God Wants You Well, Healed and Whole, Final Update

Miguel sent in the following great question:

My question : You said that it’s not the will of God that somebody be sick. But what about Timothy, Paul, Job? Can you give me your answer please.

And also if a Christian is sick, what we can tell them, how can we pray for them in case that they are not healed?

I Respect you and you know that I like you but I really want to know how you explain this?

Here’s my answer:

(This post is quite long so I have highlighted the questions in bold, underlined, and red for easier reference. At the end of this post is a list of resources related to divine healing.)

I assume that Miguel is asking: Why were Timothy, Paul and Job sick if healing is the will of God?

When I say that it is always God’s will to heal that’s not the same saying that everyone will always be healed. For example, the Bible plainly teaches that it is God’s will for everyone to be saved:

2 Peter 3:9 "9 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.

1 Timothy 2:4 "4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

John 3:17 "17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

but everyone isn’t saved.

The Bible also plainly teaches that it is always God’s will to heal:

James 5:14 (NIV) Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven."

Mark 16:17 (NIV) And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

Deuteronomy 7:12 (NIV) If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. … 15 The LORD will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.

Psalms 103:1 (KJV) Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;"

Acts 10:38 (KJV) How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

but that’s not the same thing as saying that everyone will be healed. I can tell you right now that everyone won’t be healed. Why not?  Well, why isn’t everyone saved? The answer to both questions is the same. In fact healing is just a special case, a subset, of salvation.

I believe Miguel’s real question is something like this: If it is really always God’s will to heal, you’d surely think that these special guys like the Apostle Paul and Timothy and Job would have been healed. If the Apostle Paul can’t get healed well then who can?

First, I think it’s a mistake to determine God’s will based on circumstances. We should determine God’s will based on God’s word, The Bible. I don’t care how great a man is he can still miss it, but God’s word is always reliable.

PAUL’S THORN IN THE FLESH

(I am indebted for all of the material that follows to Tony Cooke. I was just going to link to his treatment of this subject but couldn’t find it on his website.) Let’s start with the Apostle Paul, since of the three he is the greatest. Nowhere does the Bible say that Paul was sick. The scripture people sometimes think says that is :

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 "7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

You’ll hear people talking about Paul’s "thorn in the flesh" and referring to it as a sickness. But first off, this scripture does not say that Paul was sick. The scripture says he had a thorn in the flesh and it tells us what that thorn in the flesh was and it doesn’t say it was a sickness, it says it was

"the messenger of Satan"

The world translated "messenger" here is the Greek work "aggelos". In the King James Bible this word is translated "Angel" 179 times and "messenger" 7 times. The thorn in the flesh was the angel or messenger  of Satan not a sickness or disease.

Paul uses "thorn in the flesh" here as a figure of speech. It is a metaphor, similar to the English expression, "pain in the neck," or "pain in the nether regions." A similar figure of speech is used in the Bible here:

Numbers 33:55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell."

and here:

Joshua 23:13 Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

The people these scriptures refer to weren’t going to literally stick in the sides or eyes of the children of Israel. It’s a metaphor. It’s a metaphor for the problems these people would cause the children of Israel. Similarly Paul is not talking about a literal problem in his flesh, but of the problems this satanic messenger was causing him.

Here’s something else Tony Cooke pointed out. Have you ever stopped to think that the people who want to take Paul’s thorn in the flesh literally are only taking half of it literally. They want to take the "in the flesh" part literally but not the "thorn" part. They want to say that the problem was literally in Paul’s flesh but not literally a thorn. If the whole expression is literal then we would expect that the Corinthians sent Paul a pair of tweezers with instructions to pull the thorn out of his flesh.

If you’ll read the rest of 2 Corinthians you’ll find that Paul
describes a great deal of persecution which he endured. For example:

2
Corinthians 11:23-27 "23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a
fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in
prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times
received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods,
once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I
have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in
perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the
heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils
in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and
painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings
often, in cold and nakedness."

This satanic angel was sent to keep Paul from doing his job, to cause him trouble and harassment even from fellow Christians.

2. Some people read the last part of this passage of scripture this way: Paul asked God to take this thorn away three times and God said no. But that’s not what it says! Paul asked God that the messenger of Satan might depart from him three times and God said:

My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

As Tony Cooke said, we have such a bad view of God’s grace that we conclude God giving us grace is the equivalent of God saying no. God was telling Paul, you can do it. My grace will put you over. My grace is more than enough to cause you to triumph in this situation. My grace will cause you to succeed in spite of this Satanic Angel.

