The Conditions Under Which Healing Can be Asked of God

Health Not an End in Itself

Health is not an end in itself. The same way that a car is not manufactured to simply sit in your garage and be an object of beauty, and it has a definite purpose to its creation; health is a means to a much higher end than itself, and our bodies and minds have an objective purpose, a specific function for which we were designed When you look at a car you see a vehicle. Every part of a car contributes to its function as a vehicle. And health is a vehicle too; a vehicle to a life of active service.

The greatest commandment is this: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

Matthew 22:37

In the greatest commandment, which is a summary of the first four commandments pertaining to one's worship of God, we see that the worship of God involves the zealous use of one's mental and physical ability to the uttermost. The one who truly loves God doesn't want to give Him a half-way love. Thus this person will endeavor to become as healthy as they can in order to be able to use more of their mind and body in the service of God. They won't settle at half-way health.

In saying this I don't mean that everyone who pursues health will have glowing, perfect health. Many may not be able to achieve perfect health for various reasons, but this will certainly be their goal. If God allows things outside of our power to limit how much health we can have, this same kind of person will bow to His Sovereignty and accept it, but they won't want to be the reason behind why they haven't achieved better health.

Praying for Health to Carry Out Personal Dreams

It is all too common in our day for people to live for self, with God on the side. He is in their life, and they may go to church and Bible study every week, and yet there is a huge social element to things. God is not the central focus of their lives.

Celebrities credit God for their success, and promote this idea that God wanting us to be happy means He wants us to live out our dreams and passions like music or acting.

When such a person becomes sick with ill health, they call on fans and friends to pray for their recovery,. Though their music or craft promotes humanistic messages and their lyrics may involve sins like promiscuity, cussing, or jealousy, the celebrity asks God to heal them so they can return to their passion.

But living in this manner virtually secularizes God. It paints Him as a physician only, and He is appealed to the way a person might go to a doctor's appointment to be treated, rather than submitted to and worshiped as the Savior of one's sins, the Lord of one's life, and in whom glorifying Him is not only our highest purpose, but our only purpose.

When I explain to people that to be a Christian means surrendering your whole life to God and living for Him alone from this point on, this seems like a breach in their personal rights. God seems intrusive to them. It feels this way to them because they've been in the role of god in their lives for so long and they've never surrendered their lives to the true God. The truth is, they have been distant from God and He is endeavoring to pull them into a close relationship with Himself. This isn't God being intrusive; it's Him wanting to serve in His rightful role. The way a husband asking for accountability from you for your finances or life choices because he is your husband isn't intrusive, it's also not intrusive for God to ask for a full surrender of all your choices and assets.

In reality they've been stealing a role that belongs to God alone, and the right thing to do is to step down from the throne of their hearts and invite God to take up that place in their lives.

Ironically, in making self their god they actually work against their health, especially their psychological health. Our organic created purpose cannot be substituted for anything else, and still result in us retaining our innocence, happiness, and health. When Adam took up another purpose besides obedience to God and service of God, it brought in the misery we experience in this world.

When a Person Comes to Christ, They Give Up Their Life

"And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."

2 Corinthians 5:15

When a person comes to Christ to be saved, they are to give up their life. Their goals, their dreams, their desires -- all these are laid at the altar, and they accept God's will and God's plan for them. Their only mission now is to live out the life God gives them and that God desires them to have.


But this servitude is not drudgery. It doesn't feel like a prison where they must force themselves to do things they hate.

A death of the "old man" occurs, and God grants them holy desires. They no longer want to live for themselves. They desire to live for the One who loved them enough to die the second death in their place. God doesn't control the person like one might control an unruly horse by putting a bridle in its mouth and steering it in directions it doesn't want to go in. People aren't animals. We have an intelligent will and deeply-rooted motives. God makes worship a delight; God makes surrender deeply meaningful to the person by changing their desires to be in alignment with truth.

He gives us a heart that can love and there is great joy in carrying out those desires.

This is where true health is found. The atheist cannot achieve full health. He might have good physical health but his psychological health will be in shambles. Neither can the Buddhist or the pagan achieve true meaning and the fullest kind of health.

It is only Christians we can achieve full health, well as full as it is possible for health to be in this world.

A Life for a Life
This is the contract they make with God at conversion, and these are the terms of the contract: a life for a life. Jesus gave His life for us, and for us to receive that gift, we must give up our life by giving it fully to Him.

