Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.” (Mark 7:13)
Although Andrew Murray was undoubtedly a very godly man, especially in the area of prayer and experiencing the deeper life, we still need to apply the Word of God to prove what he said. His statement marked in red below is something that I wish to call attention to:
Quote from Chapter 1: Divine Healing by Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
We see, by the accounts given in the Gospels, that it was more difficult for the Jews at that time to believe in the pardon of their sins than in divine healing. Now it is just the contrary. The Christian Church has heard so much of the preaching of the forgiveness of sins that the thirsty soul easily receives this message of grace; but it is not the same with divine healing; that is rarely spoken of; the believers who have experienced it are not many. It is true that healing is not given in this day as in those times, to the multitudes whom Christ healed without any previous conversion. In order to receive it, it is necessary to begin by confession of sin and the purpose to live a holy life. This is without doubt the reason why people find more difficulty to believe in healing than in forgiveness; and this is also why those who receive healing receive at the same time new spiritual blessing, feel more closely united to the Lord Jesus, and learn to love and serve Him better. Unbelief may attempt to separate these two gifts, but they are always united in Christ. He is always the same Savior both of the soul and of the body, equally ready to grant pardon and healing.
The redeemed may always cry: “Bless the Lord, 0 my soul.., who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases” (Ps. 103:3).
Does Scripture confirm that after the death and resurrection of the Lord the disciples fundamentally changed the way they had been healing and delivering people? Did they from then on require people to first confess their sin and to purpose to live a holy life before they could receive the Grace of God manifested as Healing and Deliverance?
This is a fundamentally relevant question for us today because the vast majority of teachers (in their books and sermons on mp3 and DVD) who teach healing and deliverance (in all their different forms) adhere to the above statement – this means it has such wide acceptance that very few would ever think about questioning it.
Firstly we have to establish that as Andrew Murray confirms above, Jesus did not require people to repent (turn from their sins and live a holy life style) before healing them. This we can clearly see in many examples (Mark 5:1-20 – deliverance and mental healing; Luke 13:10-17 - Jesus expels a spirit of infirmity from the body of a woman)
In John 5:14 we read the following: Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." From the context it is clear that the man at first did not even know who had healed him and only afterwards did Jesus confront him with the need to repent of his sin.
Now we should compare how the disciples healed and delivered after Jesus had risen and ascended to determine if there was any fundamental change in approach – to that which they had learnt from Jesus.
The first example is that of Peter and John at the gate beautiful in Acts 3:1-7. Clearly the beggar looked at Peter and John expecting to receive money. Then in the Authority of the Name of Jesus Peter grabs the beggar by the hand, hauls him up up his feet – healed. No preaching of the Gospel and clearly no repentance by the beggar before he was healed! It was Peters faith in the Authority of the Name of Jesus that resulted in the healing – and this afterwards provided a platform for him to confront the religious leaders with their sin and demand that they repent!
The second example we see in Acts 14:8-10. This Gentile man had been a cripple since his birth. Paul was preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and the cripple man was receiving the message with an open heart. Paul told him to stand up – which he did. There is no account that the cripple man had done any repentance, he had not come forward to repeat some prayer – it is recorded that he had faith to be healed – so obviously Paul was preaching exactly that – that through faith in the Authority in the Name of Jesus people can be healed and delivered. We are sure of this because it is written that faith comes through hearing the Word of Christ preached (Romans 10:14). Afterwards Paul confronts the Gentiles with the need for repentance (Acts 14:15)
Thirdly Paul is harsh with the Christians in Galatia (Galatians 3:1-5) and wanted to know who had bewitched them into thinking that they could receive the Spirit by their own works (e.g. commitment to a holy lifestyle). He also confirms that the Works of Holy Spirit were manifest among them only because they believed in the Victory of Christ over disease and demons through His crucifixion (paraphrased).
I have discovered no biblical confirmation that Christians ministering healing and deliverance in the post resurrection and ascension period fundamentally changed the way that Jesus had healed and delivered. Rather I see a confirmation that it remained unchanged! If we take this teaching that repentance is required first to an extreme situation – in a situation where someone needs to be raised from the dead – we realize that it is totally insufficient. How is a dead person going to first repent and commit to live a holy life before they can be raised from the dead?
Paul describes far more serious consequences resulting from this kind of teaching in Romans 2:1-4. Here Paul warns against judging others and asks if we do not realize that it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. Once we are of the opinion that people have to first repent before they can be healed – we stand in the very dangerous place of becoming judges declaring that they still have sin in their lives that needs to be repented of – maybe giving this as a reason for them not being healed by our prayer for them. Actually it is most probably the unbelief of the one who ministered healing and/or deliverance that resulted in the person not being healed / delivered.
As Curry Blake has confirmed through the teachings of John G. Lake and his own healing and deliverance ministry, there is no requirement for someone to repent to receive the grace of God. The only requirement is that of Faith – and in the area of healing and deliverance – it is mostly the faith of the one ministering healing and deliverance that is required – as the example of raising someone from the dead confirms!
The example of how Jesus healed and delivered does not negate or diminish the importance of repentance or of stressing the importance of living a holy life in any way. It instead refocuses us on the total victory of Calvary over all sin, disease and demons and allows us to access the Grace of God through faith and not by our own works. Own works are here defined as confessing of sin, breaking of curses, searching for iniquity committed by our forefathers or anything having to do else other than focusing on Christ.
Once people have tasted that the Lord is gracious and have seen His power – they exercise the freedom of Will in choosing or rejecting Him. They need to understand that by rejecting Christ and returning to sin – something worse could happen to them. Not because this is the Will of God, but because the demons are going to build up a better stronghold next time round (Luke 11:24-26).
Let us not be the ones to hinder the flow of God's Grace to people – we are supposed to be channels of His Grace on the earth. The one ministering healing and deliverance has to live in obedience to the Lord by healing and delivering people from the power of satan unto the Kingdom of God (Acts 26:18). These ministers are not to keep backdoors for their unbelief open. Here are some examples what some of these backdoors can be:” It is not God’s will to heal you”; “You have hidden sin in your life”; “There is some undefined curse on your life”; “The iniquity of your forefathers is hindering your healing”; “You don’t have enough faith”; and so on an so forth! Jesus never used one of these backdoors, ever! Nor does the bible record that the first believers did either! We have the Mandate to pray for the sick to be healed - when we become the ones who decide who God will heal and who not, have we then "not discriminated among ourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" (James 2:4)
Let us become convinced of what the Bible describes as the complete Victory of Christ over the devil, powers and principalities, all demon power, every sickness, disease and infirmity, every wound and all pain, death and hades! As we develop our understandings through the Word of Christ and refuse to live by the senses trapped in this world and as we reject the traditions of men – we by faith enter into the manifestation of the Kingdom and Will of the Father on this earth (Matthew 6:10)!
In this way we will bring Glory to the Father, destroy the works of the devil and see many enter into the Freedom offered by Christ. Hallelujah! For this reason was the Son of God manifest!
So finally, the Heart of Christ in this matter is revealed in the following:
So finally, the Heart of Christ in this matter is revealed in the following:
