Divine Healing and Memorizing
Once upon the times after my real conversion as a Christian on 2012, I was astounded about supernatural healing through the testimonies of my fellow believers. That was one of the ways the Lord has used that I may come back to him, through a Christian brother named Henry. We adapt it in our family and the Lord has been so faithful to us. Actually I was so excited about it and I talk about it as if it was the gospel all about, I was a baby Christian then. I learn later that many who had been healed in the bible was not a guarantee that they would continue in the faith, there are even some like the one who was healed in Bethesda pool in John 5 who did not give thanks to Jesus. Basing the gospel on healing alone is not going to be enough - yet it is a precious gift to those who can accept it.
On 2015 when I was growing in the Lord, I was so excited to learn that it is possible to memorize whole books of the bible. So I was so excited and told brother Henry but he didn't encourage it. I understand him because he prefers us to learn "discipling" as what he is doing and he helped a lot of people on this, he does memorized topical verses and some whole chapters like Psalm 23 but not whole books. Maybe he thought it is difficult thing to do which others could not imitate and get discourage to imitate us. However it is something that I prefer to do for myself as this is something I thought that could help me to grow in the knowledge of God, anyway I notice it is possible to spend an hour a day only and it is possible to memorize the new testament in about 5 years. After about a year of doing my memorization, I was unable to continue due to life changes like new full time job and pregnancy and so on, and other reason is because I was doing it all alone without any encouragement from anyone from my family or church.
Also circumstance changes when brother Henry left Singapore and stayed mostly in Australia and then he died of heart attack on September 2017. For a long time I was questioning why the Lord took him quite earlier that we expected, he did prepared us by letting us gather with other believers but we still felt it was too early for him to depart. Maybe one reason of his sudden death was that his family wanted him to go to hospital but he didn't want to for he trust God can heal him and there was no peace and harmony so that might had opened the gate for the enemy to steal his life. Another possibility is when he was supernaturally healed about 14 years ago in his initial heart attack, and resolve not to have operation, the Lord just extended his life so he can call many other people to God and that 2017 was really the time God appointed for him to be with the Lord - maybe I will never know the reason until I get to ask God in His time, we were devastated as if we lost a natural father.
After his death, some of members of the church have wavered in their original confidence about divine healing and starting going to doctors for operations for example. Fellowship was lessen since it was brother Henry who use to call us for fellowship. I was a 5-year-old in Christian faith then, I wasn't really that strong as I thought. Before he died I already stopped memorizing and almost no bible time - I felt like a malnourished child of God.
I realized I was quite depending my faith on other people on some concepts like divine healing as it was fostered by my fellow believers. I said this because at those times we lost brother Henry, then almost no bible time and listened instead on what the worlds says, I doubted that those testimonies I had and others maybe was just natural, some bones heal itself and say sickness naturally heals and all might have been circumstantial so if it is then there is no need to pray nor give thanks for those healings might not be answered prayers.
In God's grace that I get back to His words as part of my daily nourishment on January 2019, I have come to grow and continue to grow in faith in knowing the nature of the Lord more and more, that He is able to do far more abundantly that what we could think or ask (Ephesians 3:20), and so many scriptures supporting this idea of divine healing so I am convinced to keep believing the Lord is more than Savior, He is also our healer and provider and more for those who can believe. I am resolved not to depend my faith to other believers alone, it may not be possible to be with like minded believers but it is always possible to continue to grow through His words in the Bible. It is really encouraging to hear others testimonies in their walk of faith but they will not always be with us.
Thanks God, Philippians 2:17 was written saying that Epaphroditus was healed because God had mercy on him and also to Paul rather than what the world's naturalistic views for then if healings are just natural then there is no need to pray and be same as those in Romans 1:21 that although some knows God, they did not honor Him as God nor give thanks to Him, or those in 2 Timothy 3:5 'having an appearance of godliness and deny His power'. This doubt arise when I hear so much of what the world says instead of truths in the Word of God, after all the whole world is in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19).
Now that I continue to grow in faith, I didn't look into healing as if it was the gospel alone, for there is more than just that - He is the source of all good things I have and would ever need and that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called in His purpose (Romans 8:28). Those "all things" might include not so good things like sickness and even death to fulfil his ultimate purpose in the body of Christ. I come to learn to test the spirit and fruit of activity I was doing - does it draw me nearer to God? does it strengthen my faith or draw me away from Him? does it put a stumbling block to another believer? I thought my quest to memorize huge chunks of bible helps me to draw near to God and understand his nature more, now I do not set such standard to other believers for we are not called to compare with one another but to complement each other. Even divine healing could become 'condemning' to another believer if it was presented as if a requirement of having faith in Jesus. As Dereck Prince said that the Holy Spirit "convicts" but the enemy uses "guilt" and "condemnation".
