Why People Receive Healing—Then Lose It
I want to bring some understanding to you about what’s happening when people seem to experience healing and lose the healing, or equally, why some people get partially healed and don’t quite understand that. It is actually easier than you think, but you could spend years chasing your tail, trying to find that answer.
It depends on what circles you are in. If you are in a circle that does not believe in the entirety of the Bible, maybe a church circle, then healing might just seem off the radar to you. We have got doctors, and does God heal? He could do if He wanted to. But if you are in a church that believes in healing, prays for the sick, expects healing, that kind of thing, a lot of people come into that experience of experiencing healing in their own bodies, but then maybe losing it, or experiencing partial healing where they know that is real, but it is not all they hope it would be.
I have had people who at times critique that and say, if God heals you, you would never lose a healing, or if God heals you, it would be complete and not in part. If we actually understand the mechanics and what is going on in those situations, it will really help us receive healing all the time, and it will help us walk in that healing, and not be moved from that healing.
The Leper and the Centurion: Removing Doubt from Healing
The Gospels have many great stories of healing. Jesus spent at least one third of His time healing the sick, and He commissioned us to do the same thing. So many chapters we could go into here. Matthew 8 is really beautiful. It is full of amazing humbling stories. It begins with a leper coming to Jesus. The only person in the entire New Testament who doubted, not Jesus’ ability to heal him, but His willingness.
The leper comes to Jesus. He breaks the Levitical law in coming to Jesus. He had no right to be in a public place. And he says to Jesus, I know you can heal me, if you will, if you will heal me. Jesus takes the if and kicks it into touch, so to speak. Jesus says, I will; be cleansed.
In the Old Covenant, when somebody touched a leper, that person would become unclean. In the New Testament, when Jesus or His body, as you and I, touches the leper, the leper becomes clean. And when Jesus cleanses the leper, He removes the if, removes the will of God question out of this.
We read an amazing story, it is really what I want to go to today, about a centurion who comes to Jesus. In some of the other Gospels he is brought by the rulers of the synagogue. I love it. I think in Luke, where the rulers of the synagogue bring this man to Jesus, and they say the rulers of the synagogue, the Pharisees, he built us a synagogue. He loves the people of Israel. He is worthy. And when the guy comes, the guy goes, I am not worthy.
But in this story, in this version, the man comes to Jesus and says, I have a servant, somebody he obviously loved and cared for, who is laying at home, sick, paralyzed, really, really sick. And Jesus says to this centurion, I will come and heal him.
As it is written in Matthew 8:7-10 (NKJV): “And Jesus said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ The centurion answered and said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.’ When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!'”
The Power of the Spoken Word in Faith
The centurion says to Jesus something that really nobody else, at least in the four Gospels, says, something incredible. I am going to paraphrase this, but I am being faithful to Scripture when I do so. The centurion says to Jesus, I do not need you to come to my house. I do not need to see you in my house, feel you, smell you, touch you. I do not need a physical. I do not need you to come to my house to heal my servant. If you will just speak a word, I will know that it is done.
Can you catch that? If you will just give me your word that the servant is healed? I will know he is healed. And Jesus marveled. I have never seen so great faith in all of Israel. He says to the centurion, go your way, your servant will live.
Can you imagine? Imagine you are this centurion. I do not want to add to Scripture, but let us imagine the centurion lived a day’s journey, maybe two days’ journey from Jesus. And he is on his way back. How did he know if his servant is healed or not? Does he call on the phone? There were not any. Does he telegram? Impossible. He is going back. He may never see Jesus again. He may never locate Jesus again. And yet he knows his servant is healed?
Imagine you, the centurion, stopped overnight somewhere at an inn to rest and was going to complete the second day’s journey. And you went to the centurion and you said, how is your poor servant doing? I think the centurion would have said, my servant is 100% healed. And you might legitimately say to the centurion, how do you know these things? What is your basis? How can you be so sure and so certain? Have you received a messenger? Did he FaceTime you, whatever?
The centurion could say to you, I know my servant is healed because Jesus gave me His word. Let me say that again. I know he is healed because Jesus gave me His word. The word is the evidence to faith. All faith needs to know, to know that something is done, is the word of God.
