...........people say they "feel better", but only they know! There are some but in proportion of the reports, very few, actual well documented healings, but, in those cases, it was His will to heal! Personally, I can understand why so few genuine healings take place in meetings we see in the U.S. because faith healing evangelists would take all the credit and "hawk" their power to the uttermost!
Overseas, where the news media is absent or where there is little or no publicity, the Lord usually manifests His glory in greater proportion, but in the U.S., the meeting would be live on one or more T.V. stations, and if anything significant took place, it would be replayed until the healing evangelist would be an instant success and would inherit an instant following!
The fact is, the plan is that those that believe are to seek and follow Christ, and not any man! I think the Lord is gracious not to give us the gift of healing to use at our will, as none of us could handle this power for very long without thinking we had some merit to the power! The way the Lord keeps us humble is to let us know, He heals by His will, and not our will!
From experience, I know it is easy to "talk" healing faith, but it requires much more to produce the results-actual healing! Having said this much, through personal experience, I would like to look at some of the faith healing doctrine being taught today, by radio, T.V., books and seminars, as well in thousands of churches. As we go along, we will comment on whether the teachings are Biblical, and if not, where did they originate from or where do they go wrong.
FAITH HEALING AND PROSPERITY DOCTRINE
The greatest truth available to all of the seeking is that healing still takes place in our age! That fact is recognized by those who spend enough effort to research the subject! Whether they can verify it by personal experience, or not!
The fact that Christians cannot agree on the doctrine of divine healing, makes it one of the prominent controversial issues within the. church. Since we are all still human, and still look through a dark glass, not having been yet glorified, we are all subject to misinterpreting the various Scripture passages which may shed light on healing.
It is also a fact that we are not all at the same level of enlightenment, therefore, none of us contain all of the truth on every doctrine! That is why we must "study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (1 Timothy 2:15)
Naturally, there are those in the church that take the position that divine healing and miracles do not exist at all in our age, and have ended with the early church. However, even within the ranks of those who do believe in healing and miracles, is very little, sound, agreeable Biblical theology which can be standardized upon. What there is available is mostly the faith healing, positive confession, mind over matter doctrine, which actually borders on the edge of mind science and metaphysics cults, and if studied closely, can be found to even identify with early Gnosticism, which was an early non-Christian cult who thought they had arrived at a higher spiritual level of knowledge than others.
The greatest danger of practicing this type of worship is the ever present temptation to seduce God into becoming your own private "genie in the bottle" by "proof texting" but must be arrived at by the proper interpretation which is a study called "Hermeneutics". We have all heard, at one time or another, a zeleous recently converted Christian extract some lone Scripture passage out of the Old Testament somewhere and mistakenly apply it to his situation at present saying, "There it is! God said it, I believe it, and that settles it!" The actual fact is, it may settle it for him or her, but it does not change the verse, depending on its context in that particular location!
I feel this error of misapplying and misinterpreting various Bible verses are the greatest cause of error which leads even the most sincere Christian, if he doesn't study, to go astray. I have no doubt that most of those caught up in the faith of prosperity, positive confession movement are very sincere in their beliefs. I know because I was sincere when I was preaching it! However, that did not make my doctrine any more pure by the fact that I believed it!
IS IT GOD'S WILL TO HEAL ALL; EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO ASKS?
In studying all of the faith healing writer's teachings, that is the first and most important lesson for those seeking healing to learn. They teach that it is not God's will for anyone to be sick, and that if it is His will to heal a115 of His children, or "who ever will receive".
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