The lack of healing is not always due to a lack of faith, Pastor Chris McMillan list five different reasons (with a lack of faith being one of them).  

 

1. Unconfessed sin.  At its root sickness is the result of sin. Adam and Eve sinned and because of their sin sickness, disease and death corrupted the world. The Bible makes it clear that in some instances people remain sick because they refuse to repent of their sin. Sometimes sickness or disease is a consequence of our sin (i.e., STD's, Alcoholism, worry, etc). Sometimes God disciplines unrepentant sinners with physical affliction.

In James 5:16 we are told to confess our sins to one another that we may be healed. In John 5 Jesus healed a paralyzed man and told him to go and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon him. In Revelation 2:20-23 Jesus speaks to the church in Thyatira tells them that he is going to punish a false prophetess by the name of Jezebel by casting her onto a bed of sickness and those that commit adultery with her He will cause to suffer intensely. So if we don't want to be afflicted confess your sin. "If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
 

While sin is the original root of sickness personal sin is not always the cause of sickness. In John 9 Jesus and His disciples came across a man born blind. The disciples asked Jesus who sinned that caused this man to be born blind, him or his parents? Jesus said neither but he was born blind so that the glory of God might be displayed. So sometimes sickness doesn't come because of personal sin but because sin is in the world. {Paul said that some of the saints were sickly, because they were taking communion without addressing the sins, 1st Cor 11}                                                                                                                   

2. People don't really want to be healed. Sometimes people aren't healed because they don't want to be. In John 5 Jesus encountered a man that had been paralyzed for 38 years. Jesus looked at the man and the first thing He said to him was, "Do you want to be well?" Some people thrive on sickness. Their identity is wrapped up in their sickness. If they were to get healed they wouldn't know what to do.

3. Lack of faith. The Bible tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb.11:6). Faith is the currency of the kingdom. Jesus said that faith moves mountains and makes the impossible possible. If we want to be healed we must have faith. When Jesus ministered in His own hometown He could do no miracles there because of their unbelief (Mark 6:5). Unbelief hinders God from doing miracles in your life. 

But we must also keep in mind that just because you have faith doesn't mean that you will be healed. Many people with great faith still remain sick. Yet they continue to trust God anyway. Just because you are sick doesn't mean you don't have faith.

4. Demonic power. Sometimes demonic power keeps people bound in sickness. You see this especially in third world countries where there is pantheism and idol worship. In Luke 13 the Bible tells us that a woman was bent over with a spirit of infirmity. Jesus said that Satan had bound this woman.

Paul said that his thorn in the flesh was a messenger of Satan that had been sent to torment him. This doesn't mean that Satan or his demons possess believers - that is an impossibility - but it does mean that they can afflict with sickness. Job was afflicted with sickness from the enemy. So sometimes we are sick because of demonic power.

5. God's sovereignty. Out of all the reasons that people don't get healed I think this is the most important one. Some people don't get healed because God chooses not to. Now that may offend our sensibilities but God is sovereign, which means He is in control and calls the shots.

Therefore, we have to learn to trust Him even when we don't understand. Sometimes God chooses to heal people immediately and others He doesn't.  If there is one thing we need to understand about God it is that more than anything else He wants to be glorified. God doesn't heal because He feels sorry for us He heals because it brings Him glory. Go back and remember the man born blind in John 9. Jesus said he was born blind so the glory of God could be revealed (i.e., also Lazarus in John 11:3-6).

You see we don't have a whole lot to do with our healing. Yes we must have faith but God decides if and when healing comes. God will always do what brings Him the most glory. Sometimes what brings God the most glory is to withhold healing for a season or permanently!  Now you may ask how can God withholding healing bring Him glory? Because those that suffer bring God glory and honor through their suffering.

Through their faithfulness, and perseverance God is glorified.  "we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope" (Rom.5:3-4). Someone might say that wouldn't God healing someone bring Him greater glory than allowing them to suffer? That's not up to you to decide. Only God can decide what will bring Him glory. The clay cannot say to the potter make me a certain way (Rom.9:21). The clay has no say. The potter does whatever He wants to with the clay.

MY GOD IS ABLE, BUT IF HE CHOOSES NOT TO DO THIS,  I STILL TRUST HIM-- One of the greatest expressions of faith, is to trust, God even when things don't go the way we hoped.  This is the same time of faith exemplified by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when facing the possibility of being cast into the fiery furnace.  True faith and trust has two components, #1. GOD IS ABLE, #2. BUT IF NOT, I still trust.

 ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.  ¹⁷ If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.  ¹⁸ But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.  Dan 3:16-18 

Larry Keefauver tells us,  "Some of the deepest feelings of people about the human predicament may find expression in mythical form. These myths do have some basis in fact, are rooted in deep emotions, and find some support in Scripture. But a myth only seems true for some times, for some people, and in some situations. Truth is that which is true for all time, for all people, and in all situations. Some may be healed in time, while others are healed in eternity.

Both walk by faith. Their courage, faith, hope, and spiritual depth will help us in our journey of faith to know the God who heals!  Between now and eternity, time will pass. How we spend that precious commodity will result in either treasure or trash. That time will be either redeemed or wasted. The choice is ours. Until our healing is manifested either in time or eternity, we will either walk by faith or merely talk faith.
 

Walking by faith is really living, whether for a moment longer or for years. When God doesn't heal now, we may be tempted to diminish our trust and increase our trying. Our trying will not get us healed. We cannot make a miracle happen. However, we can expect God to meet us at our point of need and walk with us every moment of life. Christ remains at our side to lift us up and see us through.

That God must always heal now, because we believe, obey, or confess the Word is myth. Will we still love God, if we aren't healed now? Are we at peace with God's sovereignty? Does His plan, and will reign supreme in our life? Nothing really matters, but totally trusting God and walking by faith. Without being healed eternally, being healed in time is meaningless. Faith is the ultimate issue. The real spiritual battlefield on which we war against disease is not healing, but faith.                                                                                                              

The paramount struggle in which we find ourselves will never be the temporal battle between health and disease, but rather a spiritual war that will rage between faith and fear--trust and doubt.  Is it possible to walk by faith through pain, suffering, and even death? Can one believe in the God who heals even if healing isn't manifested now? Are we trusting for our healing or trusting the healer?
 

The most important thing in life is Jesus, because He alone is life. The only time death and disease will defeat us is when our myths about healing replace the truth about the God who heals. Where do we turn for rock-solid truth that will see us through even the valley of the shadow of death?

What are some of the myths we banter about when talk and cheap and life seems endless? Here are a few:  If a person has enough faith, they will be healed. While a lack of faith may hinder healing, healing does not always take place even when we have faith. Claim Him as your healer, whether we see your healing manifested now or in eternity."