[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Daily Thought for Wednesday, May 11, 2016

[Paul Smith]

Hello and greetings once again to most of you for the second time 
today.  I hope that you are all faring well, by God's matchless grace 
and His providential care.

Today's Daily Thought article is one that is a bit shorter, for those 
of you who prefer this length, but it can be somewhat controversial, 
and thus before I give you the contribution in question I'll state up 
front that the opinions expressed are those of the writer and not those 
of the undersigned or list moderators.  Actually, as I recall, a 
discussion was had when one of the groups was formed and I had joined 
it, namely, the subject of healing.  The article in question was 
written by Andrew Wilson and originally appeared in a British Christian 
publication called "Idea" for January/February 2016.  It title is "The 
Theology of Healing," rendered as follows:

Our recent survey into health and wellbeing shows 98 per cent of 
evangelicals believe in miraculous healing.  Andrew Wilson, elder at 
Kings Church Eastbourne and Christianity Today columnist, explores the 
theology.

Sooner or later, every Christian is going to have to figure out what 
they think about physical healing.  In my case, the question is 
especially pressing.  I'm a pastor in a large, charismatic church that 
sees dozens of people physically healed each year, I speak at 
charismatic conferences regularly, and I've argued frequently that the 
gift of healing continues today, both in print and on air.  Yet I also 
have two children with regressive autism.  For me, the doctrine of 
healing is not theoretical.

The extreme positions are easy to see.  In the red corner, we have 
loony, big-haired ranting preachers with their shallow messages of 
permanent health and wealth for everyone who follows Jesus.  In the 
blue corner, we have the starchy conservative cynics who think everyone 
who claims to have experienced divine healing is either lying or 
delusional.  Even when people agree that God heals sometimes but not 
always, there can still be confusion.  Does God always heal us if we 
have enough certainty that He will? Should we assume sicknesses are a 
mysterious gift from God, designed to teach us things? Why doesn't God 
always heal? How can we see more healing?

Much confusion stems from a failure to recognise what healing is.  As 
I've studied these themes, and worked through them in my family life, 
my church life and my prayer life, I've noticed that although we often 
talk as if there is only one type of divine healing, there are actually four.

_First _Type:  A virus enters my body, and my white blood cells are 
launched into action like a rabid dog, hunting down the perpetrator to 
kill it.  Every second, as my heart beats, tiny bits of mineral and 
organic material are sent to parts of teh body that need it, performing 
ongoing repairs that will never finish, like painting the Forth Bridge, 
hour after hour, year after year.  My body is being healed all the 
time, and it's a result of the grace of the God who created me, 
searches me, knows me and loves me that He has designed a body that 
functions that way.

_Second _Type:  a Jewish prophet lays his hands on blind eyes and deaf 
ears, and causes them instantly to see and hear.  A young man attending 
a training event with me, who was born deaf, is immediately healed when 
someone prays for him in Jesus' name, and promptly calls his 
fiancee--until now deaf--ear to the phone, and has a very excitable 
conversation with her.  A woman who has been wheelchair-bound for years 
is prayed for in Jesus' name, is immediately healed and gets out of her 
wheelchair, and later phones the benefits office to stop her disability 
benefits.

_Third _type:  I cycle into the middle of a main road aged 11.  My 
tibia and fibula are smashed between my bike and a VW beetle, and a 
windscreen wiper makes a four inch deep stab wound in my side, between 
my liver and my spleen.  An ambulance appears within minutes, and a 
splint is put on my leg.  A surgeon removes the glass from inside my 
torso and then repairs it.  My leg is reset under general anaesthesia, 
which kicks in within seconds of being injected into my arm, and after 
16 weeks I'm running around again like a normal 11-year-old.  The 
hospital, the ambulance, the paramedics, the skill of the surgeon, the 
discoveries that make operating theatres and anaesthesia possible--all 
gracious gifts of a loving God, whose mercy enables healings to take 
place across the world that we, in any other generation, be considered 
quite miraculous.

_Fourth _type:  The trumpet sounds, and the dead are raised in a flash, 
in the twinkling of an eye, never to perish again.  Physical bodies 
become incorruptible; no sickness or affliction will ever befall them 
again.  Cholera and cancer are consigned to the cosmic skip for all 
eternity.  Operating theatres, doctors, ambulances and health 
secretaries become a thing of the past.  Nobody cries, except with joy. 
Nobody grieves.  The sterile smell of the A&E corridor is no more.  The 
octogenarians who sit, walnut-faced, under blankets in wheelchairs in 
hospital reception areas are given a new life and a new youth that will 
never again be stolen by the long march of time.  Every deaf ear is 
unblocked, every damaged limb is made whole, every blind eye sees.  
Autism and Down's syndrome and schizophrenia and Alzheimer's are 
swallowed up in victory.  And the last enemy to be destroyed is death 
(1 Corinthians 15:26).

Recognising those four types can help us with the questions we so often 
ask.  Why doesn't God always heal? He does, eventually.  Does God 
always heal us if we're certain that he will? Not necessarily.  Why 
not? Because death hasn't been destroyed yet.  Should we assume 
sicknesses are gifts from God? No--unless you're also prepared to stop 
taking medicine or visiting doctors.  How can we see more healing? 
Pray, fast, believe, persevere.  How should we pray? May Your kingdom 
come, and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Ultimately, you see, God never says "no" to a request for healing.  
It's either "yes," as it was for another two people in my church while 
I was writing this article, or it's "Not yet" as it has been, so far, 
for my children.  One day, death will be swallowed up in victory.  I 
can't wait.

And there you have today's Daily thought message and article.  My 
thanks go to an organization in the UK, Torch Times of Market 
Harborough on England's south coast, for making this article available 
to the undersigned and to thousands like me.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, 
individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  
Your Christian friend and brother, Paul