Test the Spirit - Healing

It is disastrous when Christians do not honestly ‘test the spirits’ and check claims of physical healing. When Jesus healed ten lepers, he told them to go to the priest to have the genuine healings confirmed (Luke 17:12—14) There are many who claim that God is healing today just as Jesus did in the gospels. Symptoms such as pain and weakness may well improve but the evidence for organic healings today is in very short supply. People with amputated limbs are not being healed. Eyes that have been removed are not replaced as a result of ‘believing prayer’.

I well remember a winsome young Pentecostal minister who had had colitis since his teens. After a healing service he had been told that he had been healed and, since he thought this was God’s word to him, he believed it. Unfortunately he then stopped his treatment and refused regular colonoscopies. Wouldn’t this demonstrate he did not have faith? However his symptoms continued! He eventually developed an aggressive colonic cancer that killed him.

Surely what James wants to teach us is to trust our loving heavenly Father that all will work out in the long run – and his long run includes the eternal garden city. He is certainly not saying that we should avoid normal means of help.

Christians die at the same rate as non Christians, but a big difference can be seen in the way we die. I well remember a ward round when a large team of doctors nurses and students came to a lady called Alice. She had an advanced malignancy and was in for terminal care. After a short conversation she turned to me and said,

“Mr. Palmer, when will I be going home?”

She was much too incapacitated to cope on her own so I explained this to her. Her response set us all thinking,

“No, I mean going home to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven.”

Surely this is the confidence James wants us all to experience.

Christians are called on to remain confident in our Lord’s care of us. This is not to deny that God is able to do today the same things that he did through Moses, Elijah, Jesus and his apostles but the evidence is that he is choosing not to do so on the scale that some are teaching.

What should we make of the claims of men such as Oral Roberts who said,

“I can’t tell you about the dead people I’ve raised. I’ve had to stop a sermon, go back and raise a dead person.”

Yet not one ‘raising of the dead’ has been confirmed. If it really happened the world would soon know. Oral Roberts was challenged to give the names of those he had raised from the dead. He was not able to do so, though later he did recall one incident when he claimed he had raised a dead child to life in front of ten thousand witnesses.

“During a healing service, he recalled, a mother in the audience jumped up and shouted, my baby’s dead.” Roberts said he prayed over the child and “it jerked, it jerked in my hand.” . . . Roberts conceded that neither that child nor others he said he had brought to life had been pronounced clinically dead.”i

There are some who claim that all Christians could perform similar miracles to Jesus and his apostles if only they had enough faith. This is to misunderstand Scripture. God authenticated Jesus and his apostles by these supernatural gifts. They were real gifts and the results could be independently checked. Victor Budgeon is a minister in an evangelical church in Lancashire, England who has made an extensive study of modern charismatic claims. He wrote,

“How often people speak carelessly of the church in Acts as a wonder working church! Yet it would be more accurate to speak of a church with wonder working apostles. It is the apostles who are prominent in the initial outburst of speaking in other languages. It is their spokesman who explains this to the crowd. And preaches a mighty sermon. At the close of the Pentecost account, we are told that “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles” (Acts 2:43).

Other Scriptures confirm this:

“The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people” (Acts 5:12).

“The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabus and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them” (Acts 15:12) . .

“The things that mark an apostle – signs, wonders and miracles – were done among you with great perseverance” (2 Cor. 12:12).”ii

When Jesus and his apostles healed supernaturally the results were obvious for all to see. The healings were complete and immediate. The miracles helped to authenticate who they claimed to be. Partial healings and relief of symptoms are not the characteristics of Jesus’ healings. Many different so-called spiritual healers from every religion and philosophy offer much, but on investigation what they deliver is nothing like what Jesus achieved.

The God, who created us, gave us minds so that we can distinguish truth from non-truth. It is a dangerous tendency today for people to suspend the intellect and allow mysticism to replace it. Such gullibility is not what Jesus and his apostles wanted when they taught us to live by faith.

A group of five Christian doctors attended a healing mission of John Wimber in Sydney, Australia in order to establish the truth about his claims to be healing people. This report was later published.

“The fact that John Wimber knew we were present and observing may have served to “tone down” the claims which we understand were made at previous conferences. . . . Mr Wimber himself referred to bad backs and indicated that people could expect pain relief, but no change which could be documented by a doctor. He admitted that he had never seen a degenerated vertebra restored to normal shape. . . .

