You are healed, but are you?

"You are healed, your faith has made you whole

You are healed, the fountain is no more

Virtue has left the body, no more time to cry and worry

Praise the Lord, I know you're healed."

Jabez - You Are Healed

In a February publication of The Gleaner under the headline 'Holy healers hurting', there was concern regarding persons tested positive for HIV abandoning medical treatment because they were declared cured by their spiritual leaders.

On the word of their leaders, they discontinued their medication, clinging to faith that they had indeed been healed.

It begs the question of whether it is prudent for Christians to cling to their faith and abandon their medication upon the word of a spiritual leader. If they are not healed, is it a lack of faith?

Family and Religion reached out to the Reverend Carlene Bryan of the Dominion In Christ International Ministries for insight into the issue. Affirming that the life of a Christian is one of faith, she said that it was the only way a believer was expected to live, according to the Word of God.

ACTING IN FAITH

"Believers must always act in faith upon a Rhema word (in Christianity, Rhema is used in Bible study to signify Jesus Christ's utterances) from a messenger, but it is usually not a good idea to discard medication," she said, pointing out that God uses doctors to bring about healing.

"Under the Old Covenant, the priests were the ones who acted as doctors to pronounce healing on individuals (Leviticus 13). Notice that as Jesus ministered healing under the Old Covenant, He sent the leper to show himself to the priest (Matt 8:1-4). By so doing, the priest (the doctor) could pronounce healing on the leper," said Bryan, adding that Jesus came to reveal the heart of the Father, so if God was against doctors, Jesus wouldn't have sent the leper to one.

"God is not against doctors. We must use the doctor but maintain our faith in the Lord who said He would heal us (Exodus 15:26)," she said.

There have been instances where believers experience miraculous healing which even doctors themselves have no medical explanation for, and for others, although their healing eventually comes, it is not instantaneous. It is those persons that Bryan is encouraging not to lose sight of the healing that was pronounced on them. She said that they should not let it stop there as it is at that point that the enemy comes in and robs many a believer of the healing they have received because they did not see instant manifestation.

"Not everyone that Jesus prayed for received instantaneous healing. He prayed for the blind man in Bethsaida twice (Mark 8:22-25), and the lepers were healed as they went (Luke 17:14). The key is to remember that receiving is not the same as manifestation," Bryan shared.

"Mark 11:23 clearly tells us that we believe we receive when we pray, but our answers - many do not understand - exist in two forms: the seen and the unseen. Faith is for the unseen portion as it believes it receives when the answer is not yet visible. Faith believes in the heart that it receives the answer even before it is manifested," she pointed out.

SPEAKING THE WORD OF GOD OVER YOUR BODY

Bryan said that Christians should continue to speak the God word of healing over their bodies and thank Him for it even before it's manifested, then act as if they are healed.

"Do something you could not do before and keep the word in your hearts until you see total manifestation. Once you get the word of God through a minister of the gospel that you are healed, you should receive it and keep speaking the word of God," she shared.

Pointing out that every person has been given a measure of faith once that person has embraced Christ, Bryan said that some believers' faith has developed to the point where they do not need doctors, but the truth is, 90 per cent of Christians are stuck at 'Saved Station'. They attend church but they do not read the Word and meditate or confess the Word of God over their lives. This is what makes the difference between a Christian that gets healed and one who doesn't.

Bryan added that refusing to take medication doesn't mean it's an act of faith, but rather holding fast to the confession of God's Word against all odds is faith.

"If we need to, we should take medicine while we continue to meditate and confess the Word of God."

familyandreligion@gleanerjm.com