The Scriptural Basis for a Healing Ministry

The Scriptural Basis for a Healing Ministry

by Tom Stark

In order to do justice to the Scriptural teaching on healing, it is necessary to hold together the varied aspects of healing, as presented in the Bible:

I. Jesus performed many healings –

The relationship of faith to healing varied:
Some who were healed had faith: The woman who had suffered from bleeding for 12 years – Mt. 9:20-22 “Take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you”. The one grateful cleansed leper (out of 10) – Luke 17:11-17. “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Blind Bartimaeus – Mark 10: 46-52, “Go. . .your faith has healed you.”
Some were healed where the only mention of faith is the faith of someone else – parents of children, Luke 8:40-56, centurion’s servant – Luke 7:1-10.
He also healed those who, as far as we know,did not have faith – the dead who were raised (Luke 7:11-15), and those at a distance.
He healed those who did not seek healing – crippled woman in the temple on a Sabbath (Luke 13:10-13)

His healings usually occurred immediately, though not the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-17) or the man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26)

Jesus sometimes dealt first with the sin of the sick person – The paralytic lowered through the roof – Luke 5:17-26. “Your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus’ healings confirmed his Messiahship – Luke 7:18-23 (Cp. Isaiah 61:1,2)

Beware the over-simplified generalization. “Jesus always….”

II. The apostles’ healing ministry varied:

Sometimes faith is involved – Paul and a crippled man at Lystra – Acts 14:8-10, Paul “saw that he had faith to be healed”.

Some were brought by others for healing – Acts 5:12-16

Sickness was not usually interpreted as a sign of lack of faith – Paul asked three times to have his “thorn in the flesh” removed – II Cor. 12:7-10. But the Lord responded: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul advised Timothy (I Tim. 5:23) – “Stop drinking water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.” Paul informed Timothy (II Tim. 2:20), “I left Trophimus ill in Miletus.” And Paul refers to his own illness in Galatians 4:13, 14.

Sometimes the anointing with oil occurred – James 5:13-16 – “Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing his head with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.”

The Apostle Paul taught that, among the many gifts of the Holy Spirit some, but not all, Christians have the gift of healing – I Cor. 12:4-9, 29-31.

III. Principles for the church concerning a healing ministry

The presentation of (and response to) the gospel has the central priority in the church’s mission.

We deal carefully with sick people concerning possible connections between sin and sickness.

There is not always a direct connection – Jesus and the man blind from birth – John 9:1-3.

At times there is an obvious connection.

The sins of parents may also have their effect on children.

Sickness is not to be interpreted as a sign of God’s rejection. (Cp. The book of Job, or Lazarus – “Lord, he whom you loved is sick.” John 11:3.)

We carefully teach that all Scriptural promises concerning prayer haveimplied or stated conditions including the sovereign will of God –

a. I John 5:14 – “if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

b. Mark 11:24 – “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

c. John 14:14 – “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

d. John 15:7 – “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”

e. I John 3:21, 22 – “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”:

1. Therefore, we pray freely.

Our prayers rest on “If it be your will” (just as Christ prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, and in the Lord’s Prayer)

We do not tell God to do anything.

4. We recognize the Gift of God and the work of God through all human

means (medical care, medicine, etc.)“To the Christian, God is the source of all

healing. The healing sciences with their medicines, research, and

sophisticated surgical techniques have developed because God has led us and

permitted us to think his thoughts after him. These gifts for physical healing

have given mankind an apparent and remarkable control over many of the ills

to which he is heir. But we too often fail to recognize God’s role in the

application of these gifts to the individual patient. God’s blessing must

accompany the application of curative measures. He is the ultimate healer.

This doesn’t begin to exhaust God’s role as healer. We don’t have a medical

term to describe what happens when the individual experiences the operation

of the Spirit of God in his heart. Tournier defines it as the ‘restoration of the

whole person’”.

from “The Healing Gift of the Spirit”, by Dr. Peter J. DeVries

5. We resist the teaching that lack of faith is the cause of lack of healing, perhaps the most insensitive and cruel burden that misguided Christians have sometimes put on seriously ill fellow Christians.

We recognize the positive psychological effects of faith.

We recognize that faith may be a means toward healing, but the power of healing is from God alone.

We recognize that faith is a gift of God.

We recognize that God is free to work in the absence of faith.

We correct mistaken teachings of “healing in the atonement”, confusing the meaning of healing and atonement for sin:

“As to Matthew 8:17, ‘He took our infirmities and bore our diseases’, some interpret this as follows: ‘The atonement was not only made for sin but for disease, the fruit of sin….In atoning for our diseases of body, just as for our sins of soul, Christ took them upon Himself that He might bear them away, and might relieve His people from the need of bearing them.’

“This is confused thinking. Disease is not a sin to be atoned for, though it is indeed a fruit of sin in the world. The Lord atoned for sin, and that atonement will result in our ultimate deliverance from all the guilt and power of sin and from all the diseases and infirmities of mind and body. But as we are not fully delivered from sin’s power in this life, so we are not fully delivered from bodily diseases.”

Rev. C.M. Huizenga

On the grounds of good scholarship, we do not use Mark 16:17, 18 in developing our doctrine, since this portion of Mark is not in the most reliable early manuscripts.

We recognize that a total concern for a person may lead us into the need for emotional “healing”, or the constructive dealing with the past, as in the “healing of memories”.

We recognize that sickness may be used by God for our spiritual chastening and benefit.

The only basis for prayers for healing is the power of Christ.

Any Board of Elders should be concerned and available where prayer for the sick is requested. However, all Christians have access to the Father in prayer for the sick.