Jesus describes it this way: "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." Matthew 16:25

If they take up their life again after having given it up, and begin to serve self and carry out their personal goals and aims rather than God's, they annul the contract and give up their relationship with Christ.

But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”
Hebrews 10:38

Healing as a Sign

In the last chapter of Mark Jesus tells His disciples “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature… and these signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons… they will place their hands on the sick, and they will recover”.

Healing is meant to be a sign that God's church has the true doctrine. It's meant to point back to the Bible and to draw people to Christ. Healing is not meant to be used to get us well so we can live out our dreams and goals. It is meant to magnify Christ.

When we pray for healing for our own purposes, we put God in a position where if He were to grant us our petition, it would do the opposite of being a sign that pointed back to Him and His truth; it would testify against Him and support humanism as the truth.

God cannot work against Himself. He cannot support causes that steal honor from Him and that confuse people about what is true.

"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."

Matthew 5:45

In this verse Jesus makes it clear that He can't answer prayer requests with a "yes" if the person is asking for something with selfish motives and for selfish purposes.

Contrast this verse with one from the book of John.

"And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him."

1 John 5:14-15

Our confidence that we will have our prayer answered in the affirmative comes from selecting something we know is God's will, for instance, forgiveness of sin. We can have confidence God will say yes to a prayer asking for forgiveness of sin, if we are ready to forsake that sin and follow Christ.

But we can't have confidence in a "yes" answer to prayers for physical healing; we must allow God's will to be done. The confidence we can have in this case is that God will do what is best for us.

However, if our goal for getting healthy is to live out our personal dreams, like get the job we want, and have the family we want to have, and we aren't putting God and His kingdom first, then we can forfeit a healing that may have been in God's will for us to receive if we were surrendered.

And I think many are doing this exact thing.

Promise of Healing

While God does sometimes choose to heal unbelievers, people who aren't fully surrendered to Him, as this may be necessary to prolong their lives so they can come to believe in Him, and while He is merciful and gives life, air, rain and sunlight on both the believing and the unbelieving (Matthew 5:44-45), the conditions for healing for the Christian really are that we accept God's full Word, make a complete surrender to Him, and that we take up the yoke of service. The great commission is the mandate to spread the gospel and make disciples of all nations, teaching others to also obey the full teaching of the Bible and follow Christ.

Must be Willing to Wear the Shoes in the Armor if We Want God to Heal Us

We must have our feet shod with the gospel of peace, if we desire God to heal us from sickness and bless our health.

"and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace."

Ephesians 6:15

Not only this, but after God grants us the initial healing, the only way we can maintain our health is by having our feet shod with the gospel of peace. Just as no one can maintain health without exercise, no one can maintain spiritual health and psychological happiness, without being enlisted under Christ's banner, taking up the yoke of service, and moving forward to deliver the gospel of peace to needy sinners.

But if a person's main drivers and goals are not sharing the gospel, they have not put the shoes on.

Health is not promised in a vacuum; it is promised to those who agree to this full covenant. And we cannot expect God to give health as a general rule to those who are unwilling to take the yoke of service and live completely for Christ.

Healing is promised in conjunction and with the understanding that the person agrees to accept all of Christ's doctrines.

I believe a lot of people in our time are not receiving healing from God because they have not accepted the conditions of healing. I believe God wants to do more healings than He is able to do, but we are holding back the blessing of health.

Taking Up Elijah's Mantle

If you are a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, you have been called to fulfill the Elijah prophecies of the last days. If you expect to have healing from God you must take up the 3 Angel's Messages, and spread them to the world. There are many different ways to do this. Some due it through writing, some due it through one-on-one evangelism, some do it through music.

Unfortunately I've noticed that we've adopted worldly ways of valuing things. There is a tendency to think Elijah from the book of 1 and 2 Kings had a special mission, because he was one man called to an important work, but when we read from the Spirit of Prophecy writings that we are to be last day Elijahs, we downplay this work, because there's going to be 144,000 of them at the end of time (and there's even more than this amount now). How special can the work be and how much can it really depend on me, if there's so many people doing the work?

We tend to think of this work in a way where the more people added to it, the less important each person's contribution is.

There are at least 3 logical errors in this idea.