Paul wasn’t sick. At least the Bible doesn’t tell us about it if he was. 1 down 2 to go.

I’m going to have to answer the rest later because I have to go to a wedding practice.

UPDATE:

I added a little more content above and after thinking about it I thought I should add a few more points about Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh, before moving on.

Sometimes people focus on this part of the, Paul’s thorn in the flesh, scripture:

2 Corinthians 12:7 "7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

You’ll here people say things like this:

Just like with Paul’s thorn in the flesh God hasn’t healed me so I wont get a big head.

Here’s a couple points about that.

1. If this was God’s doing wouldn’t Paul have referred to the thorn in the flesh as "the messenger of God" instead of calling it "the messenger of Satan"?

2. Paul said this "thorn in the flesh" was given to him because

" And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations…"

Well, frankly, all of those people who are calling what they have a "thorn in the flesh"  don’t qualify for a "thorn in the flesh." They haven had an abundance of revelations.

3. People say that God gave this to Paul so he wouldn’t get a "big head". (Which I take it is not some kind of swelling condition but rather a figure of speech.) In fact this thinking has even made it into some of the modern translations, here’s the NIV:

2 Corinthians 12:7 NIV To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

Well… as I’ve already pointed out several times God didn’t give him the thorn in the flesh, IT WAS THE MESSENGER OF SATAN! Wouldn’t Satan want Paul to get the big head? Would Satan send a thorny messenger to Paul to keep him from becoming conceited?  The word translated, "lest I should be exalted above measure" is one Greek word, huperairomai. Which means, according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon,

to lift or raise up over something, to lift one’s self up, be exalted, be haughty, to carry one’s self haughtily, to behave insolently toward one. 

What this part of the scripture is probably saying is:

And lest (I should do more than the usual, do more than others, be more successful than the rest,) through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me…

As Tony put it, God gave Paul an abundance of revelations so that he would do more than the rest of the Apostles, so that he would be exalted, and he did and he was. Satan gave Paul a thorn in the flesh so he couldn’t do more, so he wouldn’t be exalted. But God’s grace was sufficient to cause Paul to be exalted, that’s why we know Paul’s name and read his writings to this day.

Part of the problem we have with this explanation is that we think being exalted is somehow unchristian. But look at this scripture:

1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:"

God gives grace to the humble so that they can then be exalted. How did God respond to Paul’s request for the thorn to be taken away? My grace is sufficient for thee. What was God’s grace going to do for Paul? Well according to the Apostle Peter it would exalt him. God wasn’t the one trying to keep Paul from being exalted above measure Satan was.

I still haven’t gotten to Timothy and Job, but it’s Thanksgiving eve and Becky wants to go buy a few things for tomorrow so I’m going to have to finish this later.

UPDATED AGAIN:
One last thing about Paul’s Thorn In The Flesh, I looked through our extensive archive of television programs, (Okay, okay, I looked through the stack of tapes on my desk.) and found one on Paul’s Thorn in The Flesh, I’ve posted the video and audio here.

JOB 
I have a lot less to say about Job and Timothy.

The difficulty with discussing the Book of Job is that it’s not clear what the Book of Job is or who Job himself was. Is the book of Job a history/biography of a real individual or is it something else? There isn’t much story to it. It  seems more like a philosophical work or perhaps a type of parable. When did Job live? Who was he? Was he a descendant of Abraham? Was he under Abraham’s covenant with God? The Bible’s promises of healing are based on Abraham’s covenant with God. If Job was not descended from Abraham then what is his relationship with God? Since the Bible, as far as I know, doesn’t give us the answers to these questions it’s kind of hard to analyze Job’s situation. That said let me make a few brief points.

The issue with Job, I guess, is this: 

Job 2:7 "3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. 4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. 5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. 6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life. 7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

1.  Satan made Job sick not God.  It plainly says,

"So went Satan…and smote Job with sore boils…"

2. God healed Job.

Job 42:10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Job 42:16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations.

I’ve heard some people say that this entire incident in the life of Job lasted about a year.

