Often, healing is gradual
Jesus was healing a blind man and the healing was partial. He asked him a diagnostic question: “Can you see?”
And when it was evident the man’s vision wasn’t 20/20, he didn’t give up. Jesus continued ministering to the man until he was healed.
Have you ever prayed for healing for someone and nothing happened? That’s what I frequently experience.
I pray, check the person out, don’t detect much difference, and owing to my flabby faith, tend to give up.
At the same time, I’m a big believer in a God who heals, so honestly, this wears on me over time. “What’s the deal, God? Where are you when this person needs you?” I ask.
Over time, I’ve come to see that my own poverty of experience may be the thing that’s broken. God is often looking to heal more gradually than I realize.
Katie Eason was in Tanzania attending a crusade. Her experience is what I think God wants us to expect. She recounts her story:
The first night I met John. I immediately walked up to this man on crutches and prayed “Lord heal him.” At the end of the night I felt the push to go pray over him. I did and he experienced healing. He walked off that night, carrying his crutches horizontally under his arm. But as I watched him walk away though, I still saw a limp in his walk.
Our God is a God of complete healing. So I asked if I could pray over him again. He said he felt even more pain release, but still walked with a limp. The third night, I approached John and asked if I could pray over him again.The Lord was so faithful. John was healed. The Lord’s spirit invaded John’s body. His first response was to weep and then his tears were turned to laughing. He said he no longer felt an ounce of pain when he walked. He said he has been on crutches for so long that people on the streets are even asking him what happened to his crutches.An email I just received from John:
Hi Katie,I thank God so much that he used you as his vessel to get me out of the leg problem I had. I have nothing to give to you but my prayers that you get covered by the almighty God wherever you go. Am now free from the severe pain I had in my right leg. I am now sleeping as a baby in bed and without any pain.
Again I say thank you Katie for all that you have done to me. (Your prayers worked).Be blessed.
John
God seems to like to stretch our faith in the healing process. If we’ll keep going back to him, we’re likely to see him respond. What has been your experience with healing prayers?
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Wonderful. Beautiful. Perfect.
Thank the Lord for folks like Katie.
Persistence and faith = miraculous results.
Thanks for that. I struggled greatly, for many years, with the “slow healing” of a woman I met in Peru and unfortunately have not been so bold since that first time. Maybe I would have believed sooner if I had heard some news of what eventually happened. I still have no idea.
Seth, do you remember that, back in ’01? Do you have any idea about that situation?
Are you talking about Segundina? If so, she was radically healed. Talia went back and saw her. I noted that here: https://www.sethbarnes.com/?filename=to-get-ready-to-be-a-missionary-study-acts
Original blog about Secundina http://www.adventures.org/a/reports/r3re.asp?id=344 (see the 6/3 entry)
No, I heard about Secundina, That was awesome.
I found the story, in those archives under 6/15 and 6/17. That was interesting, I forgot some of what happened. I forgot that we went back the next day. Even then I’m still not sure if I was only speaking out of my stressed emotions or if something real had happened. I look back and I see a younger me who did not know a lot about God or interpreting scripture, but had a big heart (there is still so much I don’t understand).
Regardless, I think the biggest thing I took away from that was the importance of obeying the Spirit’s leading, even if you get it wrong sometimes, that’s how you learn.
Seth:
I’ve tried to find an account of Jesus healing a blind man gradually–but I can’t find any instance of gradual healing. Maybe I missed it? Could you supply the texts where this is found?
Thank-you.
Mark 8:22-25
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%208:22-25&version=NIV
Hmm, this confirms what I have been thinking if God’s healing is gradual. We prayed for my sick sister and believed God has healed her so, we weren’t bothered about the weather at a place we travelled to after sometime. She would have crises when exposed to extreme cold and when the crises immediately started I was very unhappy and started thinking if God doesn’t answer prayer again, I was thinking the weather isn’t suppose to affect her if God had really healed her. I started crying and telling God that I believe He has healed her but why the crises, then something tells me that maybe His healing is gradual and that the crises won’t last. I believed God and claimed his promises. This post is just a confirmation to my thought. Thank God.