Faith Healing

There are many different ideas that pop into our heads when the term "Faith Healing" is employed. This term has a wide variety of thoughts and actions associated with it. Different people use this term to indicate different things. We want to explore some of the doctrines of "faith healing". We will look at the scriptural as well as the unscriptural kinds of faith healing.

Yes, we will show that there really is such a thing as "faith healing" according to the scriptures. We will show where it takes place in scripture, and we will show how it takes place. We can also make application and demonstrate how you can have faith healing yourself.

We will look at some of the meanings to this phrase and see how it has been mis-used and mis-applied.

Pentecostal Faith Healing.

There is the belief that God does miracles today based upon one's faith and wants/needs. All you have to do to see this is surf the channels on TV and see these actions taking place all the time. Why there are people getting healed everyday. It was reported that when the republics of the former Soviet Untion started to allow freedom of religion, that many such pentecostals went there for their missionary works. One of their works was the performance of miracles.

The healed people every night of their crusade. It just so happens that every night was done in a different city, and that there were some people who followed them from town to town. Those people who followed them noticed that the same people were being healed every night. Isn't that wonderful that these people could get healed and get healed again the next night? What does that tell you about the power of these pentecostals?

These people are dynamic speakers and excellent communicators. They employ the very best motivational techniques to convince their followers that they are messengers from God. They rely upon show, hope, fear, but most of all, upon ignorance. People who are ignorant are captivated by all this hype. They are led to believe that miracles happen, even though it never happens to them. They are told that their faith is not strong enough, and that they would have to prove their faith, before they could be healed. Usually the proving is based upon how much money they give.

I have always said, that if these people were intent on proving that their message was from God, that they would go to where the infirmed and lame really are. To the hospitals and convalescent centers. Let them heal a really sick person, and I would be inclined to accept their teachings.

A question comes up here which needs to be addresed.

Does God have the power to heal someone by faith?

The answer is a very positive YES!!!

Does God heal people in a miraculous way today?

I'm not sure I know if I can answer that question?

Does God need miracles today?

According to scripture, we have been given everything necessary for life and godliness. We no longer have need to receive new revelations from God. We have the Bible.

God and the Holy Spirit used miracles to accomplish the task of providing man with the written revelation of God's Word. His Word is all that we need. There is no longer a need for miracles to confirm a spokesperson's divine message.

Some faith healing relies solely upon God

Some people rely upon faith to get them through life, and leave everything to God. By deciding that everything is God's will, these people do not try to make decisions in life, because that is God's job. They do absolutly nothing in their lives that would cause them to have to make a choice.

Some religious groups would not allow medical intervention upon theirselves or their families. This gives society and true Christians for that matter many problems. To deny anyone fair medical treatment for any condition is almost in-humane. These people want to rely upon faith to save them and leave the results to God.

They seem to forget that our bodies belong to God and that we are commanded to take care of them. If this means going to the doctor and taking medication or undergoing surgery for our survival, then we are commanded to do so.

Questions that need to be considered here.

If everything is God's will, why do these people pray so hard?

If everything is God's will, why do the parents go to work?

If everything is God's will, why do they go to church?

If everything is God's will, why even feed and cloth themselves and their children?

What is real faith healing?

The first question is; does faith healing exist?

The answer is a resounding YES!!!

Does the Bible confirm this?

The answer is a doubly resounding YES!!!

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Before continuing on we must give a few simple definitions.

Faith: a belief in something, a form of doctrinal standard of righteousness, a participation or affiliation to some religious thing, a practice of such, the system of faith.

Healing: to make well, to return to a previous state of health or condition.

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We put these two words together and get all sorts of positive or negative feedback. Look at the definitions again and put them together and you will begin to see how faith healing takes place.

A healing is necessary when something is sick. In our situation, we are talking about our spiritual condition. Many christians have lost their spiritual health and need to be healed. When something is weakened by various trials or objects, then that something needs strengthening. So by necessary implication we can say that when we strengthen our faith, we are in a sense "faith healing".

Now lets turn to the word of God for some examples.

Psalms 107:20 (NKJV)

He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions.

These people were healed by His word......

Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Hearing the word of God is what produces faith and what heals our faith.

Jeremiah 17:14 (NKJV)

Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, For You are my praise.

If God heals you, then you are most certainly healed, and it is God who does the healing.

Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV)

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

We must understand that this is spiritually speaking.

2 Chronicles 7:12-14 (NKJV)

Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. {13} "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, {14} "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 29:3-5 (NKJV)

In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. {4} Then he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them in the East Square, {5} and said to them: "Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place.

2 Chronicles 29:15 (NKJV)

And they gathered their brethren, sanctified themselves, and went according to the commandment of the king, at the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 29:35 (NKJV)

Also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings and with the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.

2 Chronicles 34:3-4 (NKJV)

For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images. {4} They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

2 Chronicles 34:14-16 (NKJV)

Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD given by Moses. {15} Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. {16} So Shaphan carried the book to the king, bringing the king word, saying, "All that was committed to your servants they are doing.

2 Chronicles 34:18-21 (NKJV)

Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king. {19} Thus it happened, when the king heard the words of the Law, that he tore his clothes. {20} Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, {21} "Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book."

2 Chronicles 34:27 (NKJV)

"because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you," says the LORD.

2 Chronicles 34:31-33 (NKJV)

Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. {32} And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. {33} Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not depart from following the LORD God of their fathers.

Nehemiah 8:1-3 (NKJV)

Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded Israel. {2} So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. {3} Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

Nehemiah 8:5-6 (NKJV)

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. {6} And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. Then all the people answered, "Amen, Amen!" while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

Nehemiah 8:8 (NKJV)

So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.

Nehemiah 8:13-14 (NKJV)

Now on the second day the heads of the fathers' houses of all the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law. {14} And they found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month,

Nehemiah 8:17-18 (NKJV)

So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. {18} Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner.

Nehemiah 9:1-3 (NKJV)

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. {2} Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. {3} And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.

You can see that the faith of the Israelites was healed in several passages of scripture. There is faith healing. It comes when we recognize the Word of God and read the Word of God and obey the Word of God and apply the Word of God in our lives. The Israelites were unfaithful, but the reading of the Law brought about a positive change towards faithfulness. This happens to us as well.

When we read the Bible and see where we need healing and strengthening, we are moved to make our faith stronger.

When we apply the precepts and practice the words of the Book of God, we strengthen our faith. Strong faithfulness does not need healing but does need nourishment. Weak faith needs healing and nourishment. Nourishment with the proper spiritual food. We must read, study and pray. We must do the will of God. This includes defending and standing for the truth and the faith.

Do you need faith healing?

Why don't you start now by repentance and prayer. Then start studying the word of God and start living the life that God wants you to have. If you need help, just ask.

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