through man than ever before.

That is God's divine

laboratory of spiritual knowledge.

And when anyone comes to me with the statement

that there is nothing in the baptism of the Holy Ghost
but a psychological manifestation, I say, "Brother,
sister, come with me and see the gems of God and the
beautiful gold that has come out of the dross of dirty
lives, and then you will know." Saved from sin and
healed from disease—that is divine demonstration.

In my Assembly at Spokane is a real little woman

who was blind for nine years. She had little teaching
along the line of faith of God. She sat one day with
her group of six children to discover that her dirty
brute of a husband had abandoned her and his
children and left her to starve. A debased human
being is capable of things that no beast will do, for a
beast will care for its own.

You can imagine what her little heart was like. She
was crushed, broken, bruised, and bleeding. She
gathered her children around her and began to pray.
They were sitting on their front porch. Presently, one
of them got up and said, "Oh, Mama, there is a man
coming up the path and He looks like Jesus! And, oh,
Mama, there is blood on His hands and blood on His
feet!" And the children were frightened and ran
around the corner of the house. After a while, the
biggest one looked around the corner and said,
"Why, Mama, He is laying His hands on your eyes!"
And just then her blind eyes opened. That is divine
power.

And, beloved, if we could have seen the reason, we

would have seen that there were some Christians,
like those at the Brooks' Home, Zion City, or some
other place, who were praying the power of God on a
hungry world, and Jesus Christ in His search for
those who would receive, rushed to her and sent her
forth to praise God and teach the gospel of Jesus.

I would not have missed my life in Africa for

anything. It put me up against some of the real
problems. I sat upon a mountain in Africa one
afternoon and counted eleven hundred native
villages within the range of my eyes. I could see the
color of the grass on the mountains sixty miles away.
I could see the mountains one hundred and fifty
miles away, so clear was its rarefied atmosphere.

Then I began to figure, and I said, "Within the range

of my eyes, there live ten million native people. They
have never heard the name of Jesus. In the whole
land, there are at least one hundred million people,
perhaps two hundred million." They are being born
at a tremendous rate. Do you know there are more
heathen born every day than are Christianized in
fifty years? When are we going to catch up by our
present method of building schools and teaching
them to read? Never! I tell you, it will never come
that way. It has got to come from heaven by the
power of God, by an outpouring of the Holy Ghost.
That is divine salvation.
That is the reason my heart rejoices in the blessed
promise, "In the last days, saith God, I will pour out
of my Spirit upon all flesh" (Acts 2:17). And every last
one of the two hundred million unsaved people is
going to hear and know of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Beloved, I would rather have a place in the kingdom
of God, praying that thing into existence and praying
the power of God upon them, than anything else in
the world.

Africa is said to be the first settled country in the

world, and we believe the world is six thousand
years old. Africa has been settled for five thousand
years. Two hundred or four hundred million have
died every century. Split the difference and say that
three hundred million have died every [century] for
five thousand years.

It caused me to pray and meditate. I said, "Has God

no interest in these people? And if He has an interest,
why is not something done for them? What is the
matter with God? Is God unable to help, or does He
not care?" My heart was breaking under the burden
of it. I said, "God, there must be an explanation
somewhere. What is it, Lord? Tell me about it."

Then my heart grew calm, and the Spirit said, "The

church, which is His body," and I knew that was
God's answer.

I said, "Yes, the church should have sent missionaries

and built schools and done this and that."

But the Spirit kept on saying, "The church, which is

His body. The church, which is His body." I sat and
listened to that voice repeat that sentence for a half
hour.

I said, "My God, my soul begins to see. The church is

the ministering presence of the Son of God in the
world. The church is the generating agency of the
power of God in the world. The church has been
negligent in one great trust. She has not prayed the
power of God out of heaven."

Then I saw what has become a conviction in my soul

from that day: that there never was a soul born to
God in the whole earth at any time until some soul in
the world got hold of the living Spirit of God and
generated that Spirit in saving grace and creative
virtue and ministered it until it took possession of a
soul, no difference if it was a million miles away.
Thus, the life of Christ is begotten in them.

