HEALING, MIRACLES & FAITH: DIVINE vs, COUNTERFEIT

HEALING, MIRACLES, & FAITH: DIVINE vs. COUNTERFEIT by Eternal Flame

INTRODUCTION

Healing has always been a sought after preoccupation by all those with afflictions. The various methods by which healings have been achieved throughout history are many, and have not only been confined to the church!

Whenever a cure is offered to a sick person, and he responds, and receives a healing, his faith is from that moment usually directed to the source of healing. Whether the healing came from God through one of His many channels or methods, or whether the healing came from another source, will have direct proportion to the future loyalty of the person healed .

Healing is not taking place within the confines of the Christian church, but also in Satan's kingdom as well!

The main purpose of this thesis is to give glory to our Lord and Master, Christ, Who is the genuine Healer! The.Biblical methodology of Divine healing will be examined, in order to separate Divine healing from the counterfeit occultic healings which will also briefly be examined.

The gifts of healings and miracles are two of the nine spiritual gifts mentioned in the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, and these two gifts will be the focus of our attention in this thesis, and we will touch on the gift of faith.

Some questions we want to deal with are whether God still heals and performs miracles today the same as when Jesus was on earth. We also want to examine whether the teachings of the "Faith Healers" and "Prosperity Teachers", are valid Biblical teachings, and if they are, why aren't all of God's saints in perfect health, in want of nothing, and with all of their physical needs met?

If some are still sick and in poverty, is it because of their lack of faith or is there sin in their lives"? 0r, could the gifts of healings and miracles have been some of the temporary sign gifts of the early church given to authenticate its genuineness, and have since ceased with the death of the last apostle? If they did cease, how do we account for all the reports of healings within the Christian Church, as well as outside the church within either the occult, or other world religions? These are all important questions that need to be answered for any serious Bible student seeking the truth of Gods word!

I once heard a Faith healing Evangelist exclaim that any sick person in pain who has just been healed and relieved of that pain will quickly answer, if asked, that he could care less where the healing came from! He is just happy to be well! There is a lot of truth to that statement, because if any are in doubt of that fact, I challenge them to try and get any recently healed person to reject a "counterfeit" healing, even if it was received by an occultic physician or healer, or even a Shamin! When a person is sick and in pain, he needs to be relieved of it as soon as possible! If the pain persists, what faith he has soon begins to dwindle very rapidly, even if he is a Christian, and has prayed for healing comes to the rescue, at the last desparate moment, whether the vehicle be "positive thinking" "a faith healer", an occultist or whatever, that healed person's future devotions are attracted from that moment on, to whatever method was used.

Since Christians are taught from the Bible, they must "walk by faith, and not by sight", the entire spectrum of the miracles and healing meetings can be an enticing diversion to an unsuspecting person seeking healing, or any other physical sign to increase his faith in the supernatural.

The Jews of Jesus' time made that mistake before! It is recorded for our warning in mark 8:11,12: "And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, "why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, there shall be no sign given unto this generation."

Christians should not be caught up following miracles and healings today, but should walk by faith believing that Jesus Christ has secured eternal salvation for them by His shed blood on the cross! Jesus answered sign seekers during His ministry, and the answer still applies to Christians today! "Then said they unto him, "what shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said unto them, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him who He hath sent." They said therefore unto him, what sign showest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? thou work? (John 6:28,29,30). There were multitudes who followed the earthly ministry of Jesus while He was on earth, and were eye witnesses to many of His healings and miracles and miracles, yet they still did not believe that He the Son of God! The same lesson applies today for us. We are to seek the giver of gifts, not the gifts! When we find the giver of all gifts, then we will be given whatever gifts He chooses to give us by His grace, which sometimes includes healing and miracles!

The purpose of this thesis is not to discourage healing or miracles, but to focus all attention to the cause of all permanent healing and. miracles, which is The Master, Christ!

A FEW WORDS OF PERSONAL TESTIMONY

Shortly after I trusted Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin and eternal life, I came in contact with some books on healing. After reading these books, I soon after became involved and started fellowshiping with "Charismatic" Christians. Between reading the books, and hearing many testimonies on healings, I became excited, to say the least, that there was a possibility that the same miracles and healings were taking place today as when Jesus was on earth! The books gave many glamorous testimonies, none of which I could prove, but they challenged

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