Why Do Some Believers, Like Nabeel Qureshi, Die of Cancer?
Question : Christians around the world were saddened to learn about the death of Christian thinker and apologist Nabeel Qureshi at the young age of 34 [(i.e.) 1983-2017]. As for our brother Nabeel (or, another loved one you lost to sickness), God alone can tell us why he (or that loved one) was not healed. I would simply ask you to consider the following.
You might believe that the devil is a thief and a murderer, and therefore, in your view, Satan killed our brother. I would just urge you to remember that Nabeel placed his life in God's protective hands, and many prayed for his healing and rebuked the devil. You might want to give your viewpoint further prayer and reflection. Otherwise, how can you be so sure the devil can't get to you?
You might believe that God simply decided to take his son home, purifying his character through cancer. I would just ask you for scriptural examples of our Father doing this. And why, again, is serious sickness virtually always associated with curses, sin, demons or the devil in the Word? Why is sickness, in and of itself, never spoken of as a blessing from the Father? (I don't think Job or Paul's thorn are exceptions to this statement.)
You might believe that somewhere, somehow, sick people must be guilty of secret sin, otherwise they could not be attacked like this. But in holding this position, you are acting like the friends of Job, whom the Lord rebuked at the end of that book. (You're also forgetting verses like John 9:1-3.) And could it be that you find it necessary to come up with this theology as a means of self-protection, since, if a godly leader can get sick, you can get sick too?
You might say, "Obviously, people who die of sickness don't have enough faith." But that would also mean that the many people who prayed for Nabeel, including some used powerfully in healing, lacked faith too. And if you have so much faith, why didn't you successfully pray for his healing?
In the end, we will all die (unless the Lord returns in our lifetimes), and to be absent from these bodies is to be present with the Lord in a place of unspeakable glory, joy, beauty and perfection—forever! And so, even now, despite the massive hole left in our lives when a loved one dies, death has lost its sting.
As for the answer to the question posed in this article, I cannot say why our brother was not healed.
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name! It is indeed a very important topic you have discussed frankly to find a acceptable Biblical answer that can comfort us all and can heal the wounds of our curious mind that if left alone might cause the cancer of unbelief to destroy our faith in areas related to our bodily healing.
Yes God alone can know the answer to this intriguing question that we struggle and wrestle with to find a answer, but also we can delve deep in to the Scripture to find His will in these times of grief.
First of all we need to understand that God is sovereign, and that means He is free to do what he wants, when He wants and where He wants. Nobody of us have any more rights to ask Him, why you do all these things?, because we are all His creation and that we did not create Him, but He graciously and mercifully created us because of His own will and purpose to fulfill and enjoy.
There are certain following Scriptures that we need to understand, in order to fully accept the above statements about God's sovereignty:
"18 ... He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?" (Rom 9:18-20).
Because God is the one who created us from the dust which was also created by Him, He owns the rights over us and our lives. All we can do is surrender our lives as we are His subjects or rebel against His will and wishes. When we rebel we will live in a dry land spiritually and will be devoured by sword at the end with no eternal value for living our earthly lives (Isa 1:20), but if we willingly give in to His will in our lives to fulfill it, we can see how He can turn all things that happen to us in to something good for us eternally at the end as we who live by faith are all called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28; 1:17). As a clay house made from dust and mud, we do not have power over the potter who is our Creator God who has created us, so we cannot ask God why, as though God is indebted to us to explain why He does things the way it is or He has allowed something to happen opposite to what we expected.
“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).
Because God has made know the end from the beginning through His Word, He has declared from ancient times of what is to come, He is the one who has written the story line of the whole world and He can do whatever He wants to do as it please Him in His righteousness. We as humans are voluntary actors who come to act our part in the story line of His creation in our times, we can act according to what pleases our director or can rebel and reject Him to try to write our own story line for ourselves, no matter whether we participate in the grand scheme of the director God's story line or not, God says that His story line will not be changed or cannot be changed by us, as He is in-charge of everything and not us who are actually His subjects. In other words, "You can make many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail." (Prov 19:21, NLT).
No matter who is the president or the CEO, God is the boss who decides what will happen or not at the end of all things.
The LORD Almighty has sworn this oath: "It will all happen as I have planned. It will come about according to my purposes." (Isaiah 14:24, NLT).
Humans may make plan and even get angry against God, when it does not happen according to what they have planned, but the Word of God says, "Man's futile wrath will bring you glory. You will use it as an ornament!" (Psa 76:10). Let men and devils rage as they may, they cannot do otherwise than sub serve the divine purposes.
Our Heavenly Father has assured us who are His children in Christ Jesus,"28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Matt 10:28-31).
The wrath of man under the evil influence of Satan and his demonic cohorts, when it is lengthened out to its utmost boundaries, can only go to the length of killing the body, or in the breaking the sheath of clay in which the soul lodges, and then it can do no more. In other words, the devil can only steal, kill and destroy our body, but the eternal consequence of the temporal physical life lived in the purpose of God cannot be changed by him as God is the one who orchestrates our life in harmony with His will which pleases Him (John 10:10). The devil did his best to destroy both apostle Paul through the thorn in his flesh (2 Cor 12:7, 9-10), and also he did his best to destroy Job and his family (Job 1:12; 2:3, 6, 7), but at the end God worked it all in His will for their eternal goodness instead of their temporal one that perish in this limited life of time, space and matter. These great men of God through their trials have amassed great riches of eternal proportion, of which they could not have in any other way would have been able to achieve it (Heb 5:8; Jam 5:10-11; Heb 10:35-36; 1 Peter 5:10).
So Satan may do all he wants, but only with the permission of God he can do all those things, as he is a created being who can only do as much, as of the power he is given by God to do. So like a leashed dog ready to bite those who come near to it in its way, Satan can only touch those whom the Lord allows in His will for His Glory. In a eternal way if we see the work of Satan and all the evil, he is doing the bidding of God as His rebellious servant to fulfill His purpose at the end of it all. So we cannot blame Satan for our failure or even death, when we experience such bad things in our life as a child of God, we can only look to God and see whether we have tried to please Him with our earthly life in life or in death. Furious winds of the evil one will often drive vessels the more swiftly into port. The devil blows the fire and melts the iron (Prov 27:17; Isa 43:2), and then the Lord fashions it for his own purposes.
As a child of God, the Lord has not told us to fear the devil when he tries to do something bad in our lives, beyond it the Lord has instructed us to look only to Him and fear Him, because the devil can only kill when the Lord allows him to do so, but after death the Lord has the power to either reward us if we are His child or send the unbelieving person to hell fire with the body and soul after the white throne judgment of the end (Rev 20:11-15). Jesus gave a great example for us to understand, He said, as humans it is a small thing for us to spend a few penny to buy a sparrow which God has created in his own will, and may even think that if we want, we can do whatever we want with it priceless life. But God has revealed through Jesus, that we do not have power over the sparrows as we are nothing but a breath which He is holding by His power, therefore even the sparrows cannot be killed by us or any humans unless the Lord gives permission for us to do what we want to do, to it, either feed it or kill it (Isa 2:22). In other words, evil happens because God has given man the permission to choose either good or evil. This permission was given by God when a conscious decision was taken by our forefather Adam when he sinned and took a choice for us all to act independently apart from God (Gen 2:16-17; 3:11, 22; Rom 5:12). If God stops the power of choice to humans by taking away their breath, they die and return to the ground from which they have come (Gen 3:19; Psa 144:4; 103:15; 1 Peter 1:24).
