The Gifts Of Healing
Some claim to have “the gift of healing” and so they regularly have “healing
lines,” having special healing services in which they lay hands on people
and pray for them to be healed. They think it is always God's will for every
Christian to be healed and be perfectly well, so they think everyone has a
right to claim healing. They think, therefore, they have a permanent gift of
healing and are authorized to use it continually. However, the facts do not
bear out their claims. We believe that it does not fit with the Bible
doctrine of the gifts of the Spirit.
We believe that what they had in Bibl times, by
God's loving plan and mercy and only those He chose for each gift, we ought
to have, too. We do not believe the gifts of the Spirit are now passed away.
First Corinthians 13:9-12 says:
“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall
be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a
child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away
childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face
to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am
known.”
But that does not mean that when the Bible is
completed, the spiritual gifts are to pass away. It means surely that in our
perfect resurrection bodies we will know perfectly what we now know only in
part. Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then—in the presence of Christ
and in resurrection bodies—we will see face to face. Yes, Bible Christianity
is for today also.
Read what the Scripture says about gifts of healing:
1st Corinthians 12:4-11, “Now there are
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of
administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of
operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For
to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of
knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to
another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working
of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to
another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of
tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit,
dividing to every man severally as he will.”
Now the close of the chapter continues:
1st Corinthians 12:28-30, “And God hath set
some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly
teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps,
governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets?
are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of
healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?”
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GIFTS (PLURAL) FOR SEPARATE,
SPECIFIC CASES IN WILL OF GOD, NOT ONE LIFELONG GIFT!
Note the language of the Scriptures above. Note that
God gives “severally as he will” these gifts. No one person has all the
gifts. And not all are apostates, not all are teachers, not all have these
various gifts.
But note particularly that in listing the gifts in
verses 4 to 10 above, some other gifts are mentioned such as the word of
wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith—and all as if they were single gifts
put permanently upon some people. Certain people had a word of wisdom and
would have it still tomorrow, as necessary. One who had more faith by
knowing the Word of God better or by proving it more often, would have more
faith tomorrow, also. Not so with the gift of healing. There are “gifts,”
that is, plural, separate, single gifts of healing. (See “gifts of healing”
in verse 9 and “gifts of healing” [plural] in verse 28 and “gifts of
healing” in verse 30.) That is, when God gives a gift for a certain person
to be healed, if another person is to be healed at a different time, it
takes another gift of healing for that, too.
God does not intend for every person to be healed,
so He does not give any person a single, always-present gift to heal
everyone.
Paul had a gift of healing to cast out a devil in
the slave girl in Acts 16. He had a gift of healing when he healed the
father of Publius on the island of Melita in Acts 28:7,8. He did not have
the gift of healing for Timothy's weak stomach (I Tim. 5:23). He did not
have the gift of healing for Trophimus whom he left sick at Miletum (II Tim.
4:20).
The same thing is true about the gift of tongues.
The gift of tongues in never given to everybody. But it is also true it was
never given to anybody as a permanent gift to be exercised at will.
In Acts 2 we have one clear case where God gave the
gift of tongues and for the particular purpose that people could hear the
Gospel in their own tongue in which they were born. We cannot be sure that
there is any other single case clearly mentioned in the Bible. Twice more,
in Acts 10 and Acts 19, people “spake in tongues,” but that simply means
speaking in languages, probably foreign languages, and they may well have
been natural languages. The Bible does not say that they spoke in tongues
unknown to them nor by a miracle and, of course, we have no right to insist
that it was a miracle
But in any case, tongues is the last and the least
of the gifts, and there would rarely be an occasion when there is any need
to talk to people in a foreign language which one had to know miraculously,
not having learned it. The Bible never hints that any person in Bible times
had a permanent gift of tongues and could use it for his own enjoyment daily
or regularly.
May we be sure also that no one was given an
ever-present permanent power to work miracles at his will. At separate
times, in answer to prayer and faith, and when it was in the will of God, He
would give a gift of miracles to someone.
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GIFTS OF HEALING SEEMS TO
HAVE COME ONLY IN ANSWER TO EARNEST PRAYER AND GOD-GIVEN FAITH
The Lord Jesus had given the apostles power to cast
out devils, but when the devil-possessed boy was brought to them (Mark 9 and
Matt. 17), they could not cast out the devil. And why? Because of their
unbelief. And an explanation given is, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but
by prayer and fasting.” The apostles had no gift of healing that was
automatic without prayer and waiting on God and being in the will of God on
the matter.
