Objection: Sometimes God’s Path for Your Healing Is Through a Doctor Rather Than the Supernatural

This is a true statement at face value, but the usual implication is false.  Sometimes God will lead you to go to the doctor, take medicine, or have an operation.  However, that is NOT because His perfect path for your healing is through medicine in your case.  It is NOT because God is unwilling to heal you supernaturally.  God will lead you to doctors in cases where He knows you are not in a position to believe for a supernatural healing.  If you are not ready to stand in faith for healing, I would send you to a doctor, too!

A modern, watered-down gospel says that sometimes God will refuse to heal you supernaturally because he wants you to use a doctor instead.  I can see how a doctor might like this version, but it has no foundation in the real gospel.  You cannot find anywhere in the New Testament where Jesus or one of His followers refused to heal someone and referred him to a doctor for his healing.  Jesus didn’t tell the woman with the issue of blood to take out a loan so that she could see more doctors after her money was gone.  Paul didn’t turn away sick people on the island of Melita and tell them to find Dr. Luke who could write out prescriptions for them.  God operated through Peter, but He didn’t “operate” in the medical sense of that word.

Because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), He must deal with people the same way today that He did 2,000 years ago.  He never told anyone then, “I won’t heal you supernaturally.  See a doctor!”  Therefore, He never tells anyone that now.  (See The SAME Test for more examples of this truth.)  Some people think He does, but they don’t know the Jesus of the Bible when it comes to healing.  If you want to know Jesus, read about Him in the Bible.  If you want to know what Jesus will do for you, read what He did for others in the Bible.  That is the only way to know.  You can’t know God through experience; you have to know him through His Word.

Before you believe something, get chapter and verse on it.  You won’t find any chapter or verse for the idea that God won’t heal you Himself because He wants you to go to the doctor!  Be as noble as the Bereans and search the Scriptures to see if what you heard on some Christian TV show is so or not.

God cannot refuse to heal you supernaturally because as far as he is concerned, he already did!  1 Peter 2:24 is in the past tense.  Supernatural healing is legally yours.  God cannot arbitrarily refuse to honor His healing covenant with you.

Having said this, I am in favor of doctors.  They want you well, and so does God.  Medical science is a blessing.  Through it, some people can learn how not to get sick in the first place.  If you are sick, doctors can give you wise counsel about how to hasten your healing through natural means, or at least not make your condition worse.  Paul gave Timothy natural advice to avoid sickness, so God is all in favor of such advice.  Just don’t conclude that God makes exceptions to his supernatural healing covenant.  He doesn’t!  Healing is freely available to you and everyone else without the use of doctors.  But if you are struggling in this area, get to a doctor.  God won’t be upset with you if you do that.  But at least keep building yourself up in the Word so that in the future, your path to healing may not have to go through the doctor’s office.