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Divine healing happens today. God heals the sick, putting smiles on the faces of the afflicted. I am a beneficiary of God’s healing power. Those who think divine healing ended with the earliest believers have got it wrong.
Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that God has stopped healing the sick through His ministers. Jesus commanded His disciples to heal the sick (Matthew 10:7-8). And the apostle James exhorted church leaders to pray over the sick for healing (James 5:14-16).
Jesus and the earliest apostles encourage us to heal the sick by prayer. They themselves healed the sick to show us the way, and to prove its possibility. We know how Jesus Christ and the earliest apostles healed the sick by the Spirit of God through faith.
However, today, many ministers pray for healing but the sick are not healed. This failure occurs for reasons. We fail to consider the right time we must move in to offer healing prayers. Many always rush to pray as soon as they are called upon. That may appear ethical in the sight of men, but it is wrong in the sight of God.
Moreover, we must always be guided by the will of God and the timing of God concerning divine projects. Healing is one of God’s projects, and it must be executed by His will, time and in faith.
Many of us achieve nothing with our prayers, because we offer them in our own time, according to our own will, and often without genuine faith, a heart that takes God at His Word.
Scripture says, “There is time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). And God works by time. Jesus often rushed in to heal the sick when He was invited. That He did because He responded to faith, and he knew it was the right time to glorify God. You will understand it better as you read on.
However, in most cases, Christ waited until the time was right. When Jesus’ brothers asked Him to go to Judea for His disciples to see the works He was doing, the Lord answered them: “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here” (John 7:1-6).
When Jesus was told that Lazarus was ill, He did not immediately go and heal him. He waited until Lazarus was dead before He moved in (see John Chapter 11). Jesus was not wicked; He understood times and seasons, and He respected divine schedule for the manifestation of God’s glory.
One thing we must always remember is that a Christian or a pastor is not the healer; God is. He heals in response to faith through man. Therefore, a Christian that is used to minister healing to people must learn to discern the move of God in his heart and the faith of the sick person.
Very often, an intimation or a suggestion from God comes to the minister’s heart that this act be performed. And when he obeys, miracles happen and God is glorified and honored.
True Christians who walk by the Spirit of God and faith are not influenced by pressure from people to offer prayers for healing. They wait for suggestions from the Spirit of Christ concerning the situation.
More importantly, they wait until they perceive that faith and power for healing are present. In Luke 5:17-26, Jesus was willing to heal a paralytic because He realized that “the power of the Lord was with him to heal”, and the paralytic had faith to be healed.
Moreover, in Luke 8:46, Jesus perceived that power had gone out from Him after a sick woman of faith had touched His garment. The power, here, is the anointing of God. It is the divine energy that must be present before prayers for healing are offered.
This means the right time to offer a prayer for healing or move to heal the sick is when faith and divine power is perceived to be present. Remember it is not by man’s natural ability but by the Spirit of God.
By James Quansah
