whatever happened to Divine healing?



Almost but not quite within the scope of my own lifetime, it was common practice for physicians to make "house calls."  Doctors were not then typically wealthy; it was not at all uncommon, for example, for a visiting doctor to be compensated by means of some or another form of bartered goods or services.  Physicians were typically respected as community servants and leaders.  As such, they were expected to demonstrate their commitment to their respective Community's well being, by their exemplary moral conduct and compassionate service.

Importantly, the conditions just described prevailed not in the Church but in the secular world!  Today, however, not only do such conditions no longer exist in the world (not in America, at least).  Far more important, such conditions no longer exist ~ almost without exception ~ no, not in the Church.

American culture is akin to a pot filled with well-boiled frogs: we have after long exposure to abuse become accustomed to dealing with a system of "healthcare" (what an oxymoron that is!) that is predacious in the extreme.  That system is not actually broken: in fact, it works wonderfully well ~ for the myriads of those who profit themselves thereby, especially, the host of lawmakers and corporate profiteers who are complicit in having turned the practice of Medicine into a massive, criminal Enterprise.

It is no mere coincidence that, notwithstanding we live in an Age of unprecedented medical science and technology ~ with more medical facilities, and practitioners, and medicines than at any other time in human history; yet, at the same time, there has probably never been such persistently pervasive sickness and disease.  Doubtless to my mind at least, society has indeed grown sicker and sicker as the result of an ever increasing burden of sin.  Meanwhile, a highly regulated (self-protecting) healthcare industry has emerged whose members engorge themselves (financially speaking) on the flesh of the sick and dying.

So, where is the compassion for the sick and injured amongst the churches?  It is just as costly to visit a "Christian" doctor or dentist as it was to see an atheistic one.  Yes, I know there are some rare exceptions.  Though none can argue that such exceptions are indeed rare.

The whole thing is disgusting, infuriating.  But what, really, is the root of the problem?  Is it selfish greed that has overtaken so many opportunists?  No doubt that is central to the problem I've described.  It is the way of the world.

My deeper concern, though, is to answer the following questions:

• What can the sick or afflicted Christian do?  Must we also live as does the world?
• Are we subject to suffer the ravages of sickness and disease similarly as are the heathen?
• Do we have no other way to receive healing and recovery than by whatever means and methods the heathen also rely upon?

Merely asking such questions seems suggestive of unbelief.  Nevertheless, those are eminently important questions which need to be answered.  It is astounding to me, that those questions are so seldom discussed amongst professing Christians, with any real seriousness of intent to discover true answers.  Right there, I propose, is the first stumbling block.  Wouldn't it be amazing if, for example, someone dared openly to ask those questions in the middle of an otherwise ordinary church service...? 

The first stumbling block to God being able to minister Divine healing in the lives of His people, is, the gross lack of solid, Biblical teaching on the subject.  What?  Did I misspeak?  Is there such a thing as a "stumbling block to God being able..."?  Oh, yes, there is:

Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.  And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.  And he marvelled because of their unbelief.  And he went round about the villages, teaching.  (Mark 6:4-6)

Jesus himself could not do many things he otherwise would have done.  Why?  Because, of the people's unbelief.  NOTE: Jesus particularly said it was in his own country, among his own people ~ even in his own house ~ that he could not work, because of their unbelief.

So, what did Jesus do about that situation?  "He went round about the villages, teaching."

What, do you suppose, Jesus taught in those villages?  He taught them the truth about the necessity of FAITH, in order to receive from God.  He taught them the truth about GOD'S WILL concerning healing.  And he taught them the truth about the COST to themselves, for their unbelief.  All in all, Jesus taught them the truth about the necessity and value of HIS TEACHING.  They needed the KNOWLEDGE he gave them.  The knowledge of the truth is LIGHT ~ it is the spark that ignites the flame of FAITH.

Without a doubt, many of those same people ~ after that Jesus was raised and ascended and the Holy Ghost descended with the power of Revival, not only themselves were saved and healed, but they furthermore became ministers of that same truth and power.  In other words, though divine healing did not come instantaneously to them (because of their unbelief ~ due to their ignorance); yet, as the result of Jesus's teaching them; and, because of Christ's further work and grace through Calvary and the coming of the Holy Ghost: divine healing did ultimately reach unto them!  Else, why would Jesus have bothered in the first instance to teach them?

