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I shared a little while back one of the reasons we have a marked lack of healings in our churches. There are many actually, but I want to focus on one today that is significant at both the individual and corporate levels. I earlier said that healings are few because teaching and preaching about it, miracles and gifts of the Spirit are rare. So..no Word, no confirmation of the Word.
Actually, I’ve been amused at how pastors will often take a scriptural passage about healing, for example, the leper who Jesus healed, and turn that into a psychology lesson about the pain of a person shunned by society. This, instead of a teaching about how to go get people healed of dreaded diseases like Jesus did. Ask these pastors whether they believed in healing though, and they would say yes. But their actions speak much louder than their words.
I’ve said before that passing declarations about our God being a Healer and how much the pastor believes in healing don’t amount to much. Seen that, been there. Show me a pastor who preaches healing regularly and I’ll show you a pastor who believes that God is a present-day Healer. Show me one who doesn’t and I’ll show you one who doesn’t believe a lick of it.
Frankly, people do what they believe. They studiously avoid doing what they do not believe. So it is week after week of salvation messages to a congregation that is 100% saved but 60% sick. It’s week after week of how to be nice to your wife and kids to some of the sweetest, loving Christians on the planet while they stagger from doctor to doctor. You didn’t quip about how much you loved your wife when you met her, you married her!
Why don’t I put it this way: if you knew that a certain tree in your yard blossomed every morning at 5.00am with $20 bills, what would you do? Well, you’d probably be out there at 4.30am with a bag, that’s what. Why? Because you believe it. If you truly believe that God heals today and many in your congregation are sick, what would you do? I don’t care what you say, what would you do? Never mistake mental and verbal assent for true faith.
As an aside let me say this. I firmly believe that any church that does not devote 25-50% or more of their sermon time to faith, healing, miracles and gifts will seldom get any healings, no matter how much they cry before the alter. God seldom responds solely to need, He responds to faith. He already responded to our need through Jesus, the Son of God. Read a little after John Wimber, a man I truly admired. He preached continually for months on end before he got a breakthrough.
So pastors, no more quips and asides about healing and how much you believe in healing. Preach it and teach it with full faith, then begin to pray for the sick regularly and see what God will do. Share with us if your church preaches and teaches faith and healing on a regular basis.