1. Fallacy of Composition

Error: Assuming that what is true of the group must also be true of each individual.

Applied to your case: “Because there are 144,000 people called to this mission, my individual role must be less important.”

Why it’s wrong: The group’s size doesn’t dictate the value of each member’s calling. Each person can still have a unique and indispensable role, even within a large collective.

2. Zero-Sum Fallacy

Error: Treating importance as a finite resource that gets divided up.

Applied to your case: “If thousands are called to the Elijah work, then my share of importance shrinks, because significance is like a pie with only so many slices.”

Why it’s wrong: Spiritual significance isn’t a limited commodity. The mission’s importance can expand with more participants, rather than diminish.

3. Devaluation (informal mindset error)

Error: Assuming that multiplying participants automatically waters down the value of the work.

Applied to your case: “If everyone is an Elijah, then being an Elijah isn’t special anymore.”

Why it’s wrong: This is a perception issue, not a logical necessity. The work remains profound; the fact that many share in it can actually highlight its universality and urgency, not lessen its worth.

The real truth is all 144,000 people can be equal to Elijah in their work's importance. Adding more people into the equation doesn't diminish the significance of the work!

We have a solemn responsibility and wonderful opportunity from God to engage in some of the most important work in history, and let's not allow logical fallacies which are unbiblical to diminish its importance in our minds. Let's be rooted in the truth.

We must go in the spirit and power of Elijah. We are called to fill his shoes. It's time to put them on and trust that God can grow us into them. He is the One that made Elijah a firm witness for the truth. And He can give us that same spirit as that spirit comes from being filled with His Holy Spirit. And His Spirit is just as much available to us today as He was to Elijah.

We are grown through trials. It is the severe trials in life that will grow us so we can fill Elijah's shoes. Let's put the shoes on now in faith, as we know we're living in the time period where the 3 Angel's Messages must be given, and trust that God through trials will grow us into the shoes so we can give a loud cry and true witness to the world.

We need more consecration and more faith! And this is gained by going to work in the Lord's vineyard. Delay will not build faith.

Health and Life by Every Word

More consecration is needed in order to receive God's Spirit. In our day, people have lost sight of the baseline consecration that is needed to be in a saving relationship with God and filled with His Spirit. It has become commonplace for people to take the position that as long as a person embraces the basic gospel that they are right with God, and that the basic gospel is all that matters, and other points of doctrine are not essential. It is seen as ok to really believe something is true in the Bible, but to not really give it much attention, and to not have to embrace it. If you want to embrace it, ok, but it's not essential. The basic gospel is enough.

But do all Christian circles even teach the correct gospel? No, and we know this for the basic fact that everyone cannot be right. When different churches teach different gospels that contain points of truth which contradict each other, it is logically impossible for both to be correct. Perhaps the most obvious discrepancy is between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics teach a false gospel. But it is also true that Calvinism and Arminianism cannot both be right, that baptism by immersion and baptism by sprinkling cannot both be right, and on and on. Calvinism also teaches a false gospel that only has threads of the truth in it. It paints a picture that God chooses only some to be saved, and rejects others, not that Jesus died for all. Many denominations teach that once saved a person can never again turn away and be lost.

These are major aberrations from the true gospel! They alter the gospel so strongly that it becomes only a shell of the true, hardly like it in substance.

What does the Bible say is the baseline needed to be a saved Christian?

Life By Every Word

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

Matthew 4:4

When Jesus made this fundamental statement about how man must live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, He was not just saying this as a command, that we should and ought to live by every word of God.

He was saying it as a description of reality, of what it takes for a man to live. It takes the acceptance of every word of God for a man to live.

When Adam accepted most of the words of God, but disobeyed on the point of eating the fruit, he fell under the power of death and could no longer live.

Jesus made the statement "The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life." John 6:63 BLB

What does this statement mean? It means there is life in Christ through adherence to and unity with His Word. Or, put another way, life through comes is given on the condition the person accepts all the truth in the Bible that they know and understand. A person cannot have life through Christ while rejecting points of truth.

Peter understood that God's word being life meant it was eternal life to receive Christ through His Word. "Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." John 6:63

A Willful Rejection of His Truth is Willful Rejection of Him

Jesus equates a willful rejection of points of truth with a rejection of Himself, telling the Pharisees that they could not understand and follow Him because they would not receive His Word, preferring lies over Bible truth (John 8:43-44, 47).

