Thoughts on healing the sick in the 21st century by John Mullen

What do Christians in the new millennium do when they are sick? We go to the doctor. We go, not because the doctors are always 100% accurate or 100% effective, but rather because we have faith in medical science. When did we lose faith in God to heal us?

The church lost a lot of things in the first few hundred years of its existence. The transition from a simple to a complex organizational structure, from the Spirit to the flesh, left little room for dependence on the Lord. Divine healing was one of the casualties.

But I would prefer to write about how we can get divine healing back into the church rather than how we lost it. (If you’re wondering if we lost it, compare your local church’s ministry to that of the 1st century church.) Some groups within various Christian traditions have succeeded in restoring the ministry of divine healing to the local church. What do they have in common?

Ken Blue (Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Vancouver, Canada) did some research. He discovered three common elements among a broad diversity of Christian traditions.

#1: One assumption shared by all Christians who participate in vital healing ministries is that God wills to heal the sick, that He desires wholeness rather than sickness for His people. Those who are consistently effective in praying for the sick anticipate healing.
#2: The second cardinal element present among healing communities is a sincere compassion for those in pain.
#3: A third essential element mutually held by Christian groups which effectively pray for the sick is the personal investment and risk-taking of those who pray. Human compassion and a belief that God wills to heal are fused with a readiness to be vulnerable in the attempt to heal.

It sounds so simple, yet I have been teaching on the first point and finding some opposition. Do you believe God wants to heal the sick? “When we say that God sends sickness or asks us to endure it, we are creating for many people an image of God they must eventually reject. What human mother or father would choose cancer for their daughter in order to tame her pride?… Those preachers and chaplains who try to comfort the sick by telling them to accept their illness as a blessing sent from God are giving an immediate consolation, but at what an ultimate cost!… In a sense, we unwittingly treat God as something like a pagan deity, placated by human sacrifice.”

With Jesus came the Kingdom of God. With Jesus came healing, deliverance and salvation. With Jesus the forces of darkness were pushed back. Then with His disciples the offensive continued (Mat. 10:1,8, Luke 9:1, 10:9). The sick were healed, the oppressed delivered and the lost saved. The early church looked for the spiritual benefits in suffering but gave instructions to “pray for the sick” (James 1:2, 5:14).

Jesus desires that His people have life and life more abundantly (John 10:10). He is the author of life and not sickness or death (Heb. 2:10). He desires to bring healing to the spirit, to the soul (mind, will and emotions), and to the body .

In conclusion, we must believe God is for us and not against us. We must pray for God to give us compassion for others and their struggles. And finally, we must be obedient and step out and pray for the sick!

John & Kelsie Mullen are serving as long-term missionaries in the Czech Republic.

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