Is Sickness a Gift From God?
Bob Yandian
There’s an important question that often lingers in the hearts of believers—especially when sickness or tragedy strikes. The question is this: Is sickness a gift from God? Some have even said, “God gave me this sickness to teach me something,” as if it were a token of His affection, a loving gesture wrapped in pain. But is that really the character of the God we serve? We can see through the Word of God that this notion is not only incorrect—it completely contradicts the nature of our loving Heavenly Father.
The Misunderstanding About God's Character
Years ago, I remember hanging around friends from different denominations—Baptists, Methodists—at youth events. Many of them had heard or believed that when someone died of sickness or disease, it was God’s doing. “God gave them that cancer,” they would say, “to teach them something.” But as I grew in the knowledge of the Word, I saw the truth: That is not how God operates.
If God gave them sickness to teach them something, then why did they die without learning the lesson? Wouldn’t healing be the result of learning the supposed lesson? Instead, they left this earth. That’s not the way God works. And it isn’t a loving gift. There is absolutely nothing loving or redemptive about disease in itself. The source of sickness is not God—it is Satan.
Acts 10:38 says, “Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.” If healing is good, then sickness is oppression. The author of sickness is not God; it’s the devil.
The Grace of Healing
When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t just die for your sins—He also died for your sicknesses. Isaiah 53 tells us, “By His stripes, we are healed.” Psalm 103 says, “Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.” It doesn’t say some, it says all.
Healing isn’t something you earn. You don’t buy it. You receive it by grace; the same way you received salvation.
Jesus’ work on the cross went beyond physical healing. He also came to heal the brokenhearted and to set at liberty those who are bruised (Luke 4:18). He heals both the inside and the outside—emotionally and physically. Those internal bruises, the emotional pain that people carry around for years—Jesus bore that too.
God’s Protection and Human Rebellion
Can God afflict someone with sickness? Yes, but we must rightly divide the Word. God doesn’t create sickness. He creates health. However, when a person, especially a rebellious unbeliever or a rebellious believer, continues in disobedience, God may lift His protection and allow them to experience the consequences of their own choices. But He is not the one causing the affliction.
Remember the Egyptians during the plagues? They were afflicted with boils, but God didn’t manufacture boils in heaven and pour them out. He removed His protection and allowed natural consequences to take place.
The Israelites in the wilderness were bitten by snakes because of their rebellion. Healing came only when they looked at the bronze serpent lifted on the pole, a type and shadow of Jesus on the cross. Healing was God’s response, not sickness.
What About God's Discipline?
Some argue that God uses sickness to discipline His children. They say, “I wasn’t in blatant sin. I just had a few issues, and God gave me this to get my attention.” Really? Then you must believe God’s Word isn’t enough to teach you. But the truth is, the Holy Spirit and the Word of God are the teachers in the New Testament. Not sickness. Not disease.
God teaches through His love, His Word, His care, His grace—not through affliction. And if sickness is supposed to teach us, why doesn’t the Bible give us a clear curriculum for disease? Why is it not spelled out plainly what cancer is supposed to teach versus a broken leg or diabetes?
God's Heart
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11)
This is where Jesus compares God’s heart to that of a parent. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Then Jesus asks a powerful question: “What man is there among you, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?”
Even earthly parents—who still deal with the flesh, who are by nature carnal—know how to give good gifts to their children. And yet we think God, who is perfect, might give us cancer if we ask for healing? That’s absurd.
Verse 11 says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?”
There it is: good things. Sickness is not a good thing. It’s not a gift from God. God doesn't give us stones or serpents when we ask for bread and fish. He gives us what we ask for—healing, provision, wisdom, peace.
The Nature of Asking and Receiving
Some people get hung up on the repetition of prayer. But the Greek here is in linear action. It means asking and continuing to ask—not for the same thing over and over again, but for new things as you walk through life. You ask, you receive. Then you go to the next need—you ask again, and you keep on receiving.
I’ve had prayers that took years to manifest. And when the answer came, I’d almost forgotten I prayed for it. God didn’t forget. He waited for the right time—for when I could handle it. He knew when the time would be right.
God waits until we are mature enough to handle what we have asked for. But once we ask in faith, we can walk away confident that He heard us. Don’t insult God by thinking you need to keep asking Him again and again for the same thing, as if He forgot.
Sickness Isn’t God’s Curriculum
God is not teaching you through disease. You won’t find one time in the Bible where Jesus gave someone a sickness to teach them a lesson. In fact, every time He encountered sickness, He healed it. Not one person walked away from Jesus sicker than they came.
Jesus said, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9). If Jesus went around healing, and never once afflicting, then God isn’t the afflicter, He is the healer. He is the deliverer. He is the restorer.
Communion: A Reminder of Redemption
When we take communion, we see this truth laid out clearly. The bread represents the body of Jesus, broken for our healing. The cup represents His blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins. Both are part of the same covenant. The same sacrifice that forgave your sins also healed your diseases.
Psalm 103:2–3 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits—who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.” It doesn’t say He might forgive or heal if He feels like it. It says He does.
God Is Not Confused
God is not confused. He is not double-minded. He doesn’t say, “I want you well,” and then turn around and make you sick. No, He’s the giver of good gifts, and He gives without reproach.
James 1:17 tells us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variation or shadow of turning.” That means God doesn’t switch sides. He doesn’t change moods. He doesn’t bless you one day and curse you the next. He is good—and He does good.
Let’s stop assigning the devil’s works to God. Let’s receive the full work of the cross—healing and forgiveness—and walk in the wholeness Jesus died to give us.
