Jesus devoted an exaggerated amount of effort to healing the sick. If he had wanted to prove his identity and divine nature, he could have performed far more spectacular miracles that displayed his power. He could have called down fire and divided the sea multiple times daily, but he did not. He could have commanded angels to appear and entertain dinner guests at every party, but he did not. He could have teleported his entire entourage to every ministry location, but he did not. If he had the time, he could have preached more. If he had the energy, he could have written books. Instead, he healed the sick, healed the sick, healed the sick, and healed the sick. After that, he healed the sick some more. In fact, if Jesus had wanted to appear ultra-spiritual, he could have spent much more time saying, “Your sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven.” But he healed the sick, and said, “Your faith has made you well.”
When he was betrayed, one of his disciples struck a man with a sword. As if by instinct, Jesus immediately reached out again to heal the sick, and restored someone who was there to arrest him. He could not stop himself from healing the sick. He appeared driven by a power and compulsion to heal. Yet he said that he only went along with what he perceived the Father was doing. Thus the Father himself was driven to heal the sick. As Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” What is the Father like? The Father must be like someone who is obsessed with healing the body. What is God’s will? God’s will must be to heal the sick, heal the sick, heal the sick.
When John the Baptist asked if he was the one they were waiting for, Jesus mentioned five times in different ways that he was healing the sick, and then mentioned one time that he was preaching the gospel. He did not say that he was preaching to this group, preaching to that group, restoring this creed, establishing that denomination. He did not say that he was teaching politics here, and encouraging nationalism there. “Christians” that follow traditionalism have offered all these answers to claim that they are the faithful ones, but they are the same ones who oppose the ministry of healing, and the ministry of miracles. When this is the case, of course, even when they refer to preaching, they are not preaching the gospel. No true ministry of the gospel would oppose the ministry of healing.
When we look at Jesus, we see that the perspective of the gospel is fundamentally different from the perspective of human orthodoxy. The two are different at such a basic level that if one can be called the gospel, the other one cannot be called the gospel. If one can be called the friend of God, the other must be called the enemy of God. We must take warning from this, because the church had so soon slipped from one to the other, turning from believing God’s doctrines into inventing their own doctrines, and never knew it happened. Worse, it is more likely that people at least unconsciously knew it, and liked it. We must focus on the true gospel, and also deliberately destroy man-made tradition and orthodoxy, so that after some time we will not become enslaved to “-isms” named after mere men, and still think we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Although the healing miracles of Jesus were physical, and although the people who received healing eventually died at the end of their lives, he never considered this ministry unimportant or unspiritual. Of course he did a lot of praying, but he could have done more praying. Instead, he healed the sick. Of course he did a lot of teaching, but he could have done more teaching. Instead, he healed the sick. Of course he trained disciples, but he could have done more training. Instead, he healed the sick. It was not the only thing he did, but he did a lot of it. He healed every day of the week, often many hours in a day, but he emphasized that the Sabbath ought to be a day of healing — not only spiritual healing, but physical healing, and not by human method, but by divine power, by miracles. Healing is a holy work. Healing is spiritual. Healing is worth the time. Anyone who dares complain about an overemphasis on physical healing exposes himself as someone who is estranged from Christ. This person does not know the most obvious thing about the Master, the thing that even his enemies knew. But he complains about the same thing that caused these enemies to murder the Lord. If this scoundrel claims to be a disciple, it makes him even more hypocritical than those who nailed Jesus to the cross.
The ministry of healing was so highly esteemed by Christ himself that he made it stand together with the ministry of preaching and the ministry of worship, especially on the day of Sabbath. He made a point of throwing this in the face of the orthodox religious leaders. He confronted them about this in public, and shamed them for their lack of faith and hardness of heart. He intentionally transgressed their creeds. He defended his disciples when they broke their traditions. One of the several times where Scripture depicted Jesus as especially angry involved the ministry of healing, when he defended it against the religion of man. Today’s Christian church has the same hostile attitude toward the ministry of healing. It is the same with today’s Christian leaders, pastors, and scholars. Are we very “Christ-like” when we discuss this? If we are like Christ, we would become angry. We would expose the religious leaders by name, and we would blast the church members in public. We would insult them, mock them, call down woes upon them, and tell demeaning parables about them, just like Jesus did. This is Christ-like. But how often are we nice and calm? How often do we debate theology like detached observers, when the masses are suffering and dying all around us, with painful and degrading diseases and injuries, even though they could be healed in an instant by the name of Jesus? This, I say, is not Christ-like. It is satanic, and worthy of damnation.
