Who healed her?

I am on a prayer chain and I see many various prayers. This one is made up for the purpose of this post but it could be as real as the one’s I read all the time.

“Prayer Warriors, As you know my sister Janie had an inoperable tumor in her left side. She has had a lot of chemo and a range of things being done over the last 8 months. They finally went in yesterday and did surgery and they were able to get all of it out and the doctors said that it didn’t spread anywhere else. She is healed! God healed her!! Thanks for praying that God would heal her!”

My question at that point is, did God heal her or did the doctor and his specialty?

Yes.. I can hear you now! ‘God used the doctor to heal her. God blessed that doctor with the ability to know how to get the job done. Maybe the doctor was a Christian.” I agree.

In the New Testament Luke was a physician. It doesn’t exactly say of what specialty whether it was ob/gyn, oncology or general practice. (Just teasing!) Ironically in the book of Luke it mentions Jesus sending out the twelve disciples and he gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. Luke was not in this group of the original twelve. Neither is it mentioned that they were to take a physician with them to accomplish these cures or healings.

If you have a toe problem you go to a podiatrist. If you’re going to have a baby you go to an ob/gyn. If you have heart problems you would see a cardiologist. I would think that if you go to a physician ‘of need’ then that doctor is for the most part quite capable of diagnosing and giving you all the alternatives to how to get well again. Be it medications; see other specialty doctors, surgery or any other variety of alternative medicines.

If you get well, whether in a short time or over a period of time, did the doctor ‘heal’ you? I am meaning in the biblical sense of the word. When Jesus ‘healed’ he didn’t refer them to Luke for a prognosis. He used the mighty power that was at his disposal. There is not a mention in the NT where someone was healed over time. They all use the word and meaning of ‘immediately’.

I have no problem with giving God all the glory for whatever I want to at the time. But if we ascribe a doctor’s touch as a ‘healing’ then does that dilute the reality of GOD being able to reach down outside of a human’s hands and miraculously heal someone?

To me a ‘Praise God he healed her!’ would be followed with the climax of ‘before they even entered the surgery she was able to jump off the bed and dance like she was a little child! The doctors did some quick x-rays and tests and she appeared quite healthy! Everyone in the room was in awe and they stared at each other in sheer amazement. Some obviously knew it was God’s mighty hand that reached down and they each praised him in their own way!’

If a doctor does a good work and everyone ascribes it to God healing that person and if the doc isn’t a God fearing man then he might not want to know this God who keeps getting all the credit for what he went to school to learn. When H&R Block finishes your taxes do you say, ‘Hallelujah, God did my taxes?’ No. The H&R Block guy did them for you. The car mechanic changed your oil unless you saw with your eyes how that oil went from black to a pretty amber color instantaneously.

Let’s give the humans the credit where credit is due and let God do the immense, mighty, wondrous, awe-inspiring acts that only he can do.