002. Do You Have Enough Faith to NOT Be Healed?

PP Blue slide 

PP The title of the message today is, “Do you have enough faith to not be healed?” ---- 

Some years ago I attended a healing service at a church. My eyes had deteriorated so I went forward for healing so I could see better without glasses. I had faith it was going to work. I really believed it. 

The preacher put his fingers on my eyes and prayed for healing. Then he took his fingers away from my eyes and said, “You are healed. Your sight is good now.” 

Well it wasn’t ‘good now’ at all! And it still isn’t! I wear glasses now! ---- 

In the Bible, Paul was a man of huge faith. God had given Paul an amazing experience but let’s read what Paul said about it. We’ll read it from the LB translation in 2 Cor 12 . 

In verse 5 Paul says --- 

PP 2 Corinthians 12:5 “That experience is something worth bragging about but I am not going to do it. I am going to boast only about how weak I am and how great God is to use such weakness for His glory.” 

PP 

v7,8 “I will say this: because these experiences I had were so tremendous, God was afraid I might be puffed up by them; so I was given a physical condition which has been a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to hurt and bother me, and prick my pride. Three different times I begged God to make me well again.” 

PP v9 “Each time He (God) said, ‘No. But I am with you; that is all you need. My power shows up best in weak people.’” 

So Paul goes on to say --- 

PP “Now I am glad to boast about how weak I am; I am glad to be a living demonstration of Christ’s power, instead of showing off my own power and abilities.” 

PP (So Paul goes on to say in verse 10,) 

v10 “Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite happy about ‘the thorn’, and about insults and hardships, persecutions and difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong – the less I have, the more I depend on Him. ----- 

A preacher’s wife was driving her husband to a speaking appointment and she asked him what he’d be speaking about. He said “I’m going to talk about how 

PP Some people don’t have enough faith to not be healed, so all God can do is heal them. 

She said, “That’s terrible. You are not going to do that.” He said, “Yes, I think this is an important point.” She said, “Well, then how will the people feel who have been healed?” Needless to say, the conversation did not go very well and she began driving faster and jerkier! 

The preacher’s name was Pastor Morris. I’m going to use some of his very good points. I want to shock you into attention today on a major point. A major point that has escaped us in the Christian world. 

We have thought for a long time that if we have enough faith, we can be healed. 

Wrong! 

PP If we have enough faith, we may not be healed! It takes a lot of faith to not be healed. 

Some of us grew up with some gross misunderstandings. We have read bedtime stories and we got the impression that if you are good then everything is going to go good, and if you are bad, everything is going to go bad. But like the teenagers would say, ‘NOT!!’ 

We forget that all of Jesus disciples died a martyr’s death except one, and he was banished to a lonely island. 

We forget that the apostle Paul who wrote 14 books of the NT, asked God three times to be healed of his health problem and was refused his request for healing. And God finally told him not to pray about it anymore. 

We forget that John the Baptist perished alone in a dungeon, and people have often wondered about that one. John the Baptist! --- about whom Jesus said, “There was never one born greater.” 

We forget that Elisha who was very close to God, died after a long lingering illness, maybe cancer. 

We’re going to go in the Bible to Hebrews 11. We love to read the first part of Hebrews 11. These are great success stories and we remind each other of them and we get the impression that if we had enough faith, this could all happen to us. And we even come down to --- 

PP Hebrews 11:35 (where it says,) “Women received their dead raised to life again.” 

Wonderful! 

But now we come to some things we don’t want to read! Right in the middle of this same verse 35, the story changes. 

PP “Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.” 

PP v37 “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented – 

PP v38 “- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. 

PP v39 “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, ....” 

So these mighty giants of faith did not receive the promise. 

What was going on? Is there something that we have missed? 

I would like to remind you of a very significant ‘honour guard’ that is very important in God’s system. I would like to read three verses. 

First one, come to --- 

PP Philippians 1:29 

“For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” 

Now on the next page, in Philippians chapter 3, the apostle Paul gives what we could call his Profit and Loss statement of how all his accomplishments and his pedigree mean nothing if he doesn’t know Jesus. And then he says in verse 10 – 

PP v10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” ---- 

Probably Peter says it best of all. He’s speaking to some church folk and he says in --- 

PP 1 Peter 4:12,13. “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” 

---- Fellowship with Christ in suffering. --- Having enough faith to go through with problems. --- 

Right here I would like to remind you that the stories we have often loved to tell, need to have another perspective. 

