Overcoming the Number One doubt. The number one cause of doubt is the thought, "But not everyone gets healed, so it must not be God's will, so I probably won't get healed either." This thought destroys faith, is not of God, and blocks healing. We have already discovered God's will on healing. Not everyone gets saved either, and we know it is not God's will that anyone perish. All who do not get saved either (1) do not hear the Word, or (2) reject it. You have heard God's Word about healing; now do not reject it.
Other reasons. What can block our healing? In his outstanding book, Christ the Healer, the late F.F. Bosworth cites 22 reasons why some people fail to get healed, not one of which is God's will. All 22 reasons fall on man's shoulders. An interesting one is his number 3, "Community Unbelief," on which he devotes five pages. He points out that even Christ Himself, under the full anointing of the Holy Spirit, could not do any miracles in his hometown of Nazareth because of their "lack of faith" (Mark 6:6), although He did heal a few people. Bosworth writes these profound words:
"On the subject of healing, people have been taught today to believe in traditions in the place of the plain Word of God. This has turned the whole world into a veritable Nazareth of unbelief."
Another of Bosworth's 22 reasons for not being healed is "watching the symptoms" instead of keeping the eyes on God's promises. Do not be preoccupied with symptoms. Instead be preoccupied with what God says about your healing.
If you are in faith and have no unconfessedsin in your life, such as bitterness or unforgiveness, and are not doing damaging things to your body, you should definitely expect your healing.
A "pointed bone"? Another possible reason for not getting healed is that a medical doctor has "pointed the bone" at you (see previous chapter), putting a powerful curse on you with all the sophistication and credulity of his honored profession, which is almost god-like in our culture. Typically, the patient believes the doctor instead of God's Word, in effect believing the doctor is smarter than God, thinking maybe that God was just old-fashioned and not aware of modern diseases and modern medicine. As ludicrous as it sounds, many people give that impression.
By way of review, retired Canon Jim Glennonof St. Andrew's Cathedral of the Anglican Church in Australiadescribes a tribal custom of the native Australian Aborigines. If a member of the tribe violates one of the tribe's taboos, the witchdoctor comes to the man and performs a ritual over him. The ritual is to reach into a small leather bag, take out the bone of a bird, then point the bone at the violator. In all cases, after the bone is pointed, the person dies, sometimes instantly, but always soon. The ritual is called "pointing the bone." This is what happens when a doctor tells you that you have a fatal disease with only so long to live.
Paul's"thorn in the flesh." Doubters often cite Paul's thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7) as proof that it is not always God's will to heal, a misinterpretation that Satan has used to sow doubt and rob probably millions of people of their healing. In so doing, they improperly generalize a doctrine against healing based on an isolated text with questionable meaning, which is not even good theology. It is important to note that (1) there is no evidence that Paul's thorn was a physical sickness but strong evidence that it was not; (2) we know it was a "messenger of Satan," probably a spiritual attack as verse 7 implies; and (3), this is very important¾the phrase "thorn in the flesh" was a Hebrew idiomatic expression for what today we would call "a pain in the neck." When that expression was used in the Bible, it usually referred to a person. The late F.F. Bosworth brilliantly devotes a whole chapter in his book, Christ the Healer, to analyzing this subject in depth and solidly concludes that the thorn was not a physical sickness.
This is also very important to remember: The Bible reveals that Paul's thorn came only because of his deep, totally unique revelations and actually being caught up into Paradise, to keep him from being proud. Even if a sickness, which it was not, you should never expect a similar thorn unless you have had the equivalent of Paul's revelations and similar trip to Paradise! Yet, many people falsely identify with Paul's "thorn" and unnecessarily give up hope for their healing.
There are many reasons why some people do not get healed, but only one that would clearly rule out your healing, and that is if God has truly decided that your designated time on Earth is complete, unlikely unless you have finished out the duration He has revealed in His Word. In Genesis 6:3, God revealed to Noah 120 years for our life expectancy, to which a few now attain. Science has recently confirmed God's words in Genesis 6:3 about a 120-year life span! In his book, The Bible Cure, Reginald Cherry, M.D. (Creation House, 1998) points out that researchers have discovered that human cells are able to reproduce themselves only about 50-60 times. They have discovered a built-in "cellular timetable" that would place the human life span maximum at 120 years. That is exactly what God said over 4,000 years ago! (My wife's great-grandmother lived to be well over 100, reportedly to 120, but this cannot be confirmed.)
While 120 years may be biologically possible, some wrongly believe that the Psalms reveal a lesser life expectancy than in Noah's day: "The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength" (Psalm 90:10). I used to think that this maximum 80-year time span superceded what God had previously revealed to Noah above; however, I later realized that Psalm 90 was not written by David but by Moses, who himself lived to be 120, and the psalm was written well past his own age of 80! Also, Moses was apparently lamenting that those Israelites in the wilderness were dying at such a young age because of their rebellion against God.
Of course, now it is rare to see people live beyond 100, due to modern lifestyles, soils depleted of nutrients, modern food processing, and environmental pollution in food and air. But God is still God, and all things are possible with Him, the Bible says.
Do not let the devil rob you of your healing because of traditional, false interpretations! Jesus said that the devil is a thief, and he always subtly tries to rob people of God's blessings.
God gave me this sickness to teach me something. If God gives sickness to teach us something, we should all be constantly praying to get sick, as we all have so much to learn! Also, we should never go to the doctor, which might keep us from learning what God wants to teach us! Of course, that is silly, not scriptural, nor does it make sense. God is not the author of sickness, Satan is. Of course, God takes evil and turns it to good, and He may use a sickness experience to teach us, but that does not make Him the cause nor does it detract from His promises to heal you.