Further the Lord Jesus has said that even if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground apart from the Father's will, so we as the children of God should never be afraid of any work of evil or Satan or demons as long as we are in this world, because our very hairs which may be a insignificant thing to us, but those mynute details of our lives [i.e. the number of our hairs] are know by our Father in heaven because He is very much concerned about our lives as we live on earth for His Glory. In other words, Jesus is telling us to approach by faith the Father God in heaven regarding every need we experience in this earthly life, so that He can bring a solution for His glory each time (John 15:16; 16:23-24). If we allow ourselves to fear, we cannot draw near to the Father in faith (Jam 4:7-8). Fear comes through unbelief in the goodness and love of God in any circumstances we face, but when the love of God fills us as we take our burdens to God (Php 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:7), fear flees and we again get grounded in faith which pleases God in all circumstances (1 John 4:17-19; Heb 11:6).
LESSON ONE: When things happens to us that which we feel should not have happened at all, first of all don't blame the devil and glorify him for his evil work, instead by faith accept the will of God and praise God that whatever has happened is for our eternal good and that it will glorify God and please him even when it is life or death (Rom 14:8; 2 Cor 5:9).
Death may be the last enemy of God to be abolished when it will be thrown in to hell fire for eternity during the time of white throne judgment (Rev 20:13, 14; 1 Cor 15:54, 55, 56, 57, 58), but it is already defeated by our Lord Jesus when He rose from the dead to tell us that death has no more power over us just like a scorpion has lost its sting or a snake has lost it poison to inflict damage on those who come near it (Luke 10:19-20). The keys of death is not with Satan anymore like in the Old Testament times, but Jesus is the one who is holding it in his hand now (Rev 1:18), which means that the risen Christ has control and authority over death. I mean even before Jesus died, He had the authority over death, had the unique power to give up His spirit and to rise from the dead (John 10:17–18; 19:30; Mark 15:44). But legally having redeemed humans from sin (Eph 5:2), He has the authority to release His followers from death in order that they may be with Him forever anytime anyplace.
So for a child of God death in itself may be used by God for His glory, but for a unbeliever's life, it may only be used for God's glory in man's wrath like how God glorified himself through the death of Pharoah in the red sea (Rom 9:17).
In a broader perspective about death, death is not an end, but rather death is an appointment appointed by God once at the end of one's life time on earth to meet his Maker and Creator to give account of his own life lived on earth, which was given to him by God for His Glory (Heb 9:27).
So does it mean that we should passively give in to disease, sickness or accidents which leads to death ultimately? God forbid, I say a big 'No'! It is not God's will for us to die before our appointed time on earth which is 70 years or by the reason of strength 80 years (Psa 90:10).
So we should pray as much as we can holding on to the general will of God like the verse we have seen above, but when God specifically decides in his will to take a person before this time of life that God has revealed in His Word as 70-80 years, then we should be able to submit them in to God's hands willingly so that He might be glorified through it.
That is the same, Jesus did before going to the Cross, he prayed for relief or removal from this ordeal of the cup of suffering and death that he needed to go through, by saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matt 26:39). Again after sometime, he prayed the same thing but more willingly saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” (Matt 26:42). And Jesus went away and prayed the same thing with the same words (Matt 26:44), finally his earnest prayer was heard by God and he was strengthened supernaturally to face the ordeal of the death on the Cross. Paul the apostle also when he was suffering in his life with the thorn in his flesh, he prayed three times that the messenger of Satan who was buffeting and beating might depart from him (2 Cor 12:8-9). But after the third time of prayer, Paul got the revelation that God's strength will carry him through and make him supernaturally victorious against the demonic thorn in the flesh. Three is the number of completion, if ever we pray and ask God completely and perfectly as much as we can in our strength and can go no further, we give up in to his hands expecting the Lord to resurrect our life with His new life in his will, and should take up the suffering that is ahead of us willingly. This is what the real faith fighters of the past did before us, and so we must do so willingly as we are the soldiers of faith in the army of the Lord on earth.
We know that God's children do not practice sin to go on sinning, for God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them or destroy them completely without the will of God allowing him to test them up for their own spiritual good (1 John 5:18), thus if we are attacked by unbelief and are down and out, we should rise up again in faith and learn to continue to fight the fight of faith with the supernatural strength of God, as God is holding us with his very own strong hands, so that we can be so so sure the devil can't get to us outside of the will of God. In fact, this is the victory we experience over the evil plans of the devil and his cohorts, our faith (1 John 5:4).
LESSON TWO: God can take any one simply the way he wants, when He wants and where He wants. None of us can try to put God in a box and say that only this way God will take or that way God will act and no other way God can operate except the way I see. First of all if we operate with our preconceived and ill-conceived limited ideas to put God in a box, before we realize God will no more be in it, when we open our box God will not be inside it. God ways are so high as the heavens are above the earth (Isa 55:9), we cannot fully grasp it or understand it with our limited apprehensive comprehension. But as we have the mind of Christ revealed to us day by day by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2:12, 13, 15, 16), when we humbly pray and receive the peace of God that passes our finite understanding in our heart day by day (Php 4:6-7), we come to place where God Himself will come forward to reveal the third time prayer of completion, after which we should stop praying and start fighting with faith, then God will supernaturally empower and reveal Himself to us and through us, to wade through the way forward to face the suffering of what ever ordeal we have and overcome it with His given supernatural grace that has been received through our faith. So it is not whether we face death, sickness or disease or infirmities, or reproaches, or persecutions, or distresses that matters at the end, the bottom line is that whether for Christ's sake we are walking in the will of God to please Him through our lives.
Example For Our Heavenly Father Taking Home As He Pleases are:
(i) Once we see that when God was doing great signs and wonders through the hands of apostles, they were all preaching in the temple, the high priest rose up in indignation, laid their hands on them, and put them in common prison. But at night supernaturally God sent a angel of the Lord to open the prison and brought them out to make them preach in the same temple the next morning (Acts 5:12, 17-18, 19-20, 25).
We know later when James the Brother of John the apostle was harassed by Herod the king by being arrested and then executed for the preaching of the gospel, all the Church must have prayed sincerely for a miracle like before which must have included the mother of James praying for him, for God to intervene through His angel to free him one more time like before, but nothing happened in spite of the prayer of the whole Church (Acts 12:1-2). James the apostle died the death of a martyr.
But later we see Herod wanted to do the same for Peter the apostle as the Jews were pleased with Herod for what he has already done for James, but because of Passover, he was kept inside the high security prison cell for execution, this time too the whole church was not only praying for Peter but was constantly praying which must have included the mother of James. God in his sovereign will chose this time to send a angel of the Lord to Peter and delivered him out of that death trap. Then Peter came straight to the prayer meeting of the Church, and showed himself alive and well, and encouraged them to pray further in faith for the will of God to happen in their life time (Acts 12:3-4, 5-19).