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void [empty], but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)

Whatever happened to Divine healing?  The answer is simple: Several generations ago ~ about a century or more ago, when the Church began its slide toward Apostasy and to reject the full counsel of God's Word, the reality and experience of divine healing consequently began to dissipate.  No longer was strict fidelity to believe and thus to honor God in His Word upheld as the high Standard of the Christian faith.  Thus the Church began to suffer for the loss of that Standard of faith.  Jesus "could there do no mighty work" amongst his own kin, in his own house....

Now these many years later, even the multitude of true testimonies and accounts related to the formerly powerful condition of the Christian Church has willingly been relegated to the dustbin of history.  Why?  Because, the modern Church knows nothing of that kind of power!  Therefore, rather than confess Her impoverished, backslidden condition ~ which would necessitate that contemporary Christians must come face-to-face with the comparative emptiness of their religion, the modern Church has sought to justify its complacency and spiritual poverty, by means of twisting the meaning of Scripture or otherwise by outright denying the truth thereof.

They don't ~ nay, they WON'T ~ live by the Word of God: How then dare they teach it as it is in truth?  They will not.  They do not.  And, yet, multitudes content themselves to believe they are nevertheless pleasing God ~ by blindly following after such dead apostles and prophets of darkness.  The churches are full of them.  America is full of them!

I can reach all the way back at least to the time of Moses and find a clear, consistent record of God's willingness and faithfulness to minister healing to His believing, that is to say, His obedient people.  God's mind has not changed.  His Word has not changed.  His will has not changed.  His way has not changed.  His promises have not changed.  Only we have changed.

By the grace and mercy of God, another change is come: We (those who will believe) are returning to humble ourselves unto God and thus be restored unto God's Covenant blessings in Christ Jesus.  I have elsewhere and often alluded to that as "Revival."  Revival ~ with all of God's power and blessing associated with that (including Divine healing) ~ is coming.  But it comes with a price.  Namely ~ for all those who desire to partake of Christ's life in truth, it means you must be willing to turn your back on all the ways of the world and, at the same time, with all your heart seek to return unto God in truth, according to His own Word.

Though Jesus himself lived and walked closely among them, yet his own family and neighbors still remained ignorant of the power and blessings of God that could have been theirs if only they had better known the truth of God ~ which Jesus was willing to teach them.  Though Jesus came in the flesh to live among men; and, though he oftentimes worked miracles for many; yet, his ministry was principally a teaching ministry.  The Bible plainly testifies that the power of God in and through Jesus Christ was demonstrated not merely for temporal relief, of those many individuals who received miracles.  But those miracles themselves witnessed to the veracity and power of Christ's teachings ~ all of which was directed to reveal Jesus Christ as the Source and Means of all power and authority.

When God brought the Hebrews (and many Egyptians with them) out of Egypt, the Bible says: "He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes" (Ps. 105:37).  I am sure God is able to do no less than that today.  I am furthermore certain God is both desiring and willing to do much, much more than we in America have seen in a great many years.

There is a way whereby we may return to live in the flow of God's power and blessing.  The Bible refers to it, thus:

And they that be of thee [Christ] shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in (Isaiah 58:12) 

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls (Jeremiah 6:16)

Revival is coming ~ with Divine healing in its (His) wings.  But it won't come on the cheap.

I cannot conclude without answering the questions I posed midway through this essay.  The answer (in large part) is provided in the book of James, where the apostle, by the Holy Ghost, wrote:

Is any among you afflicted?  Let him pray.... 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: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.  Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  Elias [Elijah] was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.  (James 5:13-17)

There is no mention of doctors, or medicines.  Freed from the greed and brutality of every worldly system, members of Christ's Body are instructed as above.  The promises of God are plain to be understood, and believed.

It has worked for me.  I have found God's Word to be true.  God still hears and answers prayer.  Jesus is still the Healer.  Still, there is more to come....