Understanding God's Sovereignty in the Face of Disability

What if praying for healing isn't just about physical restoration but a deeper connection to faith and salvation? Join me, Tracie Corll, as we unravel the intricate relationship between healing, disability, and divine purpose within a biblical context. Through the lens of scripture, stories, and personal experiences, we explore how God's actions, from Naaman's obedience to the faith of the woman with the issue of blood, serve purposes that often surpass our understanding. We’ll discuss the importance of being sensitive and informed within church settings, making sure that all individuals, regardless of their abilities, are embraced and valued.

Discover how Jesus's healings were much more than acts of compassion—they were affirmations of faith and pointers to our ultimate need for salvation. We delve into the theological implications of suffering and disability, and challenge you to reshape your perceptions, highlighting the immense worth and value that every life holds in God's eyes. This episode is a call to action for churches to foster an inclusive environment where everyone can grow in their faith and serve Christ with their unique gifts. Get ready for a thought-provoking conversation on the sovereignty of God, the purpose of healing, and the true essence of salvation.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hi, my name is Tracy Corral and welcome to Indispensable People.

Speaker 2: 0:07

I'm a wife, mom, teacher, pastor and missionary and I believe that every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given, no matter their ability. Over 65 million Americans have a disability that's 25% of the population. However, over 80% of them are not inside the walls of our church. Let's dive into those hard topics biblical foundations, perceptions and world-changing ideas.

Speaker 1: 0:40

Hey, thanks for joining us on this episode of Indispensable People. Today we're going to talk about healing and that's going to be a little bit of a hot button topic simply because you have some very different schools of thought. As we kind of break that apart and talk about it today we want to understand that the relationship between healing and disability can be complex and really we just have to look at it from a whole lot of different perspectives. But mostly we want to be rooted in the scriptures and allow those to lead us in our understanding. We're going to need to understand that.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Some people say that disability is an intrinsic part of who someone is and that trying to pray for it to go away can imply that the person is broken or not whole. Others can say that aiming for a cure can obscure the goal of healing and fail to distinguish between disease and disability, and the difference between those can be a kind of a hairy place. But here's the thing God gave us a roadmap. He gave us the scriptures. We can look into those to guide us to a better understanding of healing. First and foremost, we want to know and remember that our God is the same God yesterday, today and tomorrow, which means if he healed in the past, he can heal today, which means if he healed in the past, he can heal today. I've seen it, I've experienced it. I know that I serve a God who can do incredible things and his ways are higher than my ways, and that's what scripture says, and that is because I will not fully understand who, why, what he chooses to heal and how he chooses not. There are purpose and plans, and I know that I serve a sovereign God, so I stand on all of those things as we look forward to understanding healing. I can tell you that many times people with disabilities have experienced a negative experience with the understanding or misunderstanding of healing. I am currently working on writing a book, kind of like the how-tos of disability ministry, and just recently I finished the chapter called Healing Is it a Deal Breaker? And I'm trying to help churches to understand that we need to take steps to further understand healing as it pertains to those impacted by disability.

Speaker 1: 3:36

As I've already said, it is a difficult subject and you are going to have a church full of people who have come from different backgrounds and different upbringings. We need to remember that just because we walk into a building on a Sunday morning does not mean that we walk in with all the same beliefs. We are going to take chances of offending the people that we serve based on our understanding of healing. So I have had families tell me that they've stood at an altar for prayer while someone told them that their faith wasn't strong enough, that they must have sin in their life that they've not asked for forgiveness of and that is why they've not been healed of and that is why they've not been healed. But here's what I know. I know that God heals for different reasons and I know that he chooses not to heal for other reasons. So we need to understand that healing is possible. God can do it. It takes him nothing to employ his healing power. But when we look into scriptures, we can see that God heals for different reasons, and some start with obedience.