What do we see? The mother of James must have had the question, why God has not answered her prayer for her own son James who had died as a martyr, but have answered the prayer for Peter the apostle who was supernaturally delivered from death just after a few days after her own son's death?
What can we say to her? We can only comfort her saying, in the will of God your son James the apostle who has died as the Lord's first apostle martyr for the Glory of Lord and he is alive with the Lord, we too will see him as he is when all of us will rise up in our glorious new body during the rapture (1 Thess 4:16-18). He kept his faith until his very end that had pleased God (Luke 22:31, 32; 2 Tim 4:7-8), that is the achievement of his life, he will have his reward for eternity ahead. Today we know that the name of James will be written in the wall of the city of New Jerusalem, which will have twelve foundations, each bearing the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Rev 21:14).
(ii) While we see when people wanted to kill Jesus for having said that He lived as the I AM God in his eternal spirit before Abraham was, the religious Jewish nuts got enraged and took up stones to throw at Him; but we know supernaturally Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by in the will of God (John 8:59). But we see when Stephen who was one among the seven men of good reputation, picked by the apostles to serve the Church because of them being busy in prayer and ministering the Word of God, Stephen spread the word of God and then full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:1-8). Then when some wicked jealous men in the Synagogue of the Freedmen disputing with Stephen, were not able to resist him because of the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke, therefore they secretly induced men to accuse him of blasphemy and took him out of the city and stoned him to death. If fact, when Stephen died, Jesus rose up from His throne to receive Stephen the martyr from the earth (Acts 7:51-60). O what a honor! Yet we do not see Stephen escaping supernaturally like Jesus did? Why? Because it was God's time for Stephen to die as a martyr and it glorified God tremendously, God was full pleased through the fight of faith in the life of Stephen that he chose to take him out of the world as a martyr. Now we know why the argument that if Stephen had faith, he could have escaped supernaturally like Jesus is absurd and foolish? Life is the very thing that they, the martyrs, gain by the loss of their earthly tabernacle, (i.e.) their body. Jesus said to his martyrs by God's destiny, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." (Revelation 2:10). Martyrdom is the privilege that God only gives to those who are completely sold out to Him as his bond slaves.
(iii) We see the that God took a child whom he found to be good in his sight in the Old Testament and tells that people mourning, burying and coming to the grave in a young age as a child in the midst of a generation of evil doers is a good thing to happen (1 Kings 14:12-13). Did this death pleased God? Yes it is. We do not know fully the impact this death of a young child must have made in heaven, but surely God was pleased with it when we cannot describe how it pleased Him that way.
(iv) David's lustful love child with Bathsheba died and went to heaven because God chose not to answer the prayer of David, even though God has forgiven his sins already (2 Sam 12:13-14, 20-23). Does God likes baby to be born or die, it is his will that babies be born and be multiplied (Gen 1:28), but this time God thought that he does not want the child to live in his justice, so in spite of fasting and prayer, God did not answer David, but he took the child to heaven where David after his death will one day be able to meet him face to face as he himself declared.
Yes sickness virtually always associated with curses, sin, demons or the devil in the Word most of the time because it was all a by product of the original sin of Adam through whom sin entered the world and reigned in death (Rom 5:12, 21). God pronounced sickness and curses which led people to death for their rebellion and disobedience to His voice, but gave blessings of good health for those who obeyed his voice (Deut 28:1-14, 15-68; Exod 15:26; 23:25; Deut 7:15). But now the emphasis of Jesus is that because of His life lived for the believers, as a gift by the grace that he has given (John 1:16), healing has abounded to many of us and will reign through righteousness to eternal life (Rom 5:15, 21; 1 Peter 2:24). Sickness, in and of itself, is never spoken of as a blessing from the Father, bur rather it is a curse that only God can turn in to a blessing when He wants to use it for His Glory (Neh 13:2; Deut 23:5; Gen 50:20). Sickness and disease can never be a temporal blessing to any human, but it can be used by God supernaturally to inherit eternal blessings through God's sovereign will to produce patience and be grounded in faith to become a stalwart of faith in the hall of fame of faith (Heb 10:35-36). In other words, the curse of sickness can be used by God in such a way, that He can turn it in to something good for our eternal good and blessings. What the devil does as something evil could be turned in to something which is meant for our own good both temporally and eternally, so that many could be blessed by us and we could become rich eternally. Even poverty is not a blessing temporally (Prov 19:4, 7; 14:20), but God can use the curse of poverty to build great faith spiritually and eternally (Prov 22:2, 7; 29:13; Jam 2:5; Luke 16:19-31). So we should never limit God with our defective theology that tries to put Him in a box, He will never stay there but will prove that He rules over us the way He wants, where He wants and when He wants.
Jesus told that no matter what sickness we face, no matter what reason we face, it can be used by God for His glory to be revealed through it (John 9:1-4). We can always receive healing by the prayer of faith, which we must go and receive from elders of the church who are with mature faith (Jam 5:14, 15, 16). Or we personally can hold on to the promise of God regarding the healing of our body (Psa 103:2-3; 119:92), and live to see the wondrous works of the Lord in the land of the living to praise Him alive and well (Psa 27:13), and to be a testimony to the healing work of the Lord (Psa 118:17; 119:71). I believe that a night of unbelief is coming and has already come greatly in all the world in spite of God's continual goodness of showing his signs and wonders to heal (Luke 18:8), in such a time as these in which we live we cannot work the miraculous works of Jesus because of lack of faith in the heart of people towards God and his supernatural healing power, therefore we have to first teach people the Word of God and then expect them to receive healing by faith (John 9:4; 14:12; Mark 6:5-6; Isa 60:2, 3).
THIRD LESSON: We should never judge or blame any person that if they have become sick, it is the result of sin hidden in their lives. We should not judge others, but rather judge ourselves, so that we may not be judged by God in our lives (1 Cor 11:31). It may be because of sin or may not be because of sin, for everything, God has a way out in Christ Jesus for those who humble themselves before God and receive his abundant grace which is freely available for us to get healed both spiritually and physically (1 Cor 11:32; Jam 5:15). The moment we point our index finger at others, remember, the other lower three fingers of us are pointing towards us, as we even dare to point the thumb finger toward God accusing him wrongly. In other words, the moment we judge others, we will be judged by God in the same scale we judge others (Matt 7:1-2). Yes the friends of Job, whom the Lord rebuked at the end of that book, were in one way or the other, were accusing Job of secret sin and evil doing which they felt was the cause for such a sickness and curse. But such a position of theology which blinds those who hold it to become hypocrites and self-righteous religious nuts, will make God angry at them as they see as men see and not righteously judge others according to the direction of the Spirit of the Lord who makes us judge people rightly by helping us hear the voice of Jesus and his opinion towards others based on the Scriptures (Isa 11:3-5; John 7:24; 16:13-14). Those friends of Job had to repent to God and ask sorry to Job for having judged him wrongly and religiously, we too need to do the same if we have accused others of sin when they have gone through tough ordeals which God has ordained for them to face for His Glory.