Paul cast out the demon in the slave girl at
Philippi but only after she cried after Paul and Silas for some days. Paul
then got faith and assurance to cast the demon out!
And the Scripture in James 5:13-16 clearly indicates
that God may give faith for healing and heal people any time when sick
people call for the elders of the church and they pray over them, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord. The “the prayer of faith shall heal
the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; if he have committed sins they
shall be forgiven him,” we are told.
It would be expected that godly men, elders or
pastors of a church, and spiritual leaders might be more effective in prayer
than others. Naturally one would want his pastor or pastors to pray for him.
And that is proper and right. But in any case there is no suggestion that
some particular people would have a gift of healing at will. No, in every
case, as people waited on God and prayed, if God gave the faith He would
give the healing.
We believe that gifts of healing and other gifts of
the Spirit are for us today, but only as God gives severally as He will and
only when they will be worked in the will and plan of God. God does not
casually put all the volts of Heaven's power in the hands of any man to use
as he will. The gifts of the spirit are subject to the will of God and are
given as God wills to penitent, pleading people who wait on Him in faith.
SOURCE: Dr. John R. Rice, Chapter 4 from “THE
CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT”, pp. 180-183; © 1976.
CHAPTER V
Chapter 5 from “THE CHARISMATIC
MOVEMENT”; © 1976.
Not Always God's Will To Heal The Sick
We suppose it is usually God's will to heal the
sick. nearly every Christian has had times of sickness, then recovered by
the blessing of God. Sometimes people think that doctors, nurses, hospitals,
medicines, treatments, exercises and diets heal the sick. Actually, the more
sensible of us all think that healing is usually natural, God has put
certain powers of recuperation in the body and that it is God Himself Who
does all healing. Whether or not doctors and medicine and treatments are
used. Usually it is God's will to heal the sick.
But it ought not be hard to show from the Bible that
it is not always the will of God to heal sick people, either by natural
means or by a miraculous intervention.
If it were always God's will to heal the sick, then
why should not a Christian be healed every time he needed it and live a
thousand years or more? If it were always God's will to heal the sick,
surely He would not have placed Cherubims with a flaming Sword at the gate
of Eden to keep man out “lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the
tree of life” (Gen.3:22-24).
No, it is never hinted in the Bible that Christians
always have the right, purchased on the cross, to be completely well, It is
not always God's will to heal sick people, even the best Christians.
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BEST BIBLE CHRISTIANS NOT ALWAYS
HEALED
The Apostle Paul is a wonderful illustration of this
fact. He said:
“And lest I should be exalted above measure
through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn
in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be
exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that
it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for
thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when
I am weak, then am I strong.” —II Cor. 12:7-10.
Notice how earnestly Paul prayed: he “besought the
Lord,” not once but in at least three extended periods of prayer. But God
refused to remove that weakness, that “thorn in the flesh.” It was “in the
flesh,” that is, it had to do with his body. It was physical sickness and
weakness. But instead of healing him, God gave him grace day by day. And
Paul was content.
There was a reason for that affliction of Paul, that
“thorn in the flesh.” It was “lest I should be exalted above measure.”
Sickness is not always bad. Sometimes it is good. One good man said, “Health
is the best thing in the world besides sickness.” And now, continuing in his
affliction, Paul took pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecution, in distresses for Christ's sake. He says also
that one of the wonderful blessings of being weak and afflicted is that now
the power must be of God and He must get the glory.
Then it is obvious that it is not always God's will
to heal the sick. There is much evidence that Paul was frequently weak and
sickly and that God got the glory. In II Corinthians 6:4 he said, “But in
all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in
afflictions, in necessities, in distresses.” Yes, “afflictions” come from
God and honor Him.
And in II Corinthians 1:8 Paul wrote of “our trouble
which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above
strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.” And he said, “. . .
though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (II
Cor. 4:16).
It is probable that Paul suffered all his life with
weak eyes. His compassionate converts, he said, would have plucked out their
own eyes for him (Gal. 4:15). He did not usually write his own letters.
Tertius wrote one for him (Rom. 16:22). The epistles to the Philippians and
Colossians had salutations from “Paul and Timotheus,” and we suppose that
Timothy did the actual writing at the words of Paul. But Paul signed the
letter to the Corinthians—“The salutation of me Paul with mine own
hand”—after it was written by another.
