The false idea that God desires to always heal in every circumstanceproduces a tsunami of destruction by all who believe it. If you are sick and not getting healed, who is to blame? You are. If you are suffering and not getting a reprieve, who is at fault? Again, you are.

My friend Alex is dying from brain cancer. He has received twice the recommended dosage of radiation, and his brain tumor continues to grow. In fact, the amount of radiation to his brain has caused serious paralysis to his right side. There are no more medical treatments available. Without a miracle, Alex will not make it to his 40^th birthday.

During a phone call, Alex shared a personal story with me. He described how parents from the Christian school where he worked came over to express their concern that Alex wasn’t getting better. More than that, they expressed concern about why he wasn’t getting better. They told Alex and his wife that he could be healed if he only had enough faith. They told him that it was his own fault—his lack of faith—that was preventing his healing.

Furthermore, they described how immediate physical healing is guaranteedin the atonement. Just as there is spiritual healing—forgiveness and justification—in the atonement for all who believe, there is also immediate physical healing in the atonement for all who believe.

God has done His part (they said). Our immediate physical healing has been bought and paid for in the death of Christ. Now it’s up to us to receive that healing through faith. So, the problem isn’t on God’s end; rather, it’s on our end.

This false teaching is rampant in the church. This is the message of many so-called prosperity preachers. For example, televangelist Kenneth Copeland states, “Healing always comes. The problem has been in our receiving, not in God’s giving.”

On this view, my friend Alex has already been given physical healing, but he hasn’t received it by faith.

In an article titled Does God Want Me Healed? Copeland writes,

God does not play favorites. It is His will and desire for you to be healed. Period. God’s Word says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” (Hosea 4:6). They do not have the knowledge of God’s Word that it is His will for them to be healed.

Some people accept sickness as God’s will. Yet the same people will take medicine, be operated on or do anything else they can in order to get well. Many have forgotten God’s benefit of healing for their bodies. [Emphasis mine.]

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