to him is that the devil had an open door to afflict him as long as he believed it was God. A false prophecy built upon a false doctrinal foundation allowed the devil to bring debilitating pain to him and this minister did not resist it.
A Revelation that Postponed Healing.
In another situation a few years ago, my wife and I were ministering at a small church. There were many miracles and healings in this church over a weekend of ministry. There was a woman in the church who was seriously disabled but no more than some of the others who had been healed. When I ministered to her, I was acutely aware that there was no presence of the Spirit. Generally speaking, an absence of the Spirit means that the person simply
is not believing
at all or doubts to the point of overshadowing their faith in Christ as Healer. I asked her a question after I determined that nothing much was happening: Why do you think that you are not being healed? In this particular case, she did not come up with anything significant as a doubt for me to deal with and I left the church somewhat puzzled about her but with an impression that there was more to be said and she was not saying it. A couple of days later, the pastor called me at home and as we discussed her, he said
Do
you know why she wasn’t healed? I said
No
. The pastor said
She
believes that God revealed to her that on a particular date a particular woman in the church is going to be used to heal her.
The pastor named the date and the particular woman that God had supposedly revealed. Of course, what happened is that the date came and the woman was not healed. Now this same woman has another revelation about the reason she was not healed. This revelation is scripturally wrong also. Her God is very unpredictable, unreliable and mysterious. What is the problem here? This woman’s faith was built on a false foundation and the devil was feeding her revelations that matched the false foundation. Her foundation was not Christ. She apparently did not know what Christ revealed of the Father’s will, purpose and timing. She believed that there was a particular timing for her to be healed and postponed receiving until that time. When the time in the revelation came, she still had other doubts and was not healed.
When we came to her church, healing was very easy to receive. This was because I had demonstrated repeatedly that Christ was willing and many received. People were expectant. Faith was evident. But she received nothing. A false revelation caused her to postpone her healing and created doubt that she was suppose to receive then and there.
In the New Testament, Christ revealed that time for healing was always now. He never postponed healing of someone to a particular date or said that a particular person need be involved. In fact, the New Testament says call for the elders of the church… and the prayer of faith will
raise
up the sick. There is no specific timing in this as far as God is concerned. Today is the day. Call for the elders when you are sick and expect to be healed. Healing is always available through faith in Christ because of what He accomplished at the cross.
Sick So Long to Be Sure God Will Not Heal.
Recently, I was ministering on the East coast and after preaching, I invited those who had serious injuries to come up in front of everyone to be healed. My practice for a number of years now has to find the most seriously injured people in a congregation and get them visibly healed by Christ in front of everyone. I usually like to start with bad backs. I have people demonstrate what they can do before I minister to them and then after they are healed what they can do. They bend without pain for the first time in years. They touch their toes without pain for the first time in decades. They walk without pain and no longer need their canes or braces. They come out of their wheelchairs and walk with strength. This visible kind of healing inspires people to believe in those things that are not so visible like the healing of cancer or diabetes. In this particular church, I proceeded with this method on Friday night of a weekend meeting. The first person got healed very quickly and was demonstrating that they were completely healed. The second person was a gray haired Caucasian woman. I began to interview her and found out that she was in serious pain from her long-term condition. As I began to minister to her, she emphatically said to me
God won’t heal me
. I smiled and said firmly back to her and to the audience
Oh yes He will
. Well, she said even more firmly
No, He won’t
. This began a humorous exchange for a short time of me saying God would heal her and her denying that He would. I then asked her why she believed that God would not heal her and her answer was a series of situations that had produced disappointments over a 35-year span. She had suffered so long and had tried so many times to be healed that she had come to the conclusion that God did not want her well. I began to speak to her about God not being a respecter of persons and that He shows no favoritism to anyone. What God will do for one person in healing, He will do for all if they meet the same conditions. I spoke to her about examples in Christ’s ministry of people who had been ill a long time and when they met Christ the Healer and how they were healed. Somewhere in my discussion of what Christ revealed of the Father’s will, she believed without doubt and was completely healed. She was a person who was using her bad experiences and disappointments to reveal the will of God rather than Christ Himself. Underlying all this was genuine faith in Christ that had caused her to come forward at my invitation. There are many like her in the Church who
need
someone equipped to help them through their doubts and to receive from the Healer.