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Directly from God Wants You Well Study Guide - Andrew Wommack
Healing is part of Christ's Atonement. It's not a separate issue from salvation. The very Greek word associated with salvation over a hundred times in the New Testament was also translated "healed," "made whole," and "saved" in reference to healing the sick. God never intended for what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection to be broken up and separated into different elements.
Some people have said, "We're going to accept forgiveness of sins but reject healing, prosperity, and deliverance." No, it's actually all a package deal. It's wrong for the church to present healing as some fringe benefit that "could happen but certainly isn't part of our salvation. It's just up to the Lord whether He chooses to heal or not." God's will is to heal you just as much as it is to forgive you. He wants you to resist sickness and disease just as much as He wants you to resist sin.
Part of the Fall
I've often thought about why anybody would fight against healing. Being well seems to be a universal desire. Consider the effort people put into getting their bodies well. They spend untold amounts of money on doctors' visits, medications, and operations. Medications alone are huge in today's society. People are taking drugs that produce all kinds of side effects. I've seen advertisements on television for different medications that caused so many terrible side effects that I've thought in my heart, I'd rather be sick than have all of those side effects. Yet many people will put up with them. They take radiation and chemotherapy that causes their hair to fall out. They'll take drugs that make them swell. People will literally have parts of their bodies cut off in an effort to live. Nobody likes sickness!
Even hypochondriacs don't like it. They may have a fear of sickness that draws them into it and causes them to obsess over it, but they don't like it.
People universally hate sickness and disease. That's because God didn't create mankind to die. Death was something man chose, but it wasn't something God chose. The Lord originally intended for our bodies to live forever. I've actually read some medical reports that say that the body is capable of healing and repairing itself. The medical profession really cannot understand why the body doesn't live forever. Of course, there are these invaders, like germs and viruses, but we have the capacity to overcome them. God's original plan was for us never to be sick. Sickness was not a part of God's plan--it was part of what we unknowingly chose in the Fall.
We were created with a God-given desire on the inside of every one of us for health. People don't like sickness. God doesn't like it. Why, then, do some people fight against God being our Healer? They'll actually say "You are of the devil" if you believe that the Lord heals today. Why would somebody argue that when health is a universal need and desire? Everybody wants health. Why would we credit God with wanting something less than the best for our health?
There are also lesser manifestations of this same attitude. These people may not say you're of the devil if you believe for healing. They may not reject you for laying hands on the sick and believing for them to recover (Mark 16:18). But they would certainly say that it's not God's will to heal every single time. Why would they think that? I've already proven earlier in this book (study guide) that healing is part of the Atonement. God provided healing for our bodies just as much--and at the very same time--as He provided forgiveness of sins. With this being so obvious, why do people fight against healing?
A Common Root
Although there are many reasons why people are prejudiced, biased, and teach against healing, I believe they all stem from a common root. People resist the truth that healing is in the Atonement and they resist that it is God's will to heal every time, because it's convenient to believe that way. There may be some sincere people who have been taught wrong, but the bottom line of this teaching against healing is that it's a cop-out. It avoids the responsibility that becomes theirs when they accept that God wants them well.
If the Lord has provided healing for us--and it's obvious that not everybody is healed--then the question arises, "Why aren't we well?" If God wants us well and we aren't, this means we have to accept some degree of responsibility. I'll deal with this issue later in this book (study) when I discuss why everyone isn't healed. However, for now, we need to realize that we must accept some responsibility. Yet in an effort to dodge responsibility and guilt, we often simply say, "Well, it must not have been God's will." That's not true.
Some people argue, "If God wanted someone healed, then they'd be healed whether you or I prayed for them or not." That's not true either. Consider the forgiveness of sins. God's Word says that . . .
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9
You can't make it any clearer than that. God's will is for people to be saved. Yet not everybody is saved. Jesus Himself prophesied that more people would choose the broad gate that leads to destruction than the narrow gate that leads to everlasting life.
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:13-14
God's will concerning salvation doesn't automatically come to pass. He's not willing that anyone perish but that all come to repentance and the knowledge of Him. The Lord doesn't will for anyone to die and go to hell, but He gave man a choice. People go to hell because they reject God's provision. Some reject it blatantly in open rebellion against the Lord. Others reject it because they are taught wrong, so they're trusting in their own good works, like attending church, being moral, or tithing (Rom. 10:2-3). Although they've been deceived, it's still their choices that caused them to miss it.
Accept Responsibility
God doesn't want people to go to hell, but they do. He doesn't want people to be sick either, but they are. Certainly, some people are in total rebellion toward the Lord and His ways, and they're reaping what they've sown. Yet other people desire healing, and they still fall short. This is because they don't understand how to receive healing properly. Some people think that being a good person, attending church, and being water baptized as an infant will produce salvation in their lives. They may be sincere, but they're sincerely wrong. Although it's not God's will for them to perish, people are perishing. It's not God's will for people to be sick either, but they are. They don't understand how to receive.
