Should I Contradict a Doctor’s Bad Report in Front of Him?
Before you decide what to say (if anything), you should recognize the difference between the diagnosis and the prognosis in the bad report. Let’s say that the doctor tells you, “Your PSA reading is 700 and your cancer has spread throughout your body. You need to make hospice plans because you will be dead within three months.” The diagnosis is that your PSA reading is 700 and that cancer is all over your body. I would not contradict or dispute that, and it would do more harm than good to say, “No, my PSA is not 700. I am healed by the stripes of Jesus. My PSA is 0 and there is no cancer in my body.” Now if you just don’t believe the diagnosis, nothing is wrong with going somewhere else to get another test. The Lord may even impress you that the diagnosis is wrong and that you need a second opinion. But otherwise, disputing a diagnosis is practically accusing that doctor of malpractice or at least telling him that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
However, any prognosis that does not include the complete healing that Jesus paid for you to have is contrary to the Bible and you must not agree with it. Any statement that it is your cancer or that you must die from it is unbiblical because it is the devil’s cancer and you have authority over ALL the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19). God promises you long life (Psalm 91:16). Cancer does not belong to you as a Christian; health does.
Jesus did not stay silent when the devil tried to use Peter to talk Him out of God’s known will:
Matthew 16:21-23:
From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Jesus had the ultimate love walk, so He was not out of love when He said this to Peter, though I doubt Peter appreciated being deemed a temporary instrument of Satan. I believe that Jesus was radically bold about this because He was determined not to let any of Satan’s thoughts take root in His mind even though they came from someone He was close with. If Jesus had to do this, you might have to do it as well.
I am not advocating that you say to a doctor who gives you a bad report, “Get away from me, Satan – you’re offensive!” But you should at least think that. There are other ways you can word things, as I’ll suggest below, but you should take the same bold stand Jesus took when someone tried to plant a seed of unbelief in Him.
The most important thing I can say is that you must not accept and internalize any statement contrary to Scripture, such as one that states that you will not live a satisfied, LONG life (Psalm 91:16) or will have any outcome other than the complete healing that Jesus paid for you to have. It doesn’t matter what it “looks like;” it matters what God says about it. You have to believe God’s report over the doctor’s report if you want an outcome that differs from what the doctor predicts.
No Bible verse technically requires you to say anything in this specific situation. It is up to you whether to say anything or not. My suggestion is that you disagree with the prognosis respectfully. For example, “I understand that you are doing your job by reporting the medical facts to me. However, I serve God, who He heals all my diseases, so the outcome will not be as you have stated. I understand that your prognosis is sensible apart from Jesus, but I am not apart from Jesus and I believe that He provided my healing, which I accept. I will live and not die.”
Even if you don’t “come out swinging” and accuse the doctor of being Satan’s tool of unbelief and discouragement, be warned that you may be in for a fight with that doctor. He may admonish you for being in denial and may even try to refer you to some kind of unbelief-filled psychologist who will help you “cope” with your imminent death. The doctor may appeal to others around you to talk you out of your stand of faith to “get you out of denial.”
If the doctor plays the denial card, you must realize that you are not denying the medical facts of the situation. You are denying the right of that cancer to stay in your body and kill you. To that extent, you MUST be in denial if you want to live!
I understand that we want everyone to like us, but you can die trying to get along with everyone, including doctors with gloomy reports and unbelieving relatives who want to cry and slobber over you, lamenting your imminent demise. You must not allow any of their thoughts to take root in you. If you don’t speak up, you may allow these “weed seeds” to start growing. If you don’t start talking faith immediately in front of the doctor, you’d better start doing it the moment he’s out of earshot. If you don’t say something in front of those unbelieving relatives, you’d better do something in a hurry to stop those thoughts from settling into your mind. You have to be bold, because you’re almost sure to be told that you’re crazy, deceived, in denial, and so on, and it’s never fun to get into an argument with relatives that you see regularly. Believe me, I know.
But my take is that if they have the right to talk unbelief at me, I have the right to talk faith back at them. They will get exasperated with you when they see how “dug in” you are and that you will not allow them to try to infect you with their unbelief, but they’ll probably back off, which is better than having them continue to prophesy your death in front of you. As with the doctor, you can disagree respectfully rather than accusing them of being hell-fueled deceivers when they’re just ignorant of the Word and don’t know any better.
I didn’t want to get in a scrap with the eye doctor who told me, “The growth in your eye is inoperable. You’ll just have to accept having blurrier vision for the rest of your life.” I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I was not going to take his word as my inevitable outcome, which I still assume would have been correct if I didn’t allow for divine intervention. But I didn’t get into a fight with him. He was just doing his job. I assume that his diagnosis was correct, but his prognosis was definitely wrong, because I went ahead and believed I received the healing Jesus paid for and my eye was completely healed without medical intervention by him or anyone else.
If you are in a hospital bed, you may need to order people who speak death over you to stop visiting you. Their feelings will be hurt, but if you “go along to get along,” their feelings will be hurt anyway when they have to attend your funeral. Do you want to live or don’t you? You need to be drastic about cutting unbelief out of your surroundings, especially if you’re finding it hard to stand on the Word when your body keeps talking pain to you. That means that if you’ve made the bad choice to attend a church where the pastor doesn’t believe in divine healing, you don’t want that pastor anywhere near you in the hospital. It will only hurt you if in an attempt to “respect” him, you let him come blabber, “Lord, we prayed for healing if it was Your will, but You obviously want this man to be in heaven with you. Be with Your child and comfort him as he goes down this final dark hallway of his life. Give him grace to endure the pain that You have permitted to come upon him in Your loving providence.” Hearing junk like that almost makes you WANT to die to get away from it!
It's up to you what to say to the doctor. But don’t accept any prognosis that is contrary to Scripture.