Some people suffer long with painful and debilitating afflictions. The sincerity of one’s faith, and the great grace the Lord extends to them is plain and genuine. It, nevertheless, has no bearing toward altering the full and certain accomplishment of healing and forgiveness God provided in the Atonement of Christ.

There are countless men and women throughout history whose faith in Christ sustained them through trials exceeding our imagination. God is perfectly wonderful at responding to one’s faith no matter the depth of their understanding.

The doctrine called ‘cessationism’ has robbed millions of the rightful provisions of God’s mercy through their ignorance or deliberate and intentional refusal to subject themselves to the powers and provisions of the age to come. However clever, sincere, keen, or innovative the thoughts and plans of man, they do not accomplish God’s ways. God knows man’s thoughts; that they are futile. Ps 94:11

In a ‘Christianity’ dominated by an intellectualism not subject to the Spirit of God, the miraculous powers Jesus conferred on His church gradually waned. The minds of men spawned doctrines from the scriptures which retained the forms of their faith, but forfeited its powers. Well-meaning people do not set out to foster empty religious notions, but without the continuous flow of power that initiated our new life in Christ, they always do.

No power, no Gospel. Without the works Jesus did, we are not telling His story. We’re making up our own.

Preaching a form of Godliness without power makes people read things in the Bible that just aren’t there. Telling people not to believe Christ’s promise that His followers would do the works that He did is to promote a lie - no matter your sincerity or depth of conviction. It’s no less untrue and impactful then to tell people the world is flat.

The entirety of the Gospel is supernatural, miraculous. Could God defend and keep the children of Israel from the sword and rage of Pharaoh while they remained as slaves? Yes. But He chose, through a man, to extend his staff and literally open the sea to make a way of deliverance.

For many years afterward, those who experienced God’s mighty deliverance from Egypt, still lived as though they were slaves in that land. Because they would not believe God, they made themselves ineligible to receive His promises. Notice that God’s loving kindness and mercy did not leave them. He continuously met their needs, fought their enemies, and cared for them in every way. They enjoyed his provision all their lives. But their unbelief set the limits of their experience of God’s calling for them.

Call it cruel. Call it Wonderful. But call it what it is: a person cannot live beyond what he can believe. Yes, persistence is required to attain what one believes. But Jesus declares the parameters: Be it unto you according to your faith. Mt 9:29

Do you imagine that the multitudes who have entered the Kingdom by being healed in Jesus’ name, are not also drawn into a discipleship that transforms them from a life of self exultation, pride and earthly passions, to a life of love, mercy and identification with the character of Jesus Christ?

Many who’ve endured physical sickness claim a ‘deeper healing’ as a result of not being healed physically. They refer to their infirmity as a blessing from God. Because they can’t seem to get rid of it, they reason that a wise God must want them sick to accomplish some deeper purpose. This does not square with the intention and activity of the Holy Spirit to work in us to transform us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. That transformation is for all saints for all times. ‘Deeper healing’ is not instead of physical healing or deliverance from demonic affliction. To the tormented person, no healing is deeper than the one they cry for.

That one is not physically healed does not confirm that such was God’s intention. On the contrary, Jesus' words and deeds unequivocally state God’s intention.

Transformation and sanctification of the inner life from a man of flesh to a saint yielded to the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit’s intended purpose in each believer. Overcoming, or dying to, bitterness, self-pity, murmuring and complaining and such carnal conditions is the ordinary process of growing up in our faith. Jesus demands such discipleship from all of His followers. Not once did Jesus withhold healing to promote discipleship.

Such a work of the Spirit of God is not given exclusively to those people who do not partake of the other gifts of God such as healing. It is not an ‘either’, ‘or’ proposition - either one accepts that they shall not be healed and is therefore given the deeper healing, or one takes God’s promise of healing through Christ’s atonement, and therefore forfeits the deeper healing. These are false equations.

Good character without power has minimal influence. Power without good character is reckless. Jesus never presented these as options, but requirements. People in today’s culture deride Christians because they say words that Jesus said, but live a lot like everybody else. If Christians said Jesus’ words and did His miraculous works, they would still be mocked, but Jesus would be feared.

Since when have we become the arbiters of how God may dispense His mercy? God has already given forgiveness and healing to us in Christ’s atonement. These are not in competition. They are complementary expressions of His extreme compassion and goodness. They are freely given to all. We simply have the invitation and opportunity to believe Him.