We need to understand and accept our part. It's our failure, not God's, that sends people to hell and causes us to be sick. It's our failure to accept this responsibility that's the root of why we fight against healing. We do not want to accept responsibility. We don't want to confront the truth that as believers in Christ, we could have done something to prevent that loved one from suffering under sickness and dying.
I'm not saying it's our fault directly, although in some cases it could be. Often it's not an individual's sin that brought sickness and disease, but mankind's sin that has corrupted this world. It's the sin that caused germs and viruses, fungi and infections, and the like that were never a part of God's original plan for mankind. They're perversions of nature that happened through sin, not necessarily individual sin, but the collective sin that has corrupted the entire system. Even though it might not be something we did individually that caused sickness, there is always something we can do individually to overcome that perversion and walk in health.
Not God's Will
Back in the early 1970s, I pastored a church in a small town in Texas. A couple in this church had a child who was born mongoloid. (That's not intended as a slur. I realize that we don't use that term anymore, but that's what the parents called it. I'm just repeating what they said.) She was a very small woman, and they had been living in Guatemala at the time of his birth. She delivered this baby in a taxi on the way to the hospital, and it caused brain damage. Because the baby was born mongoloid, his immune system was deficient. The doctor said that if the child ever got a cold, he would die because there was nothing they could do for him. They didn't expect him to live, but he did. When I met them, he was four years old.
Finally, he did get a cold. So I went to their house and prayed over him to be healed. While holding the child in my arms, he died. We sat there with the parents and prayed for hours for this child to be raised from the dead. We did everything I knew to do. Eventually, we finally called the authorities. The police showed up, and it was a miracle that we didn't all get sent to jail. Really, the only reason they didn't arrest us was because the parents had doctors' reports proving that they had said, "If he ever gets sick or has an infection, just keep him at home because there's nothing we can do for him." Because they had those, the police let us go. It was a very tragic situation.
The parents asked me to do his funeral. I was groping for something that would comfort both them and me. I had taken this personally. It would have been comforting momentarily to have just said, "Well, it couldn't have been us that missed it. We gave it everything we've got." The parents were grieving, and I certainly didn't want to point the finger at them by saying, "It's your fault." It would have been comforting to say, "God works in mysterious ways. He must have wanted your son in heaven. God needed him there." It would have been comforting to come up with some of these cliches that are commonly heard given in religion, but I had to be honest with the Word.
I told those parents, "I don't believe this was God's will. The Lord did not kill your son. He didn't allow this to happen. Satan was the one who snuffed his life out. Even though the devil may have won this battle, he didn't win the war." Then I shared from 2 Samuel 12:23 and other scriptures how this child was now in the presence of God. I ministered hope, and the reality that this boy was with Jesus.
"The Truth Shall Make You Free"
But when it came to why it happened, I basically said, "It's either my fault, your fault, both of our faults, or things that we don't understand. I don't know what it is, but I can guarantee you, it's not God." That wasn't as comforting as if I would have said, "Well, God works in mysterious ways. He allowed it. The Lord did this for some reason." That might have given momentary comfort, but the Bible says,
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32
God's Word is true, and I couldn't find in there where Jesus made people sick. I just had to tell them, "I don't know where the problem is, but it's not God. Satan beat us. He won a battle, but he didn't win the war. Your son is now with Jesus, but it wasn't God's will for him to go now, due to sickness." Because I told these people the truth, they prayed and God showed them some things where they had allowed fear, doubt, and unbelief in. This had hindered their faith and kept them from receiving the miracle they needed. Because they received the truth, they repented and were able to overcome that fear.
The doctors had told this woman that the reason her child was mongoloid was because she was so small. They said the baby should have been taken by a C-section. They concluded that if she ever got pregnant again, the baby would probably have to be taken by C-section and that both she and the child would probably lose their lives. So they told her never to have another child again.
This was back in the early 1970s. Since then, she's had three or four more children. She recently sent me a picture of all of her kids. They had graduated from high school and were in college. She had all natural childbirths at home without any doctor's help, because she knew that no doctor, after seeing her records, would ever allow her to have a baby again. So she just believed God. Instead of going childless and living her entire life in bitterness, wondering God, why did You do this? she found out that God wasn't the author of sickness, disease, and death. This precious sister was able to go on and have other children because she took hold of the truth, and the truth set her free.
We Fail to Receive
I understand why we want to say, "Surely this must have been God's will." It's because it makes us look good. It doesn't make us failures. But it's an easy way out--a cop-out. I understand it, and I have been tempted to do the same thing, but it's not God who makes people sick. It's not God who fails to heal us; it's us who fail to receive..
Reproduced with the written permission of Jim Ertel, Director of Partner Relations, Andrew Wommack Ministries www.awmi.net
INDEX to Blogs for God Wants You Well Study with links to lessons 1 - 5.
(Note: Due to the change in policy concerning Featured Blogs being limited to one at a time, I have decided to no longer include the outline or the discussion questions that are a part of Wommack's Study Guide being used for this study. From now on, I will only be posting the actual lesson text.)
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