QUESTION: Do you believe God is still in the miracle business today?
                    Do you expect God to act miraculously in your life?
                    Has God worked miraculously in your life?
                    How?
                    Have you or someone you know ever been miraculously healed?

DEFINITION: The supernatural ability to minister health to someone sick or ill. W/O the use of  medicine.
                          Restoration of one to full health who had been ill, in body or mind or both. It is instantaneous, complete
                         and permanent and usually w/o the means of a device. (Exceptions noted in Jesus' ministry..Mk. 8:22-26...)

QUESTION: Where does healing originate?  Who heals?

The Author of Healing:
         It is God who heals and He alone. (Ps. 103:3; Acts 3:12-16)
         It is God who chooses who will be healed. (Jn. 5:1-15)
         God sometimes uses human instruments to affect His healing plan. (Lk. 9:4; Acts 4:22; 1 Cor. 12:9)

QUESTION: What is/was the purpose of  miraculous healing in the NT?

Purpose of Miraculous Healing:
 1. Authenticate the words of the one who performed the healing miracle. ( Lk.5:20:24, Jn. 7:19-22; 10:37-38; Acts 2:22)
 2. Illustrate the Word.   (Lk. 5:18-26)
         What happens to the body can happen to your soul.
 3. Miraculous healings were primarily theological in nature not medical.
          If Christ had wanted to heal everyone (medical) he could have. However He chose who He would heal (theological)
          (Jn. 5:3)  to make a point or to authenticate who He was.
 4. The healing is not a build the reputation of the person but to glorify Christ.

NT Teachings on  Healing
 1. The 12 disciples
      They were commissioned and gave them power over all demons and to cure diseases.  To  preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and to heal the sick.  (Lk. 9:16) This commission seems not to have ended until they died.

 2. The 70 disciples
      They were commissioned and were told to heal the sick and preach the kingdom of God. (Lk. 10:1-16) This commission seems to have been completed when the 70 returned. (Lk. 10:17-24) There is no indication that they were sent out again.

 3. Those who believe
      Mark 16:18 'They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover' Because this part of Mark is thought not to be original, this can not beconsidered as a  strong text for the gift of healing.

 4. Cures for disease
     Found in Scripture as well in ancient near east and greco-roman literature
          a. Folklore
               Balm Jer. 8:22,  Wine 1 Tim. 5:23,  Oil and Wine Lk. 10:34, Music 2 Sam.16:23
          b. Physician
               2 Chron. 16:12,  Job 13:4, Jer. 8:22, Mk. 5:25-26, Matt. 9:12,  Mk. 2:17, Lk. 4:23; 5:31, Col. 4:14
          c. Deity
               Ps. 103:3, Ex. 15:26, Lk. 17:15, James 5:14-16
      d. Combinations of the above
               2 Kings 20:7  (Fig cakes applied at the word of Isaiah, God's prophet) John 9:6 (Jesus and clay)
      e. Those with  Gifts of healing
           1 Cor. 12:9

 5. Faith and healing
      Faith of the one being healed is necessary for healing to happen.
           Matt. 8:13; 9:28; 15:28, Lk. 8:43-48
      Faith must be in the one who heals
           Acts 16:16-18 (nothing was demanded from her, not even faith)
       When the one who needs to be healed is faith-less, the one with faith must  exercise it for them.
      Faith can be from a close relative or friend of the sick
            Jn. 4:46-54 (Jesus healed the royal officials son) Matt. 15:21-28 (Jesus healed the Canaanite womans daughter)

QUESTION: What do you think about these last two?
                     Is this true or was this true for a particular reason in salvation history?

PENTECOSTAL / CHARISMATIC NOTE:

        God is love, full of compassion and mercy, no respector of persons and does ONLY good. God did not put sickness in you! It is God's will to heal you. He is just waiting for YOU to catch up. Will God heal you? YES. It is His will IF it is your  WILL. THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT.  All true Christians have the power within them to heal others.

         A Christian who manifests the gift of healing can do everything Jesus did by the power of the H.S., he can make the sick well immediately and permanently, a blind gains sight immediately and a broken arm is mended instantly, a cancer disappears.