To the same extent as the deity of Christ and justification by faith, there never should have been any debate about the ministry of healing. This is such an obvious and established teaching of the gospel that many in the time of Christ knew that he healed the sick way before they knew he was the Son of God. People who oppose the ministry of healing, do they truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God? He continued to heal after his resurrection, as Peter told someone, “Jesus Christ heals you.” All this time we are in fact talking about Jesus’ ministry of healing. And all this time, it is Jesus that our opponents have been fighting and mocking.
Jesus designed the same kind of ministry for his early disciples. Since the beginning, their work was about preaching the gospel, and healing the sick, healing the sick, healing the sick, healing the sick. When they were threatened by political power, they did not strive for political victory, but they offered a spiritual response. They prayed that God would infuse them with the courage to continue preaching the gospel, and that God would stretch out his hand to heal the sick, so that signs and wonders would be performed by the name of Jesus. Now by saying all of this, we do not mean that the ministry of preaching is less important. Preaching is most important. However, the ministry of healing has been so neglected and opposed by the self-anointed representatives of the Christian faith that these people’s work never amounted to gospel ministry.
Preaching is important, but we must not be preaching just to be preaching. We must preach the gospel, but a message that is without healing or that opposes healing is not the gospel, just like a message that is without the forgiveness of sins or that opposes justification by faith is not the gospel. The Bible does not know a gospel that has no healing. We must preach the gospel, but a message that is without the Spirit of miracle power for all those who believe is not the gospel, just like a message that is without the atonement is not the gospel. We must preach the gospel, but a message that is without the physical and financial effects that the gospel guarantees to us is not the gospel, just like a message that is without the spiritual and psychological effects that the gospel guarantees to us is not the gospel. Is it a strict standard to insist that the gospel must be the gospel? Let us be strict then. And by this standard, almost no orthodox traditionalist and almost no follower of any -ian or -ism preaches the gospel. Sure, the gospel is so full and strong that perhaps even half a gospel can save. But this does not mean that those who butcher Jesus Christ can claim to be his disciples or to wield a true gospel ministry. The criminal on the cross did not have much knowledge, and he said only, “Lord, do not forget me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Even mere crumbs falling from the Master’s table can save and heal, but woe to those who dismantle the gospel on purpose, and persecute those who declare it in all its fullness and power!
Jesus wanted not only his early disciples to continue his ministry of healing, but he also commanded all his followers to do the same. He said that those who believe in him would perform the same miracles that he performed, and that they would perform even greater miracles. Jesus would be the true power who causes these miracles, but he said that his disciples would perform them in his name. He said that these signs would follow those who believe in him — they will cast out demons; they will speak in tongues; they will be immune to snakes and poisons; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. Whether in the Gospels, or the Acts of the Apostles, or the Letters, the apostles taught the basis and the promise for the ministry of healing. Isaiah’s prophecy was true when he said, “Himself took our infirmities, and carried our sicknesses.” And Peter said, “By his stripes, we are healed.” The suffering of Jesus applies to both the forgiveness of sins and the healing of diseases without distinction. Within Scripture itself, the same verses are applied to both interchangeably. Therefore, anyone who denies one also forfeits the other. James wrote, “The prayer of faith will heal the sick. The Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” There is one inseparable message and ministry. True Christians will devote themselves to the message and ministry of healing no less than Jesus himself did.
