Healing and Dead Works
Part of the foundational doctrine of Christ is repentance from dead works. (So if your church doesn’t preach repentance, it’s failed to preach 1 of out 6 of the basic doctrines of Christ found in Hebrews 6:1-2.) While sins like lying, fornication and worrying are dead works, I believe that there is a whole class of “religious dead works” that should be included in “dead works.” These are human efforts to achieve what only Christ could pay for.
Let’s take a look at some of them and see if you’re involved with any of them!
Bargaining with God to Get Healed
“God, if you’ll just heal me (or my spouse, my child, etc.), I promise you that I will do this, that and the other thing for you!”
You don’t have to bargain with God. Instead, you should be receiving a bargain from God. He offers you healing for free because it was prepaid by His Son when He suffered in your place.
Besides, you’re showing your carnality if you promise God that you’ll be more consecrated to Him only after He does something for you. Why not be more consecrated RIGHT NOW? If you won’t be more consecrated RIGHT NOW, don’t kid yourself into thinking that you will be more consecrated LATER! It may or may not be true that there are no atheists in foxholes, but “foxhole faith” is notorious for disappearing in a puff of smoke after God delivers someone. I’ve seen tragic cases where people were “gung ho” for God when they needed to be healed of an incurable disease, then after they came and actually received their healing, they backslid and went back to what they were doing before, sometimes not even bothering to come back and glorify God for their miracle, as was the case with 9 out of 10 lepers that Jesus ministered to on one occasion (Luke 17:12-19).
A former friend was “all out” for Jesus when he was believing God to buy a house for the first time in his life. Once he got his house, he became a troublemaker at church, backslid and ended up losing his house. So beware – if you are using God as a means to an end, you need to repent now. God should BE your end, not the means to something you want more than you want Him.
Prayers and Novenas to Deceased Saints to Get Healed
Attempting to pray to or with deceased saints is a total waste of time. The denomination that is known for this attempts to justify the practice based on the idea that “the whole family in heaven and earth” in Ephesians 3:15 can pray for one another. They miss the point that in order to have someone agree with you in prayer legally, he has to be on the earth (Matthew 18:18-20)! Thus, novenas (praying for the same thing nine days in a row – in other words, vain repetitions that Jesus warned against – by enlisting the help of a deceased saint) are a total waste of time. This turns into what is essentially a version of Greek mythology where instead of numerous “gods” you have numerous “patron saints” in charge of different things on the earth. For example, if you were lacking finances, you might go to a night meeting held in your church building and pray to the patron saint of Bingo. Okay, I’m being a TINY bit facetious. There is no patron saint of Bingo. So you would have to appeal to Saint Cayetano, the patron saint of gamblers, unless you do it too much, in which case Saint Bernadine, the patron saint of compulsive gamblers would have to help you with the mess Saint Cayetano got you into because Saint Christopher, the patron saint of luck, was having an off-day. Maybe instead of gambling you should get into the business of selling playing cards, as there are THREE official patron saints of playing card manufacturers – Balthasar, Caspar and Melchior. Some people actually believe in this stuff! You can go onto the Internet and find official information about these “patron saints” from the folks who make this stuff up and then teach it to the gullible.
If you want to actually receive something, receive it from the Lord directly by faith when you pray ONCE without the involvement of any deceased saint.
Other Repetitive Prayers
Don’t be like the heathen and think that God will hear you if you pray for something 100 times. Doing so is in bad taste because it insinuates that either God didn’t pay attention to you the first 99 times, or He didn’t care the first 99 times. If you don’t pray in faith, God could hear your prayer 9,999 times and not answer it, but He’ll answer it the first time you pray in faith. Once you’ve received your healing by faith, there is no need to pray to receive it even a second time – just thank God for what you’ve already received whether you feel better yet or not! That’s what real faith does.
Sacrifices and Good Deeds to Get Healed
Any attempt to BUY something that’s free is an insult to grace. Giving a special offering, doing extra Christian labor, giving away something you like, etc., is an affront to the good news that Jesus WAS the sacrifice that was needed to provide what you need. You don’t have to pay for something that Jesus already paid for. Just receive it!
Fasting to Get Healed
Fasting done properly is an excellent way to keep your flesh under and get more in tune spiritually. But fasting because you want something is anti-faith. Fasting to make God feel sorry for you is a waste of time. He already has COMPASSION on you, which is far better than just feeling sorry for you. His compassion moved Him to send Jesus to purchase your healing. Fasting as a form of protest because God hasn’t done something yet is merely a hunger strike that God will ignore. Fasting to prove your consecration is useless because you don’t get healed because of your consecration, but rather by Jesus’ consecration to let God’s will be done when He suffered physically for your sins to buy your healing.