You Can, Can’t You? And You Want, Don’t You? So You Will, Won’t You?

When I was a child I read a story about a woman of faith who, whenever she prayed, used to end up with something like “You can do it, can’t You, and you want to do it, don’t You, so You will do it, won’t You?”, and, so the story went, God inevitably gave her what she asked of Him.

I don’t know whether this is an apocryphal story. But it made a big impact on me. In my student days, when coping with the challenges of examinations, et.c., I’d ask God for help in studying and revising then in answering the exam papers. Invariably, I prayed along these lines. And invariably, I did very well in the exams, so my faith in this prayer formula grew.

But then it began to dawn on me that while the prayer was framed almost like a logical argument, (If God can and God is willing, then God will answer the prayer), the “IF” part rested on a shaky foundation. Was God really willing to answer every prayer I made? I tried a few prayer experiments, and asked God to move a pencil box, so I would know the truth of Jesus’ saying “If you have faith as big as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, be moved and cast into the sea, and if you don’t doubt it in your heart, you will have whatever you say..” I then tried to maintain an attitude of faith and was sorely disappointed. So although one side of my mind believed Jesus’ words, the other side of my mind looked at the visible, and the battle of faith was lost.

But now it strikes me that the faith should have been based on the invisible realities of God and His Word, not on any tangible “evidence” that might result from a faith experiment, the basis of which was doubt right from the beginning!

So I decided to base the ywo parts of the argument purely on the Scriptures?

Can God?

God is able to heal you!

God is able to do anything! He refers to himself as God Almighty.

Genesis 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Genesis 35:11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

Here are some other Scriptures declaring God’s omnipotence:

Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Genesis 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

Revelation 19:6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

If God was able to create the entire universe (including you!), surely he has the power to heal any physical problem you happen to have?

The fact that Jesus healed all sickness and all diseases among the people should also be proof enough that God is able to do this.

Furthermore, upon the return of Jesus, God will instantly change your entire body from being mortal to being immortal. In the blink of an eye, every Christian on the planet will be instantly healed of every physical problem, and even that won’t put any kind of power drain on God Almighty.

So there should be no question in your mind that God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, is able to heal whatever condition you have! If you believe that He is going to heal you completely when Jesus comes back, you surely believe that He is able to completely heal you right now! This settles the question of God’s ability to heal you.

Is God willing to heal you?

Yes, He is!

Here is where most Christians stop short of their healing. They know that God is able to heal them, but they don’t believe that God is willing to heal them. So in most cases, they don’t even ask God to heal them, let alone ask in faith.

Only one person in Scripture questioned Jesus’ willingness to heal. He knew that Jesus was able to do it, but he did not know if he was willing to do it. “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Read about this in the following passages:

Matthew 8:2 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

The leper did not doubt Jesus’ ability to heal him, just His willingness to do so.

As if one telling was not enough, the Holy Spirit told it twice more:

Mark 1: And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

Luke 5:12 it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

13 And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

Jesus’ answer to the leper was, “I will.” He never told anyone, “I won’t.” Since Jesus is the same today as he was then (Hebrews 13:8), his answer to anyone with that question today must also be the same: “I will.”

We know from Romans 2:11, Ephesians 6:9, and Colossians 3:25 that God does not play favorites. He treats everyone the same.

Romans 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

Ephesians 6:9 And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

Colossians 3:25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

In fact, we are told that we are sinning if we don’t treat everyone the same (James 2:1-9, 1 Timothy 5:21).

1 Timothy 5:21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

James 2:1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

Therefore, we know that God cannot possibly be willing to heal one person and not be equally willing to heal another, including you. However, God is fair to insist that you meet the same conditions as everyone else.

Is God willing to save everyone?

Healing is simply the physical benefit of salvation. God is willing to save everyone, with no exceptions. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God is both able and willing to save every person on earth.

Since the same atonement that provided salvation from hell is the same atonement that provides healing for your body, it is insane to think that God is willing to extend one benefit of salvation to everyone while withholding another benefit for some mysterious reason. (You will see in Isaiah’s prophecy of redemption that healing is definitely provided in Christ’s atonement.)

The fact that some people will spend eternity in hell has nothing to do with God’s choice in the matter. Likewise, the fact that some people never get healed has nothing to do with God’s choice in the matter. It is just as ridiculous to say that a person was not healed because God wouldn’t heal him as it is to say that a person was not saved because God wouldn’t save him.

Given that God is able and willing to heal you, Is anything required on your side?

Obviously the fact that God is able to do something and willing to do something does not mean that it automatically gets done. There is a missing ingredient. That ingredient is your faith. When you believe that Jesus bore your sins and you receive his gift of salvation by faith, you have something that God was able and willing to give you all along. When you believe that Jesus bore your sicknesses and you receive his gift of healing by faith, you receive something that God has been able and willing to give you all along.

You do not need to work on God’s end of things to get Him to be willing to heal you. Do not beg, plead, cajole, pester, entreat or supplicate to try to make Him be willing to heal you. He already is willing! Since He is both willing and able to heal you, you can receive healing from Him.

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