Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and I want to welcome our listeners on Apple, Spotify, and those of you enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. If you're new to our ministry, be sure to subscribe on our YouTube channel. And as the year winds down, let me encourage you to pray through your end-of-year gifts outside of your local church. As always, we encourage here at FTG. I'd love for you to consider partnering with For the Gospel as we produce all of our resources for free and we are 100% donor supported. I know from my standpoint, it's incredible to see the way God has provided, the way that all of this has been spurred on by your support. We've never really tried to pine for this or set out to uh start some big ministry or do this or that. Really, just people have been winning our sales and supporting. So we've just finished our annual strategic meeting for 2024 about how we can steward the resources God has given and where we'd love to go according to God's will, if He wills. And on how we go about financials, you should know if you're a regular supporter of this ministry, we actually pre-raise our budget every year, never spending more than what comes in. So whatever God provides each year will go towards next year. We set goals, but we go as God provides. Our current goal for next year, if the Lord wills, is a $442,000 budget, which includes our full-time staff, our part-time staff, production of all our resources next year, including our teaching fellows and our series development. That also covers equipment and then our desire to begin an annual conference. There's some more details in there as well because we're always adding projects as we go as the Lord provides. But we are so grateful for the growing number of people jumping on board to support what we do. So as the Lord grows it, according to his will, we want you to know we're going to continue to work hard and expand however far he provides. You can go to furthegospel.org to learn more, click give to partner with us. And as a way of saying thank you, we've got some gifts throughout the year that we love to send our regular gospel patrons. Okay, here we go. On this episode, I'm answering the question: Is it always God's will to heal you? We've been in this series on God's will, and we have been wonderfully bombarded with your questions about healing and God's will in particular. And over the years, this has been a common theme that comes up. So I felt it was necessary to include this episode in the series for you to have. On a family camping trip some years ago, I met a faith healer in the most unlikely of ways. This was after my conversion and our first night on the campground when we were camping. A man walked up to my campsite out of the blue. He introduced himself. He proceeded to sit down and spend the better half of two hours telling me about his divine healing ministry. Now, I didn't really say who I was or my background, and I made him aware of my wife's asthma because she was an asthmatic, and I figured I would just let him know he's a faith healer. He didn't offer to heal her, uh, but he did give me two copies of his book about the power of words and uh the power of healing and what I guess he's done. Uh, and he offered some practical insights in the book on how to heal every sick person that he knew or help me heal those that I know. Unfortunately, for my wife's asthma, he couldn't really do more than talk about his theories. Practicing was not in the cards, if you will. A brief perusal of certain Christian television networks like TBN or even just online social media circles these days will tell a similar story. You've got a lot of people running around making big claims, a lot of people talking a big game in theory. You know, God wants to heal you, God wants to bless you, uh, you who are sick, God's gonna heal you, God's gonna this, and I believe that, and I decree this or that or the other. And the reality is, many uh televangelists, or we would call them social media, I guess, issue these days, healing uh televangelists in the new era that are all over social media claiming this stuff, would most likely invite you to one of their meetings where if the price is right or if you have enough faith or if you buy into their system, apparently God will heal you or touch you. The question is this is it always God's will to heal right now? Because many of those people will say yes, it's always God's will to heal. Uh, Bill Johnson, famous from Bethel for saying it's always God's will to heal. If you're not healed, the problem's not on his end, it's on our end, meaning you don't have enough faith. Now, I'm not being cheeky when I say this, but we want to be really humble when it comes to healing because, like many of you, uh, we all, even in ministry, and even those who have healing ministries, will have sick people in their family. I mean, sadly, Bill Johnson's wife Benny literally died of cancer not long ago. And so we want to be really careful to make these big claims that aren't in Scripture because eventually truth and time will go hand in hand. So for all of us, is it always God's will to heal right now? Can you