When “It” Doesn’t Work

Posted by Yvette Dempster on May 12, 2012 in Body, Healing, Identity, Spirit

We have all had someone get worse or die after we have prayed for them. We have all experienced the grief that it has caused. And how many of us how asked God, “Why didn’t it work?”

What are we meaning when we say “it?” Faith- of course. We know the scripture says that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6)
And we have all memorized and quoted scripture while we prayed for the person to become well. Yet- what went wrong?

God has lifted up His Word above His Name (Psalm 138:2). That is what the Bible says. So we know that what He has said is above even the power of His Name. That isn’t my opinion, that is what He said. So we need to go back to what He said to find out what went wrong.

Jesus said, “if you have faith as mustard seed (very tiny) then you will speak to the mountain and it will move from here to there.” (Matt 17:20)
So, what is the evidence of faith? The fact that the mountain moved. But this is where we get stuck. We often get confused and think that faith is when we have spoken to the mountain. And we think that it is about the prayer we prayed or the scripture that we quoted that gets the job done. Not so. When the mountain moves,that is when faith was in action. If the mountain did not move, faith was absent. Period.

So, when someone dies or their problem becomes worse after we have prayed we often (if not always) go into our “head” and start to reason it out. We start to use ‘logic’ when we ask “why didn’t it work?” Often we know that it is because of unbelief but then we can start to bash and blame ourselves…but that just leads us into condemnation.
Or the other road, through logic, is by thinking that the person we were praying for didn’t have ‘enough faith’ (especially of they are a Believer). But then we just play the ‘blame game’ and it leads to more condemnation. Worse yet, we can justify it in our minds and tell ourselves that God is ‘sovereign’ -so in the end it becomes God’s administrative choice whether or not He decided to heal them. But watch what that does to our faith… the next time we go to pray for someone our thoughts automatically default to our previous experience and we begin to rationalize it again even while we are praying. We start to think “well, God decided to take Billy home instead of healing him, and Billy was a Christian so he is in Heaven which means he is now perfectly well.” But when we default to that type of thinking we are effectively removing faith because we have been deceived. Faith isn’t a feeling, and it isn’t about options. Faith isn’t a formula and there is no plan B.
If Jesus was physically in the room when Billy was sick He would have healed Billy. Why? Because God showed us through Jesus that it is always His will to heal. Jesus is the Word made flesh. And Jesus did only what He saw His Father do. He only said what He heard His Father say. Jesus ALWAYS healed everyone. It is time for His Word to be elevated above our experiences. The Gospel changes our experience, our experience will never change the Gospel…. but we sure act like it does. Take those thoughts captive. They are lifted up above the knowledge of Christ. They are strongholds. They are doctrines of demons. They are traditions of man that nullify and make the Word of God have no effect in our lives (Mark 7:13).

Another elevated thought? We think that if someone else in the room is in doubt then the job won’t get done. Jesus always worked amidst the doubters. Nothing prevented Him. He is alive in us- we are ONE spirit with the Lord. It is no longer we who live- it is Him in us! The hope of Glory! He is the ‘yes’ of God! Why? Because of His love. Don’t let what other’s don’t believe change what you DO believe. Jesus didn’t.

What about when the people of His own hometown were offended with Him and He could do no miracles there-except heal a few sick-(Matt 13:57-58,Mark6:5). That’s simple: if people were offended with Him, would they bring their sick to Him? Would they ask Him for a miracle? No. The problem wasn’t that Jesus wasn’t able to. Jesus ALWAYS had faith. The mountains ALWAYS moved. The problem was that because people were offended they didn’t bring the sick to Him-so He could do no miracles. No people=no miracles.
We badly need to change our perspective. Our spirits are born-again but our souls need saving. We need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds to understand what the will of God is. He is always willing- we just need to believe. Any “if’s” or “but’s” in our thinking will quickly stop our faith.

When we suffer loss- let us face our Father. Let us raise our heart’s cry to Him and say, “Lord! I know there is something more that I need to grow into. I thank You that I am growing up into the image of Jesus. I thank You for more revelation! I thank You that the next time all I see is that Jesus is the answer.” Let us move from praying because we are in need (fear-driven prayers) to praying because we believe that Jesus is the answer- and He already said, “YES!” (faith-driven).

This is part of our journey into understanding our identity in Him.
Oh Father, we believe You.