It is always encouraging to get feedback on blogs. I don’t usually follow them up in terms of taking ideas for future blogs from them, but a friend , Rich Johnson who heads up a ministry in Christian Mindfulness, who has had a medical condition for many years suggested that there is much teaching around about healing but not much around about suffering and death. He said that we actually need a theology of suffering and death. It doesn’t sound too cheery a subject but many who read this blog may be looking for that too, especially as there seems to be renewed emphasis in recent years tending towards believing everybody is meant to be healed.
I never want to discourage faith for healing, nor am I academic enough to offer a theology of suffering and death, but I am in the situation of having an illness when the part of the church I most belong to believes in healing. That belief is actually becoming stronger and more vocal which can leave people like me feeling a bit vulnerable. I think it is time for charismatic Christians to come out of the closet and say boldly,” I am a Charismatic christian who believes in healing, who is still praying for it, who has been prayed with for healing countless times in conferences, in local church, by big names on the healing scene and by many more unknown believers, but I am still ill!”
Well, actually if that describes you, you are in the company with those in heaven now. Those who have died and gone to be with the Lord have not yet experienced healing of their bodies. Their bodies are still here on earth. Just as there are those in heaven who are living there with the injustice of being martyred for Jesus, well there are countless more who are still unhealed. What do I mean? Well, somewhere or other, whether in officially claimed sites or elsewhere, Paul’s body is still here on earth. It is headless, and modern medical science if they found the body would be able to tell us what his thorn on the flesh was and settle the argument once and for all. Paul’s body was sown into the earth in dishonour. The day is still future when it will be raised in glory.
In other words, there are a lot of unhealed people in heaven. For heaven too, the Kingdom of heaven is already here but not yet. My father is one of them for example. He knows no pain, he knows no suffering, but the dust of his body is still around on earth. In the joy of heaven now, he waits his final healing.
So for you my bothers and sisters who are feeling left behind in the rising insistence that everyone is supposed to be healed, well if you are not then don’t worry; you are experiencing on earth what is reality in heaven. I am not sure how many healed people there are there. Jesus and mabye Elijah, perhaps Moses and oh yes, Enoch. That is about it. Everyone else is of course rejoicing. With Paul they have discovered that it is better to be with the Lord than here on earth! But with Paul in the Lord’s nearer presence they are saying, “How long O Lord? How long until our bodies are healed and raised incorruptible, how long until justice reigns? How long O Lord?” Heaven is not yet perfect. Saints on earth and saints in heaven are one in this: we are a waiting people.
Away with faulty notions of what “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” really means!
Your battling blogger
Kenny
P.S – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and share them with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is
http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland
In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.
revkennyblog 
Get such a sense of relief from this, Kenny !!
Thank you !!!
LikeLike
Paul in Galatians 4: “13 You remember that it was because of an illness that I came to you the first time, preaching the Good News. 14 Though my sickness was a trouble for you, you did not hate me or make me leave. But you welcomed me as an angel from God, as if I were Jesus Christ himself!”
Paul in 1 Timothy 5: “23 Stop drinking only water, but drink a little wine to help your stomach and your frequent sicknesses.”
God heals. But like you I’ve noticed that most people die a death in their body in this world, (with very few exceptions as you mention) even though they live in eternity. And also the above verses which suggest that people who have the gift of healing and are known to have had faith were not healed (or not immediately at least) and advised those they mentored to take a non-spiritual remedy for illness.
LikeLike
Some get healing in an immediate miraculous way at the hands of the Holy Spirit and prayer.
With others it comes in stages, where certain aspects of healing come after a process of forgiveness takes place.
Forgiving the people, or events, or themselves for certain happenings in their lives!
Deep stages of emotional healing, where walls have been erected to protect those areas of pain can take a number of stages in the hands of the Master Physician helping these people open up in SAFE UNTHREATENING LOVING environments where one area is dealt with at a time until they know deep inside that they are free of the shackles that had bound them!
Along with these stages of healing comes a need for being fed milk and sops as an infant would until they are able to take in the full meat of God’s word and are in a position for the next stage of healing!
With some a ‘handicap’ of some form may be left in case we get too big headed about all the realities of God and consider that we may be able to do it ourselves and not with God’s help!
And, then there are the rest of us that God allows certain ailments to remain because he needs his believers to be able to walk in all walks of life and minister God’s love and Grace while in the same situation as the people they are sharing faith with.
A finally I will add is where some people receive the ULTIMATE HEALING when they are prayed with because God wants to take them HOME to be with Him, Abba Father
It is all a glorious and wondrous mystery in the hands of a Sovereign God
I personally believe God is not finished with me yet in the flesh on Earth, even with my myriad of health issues!