When I try to induce men to forget their little

squabbles and little differences and go to praying, it
is because my soul feels the burden of it. Mother
Etter has been like a marshal for fifty years. The sick
have been healed; people have been converted and
blessed. But beloved, when I heard of Brother
Brook's shutting himself up night and day to pray the
power of God on a world, I said, "That is where she
gets her fire; that is where it comes from to my soul;
that is where it comes from to other souls—through
those who pray," That is divine intercession.

Notice how beautifully this armory is lighted. The

world lived in darkness for five thousand years, and
they had no way of lighting a place like this except by
torches or candles. But there was just as much
electricity five thousand years ago as there is today.
Somebody found how to handle it, discovered the
laws that govern it, and learned to apply it to our
need.

But to this day, there is no man who can tell us what

electricity is or what its substance is. We know we
can control it this way and guide it that way and
make it do this and that, but what it is nobody can
tell us. However, down somewhere on the river there
is a machine that is called a dynamo, and it draws
the electricity out of the air and transmits it over the
wires. And these days, they are sending it in wireless
waves.

Do you know what prayer is? It is not begging God

for this and that. The first thing we have to do is to
get you beggars to quit begging, until a little faith
moves in your soul. Prayer is God's divine generator.
The spirit of man is God's divine dynamo. When you
go to pray, your spirit gets into motion. Not ten
thousand revolutions per minute, but possibly one
hundred thousand. The voltage of heaven comes to
your heart, and it flows from your hands, it burns
into the souls of men, and God almighty's Spirit is
applied through you to their need.

Over in Indiana some years ago was a farmer who

used to be a friend of Brother Fockler and myself. His
son had been in South America, had a dreadful case
of typhoid fever and no proper nursing; the result
was that he developed a great fever sore ten inches
in diameter. The whole abdomen became grown up
with proud flesh, one layer on top of another layer,
until there were five layers. The nurse had to lift up
those layers and wash it with an antiseptic to keep
the maggots out of it.

When he exposed the body for me to pray for him, I

was shocked. I never had seen anything like it
before. As I went to pray for him, I spread my fingers
out wide and put my hand right on that cursed
growth of proud flesh. I prayed God in the name of
Jesus Christ to blast the curse of hell and burn it up
by the power of God. Then I took the train and came
back to Chicago. The next day I received a telegram
saying, "Lake, the most unusual thing has happened.
An hour after you left, the whole print of your hand
was burned into that growth a quarter of an inch
deep."

You talk about the voltage of heaven and the power

of God! Why, there is lightning in the soul of Jesus.
The lightning of Jesus heals men by its flash; sin
dissolves, disease flees when the power of God
approaches.
And yet we are quibbling and wondering if Jesus
Christ is big enough for our needs. Let's take the bars
down. Let God come into your life. And in the name
of Jesus your heart will not be satisfied with an
empty Pentecost, but your soul will claim the light of
God, and the lightning of Jesus will flood your life.
Amen.
 Chapter 4
The Truth About Divine Healing

Newspaper Articles « Sacramento, California

July-August 1927

Note: The following is a booklet that was taken from

a series of articles that appeared in the newspaper
Sacramento Union, Sacramento, California, in July and
August 1927. The articles were later expanded and
reprinted in booklet form.

Chapman said, just before his passing, "I believe the

gift of healing is a far greater divine attainment than
the gift of the evangelist." No wonder professor A. B.
Bruce said in his Miraculous Elements of the Gospel,
"Cures should be as common as conversion, and
Christ's healing miracles are signs that disease does
not belong to the true order of nature and are but a
prophecy that the true order must be restored to us."

There is no question but what there is a universal

longing for such a faith for the healing and
quickening of our mortal bodies as this. Professor
Bruce well expressed it in his Union Seminary
lectures, which have been a power ever since their
utterance:
What missionary would not be glad to be endowed
with power to heal diseases as conferred by Jesus
Christ on His disciples when He sent them on their
Galilean mission? I know the feeling well. I spent
part of my apprenticeship as a preacher and a
missionary in a once prosperous but now decaying
village in the west of Scotland, filled with an
impoverished and exceptionally disease-stricken
population. There I daily saw sights which
awakened at once intense sympathy and
involuntary loathing.

There were cases of cancer; strange and demoniac

like forms of insanity; children in arms, twenty
years old, with the face of a full-grown man and a
body not larger than an infant's. I returned home
of time sick at heart and unable to take food.

