An interesting thing happened to the Apostle Paul. During his time as an apostle, he acquired a physical disease.
Three times, Paul asked God for a miraculous healing of the disease. Three times, God told Paul, “No.”
Why did God say “No”?
Was there something wrong with Paul’s faith in Messiah Jesus?
Answer: No.
Did Paul ask for healing the wrong way?
Answer: No.
It wasn’t Paul’s fault that he didn’t receive the miraculous healing that he asked for.
So, did God contradict His word as recorded in Isaiah 53:5?
No, God did not. That is because Isaiah 53:5 isn’t talking about physical healing. Instead, that verse is talking about spiritual healing, as clarified in 1 Peter 2:24.
Sadly, way too many believers in Messiah Jesus have been taught to misinterpret Isaiah 53:5. As a result, they cause grief for believers in Jesus who have physical problems and who have received from God the same answer that Paul received.
Yes, God still gives miraculous physical healing to believers in Jesus who ask for such healing, but God gives it according to His will.
Is it always God’s will for believers in Jesus to be free of all physical diseases and physical disabilities?
Obviously, the answer is “No.” Otherwise, God wouldn’t have told Paul, “No.” Indeed, In Exodus 4:11, God tells Moses, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”
Yes, God says that He makes people deaf, mute and blind.
Some believers in Jesus have difficulty believing that God would do such a thing. Way too many believers refuse to believe that God would do something that defies their logic.
However, God doesn’t act according to human logic, as He explains in Isaiah 55:8-9.
Yes, we should celebrate when God chooses to give miraculous physical healing to people, and believers in Jesus shouldn’t stop asking for miraculous physical healing.
Yet, believers in Jesus need to accept the biblical fact that it may not be God’s will for a particular believer to be healed of a physical problem.
God doesn’t need all believers in Jesus to be free of physical problems in order for God to be glorified.
So, believers in Jesus should ask God for miraculous physical healing for themselves and for others, but believers should accept that “No” might be God’s answer. Nowhere does the Bible say that it is God’s will for all believers in Jesus to free of physical diseases and physical disabilities.
God has ways to glorify Himself through the physical problems of believers in Jesus. What matters is that God be glorified. If believers in Jesus are really seeking to glorify God, then they can accept God saying, “No,” when they want Him to say, “Yes.”
Pastors and other messianic clergy have a responsibility to not cause harm to fully devoted followers of Christ who have chronic physical problems. So, the former need to protect the latter from those who promote a misinterpretation of Isaiah 53:5.
Side Note: Not all believers in Messiah Jesus call themselves Christians, which is why the words Christian and Christians aren’t used in the preceding commentary.