Wheelchair Worship

“Why isn’t everyone healed? That’s because they don’t believe it is God’s will to heal everyone. The people who are perplexed are those who do believe it’s God’s will, and yet aren’t seeing every single person—perhaps even themselves—healed. Why does that happen? The answer Jesus gave the disciples to their question of why they couldn’t cast the demon out of the boy is very revealing: Because of your unbelief. Matthew 17:20”

                                          Andrew Wommack, “God Wants You Well” 96. 

One recent Sunday, my wife and I visited our son and his family in another town to where we live. We went to their church with them on Sunday morning. Their church meets in a movie theatre, and as we were taking our seats, the music team began to come on stage in preparation for the service. 

Among the team was a man in an electric wheelchair. He appeared to be a paraplegic. Attached to his wheelchair was a microphone stand with a microphone. He moved his wheelchair to the front of the stage and then began to lead the congregation in worship. He sang beautifully, and at one point, he had his hands raised in worship to our God. It was a beautiful and moving experience for both my wife and me.

For many, like us, who come from a charismatic background, this scene would raise difficult questions. After all, if God always wants to heal, then why would a man in a wheelchair be leading worship? Doesn’t that contradict the idea that enough faith (or belief) always leads to healing? 

As I contemplated this after the service, it struck me that you could never see someone like this leading worship at a Word of Faith, Prosperity, or Sign and Wonders church such as Bethel or Hillsong. The reason? Because it contradicts their theology that God wants everyone healed, and if someone is not healed, then it is their fault, whether due to a lack of faith or, as quoted from Andrew Wommack's book, they have unbelief. 

To have someone like this on the stage would unmistakably demonstrate that the declared and decreed miracle had not taken place, and instead of empty wheelchairs (that are constantly claimed), there's a man on stage still in a wheelchair, not “claiming his promised healing" but worshipping our good and sovereign God despite not being healed. 

Matthew 17:20, quoted by Wommack above, has been taken entirely out of its context to fit this errant theology that God wants everyone completely healed, and if they are not, it is because of our unbelief. 

To understand Matthew 17:20 properly, we need to put it back in its proper context and see what it is really telling us about unbelief, faith and healing. 

In Matthew 17:14-20, Jesus is speaking privately to His disciples after they’d failed to cast out a demon. These were specific men He had already given authority to heal and cast out demons earlier in Matthew 10. So when He says, “Because of your unbelief” (or literally “little faith” in the Greek), he’s not laying out a universal formula for healing for us all to follow. Instead, Jesus is rebuking the disciples in the middle of their specific, apostolic mission. 

This is about a failure by the disciples to obey and trust in God in their specific apostolic roles; it is not a timeless principle that healing is always available to those with enough faith. We are not apostles. We have not been given the same healing authority or sign-working commission that Christ gave to them during His earthly ministry. 

So did this man leading the congregational singing on the Lord's Day exhibit a lack of faith or unbelief? No, what he exhibited is the sovereignty of God and His faithfulness. 

Even through our sufferings and pain, our Father is there. This man’s presence on the stage did not reveal something missing spiritually, as Wommack or Bethel would believe, but instead it revealed a deep, enduring trust in a good and sovereign God. 

In a world where many equate healing and miracles with spiritual maturity, his wheelchair points us to a different truth: that God's grace is sufficient even when our sought-after healing does not come.

The Apostle Paul taught us this through his own suffering experience. He pleaded with God to remove his “thorn in the flesh.” Instead, the Lord replied, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). 

Like Paul, and like the man in the wheelchair, we do not boast in healing or strength or miracles, but in the God who holds us up in our weakness. This is the kind of faith that does not demand signs and wonders and healing to show true spirituality, but instead it’s the kind of faith that rests in and is comforted in the true character of God. 

Seeing this man leading worship touched me deeply because it reminded me that there are many times when we want a miracle, whether for our healing, restored relationships, or deep pain. Still, in the end, no matter the answer, we know that we can rest in the sovereignty and all-knowing power of our God, who sustains us even through that pain. 

This quiet, deep contentment in the Lord and His will doesn’t make Christian news headlines, but it does bring great glory to Christ. And actually, isn’t that the truest form of worship?

Dear believer, if you are suffering or struggling through some sort of pain in your life, don’t chase after miracles and signs and wonders and don’t get bogged down thinking that somehow you are to blame for your lack of healing. Instead, take your pain and sufferings to the Father and humbly ask him to take them away, then trust in his sovereign and ultimate care for you. 

He is all knowing and far above all that are or can know, and that is why we can trust that He will do what is ultimately best for us, even if we can't see it now and may not see it until eternity.

Soli Deo Gloria