The problem

So Scripture says two contradictory things, a few times:

God wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), but also declares the wicked will have their part in the lake of fire apart from God.

With regard to healing, taking Matthew's interpretation of Isaiah 53 indicates healing is in the atonement (Matthew 8:17, quoting Isaiah 53:4)—but then not everyone gets healed. You say that's down to the belief of the person (Matthew 13:58)? That may be so sometimes, but what about Paul's thorn (2 Corinthians 12)? Job? Trophimus (2 Tim 4:20)? There are then situations, which we experience ourselves many times, where healing alludes us for years, even to death. We all know people like this.

Arminians would put the difference back to us. They would say that God has done everything for your salvation, you just have to accept it. So it's a cooperative decision, and God won't usurp your will, even though he desires all to be saved. The thing is, though, if God himself can't convict you of your sin and the wonder of his grace, what hope have we got in our own broken selves of doing so—but if God is a brilliant and all-loving wooer of our hearts, what hope have we got of resisting him?

Pentecostal Arminians say the same thing about healing. They say the difference is us. We have to claim the healing to have it. The power for healing is there and done in the cross, we but have to reach for it. You only have to get to know a Pentecostal Arminian to realise that most carry a long-term sickness, disease, mental issue, or inadequacy of some form, and they can only say in strained faith "it's coming".

Calvinists regard salvation as a work purely God's. Even our own decision is wrought through wooing of God's conviction and loveliness, so that it can be said that we were predestined to accept God's will for our salvation. Most also would say the non-elect are predestined for their fiery end. But that doesn't account for 1 Timothy 2:4 satisfactorily.

There are precious few Calvinist charismatics but they do exist. They would stress healing is a matter of God's will, and so some get healed and some don't. This doesn't satisfy people who have a vision of, say, the book of Revelation, as it appears as though God's desire is for a complete end to suffering, and even death, where we'll have peace, prosperity and life forever. Many optimistic Pentecostals try and call that down from heaven to earth (Matthew 6:10). So why doesn't it come all the time?

The two wills of God

I think there's a relatively simple way of harmonising these things.

God has a declarative will: this shall happen; I decree it by my power. And it happens.

But God also expresses his general will as his heart, or his desire for us: here are my precepts that describe my ethical desire for you (this can be called God's preceptive will); take it or leave it, but this is what I desire for you. And this will can be taken up and done or it can be disobeyed, ignored or willfully resisted.

So God [generally] wants everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), but not declaratively.

And God [generally] wants what happens in heaven to happen on earth (Matthew 6:10), but doesn't declare it to be so.

And God delights in healing and loves it and on many occasions heals everyone (Luke 6:19; Matthew 8:16, 9:35; Acts 5:16), but other times does not (2 Cor 12; Job; 2 Tim 4:20). This is because he does not declare the healing to be so, only commands us to go out and preach and heal (Matthew 10:8; Luke 9:1-5, 10:1-12, Mark 16:15-18), knowing that some will and some won't accept it (Mark 6:5).

The explanatory power of the two wills

This explains why in Pentecostal circles where they believe we can declare and decree healing, it sometimes works and sometimes (often?) doesn't. The times when it works are where they've listened to God and gone and done what he wanted them to do. God enabled it by his declarative will. But the times where it doesn't work, inevitably that's because they've gone ahead of God and tried to declare that which he hasn't declared. They've thought there was a blanket command to heal everyone, whereas it's actually God's general desire—much like the command to reach the lost.

It may be easier to think about salvation. We can't command or decree that a person be saved!

First, a person must agree they are lost—and this can only be done through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, though he uses us and His Word and his testimony through us to achieve his ends.

Second, the person must cry out to God, and this cannot be formularised or declared, as it's entering into a relationship with God. Saying that all those who call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10:13) is declarative is true, but God is a person who knows your heart. Some people who call on Jesus' name have not surrendered themselves to him yet, and he may yet push them away for a time (Luke 9:57-62). Others swear on a particular set of words—as if God was like a robotic young single girl programmed to respond to a particular pickup line.

Third, the test of genuine conversion is that you see the effects of God's Spirit on their life: conviction of sin; love for God's Word, people and holiness; spiritual gifts; the fruit of the Spirit – character; and so on. As this is not a declarative will that all will get saved, we need confirmation. So testing of our faith according to the Spirit's work is both necessary and helpful for building confidence and assurance.

And so with healing what we want to be careful about is to follow God's will. If he has made known to someone a sickness, that's an indication of his declarative will that he wants to heal it. It will happen—pray in the manner he has shown you. But if you don't have God's specific word for the moment, then you are operating in God's general will—his overall desire—that all be saved and healed and delivered. Then we need to be mindful that it may not be God's timing right now. We can try, but shouldn't be disheartened if nothing happens. We didn't miss the boat, and we're not out of God's will, because God didn't declare it must be. He has his reasons and his timings, and we ought to pray and ask him to come and plead with him, if we want to see healings, deliverances and salvations. But without his declarative will, we certainly have no jurisdiction to declare our own will for those things. We can only be available to his will. Our will and our declarations mean nothing except if he has told us he wants to use us for a specific purpose here and now. So this is where many Pentecostal healers get into trouble, and then have to bend over backwards to try and fix up. Many a good Christian have been thrown out as unfaithful, unbelieving and sinners for not getting healed. (Mind you, they don't so much get thrown out as simply leave.) This should not be so. We instead would be much more cautious when we realise that we may only have God's general will/heart on an issue, not his declarative will.

Thinking positively, when we do get a revelation from the Spirit about healing, possession, salvation, or anything, we should take great courage that this is almost certainly something that God wants to take action on. Therefore, press in! Go! Be bold and courageous!