Healing

Recently in our community of believers, we have seen many people get sick with variuous illnesses and diseases, and a few of them dying as a result of them. This has stirred up questions within me. Scripture says we are to lay our hands on the sick and they shall be healed. Why werent these people healed when they were prayed for. I am not questioning the trueness of God word, only seeking a greater understanding of healing. Thanks.

Healing is one of the greatest ministrations of God, listed specifically in the ministry of Jesus and listed specifically in the Great Commission that Jesus left us with. Never think for a moment it is not!Luke 4:18-19 - "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."Mark 16:15-18 - Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it. FAITH.I have had the priveledge of being used by the Lord to lay hands on people and see them get instantly healed. It is a wonderful ministration of the Holy Spirit, for God's love reaches far, even to the practical struggles of life. What glory it is when a one who is lame suddenly receives freedom! What heights of love and depths of peace! The compassion of the Lord is ever present today towards those who are inflicted.Are we compassionate? Do we care for the sick and the lame?Acts 1:1 states what Jesus BEGAN to DO and TEACH. There is both doing and teaching in the Christian faith. For one to simply talk about Jesus is one thing, but to preach and then minister like Jesus is another. "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." (1 Corinthians 4:18)Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word. Faith comes by reading the Word, meditating on Scriptures such as these, learning about the compassion of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. Feed your faith, and then jump.The world needs the ministry of Jesus, all of it, not just part of it.In Christ,-EliPS- One great man to check out is Smith Wigglesworth. God bless

eMissionary wrote:Scripture says we are to lay our hands on the sick and they shall be healed. Acts 19:11-12 says, "Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them."What a wonderful picture! Paul didn't even have to show up and lay on hands - he could just send along some personal item that had touched his person and the person would be healed!Yet in 1 Timothy 5:23 we read Paul's instructions to Timothy, "No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities."It strikes me as quite interesting that Paul didn't instruct Timothy to simply "place the epistle over his stomach until God healed his "frequent infirmities."This demonstrates that although God at one time worked miracles through Paul's hand, after a time, the miracles ceased. The reason is given elsewhere in scripture - such things were described as "signs and wonders" and not typical or normal of Christianity.Scripture only records Christ Himself (all of the gospels) and the Apostle Paul (Acts 28:8) as ever laying hands on a person and healing them.Mark 16:18, in speaking of those signs which would accompany believers, says that in Christ's name "they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."First of all, it doesn't suggest that every believer will manifest all these signs - we read elsewhere for instance, that not everyone is given the gift of tongues - so we shouldn't imagine this as a list that applies to all believers.Secondly, the chapter ends saying, "they (i.e. the Apostles) went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs." - which seems to suggest that the purpose of these sign gifts was to confirm that the person was a messenger from God.Thirdly - that portion of the gospel of Mark from which the text is taken (Mark 16:9-20) does not exist in any known manuscript prior to the eleventh century. Most scholars contend that this portion of Mark is not original - but an eleventh century addition, furthermore, that the original ending to Mark was likely lost. Never the less, it is included in most translations because failure to do so would upset a lot of people.Given that this sort of healing became less common even in the lifetime of the Apostles, and given that not everyone receives the gift, and given that the premise that normal believers will lay hands on people is primarily based upon an eleventh century addendum to the text - I do not fret when a person isn't healed by my laying on of hands - I simply assume it is either not my gifting, that my personal authority is no longer necessary since we have the authority of scripture - which means I no longer require sign gifts, or that this particular text is a later attempt to give Mark a biblical sounding ending - and isn't the best place for me to develop my doctrine.Dan

Eli_Barnabas wrote: Healing is one of the greatest ministrations of God... The greatest miracle you will ever witness on this earth is the miracle of regeneration. Raising a spiritually dead man to life in Christ Jesus. That to me is more amazing and more God-glorifying than raising a physically dead person back to life, or healing someone's physical sickness.We should always be concerned more of the spiritual wellbeing of people rather than their physical well being I believe.

