A Lake of Healing

Healing

Some people still cling to their erroneous belief that God does not heal today or that healing, as shown in Acts 3, was only for the first church and not for today. Some go even further in averring that healing as described in Acts 3 would be demonic in nature if demonstrated today.

The story is told, apocryphal or not, of the moment when men entered John G Lake’s Spokane healing rooms 80 years after they last opened. To the newcomers astonishment, there sat two men, angels, waiting for them. One explained, “We’ve been waiting a long time for you to come.” Angels had been sent to watch over the place where the old healing evangelist had set up his original healing room, and that original anointing was still there – and the miracles continued.

Many pay only lip service to healing. They do not really believe in it any more. Many more just no longer believe God heals so, unhypocritically, they say so and get on with their reliance on the world for all things medical. It’s such a shameful omission by the church. They believe so much of what God’s Word says, but not this. They perform about half of the great commission – they preach much of the Gospel, (not all), and some of them baptise. Yet there is something else – well, three something else’s actually. Signs and wonders don’t really follow them - demons remain not cast out, snakes and poisons do no harm because they are avoided like the plague, and they never even consider laying hands on the sick so no-one gets healed.

How can we expect anything from God when we don’t practice half that which He asks of us? How can we expect God to heal when we don’t lay hands on them, we don’t anoint them, we don’t pray for them with any kind of expectation at all. According to Frank McNutt in his book on healing, in the old days, only the king was allowed to pray for healing! It strikes me that we have sunk again to this level of belief in God’s Word – only special, anointed and appointed people can pray for healing.

Whatever happened to faith as a child? Whatever happened to laying on of hands? Whatever happened to Jesus authority given to us? Whatever happened to “greater things that these shall you do.”? I belong to a strong Pentecostal church, but even within our church family there is little expectation of healing. There are many who profess faith in God’s healing but that is not demonstrated in either their prayers, which are many, nor in their expectation of the manifestation of God’s healing love – despite one or two very obvious demonstrations.

Why is this?

“Yes – but . . . . “, “Maybe it’s just not for me.” – Any excuse and some even speak their lack of expectation of anything happening for them. How can God honour such lack of faith?

Maybe that was why God led John G Lake to launch the healing rooms ministry? So that men and women of faith could lay hands on them and see them healed.