What you need to know about healing.

Whenever we think about miracles, one of the first thing that popped into mind is physical healing. All the rallies you had attended, the emphasis was on the healing ministry. Many would come out early hoping to get the attention of the preacher and hoping against all hope for the miracle of healing. The reality is, at the end of the day, many are not healed. And so popped the age old question: “Why did God healed some and not others?”. Today, I am not endeavoring to take on this question. Suffice to say for now, IF God heals, it will be a miracle. Most of the time, healing comes from our faith in believing in God. Jesus said: “Your faith has made you well”. Other times, it's God's divine intervention where your faith may or may not be in play. So for today, I want to help us focus on a bigger picture. To begin with, miracles of God are not primarily about physical healing. Miracles do happen in every day life and routines. Many just don't see it. Coming back to the subject of physical healing, I think here is something you need to know.

When God created man in Eden, man was immortal. Meaning, the human cells cannot degenerate. Adam and Eve cannot grow old or fall sick through time. This reality changed following the Fall as a consequence of straying from God. Since then mankind succumb to illnesses and diseases and unavoidable, death. Being saved in Jesus doesn't mean our bodies will stop aging or spared from illnesses or immune to diseases. Our spirit is regenerated and God had promised an immortal body to those who remain faithful to the end. That's for the afterlife. In the mean time, we do what we can to cope with this mortal body. For those who succumb to illness and disease, there's medical help and there is also the option to healing by faith or by divine providence. Either way, eventually, the healed body will succumb. Healing is but a temporary relief and for a very specific purpose. The real miracle is in the GRACE of God!

Mankind is built resilient. We are built with strong instinct and drive for survival. We surprised ourselves time and again when we did what we couldn't do because we had to. When we are sick we seek to heal. But when healing is naught, we turn to other means. As Christians, we turn to prayer. But not all are healed. What then? How do we survive the harsh times ahead? How do we survive the days, months and even years ahead? Simply by God's grace. “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor 12:9). God's grace is like a light at the end of a tunnel. It's like “a lamp to my feet, a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). To my understanding, God's grace is the miracle in life. Let me explain further.

Healing is a temporary relief and for a very specific purpose. You can be supernaturally healed today but that doesn't immunize your body from further degeneration. You will still grow old (sign of degeneration), fall sick, take medications and die. So what then is the point of healing? Again, like I said, it's for a temporary relief and for a specific purpose. That's why some are healed while others are not. It's like praying for wealth. God is never going to answer every prayer for wealth. It's never wrong to be wanting wealth but the issue is, not everyone can handle wealth. You may not have thought about this but God alone knows how wealth can affect and change a person. Therefore, many prayed for wealth but God had to say no. When it comes to healing, apart from the obvious reason of wanting to get well, what is your purpose of living long and healthy? So if God heals you today and prolong your life, what's the purpose in all these? Perhaps the reason why many prayed for healing and God will had to answer, “my grace is sufficient for you”. I have seen Christians made more money only to give less. I have seen Christians healed through prayer only to disregard God later in life while remaining healthy. We need to know the purpose in all these. Wealth is fleeting and being healed today is to die another day. To be wealthy doesn't make you a better person. To be given a second lease of life doesn't guarantee you'll be a good person in the future. I am happy for you if you are healed. I am happy for you if you prospered. But if none of these are forthcoming, does it mean you fall short of a miracle? Far be it. Truth is, a miracle is right at your doorstep. It's the miracle of God's grace. Here's how it works.

I will never forget the struggle of my friend battling cancer. She was young, full of faith and hope for divine healing. She was in constant pain for she opt out of treatment. In the end, too weak to even talk, she flashed me a weak smile. I know that smile. It took effort. I walked with her partly in her illness. That smile was exactly what she told me before: “It's alright pastor. I am happy and ready to meet the Lord. Don't be sad for me”. When she passed, people would have thought God did not heal her. They were right.She wasn't healed. BUT what they fall short of seeing is the miracle that God performed on her .... the miracle of God's grace. She didn't die with resentment in her heart. She experienced the supernatural joy and peace of God that passes all understanding. In fact, at one point, she was excited knowing soon she will be with her Lord and Savior Jesus, her beloved. I will never forget her and that moment in the hospital. Her assurance of the reality of God who did not abandon her but walked with her throughout those hard and trying times is something I saw for myself.  Like Paul, I am sure she too heard God's voice saying: "My grace is sufficient for you". I will never forget her.

I have prayed for many for the miracle of healing and most of them passed instead. Do I give up praying for the sick? No because I will not deny them the miracle of God's grace. I wish all who seek healing will be healed. I really do. But I also believe having God walk with us through thick and thin is just as important and needful as in getting healed. What's temporary is temporary. What's eternal is the eternal. In my walk from the temporary to the eternal, I do not want to walk alone. I want God to be walking alongside me all the way in good times and in bad times. Along the way, I will be blessed with miracles, with seeing God at work. I am well aware not all my desires and prayers will be answered but as long as He walks with me, I will be alright. His grace is sufficient for me. That's my miracle. I wish preachers will be more careful and mindful in “promising” healing and prosperity in their gospel presentation. For those seeking the miracle of healing today, I pray you will find your miracle in God. Keep believing. Keep hoping in the Lord. In the meantime, lean of God. His grace is not only sufficient for you, His grace is the miracle you need. God bless.

SUBMISSION

My first posting of the decade and I am thinking of the word SUBMISSION. I think this falls into the "one-of-the-most-misunderstood-word" category. In a nutshell, it is not about obedience but a willingness to come under. It has nothing to do with gender. Rather it has everything to do with gifting, righteousness and authority. Gifting because there are always people better at things that we are not good at. The best thing to do is to let them lead and we willing come under, take the lesser role and assist. Righteousness because we are not to succumb to nor practice evil, wickedness and wrong doings. Authority because we don't have all authority in everything. As much as we lead, we too are followers of others. If one has been appointed over me, then my job is to come under and assist for the common good. It's not about me. Having said this, husbands need to stop telling wives to listen and obey and wives need not blindly obey their husbands in everything. We are called into submission to one another regardless of gender. AND more importantly, we are to submit to God first in everything even as we submit to one another. It's for our own welfare and harmony that we do not disregard God in our lives.

In the Garden of Eden, what was it that God require of man? SUBMISSION. And why submission? Because God wanted full control of everything? I don't believe God is a control freak (pardon the pun). God wants Adam and Eve to willing come under His love and protection because when God placed man on earth, there was already the presence of evil. Lucifer and a third of the angelic host had fallen prior. That's why the need for the Tree of Life and the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. God did not place Adam and Eve to roam the earth at the very beginning of time although His purpose was for them to populate the earth. He placed them in Eden for a specific reason. When the presence of evil manifested, they succumbed for disregarding submission. Not only did they not submit to God, Eve did not submit to Adam in a face-off with evil. Eve took the front line and command while Adam allowed her. Today, the presence of evil have filled the earth. As in Eden, man still disregard God, righteousness and authority. While many are chanting world peace, wars and rumors of wars are raging. The earth had never experienced peace. Biblical prophecies are unfolding right before our very eyes. How do we survive? How do we raise or kids? I suggest we go back to the drawing board ... back to Eden. Only in SUBMISSION can we live at peace with one another and be in harmony. Only in SUBMISSION can we harness the plentiful resource we have on planet earth. Only in SUBMISSION can we love one another. Understand submission. It's not a dirty word. To me, it's the most vital tool God had given to mankind in the presence of evil  today since the very beginning of time.

¹⁵ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, ²⁰ giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5)