In my short
time as a Believer, I have met many other believers that either don’t believe
that God still heals today; or they think that God chooses who gets healed and
who doesn’t. There is also the
mis-belief that only certain people can pray for the sick and see them
healed. When we talk about healings,
many people envision, tv healing evangelists, where the center of attention is
the anointed evangelist.
During my
disease the elders of my church, prayed for me three times, after my healing
which happened at home. I discovered only one elder, truly believed in healing
and that elder, believed that God picks and chooses who gets healed, no wonder
I wasn’t healed at church! The preacher himself had never seen a healing. So
essentially the prayers I received were riveted with unbelief. It was simply
for the sake of fulfilling the scripture that the elders of the church are to
anoint the sick with oil. That they
prayed for me, they no more expected me to be healed than they would expect
bigfoot to walk into the church.
Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the
church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord:
They look over the second part of that scripture James 5:15 And
the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up;
This isn’t to bash anyone, but it is about truth. In a majority of churches calling the sick to
the altar is out of formality and not with faith or there isn’t an alter call
at all (mainly denominational churches), but only intercerary prayer. Another
common misbelief is that only those in
ministry are called to pray for the sick, this is again only based on the scripture in James. We as believers are all called to pray for
the sick. Mark 16:17-18 “and these signs shall follow them that believe; In my
name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall
lay hands on the sick , and they shall recover.
I left two out because they are not part of this discussion. Shall follow them that believe, this is a
command to all Believers, not to a select few.
And it doesn’t say to just pray for, it says to lay hands on the sick
and they will recover. Now there is the
Gift of Healing, but for this post I won’t go into the difference between the
Gift of Healing and simply praying for the sick and seeing them recover.
Some people believe that healing the sick was
intended for just the Apostles, not true.
Jesus, after He had the twelve anointed, He anointed another 70
followers to cast out demons and heal the sick.
Luke
10:1”After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and
sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he
himself would come.” Remember when He did this the New Covenant had not
officially began yet. The New Covenant began after Jesus’ blood was shed and He
was resurrected. In Matthew 16, this was the beginning of the New Covenant, in
which all Believers are responsible for laying hands on the sick and seeing
them recover. Furthermore, healing did
not die out with the Apostles. Everyday
followers of Christ healed the sick, until around 300-325 A.D., when the First Council of Nicaea took place. Another, piece of information, that many do not know,
is that Under the Old Covenant, healing was a part of it, but was reserved for
the priests/rabbis, Jesus wasn’t the first to heal or work miracles. But He was
the first to heal four things that were reserved for the Messiah: Leprosy, deaf
mute spirit, blind from birth and raising the dead! Hopefully this has started
the thinking process, I am going to address this and other questions on healing
for the next few posts.
Many Christians are running to Reiki, healing hands, any of the energy healings etc... before they turn to Christ! These are counterfeit, yet many are innocently turning to these methods of healing. It is time for Believers to stand up.
