When Healing Doesn’t Happen

It all started when I was using a toothpick and it dislodged a filling. I quickly pushed the filling back into place and finished cleaning my teeth. I was due a check up at the dentist so all would be fine and sorted. During the wait I was speaking to my tooth, commanding healing, casting out all negative thoughts (of which there were many) and praying that my tooth would be healed. I arrived at the dentist and no sign of healing. I am now currently waiting for my appointment to come through to get it fixed. Meanwhile I cannot bite on anything or the filling wobbles. It’s kind of hanging on by a thread. I’ve prayed, I believe I’m in faith on this – so why no healing. And how do I handle myself when healing is not coming in the natural.

A tooth needing a filling replacement is one thing and probably pretty minor in the grand scheme of life. There are plenty of people out there seeking healing and deliverance from so many things. What happens when we don’t get want we are desperately seeking after. When healing doesn’t come. When we lose our loved ones after been absolutely cast iron they would pull through. We’ve done all the things we know how to do, what then?

We connected with Charlie and Jill LeBlanc through Andrew Wommack Ministries. We attended the Grace and Faith conference held near Birmingham, UK each year and so we were aware that Charlie and Jill had lost their son to cancer. Their book “When Loss Comes Close to Home” is such a helpful guide to those who may be walking this journey themselves. In that book they walk us through the journey of how it feels to lose someone you love when you poured your heart, soul and faith into seeing them healed. They answer the questions we all have in those moments.

What can we do when healing doesn’t come for ourselves or those we love?

In the book of Job, even his closest friends were saying that the reason for his suffering was due to sin. They attempted to get Job to repent. I know I’ve talked before about the importance of your inner circle and we can all get it wrong and make mistakes, but we need to have the same inner resolve like Job had. He knew he was innocent and he maintained that. Unless you have been convicted by the Holy Spirit, for which you have forgiveness readily available to you when you repent, then hold onto what you know in your heart to be true. You may have to stand alone, your closest friends may not agree with you. What you know without a shadow of a doubt that God spoke to you, or that Holy Spirit has given you, hold onto that. I do not believe God ever uses sickness to teach people things or to punish them. God is healer, Jehovah Rapha. It does not make any sense for God to be healer and yet put sickness on people. It’s contradictory.

On the other hand, Satan is roaming this world looking for those he may devour. We live in a fallen world and there are some things that we just don’t have an answer for. What I do know is I would rather live in hope, declare the truth of God’s Word that never changes and see miracles, than live in despair expecting the worst and speaking death over situations. Whatever we face in this world, we can know that in eternity when the devil is finally put away in hell forever, those of us who have chosen Jesus get to live forever in a place where there will no longer be sickness. I believe restoration will be beyond what any of us could even dream or imagine. In this world there is plenty I don’t understand. Learning to trust God and rely on Him completely with every decision and step I take without trying to figure everything out on my own is all I can do. It is how I choose to live.

Some practical things that have really helped me when healing doesn’t happen, either at all or in the way I expected or wanted it to.

First of all – gratitude. I keep a gratitude journal where I find three things each day that I am grateful for. Our brains naturally have a negativity bias – but they don’t have to. We can train our brains to think differently. We are in control. The items I put in the journal don’t have to be major. This weeks included being able to drive again after 8 months of not being able to. Other days it may be that I am grateful for a particular friendship. This is training my brain to look for the positive. I think these days they are called glimmers. The more you look for and see those glimmers, the more you naturally recognise them. It improves your mood.

The next thing I do is stay in constant communication with God. If someone spent the day with me they might think I was crazy – it’s like I’m narrating how I really feel and what I’m going through. Yes I know God is well aware of everything, nothing is a surprise to him. He desires relationship and communication and so I talk to him each day. I do my best to listen and when I hear I tend to ask for clarification – a lot. I can be indecisive sometimes on whether I am actually hearing from God or it is my own thoughts. This gets easier the more you get to know God and his character. I also know God will listen to my rants that I may not want to share with others. In these conversations I will remind myself or God will remind me who I am, the truth of his promises towards me. This helps me stand on truth. If I am hearing something out in the world that doesn’t align with The Word then having already studied and built that relationship with God, it becomes easier to reject those lies. It becomes easier to not be concerned with what other people think about me, only what God thinks about me.

Taking medication is not a sin, seeking help from medical professionals isn’t either. We should not feel ashamed or guilty or any other negative emotion if we need to seek help through the medical profession alongside prayer. It can save lives. Whilst living in divine health may be God’s best he is not going to love us any less for receiving medication that will help us thrive in life.

This is very much like the Max Lucado story, “You Are Special”. I don’t know if any of you know this one. It’s a really good story to illustrate how we should only be concerned with what God thinks of us and when that happens the weight of the words and opinions of others no longer weigh us down.

Another helpful thing to do is relinquish control to God, remain in thankfulness. The enemy desires for you to isolate yourself, condemn yourself, remain in shame and guilt. When you can remain thankful to God, speak out that you are loved and worthy and trust in God’s timing and faithfulness you remove the power Satan has to keep you trapped.

In Daniel 10:13 we see that the answer to Daniels prayer was blocked by the “spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia” who blocked the messenger bringing the answer to Daniel and the archangel Michael stepped in. When we don’t see an answer straight away, it is not always that you are not in faith, or that you have sinned, or that God has not responded. There can be a spiritual battle hindering the answer from breaking through. Remain steadfast in prayer, continue to stand on the promises of God. Your answer is on it’s way.

What we can learn in the process when we allow Holy Spirit to teach us and grow us in those seasons of suffering.

– We learn to rely fully on God

– We realise our daily need for God and the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us each and every day.

– We develop our faith muscle

– We learn how to trust in God’s promises regardless of what the world says

– We develop a deeper relationship with God.

We can relinquish control to God knowing that whatever it is – however it happens – we can trust that God has it all worked out for our good.