say it's always God's will to heal you and then try to fill in that gap? I want to look at four simple truths from the Bible in this episode. They're gonna liberate you from the hurtful burden of ever thinking it's always God's will to heal. If he doesn't heal you, there's something wrong with you. Or if you're a person who's studying this issue to help somebody else that's confused, you can relieve their burden and really the spiritual abuse that they're under when because they're not seeing God quote unquote break through in their sickness or their hurt, that God doesn't love them, that there's something wrong with their faith, or they've done something that's invited divine judgment. Truth number one, God doesn't heal everyone all the time. The most important starting point for any discussion on healing should be with the affirmation that God does heal, but then the clarification that he doesn't heal us all the time. The Bible gives irrefutable evidence to support this. During Jesus' earthly ministry, he didn't always heal everyone. There were cases where he did. There were cases where he went about healing all those who were sick or oppressed by the devil, but in many situations, he would target one person. For example, at the pool of Bethesda, John 5, in verses 3 through 8, we see that there was one man healed out of a multitude of sick people at the pool of Bethesda. He didn't heal people in his hometown of Nazareth. In Matthew 13, verse 58, we see that. Regardless of his faith, by the way, that man at the healing in the pool of Bethesda was healed, and yet the people in Nazareth didn't believe, and they couldn't take him as more than just, you know, Mary's son or Joseph's kid, and so he didn't do anything there. So you can't turn Jesus' healing ministry into a formula or say, well, he didn't heal in Nazareth because they didn't believe, but everywhere else he healed everyone. Well, actually, the man at Bethesda didn't believe either. He didn't even know who Jesus was, and Jesus still healed him. So we ought to be very careful making big dogmatic blanket statements. Uh after a healing spree, as I would like to call it, in the district of Galilee, Jesus just plainly decided to go somewhere else to preach, even though desperately sick and hurting people were looking for him. This is in Mark 138. This is his reasoning when the disciples say, Jesus, come heal. All the people are waiting, they're lining up, they're looking for you. His reasoning is this let us go somewhere else to nearby villages, so I can preach there also. Then he says, That is why I have come. In other words, Jesus did not come to earth to hold merely a healing crusade. He came to bring salvation, to preach the kingdom, to preach the gospel, and to call lost sheep home. The fact that God doesn't heal everyone all the time is clear in the life of Jesus. And so, what about the most prolific apostle and the writer of the 13 New Testament books, Paul himself? He wielded the ability to perform miracles, and yet he tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 5 23, take a little wine for your stomach. Why didn't he exercise the gift of healing? He also left one of his faithful ministry teammates, Trophimus, sick at Miletus. We see in 2 Timothy 4.20, why didn't he heal him and bring him along? Clearly, God heals as he wills. And his healing power is not a formula that anyone can master. Truth number two, God doesn't heal solely based on your faith or one's faith. Can you believe your way into getting healed? No. This view on faith healing was first popularized in the early 20th century by faith healing evangelists. And though I'm sure it happened before radio and television took it to new mainstream heights, this is one of the more common modern teachings that if you have enough faith, if you give me enough money, if you support the ministry, like imagine I started the podcast sharing with you and inviting you to consider supporting for the gospel, only as the Lord allows and provides, and only outside of your local church. Now imagine if I attach something to that, like and if you do, brothers and sisters, God's gonna bless you, He's gonna favor you, He's gonna heal you. That breakthrough you're waiting for, you just give to this ministry. I mean, that's crazy. That kind of creeps me out, even just imitating that, which is all too familiar because the world that I used to be in. Look, you give and you support and you advance gospel work, but there's no exchange if you have enough faith, if you give enough money. These individuals made a lot of money off people by making them repeat, cut repeat customers in their healing crusades. And if someone didn't get healed, they would blame them and say, Well, you didn't have enough faith. You must not have given enough faith uh seeds or seed faith gifts. They would just come up with all sorts of phrases, Orl Roberts being one of the big heavy hitters in that era. Kenneth Hagen, and of course Kenneth Copeland, who's still well into his eighties and is a product and a student of those ministries. The Bible clears the air on the abusive teaching that if you have enough faith or you give with enough faith