What's your opinion on healing ministries?

Are you for or against healing ministries?

  • For

    Votes: 7 25.9%
  • Against

    Votes: 7 25.9%
  • Other (explain in response)

    Votes: 13 48.1%

  • Total voters
    27

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I'm expressly against healing ministries in the vein of those who 'touch to heal' and whatnot, as I find it rooted in pagan practices and not historic Christianity, in which healings were dramatic and obviously of God and were real and lasting.


I will concur that there are charlatans who run what they call healing ministries but are workers of deceit seeking to enrich themselves through dishonest gain and who propagate false doctrines, even going so far so as to twist certain passages of scripture to their own ends thereby deceiving those who do not know the full counsel of God’s Word.

But I would not go so far as to say that there aren’t any legitimate healing ministries about in which the power of God is made manifest. The best thing to do when it comes to such matters is, as the scripture commands us to test all things (1 Thess. 5:21) and if there be need for wisdom and discernment, we must ask God for it. (Jas. 1:5)
 
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Wordkeeper

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Did you notice that in spite of the unbelief of the people in Him, He still layed hands on them and healed them? It's right there in the part you put in bold.

God's hands aren't tied, our faith or faithlessness doesn't hinder Him. He is still God, He is still Savior of the world, He is still Lord.

-CryptoLutheran

What is the intent of the text?

  1. To convey God can't heal because of unbelief?
  2. To convey God can't heal because of unbelief because the purpose of healing is to prove the doer's message is from God?
In our discussion it was stated that the unbelief of the victim prevented healing. It should have been qualified.

Healing didn't happen because no one was asked to come out of Egypt/the world.

Healing didn't happen because no one knew the message to come out of Egypt/the world was to be conveyed.

In that sense the statement was correct. There was unbelief because there was nothing to be believed, because nothing was asked of the victims or the spectators/witnesses. The healer had no mission, had himself not come out of Egypt, unlike Moses and Christ, was like Simon Magus.

Jesus still healed in Mark 6, but it wasn't bread, it didn't feed children towards nourishing faith. The feeders were as dogs under the table. The purpose of the work is not to relieve physical sickness or hunger, but to convert/revive both victim and spectators, bring them back on track to what they had been chosen to do. The Syro-phoenician woman wasn't chosen.

God honours requests for healing even without purpose, by healers who have not switched loyalties, but the healer must eventually work out that purpose, AND switch:

Mark 9
39But Jesus said, "Don't stop him, because no one who works a miracle in my name can slander me soon afterwards.
 
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Wordkeeper

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I will concur that there are charlatans who run what they call healing ministries but are workers of deceit seeking to enrich themselves through dishonest gain and who propagate false doctrines, even going so far so as to twist certain passages of scripture to their own ends thereby deceiving those who do not know the full counsel of God’s Word.

But I would not go so far as to say that there aren’t any legitimate healing ministries about in which the power of God is made manifest. The best thing to do when it comes to such matters is, as the scripture commands us to test all things (1 Thess. 5:21) and if there be need for wisdom and discernment, we must ask God for it. (Jas. 1:5)

The prayer for wisdom and discernment starts even before witnessing manifestations of God's communications, works and words.

We must ask for bread, signs from God, mostly from the miracle that the Bible is:

Matthew 6
Give us this day our daily bread.

We must ask for revelation, interpretation of those signs:

John 3
4“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”

The text is old, ranging from 2 to 4 millennia. The culture is foreign. The words have a wide range of semantic meaning. The parts of the message can have a multitude of combinations and permutations. It's an impossible task without divine help:

John 14
26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.

Acts of the Apostles 1
4And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss.
 
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The prayer for wisdom and discernment starts even before witnessing manifestations of God's communications, works and words.

We must ask for bread, signs from God, mostly from the miracle that the Bible is:

Matthew 6
Give us this day our daily bread.

We must ask for revelation, interpretation of those signs:

John 3
4“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”

The text is old, ranging from 2 to 4 millennia. The culture is foreign. The words have a wide range of semantic meaning. The parts of the message can have a multitude of combinations and permutations. It's an impossible task without divine help:

John 14
26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.

Acts of the Apostles 1
4And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss.


"The prayer for wisdom and discernment starts even before witnessing manifestations of God's communications, works and words."


I never said it didn't.


"The text is old, ranging from 2 to 4 millennia. The culture is foreign. The words have a wide range of semantic meaning. The parts of the message can have a multitude of combinations and permutations. It's an impossible task without divine help"


You make it sound as though God is not capable of overcoming cultural and language barriers to make the scriptures easily understood by all who read them, just as they were in the languages in which they were first written. They were written to mean exactly what they say.
 
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Wordkeeper

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"The prayer for wisdom and discernment starts even before witnessing manifestations of God's communications, works and words."