You know the stories: The grasshoppers come and they eat all the neighbours crops but they stop at the fence of the good Christian farmer. We love those stories, and we get the impression that this is the way it is supposed to be with everybody. That is why I like the story of the farmer who had dedicated his property to the Lord and he was a very genuine Christian, and one day the grasshoppers came, jumped the fence, and ate all of his crops too. Then the neighbours came along and made fun of him. Ha-ha-ha! “What do you have to say now?” The farmer replied --- 

PP “If the good Lord wants to graze His grasshoppers on His own property, then that is His business. In the meantime, I will still love Him and trust Him just the same.” ------- 

Now if you look at it carefully, you’ll discover that God needs this kind of ‘honour guard’. ----- 

PP People can prove that they are not ‘rice Christians’ who only serve God for what they can get out of Him. Real Christians serve God regardless of what happens. And this is what real faith is all about. 

There’s an old saying, that, 

PP ‘Of all the gifts that heaven can bestow upon men, fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and the highest honour’. ------ 

It is not God’s will that people suffer, but it is God’s will that He have an ‘honour guard’ who will continue to love and trust Him regardless of the problems. In fact, in most cases, He needs them, and does not always intervene with miracles. 

So that is my major point today. 

PP It takes a lot of faith to not be healed. It takes a lot of faith to not be delivered from problems. It takes a lot of faith to not have your prayers answered the way you would like to have them answered. It takes a lot of faith. ------ 

I’m going to tell you a true story. 

Travis was 18 years old when he found out that he had leukemia, and it did not look good. You are not supposed to get children’s leukemia when you are 18 yrs old. He did. There was little hope to offer. They did the usual. He lost his hair as he went through the chemo, and the other things they tried, and then it looked like the only course would be a continued downward course as things got worse and worse. His mother was a nurse and received permission to stay by his bedside 24 hrs a day when he was in the hospital. Once in a while he was allowed to be home for a few days which were special times, but most of the time in the hospital his mother stayed by his bedside 24hrs a day. 

At his church they had a healing service but it didn’t work. Healing services don’t always work. Nothing changed. As he continued to grow worse, he began to become concerned about what would happen to him when he died. So someone came and tried to give him help by telling him to just make sure that all of his sins were confessed one by one. That didn’t seem like a good idea. What if he forgot one of his sins? Or if he died before he got them all confessed? ---- 

A young pastor visited Travis in the hospital and brought him some good news. He said --- 

PP The good news is that our eternal destiny is not based upon anything we do. It is based on what Jesus has done and on our continuing acceptance of what Jesus has done. 

This came through to Travis, like a revelation, and he became excited about the good news. He stopped looking to himself for some kind of salvation. He looked away from himself to Jesus, and he found peace, and he rejoiced and was very happy about it. But his health continued to get worse. 

Travis had a best friend named Chris. Chris would visit him in hospital. As things began to get even worse, Travis said to Chris one day, “Chris, I would like you to promise me something OK?” Chris asked “What is it?” He said, 

PP “Will you meet me in heaven, because I want to hang out with you up there. We have been best friends since the fifth grade and I really want to hang out with you up there.” 

And Chris promised him! 

Well, as things went downhill, the weeks went by. One day, the young pastor was visiting with Travis, and he asked Travis, “Would you mind if I take some notes of a few questions, with your answers, because I would like to have a record of some of the things we have talked about.” “Oh,” he said, “that is alright.” ---- 

“Travis, how has your thinking changed? --- Have your thoughts changed very much these weeks and months that have been going by.” 

“ Oh yes,” he said, “I used to think the most important things in life were ---- 

PP1 1. To have fun 

PP2 2. To get things 

PP3 3. To be cool 

PP4 “Now (Travis said) I am convinced that there is only one thing that is important --- to know Jesus. Yes, there have been some big changes.” 

---- Friends, Travis was right. And it’s exactly the same for you and me. You and I need to know that there is only one thing that is important – to know Jesus. We need to build a strong relationship with Jesus – not with TV, not money, not sport, not things, not with trying to be cool, but with Jesus. --- 

--- Now, in spite of the fact that Travis had peace concerning his eternal destiny, he would still wake up at night sometimes with a fear overwhelming him, and he would awaken his mother. This happened more than once. She would be sitting by his bed, sleeping and dozing, and Travis would say, “Mum.” 

