WHY ALL ARE NOT HEALED

WHY ALL ARE NOT HEALED

By REV. F. F. BOSWORTH

Since it is so clearly revealed everywhere throughout the

Scriptures that our Heavenly Father wills our healing why do

some in our day who seek healing, fail to receive it? This is the

question in the minds of many honest inquirers. There are many

answers to this question, which we will briefly mention since by

these answers, many who had failed to receive healing, have been enabled to locate

themselves after which they have been gloriously healed.

First: Ignorance of this - physical healing is part of the Gospel. Faith cometh by hearing…

the word of God. Many in our day seek healing before they have heard or read enough of the

Word of God to produce real faith. The early church was united and unanimous on the

subject of healing and praying for the sick. They lifted up their voice to God with one accord

in prayer for signs and wonders of healing; and it was not the faith of the evangelist but of

the whole company of believers that brought healing to "everyone in the streets of

Jerusalem” after Christ's ascension (Acts 514 - 16). A large part of the present church,

through ignorance and tradition, are opposed to healing for which the early church unitedly

prevailed in prayer; the present church as a whole has not accepted our Lord's attitude

towards sickness as fully revealed in the Gospels. In this day opposition often takes the place

of united prayer; unbelief takes the place of united faith; lukewarmness the place of being

spirit-filled, as all were, in the early church. So I will ask the question. May not the blame

for the failure of some to be healed be largely due to the unbelieving part of the church

herself since we are members one of another? I believe you will say yes. Suppose it was

generally believed now that the day of regeneration was past. How this would hinder the

success of the ministry in that part of the Gospel! On the other hand, suppose that from

infancy we had all been taught the healing part of the Gospel as definitely as any other part?

I believe very few would have any difficulty in evidencing faith for healing. Second:

Community unbelief. Although Jesus worked miracles and healed all that were sick in other

places, when He came to Nazareth where He was brought up, we read, He could do no

miracle there… because of their unbelief. Think of it! Christ Himself under the full

anointing of the Holy Ghost was hindered by community unbelief. Since this is true, is it

strange that some in any city should fail to receive healing? God would not allow the gift of

miracles to operate in Christ where, by their unbelief, they were making Him a liar.

Did the fact that Christ could do no miracle there prove anything but the unbelief of the

people? By withholding the Gospel of healing and preaching in its place the traditions of

men, many of our present day teachers have turned almost the whole world into a Nazareth

of unbelief so that we have to labour in Nazareth nearly all the time. If it is right to account

for the failure of some to receive healing by calling into question Christ's willingness to heal,

then why not call into question His willingness to save all men to justify the unsanctified

condition around us? Considering the fact that in the minor or healing part of our ministry

we are compelled to labour in the face of almost universal unbelief, and that those who

preach only the soul salvation part of the Gospel are labouring in the midst of almost

universal faith in the matter of salvation, I think that God is giving proofs of Divine Healing

as bright and convincing as the proofs of regeneration, and that with not nearly so much

teaching to produce faith. When I consider the lack of teaching, the opposition, the

unscriptural condition and the general attitude of the present-day church toward this part of

the Gospel, instead of wondering why some are not healed, I marvel at the success that God

is giving to those who pray for the sick. I think you will agree with me when I say that the

proofs of Divine Healing among those now attending the meetings who say they have been

healed are as bright and convincing as the proofs of regeneration are among the same

number in any church who profess to be regenerated. Are not the hundreds who now testify

that they have been healed in as good health physically as a like number of professing

Christians in any church are spiritually?

Would not the physical health of those who have been healed compare favourably with the

spiritual health of even the average minister of today, and yet the latter has heard a hundred

times more on the subject of salvation to produce faith than the sick have heard to produce

faith for healing. I think that the average professing Christian of today is a poorer proof of

the doctrine of regeneration and consecration than those who testify to being healed are of

the doctrine of healing. Many who have been deaf and dumb mutes from birth, whom Christ

has healed perfectly in our revivals, can now hear better physically than the average church

member can hear spiritually and that, without nearly so much teaching to produce faith. I

have seen many who could not walk a step from birth, who since being prayed for are

walking better physically than the average church member is walking spiritually. Many who

have had totally blind eyes can now see better physically than the average church member

can spiritually.

