.........wanted prayer for healings! I even advertised in several local newspapers weekly for six months in large bold print: "Healing, Deliverance, Salvation! Whatever your need, bring it and let Jesus Christ meet it!" Needless to say, those ads drew many of the "special" cases who had given up all hope of receiving healing anywhere else!
I can report, after I prayed, there were those who "confessed" their healing", without it being manifested. There were those who said they "felt better' after I prayed and were believing for the full manifestation! There were also many who were "slain in the Spirit", or "fell prostrate under the power" when I prayed for them. There were some favorable reports of improved conditions, but no instant manifestations of healing such as the incident with my wife's bee sting!
Then, there were the sorrowful cases of those that died shortly after I prayed for them! All of those were cancer cases, and one of those included one of my best friends, who was only 37 years old! I honestly have to report that in every single cancer case, there was extreme faith on their part to receive, and they did all of the right things to their knowledge and instruction, and even followed through by "confessing" their healing before it was actually manifested, and claiming it daily, to their last breath! There was nothing lacking in my faith either! My 37 year old friend, as a result of his tragedy, received Christ as Savior, and I am absolutely expectant of his waiting to welcome me on the "other side" when I get there; but in spite of all my efforts and prayers, He still died!
There are those who have said to me, "The problem was you! You did not have the gift of healing!" However, I must also report, of all the cancer victims I prayed for, they had all been prayed for by others, either before or after me. In the case of my 37 year old friend, when I first became aware of his condition, I shared Christ with him for salvation for the first hour, and then shared Christ for healing the second hour. This resulted in his accepting my invitation to accompany me to a Full Gospel Businessmen's meeting. Once there, I reported his condition to those there, requesting prayer by any of those with faith for healing. The result was, 17 men responded, and we sat my friend in a chair, and we all stood around him, annointed him with oil, and prayed! The result was, He made a proclamation of faith in Christ the next day, but still died within 18 months after having his right arm and shoulder amputated!
I do not share these incidents to discredit the glorious healing power of Christ, but by doing so, I hope to reflect the fact that when he does heal, it is by His grace and His will, not by the efforts of men who think they personally have any special power that other Christians do not have.
There are many other incidents I could report, but by doing so would bring no glory to Christ who is all deserving of all glory. However, if only I had failed, I could accept the fact it might have been me and my failure, but other men claiming the "gift of healing" prayed for others also, either before or after I did, and they still died!
There was one Nazarine minister I knew very well who had been prayed for by many others supposedly with the gift of healing, as well as by myself, and he went on to be with Jesus confessing with his last breath that "he was healed", I am sure!
One night in my church, in response to my "healing" ad, a man about 70 drove in, and helped his wife out of his car into a wheel chair. He wheeled her in and asked for the pastor. I talked to him, and he informed me that his wife was in bad pain, due to several operations from a car accident. Then he revealed to me that he had terminal cancer, and the doctors had given him 6 months or less to live! He said they had seen my ad, and had come to be healed! I preached the best healing message I possibly could with "a full annointing" and they naturally responded to prayer. Try as I might, I could not get her to rise from her wheel chair, but she later reported her pain left for two weeks, but then returned. They came to one more of my services about a month later, and I found out they had been to several other services elsewhere and had been prayed for. With all the many beautiful testimonies of healings that I have heard of, I would like to give a positive report in this case also, however---the brother died on schedule as the doctors stated, about six months later!
With all of this negative testimony I have given so far, the reader might think I do not believe Christ heals any longer. Wrong!! I believe He heals today, just as He did always, however, those lessons I learned the hard way sent me back to "The Bible" instead of other "faith healers" books! The Christian bookstores are flooded with, "How to Receive Your Healing" books, and I think I have read almost every one written in this century! I read all I have missed as I have come upon them.
In re-evaluating all of their teachings, I have come to the position of believing that God will heal in answer to prayer (only if it is His will), however, no man presently living possesses any gifts of healings or miracles which he can use at his discretion whenever he pleases!
In other words, I do not believe anyone can schedule God to be at a "healing and miracle" meeting and command Him to perform! I personally have gone to every advertised, such meetings I had a chance to, and have personally sat in the meetings of all of the present big time, professing healing evangelists meetings! I can honestly say, as a Spirit filled, born again believer who is not a skeptic, I have never seen any manifestation of instant physical healing I could prove on anything but hearsay! The record is the same as my personal record,
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