Evil men have tried to portray an emphasis on physical healing as stemming from a selfish desire for comfort, or some unspiritual motive. God never thought so. He revealed his nature as one who “forgives all our iniquities, and heals all our diseases.” Is God now an accomplice to sin? The traditional orthodoxy of unbelief attacks the very nature of God. It loses the right to talk about God or to claim to be Christian, let alone to correct other people. Jesus never thought ministering or receiving healing was too much about selfish comfort, or some unspiritual motive. He had only praise for those who came to him for physical healing. He characterized his own mission with healing, both in word and deed. He offered the highest commendations about those who demanded healing as something that ought to be taken for granted. He said, “Woman, great is your faith!” And he said, “I have never seen faith like this in all of Israel!” He never said something like this about those who suffered poverty and sickness, all the while playing the humble victims. He never praised what human orthodoxy exalted as spiritual heroes – those who Christians admire today. Peter said that God anointed Jesus, who went about doing good, healing those who were oppressed by the devil. To devalue the ministry of healing is to devalue Jesus Christ. To claim that healing and other miracles have ceased is to claim that the Lord of All has become irrelevant.
So what if we desire comfort, if it is a comfort that is guaranteed by the nature of God and the promise of the gospel? If God’s nature is healing, and if God’s promise is healing, then it means that God wants this comfort for me even more than I want it for myself. Thus I have a duty to desire it. Healing is integral to the gospel. If it is not selfish or carnal to desire a healthy spirit, then it is not selfish or carnal to desire a healthy body. Yet somehow religious tradition has made people feel like they are robbing God, that they are somehow spiritual criminals, to insist on receiving healing from him through faith, according to his own word. False teachers have tried to make people feel bad about themselves for persisting in faith in God for healing miracles. The truth is that it would be sinful to neglect or to reject the desire for a healthy body by faith, just like it would be sinful to neglect or to reject the desire for a healthy spirit by faith. What, do you think that you are too good for God’s help, a help that he guarantees by the blood of his Son? How is that spiritual? It is nothing but pride. It is the same kind of pride that causes an unbeliever to deny his sinful condition and to receive mercy through Jesus Christ. If you have the pride of an unbeliever, a pride that rejects the blood of Christ, then how can you claim to be a believer? Your faith is only a formality. Your worship is fake. Healing is the gospel, just as much as forgiveness is the gospel, as much as justification is the gospel, and as much as sanctification is the gospel. Jesus came to save the whole person. The effects of sin are not only spiritual, but also intellectual, emotional, physical, financial, relational, and so on. Jesus repairs and enhances all these areas of our lives. Adam’s transgression plunged humanity into all kinds of ruin. But the Bible says that the gift of God is not like the trespass of man, and that what Jesus gained for us is greater than what Adam lost for us.
The gospel magnifies the effects of the work of Jesus. Anyone who despises physical healing also despises Jesus Christ. This person has no respect for the blood of God. Anyone who downplays physical healing by faith in Christ is ashamed of him. He is ashamed of God’s plan of redemption. This person’s preaching curses the work of God. Healing is the trademark of Jesus Christ, and he said that whoever is not for him is against him. You don’t even need to be against healing. If you are not for the doctrine and ministry of miracle healing by faith, you are against Jesus. If you are silent about this, or if you claim to remain neutral, you are an enemy of God. You must abandon your pride and risk your reputation to take a stand on this matter of healing. If you are ashamed of Jesus, then he is ashamed of you. On the other hand, a person who preaches physical healing by faith in Christ as blatantly and frequently as he can is someone who honors the compassion of God. He loves Jesus Christ and follows his teachings and examples. Let us never be high-minded or pseudo-spiritual about this. Let us never suppose we are too good or too holy for something like the healing of the body. If we are so spiritual, we would have faith to receive all that God wants to give us.
