Healed in the Name of Jesus: Keep Your Faith in God's Healing Promises

Introduction

God Hasn’t Healed Me ... Yet.

I am convinced of this: the one who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

When you suffer an illness or disorder, it challenges your faith in God’s promises. When trials challenge your hope and faith, that does not necessarily mean you are doubting. You just need faith warriors to come alongside you and encourage you. As I tell my story, I want to be one of those warriors with you.

In this book, we will fight the battle for our trust in God’s healing promises together. Are you in the middle of an impossible medical situation? Have doctors and medical professionals told you they can’t do anything for you? I live in that space. Since 2013, I have been paralyzed from the neck down.

As a minister of the gospel, I still struggle to maintain my faith in God’s healing promises when my reality opposes the fulfillment of those promises for me. I want to join you in the battle. Let us fight together to keep our faith until the fulfillment of what God has promised us.

This is My Story

That day began like any other. It was one of my favorite days of the week—Wednesday—which I spent preparing for our evening Bible study at the church I had become pastor of four years before.

I love diving into God’s Word and discovering diamonds to share with others. I learn more when I research and teach the Bible. I had jumped in the shower to enjoy a hot, awakening experience. Suddenly, my fingers on both hands closed, and my thumbs stuck straight out.

It is impossible to open your fingers when they won’t cooperate. I was, quite literally, all thumbs! Sensing something was very wrong, I got out of the shower and tried to dry myself off. By the time I walked into my adjacent bedroom, I could not wiggle my toes or feel my feet. So, I grabbed my phone with both hands, laid across my bed, and covered myself up with the clothes I had laid out that morning.

I was quickly losing the ability to feel my arms and legs. I voice-dialed one of my deacons. The conversation made it sound like a prank call. Lucy, are you busy right now?

Not yet, Pastor. Can I help you?

Yeah. This is not a joke. I believe I’m becoming paralyzed. I can’t feel my arms or legs right now. I don’t know what is going on. Can you come unlock the door of the parsonage for the paramedics? Oh, I didn’t call any paramedics.

As the pastor of a smaller church, I was more concerned about how much it would cost to fix the door than with calling 911. I wasn’t thinking clearly. All of this was new to me. I didn’t know what was going on.

Are you sure this isn’t a joke?

I think Lucy heard the panic in my voice. No. It’s no joke. If you can’t make it, I don’t know if I will. And since it’s becoming harder to breathe and talk, I don’t think I can call anyone else.

Thank God Lucy took me seriously. OK, Pastor. I’ll be right there! I listened to the three beeps signaling that she had hung up. Time was running out.

I had never thought about my mortality until that moment. It dawned on me that I might not be alive by the time she arrived or got help. It’s one thing to say you believe that God has your life in His hands. It’s another to stand at death’s door and try to trust Him with your life.

"Jesus, whether I live or die,

it’s for your glory."

I laid there feeling the ability to move drain from my body. I tried to distract myself from the fear of my new reality. As my breathing became labored, I prayed a simple prayer: Jesus, whether I live or die, it’s for your glory.

I looked at my ceiling for the last time, closed my eyes, and passed out. I don’t remember anything after that. Within thirty minutes of my fingers closing in the shower to the moment I closed my eyes, I was completely paralyzed.

For Those Who Need Faith

Are you suffering an incurable or terminal illness? Is some kind of sickness, disorder, injury, or other ailment taking control of each day of your life? I write this book for those who suffer long-term, incurable, or terminal conditions that science has deemed impossible to cure. Since that day in September 2013 when I was paralyzed from the neck down, I have lived every day believing God for total healing and declaring it over myself.

I am an Assemblies of God ordained minister. I have believed and preached God’s promises for healing all my life. Since that day especially, I have had to put my faith where my mouth is. I still believe—now even more than before. As I tell you my story, look for how the message about my situation will apply to you.

How do we keep our faith in God’s healing promises when we have not yet seen them fulfilled in our bodies? Join me as I tell you about my struggles and victories with paralysis while keeping my faith in Jesus’s healing promises.

I’m not perfect. Like you, I have good and bad days. But I believe that for all of us, God has healing in store.

In one sentence, I acknowledge my reality and assert my faith.

I don’t write this book as a minister not suffering affliction, telling you to just believe in God’s healing promises. I suffer my affliction even as I write this book. I speak not from the prospect of being healed already. I fight the battle of faith alongside you. I wait for my healing as you do.

We must trust God even though we have not yet seen our healing. Stay the course, and watch God finish His promised work in you. In the meantime, I share my story and my confidence in Jesus to do what He has promised in me. Let it serve as another testimony of faith in Jesus’s power and in Him.