Sometimes it is not because of lack of faith that God's people die sometimes with sickness, but rather it is the timing of God in which He has allowed them to live on earth has got fulfilled according to God, so He takes them away (Psa 35:4, 5, 6; 73:24; 139:16). God is the master of this garden called the earth. The flesh of a human is like a grass and the glory of a human is like a flower of the grass that is available today (1 Peter 1:24). As a gardener in charge of the garden (Gen 2:15), we humans are put in to take care of the flowers in God's garden the earth. We see a particular human grass [i.e. Say a man or a woman of God or a zealous believer], and see their life as a glorious flower bringing glory to God. Suddenly we see them die, and we shout, who has taken this glorious flower. The Master of the Garden Jesus says, 'it is I'. It is wise to hold our peace and be still, as the Master has taken His flower and no one can ever ask why to Him? Because all belongs to Him and all things exist to glorify Him (Col 1:15, 16). Glory to God!
If a godly leader can get sick and die, it doesn't mean that we too must readily accept sickness when it comes as God's will, and come to the conclusion wrongly that we must give in to it and die passively as though it is the will of God. God might not have answered the prayer of a godly man or a woman, to test their faith and let them die with the faith for His Glory, because of His own choice to turn the tragedy in to a eternal testimony of faith. In other words, some people who lived in faith, died also in faith, "not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth" (Heb 11:13), God has prepared a glorious house of their future heavenly celestial body and a city for them because they sought a homeland with faith even though they could not see God's promise of healing, riches, etc...manifest in the earth because of his specific will for their lives (Heb 11:14-16; 2 Cor 5:1-3, 4-7, 8; 1 Cor 15:40, 42, 43, 44, 48-49).
But the general will of God is to fight by faith because God has already given a lot of promises for our physical healing in Christ Jesus which are all yes and amen for us (2 Cor 1:20), which we must all as a believer in Christ Jesus must take it personally until the end of the fight of faith till our last breath or until we come to the end of the third prayer of completeness which brings a supernatural grace to face the race of faith. There are three things the great apostle Paul wants all believers to be, i) Firstly, he wants all to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ who enlisted them in the army of God to fight the good fight of faith having a part within the army of God which is His Church. To wage spiritual warfare against evil spirits in the heavenly places with the armor of God and having done all to stand, then pray with all perseverance to overcome and be a victor for the Glory of God (2 Tim 2:3-4; Eph 6:10-20). (ii) Secondly, they should be a good athlete to spiritually train themselves day in and day out to build their spiritual faith muscles and be fit for a fight always with the world according to the rules God has given through His commandments (2 Tim 2:5). (iii) Thirdly, Be a hard-working farmer to not only produce seeds for others, but sow the promises of God in our own lives and them become a partaker of the blessings of God which are already present in the heavenlies, and then become a supplier of the seeds of the promises of God to others by teaching them what we have learned ourselves in our own lives practically (2 Tim 2:6). This farmer analogy points us to remove weeds of self by taking up the cross of Jesus Christ and thus destroying it by its power (Matt 11:28-30; Luke 9:23, 24-25, 26), and then sow the seeds of faith instead, for a great harvest of all heavenly blessings to be reaped in Christ Jesus in the earthly realm of our lives (Eph 1:3).
Faith is like a train that can move forward only when the will of God is present, which can be equated to the train track line which is already present there. When faith doesn't move forward as expected, we ought to know that it is not in the will of God. So make sure to never blame others when something doesn't happen in their lives as it has happened in your life, because you might have had the will of God to move forward your faith train while the other doesn't have the will of God to move his faith train, which means to stay put the faith engine in the same place may be the will of God for him, until he gets the green signal for him or her to move forward again when they find the track again in the will of God. So for those who have parked their engine of faith train in the will of God in the same place, do not blame them if they do not find a track to move forwards. As God will for them may be is to park in the same place which He has marked for them, for which their obedience will always please Him. Glory to God!
We must come to the place willingly where to be present with the Lord should be much happier than to be present in this body. Having come to this place and position in our spiritual life, it will bring us to the place of unspeakable glory, joy, beauty and perfection—forever! Do we long to come to this place of faith in the higher ground, if we are, praise the Lord!
We can say death has lost its sting, not because we feel good or bad at a particular time, but rather because we have eternal hope of spending our lives with God and our loved ones in the abode of God where He has prepared palaces for us and our loved ones to fellowship with Him, and one another, and together live with Him in eternal bliss of joy (John 14:1-4), even though the massive hole left in our emotional lives when a loved one dies, can only be comforted and healed through the work of God by the grace He gives to us through those times of sadness which then brings gladness because of our hope in Him and love for him and the work of faith done through Him (Psa 30:5; Rom 15:13; 2 Cor 1:3-5; 1 Cor 13:12-13; 1 Thess 4:16-18). Praise the Lord!
As for Brother Nabeel Qureshi, I think that he fought the good fight of faith until the end of his life. To me, his cancerous death shows that God has chosen to take the man of God in his time. I have seen great men of God die in their thirties and forties due to cancer specifically, though I believe that this disease in itself is evil to make people die, yet I know by the sovereign power of God's hand over the lives of these men and women of God, they just did not die by chance, incident or an accident, but rather it was a specific call of God that they had fulfilled for such a specific time, that when it was over in the eyes of God, He chose to pluck those beautiful flowers in the zenith of its glory in His earthly garden. Those might have been young flowers full of zeal and beauty of the Spirit over their lives, yet for God it was His purpose that He fulfilled through their beautiful lives which were small but very effective. Let us hold our peace and may we wisely say to our Master, 'As it pleases you, so be it!'.
I will also appreciate Nabeel Qureshi's widowed Wife who said, "Aside from this drive that I felt from the Holy Spirit to pray for Nabeel's resurrection after the time of death was called, I had my own personal drive. For seven days I was wrestling and praying for resurrection. After a while ... in circumstances like these, you realize that you can only rely on the Word of God, the one thing that is unchangeable." In other words, even after doctors pronounced 33-year-old Nabeel Qureshi dead, his wife Michelle interceded for resurrection. I believe that such prayers are a fight of faith to the finish line, so it is not wrong to pray like that because of depending on the Word of God. But personally I would say, we may keep our peace once we come to know the third time prayer of completeness which gives us the inner assurance of peace that passes all understanding and joy unspeakable within our spirit, which tells us to face the crisis face to face [i.e. in this case of Nabeel, face his death] and yet remain thankful to God for all things in spite of our troubled emotions that takes time to heal and get comforted by the comforter who is the Holy Spirit.
It is not just Nabeel, but many more lived gloriously for Christ and died early, nearly more than two hundred years ago, October 16, 1812, the intrepid missionary and Bible translator Henry Martyn died at the age of 31 in Tokat, in what is now northeastern Turkey. His brilliance as a linguist, his courage as a Gospel pioneer, and above all his driving passion for Christ left an enduring example of missionary service and sacrifice.
Though he lived to serve only 6 years on the field, Martyn left translations of the New Testament in Urdu, Arabic, and Persian. He filled his days with lasting things. By the fall of 1812, suffering from tuberculosis, weakened by fever, and exhausted from his arduous, friendless journey across Iran, Martyn wrote, “O Lord, Thy will be done! Living, dying, remember me!” Then in Tokat, all alone—and yet not alone—he wrote in his journal for the last time, “I thought with sweet comfort and peace of my God, who, in solitude, was my company, my friend, and comforter.”