Are all who have been baptized washed from all their sins? No, but those who have faith

are; and what water is in the ordinance of Christian baptism, oil is in the ordinance of

anointing the sick for healing. You say, "So-and-so was anointed and was not healed." I

answer, "So-and-so was baptized and is not saved." Some say, "I know a man who was

prayed for and was not healed" and I ask you, "Did you ever pray for a man who did not get

saved? If so, yours was the bigger failure because it is a thousand times more important to be

saved than to be healed.” Would you reject the doctrine of consecration because some

church member or even some minister is not consecrated? Let us be consistent. I, for one,

will preach all the Gospel if I never see another man saved or healed as long as I live. I am

determined to base my doctrines, not upon phenomena, but upon the immutable word of

God.

Third: The healing part of the Gospel is hindered, and even made void by traditions of

men. Jesus said to the Jewish teachers in His day, "Ye have made void the law by your

traditions." In our day we have done worse and made void some of the Gospel by our

traditions. One tradition is that God is the author of disease and wills the sickness of some of

His worshippers. It is a mystery to me how anyone can hold this view in the face of the

Scriptures and the ministry of Christ during which, for three years He healed all that were oppressed of the devil, that came to Him. If sickness is the will of God for His worshippers

then every physician is a law-breaker, every trained nurse is defying the Almighty and every

hospital is a house of rebellion instead of a house of mercy. If God wants you sick it is a sin

for you to even want to he well because you are to love the will of God.

Another tradition which is responsible for thousands dying a premature death after years of

bodily agony, is the teaching that we can glorify God more by remaining sick and expecting

patience. An honest but unenlightened minister will often kneel at the bedside of one

suffering with arthritis or cancer and pray, "Lord, since in thy loving providence thou hast

seen fit to lay thy afflicting hand upon our dear sister, give her fortitude and patience to bear

this affliction. This is done in place of obeying the plain command to anoint any sick in the

church and to pray the prayer of faith for their healing, which John Wesley says was the only

process of healing in the Church until it was lost through unbelief. Now if it is true, as many

are taught, that they can glorify God more by remaining sick than by being healed, then

Jesus hesitated not to rob the Father of all the glory He possibly could by healing everyone

that appealed to Him for help during His entire earthly ministry. And His successor, the

Holy Spirit, who was sent down to augment what Christ had begun to do and to teach,

hesitated not to rob God of all the glory He could by healing in the streets of Jerusalem (Acts

5:15, 16), and Paul did not hesitate to rob Him of all the glory he could by healing all the

other sick on the Island of Melita.

Then the most common and threadbare tradition is the worn-out statement that the age of

miracles is past. Of all traditions, this is the most foolish, illogical and unscriptural of any

that I have ever known. The Holy Spirit in whose age we now live, is God's only miracle

Worker, the only Administrator of the Father's will; the One who healed all the sick

multitudes who came to Christ for healing during the days of His flesh. All the miracles ever

wrought until the Day of Pentecost were accomplished by the Spirit, the miracle Worker,

before He had entered the world officially for His own dispensation. The age in which we

live was intended by our heavenly Father to he the most miraculous of all because it is the

miracle Worker's, the Holy Spirit's age or dispensation. During this age the great promise is

that God will pour out the Holy Spirit, the miracle Worker, upon all flesh; this is the only

age when the Miracle Worker would incarnate Himself.

This is the only age when the nine gifts of the Spirit, including the gifts of faith, healing and

miracles, were to be distributed to every man severally as He will. Jesus promised that the

works which He was doing, and greater works would be continued and augmented by the

Holy Spirit, the miracle worker, after He entered office during Christ's exaltation, which is

the Spirit's dispensation. How absurd and ridiculous for any Bible teacher to pick out this,

the miracle Worker's age, as the only age when miracles are done away with, how absurd to

teach that the Holy Spirit will work miracles in every Age but His own, which is a better

dispensation with a better priest and better covenant, better promises and better everything.