She would try to awaken, and would ask God for help to say some words of encouragement. --- “Mum, I’m scared. I don’t want to die at 18.” And more than once she said to him, 

PP “Son, if you die, you will go to sleep and the next time you wake up you will look into the face of Jesus and Jesus will look into your face. Can you try and visualise that?” 

“OK Mum.” “Just think about that moment when you look into His face and He looks into your face.” “OK Mum, I feel better.” 

There was another thing that happened to him as the days and weeks went by. Sometimes he would wake up in the night with this thought: 

PP “Why me?” 

Have you ever said that? “Why me?” 

It was like another voice causing him discouragement and darkness. But one night, God’s Spirit came through to him with something like that statement we read earlier. ---- “Of all the gifts that heaven can bestow, fellowship with Christ in suffering is the most weighty gift and the highest honour,” and Travis said to himself, “If God needs someone to go through an experience like this and still love Him and trust Him just as much, then why not 

me?” From there on, when that dark question haunted him in the night, “Why me?”, he would now counter with, 

PP “Why not me?” 

--- And as Travis’s faith grew, the peace deepened, and the joy came, in spite of the circumstances. --- 

--- Travis’s senior class came to their annual ‘do something stupid day’, and, guess what they decided to do? They went to visit Travis in the hospital! All the seniors showed up. At first he was embarrassed, because he was down to skin and bones, and didn’t have any hair so he wore his cap. But they gathered around and reminisced, and they talked and laughed, and they all had a good time, and Travis was overwhelmed that his classmates would do this for him. He couldn’t forget it. They were really fantastic. ---- 

---- One day, Travis said to the young pastor, “ Pastor, I would like to be anointed again,” and the pastor froze. He knew they had already had this experience and nothing had changed, and so he kind of gulped, and nicely said, “Travis, we had the anointing already.” 

Travis said, 

PP “I don’t want to have another anointing in order to be healed. I would like to have another anointing to celebrate the peace that God has given me.” 

--- The pastor was very impressed, and tried to make a suitable time. It was rather tricky now because Travis was having times of great pain and unconsciousness. They thought that maybe they had waited too long, but decided they’d better go ahead. 

There were two hundred people at the church praying, when the pastor and the father and mother and Travis’s beloved Bible 

teacher went to his bedside to have the anointing again. Travis was unconscious. They stood there for a little bit and decided they had better go ahead anyway. So they got to the head of the bed and they began to pray. As they started to pray, Travis sat up, perfectly attentive. And as they prayed, he put his hand on his father’s neck and rubbed his neck, and he put his other hand on the pastor and rubbed his neck, and Travis rejoiced over the hope and peace and even the joy that God had given him. ---- 

---- Five doctors came by to talk to him about what the remaining options were. It was late in the progression of his illness and the options were not good. -- None of them were any good. They tried to describe to Travis what the options were and tried to get his feelings on what he would like them to do. 

Travis said, 

PP “No, don’t do anything special. I am going to go to sleep, and when I wake up again, I am going to see Jesus.” 

And one of the doctors said, “I am glad that the idea brings you comfort.” Travis looked at him and said, “Doctor, this is not an idea, it is in your Bible.” ------ 

An oncology social worker entered the room. She had come to help the family and the afflicted one to face ... you know ... the finale. The doctor looked at the oncology social worker and said, 

PP “You are not needed here.” 

She said, “I beg your pardon, I came here to help with the family.” The doctor said to her, “Did you hear me? You are not needed here.” I kind of like that part. There were bigger forces at work! ---- 

Well, some family and friends began praying as Travis approached the end, that God would do something special in 

terms of giving Travis a moment of comfort. Like Stephen in the Bible, when he looked up as he was being stoned and saw Jesus standing up on his behalf. -- Do you remember that story in the Bible? 

-- So Travis’s friends prayed, 

PP “God, if you don’t see it best to change things, could you please give Travis a moment of comfort when it comes to the finale?” 

Then of all things, in a few days time he was able to go home for a couple of days. So he went home on Sunday. His best friend Chris went over and got him into a wheelchair and took him to the shopping centre and they had a ball. They were together for eight hours. They laughed and had a great time. Chris was so happy he was able to spend the day with Travis. 

---- The next morning, Travis woke up and said “I am not doing good Dad. You better get me back to the hospital.” So they put him in the car and started for the hospital. They didn’t know that he was bleeding to death internally. This process made him feel that he had to stop at a toilet. They stopped at a restaurant. He put his arms around his mother’s and father’s necks and they helped him walk into the restaurant. 