Much Blessings.....
You might believe that the devil is a thief and a murderer, and therefore, in your view, Satan killed our brother. I would just urge you to remember that Nabeel placed his life in God's protective hands, and many prayed for his healing and rebuked the devil. You might want to give your viewpoint further prayer and reflection. Otherwise, how can you be so sure the devil can't get to you?
You might believe that God simply decided to take his son home, purifying his character through cancer. I would just ask you for scriptural examples of our Father doing this. And why, again, is serious sickness virtually always associated with curses, sin, demons or the devil in the Word? Why is sickness, in and of itself, never spoken of as a blessing from the Father? (I don't think Job or Paul's thorn are exceptions to this statement.)
You might believe that somewhere, somehow, sick people must be guilty of secret sin, otherwise they could not be attacked like this. But in holding this position, you are acting like the friends of Job, whom the Lord rebuked at the end of that book. (You're also forgetting verses like John 9:1-3.) And could it be that you find it necessary to come up with this theology as a means of self-protection, since, if a godly leader can get sick, you can get sick too?
You might say, "Obviously, people who die of sickness don't have enough faith." But that would also mean that the many people who prayed for Nabeel, including some used powerfully in healing, lacked faith too. And if you have so much faith, why didn't you successfully pray for his healing?
In the end, we will all die (unless the Lord returns in our lifetimes), and to be absent from these bodies is to be present with the Lord in a place of unspeakable glory, joy, beauty and perfection—forever! And so, even now, despite the massive hole left in our lives when a loved one dies, death has lost its sting.
As for the answer to the question posed in this article, I cannot say why our brother was not healed.
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name! It is indeed a very important topic you have discussed frankly to find a acceptable Biblical answer that can comfort us all and can heal the wounds of our curious mind that if left alone might cause the cancer of unbelief to destroy our faith in areas related to our bodily healing.
Yes God alone can know the answer to this intriguing question that we struggle and wrestle with to find a answer, but also we can delve deep in to the Scripture to find His will in these times of grief.
First of all we need to understand that God is sovereign, and that means He is free to do what he wants, when He wants and where He wants. Nobody of us have any more rights to ask Him, why you do all these things?, because we are all His creation and that we did not create Him, but He graciously and mercifully created us because of His own will and purpose to fulfill and enjoy.
There are certain following Scriptures that we need to understand, in order to fully accept the above statements about God's sovereignty:
"18 ... He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?" (Rom 9:18-20).
Because God is the one who created us from the dust which was also created by Him, He owns the rights over us and our lives. All we can do is surrender our lives as we are His subjects or rebel against His will and wishes. When we rebel we will live in a dry land spiritually and will be devoured by sword at the end with no eternal value for living our earthly lives (Isa 1:20), but if we willingly give in to His will in our lives to fulfill it, we can see how He can turn all things that happen to us in to something good for us eternally at the end as we who live by faith are all called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28; 1:17). As a clay house made from dust and mud, we do not have power over the potter who is our Creator God who has created us, so we cannot ask God why, as though God is indebted to us to explain why He does things the way it is or He has allowed something to happen opposite to what we expected.
“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).
Because God has made know the end from the beginning through His Word, He has declared from ancient times of what is to come, He is the one who has written the story line of the whole world and He can do whatever He wants to do as it please Him in His righteousness. We as humans are voluntary actors who come to act our part in the story line of His creation in our times, we can act according to what pleases our director or can rebel and reject Him to try to write our own story line for ourselves, no matter whether we participate in the grand scheme of the director God's story line or not, God says that His story line will not be changed or cannot be changed by us, as He is in-charge of everything and not us who are actually His subjects. In other words, "You can make many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail." (Prov 19:21, NLT).
No matter who is the president or the CEO, God is the boss who decides what will happen or not at the end of all things.
The LORD Almighty has sworn this oath: "It will all happen as I have planned. It will come about according to my purposes." (Isaiah 14:24, NLT).
Humans may make plan and even get angry against God, when it does not happen according to what they have planned, but the Word of God says, "Man's futile wrath will bring you glory. You will use it as an ornament!" (Psa 76:10). Let men and devils rage as they may, they cannot do otherwise than sub serve the divine purposes.
Our Heavenly Father has assured us who are His children in Christ Jesus,"28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Matt 10:28-31).
The wrath of man under the evil influence of Satan and his demonic cohorts, when it is lengthened out to its utmost boundaries, can only go to the length of killing the body, or in the breaking the sheath of clay in which the soul lodges, and then it can do no more. In other words, the devil can only steal, kill and destroy our body, but the eternal consequence of the temporal physical life lived in the purpose of God cannot be changed by him as God is the one who orchestrates our life in harmony with His will which pleases Him (John 10:10). The devil did his best to destroy both apostle Paul through the thorn in his flesh (2 Cor 12:7, 9-10), and also he did his best to destroy Job and his family (Job 1:12; 2:3, 6, 7), but at the end God worked it all in His will for their eternal goodness instead of their temporal one that perish in this limited life of time, space and matter. These great men of God through their trials have amassed great riches of eternal proportion, of which they could not have in any other way would have been able to achieve it (Heb 5:8; Jam 5:10-11; Heb 10:35-36; 1 Peter 5:10).
So Satan may do all he wants, but only with the permission of God he can do all those things, as he is a created being who can only do as much, as of the power he is given by God to do. So like a leashed dog ready to bite those who come near to it in its way, Satan can only touch those whom the Lord allows in His will for His Glory. In a eternal way if we see the work of Satan and all the evil, he is doing the bidding of God as His rebellious servant to fulfill His purpose at the end of it all. So we cannot blame Satan for our failure or even death, when we experience such bad things in our life as a child of God, we can only look to God and see whether we have tried to please Him with our earthly life in life or in death. Furious winds of the evil one will often drive vessels the more swiftly into port. The devil blows the fire and melts the iron (Prov 27:17; Isa 43:2), and then the Lord fashions it for his own purposes.
As a child of God, the Lord has not told us to fear the devil when he tries to do something bad in our lives, beyond it the Lord has instructed us to look only to Him and fear Him, because the devil can only kill when the Lord allows him to do so, but after death the Lord has the power to either reward us if we are His child or send the unbelieving person to hell fire with the body and soul after the white throne judgment of the end (Rev 20:11-15). Jesus gave a great example for us to understand, He said, as humans it is a small thing for us to spend a few penny to buy a sparrow which God has created in his own will, and may even think that if we want, we can do whatever we want with it priceless life. But God has revealed through Jesus, that we do not have power over the sparrows as we are nothing but a breath which He is holding by His power, therefore even the sparrows cannot be killed by us or any humans unless the Lord gives permission for us to do what we want to do, to it, either feed it or kill it (Isa 2:22). In other words, evil happens because God has given man the permission to choose either good or evil. This permission was given by God when a conscious decision was taken by our forefather Adam when he sinned and took a choice for us all to act independently apart from God (Gen 2:16-17; 3:11, 22; Rom 5:12). If God stops the power of choice to humans by taking away their breath, they die and return to the ground from which they have come (Gen 3:19; Psa 144:4; 103:15; 1 Peter 1:24).