I never said it didn't.


"The text is old, ranging from 2 to 4 millennia. The culture is foreign. The words have a wide range of semantic meaning. The parts of the message can have a multitude of combinations and permutations. It's an impossible task without divine help"


You make it sound as though God is not capable of overcoming cultural and language barriers to make the scriptures easily understood by all who read them, just as they were in the languages in which they were first written. They were written to mean exactly what they say.

I tried to clarify the teaching that discernment is applied at the time of being approached with signs may be mistaken. Early discernment leads to preemptive screening of false teachers. Early discernment identifies the criteria: loyalty to the world or to God.

I won't stop a healer from healing. However, at some point he must ask the listener to "come out of Egypt":

Hosea 11
1When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
 
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"I tried to clarify the teaching that discernment is applied at the time of being approached with signs may be mistaken. Early discernment leads to preemptive screening of false teachers. Early discernment identifies the criteria: loyalty to the world or to God."

Thank you for making the intent of your meaning more clear.

"I won't stop a healer from healing. However, at some point he must ask the listener to "come out of Egypt":

I agree with that much. With the use of the gifts of healing by those who possess them must also come the preaching of the Gospel and the call to repentance.
 
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Jermayn

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I am going with my lord what Christ said not with how I feel about others. He never once asked me or cared how I feel when He said "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Christ even said ..if he is for me he is not against me. Gee what was that MAN doing?

So truth .. if one is against, nor for laying hands on .. this is what Christ did.. and the 12 and then the 120, 3000 up to this day. Jesus goes in to some town and all He could do was "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them" Gee why? Doubt.. yet JESUS "lay hands on".

See were talking healing. Sorry cant beat around the bush here.. Isa 53 read it. Then read 1st Peter 2 24.. man I can keep going. For me it comes down to these verse. 1st What is GODS will? Its His word. So if you know He hears you then you know you have the petitions you asked for. Back up.. whats it say before that? This IS the confidence..what does confidence mean?

GOD is talking not man. God said.. and this is the confidence that we have IN HIM that if we ask ANYTHING according to His will He hears us. Thats where people get lost. No one during the time Jesus was here ..never got Healed that came to Him. People were healed just by Peters shadow. GODS WILL ..this is where some get lost. They HAVE a GOD IN THEM...yet no clue what His will is. They see the the flesh they hear with the flesh and feel with the flesh. None of that is faith.

So God tells us through our brother James "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed For let that person not think that he will receive anything from the Lord."

I think we tend to apply that ONLY to healing or what ever. But.. His word is very clear "receive ANYTHING from the lord" What is anything mean? Faith.. the ONLY way to please Him. With out faith.. we can not ever please Him. I am really shocked at how some talk about these preachers on stage and not in hospitals. I can say for FACT you dont watch them.. you never took the time to look into this. Well they have answered that EXACT question SO MANY TIMES...YEARS ..and here it is being toss out.

Again the catch here is "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him". Did you read that? Must 1st believe... how many right here don't believe.. then dont believe He IS a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You still only see MAN not Him.

You think God must use someone perfect.. never sins.. never misses it. No one on this planet is like that. We read the word and think.. what the 12 were perfect? Never did wrong never had BAD thoughts? Never missed it? Forgive me.. praise God SOMEONE out there said USE ME..take me. There is a reason THEY are out there in the open.. and YOU and ME are not.

Go for it.. go stand out there and PRAY for people.. watch how FAST some turn on YOU.. and all your doing is ONLY what He said. Watch how fast.. you get money given.. that you didnt want.. but they give it.. watch how fast some talk about YOU. It happens to EVER PREACHER. The ones you LOVE and not like. You learn THESE kind of people are everywhere. You learn as the word says.. your not hear to PLEASE MAN. Dont like it? So what? Did you ever notice GOD never once asked US about it? EVER..

So pray FOR THEM.. you think they are MISSING IT? Gee maybe GOD put that on your heart hoping you would PRAY for them.. help them. Love your enemy.. they are not even the enemy. Man I have NO CLUE how I would act seeing hundreds of thousands of dollars pass before me. Sure i can set here and say.. I LOVE JESUS I would NEVER Do wrong.. ..blood of JESUS I will NOT think that nor say it.. rather not be tested..

So healing as I see and read it are for today.. do some do wrong sure.. miss it sure.. I pray for them.. Holy JESUS ..GOD never once gives up on me when I miss it over and over and over.. never makes fun of me..never tells ANYONE where how I missed it.. so if thats how HE treats ME..thats how I will treat HIS not mine.. HIS Children.. sorry if I offended.. forgive me

You are a very wise Christian. God has blessed you with a great understanding. Please, keep spreading what God has opened your eyes to.
 
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