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Spiritual Healing or Spiritual Malpractice?
Christians with chronic illness need to know there is a source for healing beyond secular medicine that does not follow the pattern or knowledge of this world. That source is spiritual and comes from God! But there is a problem. Millions of Christians are being robbed the gift of spiritual healing through spiritual malpractice. Numerous Christian traditions (doctrines) hold that the time of miraculous healing, spiritual healing, or by whatever name it is known by, is over. These traditions claim the time of divine healing, anointing with oil and laying on of hands ended when the last Apostle died. With this kind of teaching, no wonder there is so much confusion, sickness and suffering. Those who make the claim that God no longer intervenes in this world through spiritual healing need to ask themselves one question. From who did this claim originate, God or Satan? If from God, then His will be done. But what if this teaching is not from God? Suppose it is from Satan whispering in the ear of man that God has ended spiritual healing. What then? What is the consequence of believing and teaching such a doctrine? Such a doctrine and Church leaders who proclaim it would be responsible for denying millions of chronically ill Christians the gift of spiritual healing. For elders, pastors and Church clergy are all charged with the spiritual oversight of their flocks. The doctrines they teach have real consequences. Spiritual Malpractice: Canon Mark Pearson, author of Christian Healing, put it this way, "To keep the ministry of healing from God's people because it happens not to interest Church leaders of a given congregation is as much spiritual malpractice as it would be medical malpractice for a hospital to refuse to treat heart attacks because the staff preferred only to treat pneumonia." Spiritual malpractice is a serious charge, because those who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). More importantly, think of the millions of people who may have gone to an early grave, all because they believed God no longer heals. The Church today is but a shadow of the godly influence it once enjoyed, due largely to the unclean spirit that whispered in the ear of man that God is out of the healing business. It is a lie from the father of lies. Creating Confusion:: Many Church leaders today teach that healing must be instantaneous, something that is immediate to be called a miracle. But God's Word does not limit spiritual healing to the instantaneous. The word "miracle" simply means of divine or supernatural intervention. All healing is divine and miraculous by its nature (Exodus 15:26). The view held that spiritual healing must be instantaneous to be a miracle has led many Christians to abandon their faith in God to heal altogether. They reason: Almost no one is instantly healed of chronic illness; therefore, whatever healing may occur must happen through physical means beyond the direct intervention of God. Can you see the fallacy here? Without the direct intervention of God, could there be healing of any kind? God's Holy Word tells us that God is Yehovah-rapha, God our healer. But just for a moment, imagine that God has turned His back on healing the sick. You fall sick with illness. The doctors tell you there is nothing more they can do. You are not expected to survive. What a bleak picture! Not because the doctors tell you that they can't help you, but because God is out of the picture. Friend, this is what happens many times a day in churches all across the land: Churches turn the sick in the body of Christ out to the world. God has not abandoned His children as their healer; Churches have abandoned God as our healer! When the teachers of the law wanted to know by what power or name the Apostle, Peter, administered spiritual healing to a crippled man, Peter replied? "It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed...Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." - Acts 4:10-12 (NIV) Notice that Peter made no distinction between the man's healing and salvation, because both are found in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (the Gospel). Although the men Peter addressed did not want to believe him, they nevertheless understood his statement. Why can't we? Peter said this man was healed, not because he (Peter) is an Apostle, one of a select group of men, but because of the healing power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a statement! This is the crux of the cross, the absolute beginning and end for all healing, be it physical or spiritual. Nothing has happened to change this truth since Peter spoke those words 2,000 years ago. For just as God intends freedom from oppression for all mankind, so too is God's intention for spiritual healing through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jim Lynn is the publisher of God's Healing Word, a free newsletter, and author of the book, "The Miracle of Healing in Your Church Today." Visit: http://godshealingword.org
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