I’m not the Benny Hinn type, but I do pray for healing quite often. And I do it rather simply:
“Lord, heal _______ according to your will.”
It might sound as if I’m praying that because I simply do not know the Lord’s will in a situation. From my finite perspective I have no idea if the Lord has purposed to heal a person. While that is true, that is not all that I am communicating whenever I pray that the Lord heal someone according to His will. It’s actually a prayer that is jam-packed with theology and hope.
All believers will ultimately be healed
I know that whenever I pray for healing in the life of a believer that it will always ultimately be answered. I know this from Revelation 21:4 (among other places). I know that one day, “He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away”.
Therefore, when I pray that the Lord heal someone according to His will I know that He is going to eventually answer that prayer. That might mean that my prayer for healing in the present is not answered—because God is going to answer the greater prayer—ultimate healing.
God heals in the present as a preview of His ultimate healing
Yet, sometimes God does answer our prayers for healing in the present. The Lord is kind and gracious. He binds up broken hearts. He causes cancer to disappear. He clears up cloudy minds. Yes, our great God wipes away tears even in the present. And he does this as a preview of things to come.
Therefore, I am praying that if it be the Lord’s good pleasure that He would provide healing in the present. When he answers these prayers it helps us to see that God is actively involved and concerned—not only for our future but also for our present. When he does not provide present healing we know that He is still good—and He has answered our prayers for ultimate healing.
What about unbelievers?
When I am praying for an unbeliever that God would heal them according to His will, I am not only praying for temporary healing. I am praying that they would come to know Jesus Christ and that their greatest problem would be answered; namely separation from God.
I know that while they remain in rebellion that they have no promise of ultimate healing. Instead it is the opposite. This present suffering pales in comparison to the suffering that is to come. Therefore, I pray that the Lord might use this to draw them to himself. I’m praying that they would experience ultimately healing because they have been rescued by Jesus.
This is what I’m praying for whenever I ask God to heal somebody according to His will.
Let’s not be uncomfortable in praying for healing. Let’s be bold. In my mind praying for healing is the same thing as praying Maranatha! So let us approach Him with confidence and hope, knowing that our prayers for healing in the life of believers will always ultimately be answered.
I don’t think “according to your will” is a bold prayer. In my mind, Romans 8:26 releases us to simply ask God for what we want, knowing the Holy Spirit will intercede with us according to God’s will.
When our children asked us for something, they simply told us what they wanted. We didn’t expect them to qualify everything with such a “disclaimer”.
Also, saying that death equates with healing is demeaning to the power of God to heal, today. When He doesn’t choose t heal, it’s His choice and it’s OK. Even if we didn’t like it.
Bob,
I agree with you. Praying “Lord, heal John according to Your will” isn’t really asking for anything. Of course, God’s will will be done, but what about our will? Certainly prayer is part of the work of bending our will to God’s will, but it’s also the opportunity to let God know our desire. So praying “Lord, heal John if You want to” misses the opportunity to share your heart with God. I believe that God expects that out our prayer.
But, we also need to temper our prayers with “I want my will to be done, Lord, but more than that I want Your will to be.” That’s where the “according to Your will” comes in.
I think Jesus models this in Luke 22:41-42, “And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” There we see Jesus stating His heart’s desire: take this cup from Me. However, we also see Him temper His request with stating His desire for the Father’s will to be done above His own.
So, in praying for healing, I pray, “Lord, heal John please. That’s my heart’s desire, but Lord, I trust You to do what is best and that’s what I want most of all.”
The point of the article is to say that whenever we pray “according to your will” we aren’t simply praying–“do what you want, God, I don’t really care”. God knows far better than us what is best. He fully knows my heart and my desires. And I will express those to the Lord as well. But at the end of the day I’m going to say, “Lord, you know best”. But saying, “according to your will” isn’t saying “Heal my brother or don’t heal my brother”. It’s saying, “Lord, only you know if you are going to heal him in the temporary or heal him permanently”.
Furthermore, I disagree that what I’m saying here is “demeaning to the power of God to heal, today”. I don’t see how believing that God is able to take a finite sinful human being and resurrect them unto glory is somehow diminishing the power of God. That’s far more powerful. And I think Jesus hinted at this when he said, “just so you know that the son of man has power to forgive sins, get up and walk”.
Jesus prayed this way in the Garden. I’m comfortable with acknowledging to God that I might not understand the whole situation and I appreciate his involvement in applying wisdom to answering my prayers.
It reminds me of this tidbit from the books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles:
“Interesting fact: The Lord had told Manasseh’s father, Hezekiah, who was deathly sick, to prepare to die (2 kings 20:1). When Hezekiah broke down, cried and prayed to God, The Lord added 15 years to Hezekiah’s life. Three years later his son, Manasseh, was born. If Hezekiah had accepted death when first told by the Lord, then his son Manesseh, the most evil of kings, would have never been born.”
Quoted from the article on Manasseh at aboutprophecy.com. I found it with this search string: “most evil king of Judah”
This idea is taught well in James 4. There are some aspects that are not taught well or practiced well in the West today, but you have the right idea, Mike.
Many people read verses like “You do not have, because you do not ask.” (James 4:2b) as admonitions to ask God for whatever we want. Then they look at James 4:3 as an indication that if we didn’t get what we wanted from God, we just didn’t ask him the right way. This idea of prayer is wrongheaded. Prayer is not a means of getting God to give us what we want as though our will trumps God’s will. God is not a magic talisman that will make our lives on Earth comfortable if we only know how to rub him the right way.
That’s what the rest of James 4 means. Verses 3 and 4 align well with John 15:16-19. Verse 10 in this context aligns well with Matthew 6, particularly as summed up in verse 33.
So we shouldn’t focus on the little worldly things that make our lives easier. How we approach suffering out of faith in God is more instructive to observers of our faith than how we try to assuage suffering by asking God for worldly things. Our purpose is to approach God humbly in our requests demonstrating peaceful satisfaction with how he chooses to answer our prayers. Because of this, prayer is for us a way to practice humility before God in such a way that he receives glory and not us.
I offer you an example of this in Syria. Since the fighting has begun in Syria, a new Christian church of over 150 Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) has been planted. Muslims see the peace the Christians have in the middle of the current conflict where they suffer the deaths of many family members. (150K of the 5M people killed so far are Christians.) The Muslims are coming to the Christians to learn about Christ. A worker that we know there recently baptized 23 MBBs. It’s fine to pray for the killing to stop. It’s much greater to pray that God be glorified in the midst of the killing. It’s greater also to pray that Christians will have a strong faith during this time and be prepared to minister to those who do not have the faith to find internal peace in the midst of mourning their lost loved ones.
And so, to compare and contrast this situation with the medical problems we often experience I ask for healing. I also ask for God’s will. But especially, I pray that God would be glorified and that we could find the strength in the face of our difficulties to demonstrate satisfaction with God’s provision and peace with our relationship with him.