Now, you might say, well, Graham, that is really cool. If Jesus would appear to me and give me His word, I would know that would work for me. Paul said in Romans, do not say in your heart if only Jesus could come down from heaven and speak to me. The word of God, the written word of God is near you, it is near to you. In your heart and in your mouth.
What I want to suggest to you today, and more than to suggest, I want to affirm to you today that you reading the Bible out loud is the same thing as Jesus speaking to you. This is the word of God. And what we tend to think in our generation is that if Jesus walked through the wall right now and appeared, that would really be the word of God, and that this is the word of God, but it is less the word of God. And I tell you it is not, it is the same.
At the end of Peter’s life in 2 Peter 1, Peter wrote to younger believers, and he described the mountain transfiguration years later, now he is an old man, and he says, I was there on the mountain. I heard with my own ears the audible voice of God. And then Peter wrote to those young believers and said, you have a more sure, more reliable word than hearing God’s voice with your own ears. And then he said what that word was. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Peter is saying this word of God is more reliable than hearing the word of God with your own ears.
As it is written in 2 Peter 1:19-21 (NKJV): “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
From Partial Healing to Full Manifestation
Let us go back to somebody being partially healed. I have seen this many, many times before. There have been probably thousands of times. Let me give you an illustration here. I am just thinking of this, and I do not want to mention the person or even the country because I do not want to embarrass somebody, but I remember once doing some evangelism with a group of friends with a church, and before we went out, there was a lady there with a brace on her hand and she was in pain.
One of my team actually videoed this, and we prayed for this lady, and I kind of, before I started praying, said, what is your pain level, one to 10. I do not want to exaggerate because I do not remember, but I think she said 7 out of 10 or maybe higher. So we prayed and nothing seemed to happen. We prayed again, and the pain level went down to five. And I was like, great, okay, you are a little bit better. Thank the Lord for a little better.
We just kept going, and then the pain level went down to three, and then to two and then away. We just kept going until she was completely healed. And I think in the next couple of days, I actually mentioned it on a video. I was in such and such a town and we saw healing, it was really great. And then somebody wrote to me and said, maybe the husband, or I know that person, and the pain came back. So you need to take down that video. And, out of graciousness, I did take down the video.
But what I actually would have loved is to meet that person again, and I would have got them healed again. But you see what is actually happening, because I see this again and again. Imagine right now, you come for ministry, for prayer if you will, and your pain level is 10 out of 10, and we speak God’s word to your body, we speak God’s word to Satan and his attack and tell the pain to go, and the Holy Spirit begins effecting healing in your body.
Your pain level is a 10, and we pray and minister, whatever you want to call that. And suddenly your pain level is 5 out of 10. Most of us feel an experience in those moments and we go, that is awesome. My pain level is going right down, I feel so much better. And then if we pray again and they feel 100% better. They go, look at this, I am healed, yippee.
And if you were to actually sit somebody down and say, how do you know you are healed? If you press, without meaning to be mean, what they will usually say is, well, I feel healed? That is great, is it not? Now, of course, if you are healed, you eventually will feel healed. But here is the danger. The danger is, like the centurion. We have come to Jesus, and we believe our faith is in God’s word.
But when we get a good experience, we begin transferring our faith. What we should do is pray and go away saying, I am healed. How do you know you are healed? Because He gave me His word. And whether we feel good, whether we feel healed, whether we feel half healed. If you keep the thermometer of your heart set to the word of God, the Holy Spirit will produce in your experience what the word of God has said.
As it is written in James 1:21 (NKJV): “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Anchoring Faith Beyond Feelings
Do you remember when the angel Gabriel came to Mary and Mary is like, I do not get any of this. I have done biology 101. I know how these baby things work, and Mary’s basic response to Gabriel was, be it unto me according to your word. In my paraphrase, the angel said to Mary, if you receive and hold God’s word in your heart, the power of the Almighty, His name is the Holy Spirit, He will produce in your experience the word you hold in your heart.