What would I not have given to have had for an

hour the charisma of the Galilean evangelists! And
how gladly would I have gone that day not to speak
the accustomed words about a Father in heaven
ever ready to receive His prodigal children, but to
put an end to pain, raise the dying, and to restore
to soundness shattered reason. Or had I found
someday, on visiting the suffering, that they had
been healed, according to their report, in answer to
the prayer of some saintly friend. I should have
been too thankful to have been at all skeptical. I
should then have seen how He Himself took our
infirmities and bore our sicknesses, and we were to
represent God whose supreme purpose is, as Jesus
so clearly showed, to forgive all our sins and heal
all our diseases.
The place of the gift of healing in the great message
of Jesus' full and complete salvation has been voiced
in prophetic foregleams all through the Christian
centuries, as truly as the coming Messiah by the
mouth of the prophets before the appearance of
Jesus.

During recent years, it has broken forth in many

quarters with most unusual power. As far back as
1884, Rev. R. F. Stanton, DD, a leading Presbyterian
clergyman who at one time was moderator of the
general assembly of the Presbyterian church, wrote
in a little volume entitled Gospel Parallelisms these
remarkable words:

It is my aim to show that the Atonement of Christ

lays the foundation equally for deliverance from
sin and deliverance from disease; that complete
provision has been made for both; that in the
exercise of faith under the conditions prescribed,
we have the same reason to believe that the body
may be delivered from sickness as we have the soul
may be delivered from sin; in short, that both
branches of the deliverance stand on the same
ground and that it is necessary to include both in
any true conception of what the Gospel offers to
mankind.

The atoning sacrifice of Christ covers the physical

as well as the spiritual needs of the race.
 Colleges Lag In Science Teachings

Dr. John G. Lake defined the major branches of

learning as follows:

♦ Physiology is the science of the body.

♦ Psychology is the science of the soul.
♦ Pneumatology is the science of the spirit.
♦ Ontology is the science of being.

Our schools and universities teach physiology: the

laws, direction, and care of the body In the past
thirty years, psychology has found recognition so
that not only the universities teach this science, but
lectures on psychology are in every city and hamlet.
Even business houses now give psychological courses
for their employees and salesmen. Yet the psyche of
man will die, and the soul is mortal. Psychology is a
natural science.

What are the facts of pneumatology? Firstly, that

man is triune in his nature and structure—spirit,
soul, and body. Secondly, that the spirit and soul are
divisible. On this question, the Bible says concerning
the Word of God: "Piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit" (Hebrews 4:12).

Psychology—soul science—says that the soul is the

seat of the affections, desires, and emotions; the
active will, the self, "My soul," said Jesus, "is
exceeding sorrowful" (Matthew 26:38). "And Mary
said, My soul [self] doth magnify the Lord, and my
spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:46-
47).

A type of semi-scholarship, represented by modern

material scientists, has despised the Bible. No
university in the United States is sufficiently
advanced in scholarship to possess a chair of
pneumatology.

The apostle Paul at Ephesus was received into the

school of Tyrannus, a school of the Grecian
philosophies. Psychology was the basis of their
philosophy. Tyrannus recognized Paul's knowledge
of pneumatology, the higher science, and established
a chair of pneumatology. There, Paul taught the
Christian philosophy, pneumatology, and psychology
as Christian doctrine and experience. This resulted
in the establishing of the Christian churches of
Ephesus with 100,000 members. It resulted in the
appointment of Timothy as the first Christian Bishop
of Ephesus.

An outcome of this teaching in the school of

Tyrannus was that the Grecian philosophies were
discarded for the higher teaching of Christianity.
From this school came Thekla, a Grecian
noblewoman, a God-anointed healer, whose ministry
of healing is said by students to have set a record.

And still there are those who would deny the right of
Christian ministry to women.
The revelation of Jesus Christ as Savior and Healer
through the simple teaching of the cross surpassed in
Paul's estimation every other knowledge and led him
to declare:

I determined not to know any thing among

you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
(1 Corinthians 2:2)

Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of

God. (1 Corinthians 1:24)

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for

it is the power of God unto salvation to
every one that believeth, to the Jew first,
and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)

Who has authority to pray for the sick? Is this holy

ministry only given to the few? Is it a ministry to all
Christians or to the clergy only? Jesus said:

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will

do it. (John 14:14)

Ask, it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall

find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
(Luke 11:9)

These signs shall follow them that believe;

In my name shall they [believers] cast out
 devils; they shall speak with new
tongues;...they shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover. (Mark 16:17-18)

The apostles were commanded to go into all the

world— to make believers in every section. The signs
were to follow the believers, not the apostles only.