Further the Lord Jesus has said that even if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground apart from the Father's will, so we as the children of God should never be afraid of any work of evil or Satan or demons as long as we are in this world, because our very hairs which may be a insignificant thing to us, but those mynute details of our lives [i.e. the number of our hairs] are know by our Father in heaven because He is very much concerned about our lives as we live on earth for His Glory. In other words, Jesus is telling us to approach by faith the Father God in heaven regarding every need we experience in this earthly life, so that He can bring a solution for His glory each time (John 15:16; 16:23-24). If we allow ourselves to fear, we cannot draw near to the Father in faith (Jam 4:7-8). Fear comes through unbelief in the goodness and love of God in any circumstances we face, but when the love of God fills us as we take our burdens to God (Php 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:7), fear flees and we again get grounded in faith which pleases God in all circumstances (1 John 4:17-19; Heb 11:6).
LESSON ONE: When things happens to us that which we feel should not have happened at all, first of all don't blame the devil and glorify him for his evil work, instead by faith accept the will of God and praise God that whatever has happened is for our eternal good and that it will glorify God and please him even when it is life or death (Rom 14:8; 2 Cor 5:9).
Death may be the last enemy of God to be abolished when it will be thrown in to hell fire for eternity during the time of white throne judgment (Rev 20:13, 14; 1 Cor 15:54, 55, 56, 57, 58), but it is already defeated by our Lord Jesus when He rose from the dead to tell us that death has no more power over us just like a scorpion has lost its sting or a snake has lost it poison to inflict damage on those who come near it (Luke 10:19-20). The keys of death is not with Satan anymore like in the Old Testament times, but Jesus is the one who is holding it in his hand now (Rev 1:18), which means that the risen Christ has control and authority over death. I mean even before Jesus died, He had the authority over death, had the unique power to give up His spirit and to rise from the dead (John 10:17–18; 19:30; Mark 15:44). But legally having redeemed humans from sin (Eph 5:2), He has the authority to release His followers from death in order that they may be with Him forever anytime anyplace.
So for a child of God death in itself may be used by God for His glory, but for a unbeliever's life, it may only be used for God's glory in man's wrath like how God glorified himself through the death of Pharoah in the red sea (Rom 9:17).
In a broader perspective about death, death is not an end, but rather death is an appointment appointed by God once at the end of one's life time on earth to meet his Maker and Creator to give account of his own life lived on earth, which was given to him by God for His Glory (Heb 9:27).
So does it mean that we should passively give in to disease, sickness or accidents which leads to death ultimately? God forbid, I say a big 'No'! It is not God's will for us to die before our appointed time on earth which is 70 years or by the reason of strength 80 years (Psa 90:10).
So we should pray as much as we can holding on to the general will of God like the verse we have seen above, but when God specifically decides in his will to take a person before this time of life that God has revealed in His Word as 70-80 years, then we should be able to submit them in to God's hands willingly so that He might be glorified through it.
That is the same, Jesus did before going to the Cross, he prayed for relief or removal from this ordeal of the cup of suffering and death that he needed to go through, by saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matt 26:39). Again after sometime, he prayed the same thing but more willingly saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” (Matt 26:42). And Jesus went away and prayed the same thing with the same words (Matt 26:44), finally his earnest prayer was heard by God and he was strengthened supernaturally to face the ordeal of the death on the Cross. Paul the apostle also when he was suffering in his life with the thorn in his flesh, he prayed three times that the messenger of Satan who was buffeting and beating might depart from him (2 Cor 12:8-9). But after the third time of prayer, Paul got the revelation that God's strength will carry him through and make him supernaturally victorious against the demonic thorn in the flesh. Three is the number of completion, if ever we pray and ask God completely and perfectly as much as we can in our strength and can go no further, we give up in to his hands expecting the Lord to resurrect our life with His new life in his will, and should take up the suffering that is ahead of us willingly. This is what the real faith fighters of the past did before us, and so we must do so willingly as we are the soldiers of faith in the army of the Lord on earth.
We know that God's children do not practice sin to go on sinning, for God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them or destroy them completely without the will of God allowing him to test them up for their own spiritual good (1 John 5:18), thus if we are attacked by unbelief and are down and out, we should rise up again in faith and learn to continue to fight the fight of faith with the supernatural strength of God, as God is holding us with his very own strong hands, so that we can be so so sure the devil can't get to us outside of the will of God. In fact, this is the victory we experience over the evil plans of the devil and his cohorts, our faith (1 John 5:4).
LESSON TWO: God can take any one simply the way he wants, when He wants and where He wants. None of us can try to put God in a box and say that only this way God will take or that way God will act and no other way God can operate except the way I see. First of all if we operate with our preconceived and ill-conceived limited ideas to put God in a box, before we realize God will no more be in it, when we open our box God will not be inside it. God ways are so high as the heavens are above the earth (Isa 55:9), we cannot fully grasp it or understand it with our limited apprehensive comprehension. But as we have the mind of Christ revealed to us day by day by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2:12, 13, 15, 16), when we humbly pray and receive the peace of God that passes our finite understanding in our heart day by day (Php 4:6-7), we come to place where God Himself will come forward to reveal the third time prayer of completion, after which we should stop praying and start fighting with faith, then God will supernaturally empower and reveal Himself to us and through us, to wade through the way forward to face the suffering of what ever ordeal we have and overcome it with His given supernatural grace that has been received through our faith. So it is not whether we face death, sickness or disease or infirmities, or reproaches, or persecutions, or distresses that matters at the end, the bottom line is that whether for Christ's sake we are walking in the will of God to please Him through our lives.
Example For Our Heavenly Father Taking Home As He Pleases are:
(i) Once we see that when God was doing great signs and wonders through the hands of apostles, they were all preaching in the temple, the high priest rose up in indignation, laid their hands on them, and put them in common prison. But at night supernaturally God sent a angel of the Lord to open the prison and brought them out to make them preach in the same temple the next morning (Acts 5:12, 17-18, 19-20, 25).
We know later when James the Brother of John the apostle was harassed by Herod the king by being arrested and then executed for the preaching of the gospel, all the Church must have prayed sincerely for a miracle like before which must have included the mother of James praying for him, for God to intervene through His angel to free him one more time like before, but nothing happened in spite of the prayer of the whole Church (Acts 12:1-2). James the apostle died the death of a martyr.
But later we see Herod wanted to do the same for Peter the apostle as the Jews were pleased with Herod for what he has already done for James, but because of Passover, he was kept inside the high security prison cell for execution, this time too the whole church was not only praying for Peter but was constantly praying which must have included the mother of James. God in his sovereign will chose this time to send a angel of the Lord to Peter and delivered him out of that death trap. Then Peter came straight to the prayer meeting of the Church, and showed himself alive and well, and encouraged them to pray further in faith for the will of God to happen in their life time (Acts 12:3-4, 5-19).
What do we see? The mother of James must have had the question, why God has not answered her prayer for her own son James who had died as a martyr, but have answered the prayer for Peter the apostle who was supernaturally delivered from death just after a few days after her own son's death?
