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Decades ago beginning in the second half of the Twentieth Century, God would
visit His people in charismatic churches with seemingly “spontaneous” miraculous
healings as they gathered together to worship Him. Without His people doing
much of anything, the Lord would simply “show up” with power
and many people would be healed and touched in some supernatural way.
But today there seems to be a famine in the land. The miraculous healings
of yesterday are rare and nearly non-existent. The only time they seem
to happen if at all is when some specially-gifted servant of God comes
to minister. It may be true that certain miracles do take place with
certain ministers, but since such miracles are not found in Scripture
we must be cautious and exercise discernment. What in the world have
happened to the miracles of healing which we find so prevalent in the
gospels and in Acts?
The early days
Back
in the nascent days of the charismatic renewal movement, it was all
very new for the people. They had never seen
anything like it.
You could therefore say that the movement had given birth to spiritual “infants.” With
infants, parents are very patient and understanding. They will do
everything for the helpless ones and take care of all their needs
without requiring
them to do anything. This is why the Lord like a parent would just
show up and move supernaturally to take care of the needs of His
people, such as physical healing. Like suckling babies, they would
simply receive the blessings and nourishment
without doing much of anything.
But that was then. Today the Lord expects His people to have matured
to spiritual adulthood. Normal adults are expected to take responsibility
and to do things for themselves. In the same way, the Lord now expects
His people to take responsibility and to know how to do what He expects
of them. What does the Lord expect of us?
Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them
power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases,
2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal
the sick.
Luke
10:9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The
kingdom of God is near you.’
Matthew
17:14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt
before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he
said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls
into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples,
but they could not heal him.”
17 “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how
long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring
the boy here to me.”
Jesus expected his disciples to perform miracles
Among
other things, the Lord taught and commanded his disciples to preach
the kingdom of God, to heal the sick and to cast out demons.
(The gospels do not record him ever teaching or commanding his disciples
to pray for the sick or the demonized.) When they failed to cast
out a demon in Matthew 17 above, he was very disappointed with them
and
rebuked them harshly. If we believe that these commands are still
valid today---and many believers do---it means that Jesus expects
His mature
disciples today to heal the sick and cast out demons as we proclaim
the kingdom of God to the lost.
Therefore it is no wonder that the miraculous healings of yesterday
no longer take place in our midst. We do not know how to heal the sick
as mature disciples should be able to do. Because of our traditions
and our theology, we have never been taught. All we can do, like helpless
babes, is cry out to God and wait on Him to heal the sick. In earlier
days when we were still spiritual infants, He would coming running
and perform miraculous healings for us. But now that we have grown
up to become adults, He expects us to be able to do certain things
like healing the sick for ourselves. No wonder it is not like it used
to be.
Now that we are adults, the Lord requires us to read the Scriptures,
divide them correctly, and to obey them. It turns out that the Bible
contains all the teaching we need in order to be able to heal the sick
and cast out demons as Jesus taught and commanded his disciples 2,000
years ago. But our eyes have been blinded to the teaching even though
it is in plain sight in the Scriptures.
What can we do if we have understanding?
But if
we have understanding, we can properly interpret and apply the instructions
given in James 5 for ministering to infirm believers.
When we obtain this understanding, we will see the sick healed just
as the Scriptures declare.
James 5:15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person
well; the Lord will raise him up.
In the same way, when we preach the kingdom of God to the lost, we
will be able to do what the early disciples did.
Luke 9:6 So they set out and went from village to village, preaching
the gospel and healing people everywhere.
May the
Church now act and minister in a way which is appropriate for a spiritually-mature
bride. No longer should we
depend solely on “visitations
of God” in order to witness the supernatural. If the Lord visits
us with supernatural manifestations, we are very grateful to Him. But
if He chooses not to, we can still witness the miraculous as we heal
the sick and cast out demons in the proclamation of the gospel to the
lost.
Rhema vs. logos
No longer
should we depend exclusively on receiving a “rhema” from
the Holy Spirit before daring to step out of the boat and ministering
in the supernatural. When we have understanding of the “logos”---the
written word consisting of Holy Scripture---we will understand that
we have been given a measure of authority to minister in the supernatural
even without receiving a “rhema.” We must understand that
the “logos” came before and takes precedence over the “rhema.”
John
1:1 In the beginning was the Word [“logos”],
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
However, because of the current dearth of understanding about miraculous
healing in the Church today, we have drifted away from supernatural
healing and deliverance to focus on other manifestations not found
in Scripture. In Acts it was usually miraculous healing which drew
the multitudes to Jesus Christ. But today the miracles, if any, do
not involve miraculous healing but rather strange and questionable
manifestations not supported by Scripture. Today it is not miraculous
healing and the promise of eternal life which draw people to the Lord,
but rather promises of prosperity, success, blessing, and comfort in
this life. We have drifted away from the true gospel.
But the
Lord is now restoring supernatural healing and deliverance to His
Church. We can now return to preaching the
pure and unadulterated
gospel with great boldness, and be confident that it will be confirmed
with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Then the faith of
the people will no longer depend on man’s wisdom, but on God’s
power.
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