Relying on God for Healing

What do you focus on when I say, God hasn’t healed me yet? Most people focus on the phrase, God hasn’t healed me and rebuke me for saying that. But faith comes with that three-letter word at the end—yet. In one sentence, I acknowledge my reality and assert my faith.

When taken as a whole, this sentence does everything the afflicted did when they came to Jesus. They acknowledged their affliction, and Jesus healed them. They had faith because they came to Jesus. When I say, Yet, I’m not saying that I don’t believe God will heal me. I’m saying that I’m trusting Him to do it.

Saying, God hasn’t healed me yet acknowledges the reality of my affliction now. But I trust God to change my reality in the future. With faith, I look forward to the day He heals me. My reality has not yet matched the fulfillment of God’s healing promises for me. He’s not done with your story, either.

Between God’s Promise

and Fulfillment

Like many saints, we live between God’s promise for healing and its fulfillment in us. In this middle space between promise and fulfillment, we walk in a waiting period. We cannot heal ourselves. We must wait for God to finish His work in us.

The Bible outlines this time that we must wait for God to work His promise in us. As Abraham and Sarah waited for God to bring Isaac into the world, so we also wait for God to fulfill His promises in us. His promises are sure. He has never let us down or failed to bring His promises to completion.

But between God’s promise and its fulfillment, we can lose hope and faith. We don’t see the end from the beginning as He does. As we struggle in the battle and lose sight of the promise, we need believing warriors to come alongside us and lift our weary arms as Aaron and Hur held up Moses’s hands (Exod 17:11-13).

We live in this gap since we are only human. We cannot see God’s purpose in our suffering. With every ache and pain, we cry out in desperation for God. We ask why, and like Job, we don’t always get an answer. We understand what God’s Word says. We believe with our heads, but it’s hard to transfer that knowledge to our hearts.

Our setbacks challenge our trust in God’s promises. Even worse, they may challenge our faith in God. We either overcome our trials, or they overcome our trust. In this battle for victory over our affliction, we must stand strong and declare God’s victory—even though we have not seen it yet.

We either overcome our trials,

or they overcome our trust.

Our faith goes before us. It sees the future God promises. We must let our faith lead us. In the middle of our affliction, we cannot see the end. We lose our way, and hope dwindles. If we do not maintain our faith, darkness will overtake us. In this space, we must double down on our faith and hope in God’s promises. He has never failed us, and He will come through again. Let me encourage you to keep the faith in the middle of the storm.

God Heals by His Prerogative

My aim is to encourage you for divine physical healing. But God heals other wounds. I mention them here to show the greatness of our God.

Spiritual, Mental and Emotional

Healing

We must not discredit the healing God does deep in our souls. Perhaps people might discount such healing because it is not outwardly noticeable.

When God heals us spiritually, we call it salvation. This involves more than saving us from death and hell. God resurrects our dead spirit. This amazing miracle of resurrection is the first step in salvation.

After spiritually raising us from the dead, God enlivens our spirits to His gospel—the good news that we can live forever as God designed us to do. This has come about through the death of His Son on the Cross and His resurrection out of the tomb. Jesus died so we can live eternally. Salvation continues as God molds us into the image of His Son.

Some wounds may not be visible, but they still require God’s healing.

These things are the beginning of spiritual healing. Many Christians have emotional, relational, and spiritual scars that need God’s healing touch beyond salvation. Our brokenness plays out in our decisions, our relationships, and the course of our lives. Some wounds may not be visible, but they still require God’s healing.

Jesus sees how deeply we hide from others. He knows the depths of pain and hurt in us. His healing of these invisible wounds feels as good as when He heals our bodies. We need His complete healing—body, mind, and spirit. His miracle working power for inner healing is no less important than physical healing.

Jesus’s ultimate sacrifice demolishes every disease. God cures every ailment known to humanity in the shadow of the Cross. So, even more amazing than God’s desire to heal our bodies is His desire for our mental health. Mental illness is real. This illness, too, stems from the fallen state of this world, from our broken environment, and from our diminishing temporal bodies. But Jesus sympathizes with our pain, suffering, and weaknesses (Heb 4:15). He sees all, knows all, and heals all. Nothing is so far gone that God cannot heal it. He created our bodies and is more than able to heal every wound and make us whole.

Natural Healing

Medical professionals attest to God’s miraculous creation of the human body. God designed this mortal tent of ours with flawless creativity and forethought. Our bodies can heal many injuries naturally. Without a visit to a hospital or emergency room, many cuts and bruises will heal with time because He created our bodies with an immune system that can heal colds, fevers, and several other diseases. Think about the amazing creativity of our God! He protects our bodies against the dangers of this fallen world.

But this book is not about that. As remarkable as God’s powerful ingenuity in creating this body that can withstand the minor wounds and illnesses that plague it, my aim is higher than praising God for His perfect design. Oh, I am impressed by this awe–inspiring Maker! He does more than heal our cuts and bruises.