This was heaven's characteristic. It was the

trademark of the Christ on His goods. It was the
brand, the stamp burned into the soul of the believer
with heavenly fire.

Baptism in the Spirit of Jesus was Christ reproducing

Himself in the believer: To what extent was this
reproduction to be a fact? We contend that Jesus
taught that the believer was empowered by the
Spirit's incoming and indwelling so that he was
Christ's ambassador on earth. Then he must perform
Christ's most holy ministries to the sinful and sick
just as Jesus himself would do.

If this is true, then the believer is a priest in every

respect. The believer must then perform Christ's
priestly ministry.

The believer, then, is expected to heal the sick. Jesus

said that a believer should lay his hands on the sick
and heal them—they were not to die; they were to
recover. They were healed through the believer by
the power supplied from heaven by Jesus Christ to
the believer.

We desire to ask, "Should the believer-priest also

forgive sins or pronounce absolution to the penitent
seeker after God?" We believe he should. We are sure
that it is the privilege of the modern church to see
this tremendous truth that was purposed by the Lord
to be the glory of Christianity.

Jesus said the believer should cast out devils. He

believes he should. He does it. The devil is ejected
from further possession.

How did he do it? By the exercise of the bestowed

power as Christ's believer-priest, he exercises
spiritual authority over the devil in the candidate
and frees him from control.

In this, he has performed the Christ-function. The

sick likewise are healed through the believer-priest.
In this also he performs another Christ-ministry.
Then how about sin? Why does not the believer-
priest by the same spiritual power and authority
destroy the consciousness of sin in the soul and
pronounce absolution for sins that are past?

We are asking these questions in order to discover

what the believer's ministry as Christ's
representative is.

We are not alone in our faith that the believer should

perform the full ministry of the Christ:
♦ "I am a priest."—Robert Browning
♦ "The early church lost its power when it lost sight
of its high priestly office."—Bishop Burnett
♦ "The church needs to realize in new ways the
inherent priesthood of Christian believers."—
Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, 1906
♦ "The authority to pronounce absolution and
remission of sins that are past and fulfill the
aspirations of the soul for the future, I believe to
be spiritual and not ecclesiastical and traditional,
and to belong equally to everyone who has
received such absolution and remission, and such
gifts of the spiritual life." —Lyman Abbott (1835-
1922)

♦ "The experience of the Free Church confirms what

we should expect from study of the New Testament
and modern psychology, that the priesthood of all
believers rests on sounder evidence than the
priesthood of some believers."—Rev. Dr. Glover of
Cambridge

♦ "With the Quaker it is not that there is no clergy,

but that there is no laity, for we are all priests unto
the Highest."—John H. Graham in The Faith of the
Quaker

♦ "I am ever in the presence not only of a Great

Power, or a Great Lawgiver, but a Great Healer."—
Lyman Abbott
Therefore, every believer on Jesus Christ is
authorized by the Lord to do as He has done, assured
of Christ's assistance:

Greater works than these shall [ye] do,

because I [Jesus] go unto my Father.
(John 14:12)

And they went forth, and preached every

where, the Lord working with them, and
confirming the word with signs following.
(Mark 16:20)

Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end

of the world. (Matthew 28:20)

The miracles of Jesus have been the battleground of

the centuries. Men have devoted their lives in an
endeavor to break down faith in miracles. Yet more
believe in miracles today than ever before.

Pseudoscience declares miracles impossible. Yet the

biggest men in the scientific world are believers in
the supernatural and know that miracles are the
discovery and utilization of which the material
scientist knows nothing.

The miracle realm is man's natural realm. He is by

creation the companion of the miracle-working God.
Sin dethroned man from the miracle-working realm,
but through grace he is coming into his own.

It has been hard for us to grasp the principles of this

life of faith. In the beginning, man's spirit was the
dominant force in the world; when he sinned, his
mind became dominant. Sin dethroned the spirit and
crowned the intellect. But grace is restoring the spirit
to its place of dominion, and when man comes to
realize this, he will live in the realm of the
supernatural without effort. No longer will faith be a
struggle but a normal living in the realm of God. The
spiritual realm places men where communion with
God is a normal experience.

