Clarification: "The only time the Spirit heals or delivers is when it is God's will"

“The Holy Spirit knows exactly what God’s will is, at all times, concerning every person’s life. The only time the Spirit heals or delivers is when it is God’s will. How many times have we seen someone take authority over something [some infirmity] in Jesus’ name and nothing happens? God’s will and his timing for what happens when we use Jesus’ name is very critical.”

Our response to the above statement:

When we are proclaiming the kingdom of God to the lost, it IS God’s will for the sick to be healed as evidence of the truth of the gospel to the lost.

Luke 10:9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, “the kingdom of God has come near to you.”

Even though the Holy Spirit now dwells in us, the above command is still valid. Whenever we proclaim the kingdom of God to the lost, it IS God’s will for the sick to be healed. If He commands us to heal the sick, that means it’s His will for the sick to be healed! When my wife orders me to take out the garbage, that means it’s her will for the garbage to be taken out.

In the same way, if He commands us to preach the gospel, it’s His will that the lost hear the gospel. I hope you can see the logic in what I am saying. If He commands us to love our neighbor, then it’s His will that we love our neighbor at all times, and through the Spirit He enables us to love our neighbor. Now which is actually the greater and more important miracle: loving our neighbor as ourselves, or healing the sick? Similarly which is the greater miracle: a sinner hearing the gospel from us and accepting Christ as Lord and Savior to receive eternal life, or a sick person being healed physically? If we don’t need the leading of the Spirit to do the “greater” thing, how much less do we need His leading to do the “lesser” thing.

Countless times we and those we’ve trained on the mission field will first preach the gospel to the lost. After that we heal the sick in Jesus’ name in accordance with Luke 10:9, and they are in fact healed and they give public testimony of their healing—resulting in the lost coming to Jesus. We do this NOT because the Lord specifically and personally instructed us through the Holy Spirit to heal the sick at that time or on that occasion. NO. We do this in obedience to His written command to heal the sick when we proclaim the kingdom of God to the lost. And each and every time the sick are in fact healed—bringing precious souls to Christ as Lord and Savior.

If we search through Acts, we generally do not see that the miraculous healings performed by the disciples were done by the explicit leading of the Holy Spirit. There might be couple of exceptions, for example, when Paul cursed Elymas the sorcerer in Acts 13:9—only after being filled with the Holy Spirit. (Note, however, that this miracle was not a healing, but rather a curse!) Generally Acts does not record that the disciples healed the sick only after being filled or led by the Spirit. Therefore, my guiding principle is Sola Scriptura: Scripture Alone!

Context is extremely important if not everything. The context of The Elijah Challenge Training which focuses on ministering to gospel-resistant people groups is quite different from that of believers in America in which they generally minister healing to other believers whose salvation is already a settled issue.

We preach the gospel because it’s generally God’s will for sinners to be saved (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore it’s God’s will generally for the sick to be healed when the gospel is being preached to sinners as evidence that the gospel we preach is the absolute truth—so that they can believe and be saved.

In this debate regarding God’s will to heal when the gospel is being preached we tend to side with those who place more emphasis on the authority of the logos—the written word. We do take strong issue with some who teach based on John 5:19 that unless one receives a “spoken word” or rhema from the Spirit, we can and should do nothing especially in the realm of the supernatural.

For more on this debate, click on these links:
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