Speaker 1: 4:59

If we're looking at 2 Kings 5, we have a man named named Naaman, who was a commander in the army and he had leprosy and he was told that Elisha could heal him, and so he was going to go to Elisha, stand before him, let Elisha do his, whatever he thought he would do, and then he would be healed. However, when Naaman showed up, elisha sent somebody out, told him hey, go dip seven times in the Jordan River and then you will be healed. And Naaman was like. He was like I'm not having it, dude, I am furious. And he actually this is what scripture says I thought he would surely come out to meet me. I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord, his God, and heal me. And really, eventually Naaman decided okay, I'm going to go do the dips, the seven dips in the river. And then he was healed. So we know that obedience can create an atmosphere for healing.

Speaker 1: 6:12

Also, we know that faith can be another catalyst for healing, and we have heard about the lady with the issue of blood. And he said to her your faith has made you well. We also know that compassion was another motivator for Jesus. He healed a man with leprosy, a boy possessed by an impure spirit. He also healed two men that were born blind. He raised a widow's son from the dead, and compassion and mercy were the motivators for that healing. Those people didn't necessarily seek him out. He went to them. Maybe some of them were in the crowds. That was a very common scene that we find Jesus in. But also we know that Jesus heals to show his glory.

Speaker 1: 7:09

John 9, 2-3 says that the conversation between Jesus and his disciples went like this. Here's what scripture says Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents? That he was born blind? And Jesus answered it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. You can take that further and look at Lazarus, who the story of him was like. Mary and Martha were like hey, you know, you got to do something. And then Jesus took his good old time getting to Lazarus and by then he was dead and Lazarus was called out of the tomb and he was alive and from that the people went out and they were shocked and they could die. The scripture says that they continued to bear witness about that miracle.

Speaker 1: 8:04

So scripture tells us there are different reasons for healing or different environments or catalysts in which healing takes place. But we also have to remember that the miracle, the healing, is not dependent on the receiver of the miracle. It is dependent on the healer, and so we need to know and understand that God will heal whenever he can accomplish his will through it the way he wants to, and God will also choose not to heal because he can accomplish his will through it. So here's the game changer, the hard truth, the perception switch, the piece of the understanding that your congregation, your group of people serving individuals with disability, needs to know, as they understand healing. God doesn't heal all the people all the time in our earthly experience. God's decision to heal may not be tied to their faith or lack thereof. Obedience may have absolutely nothing to do with it. It may be that God will be glorified in different ways other than healing.

Speaker 1: 9:18

So I have told this story about my friend in the past. I was her caregiver at one of the summer camps that I get to participate in because of the ministry that I'm a part of, and she has said that people in her cerebral palsy community question her about her God and they have said to her point blank listen, if your God was real, then why wouldn't he heal you? And she is told to them my God will heal me. It might be the day that I stand up out of my wheelchair on this earth, or it might be the day that I get into heaven and then I will be healed. God will heal, we will be whole. It just might be someday when we get to heaven. But what she says that changes everything is that God has a story to tell through her life, and she is going to let him tell it. So she's accepting listen, my healing will come. So she's accepting listen, my healing will come. But what God is going to do through my life, through my story right now, is more valuable than the healing that might come today, tomorrow or the day that I walk into heaven.

Speaker 1: 10:32

And so we need to know that God is sovereign, that he has a plan and a purpose for everything, and that there is nothing that goes to waste that he can choose and use for his good.

Speaker 1: 10:47

And so we need to understand that, overall, the greatest need any person has is not their healing, it is their salvation. So Jesus's healings are confirmed. They confirm belief in him and they have increased faith. They drew people to him, and the healings also led people to receive and see his compassion and mercy. They served as a purpose. The healings were an activator, but confirming a scriptural foundation of healing and those who have not experienced healing will change the way people understand their creator, their savior and their purpose in their suffering. God does not waste a thing. He doesn't. He's just not all willy nilly out there. Every single thing he does is intentional, everything is used for his good and his glory, and a life someone may question because of disability and lack of healing is a life that God knows the worth and value, because he knows the purpose and his plan will always be greater than ours.

Speaker 2: 11:56

Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I've absolutely not, but we are going to continue this conversation so that people of all abilities can have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given. Thank you,