‘The apostles performed
many miraculous signs and wonders among the people.’ (Acts
5:12)
‘With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed.’ (Acts 8:7)
It was through the anointing and power of the Holy
Spirit that Jesus ministered healing to the sick and brought freedom to those who
were oppressed by evil spirits (Isa. 61:1-3; Matt. 10:1,7-8; Mark 5:27-30; Luke
4:14,18-19, 5:17, 6:19; Acts 10:38).
Streams of the Holy Spirit’s dynamic, life-giving power often
flowed through him as he ministered, bringing healing and freedom to people
from the conditions that were afflicting them (e.g. Luke 4:40, 6:19, 8:46; John
7:38). Through Jesus, the Holy Spirit ‘bound
the strong man’ (Matt. 12:25-29, Luke 11:21-22), set captives free (Isa. 61:1)
and destroyed the works of Satan in people’s lives. They were made whole. This ministry caused crowds of people to come
together from surrounding areas to wherever he was, bringing their sick or oppressed
family members and relatives to be healed (Matt. 4:23-25, 14:13-14; Luke 6:17-19).
The narrative of the book of Acts tells us that, following
on from this kingdom ministry of Jesus, and after being filled and anointed
with the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the life of the early church was
characterised by similar ministries. Sick
people would be healed as the Holy Spirit worked through these believers when they
laid hands on them and prayed over them.
The revival of Pentecost led to the emergence of healing and exorcism ministries.
We can see examples of such healing ministry in the lives
of several Spirit-filled men, such as Peter, Stephen, Philip, and Paul and
Barnabas. Their evangelistic preaching
ministry was regularly accompanied by such signs following, and this was doubtless
a factor in bringing the crowds that gathered to hear them preach (1 Cor. 2:4-5).
They proclaimed the full message of God’s
kingdom, rather than simply eternal salvation through the forgiveness of sins. So, in Jerusalem, many miraculous signs and wonders
were done through the apostles (2:43, 3:1-10, 5:12, 6:8). The early believers prayed and expected God
to demonstrate his power to heal the sick (4:30). It seems that the power of God was flowing so
strongly from Peter that sick people were healed even when his shadow approached
and passed over them (5:15-16). In
Samaria, Philip’s evangelistic preaching was accompanied by many significant healings
and exorcisms (8:5-7).
Similarly, in Iconium, Paul and Barnabas were
enabled to do miraculous signs and wonders (14:3). In Lystra, while he was preaching, Paul was used
in the healing of a crippled man who had been lame from birth (14:8-10). In Philippi, Paul cast a pythonic spirit out
of a fortune-telling slave girl, which led to a real ruckus in this city stirred
up by her disenfranchised owners. In Ephesus,
Paul’s ministry was accompanied by ‘extraordinary miracles’ as handkerchiefs and
aprons that had touched him were taken to sick people, and these were healed and
the evil spirits left them (19:11-12).
On the island of Malta, the ineffectiveness of a viper’s snake bite on
Paul’s hand, and the healing through him of the chief official’s father from dysentery,
brought about many conversions and other healings (28:1-10).
Healing and freedom from oppression are accomplished
through the presence, life and power of the Holy Spirit.
Where the kingdom of God manifests powerfully, the Holy Spirit works,
and people invariably get healed and released from spiritual oppression. So the dynamic presence of the ministries of
healing and exorcism reflects the normal, biblical state of revived church life.
It’s what it’s meant to be like all the
time!
Furthermore,
as I said in a previous blog, it is normative when believers
are filled with the Holy Spirit that this should give rise to a variety of different charismatic manifestations
in their lives. In particular, there
are various manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s grace which often occur in healing
ministry. These are praying in tongues, words
of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the workings of power (often called ‘miracles’)
and discernment of spirits (1 Cor. 12:7-11, 14:4; Eph. 6:18). The apostle Paul exhorts us to zealously seek
these manifestations of the Spirit’s working, because God still desires to work
today both in and through his Church with healing and exorcism ministries (Rom.
11:29; 1 Cor. 12:31, 14:1). The
spiritual, emotional, mental and/or physical state of many people demands the necessity
of the continuation of these ministries. The operation of these gifts in ministry is
permeated with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, so the authority and power of
God work through them to accomplish healing and bring freedom, making people
whole. As I have said previously, the gifts
are ‘tools for the job’ of ministry, and they are therefore essential to us, if
we are to see the Holy Spirit working in healing and exorcism, and thereby see
God’s holistic purposes for people fulfilled through our ministries, making
them whole.
