The Big Disconnect:

Divine Healing in The Body of Christ

By Jim Lynn, Copyrighted 2007

"A Church without a healing ministry

is like a restaurant without a kitchen!"

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Is your Church a healing center for the chronically ill? Most likely it is not, and here’s the reason why. There is a big disconnect in many Christian denominations that denies a direct relationship between one’s physical health and their faith. Neither do the doctrines within these “Christian” churches believe in a biblical mandate to minister healing to the sick. 

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, approximately 16 million adherents walk away from Church each year and do not return. The reason most often cited? Believers find a wide gap between what they are taught in Church and what God's Word tells them about sickness and healing.

Because God’s love and healing are not being ministered to them biblically, many adherents walk away from Church (and their faith), physically hurting and spiritually wounded. As a result, disillusionment is at an all time high and Church growth is at an all time low.

This spiritual crisis has created crucial theological questions within fundamentalist churches surrounding one of Christendom’s most profound tenets. Does God heal the sick today, and if so, how?

Proponents say yes, God heals the sick. God always has and always will heal the sick through “divine” or “spiritual” intervention, including miracles.  Opponents say God certainly can heal the sick should He choose to do so, but add: The days of God’s direct intervention in the affairs of man are over. Therefore whatever healing God performs must be enacted through God’s providence acting through natural law.

So the big question has become not whether God can heal. The big question has become how God heals. This debate over how God heals has in turn, unfortunately, created yet another spiritual crisis. Over the years, many (if not most) fundamentalist churches have lost sight of the importance of divine healing within the Church altogether.

Today, there are few fundamentalist churches that embrace healing ministries. Leaders within most churches still encourage their congregations to pray for and to visit the sick, but do not minister to the sick through a healing ministry in a spiritual healing capacity. This protocol has led to yet another manifestation.

Since many denominational sects do not engage in healing ministries, the first port of call for most believers, when confronted with illness, is no longer God, but rather secular medicine. This is most unfortunate.

The theological debate should not be over how God heals today. What is it to anyone how God heals, whether it be through divine providence or through healing miracles. This endless debate over how God heals goes nowhere and is very costly.

If you find yourself engaged in this debate, lay your argument aside for a moment to consider this one foundational biblical truth (upon which all other biblical truths are built).

God is Our Healer! (Exodus 15:26, Psalm 103:2-4) 

Whatever else God’s Scheme of Redemption and God’s Word may mean to us, we must understand that Jesus Christ is the Great Physician (In every sense of the meaning).

It is through this truth and understanding that all believers can together embrace both salvation and physical healing within the Church: Without the need to prove or disprove how God heals.

Churches who lack a divine call to minister to the sick overlook a larger truth. It is God’s wisdom, His eternal nature and purpose to save and heal: In fact, the words, save and heal mean much the same: They mean to restore, to make whole, to save, to heal (body, in spirit, and soul).

It is God’s intent that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known, according to His eternal purposes, which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him we can approach God with freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:10-12). This includes salvation and healing, as both are God’s wisdom and eternal purpose (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Many churches have forgotten this foundational, spiritual truth and are paying the price.In practical terms it means a  Church without a healing ministry is like a restaurant without a kitchen ! Neither is very satisfying.

Isaiah 53:4-5 tells us that Jesus paid the price for both our eternal salvation and healing of our physical body. Similar verses are found throughout Scripture (Deuteronomy 32:39, I Peter 2:24-25)

Isaiah 53:4-5 and other verses are not intended to diminish science or modern medicine. But, friend, God does not require science and medicine to heal. He only requires our permission and faith. Beyond that, God calls “things that are not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). He alone is the source of salvation. He alone is the source of healing, be it through either divine providence or direct intervention in our lives. Can we come to grips with this eternal truth?

Though many will disagree; in churches where salvation is treated apart from healing, salvation has often become a matter of convenience requiring little faith. Most people are willing to conform their lives to Christianity, to live a moral existence with a hope for the resurrection. They count themselves faithful if they attend Church regularly. That's the extent of faith, unfortunately, for many Christians today. Unless Christians today are forced to renounce their faith or suffer consequences, there is little to challenge their faith.

The kind of faith that heals, however, comes from a much deeper conviction. It actively calls upon God's power and authority with unwavering certainty to restore the human body to wholeness free of disease. That's not the kind of faith the world likes or accepts.

The implication of this kind of faith goes far beyond intellectual faith and being faithful to attend Church. This kind of faith:

·        Stands squarely against the world and medical tests that says a person has cancer and has two months to live.

·        Defies Church doctrine, which does not believe in divine healing.

·        Falls with conviction and certainty upon an unseen all-powerful God that He will fulfill His Word.

That, friends, is the kind of faith Jesus had in mind when he lamented, "O faithless and perverse generation" (Matthew 17:17).

Could this explain why so few are healed in our churches over prayer? It certainly explains why so many have left the Church looking to secular medicine for healing.

Consider the affect lack of healing has on those who ask for prayer in churches where the focus on faith is in salvation alone. Faith in divine healing in such churches is more often treated as an after thought. The leaders in these churches do not know how to minister to the sick, because; they themselves do not understand God’s healing nature, what Christ paid for, or the relationship between sickness and sin, and spiritual health.

Jesus had much to say about faith and healing. So much so, divine healing remains the place where “the rubber meets the road” of all faith. It explains why so few churches serve as healing centers today.

Faith in God's promise to heal is what separates men of faith in God, from carnal men who cower in fear or disbelief. This kind of faith is not intellectual or born of doctrine. It is a soul-searching conviction (born of God's Word), which touches the very heart of God.

The world accepts faith as an element for salvation. The world does not accept faith for divine healing. Faith to heal is dangerous because it confronts the worldview of science and medicine. It puts the believer at odds with his neighbors, and otherwise bold Church leaders who fear confrontation should they advocate divine healing in their churches.

When confronted with unexplainable healing, certain Church leaders are hesitant to call the healing a miracle. They’d rather seek the safety of calling the healing God’s providence working through natural law. They do so out of fear of repercussion by others both in and out of the Church. Were these Church leaders to call the healing a miracle, it would force them to reconsider their own belief and teaching. They would be confronted by disbelieving brethren and be subject to public ridicule, something they want to avoid.

Like Jesus’ disciples in their boat in rough sea, we want to profess our faith but prefer the safety of the boat (which can sink). Humanity seems to work that way, and we can be sure Satan knows this as well.

It is the considered belief of this author that the doctrine that teaches; whatever healing God performs must be enacted through God’s providence acting through natural law, is an anathema unto God. It has caused many to leave the Church and their faith. It limits God in our lives and satisfies the demands of this evil world we live in.

Why we want to limit God and pigeon hole the working of His eternal purpose to heal the sick is beyond my knowing. But doing so has had disastrous affect upon the faith of millions of believers.

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