In Galatians 6:11 Paul said, “Ye see how large a
letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.” But Dr. Scofield says it
would be better translated “with how large letters.” He says:
The apostle was, it appears from many
considerations, afflicted with ophthalmia, a common disease in the East,
to the point of almost total blindness (e.g., Gal. 4:13-15). Ordinarily,
therefore, he dictated his letters. But now, having no amanuensis at
hand, but urged by the spiritual danger of his dear Galatians, he
writes, we cannot know with what pain and difficulty, with his own hand,
in the 'large letters' his darkened vision compelled him to use.
We note this carefully because it is quite evident
that all his days Paul suffered sickness, weakness and pain, and it may be
this was the thorn in the flesh which continually grieved and troubled him.
Surely because He did not heal Paul, this makes very
clear it is not always God's will to heal the sick.
Timothy also seemed to have been the victim of
continual infirmity. Paul was inspired to say to him in 1st Timothy 5:23,
“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and
thine often infirmities.” He needed unfermented wine, fruit juices with
their vitamins, for the oft infirmities, the upset stomach, the indigestion
that came to the earnest young man, a traveling preacher, eating all kinds
of food and living in every kind of community. It is not always God's will
to heal; He did not heal Timothy's “often infirmities.”
In II Timothy 4:20 Paul said, “Erastus abode at
Corinth; but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.” What, could not Paul
have his dear friend and fellowworker Trophimus healed? No, he could not.
IT IS NOT ALWAYS GOD'S WILL TO HEAL THE SICK. He
never said so. It is presumptuous for anyone else to say so. Although
healing is in the atonement in the sense of our perfect resurrected bodies,
they are not yet available. And all Christ purchased for us has not yet been
delivered. When Pentecostal people and others teach that it is God's will
for every Christian to be well and strong, they teach what is contrary to
the Bible and contrary to facts.
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PRESENT-DAY HEALERS ALSO
ARE SICK AND DIE LIKE ALL OTHERS.
There is evidence that the most fervent and active
people in what they call divine healing die just as young as others, often
younger.
Jack Coe, one of the most famous of the healing
evangelists, died at 38 years of bulbar polio, complicated by pneumonia and
lung abscess, according to newspaper reports. He operated the Dallas Revival
Center and the Herald of Healing at Waxahachie, Texas. When he was taken
sick he was rushed to the hospital and then to another hospital where he
died. Despite all his insistence that it was God's will for everybody to be
healed and his idea that doctors and medicine were wrong, he was sick, he
went to the hospitals, he had doctors, and he died at age 38.
Evangelist A. A. Allen, another, another of the best
known healing evangelists, died at the age of 59.
Dr. A. J. Gordon, eminent Baptist pastor and the
founder of Gordon College, believed it was always God's will to heal and
that there was never and need for doctors and medicine, that these showed a
lack of faith, yet he died at 59.
The newspaper reported last week that Kathryn
Kuhlman was seriously sick and in the hospital. Yet she has said that
perfect healing is the right of every Christian. It didn't work in her case.
(A week later the report came that Miss Kuhlman had died.)
In Dallas, Texas, I once announced in the newspaper
that I would be preaching on “Spiritism, Fortunetelling and False Prophets.”
A man came to see me greatly distressed. He said his wife was a
fortuneteller, and handed me her card. The card announced that she was a
gospel preacher, evangelist, healer who could foretell the future, could
help people with problems of love, marriage and business. He protested that
I ought not preach against that which his wife believed and practiced.
I asked him, “Where is she? Why didn't she come to
see me?”
He answered, “She is in bed with inflammatory
rheumatism.”
Although she set herself up to heal others, she
could not heal herself nor have herself healed.
Dr. A. B. Simpson, the distinguished founder of the
Christian and Missionary Alliance, was a devout believer in divine healing.
He believed it was wrong to use doctors and medicine. He believed it was
always God's will to heal. Yet he had long months and years of suffering,
and despite earnest, beseeching prayers of his own and those of many others,
he died in pain.
God does often heal the sick. Praise the Lord that
He invites us to pray over every time of trouble. He says that “the prayer
of faith shall save the sick.” But He does not always give faith because it
is not always His will to heal the sick.
