Tentpegs

This is actually a situation that raises questions — and does so in many people’s minds, not just that of this particular sister in Christ. I will be looking forward to your comments as we help each other understand one of the mysteries we face in our faith.

I attend a Praise service on Tuesday nights that is basically a time of Praise, testimony, and prayer requesting. Every week I hear stories of people who receive visions, pray over someone who gets healed, stops to help someone and something extraordinary happens. Things like that. Every week I hear these stories and every week I wonder why things like that never happen to me. I firmly believe that people have different spritual gifts and some people have the power to pray over someone for healing and it happen. But I have a hard time with accepting that it only happens if someone specific prays for them and not other people. Why can someone else pray for someone’s healing and lay their hands on them and them be better the next day, but not me. Is it because my faith isn’t strong enough? Because I don’t truly believe it’s going to happen? I guess I would just like to hear your take on different people having spritual gifts. If you have already addressed this, please direct me to where. I tried to look around but couldn’t find what I was looking for. I hope this made sense.

I can get in trouble with people on all sides of the spiritual fence with this answer, but I’m going to go ahead and answer it as sincerely and honestly as I can. Here goes…

I believe in healing. I don’t understand why God gives one person a healing and not another, but that isn’t new; He has always done that. Romans 9:15ff says “For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.”

This seems terribly harsh and arbitrary to us but God knows who we are, what we are here to do, and our record when it comes to following Him. First Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 (among other passages) tell us that each of us is born with a certain set of gifts. The cosmic rule is: everybody gets at least one gift, but no one gets them all. I certainly believe that some people are much better at praying and getting results than others. Why? Because God set things up that way, I guess.

A friend of mine died yesterday, sixteen hours after his family asked me to pray that he would die. He had been suffering with cancer for 12 years and was so very weary of the struggle. It was clear that God had spared his life long enough to see his kids marry and produce a few grandkids, but that God wasn’t going to take away the various cancers that plagued him. Out of energy at last, he just wanted to go home. God answered my prayer — when He hadn’t granted my petition to heal my friend I had repeatedly uttered over the years. Why? I’m not sure. I DO know this: death is not a defeat or a setback in God’s eyes. I asked God to keep my friend in a body that God wanted him released from. God waited until our prayers matched His will, and He acted quickly.

Perhaps that is the thing here: we have to wait until our prayers match His will. Some people have the gift of discernment. I have only a tiny portion of that gift so I rely on others to help me when I need to pray about big decisions (as I recently did and revealed in this blog). Also, when I need prayers for sickness or pain — mine or someone else’s — I go to certain prayer warriors who have a good record of moving God to action. In the Bible, we see that this is, indeed, possible. Hezekiah was told by God that he was going to die but he prayed for a delay and so God relented and gave him many more years. Not everyone gets that kind of response… but some do.

That said, I am often suspicious of the claims of religious people who say that they see wonderful acts of healing almost daily or weekly. I wonder if they aren’t overstating the results of their prayers. I don’t challenge them, though, for the truthfulness or falsity of their claims will manifest itself in time. And who am I to question another person’s faith anyway?

If you see someone else able to pray and get results and you don’t see that same level of power in your own life, it is only natural to ask if there is something wrong with you. The answer is almost always — in my experience — “No. That is just not the gift God has given you.” However, it does nothing but good to do a self examination. The way I run my “check up” is to read James. He tells me about faith, works, how prayer fails or succeeds, and how to gain better wisdom as I live my life. I suggest that book to you, too. But remember this: if you are a child of God, He wants to hear from you. He is not a cosmic vending machine (put in two prayers, get one healing dropped from on high), but a Father. He knows best how to dole out gifts, healing, and when to withhold the same.

And remember that sickness and death are not signs that we have sinned, but reminders that we live in a fallen world and that our lives here are temporary at best. We are going to a better place. My friend beat me there at 2:30 this morning. Phil, I will see you soon. I am thrilled that you are no longer in pain.