Illness

 Illness

June 11, 2025

I’ve been a Christian for over 50 years, but I still have questions. When I was first saved, one of the burning questions was “can a christian have a demon?” The mainstream church at that time didn’t even believe that demons existed, but the fledgling charismatic movement taught that demons did exist and that they could oppress christians and that you could pray for deliverance and be healed. A related questions would be “Can a Christian get sick?”. There is not must disagreement on this one as most everyone has experienced illness. But a more important questions in “Can a Christian be healed? And will he always be healed, and if not, why not?” When Jesus sent out his disciples to pray for people, he grouped together deliverance and healing, so he expected them to be able to both deliver and heal in the Name of Jesus. So if this is the case, then why do Christians get sick an why don’t they always get healed?  The scripture admonition is clear:

James 5:13-15

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to singpraises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

So it’s clear that if you call on the elders to pray, the prayer of faith will heal you. So why are we still sick? It’s a relevant question for my because I came back from vacation with a summer cold. That’s really nothing serious, only unpleasant, but why do we experience such hardships? Some say lack of faith hinders your prayers, and there could be something to that, but sometimes when we pray in all the faith that we possess, we still don’t see healing, at least right away. It is also said that the Lord answers prayer in three ways, yes, no or not now. The “Not now” answer is the hardest because our sense of time is not the same as the Lords’. We want things to happen right now and often there is a purpose for us to endure a hardship for a season. The famous example of this is Paul’s thorn in the flesh:

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 - A Thorn in the Flesh

7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me fromexalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

We are never told exactly what this is, but it could have been some sort of infirmity or disability. Paul certainly had lots of faith, who why wasn’t he healed? As I said in the opening, I have questions. Paul’s answer is that His grace is sufficient, and that power is perfected in weakness. So maybe there is a purpose in suffering. Anyway, that is one of life’s unanswered questions of why Christians are not always healed. Maybe when we get to heaven we will understand these things, but for how it remains a mystery.

Anyway, we are commanded to pray for the sick and to cast out demons, so we need to do that in faith, and let the results remain with the Lord. We need to have the most faith that we can muster, but need to depend on the Holy Spirit for the power to heal and deliver. Sometimes, we see great miracles, and sometimes not, which reminds us that we are only human, but the He is able!