Should I Throw Away My Medicine Because I Believe I Am Healed?
NO!!!!!
When the healing you believe for has manifested itself in your body and your doctor confirms that you don’t need your medicine anymore, feel free to throw it out. Until then, keep taking it.
Consider what happened to one man I knew. He wanted to “prove to God” that he believed that his eyes were healed and that he didn’t need glasses anymore. To “act his faith,” he took his road test for a driver’s license without his glasses, “believing” that his healing would manifest during his demonstration of raw faith. He failed! Moral of the story: After your body and your doctor confirm to you that you’re healed, you can stomp on your glasses or flush your pills down the toilet or whatever. Until then, don’t, unless you want to endanger and/or embarrass yourself and the Body of Christ.
Whether or not you take medicine has nothing to do with whether or not you believe that you have received your healing. God honors faith, which has nothing to do with whether you threw out your pills or stomped on your glasses. You can do those things and still not be in faith, and you’ll just regret that you did them, especially when you have the embarrassment of having to go buy new glasses or getting a replacement prescription filled. You can also be in faith and keep taking medicine. Why suffer unnecessarily while waiting for the full manifestation of your healing? If anything, it’s easier to pray and read God’s Word and stay built up when your body is not screaming in pain. This can actually help you stay in faith. Of course, you must not confuse medicinal relief with real divine healing from God. You would not want to say, “Oh, my healing has manifested; I’m not in pain” when you just took two aspirins (or your favorite pain reliever) to get rid of the pain. You’ll find out if you’ve really received your healing after the pills wear off!
Despite the scare stories that circulate about people dying without medicine while “believing” for their healing, I have yet to meet a present-day minister who preaches healing who says that you should throw away your medicine. Yes, there are cases (some well-publicized) of people who did not take medicine and died who claimed to be “believing” for their healing. They were zealous but unwise. They were not following generally accepted teaching among those who preach healing today.
People make a big deal about medicine vs. faith, but both are on the same team, so to speak. They both promote healing. One famous healing evangelist took a lot of flak for opening a hospital, and he had to keep explaining to people that he was using faith and medicine to help the sick, and that this was not a contradiction. He was right. It isn’t a contradiction.
If we were all perfect in our faith walks, we would not need medicine and we would always live in perfect health. I don’t know about you, but I’m not there yet. That’s our goal, and if we only get healed 80% of the time, that beats staying sick 100% of the time, doesn’t it?
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