or THE C H U R C H / / , r „ L. Laurin while the same numerous miracles of the early Church have not continued in the succeeding Church, yet every age of the Church has had its valid miracles of healing, while not on the basis of Lourdes or TV spectaculars. I can bear unqualified witness to three such miracles of healing in my own ministry. None of these miracles were in public but were achieved either in the quietness of a hospital room or the home and in one instance without physical contact with the sick person. But I must also say that I have prayed for many other people without the same dramatic, death-reversing, miraculous effects.
cannot fully comprehend the way in which God uses intercessory prayer as a channel for His blessing, there is every reason to believe that power for healing is often thus released.” The Church has a healing ministry and it should in clude the following: 1. Healing For thè Whole Person. We are body, soul and spirit and any healing which is available to us is available on the spiritual, mental and physical levels of life. Triumphant living doesn’t depend on perfect health for while the outward man perishes the inward man may be renewed day by day. 2. Faith Health as Well as Faith Healing. Faith health is preventive while faith healing is corrective. Faith health can be the normal consequence of living the Christian life at its highest levels of faith and respect for the laws of God. This brings freedom from worry and fear, deliverance from tensions and the conquest of the effects of a mechanical civilization. Faith health is one of the dividends of a clean life with its freedom from destructive habits. It is the result of the understanding and application of faith to everyday living. 3. Prayer For the Sick. After you get past the Book of Acts there is only on-c New Testament writer who gives any instruction re garding the healing of the sick. That writer is James who says, “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 . . .” (James 5:14,15). This must be read and practiced within the context of the four cases of sickness to which I have already referred. This doesn’t make healing mandatory in all cases, even though it says, “the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” It means that we should pray in all cases of sickness for God’s will to be done. Prayer for the sick is definitely in order. It is the Church’s spiritual therapy. It has accounted for multitudes of known cases of healing, apart from the use of means. It has resulted in healing forces being released upon the sick that cannot be measured. Prayer for the sick is the instrument which the Church possesses for what we properly call spiritual healing or divine healing. It may be with or without the use of means. It may or may not result in the visible healing of the sick person. Or it may, as it did in the case of the Apostle Paul, result in the release of a sufficient measure of divine grace that life may be a triumphant experience of service in the face of adversity, handicap and affliction. In any case we have access, through prayer, to God's power to heal when that healing is in accordance with God’s will. END 15
I believe according to the pattern of experience which follows the events of the Book of Acts that prayers for the sick may in some cases result in healing; in other cases may not result in healing; in other cases may justify the use of means such as modern medicine and surgery; but in all instances may see the manifestation of God’s grace so that sickness is bom with distinction and blessing. Now, just how are we going to conduct th" healing min istry of the Church today? Should the sick be encouraged to believe that they will be healed if only they have faith? No, because this might be raising hopes that may lead to cruel disappointment. But, we should always pray for the " sick that God’s inscrutable will may be done. Should we assume that God wants everybody to be well? If we do we are contradicting the experience of the Apostle Paul. We are contradicting the triumphant experi ences of some of the choicest saints. And we are assuming something that simply cannot be verified by the normal lives of God’s people. Is it God’s will to heal all sickness? Not in a general k, sense. God is able to heal all sickness or He would not be God, but God’s will may permit the experience of sickness for the higher good of the sick person. Is sickness always due to sin and does it come as God’s punishment upon the sinner? No, emphatically, no. This is contradicted by Paul’s experience and Job’s experience and the experience of many others. It is the normal r consequence of being alive in an abnormal world where sickness is a universal experience for good and bad alike. To summarize the answers to all these questions we can say this—“While there is a strong presumption in favor of the fact that it is the will of God for people to have sufficient health to do that which God has called them to do, still we cannot be sure that it is always His will 1 to answer every prayer to heal sickness.” That is on the negative side. On the positive side we can confidently believe in the available power of God in response to the prayers of His people for “although we Dr. Roy L. Laurin is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Eagle Rock, California. He is author of a number of devo tional Bible study books. This article was delivered recently as a sermon at his church.
MAY, 1960
Made with FlippingBook Online document