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SICKNESS, WEAKNESS, DEATH ARE COMMON LOT OF ALL
All the disease, the weakness and death entered the
world by sin. God plainly said to Adam And Eve about the tree of forbidden
fruit, “. . . in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”
(Gen. 2:17). The very day they sinned, Adam and Eve not only became dead in
trespasses and in sins spiritually, but death entered into their bodies and
they began to die.
This truth is borne out in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Now death is passed upon all
men everywhere.
Hebrews 9:27 says, “. . . it is appointed unto men
once to die.” In James 1:15 the same truth is plainly stated, “. . . and
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Some people think that when
men are saved, God repeals all His rules, but that is not true. Some people
think that when they repent, all the curse of the past is instantly gone,
and that since they are forgiven there is no penalty yet to be paid for sin.
But they are mistaken. Many good and noble Christians have ignored the clear
teaching of God, but it is still true that sickness, weakness, and death are
the common lot of all mankind.
Some Christians learn the beautiful, marvellous
truth that God answers prayer, that God has all power, and that always, in
every trouble, we are invited to call upon Him for help. So they leap to the
conclusion that all the inbred results of sin are gone, and that now it is
always God's will to heal, that any good person may believe and be
completely healed of all sickness. Some men themselves have been themselves
healed wonderfully, and then, preaching largely their experience instead of
the Scriptures, or making the Scriptures fit their own understanding of
their experience, they ignore the clear teaching that all men are yet
sinners and so under the curse of sin.
It is true that Christians are forgiven sinners. It
is true that the eternal damnation which is due sinners has been removed by
the atoning death of Christ. But the fact of sin and the death and disease
and limitations which sin brings are still facts that must be faced.
So noble men of God taught that healing was
available for the body, complete healing, instant healing, in answer to the
prayer of faith. But they themselves eventually came to die. Dr. John Roach
Straton of famous Calvary Baptist Church, New York City, was a most ardent
advocate of complete healing for the body. But Dr. Straton sickened and
died. Dr. A. B. Simpson, one of the noblest men of God, made much of divine
healing. But eventually Dr. Simpson sickened, and after a long period of
depression, died.
Mrs. Aimee Semple McPherson had great crowds over
America, and particularly in the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. She laid
great emphasis on the healing of the body, stressing that it was always
God's will to heal the sick and that only unbelief prevented healing. Yet
she herself was sick, was treated in hospitals, and eventually died of an
overdose of sleeping tablets, as I understand.
From all I hear, Dr. Alexander Dowie, who made much
of healing and had great healing campaigns, must have been a good and
sincere man. To be sure, he became fanatical and fell into disrepute and
brought reproach upon the cause of Christ. But eventually he died a
disappointed and disillusioned man.
As mentioned, Jack Coe died at 38 of bulbar polio,
He had a lung abscess and pneumonia. His body was subject to the same
weakness and sickness of other people. The congregation prayer for Coe
“around the clock” hour after hour after hour , and medical science did all
that it could do. But the healer could not get healing for himself. He was a
comparatively young man when he died, living out only half of the life
expectancy of a strong man.
There is a sense in which everybody in the world is
sick already. Anyone who has a decayed tooth is sick. Anyone who has to wear
glasses is sick. Anyone who has a hearing loss is sick. Any man whose hair
is coming out so he becomes bald is sick. Anyone who has inflamed tonsils is
sick. One who has athlete's foot is sick. No living person is perfectly
well.
Why should I fool myself, deceive myself that I have
perfect health. I am 80 years old, and nominally counted well and strong.
But the truth is, in college football I had a broken nose. It is still
crooked and one nasal passage is almost closed.
In 1956 I fell in the dark into the basement in my
office at Wheaton, Illinois, and sustained a skull fracture. The thin bony
structure under the brain was evidently cracked and the olfactory nerve was
cut, so I cannot smell. I don't pretend to have perfect health. I have to
wear glasses to read. That means I am sick. I have now and then a touch of
neuritis or arthritis in a shoulder or finger. That means I am sick.
Now I rejoice in the blessing of God and His loving
care through the years, but for me to pretend that I have perfect health
would be foolish; so for anybody else. Paul had a thorn in the flesh. I
think every other Christian has some such thorn in the flesh, too, though it
will not be the same as Paul's, or has some “often infirmities” like
Timothy. It is not God's will to heal everybody.
That will come, praise God, at the resurrection, and
what a glorious thing it will be! Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have
tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
We can have help in our weakness. Psalm 34:19 says, “Many are the
afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.”
