What I’m wrestling with and learning since my wife’s stage 4 cancer diagnosis.

Who is the Great Physician? Most Christians would answer, “God.” But do we treat Him that way?

I do believe God heals through both medicine and miracle. But in the process of pursuing medicine, do we subtly—by our actions and our hope—concede that title to the medical experts of the day? Only God heals. Through medicine, man can only apply the treatment or procedure and hope that God brings healing to the body. We also often put more weight behind a medical diagnosis than behind trusting the Great Physician for His diagnosis.

The Scriptures never ask us to choose between medicine and God. Ultimately, it is a heart issue: Where is our main allegiance grounded?

I believe it is hard to truly wrestle with this issue until the medical world tells you it has no solution for your healing—only protocols that might extend your life a bit. That day came for me a couple of months ago, when my precious wife was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

This is the first of three articles in which I will share what I am wrestling with and learning about God truly becoming my wife’s and my Great Physician. I have taken time to go back over everything I have studied and taught about healing, and to review again what the Scriptures teach on this issue.

The Father’s Heart to Heal

I have a burden for the Church to minister healing and deliverance, firmly rooted in the Scriptures and in deep, abiding intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The heart of the Father is to heal. He is our Great Physician (Exodus 15:26).

We see no example of someone who came to Jesus for healing and was not healed. We are not Jesus, but we are to faithfully represent Him to a lost, sick, and oppressed world. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are called to continue His work—and even to do “greater works,” according to His word in John 14:12.

The consistent expectation and practice of the early church was healing. Even when Paul, for reasons we do not know, was not able to heal Epaphroditus, he rejoiced that God had mercy on him, allowed him to recover from his illness, and spared Paul himself “sorrow upon sorrow” (Philippians 2:27).

It is so interesting to me that Paul—the one who had just said in the previous chapter, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain”—would have “sorrow upon sorrow” if his friend died from an illness. So in the death of believers, we see both the celebration of what they have gained in Christ and the sorrow upon sorrow of missing them here with us on earth. The joy is that we do not experience the sorrow of the world, which has no gain or hope in death. We are called to bring the hope of Jesus and the powerful ministry of the Spirit to the hopeless.

Faith and the Mystery of God’s Sovereignty

Healing in this life is not guaranteed in the gospel, but provision is made for it, just as provision is made for our sanctification. We need to grow in faith if we are going to be sanctified and if we are going to pursue healing for ourselves and for others. Jesus was always questioning His disciples’ faith.

Faith is not convincing ourselves with positive affirmations, and it is not trying to persuade God, either. It is abiding in Christ and asking, seeking, and knocking without giving up until God answers. Faith is doing the deep, hard work of evaluating our faith and growing it in the ministry of the Spirit, while at the same time resting in the mystery of the sovereignty of God. There are many things, this side of heaven, for which we must rest in the mystery of God’s sovereignty (Deuteronomy 29:29).

The Hard Questions

The hard questions abound. Do I believe God desires to heal my wife? Do I believe it is His will to heal my wife? And what is the difference between the two?

If I am willing to spend all kinds of money chasing down the latest medical drug or procedure, am I willing to seek out those who operate in biblical healing—and reach out and touch the cloak of the Healer in desperate faith? My point here is not to put these in opposition to each other. It is to say that we should not criticize someone who pursues every medical option, nor should we criticize those who seek out people who operate in divine healing. The question for all of us is: Is God my Great Physician?

God is my Great Physician.

I am thoroughly convinced of this, and that His heart is full of compassion and mercy toward His children and toward the sick and lost in the world. I am also convinced from the biblical record that He expects us to carry on His earthly ministry of healing the sick.

After reviewing all my past teaching, studying many other teachings, and searching the Scriptures, I have, for now, settled on four spiritual growth processes that will help us move toward faithful partnership with the Spirit for healing today.

1. Learning the Process of Consecration

Jesus calls us to be separate from the world. He calls us to be holy. This process of sanctification is lifelong, but Jesus never put a limit on it for us. He simply offers more of the Spirit to those who will pursue it by faith (Luke 11:13; John 14:12; 1 Corinthians 12–14).

Obedience and holiness in a person’s life open their prayers to heaven in a special way. James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” First Peter 3:7 tells us that a husband’s prayers may be hindered if he does not live with his wife in an understanding way. And 1 Peter 3:12, quoting Psalm 34, says, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Preparation for gaining authority in healing should begin with allowing God to search our hearts and make sure there are no hindrances in our relationship with Him. This is a humbling time, when we come to grips with the weakness of our flesh, its nagging patterns in our lives, and our great need for the power of the Spirit.

I believe this is so critical because of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:21–23, one of the scariest passages in the Bible. Jesus says:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”

This teaching shows that “many” will somehow be able to minister by the power of Jesus’ name while their hearts are far from Him and from the will of the Father. These people were more focused on using the power of Jesus’ name than on knowing Him and honoring all of His Word.

It is important to understand that Jesus healed all kinds of people to show the compassion and love of God. Many were not even believers. The requirement for consecration is not for receiving healing, but for learning how to minister healing with and like Jesus. Please reread that last sentence; it is critical to understand as we pursue ministry with Jesus.

Healing is something we should be operating in both inside and outside the church. We don’t see long prayers or counseling sessions in the Bible. We see people filled with the power of the Spirit and the love and compassion of God, bringing His love in a very tangible way. And the hope is that the healing would lead their hearts to the Healer Himself.

