What About Partial Healing? (Part 1)

Partial healing can be a stumbling block for many in the healing ministry. It is a complex subject for many reasons. Some ask, “If God is healing and He has all power, why doesn’t He do it completely?”

Others get discouraged when they see those they pray for receive only partial relief, and in some cases, lose even that which they received.

Now, as usual there are many facets to this. Let’s be clear though, when I talk about partial healing, I mean that which is verifiable in the cold light of day.

There are preachers who ride in for the weekend, pray for the masses and ask for a show of hands for those who have received their healing. They then ask for a show of hands for those who have received partial healing.

Much of the second category and some of the first are just exercises in emotion, exercises in adrenalin. Jesus did not go about with microphone and speakers whipping his flock into a frenzy – His healings were verifiable when the dust has settled and the preacher has left town.

Pity the hopefuls who come expecting healing and don’t want to disappoint the preacher who asks them if they have “partial relief” from their symptoms. Especially when a microphone is poked in their faces.

Ninety nine percent of the time, the answer is; “Yes, the pain is less” or “Yes, I feel a little better”. While in some cases this is true, in most cases, they just want to save the pastor embarassment or avoid “negative confession”.

How do I know? Over two decades spent in healing ministry, many being a follow-up minister after the “big guns” left town.

Here’s the classic account in Mark 8;

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

Jesus ministered to the blind man in verse 22 and asked him whether he saw anything. He said he saw people, but they looked like trees. In other words, there was an improvement, but he still did not have normal eyesight.

In our day, the one ministered too might have declared “I’m healed, in Jesus Name!!”. Well, obviously, he would not be. Ministry would then be over and you might see moving trees for the rest of your life. We can become so overspiritual, we stop making sense.

After praying for a person, I ask them to tell me exactly what they experienced. If nothing, I tell them to recheck after awhile and if healing still doesn’t show up in a reasonable amount of time, we can have another ministry session.

I tell them to tell me exactly how and what they feel and experience, not what they think I want to hear.

This is one of the reasons I am such a fan of smaller healing settings like Healing Rooms, where you can come back and receive continuing ministry.

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