"He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God."

This makes sense. Since Jesus is "The Truth" Personified, the rejection of points of truth is personal to Him; it's a rejection of aspects of His character and Person, as all truth originates with Him and derives its properties and attributes from Him. In fact, at the end of time those who reject heaven are said to be lost because they "received not a love of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:10) and chose lies instead.

His Word is "alive and active" through the Spirit (Hebrews 4:12), to work change in the heart and impart to us a new nature (2 Peter 1:4). Indeed the same Jesus who said "Let there be light" and shone physical light out of darkness has the creative power to transform our heart of stone into a heart of flesh. The Word being "alive and active" through the power of God, those who do not receive the Word and reject points of truth, are not connected with Christ who is the Source of life, and they cannot continue to grow, and they die.

Both justification and sanctification can only happen when we are in the faith, when we receive the engrafted Word (James 1:21), the truth found in the scriptures written onto the heart.

Yes, that's right; it is through the Word that Christ justifies and cleanses us. Thus if we reject any point of that perfect Word we cannot be justified before God.

"...Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."

Ephesians 5:25-27

Turn Not to the Right or To the Left

When God gave the Israelites the law and the covenant He said these words:

"Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you."

Deuteronomy 4:2

Within the covenant was the term that they would not add nor subtract from the laws of God. To add or subtract from them was to break the covenant.

"Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you and prove you a liar."

Proverbs 30:5-6

In Proverbs God equates adding to the Word of God with lying. If a person is believing a doctrine they suspect to be false or know to be false, that person is embracing a lie. And the Bible says the wicked are lost because they received not a love of the truth, and embraced lies instead. So this is a path to being lost.

"The entirety of Your word is truth, and all Your righteous judgments endure forever."

Psalm 119:160

The Entirety of Your Word is Truth

David tells us "the entirety of Your word is truth." What this means is that same concept that God's Word cannot be accepted in part; it must be received in whole, otherwise a person does not have the truth. It takes the whole of God's Word in order to have His truth. This is also a caution against misreading verses and taking them out of context and not looking for the whole doctrine on a subject.

This basic truth about God's Word is reiterated in the New Testament when Paul says they took extra precautions to make sure they did not go beyond what was written. This is a reference to not wanting to add to God's Word or go outside of it with human ideas. 1 Corinthians 4:7

These verses show us that when Jesus said we must receive His Word in order to receive Him, by receiving His Word He meant the entirety of His Word. This is the condition of our covenant with Him.

Any person who rejects Christ's Words cannot have eternal life, the same way Adam when he rejected Christ's word to not eat the fruit could not have life due to his rebellion.

We Will Not Keep This Truth Perfectly, but We Must Accept It In Its Entirety

And today it still takes an acceptance of every Word of God -- the full doctrine of Christ and the Bible -- in order to enter into a saving relationship with Christ and be forgiven of sin. While we will not keep every word perfectly as we are sinners being saved out of our sin condition, and this is a process of gradual recovery as we are sanctified, we must accept all Bible truth that we know, or we are not forgiven and received by Christ as His child.

There is no way to be a Christian accept by receiving and endeavoring to live out in Christ's strength --albeit imperfectly -- every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

This is how one enters into the covenant through Christ, by repentance and faith. And repentance requires a turning away from every category of sin. One can't for instance, turn away from stealing but hold onto a gay relationship and still expect God to see them as a Christian. They must accept the full teaching of Christ, and leave behind both the stealing and the gay relationship.

And this is true of every point of truth. All truth that is known must be followed -- once again I want to emphasize this is done imperfectly.

How is That Fair?!

Some may respond at this point "But, how is that fair?! Different denominations teach all different kinds of doctrine, and there are a lot of points of doctrine in which people are not sure what the truth is at all on those points." When it comes down to it, what disturbs the person who reacts this way is they don't want to let go of the belief that there are people all around the world who have very different beliefs, belong to different denominations, and yet all share a sincere love of Christ, and are part of the same brotherhood.

They want Christ to be the unifying common denominator between all these different Christian believers.

They don't need to give up this belief! This is absolutely a true state of things. There are Christians with vastly different beliefs about points of doctrine who are all part of God's body and children of God. And not only Christians, but there are non-Christians who have never heard the Name of Christ and yet are sincere followers of God.

