God Does Not Play Favorites
God does not give one person preferential treatment over another. In other words, He does not play favorites. He is not a “respecter of persons” (to use the Bible term), though He is a respecter of faith. If one person comes to Him in faith and receives his healing, and another does not come in faith, only the first person receives his healing even though it is available equally to both of them.
Acts 10:34:
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
Romans 2:11:
For there is no respect of persons with God.
Ephesians 6:9:
And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
Colossians 3:25:
But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.
1 Peter 1:17:
And if he call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
No Personal Favoritism
God does not have something against you that causes Him to heal everyone else, but not you. Yet the devil loves to torment believers with that idea. You are NOT some special case that God has singled out for worse treatment. If you will believe, you can receive the same things as anyone else who believes.
No Racial Favoritism
God does not favor one skin color or race over another. Yet we see absurd statements from time to time alleging things such as God giving a special anointing to people of color. Baloney! That might pander to people of color and get you a nice audience with them, but the idea contradicts all the verses above. Nor does God give a special grace or a special place in revival to native people, as has been claimed. That might make you popular with native people, but God is not singling out groups of people for special anointings to “make up” for past enslavement, oppression, or whatever. Everyone gets equal treatment.
God will move wherever people believe His Word and welcome His Spirit. We’ve seen some dramatic miracles on a certain native reservation. In one such meeting, they were going to the local nursing home and wheeling people in to be ministered to while we were preaching. We kept laying hands on sick people for two hours as they kept going out and fetching more sick people to have hands laid on them. It reminded me of the Book of Acts. But this did not happen because God moves in a special way if you’re on a reservation. All you need is preachers who believe and preach the Word coupled with hungry, receptive people. We had that combination, and it was explosive. However, as in Jesus’ day, the very same preachers can go to another place where people have a ho-hum, so-what attitude toward the things of God and very little will happen. Jesus did a lot of notable miracles at Capernaum but none in Nazareth. The issue wasn’t Him, it was the receptivity (or lack thereof) of the people. Certainly, God was just as willing to do miracles at Nazareth if the people were open to Him; unfortunately, they were too busy being skeptical.
No Cultural Favoritism
God does not favor people of any cultural heritage over others. Despite what people will sometimes tell you, God grants no special status to so-called Messianic Jews. Spiritually, there is no such thing as a Messianic Jew – the Bible is clear that in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11). You could use the term simply to indicate someone’s cultural background, but from a spiritual standpoint it is incorrect to call a converted Jew a Messianic Jew. The biblically correct name for a Jew who receives Jesus is a Christian. Yes, that is exactly the same term for a Gentile who receives Jesus. God has made us one, having broken down the wall of division that was between Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:11-18). Our background makes no difference today, as that passage in Ephesians makes absolutely clear. We all have the same right to healing and everything else that God provided in Christ.
No Geographic Favoritism
God does not give any special breaks to people in Africa just because they are in Africa. If He is not a “respecter of persons” (favorites-player), He can’t treat someone in one country differently than someone in another country. I’ve heard it suggested that God does special miracles in some places because medicine is not available or affordable there. The implication, if you think about it, is that God would force you to use an inferior, more expensive, more time-consuming method with frequent adverse side-effects that does not always work if you live in an advanced country, but use a superior method that will work on any ailment with no adverse side-effects in poorer nations. Fortunately, God’s provision for supernatural healing is available because of what Christ did for us, not because of where we live. Jesus made the same great provision for every person in the world.
I have observed as a practical matter that where good medical treatment is not available, people are more receptive to divine healing. If your choice were “believe or die,” you would be highly motivated to receive divine healing, too! I’ve been one place where people used to depend on going to healing services, but then a modern new hospital opened up. It might have been the worst thing that could have happened from a divine healing perspective. Flesh is lazy, and people tend to look for the easiest way out of things. Going to the hospital occasionally probably seems easier than keeping yourself full of the Word. The sad part, though, when people slack off in their faith, is that they may come down with a condition that modern medicine cannot fix, at which point they’re in no place to believe God for healing.
In any event, the fact that people without access to medicine are more motivated to believe God does not mean that God favors them in any way just because they have no medical care. They have to believe just like anyone else. They’re just more motivated.
No Economic Favoritism
God does not give any kind of special healing grace to people who cannot afford health care. Everyone in Christ has the same access to everything. Again, the same verse that tells us that there is no Jew or Gentile in Christ also asserts that there is no slave or free (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11). People on the low end of the economic spectrum have the same access as people on the high end. God does not deny healing to the rich just because they can afford medical care. You never see Jesus telling anyone to go see a doctor instead of receiving from Him just because they had the means to pay a doctor!
No Gender Favoritism
Men and women have the same rights and privileges in Christ. Go back to Galatians 3:28, which asserts that there is no male or female in Christ. It means that men and women have equal rights to receive healing and all other benefits. By the way, in our day we have to point out that God does not say that people can be any gender they want (or “non-binary”) once they become Christians! God still created us male and female, and you can’t change what God made you by taking on a different name, wearing different clothes, taking hormone pills or even getting surgery. However, you were born is how God made you, and that is what you always will be. If you have only X chromosomes, you’re female. If you have X and Y chromosomes, you’re male. End of story.
No Chronological Favoritism
Contrary to what most people think, God did not give the “early church” some special grace that we can’t access today. God does not play favorites across time either! Of course, Old Testament people could not have access to what wasn’t available until Jesus’ death and resurrection. But ever since the upper room on the day of Pentecost we have been in the same age. There is nothing in the Bible that separates an Early Church Age from a Late Church Age. There is just the Church Age. Everything the early believers had the right to do, you have the right to do. Nothing has changed, other than people in general getting lukewarm in more comfortable countries. But you don’t have to be lukewarm just because you live comfortably. Anyone today has the same right to lay hands on the sick and do miracles that the early disciples did. You will search in vain for proof that they had some kind of advantage back in the book of Acts that you don’t have. If anything, you have an advantage because you can read a printed New Testament, which was not available to those early believers in Acts – some of the books hadn’t even been written yet! They were LIVING the book of Acts even though it wasn’t yet available for anyone to read!