Last week we pointed out the fallacy of questioning God’s will to heal or a person’s right to teach it if that person doesn’t demonstrate 100% success with ministering healing. Today we continue to talk about the same, especially in response to those who use the “100%” criticism to argue that setting people free can’t be as simple for us as it was for Jesus.

“If It’s So Simple, Why Don’t You Get 100% Results?”

Some have used the “100%” argument to argue against my conviction that if supposed “blocks” or “hindrances” to healing didn’t make anything impossible to Jesus, so it shouldn’t make anything impossible to us. The same with the study we did a few months ago on the simplicity of Jesus’ deliverance ministry.

My response is the same as my answer to those who oppose teaching that God’s will is healing 100% of the time. No, I haven’t always had the same results as Jesus. But what I am saying has born fruit and continues to do so. Once I had the issue settled in my heart and stopped worrying about “hindrances” and “blocks” to healing, I saw a lot more fruit. I saw people physically healed who had little progress before that after hours and hours of counseling and ministry. I even saw people who were mocking or in total unbelief healed when I ministered to them.

We have heard multiple testimonies of people healed of severe emotional trauma, mental disorders such as bipolar, and serious physical conditions through one encounter with God’s love. What if we have the testimony of one person who was healed of bipolar and deep trauma in a single encounter with God’s glory, in spite of all their issues? What if I can show you one person who was healed of terminal cancer in spite of their rebellion, bitterness, unforgiveness, and anger at God? Why isn’t it possible for others?

If none of those issues “blocked” the healing for that one person, why should I consider them “blocks” when I minister to anybody else?

I personally was set free from mental torment and OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) in one encounter with God’s glory. It felt like I was in heaven for months after that and I felt so much of God’s love in my heart that I was just weeping half the time and wondering how it was possible to love so much. My friend Stuart in one encounter with God’s love was set free from suicidal depression, bulimia, OCD, and severe physical pain that had him bedridden for six months. Yet some people would have insisted it would take months of ministry for someone as messed up as Stuart to make some significant progress towards dealing with his “issues.”

Does holding to such a high standard for what’s possible in Christ mean that we disparage working through things, or fail to rejoice in gradual improvement? No. Does it mean we have no place for perseverance and tenacity? No. It just means that we refuse to adapt a theology that magnifies “issues” over God’s power to deliver. How great do we believe God’s power is to undo the works of the devil?

There is an increasing manifestation of God’s glory. We rejoice if we pray for five hours and a person no longer needs a wheelchair! We rejoice if it takes five months of continual progress! We celebrate even a small improvement and thank God for it.

I’ve prayed for many people for 15 minutes or half an hour until all their pain was gone. I’ve prayed for others for hours. I also know there is a manifestation of glory where people are healed in your proximity and you don’t even have to pray. You might not even know it until later. What I regularly walk in is very little compared to what I have at times experienced. And that is very little compared to all that’s possible in Christ. I am constantly aware of how much more is possible. I’ve just tasted enough to know.

The message that continues to bear fruit is a message that leads from glory to glory. If we are going from one degree of glory to another as we behold the Lord, there is a greater degree of glory to walk in. The river of God in Ezekiel gets deeper and deeper the more we enter. Who is going to say “No, it’s not possible for God’s glory to be manifest through me to a greater degree than it is currently?” 

If we focus on the stories of people who are healed, that group grows. If we begin to despise those testimonies we fall into unbelief and are blinded. Our hearts become hard. If we focus on the people who we haven’t yet seen healed, that group grows. Some people in healing ministry, discouraged by what they haven’t seen, lose the awe and thankfulness to God for seeing a headache supernaturally healed. But the more we continue to rejoice in what we do see, the more the manifestation of power and glory increases. Which attitude bears fruit that continues to increase?

Friends, what I do in many of my articles is paint a picture of what it looks like for the body of Christ to walk in the full measure of the stature of Christ. If I am not fully walking in all I talk about, does that make me a hypocrite? No! If it were so, nobody could be a minister. But it is God who qualifies us in Christ and works in us to will and work his good pleasure! If we don’t have that vision for what it looks like to walk in the full measure of Christ’s stature, what do we have to grow into? What do we have to behold? Are we not transformed from one degree of glory to another as we behold Christ?

Do you see how huge the problem is with criticizing a viewpoint that sees all that’s possible in Christ just because we aren’t walking fully in it yet? It actually implies that we as the church are already reflecting the full measure of the stature of Christ and it’s not possible for God’s power or nature to be manifest through our lives to any degree greater than it is currently! It implies that we have already fully appropriated all of God’s promises and there is no need to continue to do so.

Holding to an extremely high standard for what’s possible in Christ can lead to playing the “blame game” if our perspective is twisted. That’s one reason that many people reject such a big vision of what Christ can do through us. Check out the next post “Get out of the blame game!”