Healing ministry has often been ‘a sign that is spoken
against,’ particularly by non-charismatic evangelicals within the Body of Christ,
many of whom hold to the false doctrine of cessationism (i.e. that the charismatic
gifts of the Holy Spirit passed away at the close of the apostolic age and did
not function any more after that time, so rendering false any claims as to their
continuing functioning today). Healing
ministry has, perhaps inevitably, also sometimes been the subject of false or wild
claims and exaggerations, and has been tainted by lack of financial integrity or
even infidelity on the part of some. Notwithstanding all of these issues, healing
ministry and the related ministry of exorcism have a strong biblical foundation
(as we saw above), and so, if we desire to see God working in power to heal and
set people free today, then we must hold to this biblical foundation, and have both
the courage to preach healing and the faith to step out and practise it. The Holy Spirit has not changed, and his purpose
to heal and set free people from oppression has never changed.
In the last few centuries, healing has been increasingly
experienced and emphasised as an integral part of Christian ministry. Consequent to the powerful spiritual awakening
among the Moravians in 1727, Count Zinzendorf noted that they were experiencing
healing miracles in answer to prayer:
‘To believe
against hope is the root of the gift of miracles; and I owe this testimony to our
beloved church, that apostolic powers are there manifested. We have had undeniable proofs thereof in the
unequivocal discovery of things, persons, and circumstances, which could not humanly
have been discovered, in the healing of maladies in themselves incurable, such
as cancers, consumptions, when the patient was in the agonies of death, all by
means of prayer, or of a single word.’[1]
Furthermore, as I noted above, John Wesley, who was
strongly influenced in many ways by the Moravians, also believed in healing,
and he saw cases of healing and exorcism in his own ministry. In a letter in 1778, he wrote:
‘It will be a double blessing if
you give yourself up to the Great Physician, that He may heal soul and body together. And unquestionably this is His design. He wants to give you… both inward and outward
health.’[2]
Following on through the periods of the Second and
Third Evangelical Awakenings (c1790s – 1840s, and 1857 – early 1900s respectively),
post-Wesleyan Methodism and the Holiness Movement saw an increasing emphasis on
Christ as our Healer. In the USA in particular,
and also in some countries in Europe, many itinerant preachers and others who founded
healing homes gave this ministry a much-needed emphasis, restoring the biblical
validity of healing ministry to parts of the Body of Christ.[3] Among these was Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844 –
1924) who exercised a powerful itinerant ministry in the USA as a healing evangelist
during this period.
This
emphasis on healing was inherited by the emerging worldwide Pentecostal movement
from the early 1900s onwards. John G.
Lake (1870 – 1935) in particular exercised a very powerful healing ministry for
several decades, as did Smith Wigglesworth (1859 – 1947). One of the most notable periods for divine healing
ministry was the so-called ‘Healing Revival’ in the USA (1946 – c1960s). During this period, the USA was criss-crossed
by the campaigns of dozens of itinerant evangelists and ministers who saw God working
powerfully through them to bring salvation and healing to many thousands of
people. These major post-War healing ministries
gave rise to a renewed belief and emphasis on divine healing among many Christians,
and this emphasis became an integral part of the broader Charismatic Movement as
this emerged (from the 1960s onwards).
The
last great healing evangelist to have operated in the UK was George Jeffreys. Along with his brother Stephen (who was also
significantly involved in healing ministry and saw many great healings take place),
he was born again during the time of the 1904 Welsh Revival. He received his baptism in the Holy Spirit about
three years later and was influenced by Alexander Boddy’s meetings in Sunderland
(whose Pentecostal emphasis can be traced back via Thomas Barratt of Oslo to the
Azusa Street revival of 1906 – 1908).
The
evangelistic campaigns that the Jeffreys brothers held together were characterised
by notable healings, and George was led to his foursquare belief in Jesus as Saviour,
Healer, Baptiser and Coming King. As a
result of George’s own evangelistic campaigns, many new Pentecostal churches
came into being in the UK, and the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance was established
to oversee these churches. At the end of
his life in 1962, he had a divinely appointed ‘chance’ encounter with a young German
man called Reinhard Bonnke who had just finished Bible school and was returning
to his homeland. As they prayed together,
the glory of God appeared to Bonnke, and Jeffreys’ ministry mantle seems to have
been passed on to him. Jeffreys passed
away very soon after this encounter, and Bonnke went on to hold powerful evangelistic
campaigns (which were characterised by regular healing miracles) throughout the
continent of Africa for many years.[4]
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[1] Quoted in Gordon, A.J. The Ministry
of Healing: Miracles of Cure in All Ages, no details.
[2] See http://www.faithandhealthconnection.org/john-wesley-holistic-health-and-healing-interview-by-randy-maddox/,
accessed 17-01-2017.
[3] An overview of the details of their
lives and ministries can be found at www.healingandrevival.com.
[4] See his testimony at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAKTnpuOlO8,
accessed 10.03.2020.
