Why People Are Not Healed - And How To Prevent It

Why People Are Not Healed - And How To Prevent It
by A K Whitehead

Why are some people not healed when we pray with them?

This is one of the most recurrent questions in the Christian
healing ministry. Everyone who has prayed with others for
their healing has experience the apparent lack of response to
their prayer. Yet the gospels lead us to believe that Jesus
wishes everyone to be healed. Why, then, are some not healed?

In the book I wrote with my wife, "The Keys To Praying For
Healing", we discuss this at some length. There is no simple
answer to that question. A range of possible answers lies
both with the pray-er and with the prayed-for. This article
briefly considers the latter.

Investigating these sets of causes will greatly increase your
effectiveness in praying with people for healing.

1. The Cause Can Lead To The Cure
This can often be closely related to the latter point. Find
out all you can about how the condition came about. For
example, were other people involved? Are they being blamed?
Is God himself held to be blamed? The latter is not uncommon.
Frequently the key to healing lies in the cause of the complaint.

Check-out as many possible factors like these as you can. Often
time is very limited, of course. But some occasions do permit time
for more thorough investigation. This is especially so if you hold
healing sessions at home or through church facilities. There is no
need to be crude about this. Just keep such possibilities in mind
as you question the person.

2. Lack Of Belief By The Suffer
While this problem is most likely to arise in expected instances,
there will also be unexpected ones. In the former case, one might
expect "marginal" Christians to have little expectation of
healing.Yet sometimes these people are remarkably open to the healing
love of Jesus. They may seem to us to be on the fringes of Christianity,
but there are sometimes quite, at least to them, valid reasons for their
apparent lack of involvement in the Body of Christ.

Sometimes people whom we expect to be open are not. On occasions
there are hidden reasons for this. If so, we need to try and
discover them and, in difficult cases, tease them out.
Sensitivity and a lack of judgementalism are extremely important
in ministering. People will tend to close up in the face of
crudeness and an apparent lack of real concern for them.

3. Lack Of Faith In The Pray-er
This is a problem almost always specific to lay people. It is
perhaps of more concern in some denominations than in others.
The problem is that some people can believe that God will heal,
but through you ...? A minister, perhaps, but a lay person ...?

More often than not, this is a problem with people who have
limited experience of the healing ministry. Be patient with them.
As your reputation grows, the problem will go away. In the meantime
try giving some witness to the way God has used you in the past to bring
healing to people. Yes, there is a possibility of you
sounding "big-headed", but that is a risk you have to take. Take
it gentle, trying to bring such witnessing in almost casually,
perhaps to illustrate a point or principle.

4. Unforgiveness
This is probably the best known cause for nonhealing occuring.
Probably because it is at least one of the most frequently
encountered! Surprisingly, it is also one of the most easy
causes to deal with. Why?

People usually have a great instinct for self interest. If the
person has some area of unforgiveness and are reluctant to
forgive those who offended them, quote some such scripture as
Matthew 6. 14, 15 to the effect that: if you will forgive
other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive
you. But if you will not forgive others when they sin
against you, your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins.

This usually works with considerable effect. That is partly
because many people are are simply not aware of the conditions
for receiving forgiveness. That kind of ignorance is one of the
reasons why healing and teaching are complementary spiritual
gifts.