attached to an offering that he'll heal. I mentioned him already, the cripple at the pool of Bethesda. That man didn't have enough faith, let alone even know who Jesus was. And then in Luke 5, 17 through 26, Jesus actually did heal based on faith. He healed the man's soul through salvation. And when the Pharisees questioned his authority to forgive the lame man's sins, remember in that story, they say, Who is this guy who can forgive sins? Jesus then healed the man physically to prove it. See, he forgave the man of his sin. He healed the man spiritually because the man had faith in Christ. Faith alone saves. Faith moves God in that sense, not to give you whatever healing you want, but to faithfully save your soul if you repent and believe, if you have faith in Christ. Are you gonna get healed and rich? No. But if we're talking spiritually, yes, you're gonna get healed in the soul. You're gonna be rich in the lavish outpouring of his grace upon you, but it's not attached to money. Other times Jesus was moved by people's faith, but it doesn't mean that his healing touch was bound to whether they had enough faith. When the woman with the bleeding issue crawled through the crowd just to touch the hem of his robe, he felt power leave him. In Luke 8, 46, we see that happen. Jesus is moved by her faith. She's crawled just to touch his hem, and he heals her. But he also told her of the healing that had taken place in her soul, if you will. I love the phrase that we see in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 8, verse 48. He says, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace. I like the English translation of that. It's got this familial term. It's almost like he's brought her into the family of God. Not only has he healed her, but he saved her. So once again, we can see what did Jesus put a priority on? Salvation. Did he heal when people had no faith? Yes. Was he moved at times when they did? Yes. Can you turn that into a formula and lie to people and say, if you have enough faith, God will heal you? No, you can't. Jesus is the great physician. He focuses on healing the soul, not merely the body. Truth number three, God doesn't perform healing for a price. It's not God's will to heal for money in exchange. I alluded this to this already, but I want to kind of press in a little further. You know, Simon the Sorcerer, the infamous character in the book of Acts, chapter 8, verses 9 to 25, tried to buy the gift of God with money. Fortune tellers and witch doctors today will sell their demonic activities. Faith healers will tell you if you sow your biggest seed, you can receive the gifts of the Spirit or the anointing. Look, as it has been throughout history, many people are convinced that healing and like houses and real estate are for sale. When a beggar asked for a blessing in his cup, the Apostle Peter offered him something better. In Acts 3 6 says, Silver and gold have I none, that which I have give I thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk. Gave it to him for free. And this truth is pure, sweet, healing truth for people who are wearied and burdened with the idea that they've got to go broke to get healed. If Jesus can't be forced to heal by the right amount of faith, then it's unthinkable that the Alpha and Omega can be bought into healing you with a bribe. No apostle, no New Testament writer, and not even Jesus himself ever told someone to give a financial seat of faith for their healing, their breakthrough, or protection from sickness. It is not God's will that you give money to be healed. Instead, it would be God's will that you be liberated from such hurtful lies. Truth number five, God will heal all believers in heaven. The atonement bought and paid for everything you and I could never afford. Christ died and paid the penalty of sin, of sickness, tears, fears, the wrath of God, and eternal separation from God in hell. And while all of this and more is provided for in the atonement, many of the blessings we'll experience we won't fully realize until heaven. For example, while we have the assurance of salvation now through faith in Jesus Christ on earth, we won't live eternally until after we die. Similarly, this old decaying body will be replaced by a glorified one. According to 1 Corinthians 15, verses 50 to 53. If you've never read about the glorified body and how the perishable will put on the imperishable, you gotta read 1 Corinthians chapter 15. But it doesn't matter how much you go to the gym. Your ultimate body, if you will, will not be received until heaven. And finally, Christ said he's gonna go prepare a place for his disciples. John 14, 2 through 3. That means us too. And yet many of us would hardly call our current home the heavenly prepped mansion, if you will, the heavenly place that God has prepared for us. No, we're gonna realize that after we die. Yes, all of the benefits of the atonement were bought and paid for by Christ, but heaven is where we will eternally enjoy them in the fullest sense. One day, the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will rise, death will be no more, he will wipe away every tear, cancer won't exist, wheelchairs will only be good