QUESTION:
      1. Is there Biblical precedence where sickness was put on people by God?
           1 Sam. 16:14,  Jn. 9:1, Ex. 15:26
      2. Will God always heal someone even if he has faith?
           2 Cor. 12:7-12
      3. Can all Believers heal others ?
           1 Cor. 12:30, 2 Cor. 12:12
      4. On this side of heaven, can the Believer do EVERYTHING Jesus did?

 6. Prayer and healing
      a. James 5:14-16
           Seems to indicate that it is God who heals THROUGH the prayers of  the faithful in the local congregation. This type of prayer involves a confessional aspect by both the sick and the ones  praying for the sick. Anointing Oil is a tradition that the Jews used to rub olive oil on the sick. The  oil was not the remedy or magic potion for healing. It is clear from vs. 15 that it  is not the oil but the Lord who will raise up the sick. Anointing with oil is a religious ceremony not a remedy. Being human we feel the need for a visible sign, appealing to our senses. Oil helps satisfy this for us. The main thing to understand here is that the focus of this passage is not on healing but on prayer.

QUESTION:  If someone professes to be partially healed and then needs to be prayed for and anointed   on a  regular basis for healing, is this instant, complete and permanent? And would the individual who continually prays for and lays hands on have the gift of healing?

PENTECOSTAL/CHARISMATIC  NOTE

QUESTION: What do you know about Oral Roberts?

ORAL ROBERTS
     He heard a voice as a child with TB that  told him that he would heal him and that he was to take the healing power of God to his generation. The voice also told him to build him a university and to build it in the authority of the Holy Spirit.  He free admits that at that time he was not a Christian. He continued to hear that voice throughout his life.

     Once Roberts claimed to have spent a 7 hr period with Jesus and that at another time Jesus appeared to him as a person 900 feet tall. Another time he told his followers that God would take his life if he did not get 8 million dollars needed to keep his City of Hope open.  Roberts reported that some miracle gifts came in the last minute but two years later the City of Hope went bancrupt and closed.

     In 1991 Robers gave a word of wisdom to Jamie Buckingham who had cancer that he would live another 50 years serving God in his ministry. Buckingham died 1 yr later.

QUESTION: What do you know about Benny Hinn?

BENNY  HINN
     At his touch or word, people fall backwards on the floor where they may be unconscience for minutes or hours. ( Scripture  never makes reference to someone falling backward when in the power of the spirit or when praising God. They always fall forward.) Numerous testimonies have been given by those who say they have been healed in Hinns meetings or even by the streatching out their hands toward the TV screen.

     Hinn is now perhaps the most influential Charismatic healer in the world. He has written numerous book with numerous errors in them. So strong were the protests of people against the errors of his first book that the publishers agreed to let Hinn rewrite it. Significant errors were still part of the rest of his books, all of which he claimed he received the teaching in these books from the Holy Spirit. Was it the Holy Spirit who gave Benny Hinn the false doctrine in his books, in his teaching and preaching? NO!  Now Hinn admits the books were written not by the help of the HS but by a ghost writer Herman Eskelin. His book and teacching ministry were a product of deception.

     Hinn is associated with the "Word of Faith' theology espoused by Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland. Included in the teaching is :
 1. Jesus lost His divinity before dying physically on the cross.
 2. Christ was united to Satan in nature
 3. Christ, like Believers today, had to be 'born again'.
 4. Humans are of the same essence as Jesus Christ which makes us 'little gods'
 5. Demons are not fallen angels but a pre-adamic race.
 6. Adam was a super being when God created him. Adam could fly like a bird, he even flew into space, he could swim
    underwater and not run out of breath and so did Eve. (The Berean Call)

     Hinn on a national TBN tv show said ' I've looked for one verse in the Bible - I just can't seem to find it - one verse that says that if you don't like them, kill them...I wish God would give me a Holy Spirit machine gun - I'll blow your heads off.' He said this in response to those who criticized the heresies in his books.

    Later Hinn reported repented and said that he was willing to meet with his critics such as Bud Press of the Watchman Fellowship. He claimed that his entire ministry is in reform and he no longer holds to a faith word message. However, when Bud Press sent Hinn a certified letter, then called him when he got no response, Hinn sent him a letter threatening a law suit. Hinn has regniged on everything he said he would do. He still follows the Word faith theology.

     Even many of the Charismatic scholars are distancing themselves from Hinn and his theology.

