Joni Tada - Wheres My Miracle?: Unanswered Prayer

The printed version of this eBook is the Where's My Miracle? pamphlet, ISBN-13: 9781596365094

Cover photo: Scott Leigh

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

It is illegal to photocopy, transmit electronically, post on the internet, or reproduce this pamphlet in whole or in part in any form.

2012 Joni Eareckson Tada
Rose Publishing, LLC
PO Box 3473
Peabody, Massachusetts 01961-3473 U.S.A.
Email: info@hendricksonrose.com
www.hendricksonrose.com
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• Brings comfort to those waiting on God to heal them, calms those questioning Gods hand in their situation, and encourages those still waiting for an answer to their prayers in just 30 minutes.
• Offers wisdom, tips, and insight from Joni Eareckson Tada, an international advocate for individuals with disabilities, a published author, a non-profit founder, and a quadriplegic who has learned how to trust in God in all circumstances.
• Renews faith by revealing the Bibles promises on healing and 7 ways God can use physical suffering for good.

Nothing can describe the horror when you hear doctors say, You will never walk or use your hands again. All I could pray was, Oh God, may it not be so! Visitors were a highlightthey brightened the otherwise dreary days. One afternoon, a man I had seen in the hospital hallways entered my four-bed ward. He came directly to my Stryker frame where I lay, paralyzed.

I liked his friendly, open face. He talked freely about God and asked about my life before the accident. Joni, he said, today is the day youre going to begin your healing. I knew my faith was weak, but the Bible verses he shared increased my faith. He prayed, anointed me with oil, and we believed together that God would heal me. But nothing happened. When a month passed, I thought, Maybe my healing will happen gradually. But my fingers and feet never got the message: Move, in Jesus name, move!

When I was released from the hospital, friends took me to healing crusades. I searched my heart for unconfessed sin. My faith was so strong, I called people to say, Ill be running up your sidewalk soon! Still, I remained paralyzed. Either God was playing some kind of cruel joke on me or my view of Scripture was wrong. But I couldnt imagine a God who expected his children to jump through so many hoops, and cruel tricks arent a part of his character. So whats the story?

After decades of reading and researching the Bible, Ive come to this conclusion: God certainly can, and sometimes does, heal people in a miraculous way today. But the Bible does not teach that he will always heal those who come to him in faith. God reserves the right to heal or not to heal as he sees fit.

To understand how I reached this conclusion, ask yourself this question: Just what is disease? I dont mean what is it medically or what is its physical cause; I mean what is it biblically? Why is it here? What is its purpose? The answers to these questions will shed a lot of light on the subject of healing. And to find the answers we need to go all the way back to the garden of Eden.

Mankinds rebellion against God resulted in death. Disease, sickness, and disaster are simply part of the package that goes with death. Every human being as well as all of nature is under this curse. But God did not abandon mankind. God promised that one day the Messiah would come to reverse the curse over the earth, and rescue those who would place their trust in him (Gen. 3:1519; Isa. 53:46).

He will do this by forgiving the sins of Gods people and by judging those who ultimately refuse to obey God (Mic. 5:25; Isa. 9:67).

The world of nature will be restored; the physical earth and animals will be affected; the sorrow and frustrations of mankind will be erased; and as for disease, God will cause the eyes of the blind to be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the lame to leap like a deer (see Isa. 35:59, 65:25).

With promises like these, the air of expectation for the Messiahs coming was at a fever pitch by Jesus day. But Gods people thought that everything the Messiah was to do would be accomplished in a single coming. They did not understand that their King would come first in humility as a servant, and only later in all his regal splendor (during which time he would complete all the promises and usher in a new earth where disease and death would be banished, and peace and joy would reign).

The kingdom of God was launched with the coming of Christ, though its fullness was still to be in the future (see Matt. 6:10; 25:3134; Mark 14:25; Gal. 5:21; 2 Thess. 1:5; Rev. 11:15). Jesus had come to challenge Satans false claim as ruler of the earth and to establish his own kingship, claiming back what was rightfully his. He had come to begin to reverse the cursehe had come to deal with sin and its results.

Jesus came to pay sins penalty on the cross, releasing believers from its power to harm them eternally. But to this day, Christians still struggle against sin (we wont be able to perfectly obey until the kingdom comes in its fullness). Yes, he broke the power of sin, but (and this is the important part) he didnt remove its presence from us.

Diana Taliun

How did Jesus deal with sins results?

He demonstrated that he truly had the power to reverse the effects of sin: Finding disease, he healed the sick. Faced with demon possession, he cast out spirits. Threatened by storms, he quieted the waves to demonstrate his kingship over nature. He was showing that he was retaking the rule of earth for himself.

But to this day, people still get sick and die; and there are still catastrophes of nature. Yes, he calmed the stormy sea, but hurricanes still take their toll. And though Jesus raised the dead, even Lazarus eventually ended up in a grave. Yes, Jesus healed many who had diseases, but what about the thousands in Israel who never met Jesus to be cured by him?

Jesus plan was to begin the kingdom and lay its foundation at his first coming. He wanted to give a foreshadowing of what things would be like at the end of time when the kingdom of God would be complete! Christians are living in two ages at oncewe experience the trials, temptations, and problems of this age, even though we have tasted the powers of the age to come. God is King right now, but he doesnt always flex his kingly muscles. Rather than totally wiping out sin and its results, he gives Christians a taste or down payment of what the kingdom and its fullness will be like.