Why Some People Do Not Get Healed

The main problem with people not getting healed is unbelief.  This was the reason why Jesus Himself could not do many powerful works in His home town.  But it is not always the problem of the person wanting to be healed.  Some people have blamed the person seeking healing saying that the person doesn’t have enough faith to be healed, or that there is sin in the person’s life stopping it happening. 

 Sometimes this can be the case as in the case of a woman who had unforgiveness in her life.  She came for healing for cancer.  The healing did not happen.  The person doing the ministry felt a sense that she should go away and pray in private for the woman.  When she did so, the Lord gave her a Word of Knowledge that what was stopping the healing taking place was the unforgiveness in her life.  She went back to the woman and told her.  Immediately the woman acknowledged it and repented by confessing it to the Lord and asking for cleansing.  She was healed straight after that.

But what are the parameters for determining whether there is something in the life of the seeker that might be hindering the healing? 

The main thing is that if a minister tells a seeker that there is something hindering the healing, it should be confirmed by the seeker.  In other words, it comes as no surprise.

Next, a Word of Knowledge from the Lord to a seeker is not vague or obscure.  It is straight up and clear.  “You don’t have enough faith”, or “You have sin in your life”, are general statements that do not say anything definite.   If the person has unbelief, then it is a particular type of unbelief in a definite area;  or if there is sin, it is a particular sin, and this should be indicated in the Word of Knowledge.

Therefore, a Word of Knowledge about something in the person’s life hindering the healing is specific and zeroes right in on the particular problem.  The Word is confirmed by the seeker.  Perhaps the seeker has always known it but is hiding it or keeping it repressed in the heart, and the Word of Knowledge brings it to light.   I will say this again because it is so important:  a Word of Knowledge is specific and is no surprise to the receiver.  The miracle about a Word of Knowledge is not that the receiver doesn’t know it, but that the giver has no way of knowing it in the natural, and this confirms that the Holy Spirit has given it in the spiritual.

There is a passage in the book of Daniel where Daniel prayed for something and the answer was delayed.  The angel finally turned up and told him that he was delayed because there was a battle in the spiritual word that held him up.  This can delay a healing.  God hears the prayer for healing immediately and sends the answer, but the angel bringing it may have to fight a spiritual battle first, and this could take some time before the answer finally reaches the sick person.

Job’s experience of sickness was actually nothing to do with him at all.

So it is important that we spend time in prayer to find out what God is doing and saying in relation to a person’s sickness.   We cannot speak the word of faith and expect God to back it up until we have heard from God.  Hearing from God may take a long time because it may take a while for our minds to be conditioned to hear Him.

Merely reading the Bible and quoting verses will not work.  Even an unsaved person can do that!  The Word has to be mixed with faith in the personal preaching it, and in the people hearing the preaching.  Also, the Word has to be in good fertile earth for it to take root.  It can take a  person time to plough up the ‘ground’ of their life and get rid of the stones and rubbish that can hinder the growth of the Word in it.

It takes time for a person to develop the required sensitivity to the voice of God and to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  God does not cast His pearls before swine.  A person needs to prove him or herself before God before He will reveal His secrets.

There are some healings that will not be resolved without prayer and fasting.  When we see a successful healing ministry in action, we are tempted to think that anyone can do it at the drop of a hat.  We don’t always see the hours and hours of prayer that has gone on behind the scenes.  But God has seen it, and He honours that person in due time.

Isaiah and Hezekiah were faced with an impossible situation, as many chronically sick people are.  They prayed and said “We don’t know what to do…”  That was an honest prayer.  They weren’t going to jump in and try to solve the problem without God.

“…but our eyes are upon You.”   They were faced with an impossible situation and they didn’t know what to do about it.  But they knew where to look.

They looked to the Lord and stayed in His presence until He gave them an answer.  We don’t know how long that took.  We do know that it didn’t take just five minutes.  And when the answer came back, it was an instruction to do nothing.  “Stand still and see the glory of the Lord.”

When we seek God we want an answer that gives us a direction of what we should do.  These ones in their impossible and threatening situation were told to do nothing but stand still!

We can miss the voice of God sometimes because we are rushing in to do things.  Sometimes we get in God’s way through our efforts.  It is difficult for the natural mind to stop all activity and to wait before God so that He can give us a word of wisdom.  Sometimes we have to wait a while and we have to be patient.