     In an ABC documentary Hinn refused to allow his financial books to be opened and there were charges that the money he was raising for missions was not for missions and only a small portion was in fact going to the poor children of the world.

QUESTION: What do you know about Kenneth Hagin?

KENNETH HAGIN
    Kenneth Hagin is know as the father of the 'word of faith / positive confession' movement.  'Name it and claim it.' This teaching believes the following:
 1. receiving physical healing just like salvation is simple a matter of appropriating what already belongs to us.
 2. Physical healing is included in the Gospel.
 3. God does not inflict people with illness or disease.
 4. It is always God's will to heal the sick
 5. Believers have a legal and redemptive right to diving healing.
 6. You confession of faith in God's Word will bring you healing or whatever it is you want from God.
      (Having Faith in your Faith)
 7. These faith promises works for the sinner and saint alike.
 8. The Believer is as much an incarnation of God as JC...the church is Christ, they are Christ.
 9. God is not sovereign. Jesus has no authority on earth having delegated it to the church.
     (The Authority of the Believer)

 Hagins relationship with JC
  1. Jesus took him to heaven so he could visit and talk with his dead sister.
  2. Hagin went to hell in an out of body experience.
  3. Jesus appeared to him in a vision in 1950
  4. He has had numerious visions from God
  5. He has had 8 personal visits from Jesus.

     Hagin states, 'the Lord Himself taught me about prosperity. I never read it in a book. I got it directly from heaven.' He also claims that he knows Paul wrote the book of Hebrews because Jesus appeared to Hagin and told him so.

Prayer & Healing Center Healing School
Healing School classes are conducted twice daily on the RHEMA Campus.
Monday-Friday at 9:30 a.m. in the Prayer & Healing Center Auditorium

DIVINE HEALING - Healing is for the physical ills of the human body and is wrought by the power of God through the prayer of faith, and by the laying on of hands. It is provided for in the atonement of Christ, and is the privilege of every member of the Church today  (James 5:14,15; Mark 16:18; Isa. 53:4,5; Matt. 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24)

"Man was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God's presence without any consciousness of inferiority."-Kenneth Hagin
 

HELPFUL HINTS IN HEALING By David W. Cloud
 October 12, 1995 (Fundamental Baptist News Service) - The latest newsletter from the "Happy Hunters" (Charles and Frances Hunter) contained an article entitled "Helpful Hints in Healing." Consider:  "Spinal Stenosis: A narrowing of the spinal column around the spinal cord. ... Recommended Prayer: Command the spirit of arthritis to come out in the name of Jesus, command the spurs to dissolve with no problem to the spinal cord and command the spinal cord to open up in the name of Jesus.  Then command the spirit of pain to leave in Jesus' name.

     "Schizophrenia: A doctor had done research on Schizophrenia and discovered an inadequate blood supply to the thalamus gland, in the brain, when the patient is asked to think. Recommended Prayer: Command an adequate supply of blood to the thalamus gland so the patient will be able to think. Command the spirit to come out in the name of Jesus."

QUESTION: What do you think about this? Is this what praying specifically means? Is the origination of the illness a 'spirit'?
                      Is there an evil spirit behind all illness?

     Some of you might think this is a joke. The fact is that the Hunters are very serious about these things. They conduct healing crusades and seminars throughout the world and distribute their seminars on video and audio tape by the multiplied thousands. And they make millions doing it. They believe that every Christian has the gift of healing and they encourage every Christian to get involved with a healing ministry. The Hunters believe that it is God's will to heal every sickness. In their book How to Heal the Sick they claim: "Yes, it is God's will for you to be healed.  The same book teaches that every Christian has the power to heal others.

         But the Hunters can't even heal their own sicknesses. While conducting a healing crusade in the Philippines in 1987 Francis Hunter contracted conjunctivitis ("pink eye") and had to go to the doctor. She admitted, "I could not get rid of it in spite of all the healing teams over there" (Charisma, May 1988). Just recently, during a 1995 healing crusade in England, Mrs. Hunter broke her right heel and had to be brought home in a wheel chair! The Hunters claim that on the flight home from England God performed various miracles, in spite of the fact that Mrs. Hunter could not get a healing for herself.

