Why Wasn’t I Healed? – Part 1

~ A Teaching From Mother Clare ~

Tonight, I’d like to talk to you about a subject that is very close to my heart, and a subject that causes a lot of pain to people; a lot of different teachings, a lot of condemnation and simply – it’s about healing. And in our situation, my husband happens to have some medical issues and it’s been very difficult for him. Through the years, people have prayed for us, we haven’t seen dramatic results in healing. We’ve had some of the finest people pray over us, some people with very strong healing ministries. And the question is always, “Why didn’t I get healed?” or “Why didn’t he get healed? What is it that’s holding up my healing? Perhaps it’s that you don’t have the faith.

When Jesus was in Nazareth, He couldn’t do much, except heal a few people because of the unbelief and the hardness of the hearts of the people. But I haven’t found that to be the case in the majority of situations and I’ll explain to you why. For my husband’s particular medical condition, he might be suffering a lot of pain at the moment and I’ll reach over and lay my hand on him and pray for him and the pain will stop. Now this happens a lot, but then there other times that the pain doesn’t stop. So, here you have a situation where the gift of healing is in operation and the faith of the recipient of the gift is in operation, but for some reason the healing doesn’t take place all the time. Why is that? I believe that it has to do with the Lord’s cross.

Going to Scripture, I’d like to show you where that can be found. In Colossians 1:24 (NLT) It say, ”I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for His body the Church”. In the KJV it says, “Who now rejoices in my suffering for you and fill up that which is behind the afflictions of Christ in the flesh for His body sake, which is the Church”. One more translation, “I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ to continue in His body the Church”. So, addressing this subject as to why some people are healed and some aren’t when faith is present and the gift of healing is in operation. Let’s take a look at the Cross and what the Lord says about the cross over and over again. He began to teach them the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priest and the teachers of the law and that He must be killed after three days and rise again. He spoke plainly about this and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him but when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, “Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men.” Then he called the crowd to him along with His disciples and said, “If any one would come after me, he must deny himself take up his cross and follow me.” (Luke 9:21-23)

What did Christ accomplish on the cross? Our salvation. When we look at the economy of salvation and sanctification, what He did He did once and for all – He opened Heaven and He released the captives from the world below. We were given access through His blood and through His suffering and given Heaven. The most marvelous thing took place. What did He ask us to do while we were here? He said, “Deny yourself and pick up your Cross and follow me.” What do we call the Cross? I look at Paul’s situation when he was given the thorn in his side. “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you fill up that which is behind the affliction of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake which is the church.” (Luke 9:23) Certainly the Lord suffered in His body and it can never be duplicated and there’s no need for it to be duplicated. He asks us to pick up our cross and follow Him.

Not all of us are put into jail. Not all of us suffer stonings and beatings so, what kind of crosses to do we have in our life? What I’d like to propose to you is that there’s ample evidence in the Scriptures that sometimes our cross is an illness and it’s not God’s intention to heal us of that illness. That for us, it is a source of fasting and offering unto God. It’s denying our self and through that sacrifice graces being released. Hardship and suffering can very well be a cross for us. We don’t necessarily suffer the things that missionaries suffer… that martyrs suffer. Certainly dying of cancer is a martyrdom of sorts. That’s a very difficult thing. And why does the Lord allow this to happen, aside from the fact that He wants to have us so badly in Heaven with Him? He can’t wait to release these earthly bonds so that He can love on us in Heaven and we can receive our reward. So, certainly that’s part of His motive for allowing us to die from a disease and not healing us.

There are three people from the healing world: one person is healed and two people aren’t healed. The person that’s healed may be a new believer and the healing is a sign to them of their salvation. That’s a beautiful thing. Maybe another gets healed who is a seasoned believer and they’ve been praying for a healing for a long time and finally they get their healing. So, let’s say two out of the three get healed.

Then there’s another seasoned believer, a very deeply committed Christian that prays for his church, prays for missionaries, prays for the world, and he’s not healed. He walks out of that building still suffering… why? His attitude – disposition of heart – was the same as the other two people. The other two people were healed and he wasn’t – why? There’s no answer to that’s easy, anyway. When the Lord said deny yourself and pick up your cross. What kind of cross was He talking about? I believe whatever He gives us that is difficult and we are receiving it out of obedience to Him and out of love for Him is a cross. It could be adopting children and starting an orphanage. It could be receiving news that you’re very sick and there’s no cure for what you got. What do you do in those cases? You pray and of course you want to be healed. Your family wants you to be healed. No one wants to carry that burden of that sickness.

What happens when the Lord doesn’t heal you? Do you walk away feeling condemned because you didn’t have the faith to receive the healing. I’ve seen this an awful lot in the body of Christ and it’s sad, so sad to see a person who is sick, who comes with a pure heart and has examined their conscious and has no reason at all to believe that he’s in sin or done anything that has been displeasing to the Lord. On the contrary, he has reason to believe that the peace the joy and salvation of the Lord are part of his daily life. He knows he’s in God’s will but God has allowed the suffering of this illness.