More people come with meekness, the ingrafted word, and it begins to produce in their experience, but then they transfer their faith from word to the experience. Make sense? Why, have you ever not felt saved? I have seen this many times and so probably with you. Where somebody comes, they hear the Gospel being preached, they put their faith in the message, the word of God, Jesus, the living word of God, and they begin to feel saved and feel clean, they feel the forgiveness.
I am right with God. It feels wonderful. They cry tears of repentance. This is so wonderful. I feel like a new creation. And then two weeks later, they no longer feel saved. They cannot find God in their feelings. So they begin to doubt their salvation. And what would any good Christian do is we do not pray for the feelings to come back. We bring them back to the word of God.
We tell them, you called on the name of the Lord. You will be saved. You confessed with your mouth and believed in your heart that Jesus rose. You were saved, not because you feel saved, but because you believe the word of God on salvation, and He forgives all of our iniquities and heals all of our diseases. And when we make healing, complete healing, partial healing, whatever, about how we feel, we will feel healed when we feel healed, and if we lose the feeling, our faith will evaporate away.
I have seen that thousands of times where somebody has been healed and two or three days later they wake up and, oh, that little pain is there, whatever. What they do in that moment determines what they will receive. I have had that happen to me where I feel healed and then suddenly something comes back. Here is what I do when I feel the symptom, feel the pain, feel the thing.
I say, stop, and I will just go through. I am the Lord who heals you. I will take sickness away from the midst of you. Exodus 23:25, Exodus 15:26. His word is life to those who find it and health to all of their flesh. Proverbs 4:22. Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. We read it in the same chapter in Matthew 8:17, 1 Peter 2:24, by His stripes, I am healed.
I say, thank you, Lord, that is what I have. Anchoring my faith, not in how I feel, but in what your word says. And I have never once done that without the feelings coming back. If I wake up tomorrow morning and I do not feel saved. I do not go to my feelings to evaluate if I am saved. I go to God’s word and I say, thank you, Lord, I am a new creation. Thank you, Lord, I am in Christ Jesus. Thank you, Lord, you will never leave me or forsake me.
Your feelings will go up and down, but you will never leave me. Thank you, Lord. I have called on your name. I am saved. Thank you, Lord. I am your child. I am secure in your hands. And as I begin thanking Him for His word. The feelings will follow. The feelings are real, but do not let the tail wag the dog.
So if you have experienced maybe some personal ministry in your life, quote unquote. It is great to thank God for what you feel or what you partially feel, but keep your thermometer set to the word of God. Keep thanking God for the fullness of His word, not the partial manifestation of that word, and that full manifestation will come into your life.
Jesus is the healer. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Churches change, men’s doctrines change. Jesus never changes, and the Bible never changes. He will do exactly what He did in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We came, believers, they believed, do what they did, and you will get what they got.
As it is written in Hebrews 13:8 (NKJV): “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Selah.
Scriptures for Study
Exodus 15:26, Exodus 23:25, Deuteronomy 7:15, Psalm 103:3, Psalm 107:20, Proverbs 4:20-22, Isaiah 53:5, Jeremiah 17:14, Jeremiah 30:17, Malachi 4:2, Matthew 4:23, Matthew 8:7-13, Matthew 8:16-17, Matthew 9:22, Mark 5:34, Mark 6:56, Mark 16:17-18, Luke 1:38, Luke 4:40, Luke 6:19, Luke 7:1-10, Acts 10:38, Romans 10:8-10, James 5:14-15, 1 Peter 2:24.
10 Questions for Reflection
- What circles are you in that might shape your view of healing?
- Have you ever experienced partial healing and wondered why it did not become complete?
- How does the leper’s doubt about God’s willingness challenge your own assumptions?
- In what ways does the centurion’s faith differ from how you approach prayer for healing?
- How do you respond when symptoms return after an initial touch from God?
- Where have you transferred your faith from God’s word to your feelings?
- What Scriptures do you declare when feelings contradict the promise of healing?
- How does Mary’s response to Gabriel model holding to the word?
- Have you ever doubted your salvation because of shifting feelings?
- What would change if you anchored every area of life to God’s word alone?