We still believe as a family in divine healing of the Lord but not as strong as some of the church members I met before that they give birth at home by the father to cut the cord and didn't even go to doctors for check-up. I respect them for having such a great faith. Some thinks that going for check-up means not trusting God enough, some even consider it as a sin to go to doctors. We are careful on this when it comes to our little ones, for example when I gave birth to my Henry in hospital (we named after Bro Henry to remember his love to us) he was diagnosed with new born jaundice and the doctors said we should extend his stay in hospital. We did not follow the doctor to extend stay in the hospital as there is an option to go to clinic instead for check-up to monitor his blood levels and we continued in prayers and ways the doctors recommended like making sure he is breastfeeding well. In God's grace he hasn't needed to undergo medical procedures - after about three check ups he was diagnosed completely normal - Praise God! Our God is a God of all flesh, what can be so difficult for Him. We are glad the Lord does not gives us a trial too great than our faith in Him.
Now in James 4:17 says 'to him who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is a sin' so it could be not applicable to all, let us be fully convinced in our minds for those non essentials of the faith like healing. I myself pass no judgement for myself if I prefer to use some natural aids to heal in sickness same as Paul advised Timothy to no longer use only water but use a little wine for the sake of his stomach ailments. I pray first to the Lord and do effort to take care, medication is the last option and not the first. We need to have some discretion for if we are already feeling something too heavy for our faith like if one of family member is already in bad shape of sickness and there is no peace like one member wants to have check up and another says just pray for healing - the dissension could open door for the enemy to inflict us with lies and doubts and bring destruction. The bible didn't say we shouldn't go to doctors after all (though there are stories in bible that those who went to doctors became worse).
I'd prefer to trust our Lord Jesus for everything for in Him there is no side effects, but there will be times it is better to trust that the Lord can also use another vessel for his intelligence and mercy to ease suffering in this human body or maybe achieve another purpose. As one of my brother in Christ said, some may have solely too focused on concepts like divine healing, or discipleship, or prophesy, even memorization or those they call hyper grace and could stumble. However our Lord Jesus has all these, and the bible says he give gifts to the body of the church, not all have the same gift, that is why we need to be united - when each part works properly, will make the body grow and build itself up in love. Instead of focusing in one concept we didn't agree for we all grow in sanctification and being transformed from one degree of glory to another while looking at our Lord Jesus Christ and not just to man even the greatest man we knew who walked in our life. Lets be encourage by each other's faith, trying our best not to put a stumbling block to another and be good stewards of God's varied grace for there is one Lord we serve - Jesus Christ!
On 2015 when I was growing in the Lord, I was so excited to learn that it is possible to memorize whole books of the bible. So I was so excited and told brother Henry but he didn't encourage it. I understand him because he prefers us to learn "discipling" as what he is doing and he helped a lot of people on this, he does memorized topical verses and some whole chapters like Psalm 23 but not whole books. Maybe he thought it is difficult thing to do which others could not imitate and get discourage to imitate us. However it is something that I prefer to do for myself as this is something I thought that could help me to grow in the knowledge of God, anyway I notice it is possible to spend an hour a day only and it is possible to memorize the new testament in about 5 years. After about a year of doing my memorization, I was unable to continue due to life changes like new full time job and pregnancy and so on, and other reason is because I was doing it all alone without any encouragement from anyone from my family or church.
Also circumstance changes when brother Henry left Singapore and stayed mostly in Australia and then he died of heart attack on September 2017. For a long time I was questioning why the Lord took him quite earlier that we expected, he did prepared us by letting us gather with other believers but we still felt it was too early for him to depart. Maybe one reason of his sudden death was that his family wanted him to go to hospital but he didn't want to for he trust God can heal him and there was no peace and harmony so that might had opened the gate for the enemy to steal his life. Another possibility is when he was supernaturally healed about 14 years ago in his initial heart attack, and resolve not to have operation, the Lord just extended his life so he can call many other people to God and that 2017 was really the time God appointed for him to be with the Lord - maybe I will never know the reason until I get to ask God in His time, we were devastated as if we lost a natural father.
After his death, some of members of the church have wavered in their original confidence about divine healing and starting going to doctors for operations for example. Fellowship was lessen since it was brother Henry who use to call us for fellowship. I was a 5-year-old in Christian faith then, I wasn't really that strong as I thought. Before he died I already stopped memorizing and almost no bible time - I felt like a malnourished child of God.