Any ministry that does not preach and practice miracle healing, or that does not support or align with a ministry of miracle healing, and that does not do this fiercely and constantly, is not a gospel ministry. It may attempt to look like one, and when we catch God looking the other way we may call it a gospel ministry to make everyone feel religious and orthodox, but it does not measure up to even the most basic and obvious definition of a gospel ministry. Jesus never commissioned any gospel ministry without miracle healing, and there is no gospel ministry in the Bible without miracle healing. The Bible does not know about a God or a Jesus that has no healing. The Bible does not know about a gospel that has no healing, or even one that has only occasional healing. It is not up to us to decide that healing is not essential enough. Both the nature of God and the doctrine of salvation put healing front and center. Just as we would not leave the atonement or the deity of Christ out of our preaching, we must never leave healing out of our preaching. That is, unless we wish to preach a counterfeit Jesus.
In fact, healing is often extended to unbelievers before they come to Christ in faith, and it is often given to those who would never come to Christ. Thus even if you decide to leave out some things from your preaching, you never have an excuse to leave out healing from your preaching, because even the unbelievers should know about it. It follows that a church that does not preach and practice miracle healing by faith does not live up to what it means to be a gospel church. Of course, you can call it a gospel church if you wish – you can say anything you want to say – but the Bible is not even aware that there can be a church of Jesus Christ without miracle healing. Both Christians and non-Christians should know about the ministry of healing. Yet nowadays unbelievers know what Christians think about abortion, homosexuality, movies, music, economics, politics, oh, especially politics, but most of them do not even know about miracle healing. If they think about it at all, they assume that the Christians themselves do not believe it, and that those who believe in healing are considered mentally unstable heretics by other Christians. Are the people that anoint themselves to represent the Christian faith before the world much more “Christian” than the heathens? Many of them are in fact unsaved. The truth is that the Christian faith is their political stance, not their true belief and way of life. This is why there is no faith for miracles, healings, visions, and prophecies. These people have hijacked the Christian faith to make a political and religious platform for themselves. They really have nothing to do with Jesus Christ.
Perhaps you say, “Surely you are going too far.” Now be careful which side you are on, lest you turn against Christ and slap him in the face. I am only pointing out the obvious, and the unavoidable implications. You may ask, “Isn’t it better than nothing, if a church leaves out only healing, but preaches about everything else correctly?” First, if you leave out healing, it is impossible to preach about everything else correctly, because healing is integral to the gospel, to the work of Christ, to the nature of God, and to the nature of man. You cannot say that you would leave out the deity of Christ or the atonement for sin, but preach everything else correctly. Second, if we are able and eager to preach the gospel in all its fullness, and if there are other people like us, why do we still need those who refuse? What if there is a church that calls the Holy Spirit a pig, but calls Jesus Christ the Son of God? Would you say that it is at least correct about Jesus? But was Jesus anointed by a pig? Perhaps you consider it an acceptable compromise, but I damn that church to hell. Where they seem to be correct, we are more correct. Where they are entirely derelict, we are faithful and fierce. So why should we tolerate them, instead of pushing them off a cliff and move on?
If anti-faith and anti-miracle ministers and groups were ever useful, they are not useful anymore. God has exploited them for his own purpose. The salt now has no flavor, and it is ready to be thrown out and stepped on by men. They are holding people back, and they should be discarded and forgotten. The church has recovered to a point that we no longer need teachers who refuse to teach the word of God as it is written. It has reformed indeed, and then reformed again. There are those who refuse to continue after the first small step, who after they have rejected Satan, refuse to continue with Christ and welcome him in all his fullness. But there is only one Christ. If you do not receive him — all of him, since he is one — then you reject him. For the church to move forward, it must cast aside these useless people like wet dog poo, and leave them behind to die. If reformation after reformation still leaves so much trash around, then a revolution is in order. Don’t reform, revolt! We shall do this without hesitation or regret. We follow God, not men. And we want to continue with God. We will not be respectful toward worthless scums and their wet dog poo theology. You give yourselves a bunch of degrees and titles, and now you think you can dictate to me what I must or must not obey in God’s commands, and what I can or cannot believe in God’s promises? You wish! Go jump off a cliff. Listen, go put all those certificates and credentials that your stupid friends gave you in a suitcase, tie it around your neck, and jump off a cliff.