Miracles are then his native breath. No one knows to

what extent the mind and the spirit can be
developed. This is not the power of mind over
matter, but the power of the spirit over both mind
and matter. If the body is kept in fine fettle, there is
almost no limitation to man's development.

We have been slow to come to a realization that man

is a spirit and that his spirit nature is his basic
nature. We have sought to educate him along
intellectual lines, utterly ignoring the spiritual, so
man has become a self-centered, self-seeking being.
Man has lost his sense of relationship and
responsibility toward God and man. That makes him
lawless. We cannot ignore the spiritual side of man
without magnifying the intellectual and physical; to
do this without the restraint of the spirit is to unleash
sin and give it dominance over the whole man.

There must be a culture and development of the

spiritual nature to a point where it can enjoy
fellowship with the Father God. It is above mind as
God is above nature.

Man's intellect is ever conscious of supernatural

forces that he cannot understand. He senses the
spirit realm and longs for its freedom and creative
power, but cannot enter until changed from self and
sin; the spirit must been throned and in action rather
than the intellect—spirit above both mind and
matter.

GOD DESTROYS SIN—

SIN IS DEATH

Does God always heal? "In him is no darkness at all"

(1 John 1:5). Can darkness come out of light? Can
sickness come out of health? Is death born of life?
The issue resolves itself into this: Of what is the
redemption of Jesus Christ constituted? What
existing powers does He promise to destroy?

First, sin. When Christ's redemption is completed, sin

is gone. "By one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin" (Romans 5:12). Death entered into the
world through sin.

Sickness is incipient death, death in process.

Jesus "went about doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil" (Acts 10:38). In Luke
chapter thirteen, Jesus demanded His right to heal
the woman bowed together with the spirit of
infirmity as follows: "And ought not this woman,
being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath
bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this
bond [be healed] on the sabbath day?" (Luke 13:16);
and overriding traditions of the Jews, He healed her
then and there.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is

death. (1 Corinthians 15:26)

For this purpose the Son of God was

manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. (1 John 3:8)

Sin, sickness, and death are doomed, doomed to

death by the decree of Christ Jesus. Sin, sickness, and
death are the devil's triumvirate—the triple curse.

Heaven is the absence of this triple curse; heaven is

sinlessness, sicklessness, and deathlessness. This is
the ultimate of Christ's redemption.

Dr. Frank N. Riale, field secretary for the

Presbyterian department of education, is the author
of one of the greatest books of the century, The
Antidote for Sin, Sickness, and Death:
 Today, science labors to eliminate sickness and
declares, "There is no reason why men should
die." Science declares men are so constructed
as to be perpetually renewed. Many great
scientists declare the elimination of sickness to
be their final objective.

Jesus anticipated the world's need. He

commanded His power for the use of mankind
and invites us to help ourselves to His eternal
quality and become, thereby, sons of God.

The Love Of Jesus Healed

The Sick, Afflicted

Take the shackles off God.

Jesus did not heal the sick in order to coax them to be

Christians. He healed because it was His nature to
heal. The multitude surrounded Him. His love
gushed forth like an electric billow. "There went
virtue out of him, and healed them all" (Luke 6:19).

Some modern evangelists have degraded divine

healing by making it a teaser to bring those desirous
of healing under the sway of their ministry. Jesus
healed both saint and sinner—to the dismay of His
apostles, who had not yet grown to the soul stature of
Jesus. They reported to Jesus:
 "We saw one casting out devils in thy name,
and he followeth not us: and we forbad him,
because he followeth not us." But Jesus said,
"Forbid him not, for there is no man which
shall do a miracle in my name, that can
lightly speak evil of me." (Mark 9:38-39)

He met a man at the pool of Bethesda, a paralytic.

This man did not ask for healing. Jesus went to him
and said: "Wilt thou be made whole?" (John 5:6).
Here Jesus was asking for the privilege of healing the
sufferer. He healed him. His love compelled it.

Later, Jesus met the healed man in the temple and

said: "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest
a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14).

Jesus' action is a perpetual rebuke to the priestcraft

who endeavor to use the possibility of the
individual's healing as a means to force him into the
church.

The outgushing of His love for the world burst all

bounds, and four times He healed multitudes. But
some say: "This was Jesus. No apostle had such an
experience."

When Peter went down the street as the evening

shadows fell, when his shadow reached across the
street, "they brought forth the sick into the streets,
and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least
the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow
some of them" (Acts 5:15). The clear inference is that
they were healed.

James, writing to the twelve tribes scattered abroad

— not the little group of Jews constituting the
kingdom of the Jews, but the whole body of the
nation of Israel scattered throughout the world, both
the ten-tribed kingdom and the two-tribed kingdom
—shouts: "Is any sick among you? let him call for the
elders of the church; and let them pray over him"—
not prepare him for death—but that "if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him" (James
5:14-15). He is coming into His own.

Healing was the evidence of God's forgiveness,

heaven's testimony that their sins were remembered
no more.

Take the shackles off God. Enlarge your theologies to

Christ's standard, and the world will love and
worship Him forever.

Jesus' Healings Were

Not Always Instant

Faith Is a Large Factor in Regaining Health

In one of the letters received from readers, this
question is asked: "Why are not all persons healed
instantly, as Jesus healed?"

The writer of this letter is mistaken in thinking that

Jesus always healed instantly. A case in point is the
healing of the ten lepers; as they went, they were
cleansed. (See Luke 17:14.) The healing virtue was
administered. The healing process became evident
later.

Again, Jesus laid His hands on a blind man and then

inquired, "What do you see?" The man replied, "I see
men as walking trees." His sight was still imperfect.
Then Jesus laid His hands on him the second time
and he saw clearly. (See Mark 8:23-25.)

Healing is by degree, based on two conditions: first,

the degree of healing virtue administered; second,
the degree of faith that gives action and power to the
virtue administered.

The word preached did not profit them, not

being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. (Hebrews 4:2)

God Passes On Powers

To Cure To All Followers

Jesus not only healed the sick, but performed a

creative miracle on the man born blind. (See John 9.)
Being born blind, it is self-evident the eyes were not
a finished creation. Otherwise, he would have seen.
The narrative reveals that the blind man did not
know who Jesus was. Jesus did not make Himself
known until after the miracle had been performed.
Let us analyze the incident.

Jesus discovered the man born blind. (See verse 1.)

He then spat on the ground and made clay of the
spittle. Why? Because Jesus was a fundamentalist.
The story of creation in Genesis says that "God
formed man of the dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7).
Jesus, in finishing the creation of the eyes, adopted
the same method. He stooped down, took up some
dust, spat on it, and put it on the blind man. This was
not healing. It was a work of creation.

In 1 Corinthians, the twelfth chapter, it is said that in

distributing the gifts of the Spirit to the members of
the church, one was given the "gifts of healing...
[and] to another the working of miracles" (1
Corinthians 12:9-10). Healing is the renewal of the
body from diseased conditions, A miracle is in the
creative order. The case of the blind man was an
exercise of creative authority, not the restoration of
diseased tissue. The man was made whole.

The grouchers made their kick. The Pharisees

examined the man and asked, "Who healed you?"
He answered, "I know not" (John 9:12).

It is clearly evident to students of divine healing that

sometimes the Spirit of God is ministered to the sick
person to a degree that he is manifestly super-
charged with the Spirit. Just as a person holds a
galvanic battery until the system is charged with
electric force, yet no real and final healing takes
place until something occurs that releases the faith of
the individual, a flash of divine power is observed, a
veritable explosion has taken place in the sick
person, and the disease is destroyed.

This tangibility of the Spirit of God is the scientific

secret of healing.

A diseased woman followed Jesus in a crowd. She

knew the law of the Spirit and had observed that it
flowed from the person of Jesus and healed the sick.
She was convinced it must also be present in His
clothing. So she reasoned: "If I could but touch the
hem of His garment, I would be made whole." (See
Mark 5:28; Matthew 9:20-21.) She did so. She was
healed of a twelve-year sickness that had baffled
physicians and left her in poverty.

Jesus was aware that someone had been healed. He

turned to ask who it was. Peter said, "See how the
multitude is thronging and jostling You."

But Jesus answered, "Someone has touched Me, for I

perceive that virtue has gone out of Me." Jesus was
aware of the outflow.

