If you are a reader of the New Testament, you know that it is God's nature to heal people. No where in the New Testament does it hint that God doesn't delight in healing people - providing the individual is not walking in rebellion to God. Yet just because God's nature and character is to heal doesn't mean that every person who prays for healing is going to receive it from God prior to dying, are they? Experience has taught us that.
Why is it that some people believe it is God's will to heal physically 100% of the time, yet never receive their physical healing? Is it always simply because of a lack of faith? Sometimes yes and and sometimes no, depending on the individual situation. There can be other factors to take into account when seeking healing, and I pray that God will help us understand many of them, especially if you are desiring a healing, or a loved one is desiring a healing.
Before launching forward through this "rat maze" regarding healing issues, I strongly believe Christians would do WELL to comprehend all the possible ramifications of what one solitary scripture passage addresses. This scripture passage is found in 2 Chronicles 16:12-13:
And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was very severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. So Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.
Every implication suggests that God was offended by Asa not going to the Lord first and inquiring of Him about his disease. Rather, he took his diseased situation to the local doctor/s. End result? No healing. Death, in fact, two years later.
Had Asa diligently sought the Lord before just going to his local doctor for advice and treatment, Asa may have had the Lord reveal some things to him that God wanted taken care of first to then receive his healing. But for whatever reason, Asa couldn't be bothered doing that. Maybe guilt kept him from doing so. Maybe fear; doubt. Who but God knows. It makes no matter, really. God was offended.
Yet in this day in age, especially in more economically prosperous communities, how many Christians run to their doctor for help the moment they have something wrong with them, being told no less by their spiritual authorities in many cases "that God uses doctors to heal," so "YES! Get to your doctor right away!"
Hold on a moment. Maybe - just maybe - that might be a major insult to God if we follow that advice, or assumption on our part. Maybe ... God first wants us going to our Elders, requesting them praying for us first, and showing a willingness to hear whatever they believe the Holy Spirit might be saying to them about our relationship with God. Or if we don't even have Elders easily available to us, maybe God simply wants us dropping to our knees and inquiring directly of Him what He may want to communicate to us about our situation, before just assuming that God is going to use our doctor to help effect our healing. Running to our doctor for help and THEN asking others to pray for us to receive that healing yet never getting that healing may be because an ASSUMPTION God will honor what we're doing may be a very deadly assumption.
We have Christians confessing "that by His stripes I've already been healed 2,000 years ago," or "I'm speaking and believing to this mountain of sickness and disease that the devil has inflicted me with, and I'm refusing to accept this attack from the devil!" ... when how many Christians do we see end up dying from that very sickness or disease, when maybe God WOULD have healed them, if they hadn't just ran off so quickly to their doctor/s before first inquiring diligently of the Lord in what the Holy Spirit might want to say to them? (Like getting disobedience out of their life, getting some good counsel on proper nutrition; wisdom and knowledge of implementing some detoxing/fasting; proper sleep; adequate exercise; stress reduction; and/or dealing with some issues of unforgiveness, unrepentant sin (not the SAME as confessed sin. Just because we confess our sin to God and ask forgiveness for it, does not mean we have repented of it. Repent means to CHANGE; stop committing the sin over and over), or an attitude of thanklessness. Many Christians fail to realize that a grumbling and complaining spirit, which can include attacking spiritual authority without cause; gossip; slander, backbiting ... can full under our lack of thanksgiving. It was for a lack of thanksgiving that offended God and motivated God to keep many of the Jews from entering the promise land).
Consider this possibility as well. If we call for the Elders to pray for us as James 5:14-16 says we are to do (no where does God tells us to go to our doctor/s first, THEN go to our elders for prayer secondly. The implication is that we need to be very sensitive to the Lord's leading about WHICH should take place first in my very strong opinion. (In emergency situations, of course we need to receive immediate medical attention if it's available. Let's not get "stupid" about all this, okay?).
Consider this as well. Consistent with New Testament scripture is the wisdom of executing faith to receive our healing, especially if we have a serious sickness or disease. How many of us really have more faith in our doctors than we have in God's ability to heal us without using our doctors? How many Christians have their back-up plan mentally in place before even giving God a chance to supernaturally heal them ... and that back-up plan being their local doctor? Faith and lack of faith may hinge a great deal and just how much one refuses to diligently inquire of God FIRST before listening to everything one's doctor says about their situation. So ... my point in saying all this: Don't offend God like Asa did.
On the other hand, don't go off on some wild tangent and demand that God heal you without ever having to go to your local doctor either. Many Christians have done that and have died from their sickness and disease, simply because they were so demanding of God to do something the way they either assumed He should do, or that they wanted Him to do. Assumption and presumption is not something God warms up to when it is flesh motivated and not Holy Spirit directed.
Now then, let's first look at some New Testament scriptures about healing:
Mt 4:23: And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Mt 9:35: And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Lu 9:6: And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.
Lu 9:11: And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spoke unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.
Ac 10:38: 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.
Mt 10:1: And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Mt 10:8: Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Lu 9:2: And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
Lu 10:9: And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Jas 5:14-15: Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven
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