3. Most people believe that this scripture says that God turned Job over to Satan’s power, but it doesn’t actually say that. It says

"…he is in thine hand…"

The New Testament teaches us that mankind is already under the authority of Satan in this scripture where Jesus is giving Paul instructions as to what his ministry to the gentiles is supposed to be:

Acts 26:18  To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

According to this scripture, if Job was at all like the gentiles of Paul’s day, he was already under the power of Satan.

Acts 10:38 NIV how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."

According to this scripture the people Jesus healed were under the power of the devil. Had God turned each of those people over to Satan as some people believe he did with Job or were they already under Satan’s power?

Here’s what I believe. I believe that Job through his actions put himself under the devil’s authority and took himself and his family out from under God’s protection.

That’s my best shot at it.

TIMOTHY
The issue with Timothy is, I believe, this:

1 Timothy 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

We could pose the question this way: If it’s always God’s will to heal then why wasn’t Timothy, a guy who hung out with Paul, was Paul’s assistant, and was well regarded by Paul, healed?  Well the short answer is, I don’t really know. But here’s a few thoughts about it:

1. Just because Timothy hung out with Paul does not mean he had faith for healing on this particular occasion. We shouldn’t base our doctrines on the experience of people, even Bible people, but on God’s Word.

2. Sometimes the key to our healing is a change in behavior. I may pray to God to heal me of a cough and his answer to me may be, stop smoking and your cough will be healed. Something like that could be going on here. Paul is writing to Timothy, who is in Ephesus away from his hometown of Lystra, and telling him to stop drinking the water and to drink wine instead. Maybe drinking the water was what was causing him to have stomach problems. That’s not unheard of amongst travelers.

IF A CHRISTIAN IS SICK WHAT CAN WE TELL THEM?

What would we tell a person who is not "saved"?
We would tell them the good news that they can be saved.

What if they still did not accept Christ, what would we do then?
We would keep trying to get God’s word into them until they believed.

Now we could go away and say, "Well I guess it’s God’s will to save some and it’s God’s will for others to go to hell." Which is, in effect, what some people do with respect to healing.

The first thing you need to do for a Christian who is sick is show them from the Bible that it is God’s will for them to be healed. In order for them to receiving healing they must first have faith for healing. In order for them to have faith for healing they must first of all know that it is God’s will for them to be healed. Depending upon how much religious instruction they have had it may be hard to get them to believe that God wants them healed. They may have been taught that their sickness is like Paul’s Thorn in the flesh and as a result it may take many applications of God’s word to drive that weed of unbelief out of their heart.

HOW CAN WE PRAY FOR THEM IN CASE THEY ARE NOT HEALED?
I’m not exactly sure what is being asked here. To my ear it’s like asking, How can we pray for a person who is not saved? We can pray for their eyes to be opened. We can pray for God to be merciful to them.

RESOURCES

Here’s some resources with respect to God’s will and healing and prayer:

Our Stuff:

What About Paul’s Thorn In The Flesh, Video/Audio
God Wants To Answer Your Prayers, Part 1    Part 2
God Wants You Healed

Other Peoples Stuff:

A.B. Simpson‘s book, one of my favorites, The Gospel of Healing Including the great chapter about     his personal testimony of healing.

Nice web site with lots of testimonies including the testimonies of some medical doctors with             respect to healing, and a couple nice articles articles which deal directly with the questions raised     here, Why Some Are Not Healed  and Objections Answered.

Tony Cooke’s materials are mostly for ministers but I’m including it here because he has an audio       tape series on Understanding the Book of Job, just keep scrolling down the page till you come to it.

One of my favorite ministers, Keith Moore, has quite a bit of material on divine healing.

RHEMA Bible Training Center bookstore, (RHEMA is the Bible School Becky and I attended) has             a lot of material on healing including these  great products Bodily Healing and the Atonement,          Healing Belongs To Us, audio (This is a great, great series also available as a book.) Seven Things You Should Know About Divine Healing (This is the book I read when I need faith for healing.) it’s also available as a tape series.

Lillian Yeomans was a medical doctor at the beginning of the 20th Century who developed a               powerful healing ministry. Her four books on healing are classics. Here they are combined in one     volume.

One of my favorite healing books is a compilation of three books by three great ministers, Andrew     Murray, A.J. Gordon (Founder of Gordon College, and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary) and        A.B. Simpson (Founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance.)

Christ The Healer, by F.F. Bosworth is a classic on divine healing, "Faith begins where the will of     God is known."