I realized I was quite depending my faith on other people on some concepts like divine healing as it was fostered by my fellow believers. I said this because at those times we lost brother Henry, then almost no bible time and listened instead on what the worlds says, I doubted that those testimonies I had and others maybe was just natural, some bones heal itself and say sickness naturally heals and all might have been circumstantial so if it is then there is no need to pray nor give thanks for those healings might not be answered prayers.
In God's grace that I get back to His words as part of my daily nourishment on January 2019, I have come to grow and continue to grow in faith in knowing the nature of the Lord more and more, that He is able to do far more abundantly that what we could think or ask (Ephesians 3:20), and so many scriptures supporting this idea of divine healing so I am convinced to keep believing the Lord is more than Savior, He is also our healer and provider and more for those who can believe. I am resolved not to depend my faith to other believers alone, it may not be possible to be with like minded believers but it is always possible to continue to grow through His words in the Bible. It is really encouraging to hear others testimonies in their walk of faith but they will not always be with us.
Thanks God, Philippians 2:17 was written saying that Epaphroditus was healed because God had mercy on him and also to Paul rather than what the world's naturalistic views for then if healings are just natural then there is no need to pray and be same as those in Romans 1:21 that although some knows God, they did not honor Him as God nor give thanks to Him, or those in 2 Timothy 3:5 'having an appearance of godliness and deny His power'. This doubt arise when I hear so much of what the world says instead of truths in the Word of God, after all the whole world is in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19).
Now that I continue to grow in faith, I didn't look into healing as if it was the gospel alone, for there is more than just that - He is the source of all good things I have and would ever need and that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called in His purpose (Romans 8:28). Those "all things" might include not so good things like sickness and even death to fulfil his ultimate purpose in the body of Christ. I come to learn to test the spirit and fruit of activity I was doing - does it draw me nearer to God? does it strengthen my faith or draw me away from Him? does it put a stumbling block to another believer? I thought my quest to memorize huge chunks of bible helps me to draw near to God and understand his nature more, now I do not set such standard to other believers for we are not called to compare with one another but to complement each other. Even divine healing could become 'condemning' to another believer if it was presented as if a requirement of having faith in Jesus. As Dereck Prince said that the Holy Spirit "convicts" but the enemy uses "guilt" and "condemnation".
We still believe as a family in divine healing of the Lord but not as strong as some of the church members I met before that they give birth at home by the father to cut the cord and didn't even go to doctors for check-up. I respect them for having such a great faith. Some thinks that going for check-up means not trusting God enough, some even consider it as a sin to go to doctors. We are careful on this when it comes to our little ones, for example when I gave birth to my Henry in hospital (we named after Bro Henry to remember his love to us) he was diagnosed with new born jaundice and the doctors said we should extend his stay in hospital. We did not follow the doctor to extend stay in the hospital as there is an option to go to clinic instead for check-up to monitor his blood levels and we continued in prayers and ways the doctors recommended like making sure he is breastfeeding well. In God's grace he hasn't needed to undergo medical procedures - after about three check ups he was diagnosed completely normal - Praise God! Our God is a God of all flesh, what can be so difficult for Him. We are glad the Lord does not gives us a trial too great than our faith in Him.
Now in James 4:17 says 'to him who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is a sin' so it could be not applicable to all, let us be fully convinced in our minds for those non essentials of the faith like healing. I myself pass no judgement for myself if I prefer to use some natural aids to heal in sickness same as Paul advised Timothy to no longer use only water but use a little wine for the sake of his stomach ailments. I pray first to the Lord and do effort to take care, medication is the last option and not the first. We need to have some discretion for if we are already feeling something too heavy for our faith like if one of family member is already in bad shape of sickness and there is no peace like one member wants to have check up and another says just pray for healing - the dissension could open door for the enemy to inflict us with lies and doubts and bring destruction. The bible didn't say we shouldn't go to doctors after all (though there are stories in bible that those who went to doctors became worse).
I'd prefer to trust our Lord Jesus for everything for in Him there is no side effects, but there will be times it is better to trust that the Lord can also use another vessel for his intelligence and mercy to ease suffering in this human body or maybe achieve another purpose. As one of my brother in Christ said, some may have solely too focused on concepts like divine healing, or discipleship, or prophesy, even memorization or those they call hyper grace and could stumble. However our Lord Jesus has all these, and the bible says he give gifts to the body of the church, not all have the same gift, that is why we need to be united - when each part works properly, will make the body grow and build itself up in love. Instead of focusing in one concept we didn't agree for we all grow in sanctification and being transformed from one degree of glory to another while looking at our Lord Jesus Christ and not just to man even the greatest man we knew who walked in our life. Lets be encourage by each other's faith, trying our best not to put a stumbling block to another and be good stewards of God's varied grace for there is one Lord we serve - Jesus Christ!
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