When there is Power for Healing

Luke 5:17b -   …The power of the Lord was with him to heal.

Miraculous healing is one of the greatest evidences of the truth of the message of Jesus Christ and also one of the biggest barriers to faith for some people. Early in 2013 I had the privilege of reviewing Craig Keener’s monumental scholarly study on Miracles that cites literally thousands of cases of real, verifiable healings around the world in response to faith in Christ. Study after study has shown that sick people are far more likely to get better and get better more quickly with Christian prayer than without. Yet, not everyone is healed. Many have prayed with all the faith they could muster only to see a loved one pass away.

So many things about the Christian faith are enigmatic. We want formulas. We want everything to happen the same way every time. We want to be able to say the magic words “Shazam! Abracadabra!” and see the miracles happen, but it does not work that way. In reaction, some Christians have abandoned expecting any supernatural occurrences whatsoever. However, this can be equally destructive. If we cannot expect God to work with us in this life, how can we be sure he will take care of us in the next?

I do not have a simple answer of why God does not always heal. However, I know he often does. The short sentence above from early in Jesus’ ministry is quite telling: “On one of those days… the power of the Lord was with him to heal.” What does that mean? It sounds like on some days healings did not occur. Why else would Luke have noted this? We do not get to know why healings did not happen on the other days. We can obsess over the “not” days. We can avoid seeking healing in case it is a “not” day, but if we do that we miss the possibility that this could be “one of those days” that the power of the Lord is with us to heal. Let’s seek him in faith every day.