Just so we are clear the end of Mark 16 is NOT an 11th century edition. (We must study to show ourselves approved.) Anyways - If you study the growth of the church in 3rd world nations you will that it is growing by leaps and bounds. (and quite frankly leaving America in it's dust) If you look at the style of ministry which is thriving in these nations you will see that the Biblical Gospel is being preached, accompanied by signs wonders and miracles. There are more documented cases than can be posted on the internet. These believers have not swallowed the cessasionist lie. They are living and breathing the air of New Testament Normalcy! May the American church stop using bad theology to explain away our lack of power. May we as God's people do some serious heart searching and weeping, instead of using obscure and out of context scriptures to neuter the Gospel. We have studied, and studied (and in some cases done well), but we have done little searching of our hearts. We must seek God's face and see His power fall on His church again. When the period was dotted in the Book of Revelation - or when the canon was completed and recognized - God did not have His great name - Jehovah Roppha - legally changed! He is still a healer today! Beloved brothers and sisters, may the excuses cease, and may the power fall again! AMEN!-Jeff

FireinmyBones1 wrote:Just so we are clear the end of Mark 16 is NOT an 11th century edition. (We must study to show ourselves approved.) -JeffThanks for the correction Jeff. I didn’t have my copy of Metzger with me. The end of Mark 16 is NOT an 11th century addition - though it is extremely doubtful that it is part of the original gospel. The text is certainly absent from the oldest Greek manuscripts (01, 03), and only shows up in various flavors and whatnot earlier - but wasn't formalized until around the eleventh century. Many of the earlier manuscripts that -do- include the passage do so while denoting it as spurious (illegitimate.)The transition between verse 8 and 9 is more than awkward. The other women with Mary are no longer there; Mary is mentioned again for no reason; the passage begins in a way that is normally reserved for introducing new narratives - which makes little sense when this is supposed to be a continuation. Likewise, Mark suddenly waxes eloquent using more than a few words that are alien to his style and vocabulary - even using an expression for disciples that is novel and unique to the whole NT! It is not -unreasonable- to question the authenticity of this particular passage.That being said - the text is mentioned as early as the first half of the second century (in a variant form), so wherever it came from - it had been around for a while, and wherever the text came from - it was likely from some other writing that was regarded as "scripture" at the time.Either way, my point was not to discuss whether this text is original or not - I personally have serious doubts about its authenticity, and that was my point - I would be weary of hanging any cherished belief that issues solely from that particular portion of scripture.On another note: I am not convinced that any gift has ceased.I should like to point out too, that it is a huge mistake to pursue Christ intellectually - that is, in the absence of a relationship, and in the absence of the Spirit.The pendulum however, can swing the other way - so that a person is dismissive of, and hostile towards any academic pursuit of God's truth.Satan doesn't care which extreme you run amok in - he wins both ways.Dan

Brother Dann,I appreciate your response. I agree with you wholeheartedly that any cherished beliefs should not hinge solely upon the end of Mark 16. I also agree with you that as believers we need to be strong both in mind and in spirit. We must study to show ourselves approved, yet we must also have a dynamic and experiential relationship with Jesus Christ in the Spirit. I apologize if my initial post sounded harsh or as if I was coming down on you. I must admit, cessationism (or sometimes what I presume to be) gets me worked up. I probably posted before allowing my spirit to cool down a bit. Forgive me brother if I sounded angry. I agree with most of what your last post said wholeheartedly (with the exception of the Mark 16 controversy). May you be blessed abundantly!-Jeff

If you want to see how this has been thrashed out do a search on the forums. SOme interesting stuff.

Jeff: No need to worry. I came across a little strident - something I could have avoided had my heart been set on others more than on my own opinion - so I consider the blame, if any, my own.Dan

I appreciate your post, FireInMyBones.I said, "Healing is ONE of the greatest ministrations of Jesus." and I will stand by that. I believe the greatest ministration of Jesus is inward regeneration, and I know from Scripture that He is a mighty healer!Where should the lost, dying, sick, and broken look? To Jesus! For what? Everything! I pray and pray that God would stir up faith in His church once again to fulfill the Word in our generation! May faith increase and the entirety of the gospel be preached from pole to pole!In Christ,-EliPS- Did not God create man? He cares for us, not only inside but outside too. He is a completely loving God!