People wish to talk about balance, and this is usually to limit in others what they themselves fear or hate in God. Balance is not wrong when it is applicable to the topic, but more often than not it is used to introduce unbelief. The idea is rarely applicable, and often meaningless. An example of balance is when Paul instructed the Corinthians to continue speaking in tongues, but add prophecy to their gatherings. His solution to an apparent disorderly use of tongues was to increase the intensity and diversity of supernatural ministries. He never considered the suspension of any supernatural ministry even in the face of apparent abuse, not even the very gift being abused. He only added more supernatural gifts to the mix. Even so, Paul did not think that the Corinthians overemphasized tongues, since he said, “I speak in tongues more than all of you.” The problem was not an overemphasis, if such a thing were possible, but the Corinthians were apparently selfish and disruptive with speaking in tongues. There is no indication that it is possible to overemphasize any ministry pertaining to the supernatural. And there is no indication that it is possible to overemphasize physical healing by faith in Christ. Nevertheless, if a group ever becomes selfish and disruptive with healing, then we ought to suggest that they continue to heal the sick, but also cast out demons!
We ought to be as extreme as we can in every doctrine of righteousness. It is impossible to overemphasize faith, love, and hope, the greatness and compassion of God, the sacrifice of Christ, and other things pertaining to the gospel. The problem is almost always a failure to be extreme enough. Have you noticed that, when people talk about balance, it is always because they want you to do less of what you are doing? When they mention balance, how come it is never to encourage you to do more? They never say, “You need to maintain balance with this doctrine on miracle healing. So you need to teach it at least twenty times more often.” It is always to say you are doing too much, not too little. You see, they are not interested in right balance or proportion. If they can have their way, you would not be doing any of it at all. Like many things in counterfeit orthodoxy, balance is also a scam. If we are going to be unbalanced, let us preach too much healing, and not too little. There is no basis to think that this is even possible, just like it seems impossible to preach too much about faith toward God and love for Jesus Christ. If we are going to be obsessed, let us never be obsessed with politics, or philosophy, or the interests of this world, but let us be obsessed with receiving and ministering healing. It is virtually impossible to teach about healing too much or too often. If you love what Jesus loves, you can never be wrong.
People who preach balance to you are doing none of what you are doing. The things that they are telling you to do less of, they are not doing at all. So what happened to the balance? The imbalance has always been teaching too little about faith for miracles and answers to prayer, practicing too little of the ministry of healing and prophecy, experiencing too little of the promises concerning visions and dreams, and signs and wonders. This imbalance has existed for many centuries. To restore balance would seem the church needs to focus on these things exclusively! The call for balance, for orthodoxy, for order, and all such things, become the people’s testimony against themselves in the sight of God.
If they complain that we are talking too much about miracle healing, are they talking about miracle healing at all? What does balance mean? If you lay hands on people for healing two hundred times a week, do they lay hands on people one hundred times? Do they lay hands on people for healing fifty times a week? How about ten times? How about one time each year? Do they command the cripple to walk or the cancer to leave only once every decade? Is that balance? Or, have they never done it at all? If you encounter a thousand sick people, should you pray for only five hundred to receive healing? Is that balance? Should you pray for one hundred? How about only ten? Is that balance? Or by balance, do they mean you should pray for none of them, and that if you do pray for them, you might not expect any to receive miracle healing? How many have been healed under their ministry? Right. Zero.
They are not interested in this meaningless thing called balance. This is subterfuge. The reality is that they wish to suppress the truth about healing in their wickedness, just like the reprobates suppress their knowledge about God. They wish to silence a pillar of the gospel, and still call themselves the best kind of Christians. They pretend to be the most upstanding leaders and members in the church of God, but they work against Jesus Christ from within his congregations. They are much worse than the unbelievers in their hypocrisy.
When it comes to God’s promises that are explicit and undeniable, “balance” – or any such virtuous sounding idea — is something that religious frauds use to suppress something that they cannot outright refute, but that they refuse to belief and obey. It is a rhetorical trick. It sounds so virtuous. Who would oppose balance? When it is a balance between God and Satan, faith and unbelief, obedience and rebellion, I will damn balance to hell all the way. Yet the frauds do not even have this kind of balance, because when they speak of balance, they mean that you should not do what they oppose at all. Thus they stand with Satan, unbelief, and rebellion all the way.