What can we say to her? We can only comfort her saying, in the will of God your son James the apostle who has died as the Lord's first apostle martyr for the Glory of Lord and he is alive with the Lord, we too will see him as he is when all of us will rise up in our glorious new body during the rapture (1 Thess 4:16-18). He kept his faith until his very end that had pleased God (Luke 22:31, 32; 2 Tim 4:7-8), that is the achievement of his life, he will have his reward for eternity ahead. Today we know that the name of James will be written in the wall of the city of New Jerusalem, which will have twelve foundations, each bearing the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Rev 21:14).
(ii) While we see when people wanted to kill Jesus for having said that He lived as the I AM God in his eternal spirit before Abraham was, the religious Jewish nuts got enraged and took up stones to throw at Him; but we know supernaturally Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by in the will of God (John 8:59). But we see when Stephen who was one among the seven men of good reputation, picked by the apostles to serve the Church because of them being busy in prayer and ministering the Word of God, Stephen spread the word of God and then full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:1-8). Then when some wicked jealous men in the Synagogue of the Freedmen disputing with Stephen, were not able to resist him because of the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke, therefore they secretly induced men to accuse him of blasphemy and took him out of the city and stoned him to death. If fact, when Stephen died, Jesus rose up from His throne to receive Stephen the martyr from the earth (Acts 7:51-60). O what a honor! Yet we do not see Stephen escaping supernaturally like Jesus did? Why? Because it was God's time for Stephen to die as a martyr and it glorified God tremendously, God was full pleased through the fight of faith in the life of Stephen that he chose to take him out of the world as a martyr. Now we know why the argument that if Stephen had faith, he could have escaped supernaturally like Jesus is absurd and foolish? Life is the very thing that they, the martyrs, gain by the loss of their earthly tabernacle, (i.e.) their body. Jesus said to his martyrs by God's destiny, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." (Revelation 2:10). Martyrdom is the privilege that God only gives to those who are completely sold out to Him as his bond slaves.
(iii) We see the that God took a child whom he found to be good in his sight in the Old Testament and tells that people mourning, burying and coming to the grave in a young age as a child in the midst of a generation of evil doers is a good thing to happen (1 Kings 14:12-13). Did this death pleased God? Yes it is. We do not know fully the impact this death of a young child must have made in heaven, but surely God was pleased with it when we cannot describe how it pleased Him that way.
(iv) David's lustful love child with Bathsheba died and went to heaven because God chose not to answer the prayer of David, even though God has forgiven his sins already (2 Sam 12:13-14, 20-23). Does God likes baby to be born or die, it is his will that babies be born and be multiplied (Gen 1:28), but this time God thought that he does not want the child to live in his justice, so in spite of fasting and prayer, God did not answer David, but he took the child to heaven where David after his death will one day be able to meet him face to face as he himself declared.
Yes sickness virtually always associated with curses, sin, demons or the devil in the Word most of the time because it was all a by product of the original sin of Adam through whom sin entered the world and reigned in death (Rom 5:12, 21). God pronounced sickness and curses which led people to death for their rebellion and disobedience to His voice, but gave blessings of good health for those who obeyed his voice (Deut 28:1-14, 15-68; Exod 15:26; 23:25; Deut 7:15). But now the emphasis of Jesus is that because of His life lived for the believers, as a gift by the grace that he has given (John 1:16), healing has abounded to many of us and will reign through righteousness to eternal life (Rom 5:15, 21; 1 Peter 2:24). Sickness, in and of itself, is never spoken of as a blessing from the Father, bur rather it is a curse that only God can turn in to a blessing when He wants to use it for His Glory (Neh 13:2; Deut 23:5; Gen 50:20). Sickness and disease can never be a temporal blessing to any human, but it can be used by God supernaturally to inherit eternal blessings through God's sovereign will to produce patience and be grounded in faith to become a stalwart of faith in the hall of fame of faith (Heb 10:35-36). In other words, the curse of sickness can be used by God in such a way, that He can turn it in to something good for our eternal good and blessings. What the devil does as something evil could be turned in to something which is meant for our own good both temporally and eternally, so that many could be blessed by us and we could become rich eternally. Even poverty is not a blessing temporally (Prov 19:4, 7; 14:20), but God can use the curse of poverty to build great faith spiritually and eternally (Prov 22:2, 7; 29:13; Jam 2:5; Luke 16:19-31). So we should never limit God with our defective theology that tries to put Him in a box, He will never stay there but will prove that He rules over us the way He wants, where He wants and when He wants.
Jesus told that no matter what sickness we face, no matter what reason we face, it can be used by God for His glory to be revealed through it (John 9:1-4). We can always receive healing by the prayer of faith, which we must go and receive from elders of the church who are with mature faith (Jam 5:14, 15, 16). Or we personally can hold on to the promise of God regarding the healing of our body (Psa 103:2-3; 119:92), and live to see the wondrous works of the Lord in the land of the living to praise Him alive and well (Psa 27:13), and to be a testimony to the healing work of the Lord (Psa 118:17; 119:71). I believe that a night of unbelief is coming and has already come greatly in all the world in spite of God's continual goodness of showing his signs and wonders to heal (Luke 18:8), in such a time as these in which we live we cannot work the miraculous works of Jesus because of lack of faith in the heart of people towards God and his supernatural healing power, therefore we have to first teach people the Word of God and then expect them to receive healing by faith (John 9:4; 14:12; Mark 6:5-6; Isa 60:2, 3).
THIRD LESSON: We should never judge or blame any person that if they have become sick, it is the result of sin hidden in their lives. We should not judge others, but rather judge ourselves, so that we may not be judged by God in our lives (1 Cor 11:31). It may be because of sin or may not be because of sin, for everything, God has a way out in Christ Jesus for those who humble themselves before God and receive his abundant grace which is freely available for us to get healed both spiritually and physically (1 Cor 11:32; Jam 5:15). The moment we point our index finger at others, remember, the other lower three fingers of us are pointing towards us, as we even dare to point the thumb finger toward God accusing him wrongly. In other words, the moment we judge others, we will be judged by God in the same scale we judge others (Matt 7:1-2). Yes the friends of Job, whom the Lord rebuked at the end of that book, were in one way or the other, were accusing Job of secret sin and evil doing which they felt was the cause for such a sickness and curse. But such a position of theology which blinds those who hold it to become hypocrites and self-righteous religious nuts, will make God angry at them as they see as men see and not righteously judge others according to the direction of the Spirit of the Lord who makes us judge people rightly by helping us hear the voice of Jesus and his opinion towards others based on the Scriptures (Isa 11:3-5; John 7:24; 16:13-14). Those friends of Job had to repent to God and ask sorry to Job for having judged him wrongly and religiously, we too need to do the same if we have accused others of sin when they have gone through tough ordeals which God has ordained for them to face for His Glory.