Christ can save people who do not even know His Name, if they live up to all the truth they know. How is this possible? Because when we embrace truth we are embracing Christ. He is so identified and connected with His truth, that to embrace it is to embrace Him.

The terms of the covenant aren't that all of God's children believe the same doctrines -- at least not until the very end of time. No one but God knows everything. So we can believe different things and all be saved. The terms of the covenant are that a person must embrace all the truth that they know to be true after coming in contact with that truth and studying it from God's Word (or having the opportunity to do so.)

Anyone From Any Background Can be Saved, but Truth Still Exists, and No One is Saved in Rejecting Known Truth

So no, God's Word is not saying people with different beliefs cannot all be saved. This is the case in many instances. However, neither is God's Word saying it's safe or ok to knowingly reject even one point of truth.

A Time of Spiritual Darkness is What Brought About Differing Beliefs in God's People

The fact all God's children do not believe the same things is not a good thing! The different denominations came about after a time of great spiritual darkness brought on by God's pure church eventually losing her zeal and purity and uniting with paganism...the Catholic Church was formed out of this compromise with the world. It banned the Bible and allowed only the clergy to read it and interpret it for the common person. Thus rebellion and compromise over time turned into actual ignorance about the truths of God's Word. Christians no longer knew what true worship for God was meant to look like. They were steeped in error from 1260 years of spiritual darkness.

At the time of the Reformation God set in motion a movement that would help to restore vital points of faith to the church. But after the Reformation the new denominations that rose up were not unified in the truth in the same way that the early church had been.

Paul, John, James, and the early believers were fully united in Bible doctrine. We have not had that since the time of the early church, and that is a bad thing. Truth matters because Jesus is the truth and true doctrines stem from His own character and reflect Him and reveal His right policies and judgments and actions. False doctrines reveal a different picture of Christ, one that is warped and untrue and unholy.

Christians Don't Delight in Doctrinal Differences; We Should be Seeking Truth

While we should be deeply grateful to God and rejoice that even in a time of confusion He has made a way for anyone who desires to come to Him and be saved to do so, we should not delight in the differences we see in our beliefs. We should not see this as the world does as the beauty of diversity. In the body of Christ there are many beautiful differences between God's children -- gender differences, race differences, talents and abilities, but doctrines is not one of those beautiful differences.

Different people might pick up on different points of truth, and present these in a unique way in a sermon, article, song. The Bible is deep and its doctrines are infinite in scope. So when we each probe them we can bring out certain points that another might miss in the same verses.

But when we have truth the break-down will always line up with the Bible. Any differences that actually go against the scriptures are not beautiful to God and while a true believer may sincerely believe error because he has not come in contact with the truth, the fact he believes and teaches error is not a good thing!

And we should not give up seeking truth, and settle down as a Baptist or a Lutheran or whatever denomination we are a part of. If we see some of these truths to be in error, we should search the scriptures for the truth, believing God can lead us into fuller truth, and help us part with wrong doctrines. It is the Holy Spirit's office to lead us into all truth. So when He is working in our lives we will not be complacent with error, and will hunger to have our questions answered and to find the true answers.

When Hunger for Truth Dies, the Christian Life Becomes Just a Social Club

If a person does not live up to all the Bible truth they know, and they accept some of it, and consider other points unessential, and knowingly reject them, this leads to Christianity becoming a cultural thing, rather than a set of deeply held personal beliefs that have power to change the heart. Going to church becomes like hanging out at the park or going to a party. It's about socializing; it's not about finding truth and living it out in reverence for Christ. People stop searching the scriptures for themselves, and accept generic answers from their pastors or leaders, and focus on their personal goals and dreams rather than on serving Christ and making sure to serve Him according to correct Bible doctrine.

God wants all His children to be in agreement on truth, since we are all children of the One who is The Truth personified.

And the Bible tells us that at the time of the end God's church will come together again and share all the same points of doctrine. God will send out an end-time message at the same time that the beast power will be commanding all people to take its mark or be fined, starved, or killed. Those who reject the mark of the beast will be sifted into the full doctrine at that time, and there will be only two groups of people at the time of the end: a unified church who have a pure doctrine and receive God's seal, and a body of people who take the mark of the beast and reject Christ and His truth.

Jesus will be returning to a spotless bride made white in the blood of the Lamb, and pure in doctrine and truth! What a glorious picture that is!