Sometimes, when I pray for someone to be healed, nothing seems to happen.
Why? The New Testament reveals three types of healing. Some take time.
Miracles
Most of Jesus’ healings were instant. All four gospels use the Greek word laomai for the word ‘healed’. It means ‘instantaneous … miraculous’.
I always pray for a miracle if someone needs physical healing.
But if ‘nothing happens’, I tell the person that God may want to heal them in a different way. Then they still have hope, rather than disappointment.
Miracles often mean radical lifestyle changes, and some people cannot cope with them.
The blind beggar whom Jesus healed (Luke 18:35-43) probably had to get a job.
Some people prefer begging to healing and remain sick. For them, a miracle can be a mixed blessing.
A process
Some healings take time. People on antibiotics don’t get better after the first tablet!
Jesus said: ‘They shall lay hands on the sick and they will recover’, or kalos in Greek.
Kalos means ‘full well’ or ‘whole’. It implies a process that goes beyond physical healing. God is more interested in people’s souls than their bodies (Matt 10:28).
Part of salvation
Salvation means more than going to heaven when we die.
When Peter says in 1 Peter 2:24 … ‘By his wounds we are healed,’ he uses the word sozo, or ‘to save’.
Sozo also means to deliver, protect, heal, preserve and make whole. In the New Testament, it rarely refers physical healing on its own.
This is because God wants to restore people’s spirits and souls, not just for now, but for eternity.
Remember, God is not a machine.
We must allow him to decide who needs a miracle and who needs a process.