Alec Taylor, writer of the Pilgrim Bible Notes. said that in 15 years in a pentecostal church, he went to hundreds of healing meetings but never saw one actual healing.
A friend of mine who went to a local charismatic church said if he was ill he didn't want them to pray for him as everyone they prayed for, soon died,
God does heal today, but I don't believe that anyone has the gift of healing as so many claim. I know of Christians who doctors gave less than six months to live have survived for many years. One of those is my wife.
That parallels my experience in the Charismatic church I attended from 1973-78. I went to all the healing meetings, heard all the "big name" healing ministries that came through our city, and saw same people meeting after meeting going up for prayer for healing. I have a good Christian friend and brother who broke his ankle, and at a healing meeting had his ankle "lengthened". Those close to him saw the movement, but afterward there was no actual change, so he went up for prayer when the next healing guy came to town. In all the years I was with Pentecostal and Charismatic churches 1966-78, I never saw one person healed of an incurable condition, such as heart disease or cancer. I became very disillusioned, and was a skeptic of the modern healing ministry. It seemed like a fraud to me, because there were great promises and claims but no results. But I had another Christian brother who was deaf in both ears, and went for an operation in one ear, after receiving prayer for hearing, and spending time in private prayer himself. On the way home, he realised he could hear, but it was through the ear that wasn't operated on! That was the only real healing that I heard about in those days. So I knew that God could heal, but had serious doubts about the modern healing "ministry". So I put it on the back burner for many years.
About three years ago, I decided to find out once and for all, so I went to my favourite Christian second hand bookshop and bought every book I could on healing. I read all the authors and writers from the Methodist Holiness movement which involved a healing ministry, right to the present day. It was quite an education, and I read many testimonies about people who were healed of all sorts of medical conditions. Then I started asking God about why it is not happening on a regular basis in our churches. That's when He told me that today's churches are nothing like the Church the Holy Spirit founded on the Day of Pentecost, and until the Church returns to those foundations, we will never see the greater works that Jesus promised to His disciples.
From what I read, it was when leaders and people started praying and agonising for the lost, and preached the gospel in power, requiring repentance from sin, and total commitment to Christ as Lord, and determination to live a holy life, that revival happened and people were not only getting saved but healed as well. When the revival died out as a new generation of believers who did not have the same passion for souls took over the leadership, the healings vanished as well.
Two years ago we had a well-known healing evangelist, who had remarkable results in Africa with millions attending his open air meetings and hundreds being healed, holding a crusade in Auckland, and 2000 people (pretty good for New Zealand), attended. Now this man had an excellent reputation for getting people saved and healed. 40 people received Christ for the first time, and many people were prayed for to receive healing. Not one healing of any incurable disease was reported. If it was so, it would have been all over our newspapers. New Zealand is a small country and so a number of people miraculously healed of incurable cancer, blindness, deafness, or heart disease would have been big news here. In 1922, when Smith Wiggleworth held meetings in Wellington NZ and people were healed, it was reported in the local newspaper because those healings were genuine and newsworthy.
But do your newspapers splash headlines on the front page, "Evangelist in White Suit Heals One Hundred Incurable Cancer Patients At Last Sunday Night's Crusade!" Why, because in spite of all the showmanship and groups falling over at the wave of his hand, nothing like that actually happened. How many people in wheelchairs jumped up and began running around the room, leaping and praising God like the lame man in Acts 3? If that had happened, wouldn't that be front page news?
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