for scrap metal, blindness will be overcome by marvelous light, and the glorious blessings of the atonement will be fully realized once and for all in eternity. Some people, you perhaps, maybe me, will experience a healing or a change of our situation because of divine providence and the sovereign healing hand of God in this life. Others, maybe you and me, will suffer and not be healed until heaven. Most certainly we will all die. No one can say if you have enough faith or if you give enough, because if you have plenty of faith or you give plenty of money, you could be 60, 70, 80, or 90, you could keep getting healed, but eventually your last moment will be your final breath. No one can stop that. You can't keep on getting healed on this side. See, that's the beauty of the gospel and of the truth of scripture is we're not living for this life. I'm not living for healing after healing, breakthrough after breakthrough, so I can live my best life now, like Joel Osteen tells me. No, I'm living for what's to come. As this life winds down and fades, a greater glory begins to come into focus, and I'm going where I want to be. Like Paul said, to live is Christ, to die is gain. It's a loss for us who are still here, but it's not loss for those who die and go into glory. It is sometimes on earth, God's will that you experience divine or physical healing. It is not always God's will to heal now, but it is always God's will for the believer to experience the fullness of the atonement on the other side of this life. Your years of suffering, your years of uncertainty, all but a vapor here on earth. Your eternity, a perfect joy, will never end. So does God still heal people today? Of course, he's an unchanging and sovereign God. He can and does heal people. His will cannot be thwarted, and those who have been undeniably healed on earth can rejoice and give glory to God. But those who don't experience it can also do the same. What he does, he does according to his will and for his glory. We can pray for healing. We certainly want to plead with the Lord to intervene on our situation, but in the end, like Luke 22, 42, we say, like Christ, not my will, but yours be done. That's the model when you're praying for healing and you want to be in line with God's will. Many times over, God can and will receive even greater glory by not healing someone. That through their suffering and their sickness, they endure and people don't say, oh wow, look at them praising God because everything got easier and everything was fixed, but rather look at the way he or she, maybe you, glorify God and are faithful in the midst of intense suffering. Perhaps we could argue that God even receives greater glory when people who are suffering still praise him all the more. Because isn't that so uncommon? Many, if not all, will shout, clap, praise, and bring glory to God because he did what they were asking for. How about those who remain faithful even in the midst of great pain and trial? I think that we need to have the foreigner mentality that Peter talks about in 1 Peter 2 11. We are foreigners, we're we're exiles, we're aliens, we're not really from here. We are called to an otherworldly perspective. So we do pray for healing, but we are looking forward to a deeper and greater healing. No matter the outcome of this life, good or bad for you. Right now, the mountain, or right now the valley. What we are looking forward to is the peak of all peaks to come in glory with Christ. Greater than any physical healing, greater than any material blessing, is the blessing of salvation and the riches that will materialize in Christ on the other side of this life. I hope this episode has helped you and encouraged you on the topic of God's will and healing. Turn off the faith healers that make you feel guilty when you're sick. Turn off those who say it's always God's will, but if you would just have enough faith, if you would just give more money, turn down all the noise that lowers the bar on sovereignty and God's greatness and his power and control and that which elevates your control, and that if you would just do enough, you can control God like He's the puppet and you're the puppeteer. Turn all that noise off and turn up the truth about God's will and healing, about his sovereignty, and about the greater glory to come in heaven. Next episode, it's listener QA, and I'll cover some of the biggest questions you've been asking throughout this series. If you did want to read more or study about God's will, about Jesus, about healing, I wrote a book back in 2021 titled More Than a Healer, not the Jesus You Want, but the Jesus You Need. It's available on furthegospel.org if you click store, or you can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever books are sold. But I would commend that to you as an encouraging look at other aspects of Christ and his attributes, not just that he is a healer. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching, and be sure to follow us on social media, subscribe on YouTube, and get our free teaching resources every single week. I'm looking forward to next Monday. I'll be back with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.