Yet the gospels lead us to believe that Jesus wishes everyone to be healed. Why, then, are some not healed?

In the book I wrote with my wife, "The Keys To Praying For Healing", we discuss this at some length. There is no simple answer to that question. A range of possible answers lies both with the pray-er and with the prayed-for. This article briefly considers the latter.

Investigating these sets of causes will greatly increase your effectiveness in praying with people for healing.

1. The Cause Can Lead To The Cure This can often be closely related to the latter point. Find out all you can about how the condition came about. For example, were other people involved? Are they being blamed? Is God himself held to be blamed? The latter is not uncommon. Frequently the key to healing lies in the cause of the complaint.

Check-out as many possible factors like these as you can. Often time is very limited, of course. But some occasions do permit time for more thorough investigation. This is especially so if you hold healing sessions at home or through church facilities. There is no need to be crude about this. Just keep such possibilities in mind as you question the person.

2. Lack Of Belief By The Suffer While this problem is most likely to arise in expected instances, there will also be unexpected ones. In the former case, one might expect "marginal" Christians to have little expectation of healing.Yet sometimes these people are remarkably open to the healing love of Jesus. They may seem to us to be on the fringes of Christianity, but there are sometimes quite, at least to them, valid reasons for their apparent lack of involvement in the Body of Christ.

Sometimes people whom we expect to be open are not. On occasions there are hidden reasons for this. If so, we need to try and discover them and, in difficult cases, tease them out. Sensitivity and a lack of judgementalism are extremely important in ministering. People will tend to close up in the face of crudeness and an apparent lack of real concern for them.

3. Lack Of Faith In The Pray-er This is a problem almost always specific to lay people. It is perhaps of more concern in some denominations than in others. The problem is that some people can believe that God will heal, but through you ...? A minister, perhaps, but a lay person ...?

More often than not, this is a problem with people who have limited experience of the healing ministry. Be patient with them. As your reputation grows, the problem will go away. In the meantime try giving some witness to the way God has used you in the past to bring healing to people. Yes, there is a possibility of you sounding "big-headed", but that is a risk you have to take. Take it gentle, trying to bring such witnessing in almost casually, perhaps to illustrate a point or principle.

4. Unforgiveness
This is probably the best known cause for nonhealing occuring. Probably because it is at least one of the most frequently encountered! Surprisingly, it is also one of the most easy causes to deal with. Why?

People usually have a great instinct for self interest. If the person has some area of unforgiveness and are reluctant to forgive those who offended them, quote some such scripture as Matthew 6. 14, 15 to the effect that: if you will forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you will not forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins.

This usually works with considerable effect. That is partly because many people are are simply not aware of the conditions for receiving forgiveness. That kind of ignorance is one of the reasons why healing and teaching are complementary spiritual gifts.
A K Whitehead Web Site: www.christianword.co.uk Experience: Over twenty years in Christian healing and teaching. Qualifications: B.A., M.Phil., Camb Univ Cert in Religious Studies Conditions of use: This article may be reproduced on condition that it is unaltered and that all this information is included.