My faith has grown stronger in the last couple of months because NOW I CAN DEFINITELY SAY ‘JESUS I LOVE YOU’
I have a wonderful believe that Abba Father loves me and I reciprocate that love
But, an experience I had when I was at a low point I distinctly became aware of the reality of the loving comfort of my big brother, Jesus Christ
I pray that whatever station in life you are in that the Spirit of the Living God will continue to strengthen your faith and widen your perspective of the whole family of God’s children
Hi Kenny,
I will include the following but leave it to you to determine whether it should stay!
My children in pain
My children you cause me such deep pain
By walking away, not close to me!
Can you not sense, the tears I shed
Because I can’t, just hold your hand
A father’s love from a father’s heart
Expressed in the truest form of LOVE
No beatings to bear of hand, word or sex
Are really the truth of beauty you need
Do you not think, I share the pain you feel
Unexpressed tears, the pain deep within
Of the anger and shame deep in your soul
For the undeserved acts that you endured
There is an answer to this you can choose
To pour every emotion locked deep inside
Into my son at the foot of the Cross
A place of pain, shame, hatred and tears
There you can shout why? Scream out your pain
Shed all your tears and be cleansed of the shame
Believe in the one who has taken it all
The pain, shame, hatred and tears in your soul
Then walk free and upright, the way you should do
And learn how to stay free in His caring Love
For Love it is true and Love it is real
The thing you have cried for all your life!
Be Blessed
LikeLike
Jesus came For I cannot be
To cry for them and for me
For His cross it stands at my feet
I open my eyes see Jesus weep
Pain of body acute and chronic
Responds not to life’s man made tonic
this leaves me to beg and to plead
For a burden born to be received
But here now on earth as it in heaven our daily bread
in Heaven,without our heads
So today you welcome you say I am Thee
Amen I say come to tea.
Come and dine the master calls
Come and dine Feast at my table all the time.
To the hungry He calls come and dine.
He changes my water into wine
Joy of the Lord be our strength.
LikeLike
Thank you for this timely blog. My granddaughter Natalie and I were discussing this very subject last night God bless you
LikeLike
Thanks Evelyn, I guess it was a sort of confirmation of what you were talking about together. It is helpful when God does that!
LikeLike
Hi Kenny, I really appreciated this blog. A subject close to my heart. To cut a long story short I was ill for 22 months. Diagnosed as being Post Viral – turning into Cronic Fatigue leading to Depression. I was in a deep dark hole seeming like there was no way out! Not a very nice place to be! I felt physically ill and WAS but I also had a struggle going on in my head as I believe Jesus still heals today and we can bring about healing in Jesus name as well. On saying that my experience let me know that we are all on a journey as well. Why do I say this with conviction? Well – I was prayed for on a few occasions by some of my home church family. It would be fair to say that people could have made the mistake of watching me walk away from them prayer times and then say ” well that didn’t work did it”!? But they would have been wrong! The main reason being that the people praying for me didn’t pray for healing! They prayed into other issues going on in my life (revealed by the Holy Spirit I might add – some of them I was aware of and was able to confirm ). To keep it simple – God dealt with them issues and I believe this paved the way in part anyway to God stepping in on my situation and bringing me into the place of physical healing. At this point I want to make it clear that I’m not saying that I believe everyone that’s prayed for but isn’t healed is because there is undealt with sin in their lives! That’s a pretty cruel way to think and can be quite damaging if you think about it. On saying that there are times that issues have to be sorted out in the Wonderful presence of the Holy Spirit before healing comes about. My healing came about with people praying with me at a tent mission in Kirkwall in Orkney. I was feeling okish that day but not great. After being prayed for I felt no different! I went home to bed and woke up the next morning and felt I was in a different world. I knew something wonderful had happened to me physically in the night. I should however make a strong point at this stage by telling you that a Christian friend of mine going through cancer was also prayed for that night by the same people. He’s now in heaven as he didn’t get the physical healing down hear. I have good reason to ponder this whole subject! The word ” blessed” comes to mind. In finishing I had a battle through the next year with fear, lack of confidence etc etc. I was on a journey and God helped me through it but I would be lying if I said it was easy even though I had been healed physically. I’m in a good place today and I give God the glory for that. Praise His name. Keep up the blogs Kenny if that’s what God has you do! Blessings on you!!
LikeLike
This is a wonderful and helpful testimony. Good to hear from you Michael. God bless. K
LikeLike
Your blog made me think of this. Perhaps of no great relevancebut I have been wanting an excuse to draw this to your attention for ages, just because Maureen and I love it and hope you might like it! It is not in your musical tradition I fear! I think it is based on Revelations 7:13-14
LikeLike
Thanks so muxh David. I love lots of styles and I love this!
LikeLike