As they came in, the waitress asked, “Do want a table for three? Are you OK?” They replied,” We need to go to the toilet.” So she showed them the way. It was a small restroom with only two toilets. Both of the toilet doors were open. There was nobody in there. His father chose to pass the first one and go into the larger handicapped toilet. His mother stayed outside. 

As his dad was trying to help Travis in there, he happened to look under the dividing partition and saw a pair of shoes on the other side and what appeared to be the trousers of a dark blue silk suit. He was a little irritated by this, because he thought he and 

his son were alone in this restroom, and he would prefer to be, as he was trying to help his son. Then Travis said, “Dad, I am not doing good. I can hardly breathe!” 

At that moment, a voice came from the other toilet and called him by name, “Travis, it is alright. You are going to be OK.” 

Travis said, “Dad, you better call the ambulance. I can’t breathe!” His Dad left to call triple O and his mother came in trying to help and the voice continued to come from the other side. “Travis, it is alright. I’m here. You are going to be OK.” 

His mother got him out and laid him on the floor, and he was lying there when the paramedics came in. They came within just 3-5 minutes and Travis was placed on a stretcher. 

At this point, the stranger from the other toilet cubicle came out, went to the head of the stretcher, leaned over and looked into Travis’s face. Travis, who had been looking at his mother, was suddenly riveted on the face of the stranger. The paramedics said to the man, “Are you his father?” “No,” said the stranger, “I am his friend.” He continued to lean over Travis’s face as they took him out to the ambulance and he followed him all the way, reassuring him, and telling him that it was going to be OK. 

When they got to the ambulance, Travis was unconscious - and the stranger was gone. ---- 

They compared notes later and agreed that none of them had seen the stranger’s face, except for Travis. They even went later to the waitress at the restaurant and asked if she had seen someone in there in a dark blue silk suit? The waitress replied, “People in dark blue suits don’t come into our restaurant.” ---- 

---- Travis was taken to the hospital. He died in his mother’s arms on that Monday morning. ---- 

A few days later they had the funeral service. The church was packed. There were fellow classmates from other years who had come. Busloads of students came. There were 34 of the doctors 

and nurses from the hospital who came to the service because they were so amazed by what had been going on. 

It was arranged that the seniors would come down the centre aisle and they would divide, and go on each side and up into the choir loft to sit. One chair was left vacant in the middle with a rose on it to represent Travis. 

The young pastor, who had taken notes for months, tried to share with the people there what Travis had said in answer to his questions, including how his thinking had changed. And among some of the questions was this one, “What do you think of your senior classmates?” And he had said, “I can’t believe it, that they had done what they did for me. My classmates are awesome!” He also said, 

PP “I want to see you all in heaven. If any of you are not there, it’s going to be a real bummer.” 

---- People had been hoping and praying for a revival at the college Travis had attended. They did not know their answer would come in this way. There was a revival at that college, all because someone had enough faith to not be healed. ---- 

---- My friend Morris, who told me this story, went to visit that young pastor and his family. Morris asked if he could go to the restaurant where Travis had been in the toilet. As Morris stood there by himself, he thought about how could someone from the heavenly country come into this kind of place, into a toilet, to comfort Travis! And if someone from the heavenly country would come into this place, they deserved to wear a dark blue silk suit. ---- 

---- Then the pictures in his mind changed a little, because --- 

PP “Two thousand years ago someone from the heavenly country did come to this smelly place called earth, and because of it we all have hope! 

----- It is a hard story to tell, but I think it is a beautiful story, and it reminds us that of all the gifts that heaven can give to us, fellowship with Christ in suffering is the most weighty gift and the highest honour. ---- 

Could I ask you friends, in Travis’s words, --- “Wouldn’t you like to hang out with me in heaven?” 

PP If anyone is missing, wouldn’t it be a ‘real bummer’? 

I would like to invite you, my friends, to make a strong decision that this is your top priority and to look toward heaven right now and thank Jesus for making it possible. ------------------- 

PRAYER 

PP Blue slide 

Please stand or kneel and we’ll pray. 

Dear Lord, please help us to love You and trust You and to have enough faith to continue that way, regardless of what happens to us. Thank You for the ‘honour guard’ that has gone before, and thank you for Jesus, and His outstretched arms showing us the way. In His name, we pray, Amen. 

May God bless every one of you.