In my own experience, the deeper I press in to gain authority in healing, the more of my own sin and weakness is exposed. The closer we approach the throne of grace—the flame of glory—the more light is shed on any fragments of darkness. Jesus’ forgiveness and grace are truly amazing, but we can’t forget that He asks for a “no compromise” attitude toward sin in our lives if we are going to walk intimately with Him and minister with Him.

2. Learning How to Pray in the Spirit

We are exhorted to pray in the Spirit in Ephesians 6:18: “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul speaks of his own experience of praying in the Spirit and with his mind. Praying in tongues was a key part of Paul’s experience, but it is not all there is to praying in the Spirit. We know that not everyone has the gift of tongues, but it is available to be pursued, as all the gifts are.

So how do we know how to pray in the Spirit? Prayer that is driven by ritual or selfishness is probably not praying in the Spirit—and, by the way, praying in tongues can be driven by ritual and selfishness as well. Romans 8:26 states, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Hence, the gift of tongues is helpful when we run out of words. The Spirit is still interceding for us, and Romans 8:34 says Jesus is interceding for us as well: “who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

I am specifically dealing with praying in the Spirit to gain a place of authority in healing ministry. This means we need to approach the throne of grace by the blood of the Lamb, depending on the Spirit to guide us to the heart of God on the issue. It is in this place that we learn to linger in worship, thanksgiving, supplication, tongues, fasting, and more. Our faith and our confidence grow stronger, and we should grow in expectation of an answer or leading from the Lord. This leading could be a direct answer to our prayer, a word of wisdom or knowledge, and so on.

In my recent experience, it has taken me a while to cut through all the medical facts, decisions, and planning to be able to press in with the Lord. I am finding, though, that prayer walking is really helping me, and I am experiencing growing boldness in my requests. It has really helped me to realize that praying in the Spirit is entering into the fellowship of the Trinity as a child of the Father, a friend of Jesus, and a partner with the Spirit.

3. Learning How to Gain Authority and Get Breakthrough

There are many places in Scripture where Jesus says He has given authority to His followers for ministry. I do believe that, as followers of Jesus, we can call upon that authority at any time. But there is also a process of gaining authority in ministry—a process that grows out of praying in the Spirit and other practices like fasting.

Not everyone has all the spiritual gifts. Not everyone has the same level of faith. And not everyone has the same authority, power, and anointing upon their gifts. God says that He assigns these to each one according to His will. And John the Baptist said in John 3:27, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” But Jesus calls us to pursue these things, and it is usually those who passionately pursue who receive. He tells us to ask, seek, and knock.

Praying in the Spirit should increase our confidence and expectation for guidance and an answer. Many give up before the answer comes. The saints of old would talk about “praying something through”—that is, praying and increasing in bold prayer until an answer comes. We can see God honoring this kind of prayer all through the Scriptures.

Praying in the Spirit is not just asking that God’s will be done, as in the Lord’s Prayer; it is pressing into His sovereign will with a desperate request for Him to move. There is great mystery in the interaction between God’s sovereign will and the prayers of the saints. Praying in the Spirit boldly enters this mystery with a bold request before the throne of God.

4. Learning How to Minister With and Like Jesus

When Jesus healed the sick, He never held a counseling session or a long prayer session. He gave a simple and powerful command for healing! Many would say, “Well, that is because He was Jesus.” But this is how He taught His followers to pray for the sick as well. When Peter and John entered the temple for prayer in Acts 3, they did not have a long conversation with the lame beggar. Peter simply said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

How did Peter know he had the authority and power of God to command healing? He had gained this confidence over years of following Jesus and watching Him minister, and now through the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. I find it profound and instructive that Peter’s response to the crowd’s amazement at the beggar’s healing was this:

“And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.” (Acts 3:16)

When Peter explains how this man was healed, he says it was by faith in the name of Jesus. There is nothing here about only an apostle being able to heal during a special time. Jesus is the same today, and the way He heals through us is the same today.

To be honest, we have often brought more psychology into our healing methods today than Scripture models. If you have adopted cessationism and do not believe the Holy Spirit works today to heal as He did through Jesus and His early followers, then you have likely forfeited learning how to participate in Jesus’ ministry to the sick as seen in the Bible, and you are forced to come up with substitute methods not found in Scripture.

It is so easy to let our experience—or lack of experience—dictate our theology of healing. The temptation is to say that Jesus just doesn’t heal the same way today as He did in the early church. Until we are faithful to minister with Jesus and like Jesus, we will be stuck in theological arguments, making excuses and letting our lack of experience set the tone for our convictions.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). His heart to heal the sick is the same. The question is: Are we willing to press in and learn to gain again the authority that Jesus has for us?

Where We Stand Today

I am rejoicing that my wife is getting stronger every day. However, the tumors are growing on the inside. I am pressing in on these things—asking, seeking, and knocking persistently for healing—as are many other prayer warriors. I am praying to gain authority in prayer, with a healing command that is in line with the will of my Father.

Our expectation every morning is, “We have today—thank You, Lord!” And, “Could it be today, Lord, that we see the miracle?”

Jesus told us to persist in our requests and not to give up. It is here that I stand, humbly submitted to the Great Physician!