James 3: 17
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, free of hypocrisy.
I told you the story about the rash I had and the miracle healing of it. Well, there are a couple of interesting take aways from that story. First, it really wasn’t a miracle healing at all. It was just God being God. I didn’t receive prayer and “Eureka” the rash was gone. It vanished because God had already provided healing and I finally cooperated with Him. The second important take away was that it wasn’t a Word from God on healing that I needed. It was a revelation on, first, prayer, and second, repentance. The important lesson from this little example is that it might not be healing you need. It might be repentance, or obedience, or something else entirely.
I heard another story like this once. The administrator of the ministry school I attended told this story one evening about praying for her sick child. She faithfully sat at his bedside confessing every healing scripture she knew and praying diligently for his health. The child’s health continued to deteriorate until he was at the point of death. She did everything she knew to do, but she didn’t do everything God knew to do, at least not until she received a revelation from Him. Exhausted and defeated, she turned to God and in those quiet moments, when not even prayer was being said, she heard God’s word. He told her she was praying the wrong thing. As she listened to that calm voice within her, the truth was revealed. She hastened to pray according to the word of wisdom from God and the child recovered.
I could have prayed and prayed and prayed for healing from the virus that caused the rash. I could speak to the rash and tell it to be gone. Those things would have left me frustrated, confused and still covered in a rash. It was the Word from God which healed me. Healing was in doing what Father told me to do.
We don’t always know what we need. We don’t always know the underlying cause of a thing. It looks like we need physical healing, but God might say we need emotional healing. I just read yesterday that 85% of illness has emotional roots. He might show us that we have gotten off course and the path we’re on has unintended, negative consequences so that the remedy is to get back on course. The point is, we just don’t know what we don’t know. However, God is omniscient. He knows. We need to learn how to be still; to be quiet and let Him speak to our hearts. He will lead us if we allow Him to.
This is why I have been encouraging meditation, stillness and quiet. I have written in years past about “busy” being a four-letter word. It all has to do with hearing God and receiving His guidance. When we get so busy that we no longer have the opportunity for quiet time with God, then we are too busy. It’s not healthy for us nor productive in the long term. Take some time to be in the tranquil presence of the Lord and let him speak to your heart.
See also: Psalm 46:10, Psalm 32: 1