Sometimes it is not because of lack of faith that God's people die sometimes with sickness, but rather it is the timing of God in which He has allowed them to live on earth has got fulfilled according to God, so He takes them away (Psa 35:4, 5, 6; 73:24; 139:16). God is the master of this garden called the earth. The flesh of a human is like a grass and the glory of a human is like a flower of the grass that is available today (1 Peter 1:24). As a gardener in charge of the garden (Gen 2:15), we humans are put in to take care of the flowers in God's garden the earth. We see a particular human grass [i.e. Say a man or a woman of God or a zealous believer], and see their life as a glorious flower bringing glory to God. Suddenly we see them die, and we shout, who has taken this glorious flower. The Master of the Garden Jesus says, 'it is I'. It is wise to hold our peace and be still, as the Master has taken His flower and no one can ever ask why to Him? Because all belongs to Him and all things exist to glorify Him (Col 1:15, 16). Glory to God!
If a godly leader can get sick and die, it doesn't mean that we too must readily accept sickness when it comes as God's will, and come to the conclusion wrongly that we must give in to it and die passively as though it is the will of God. God might not have answered the prayer of a godly man or a woman, to test their faith and let them die with the faith for His Glory, because of His own choice to turn the tragedy in to a eternal testimony of faith. In other words, some people who lived in faith, died also in faith, "not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth" (Heb 11:13), God has prepared a glorious house of their future heavenly celestial body and a city for them because they sought a homeland with faith even though they could not see God's promise of healing, riches, etc...manifest in the earth because of his specific will for their lives (Heb 11:14-16; 2 Cor 5:1-3, 4-7, 8; 1 Cor 15:40, 42, 43, 44, 48-49).
But the general will of God is to fight by faith because God has already given a lot of promises for our physical healing in Christ Jesus which are all yes and amen for us (2 Cor 1:20), which we must all as a believer in Christ Jesus must take it personally until the end of the fight of faith till our last breath or until we come to the end of the third prayer of completeness which brings a supernatural grace to face the race of faith. There are three things the great apostle Paul wants all believers to be, i) Firstly, he wants all to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ who enlisted them in the army of God to fight the good fight of faith having a part within the army of God which is His Church. To wage spiritual warfare against evil spirits in the heavenly places with the armor of God and having done all to stand, then pray with all perseverance to overcome and be a victor for the Glory of God (2 Tim 2:3-4; Eph 6:10-20). (ii) Secondly, they should be a good athlete to spiritually train themselves day in and day out to build their spiritual faith muscles and be fit for a fight always with the world according to the rules God has given through His commandments (2 Tim 2:5). (iii) Thirdly, Be a hard-working farmer to not only produce seeds for others, but sow the promises of God in our own lives and them become a partaker of the blessings of God which are already present in the heavenlies, and then become a supplier of the seeds of the promises of God to others by teaching them what we have learned ourselves in our own lives practically (2 Tim 2:6). This farmer analogy points us to remove weeds of self by taking up the cross of Jesus Christ and thus destroying it by its power (Matt 11:28-30; Luke 9:23, 24-25, 26), and then sow the seeds of faith instead, for a great harvest of all heavenly blessings to be reaped in Christ Jesus in the earthly realm of our lives (Eph 1:3).
Faith is like a train that can move forward only when the will of God is present, which can be equated to the train track line which is already present there. When faith doesn't move forward as expected, we ought to know that it is not in the will of God. So make sure to never blame others when something doesn't happen in their lives as it has happened in your life, because you might have had the will of God to move forward your faith train while the other doesn't have the will of God to move his faith train, which means to stay put the faith engine in the same place may be the will of God for him, until he gets the green signal for him or her to move forward again when they find the track again in the will of God. So for those who have parked their engine of faith train in the will of God in the same place, do not blame them if they do not find a track to move forwards. As God will for them may be is to park in the same place which He has marked for them, for which their obedience will always please Him. Glory to God!
We must come to the place willingly where to be present with the Lord should be much happier than to be present in this body. Having come to this place and position in our spiritual life, it will bring us to the place of unspeakable glory, joy, beauty and perfection—forever! Do we long to come to this place of faith in the higher ground, if we are, praise the Lord!
We can say death has lost its sting, not because we feel good or bad at a particular time, but rather because we have eternal hope of spending our lives with God and our loved ones in the abode of God where He has prepared palaces for us and our loved ones to fellowship with Him, and one another, and together live with Him in eternal bliss of joy (John 14:1-4), even though the massive hole left in our emotional lives when a loved one dies, can only be comforted and healed through the work of God by the grace He gives to us through those times of sadness which then brings gladness because of our hope in Him and love for him and the work of faith done through Him (Psa 30:5; Rom 15:13; 2 Cor 1:3-5; 1 Cor 13:12-13; 1 Thess 4:16-18). Praise the Lord!
As for Brother Nabeel Qureshi, I think that he fought the good fight of faith until the end of his life. To me, his cancerous death shows that God has chosen to take the man of God in his time. I have seen great men of God die in their thirties and forties due to cancer specifically, though I believe that this disease in itself is evil to make people die, yet I know by the sovereign power of God's hand over the lives of these men and women of God, they just did not die by chance, incident or an accident, but rather it was a specific call of God that they had fulfilled for such a specific time, that when it was over in the eyes of God, He chose to pluck those beautiful flowers in the zenith of its glory in His earthly garden. Those might have been young flowers full of zeal and beauty of the Spirit over their lives, yet for God it was His purpose that He fulfilled through their beautiful lives which were small but very effective. Let us hold our peace and may we wisely say to our Master, 'As it pleases you, so be it!'.
I will also appreciate Nabeel Qureshi's widowed Wife who said, "Aside from this drive that I felt from the Holy Spirit to pray for Nabeel's resurrection after the time of death was called, I had my own personal drive. For seven days I was wrestling and praying for resurrection. After a while ... in circumstances like these, you realize that you can only rely on the Word of God, the one thing that is unchangeable." In other words, even after doctors pronounced 33-year-old Nabeel Qureshi dead, his wife Michelle interceded for resurrection. I believe that such prayers are a fight of faith to the finish line, so it is not wrong to pray like that because of depending on the Word of God. But personally I would say, we may keep our peace once we come to know the third time prayer of completeness which gives us the inner assurance of peace that passes all understanding and joy unspeakable within our spirit, which tells us to face the crisis face to face [i.e. in this case of Nabeel, face his death] and yet remain thankful to God for all things in spite of our troubled emotions that takes time to heal and get comforted by the comforter who is the Holy Spirit.
It is not just Nabeel, but many more lived gloriously for Christ and died early, nearly more than two hundred years ago, October 16, 1812, the intrepid missionary and Bible translator Henry Martyn died at the age of 31 in Tokat, in what is now northeastern Turkey. His brilliance as a linguist, his courage as a Gospel pioneer, and above all his driving passion for Christ left an enduring example of missionary service and sacrifice.
Though he lived to serve only 6 years on the field, Martyn left translations of the New Testament in Urdu, Arabic, and Persian. He filled his days with lasting things. By the fall of 1812, suffering from tuberculosis, weakened by fever, and exhausted from his arduous, friendless journey across Iran, Martyn wrote, “O Lord, Thy will be done! Living, dying, remember me!” Then in Tokat, all alone—and yet not alone—he wrote in his journal for the last time, “I thought with sweet comfort and peace of my God, who, in solitude, was my company, my friend, and comforter.”
Much Blessings.....
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