Chapter 4 of Healing: The Lost Gospel covers questions you may have about healing such as, 

Can sin cause disease?

At times does God use disease to work His purpose?

Can you die before your time?

This final chapter presents scripture-based answers in addition to circumstances that prevent healing. 

Questions Answered

Question: Can sin cause disease?

A man was paralyzed for 38 years and Jesus healed him but left him with a warning.

John 5:14 Amplified Bible

¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

When taking communion, Paul warns believers what can result with the abuse of this sacrament.

1 Corinthians 11:29-30 Amplified Bible

²⁹ For anyone who eats and drinks [without solemn reverence and heartfelt gratitude for the sacrifice of Christ], eats and drinks a judgment on himself if he does not recognize the body [of Christ]. 

³⁰ That [careless and unworthy participation] is the reason why many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep [in death].

James 5:15-16 takes into account the possibility the believer may be sick because of sin.

¹⁵ And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 

¹⁶ Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Our bodies have natural healing properties. Disease can advance beyond the natural healing properties and result in death. In addition to our body’s natural healing properties, physicians and medicine join forces to heal our bodies.

If the disease is because of sin, then neither the body’s natural healing properties, nor physician and medicine, nor even prayer can evoke sustained healing until the person repents of the sin and stops doing it.

Answer: Yes, sin can cause disease and the disease may lead to death. Jesus has promised to cleanse the disease out of our bodies if we are willing to cleanse the disease out of our souls.

Question: At times, does God use disease to work his purpose?

Scripture has shown God has used disease to:

Develop character, humility  

2 Corinthians 12:7 talks about Paul being afflicted with a “thorn in the flesh”.

Some say Paul had weak vision while others do not come to a consensus as to what the thorn might be. It was certain that God allowed it and would not remove it for reasons stated by Paul.

⁷Because of the surpassing greatness and extraordinary nature of the revelations [which I received from God], for this reason, to keep me from thinking of myself as important, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, to torment and harass me—to keep me from exalting myself!

Other scriptures:

Job 2:3-8; Proverbs 3:7-8

Correct or discipline

In 2 Samuel 24, David takes census of his military prowess and in doing so puts his trust in his military strength instead of God. God gives David a choice of discipline of which David choses pestilence (disease).

² So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan [in the north] to Beersheba [in the south], and conduct a census of the people, so that I may know the number of the people.” 

³ But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as there are, and let the eyes of my lord the king see it; but why does my lord the king want to do this thing?” 

⁴ Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So they went from the king’s presence to take a census of the people of Israel. 

 ⁹ And Joab gave the sum of the census of the people to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.

¹⁰ But David’s heart (conscience) troubled him after he had counted the people. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the sin of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” 

¹¹ When David got up in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 

¹² “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I am giving you three choices; select one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.”’” 

¹³ So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your enemies as they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence (plague) in your land? Now consider this and decide what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” 

¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hands of man.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a pestilence (plague) [lasting three days] upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.

See also Hebrews 12:4-11

Answer: We see in the scriptures shared that God has used disease to develop character and to discipline.

Question: Can you die before your time?

Consider the following scriptures.

Psalm 102:23 ESV

²³ He has broken my strength in midcourse;
he has shortened my days.

Ecclesiastes 7:17 ESV

¹⁷ Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

It stands to reason if God can lengthen Hezekiah’s days because of his righteousness, He may also shortened another’s days because of their unrighteousness.

2 Kings 20:1-6 Amplified Bible

¹In those days [when Sennacherib first invaded Judah] Hezekiah became deathly ill. The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not recover.’” 

² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, 

³ “Please, O Lord, remember now [with compassion] how I have walked before You in faithfulness and truth and with a whole heart [entirely devoted to You], and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 

⁴ Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle courtyard, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 

⁵ “Go back and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father (ancestor): “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I am healing you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. 

⁶ I will add fifteen years to your life and save you and this city [Jerusalem] from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will protect this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”

Answer: Sin can take you out before your time.

Question: Does God receive glory when we are sick?

Job, a righteous man, lost his family, his flocks and was stricken with boils. God’s glory was not shown in the calamity but was shown by Job’ s unwavering trust in God.

Job 13:14-16 King James Version

¹⁴ Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?

¹⁵ Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

¹⁶ He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

Romans 5:3-4 Amplified Bible

³ And not only this, but [with joy] let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance; 

⁴ and endurance, proven character (spiritual maturity); and proven character, hope and confident assurance [of eternal salvation].

Romans 8:18 Amplified Bible
For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us!

Answer: The scriptures show us that our attitude while enduring suffering brings glory to God. It’s natural to complain but its supernatural to glorify God knowing there is both a present earthly and a future heavenly glory reserved for us.

Question: Are there other instances where God doesn’t heal?

Lack of Faith

Matthew 13:58; Mark 6:5-6; James 1:6-7

It is good to discern God’s will in a particular matter. Sometimes God will reveal an issue that is a roadblock to healing and other times the person doing the praying is not privy to this information. Regardless we are to keep praying and remain full of faith knowing that the end result is under God’s control.

That’s where a lot of believers fall back. They feel if they prayed and a person isn’t healed then it’s a bad reflection on them. You must remember, the focus in this journey is never about you, it’s about Jesus. We are just his instrument. An instrument claims no glory or fault, no credit or blame.  It only makes itself available for use.

Conclusion

God’s blood redeemed the soul and the body back to spiritual Eden. It brought the Gospel of Salvation to our souls and the Gospel of Healing for our bodies.

Praying for healing requires,

• Knowledge of God’s will (the promises in His Word)
• Being spiritually prepared, having a prayer life, fasting, and being plugged into the Holy Spirit
• Believing that all things are possible in accordance with the will of God
• Remaining patiently confident while the healing process works

The presence of symptoms is not a measure of healing, the presence of faith is.

Waymaker