Medical Healing

I continue to expound upon the wonders of our great God. He also provides doctors with the wisdom and skill to bring about healing for complex diseases. This wonderful God of ours has laid out the understanding of His healing processes, has created plants and other medicinal sources on the earth, and has given knowledge to humans on how to use these gifts.

Science and faith are not adversaries. Many feats and marvels of the medical community have saved lives from deadly illnesses by God-given skill. We must humbly realize and remember that without God entrusting His healing knowledge to us, these wonderful gifts would not exist.

Think of the grace and kindness of God. He gave caregivers His unconditional love to use these skills and instincts for our betterment. The wonderful people I have met through my ordeal have nursed and ministered to me through healing and caring. God has given them these instincts and skills that help me. They have a deep desire to use God’s gift of healing to keep me healthy despite my paralysis.

The medical community is a gift from God and part of His healing process.

The medical community is a gift from God and part of His healing process. Medical knowledge is not an affront to God’s healing power. God uses medical professionals in His toolbox to provide healing for us. He has many avenues and resources to do His work in us. Let us not limit ourselves to one healing method.

Divine Healing

Divine healing refers to when God interrupts nature and heals by His supernatural power. Healing belongs to our God. He can do the impossible (Luke 1:37). Although God ordained healing through natural and medical means, He is the Lord our Healer because He takes more than natural and medical approaches. God intimately connects with us by healing our bodies.

God owes no one an explanation for how He acts. Sometimes He heals with His miraculous power. His reasons may remain unknown to us. Through studying God’s Word and how He has revealed himself through His character and deeds, we discover a sovereign God who reserves the right to do whatever He wishes.

We learn more about God the more He interacts with us on an intimate level. Each time God acts, He responds to our situations and shows himself worthy of our praise. He shows us more of His purpose and plan for us and for this world.

When God heals, He teaches us about himself. We discover God’s purposes as we study how He heals us. His Word reveals His immense power and divine forethought as He approaches us by His power. Divine healing demonstrates His character concretely to us.

Studying the Bible’s Words

for Healing

The Hebrew and Greek languages of the Bible have several words for healing. The main two words in Hebrew have similar meaning. The Old Testament overwhelmingly uses the first Hebrew word over sixty times. Its range includes, heal, restore, remedy, medicine, and physician. Jeremiah uses the second word to describe a covering over a wound as it heals.

In the Greek New Testament, two words are prevalent. We recognize the root of the most prevalent word as a word for therapeutics, meaning to heal or cure. The second word is the medical term for healing or curing disease.

When God heals, He teaches us

about himself.

We see these words when God promises and demonstrates healing. They, along with other words used less often, shape our faith and hope in God to fulfill His promises. We can trust in His ability to heal us. Declare God’s promises in your situation, knowing that God maintains His reality over ours.

We use many words for the afflictions we suffer. They range from sickness, illness, disease, disorder, wound, injury, and more. In this book, I use the word affliction to refer to these illnesses. When you see the word affliction, put your malady in place of this word.

It’s Not about Me

Though this trial has been hard and continues at the moment of my writing this book, it has taken me to new heights of faith in God and deeper relationships with those around me—­­especially my parents. God has used this trial to soften my heart, to teach me about empathizing with others, and to harden my resolve and my faith in Him to withstand whatever the devil wishes to throw at me. Now trust me, I’m no showoff. My reason for telling you this is not for you to think what a great person I am. This is not about me. This is about God and the way He teaches us to grow through trials when all we want to do is crumble from the inside out.

Because a trial, as those who have endured one understand, is not about lifting oneself up, but about sharing the incredible grace our Savior gives. A trial can go either way; either it will strengthen and build your faith in God, or it will strengthen and build fear of the future and current circumstances. A trial either makes you or breaks you. You choose which one happens to you.

A trial either makes you or breaks you.

This book is about a subject I have studied in the Bible thoroughly. God has challenged me to believe that when my reality does not match the promise that He has given me, then my reality will change. He challenges me to trust in the future He is writing on my heart and in my body. Healing for me is not some systematic look at a few verses and mentally assenting to what God says in those verses. Healing is an up-close and personal communion between my Lord and me.

I do not write this book to make money or to convince you of some theology. I write to invite you into the ongoing living, breathing discussion between a servant of God and His maker. Healing is not merely some topic of interest to me but an intimate and vibrant growing into the truths and promises of a God who loves me and wants my best. He will fulfill His promises—not always the way I expect or desire, but the way He has planned from the beginning.

Healing for me is not some systematic look at a few verses and mentally assenting to what God says in those verses.

Healing is an up-close and

personal communion

between my Lord

and me.

To help and encourage you in your affliction, the end of each chapter has action steps under the heading Preparing for War to build your faith to believe