A promise is not the same as an experience. A man may hold a legal deed to a piece of land but never set foot on it. A family may inherit a fortune and yet die in poverty, unaware of the wealth that has been transferred to them. So it is with the blessings of God. They are given and announced, but many never possess them. They remain undiscovered or disbelieved. The Scripture does not say that we might receive if God feels inclined, but that we receive by faith. The blessings belong to us because they were promised to us. Yet we only enjoy what we receive, and we receive what we believe.
If God has promised healing, why do some fail to experience it? It is an error to equate divine faithfulness with automatic fulfillment. Healing belongs to the believer, but possession is not passive. The woman with the bent back had been in the synagogue for eighteen years. The man with the withered hand had likely attended many Sabbath services. They were children of the covenant, but they were not walking in the power of the covenant. They were surrounded by religious experts, but none had the faith to lift them. Their condition endured not because God failed, but because faith was absent. And when Jesus came to deliver them, the authorities objected.
The Pharisees responded with contempt, not confusion. They were not merely ignorant, but defiant. They were infuriated that miracles occurred outside their control. They spread false accusations against Christ, and threatened those who believed in him. They enforced compliance with a system that kept the people bound and ashamed. These were not random acts of petty jealousy. They were a coordinated and systemic opposition to truth and power. And it was the religious elite who led the charge. The scholars, the teachers, the leaders of the people, were the very ones who blocked the door to the kingdom and punished anyone who dared to enter.
Jesus regarded these men with scorn. He was not impressed with their titles, and he did not accommodate their traditions. He denounced them as frauds and called them sons of hell. He exposed their hypocrisy and warned his followers to avoid them. The synagogue was the spiritual center of the community, but it had become a prison. The leaders did not teach the truth. They did not preach the promises of God. They had no power to deliver, and they resented anyone who did. The people under their care were not just suffering from disease or poverty. They were under a spiritual regime that actively suppressed faith.
This is exactly what the church has become. It preserves a religious form but rejects the truth. It recites the words of the covenant but denies their relevance. The church has replaced the living promises of God with human heritage and confessions of weakness. When someone rises to speak the word of faith, it reacts like the synagogue. It issues warnings and raises suspicions. It excommunicates the healed and punishes the hopeful. The most hostile forces against God’s salvation and deliverance are not atheists, but theologians. They uphold their traditions as more trustworthy than Scripture, and they reinterpret the promises of God through the lens of their own failure. They do not marvel when miracles happen. They attack and mock. They are the descendants of the ones who condemned Christ and sought his death.
Jesus healed the woman on the Sabbath to restore what had been stolen. She had suffered under their leadership for nearly two decades. He called her a daughter of Abraham, because that was the true description of her position. The covenant was hers. The blessing was hers. But no one helped her experience it. Her healing was a correction of an injustice. The man with the withered hand was not randomly healed. Jesus commanded him to stretch it forth. That act of obedience was the means by which the promise became experience. Had he refused, or had he consulted the religious leaders for their opinion, he would have remained deformed.
What belongs to you in Christ is received by faith. A man may sit beside a feast and starve. A person may live in a palace and freeze if he never kindles the fire. The blessings are near, but they are not imposed. God has declared his word, sealed it by blood, and preached it to the ends of the earth. Faith leads to the experience of these promises. The sovereignty of God is revealed in the certainty of his promises, not in his supposed freedom to contradict them. God does not review each person’s case to decide whether to honor what he said. He does not occasionally fulfill his word while breaking it at other times. That would not be sovereignty, but dishonesty. It would make him a liar, which is impossible.
The man who believes receives. The one who does not believe remains in lack. The one who teaches faith spreads life. The one who opposes it spreads death. The church was meant to proclaim the covenant and demonstrate the power of Christ. Yet much of it has become like the old synagogue: resentful of miracles and hostile to faith. It punishes those who believe more than it does, and it warns people away from what Jesus came to give. It does not preach the promises. It does not prepare the people to receive. And when someone begins to experience what belongs to him in Christ, the leaders become angry, just as they were angry with Jesus.
But the promises remain. The covenant has not changed. The cross has secured more than forgiveness. It has secured access. The gospel has spread, and with it the knowledge of the truth. No man today is limited to the theological elite. The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. Do not subjugate yourself to a religious system that Christ would demolish. Do not submit to voices that warn against the very blessings of God. Do not honor teachers who have no answers, no power, and no experience. God’s promises belong to us. Let the experience match the inheritance, and let the power of the gospel be seen once again in those who believe.