Jesus said that God ensures the fields are dressed even better than Solomon, and we are worth more than they. Jesus guaranteed that if we will seek first the kingdom of God, then all the things that the pagans pursue – mammon, food, clothing, and all such things – will be added to us. The religious frauds cannot deny that Jesus said all of this and more. So they urge balance. But what in the world would balance mean in something like this? Huh?! Tell me, what would it mean? Can you teach too much of what Jesus said? Can you believe too much of what Jesus said? Can you practice too much of what Jesus said? What would balance mean? What would orthodoxy mean? What would humility mean? Jesus said that a wise man is like someone who builds his house on a solid foundation, so that when a storm comes he remains standing. Balance or no balance, this is the minimum, if there is a minimum. To teach what Jesus said half the time and contradict him half the time is not balance, but heresy. To believe what he said half the time and doubt him half the time is not balance, but unbelief. To obey what he said half the time and do something opposite half the time is not balance, but rebellion.
Do they teach that “all these things” – mammon, food, clothing, and all such things that the pagans seek and worry about – will be added to God’s people? This is in fact one of the more baseline promises on the topic. God has said far more extravagant things about material prosperity and abundance for those who have faith. Do they teach it once a week, once a month, once a year? How about once a decade? Have they ever taught it at all? If they read it to their people by accident, do they affirm it or do they try to explain it away, saying that it is subject to the “will of God,” as if it is ever the will of God to contradict his own promise? Is this balance? Is this orthodoxy? The truth is that they just preach poverty, sickness, and suffering, and leave the whole matter there. They have never had any faith. They have never believed what Jesus said.
It is time to stop explaining ourselves to such people over and over again. We are not the ones in the wrong. We are not the ones disobeying the gospel. They are. They are worse than the unbelievers. It is time to attack those who refuse to affirm all of God’s guarantees in the gospel, whether it is healing, or prosperity, or prophecy, or visions and dreams, or signs and wonders, or favor and success, or supernatural wisdom and creativity, or the advancement of the gospel, and hundreds of other things that belong to us through faith in Jesus Christ.
It is impossible to overemphasize God’s guarantees concerning our protection and prosperity. When we walk by faith in his word, everything we have comes from him, and there is no place for boasting. Our success is his success. Our health is the health of the body of Christ. Our prosperity is the prosperity of God’s people. Human orthodoxy wishes to take all of this away from the kingdom of God. My success is mine to enjoy, but it is not my success, but his success, because he is the one who gives us success according to his promise, made by his own will. I enjoy success because he is successful. We are his glory on this earth. He demonstrates his goodness by what he does for his people. We are the light of the world, and this light comes from him.
People who are against healing, prophecy, miracles, and all the things that reveal the glory of God through us…these people are not interested in following Jesus. If they wish to follow Jesus, they would say what he said and do what he did. They are interested in replacing Jesus. They want a Jesus that does not expose their lack of faith and power. They want a Jesus that does not expose their religious arrogance and wickedness. They want a Jesus that never interferes with their customs and doctrines. But there is only one Jesus, the one recorded in the Bible. This is the one that their religious forefathers killed. They oppose us, because they see him in us.
Certainly there are other ministries in the church, but every believer is called to preach the gospel and heal the sick – whatever our calling, none can abstain from this — and among us, this classic combination will be our focus. Our success is guaranteed. God did not send us forth to preach the forgiveness of sins intending that no one would believe and be saved. He will convert people. He will cause them to believe our message, and cause them to follow Christ. The same is true for healing. God did not send us forth to preach the healing of diseases intending that no one would receive and be healed. When we tell people that there is healing for our bodies through Jesus Christ, people will receive faith for healing, and God will heal them. When we pray for the sick, God will answer. When we speak to diseases, they will obey. When we lay our hands on sick people, they will recover. Then God shall be honored and praised.