There is the true picture. The best Christians in
the world have afflictions, but the Lord is present to help, to comfort, to
make the evil into good, to make all things work together for good. He can
heal wonderfully when it is His will. He can give grace for the thorn in the
flesh when it is not His will to remove it.
Paul the apostle was conscious of this great truth
of God's help in suffering, so he was inspired to say in II Corinthians
4:7-12:
“But we have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but
not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not
destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we
which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death
worketh in us, but life in you.”
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HEALING IN ATONEMENT, BUT NOT ALL RESULTS OF ATONEMENT AVAILABLE UNTIL
RESURRECTION
Some people say that since healing is in the
atonement, therefore every Christian has a right to claim perfect healing
all the time. I think they are justified in saying that healing is in the
atonement, from Matthew 8:16 and 17:
“When the even was come, they brought unto
him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits
with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our
infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”
But we should remember that the glorified body,
which we will receive at the rapture when Jesus comes to take us to Himself,
is paid for in the atonement also. But it is not immediately available. We
do not have resurrected bodies. The simple truth is, Heaven is purchased for
me but I have not yet entered Heaven. That wonderful time is coming when
there will be no more war between the flesh and the Spirit in my soul, but
it is not yet mine. And so whatever perfection in body is involved in the
atonement must wait until Jesus calls us forth from the grave or changes the
living to meet Him in the air.
You see, all healing of the body in this life is
only temporary and partial. A person who is healed will get sick again and
die, if Jesus tarries. Even though Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, There
came a time when Lazarus again sickened and died. All healing now is only
partial and temporary. You see, as far as the body is concerned, the full
result of the atoning death of Jesus is not ours until the resurrection.
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HEALING OFTEN WAITS UNTIL CHRISTIANS CONFESS AND FORSAKE SIN
James 5:16 says, “Confess your faults one to
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” A worldly life
would certainly hinder one's healing. A careless and frivolous attitude
toward the Bible would certainly hinder God's answer to prayer about
healing. I do not believe God is likely to show His mighty power, as He
showed it in the New Testament times with signs and wonders and miracles of
healing, when those prayers are offered to Mary or in a jabber in tongues,
or when women are put in leadership in the pulpit or church, or when they
associate with modernists and infidels, and otherwise fail of New Testament
strict standards.
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SUCH WONDERFUL HEALINGS IN ANSWER TO PRAYER SURELY ASSOCIATED WITH GREAT
SOUL-WINNING POWER
Mark 16:17, “And these signs shall follow them that
believe . . .” He has just given the command to go to all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature and then says, “these signs shall follow
them that believe . . .” There is a connection here between personal
witness, soul-winning power, and wonderful healings in answer to prayer
following.
It is not surprising that we read in Acts 2, of
three thousand people saved, and later about five thousand and then
“multitudes both of men and women” saved. And right along with these we find
the mighty power of God shown in healing the sick. Peter who preached with
such power could walk along the street and his shadow falling on sick people
would be used of God to heal them (Acts 5:12,14).
I believe it more important to see one soul saved
and kept out of Hell forever than to see many people healed of some
incidental disease of the body. One who does not put soulwinning first is
not being true to Christ. God has wonderfully answered prayer for me in
healing many sick people, but I would be foolish and untrue to Christ where
I to put healing equal in importance or above the importance of winning
souls. Oh, how much more important to win souls than any other activity.
Christ died to save sinners. The Great Commission centers on soul winning.
One is not a good Christian who does not win souls
In my own poor ministry, I have found that in the
times of great revival when many, many people were being saved, and in the
times of persecution for Christ's sake, then there were miraculous answers
to prayer, and marvellous signs and wonders.
D.L. Moody never stressed healing especially, yet
there were some amazing cases of healing in answer to prayer. John V.
Farwell, a layman associated with Moody, tells of some of these healings in
Early Recollections of Dwight L. Moody.
Charles G. Finney was a soul winner mightily blessed
of God. Though he put no stress on miraculous answers to prayer, yet he
tells about a woman who could not read, and when she earnestly prayed, God
made it so she could read the Bible.
I believe that when soul winning is made the main
thing and we pay the price in tears, toil, and in waiting on God for Holy
Spirit power, then we may expect God to give us souls and, when necessary
and when it can honor him, some wonderful answers to prayer.
SOURCE: Dr. John R. Rice, Chapter 5
from “THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT”, pp. 184-193; © 1976.
