Andrew Murray's Healing, then Lack of Healing
I encourage you to read “Andrew Murray: One of God's Choice Saints”, a great book, an amazing man who was really the spiritual father of our nation here in South Africa for many years. His books are freely available online because, of course, they're in public domain with him having died a long time ago. They're so good to read! His book “With Christ in the School of Prayer” is a real classic. I encourage you to check that one out as well.
Andrew Murray Healed
I want to close with two incidents in his life that I think have a lot to teach us. In 1896, he was heading to the Northern Transvaal in a cart to go and preach in Standerton. But there were no tar roads, of course, in those days, and there was an accident. He was thrown out of the cart and he broke his arm. They bandaged it and he preached that evening with his arm all covered up. But then the people came forward and prayed for him and his arm was healed. Months later, he went to a doctor and showed him the arm and the doctor said, ‘this arm has never been broken’. And so it was an amazing miracle. And Murray spoke a lot about how God could supernaturally heal if we pray in faith.
Andrew Murray Not Healed
But here's the interesting part. Years later, he was again thrown from a cart as he was on a preaching tour in Natal. He hurt his leg and his back. But this time he wasn't healed. And though they prayed, he never really recovered from these injuries that he sustained. He ended up essentially retiring from the ministry because he was unable to go on physically. But as he stopped touring around and preaching, he spent much of his time at home. And it was in those years when he couldn't really do a lot that he developed a wonderfully deep prayer life and wrote some classic books on prayer, like the one I mentioned earlier.
God Worked in Both
Now, if he hadn't gone through that accident and had just carried on traveling, traveling, traveling, there’s every chance that the greater church would never have known those great books that he wrote! Being unable to travel meant he was able to do different work for God. Do you see how God can use miraculous healings at times to show forth His glory and at other times he doesn't heal so that he can show forth His glory?
Friends, if you need healing, go to healing service. Go to good, reliable men and women of God who have the gift of healing and seek it. But if God wills that you aren't going to be healed, there's a reason for that, too. And perhaps your greatest ministry will come out of your lack of healing rather than your healing. That's what happened for Murray and I know that will happen for many of us, too.
