Lies Christians Believe About Healing #6
“It’s Sometimes God’s Will for People to Die Young”
by Gloria Copeland
When I first came in contact with the Word of God, I was what you might call a free spirit. I hadn’t been indoctrinated with a lot of religious tradition. On occasion, when I was growing up, I’d attended a church that was famous for its unbelief, but I didn’t go often enough for it to affect me. So, when I got born again and found out from the Bible that Jesus had provided healing for me, I simply believed and started receiving. I never bought into the lies that many Christians believe about healing.
For them—and possibly for you—it was a different experience. They’ve struggled to receive healing because they’ve been taught unscriptural doctrines that get in their way. Maybe they grew up in a church that preached God isn’t in the healing business anymore. Maybe they spent years hearing good, well-meaning Christians say that healing isn’t always God’s will.
Whatever it was, they’ve bought into the religious lies that say God won’t heal you. Today’s article is the final part of this six-part series, Lies Christians Believe about Healing. Let’s dive in.
Lie #6: It’s sometimes God’s will for people to die young.
Amazingly enough, Christians who fall prey to this tradition actually think it’s scriptural. When they hear about someone who died at an early age, they say things like, “Well, you know the Bible says it’s appointed to every man a time to die. I guess this was just their time to go.”
As spiritual as that might sound, it’s wrong. What the Bible actually says is this: “It is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27, emphasis mine). Whether we’re young or old when that once comes is up to us. If we believe and obey God’s Word, we can put it off until we’ve lived to a ripe, old age.
If we have the faith for it, we can be like Moses. He lived to be 120, and he wasn’t sick when he left this earth. He still had enough strength to climb Mount Nebo and his eyes were so sharp he could see the Promised Land from there.
How can you be sure that kind of long, strong life is actually God’s will for you?
Because of what He said in Proverbs 3:1-2: “My son, forget not my law or teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of a life [worth living] and tranquillity [inward and outward and continuing through old age till death], these shall they add to you.” What a WORD!
Those verses paint a picture of what God wants for all of us. He wants our lives to just get better and better. He wants us to enjoy the fulfilment of the promise in Psalm 91:16: “With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.”
That’s what my friend Dodie Osteen did.
Many years ago, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only a short time to live. Since the doctors had no cure, she went home from the hospital, put together a list of healing scriptures and started going over them twice a day.
At the time, I’m sure there were some people who, because of their religious traditions, expected her to die quickly. But she’d gotten rid of those traditions herself so she surprised them. She kept living…and living…and living.
After a while, the doctors verified it: Every trace of cancer was gone.
Today, Dodie Osteen is probably in her late 70s, and she looks beautiful. She’s healed, happy and going strong. Come to think of it, Dodie is living proof of the wonderful things that happen when you exchange tradition for truth!
In the last six parts of this series, Lies Christians Believe about Healing, I’ve shared, from the Word, about God’s plan for you. It comes down to this: You serve a loving God who through His Son, Jesus, provided a way for you to experience total and complete healing. As a new-covenant child of God, you are not subject to Satan’s ploys, but walking in God’s perfect—and healed—plan for your life takes a decision. God will not force Himself on you. If you want to be a part of His redemptive plan for mankind, you must decide to walk in it. So what are you waiting for? Get into the Word. Read it. Confess it. Let it become so big inside you that you won’t be swayed by symptoms, doctors’ reports or well-meaning loved ones. You are healed! Now walk in it!