Is
healing for today?
The body
of Christ is split on the subject of healing. Many godly people will tell
you no, the gift of miraculous healing is not readily available to believers
today; it was just meant for a season. Others, just as godly, will say
yes, it's for us too. The fact that there is a wide split on this issue
indicates that the biblical support doesn't stack up neatly on just one
side. Meanwhile, the enemy has frequently used this difference of opinion
to divide body of Christ - because Christian unity is a deadly force against
the powers of hell.
So is healing for today? You get to decide for yourself. Don't blindly
adopt the view of your pastor or spouse or favorite radio preacher. Listen
to them, but don't stop there. Ask God, and take time to listen. Search
the scriptures. And do what very few Christians do - seek out biblical
counsel from a variety of sources. Too many of us only read books or articles
from a select group of authors, generally those who see things exactly
as we do. But a wise man will dare to expose himself to more than one
biblical view point.
Before looking at today, let's start by getting a context for healing
in the days that Jesus walked the earth as a man. He did no miracles before
turning 30. Then, when He was filled with the Holy Spirit, miracles became
a daily thing for Him. He came to tell people about God's kingdom, and
to invade Satan's kingdom. Satan's kingdom was filled with lies, deception,
fear, disease, demonic oppression, and death. And scripture says that
Jesus came to "destroy the works of the devil" and take away his oppressive
kingdom, one soul at a time. That included loosening the chains that disease
placed upon people. So when Jesus encountered sick people, He didn't just
save their soul; He healed them. When demons came out of hiding and showed
themselves within people, Jesus cast them out and set the people free.
Jesus did far more than tell people about God's kingdom. He wasn't just
an information bearer. He brought God's kingdom, in the process,
tearing down Satan's kingdom.
This seemed to confuse demons and catch them off guard. They said things
to Jesus like, "Have you come to destroy us before the appointed time?"
They thought their day of destruction was far off, perhaps at the time
of His Second Coming. But when the Holy Spirit comes in power, He brings
light. That light exposes the kingdom of darkness and drives it out. When
Jesus preached the kingdom, it was with more than words, it was with power.
The Apostle Paul said the same thing. "My message and my preaching were
not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's
power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's
power." (1 Cor 2:4-5)
Jesus is more than a Teacher. He is also a Deliverer, like Moses of old.
The Book of Acts starts out by saying all that Jesus began to "do and
teach." He never limits Himself to just teaching without doing. So when
Jesus walked from village to village, preaching the good news, He also
demonstrated the good news. He exercised His power and authority over
the devil, including demonic tools like disease and oppression.
Was there a special formula or technique to His healing? No such luck.
It was not a paint-by-numbers scheme that every person could follow with
success. His kingdom depends on His kingly authority. If we are not under
His Lordship, we will not carry His authority, no matter how well we finish
our sentences with "in Jesus' name."
Seven brothers learned this the hard way. They decided to cast a demon
out of a man by invoking the name of Jesus and Paul. The demon fired back,
"Jesus I know, and Paul I have heard of. But who are you?" If we are not
rooted in Christ and standing in faith on His promises, the enemy will
not give up a single inch of ground.
So did anyone besides Jesus heal people? Certainly. First He sent out
12, then 72, giving them power to heal the sick and cast out demons as
they preached the good news. (Again we see the pattern of "do and teach.")
And after Jesus died and rose again, He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell
in every believer, beginning at Pentecost when Jesus' followers "received
power" from on high. At this point, the power gift of healing was evident
in multitudes. God was spreading things out.
It wasn't always that way. In the Old Testament, we usually saw one super
man of God at a time, like Moses or Elijah. These were prototypes, small
scale human versions of the Messiah yet to come. But after Pentecost,
we see the gifts of the Holy Spirit spread out across thousands of believers.
This was subtly foreshadowed when Jesus fed the multitudes. Recall how
He broke the bread and gave it to a few people, and somehow it miraculously
multiplied until thousands had the bread. Jesus is that bread. He was
broken for us, and as a result, He was able to spread Himself across multitudes
of people. So when people heal others in the name of Jesus, it is literally
Jesus within a person doing the healing. We are the Body of Christ on
earth.
But that was just the first century church, right? Some teach that the
power gifts, such as divine healing, were removed or "dispensed" after
the bible was written and canonized. The idea there is that we didn't
need such gifts once we had the bible. Is there biblical evidence to support
that? Some point to Paul's statement that "where there are prophecies
(a power gift), they will cease." Is that statement saying that prophecies
and other gifts of the Holy Spirit were temporary or coming to an end?
If so, then it's difficult to explain why later in the same book, Paul
tells us to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.
One thing we must not do is use our life experiences to determine our
doctrine. If you've seen people pray for healing, and fail, does that
mean healing is not for today? Jesus' disciples tried to cast a demon
out of a boy and failed. Jesus responded by chastising them for a lack
of faith, and by saying that this particular demon only comes out by prayer
and fasting (which the disciples were not yet practicing).
So if I pray for healing and it doesn't come, does that mean I don't have
enough faith? It may. But that should not shame me and cause me to give
up. Faith comes by seeing the kingdom of heaven prevail over the kingdom
of darkness, and thus believing for further victories. John Wimber was
one man who healed hundreds of people in the 1980's and 1990's, and taught
many others to heal by faith in Jesus. But John Wimber prayed for more
than 1,000 sick people before he saw his first healing. How could anyone
possibly stick with something through such constant failure? He refused
to go by what he was experiencing, but stood on the testimony of scripture.
Faith, and the lack of faith, can be a merciless weapon in the hands of
a dogmatic Christian. Some faith-based movements go so far as to tell
people that they are not saved if they can't operate in miraculous power.
That is a human response to a divine dilemma. We must give each other
freedom to have imperfect faith - in order to grow in faith. "Where the
spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" and freedom. Freedom to fail,
freedom to make mistakes, freedom to come up short. If we want to move
in heavenly power, we must give one another freedom to be imperfect along
the way to perfection.
So if healing is for today, then why aren't the hospitals emptied? Isn't
healing prayer 100 percent? For Jesus, yes it was. Because He had perfect
power over the enemy, and because He walked in perfect obedience to His
Father. "He only did what He saw the Father doing." He may well have bypassed
some sick people without attempting to heal them --if He did not "see"
the Father healing that person. We are far less in touch with what the
Father is doing. In many cases, we guess at His will for a situation.
We may ask for healing for someone that God is not ready to heal, for
one reason or another. Or we may ask out of anxiety and human response,
rather than being led by the Holy Spirit. Or we may, like the seven sons
of Sceva, be trying to invoke the name of Jesus without ourselves abiding
deeply in Jesus. And we may not know the reason for our lack of results
until heaven.
Meanwhile, the kingdom of Satan strives to maintain its grip on this world
through sickness and oppression. Can he go unchecked? Is God required
to sit on His hands and stay idle while Satan is allowed to wreak pain
and suffering upon people? Or are we called to strike back, to drive out
the kingdom of darkness and usher the kingdom of light into people's lives?
Decide for yourself whether the mantle placed upon Jesus falls also upon
us today. Ask God to show you, in His word and by His Spirit, whether
He is still in the business of using mere mortals to perform divine healing.
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