As I suspected, most of the conditions which were prayed over were in the psychosomatic, trivial, or medically difficult to document categories:

Problem with left great toe

Nervous disorders

Breathing problems

Barrenness

Unequal leg lengths (my favourite – I can’t measure legs properly)

Bad backs and neck, etc”

The doctor concluded,

“At this stage, we were unaware of any organic healings which could be proven.”iii

It is interesting that James does not dwell on the question of physical healing but quickly moves on to the question of sin. Clearly sin that is man’s real problem. It is sin that prevents us from enjoying God’s presence now and in eternity. This is hardly surprising as sin is the main emphasis of the whole of the Bible. It could be that sin has contributed to the illness. However it is more likely that this is just another separate heading illustrating the need to pray in all situations. This paragraph is reminding readers that whatever situation they are in, they should involve the Lord. If in trouble - pray, if happy – sing, if sick – call the elders to pray, if sinned – he will be forgiven. Care must be taken not to read too much into this paragraph. At the end of the previous chapter James reminded us that our confidence can be misplaced.

“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”” 4:14-15

It would therefore be very strange if he were now saying that God will do whatever we ask him to do. Experience teaches us that this is not happening.

Yet the Bible teaches that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. We should pray about all situations and work out with the Lord how he wants us to live. James then gives us the example of Elijah who, James says, “was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain . . .” Clearly we are expected to remember that story from the Old Testament. When we look up this story there is a repeated emphasis on ‘the word of the Lord came to Elijah’. Presumably this word from God came through prayer but this is not mentioned explicitly.

“Now Elijah, the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor reign in the next few years except at my word. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah . . .”

It was only after God had made his will clear some years later that Elijah returned to Ahab.

“After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to the Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” So Elijah went . . .”

It is clear that Elijah was a man steeped in prayer and on these two occasions the Lord made his will clear. It was not Elijah manipulating God, but a man who was open to the will of God through prayer.

False Prophets

The test of a true prophet is that what he foretells does happen. It is very serious to claim to be a prophet of God. The result will be seen. Moses frequently warned about false prophets.

“The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other Gods, must be put to death.” Deut 18:17-20

We are facing a very serious situation today when people are prophesying that miracles are about to happen when they don’t. Ezekiel spoke strongly about this problem that has clearly been around for a long time.

“The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: 'Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the LORD. Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. They say, "The LORD declares," when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled. Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, "The LORD declares," though I have not spoken?” Ezekiel 13:1-7

It is disturbing when people only believe the words that they want to hear. To warn people that God is not doing what they want will be unpopular. The prophet Micah warned us not to believe prophets because they say what we want.

“Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.” Micah 3:4

Motives for making false prophecies can be various. In some churches it pays well. It can make a person stand out and become popular with a reputation for being spiritual. Micah also recognised this problem in his time – perhaps people haven’t changed that much!

“ . . . her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.”” Micah 3:11

How wrong they were.

The answer to the present epidemic of false prophecies, particularly about healing, is for each church to record the pronouncements made and the names of those who made them. If they all come true then there is a true prophet in our midst. If they don’t all come true, their role should be rejected and they should be asked not to speak openly again. There is so much harm caused by false teaching. The great need of the church is not yet further quests for experiences of the supernatural but a longing to obey God in all of our lives. Churches again need good Bible exposition to counter these Corinthian trends. The mark of the Holy Spirit in us is holiness – an obedience to God. There is no other substitute. Micah stressed this as well,

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Jesus stressed the same. God’s Spirit is a Spirit of truth and he leads us to obey God. That is the essence of the gospel. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sin, and he puts His Spirit in those who put their trust in him to help us live for his reputation and glory. We will enjoy his presence and power to persevere now, but the full satisfaction will only be experienced in the world to come.

i Woodward and Gibney, ‘Saving Souls’ 52

ii Victor Budgeon, ‘The Charismatics and the Word of God’ Durham, England; Evangelical Press, 1989, 99

iii Philip Seldon, “Spiritual Warfare: Medical Reflections,” The Briefing April 24, 1990, 19

Recommended further reading

Victor Budgeon, ‘The Charismatics and the Word of God’ Durham, England; Evangelical Press, 1989

John F. MacArthur Jr., Charismatic Chaos Zondervan Publishing House 1992

BVP

Sept 2009