Healing Ministries, and Promising Too Much

No one wants to be sick, or suffer the effects of wounds or injury. No one wants to die.

We look to Scripture for answers and comfort, and there we seem to find the promise that illnesses can be miraculously healed, if we just have enough faith.

But a lot of Christians still get sick. And die.

There's a discontinuity somewhere. Either we don't understand the process, or we're misinterpreting its meaning in our lives on Earth.

Perhaps we should adjust our focus on what, exactly, Jesus did when he walked the hills of Judea.

He healed people, yes - but He did not heal everyone, and His Ministry could in no way be called a 'healing ministry', at least the way we think about it today. Instead He performed healing miracles with a purpose - the paralytic lowered through the roof was healed to show to show the importance of friendship, the blind man was healed to prove that it wan;t the parents' evil , it was just blindness.

Could He have healed everyone? Sure.

Did He omit to heal everyone as a punishment, or to drive them closer to the Father? No. He didn't heal everyone because we have to walk in the world, and the world's a dangerous place.

We're expected to deal with those dangers with grace and faith.

Does this mean there are no miraculous healings? Of course not, and there definitely have been miracles - but we should carefully consider whether the healings were granted for a purpose other than an individual blessing. We may never know.

Bu one thing we do know - or should - and that is that a healing can't be 'fuzzy'. If we're to claim a God of Miracles, we can't tie him to questionable proof and shoddy recordkeeping. And we certainly can't tie him to lies.

A prominent TV evangelist (who shall remain nameless, as he has lawyers and I don't) commonly runs healing services in which miracles are claimed and trumpeted. But the people who are healed look normal...the folks who have cerebral palsy, or shriveled limbs, are not allowed up to the stage. They are kept off-camera, as well.

The people who are allowed up are slain in the spirit, toss away crutches or stand from their wheelchairs, and walk off. That's great, but there's no follow-up, no proof.

He has a TV show on which he'll occasionally call out to members of the viewing audience with certain afflictions, and say they're healed. "There's a man watching with liver cancer...you are healed!" Unverifiable, and ultimately empty.

Another gentleman has claimed...drum roll, please - to raise the dead. When pressed, he admitted to bringing a couple of people back for five minutes, and one for ten.

Cancel the new wardrobe. Death from natural causes is not a drop off a cliff - it's a slow descent, and it is definitely possible to bring people back for a few minutes. I've done it, and have seen it done. But it's not a resurrection.

Are these men sincere? I don't know, and it doesn't matter. What does matter is this -

When we claim to perform miracles in Jesus' name we have to be darn certain that they are miracles. We are His hands and feet.

We can';t use His hands to write lies, or His feet to travel cynically false paths.

He deserves better, by our hands.