Bible teaching about healing

QUESTION:

I have a question that is bothering me, maybe I don’t understand the Bible.

My question is when prominent Pastors pray for people they fall down, but only to find the person who fell down is not healed. I don’t think if God touches someone he will be the same as he was.

My second question is: is blowing at the face of people biblical, because they fall down just for being blowed?

Thank you God bless you

Xolani Sithole

ANSWER:

Xolani:

I thank you for your questions. It shows your genuine interest in the things of Christ. As to question one, I guess if they are not healed, then God did not heal them. I think it best for me to put down some general principles regarding healing.

1. God does sometimes heal directly, and we are to pray for healing (James 5:14, 15; Philippians 2:27).  

2. God does heal through secondary means such as medicine, and medical treatments. In the James passage, the anointing with oil 

was a common medical practice of the day. In other words, take the medicine the doctors tell us to take when we are sick (cf. 1 Timothy 5:23).

3. God has built our bodies with automatic disease fighting and healing chemicals and processes. That is what, for example, our immune system does for us. 

4. Sometimes God chooses not to heal our bodies for reasons known to Him (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). 

5. Eventually, ultimate healing will come to us on the day of our resurrection.

6. Sometimes our prolonged sin brings sickness, and confession and turning way for the sin brings healing (1 Corinthians 11:28-32). In this case it is God’s process of disciplining His children. 

7. Sometimes there is a Satanic element to our sickness (1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 12:12:7). I think it is fair to conclude, that is Satan can cause illness, then he can also bring healing when it suits his plan.

8. Sometimes people have a special gift from God to be the channel of healing for a person, but that person is not always able to heal. Paul, for example, was used by God to heal many (Acts 19:11, 12), but he could not heal Epaphroditus nor himself (Philippians 2:27; 2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

9. We can also learn that sometimes sickness can be a cause of bringing glory to God through His grace displayed through our suffering. Paul’s case would be an example of this. 

10. We also learn from the Bible that sometimes healers are fake – they are not from God (Acts 19:13-16). 

11. From medical science we learn that sometimes emotional illness can cause sickness; consequently, temporary emotional releases can bring temporary relief. Sometimes this is called the “placebo” effect. Depression and stress can cause bodily illness. Surges of adrenalin and stress hormones in our body can take away pain, but the pain returns when the adrenalin wears off. 

So, with these principles in mind, we have to say that each occasion of healing must be judged on an individual basis. The healing may be real; it may be fake. It may be genuine; it may be temporary. It may start a process of healing; it may not be the right time. It may be immediate; it may take a long time combined with medical procedures.

God heals. That much is true. But, are all the claims of healing done by all prominent evangelists, real? I would say no. And certainly, one does not need to fall down to be healed. There is no biblical basis for this process. Nor is there biblical injunctions for blowing on a person’s face to heal them. In many cases, this is showmanship to obtain larger financial collections. 

You are correct, if a person is healed by God, then they are healed.

Xolani, Thank you for your interest, and keep praying for our website. Please tell your friends about it.

All the best, and God bless,

Dr. Newman