The Church And Healing Series

One of the enjoyable experiences of being a parent is the

experience of exercising the gift of healing. Maybe you are unaware

of the fact that you possess such a gift. I was until I noticed how

effectively my wife was using it. I then became conscious of the fact

that I had the same amazing power to heal. Let me give you a case

history of one of my healings, so you understand and recognize that

you have this same ability.

My youngest son Mark comes running out of the bedroom crying

crocodile tears. He is carrying on as if he had excruciating and

incurable pain. He points to his head or arm and cries that Cindy

did it. He lays his arm on my lap sobbing pathetically. Dr. daddy

has already diagnosed the problem, and I say, "Let me kiss it." With

that remedy applied the cure is instantaneous, and he wipes the tears

from his eyes and heads back to the bedroom to take his chances

again in the battle for survival with his older sister. Seldom have I

seen this cure fail. It is so powerful that I have seen my wife throw

him a kiss across the room, and it heals his wounds in a moment.

No one can see this time and time again and remain a skeptic

about faith healing, for that is what it is. A child has faith in its

parents, and some act of love on their part can actually relieve pain

and heal the wounded heart. The child is so naive, however, and the

method is so unscientific that it is downright funny. Many of you

have laughed as we have as you see the marvelous transformation

take place before your eyes. A miserable moaning child transformed

in a twinkling of an eye into the mischievous little mess maker he

normally is.

The realm of faith is often strange, and without apparent

objective foundation, and so it is difficult to understand, but the fact

is, it works. It is my becoming aware of the fact that it works on the

merely human and natural level that has challenged me to look

deeper into the subject on the spiritual level. I figure that if God has

built faith healing into the very family structure between parents and

children, it is certainly likely that he would have such a pattern as

well in his relationship as heavenly Father to those who are His

children through faith in Jesus Christ.

I have always been skeptical of faith healers, for this is an area

that can be so easily perverted. However, as in every other realm, we

cannot close our eyes to God's Word on any subject just because it

can be perverted. Salvation itself is perverted in many ways, and

should we then cease to preach the Gospel, which is the power of God

unto salvation? The ostrich approach to anything is never the

Christian approach. You can bury your head all you like, but the

truth marches on whether you see it or not. Most Christians who are

confused and uncertain about healing in the ministry of the church

are so for the same reason I was-sheer ignorance.

The average Christian knows next to nothing about the New

Testament teachings, and the voluminous historical writings

concerning the healing ministry of the church. The healing ministry

of Christ has never ceased. It has been going on all through the

centuries, but most are not aware of it. Ignorance is always an

enemy of truth. To judge and condemn what you do not understand

is pure paganism, and it has no justification in the Christian life. Yet

Christians do it all the time. When the non-Christian rejects the

Christian faith because of ignorance, we laugh at such blindness and

folly. But then we turn around and do the same thing because we are

ignorant of history. The pagan mind has infiltrated the church time

and time again, and we are guilty of terrible pride if we assume that

this could never be a danger for us.

A Christian can be wrong even when they are right if they oppose

a thing, movement, person, or philosophy without understanding it.

Many oppose faith healing just because they cannot tolerate the

thought that they are not the most superior of God's children. It is

hard for Christians to admit that God may use others in ways that

He does not use them. This tends to make them negative, and they

are lashing out at everything they do not understand. They make

themselves the standard by which all God's children are to be

measured. It is not easy for a Baptist, like myself, to admit that he

can learn something from a Pentecostal, Catholic, or Episcopalian,

who is being used of God in areas where I am not.