Where’s the Healer?

Children across the world regularly read Where’s Wally (in Canada and the United States, it’s entitled, Where’s Waldo). In that series of books, it becomes increasingly hard to find Wally (Waldo) because the size of Wally (Waldo) keeps decreasing. And in that respect, I have to wonder why we keep reducing Jesus as the healer He’s presented as in scripture.

It’s impossible to read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) without seeing the place of healing in Jesus’s ministry. As it says in Acts 10:38, it says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

Jesus healed all. That seems to be the theme that’s constantly overlooked in our seminaries, colleges, training centers, and apostolic hubs. The healing Jesus is preeminent in scripture, but absent in our churches. That truth is so plain it requires a great deal of deception to ignore it. 

And ignore it, is what we’ve done. We must get back to the core theme of healing in our churches. People, believer and unbeliever alike, need healing. America is drowning in debt due to medical bills. Yes, sickness and disease is seeking to lay a death blow to America one pill at a time.

The gospel of healing is central to the ministry of Jesus. Is it central in our churches and ministries? If not, we must return the centrality of healing to the Church today.

To that end, I’d like to talk about the four men of God who have shaped my understanding of the gospel of healing: Kenneth Hagin, Sr., T.L. Osborn, John Wimber, and Andrew Murray. Yes, there were other, but it is these four men who heavily influence the gospel of healing that I preach.

Kenneth Hagin, Sr, often lovingly referred to as Dad Hagin by those impacted by his ministry, and his teaching on Matthew eight, sparked faith in me regarding the gospel of healing. He did that by proving beyond a reasonable doubt that it is God’s will to heal everyone who’s sick (without exception). His personal story of healing is compelling: as a child, he lay on his deathbed, he died and was taken to hell, and he came back to believe in Jesus Christ. Still, he wasn’t healed. Then, he read, and believed, his Bible. He happened on Mark 11:22-24. After many trials, he was able to receive what scripture said to where he was completely healed. 

T.L. Osborn, both he and his wife, Daisy, carried the healing ministry of Christ to the nations. Through his ministry, I learned I don’t need to pray for people to see them healed. Osborn’s emphasis was on letting God’s word do its work. On occasion, he would openly and publicly challenge leaders from other religions to prove the reality of God by healing. Like Elijah, he required the false prophets to prove their message. They always failed. Then, he showed the healing Jesus. He was a thinking man’s preacher. It was one of the constant messages he taught his Bible college students, think.

John Wimber experienced God’s power through the ministry of Lonnie Frisbee. It changed the course of his life and ministry. God’s power became a central theme in his ministry. And healing the sick was the core philosophy of Vineyard movement he founded. Healing, and the belief in healing, which centered around the Holy Spirit’s work in and through believers, was critical to his message. Through Wimber, I saw healing as a core mission of the Church. 

Lastly, Andrew Murray, who is best known for his teachings on prayer, showed me the heart of God through scripture. I learned “the body is…for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.” 1 Cor. 6:13. Yes, God’s for our bodies; he created them. They are important to him. That message contradicts and conflicts with the Church’s overemphasis of that which is spiritual to the exclusion of that which is natural. Yes, healing our bodies is important to God: Jesus died for us to receive healing in our bodies. 

All of them, and many others, point at the necessity and centrality of healing to the Church’s mission: to spread the gospel (good news), including, but not limited to the gospel of healing. 

Yes, I believe we must return to our core message. We must preach and believe the gospel of healing, as these great men of God did. We need the gospel of healing restored to our churches. Yes, we should have gifts of healing. But gifts of healing cannot and should not replace the gospel of healing. Rather, it’s their purpose to point to and fulfill that gospel. 

May we experience a revival in the gospel of healing in the Church. We need it!

— Scott Wallis