         In the book How to Heal the Sick, the Hunters supposedly give instructions on how to heal baldness. This is interesting--because Charles Hunter is bald! They give instructions on how to heal eye problems--but Frances Hunter wears glasses to correct her eye problems!
 

APP: Contrary to the teaching of  Pentecostals and Charismatics such as the Hunters, Hagin, Hinn and Roberts, the Bible does not promise that Christians will always be healed of their sicknesses, nor that every Christian can heal others. We know God does heal in answer to prayer many times, but there is no promise that He will always do this, and indeed, He does not always heal.  In fact, contrary to the teaching of these false teachers, the Bible plainly teaches that sickness does at times glorify God! Jn. 9:3, Matt. 15:30-31

QUESTION: Why  do you think I spent the time researching and telling you about the ministry of  these charismatic healers?

ACTION: Read 2 Peter 2:1-3,  Matt. 7:15; 24:11,24,  2 Cor. 11:13-15,26,  Gal. 2:4,  1 Tim. 6:3-5

     Jesus told us to expect false teachers who will deceive the faithful.  If people like Oral Roberts, Benny Hinn  Kenneth Hagin and The Hunters are not totally honest in their ministries, how do we know their healing , if in fact people are actually being healed, is from God? How do we know what we can believe of these individuals and their ministries?

 Do we need a school to tell us something that supposedly is already within us.
 What happened to the illuminatory work of the HS within the Believer.
 What happened to the Spirit giving  Spiritual Gifts to whoever he will?
 What happenend to Pauls' do all...heal?

     This says that everyone has the gift of healing and you  just need to be educated  by specifically gifted teachers on how to use it. This is heresy and must not be tolerated.

QUESTION: Are there physical manifestations or sensations experienced by the healer and the one healed in the process of
                      using the gift of healing?

Phenomena on people being ministered to:
•sensations of heat or tingling (neck, hands, back, etc.) •feeling like `electrical current' •radiance on the face •brokenness, sobs, tears •a wave or a weight on the chest •trembling or shaking •laughter •fluttering of the eyelids •groaning in the Spirit

Phenomena on people ministering healing:
•sensations of warmth (usually flowing from hands) •sense of anointing •inward witness of presence to heal •a deep sense of knowing •sometimes nothing at all

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN

     It's important to pray for healing with your eyes open. Why? Well, when you invite the Holy Spirit to come and minister, you're expecting Him to do something NOW! Unless you're attentive to what's going on, how else can you recognize and respond to the phenomena that indicates His presence?

     Also, it's important to ask the person what he's feeling or thinking as you wait on the Spirit. Often the Holy Spirit will be talking with him about an issue that's quite different from the one you're praying about. Unless you ask questions, you may miss what God's doing entirely.

The following are the types of questions that are good to ask:

•Are you feeling something? •Are you sensing something? •Is the Lord speaking to you? •Are you sure you're not feeling something?

QUESTION: Does this sound like 'leading' the witness, your honor...  Making the person get hyped up or emotionally
                     excited and therefor  placing them in almost a hypnotic suggestion?
 

What may happen before you go to pray for the sick?
 Sudden depression or disinterest •Anger, frustration or strife with person close by Circumstances to block you (flat tire, etc.) •Feelings of unworthiness, inadequacy, inferiority

What may happen while you're praying for the sick?
 Distracting, confusing, unedifying thoughts •No sense of anointing •Subtle temptation to overdo it, to be a "super healer" •Tendency to focus on the condition, bringing doubt •Discouragement, "nothing is happening"

What may happen after you've ministered to the sick?
•Depression, exhaustion •A sense of pride - "you are a potential Elijah" •Confusing, mixed feelings •Discouragement, especially when people aren't healed.

CONCLUSION:
 Does this sound like the orderly work of the HS in the church?
 Does what is taught by the leaders of the healing movement seem confusing to you or is it just me?
 Do the lives and teaching of those leaders demonstrate men of faith and humility who are  ministering for the glory of God or
      the upkeep of their own personal ministries?
 Does God still heal in miraculous ways today....YES.
 Does God still heal by the prayer of the faithful and righteous ...yes.
 Should we expect God to work miraculously in our lives...YES
 Should we seek God to heal us by His power..yes
 Is there a gift of healing, as demonstrated by the apostles in the NT...I don't think so