We inherit the promises through faith and patience.  Though it takes a long time to come, we, with patience, wait for it.

Samuel told Saul to wait until he arrived before the sacrifices could be offered.  Saul got impatient and went ahead in presumption, and was slammed by the Lord for disobedience.  He ended up losing his kingdom because of his impatience.

There are many things that God knows, and plans that He does not reveal to us.  He may respond to our prayers with a ‘wait’.  He has a good reason for doing this, but does not choose to reveal it.  We then feel that we are being left to swing in the wind.    Waiting on God sometimes feels like that.  What are we to do?  Continue to wait on God until the word comes.

Saul waited for a while, but he had his own time frame and God had His time frame.  It took Samuel longer to arrive than Saul expected.   Once Saul’s personal deadline passed, he became impatient and decided not to wait for Samuel any longer.  He offered the sacrifices himself, even though he was not authorized to do it.   He jumped the gun and the sacrifices were worthless.

Saul thought he was doing Samuel a favour, but he was rebuked for his disobedience.

People who are told to wait may get impatient and try to do something which may be doctrinally correct in itself, and they may be able to quote scriptures to support their actions.  But instead of being affirmed, they receive a rebuke from the Spirit for their disobedience, because they did not wait for God’s timing.

This is why people who go to healing meetings to get prayed for after God has told them to wait on Him, don’t get healed.  And this is also why some healing preachers don’t get results when they try to pray for a person whom God has told to wait on Him.

God has the right time for answering people’s prayers, to fit in with His overall plans and purposes.

So when a healing preacher prays for a sick person whom God has told to wait on Him, and nothing happens it is because God’s time for that person’s healing has not come yet.  And His time is within His sovereign will.

If the healing preacher does not understand this principle, he or she may blame the seeker for having insufficient faith for healing.  The preacher may have a sense that the seeker is not ready for healing and may try to give a reason for it.   What should happen in a case like this is for the preacher to get a Word of Knowledge from the Lord telling him or her that the healing did not happen because He had told the seeker to wait on Him and His time has not come yet.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.  This is not just reading and quoting the letter of scripture.  It is hearing the Word of God coming to you by the Holy Spirit.  That Word then is a living Word that injects the resurrection life of Christ into the sick person and makes them well.   For that Word to work, the timing must be right, and the power of God must be present to heal.

There are other factors that may prevent the Word of faith from coming to the sick person.  One of the main hindrances is the cessationist who sows unbelief in the hearts of people by saying that God does not heal any more.  This cuts the ground out from the seeker before he or she even starts to seek God for healing.

Another hindrance are the leaders who believe that healing should come to the sick person when they say it should come.  They establish their own time lines and expect God to keep to them.  They are not prepared to wait for ‘Samuel’ to come in the form of the Holy Spirit to being healing or deliverance in His time.

Still another hindrance is the prayerlessness of the leaders who are involved in the healing and deliverance ministry.  They treat God as an automatic vending machine to dispense whatever they want when they want, without spending time waiting for His Word to come to them.

When the time is right, as has been the case for many people, healing comes easily.  The leader knows from the Spirit that the person in front of him or her is going to be healed because there is a witness in the Spirit about it.  This witness in the Spirit is unmistakable to a praying leader.

A hindrance that can destroy any faith the seeker has got, is self condemnation.  This is brought on by people saying that they do not have enough faith, or love, or holiness or whatever.

If there is a real hindrance in the seeker, the Holy Spirit brings a Word of Knowledge that is no surprise, and along with it a Word of Wisdom to know how to overcome the hindrance.  The Spirit always presents Jesus as the healer, forgiver lover, and Saviour of people’s souls and bodies.   If the Spirit reveals a particular sin pattern, then He provides full information about how to get free from it.  He never leaves a seeker in a state of self condemnation.

Here are the steps to forgiveness:

Acknowledge that the sin is there in you.  Denial stops the forgiveness process.

Confirm that Jesus died on the cross for you and His blood was shed to cleanse you of sin.

Ask God’s forgiveness for the sin.

Accept your forgiveness.

Tell people that God has forgiven and cleansed you.

After that, there is no hindrance to healing through residual sin.

So, if you are chronically ill, or disabled, and you have a desire for healing, the first thing you must do is to get in the private place with God and keep praying until He shows you the next step.  Everything else comes as a result of that.