The woman was aware of the reception. Her healing

was a fact. (See Mark 5:25-34.) Here, faith and the
power of God were apparent. It was a veritable
chemical reaction. Healing always is.

I believe the reason that people do not see the

possibilities of divine healing is that they are not
aware of its scientific aspects. The grace and love of
God in the soul opens the nature to God. The Spirit of
God resounds.

When the Pharisees asked the man who had been

born blind, "What do you think of Him;'" he replied,
"He is a prophet" (John 9:17).

Later, Jesus found him and said to him, "Dost thou

believe on the Son of God?" (verse 35).

The man replied, "Who is he, Lord, that I might

believe on him?" (verse 36).

Jesus answered, "I that speak unto thee am he." (See

John 37.)

The struggle of the centuries has been to free the soul

of man from narrow interpretations. Jesus has
sometimes been made to appear as a little bigot,
sometimes as an impostor. The world is still waiting
to see Him as He is: Jesus the magnificent, Jesus the
giant, Jesus the compassionate, Jesus the dynamic—
the wonder of the centuries.

Take the shackles off God. Let Him have a chance to

bless mankind without ecclesiastical limitations.
As a missionary, I have witnessed the healing of
thousands of heathens. Thus was Christ's love and
compassion for a lost world revealed. And thus, the
writer was assisted into the larger vision of a world-
redeemer whose hand and heart are extended to
God's big world, and every man—saint and sinner—
is invited to behold and love Him.

Jesus Used Science To Heal The

Afflicted The Law Of Contact And
Transmission Was The Medium Through
Which The Master Wrought Miracles

Mrs. John W. Goudy of Chicago writes, "How can you

speak of divine healing as scientific if healing is
through the atonement of Jesus Christ? How can the
matter of atonement and grace be considered
scientific?"

Atonement through the grace of God is scientific in

its application. Jesus used many methods of healing
the sick. All were scientific. Science is the discovery
of how God does things.

Jesus laid His hands upon the sick in obedience to the

law of contact and transmission. Contact of His
hands with the sick one permitted the Spirit of God
in Him to flow into the sick man.

The sick woman who touched His clothes found that

the Spirit emanated from His person. She touched
the "hem of His garment" and the Spirit flashed into
her. She was made whole. (See Mark 5:27-29.) This
was a scientific process.

Paul, knowing this law, laid his hands upon

handkerchiefs and aprons. The Bible says that when
they were laid upon the sick, they were healed, and
the demons went out of those possessed. Materialists
have said this was superstition. It is entirely
scientific. The Spirit of God emanating from Paul
transformed the handkerchiefs into "storage
batteries" of Holy Spirit power. When they were laid
upon the sick, they surcharged the body, and healing
was the result. (See Acts 19:12.)

This demonstrates, firstly, that the Spirit of God is a

tangible substance, a heavenly materiality. Secondly,
it is capable of being stored in the substance of a
handkerchief, as demonstrated in the garments of
Jesus or in the handkerchiefs of Paul. Thirdly, it will
transmit power from handkerchiefs to the sick
person. Fourthly, its action in the sick man was so
powerful that the disease departed. Fifthly, the
demonized also were relieved. Both the sick and
insane were healed by this method.

While the scientific mind always asks "how" and

"why" it is not necessary for the soul desiring Christ's
blessing to have any knowledge of the scientific
process by which healing or salvation is
accomplished.
Jesus said, "He that receiveth me" (Matthew 10:40;
John 13:20). Men receive Jesus Christ into the heart
as one receives a lover. It is an affectionate
relationship. Men obey Him because they love Him,
They obey Him because they have received Him
affectionately. He has become their souls' lover.

His love and power in them redeems them from sin

and sickness and eventually we are promised in His
Word, He will also redeem us from death.
Redemption from sin, sickness, and death constitutes
man's deliverance from bondage to Satan and his
kingdom (see Hosea 13:14), and establishes the
kingdom of heaven.

The Bible Shows Jesus Healed

The Sick By His Word Exercised
Authority Over Disease By
Speaking To Those Afflicted

Yesterday we discussed Jesus healing through the

laying on of hands. Today we will examine Jesus
healing by the word command, and other methods.

They brought to him a man sick of the palsy,

lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith
[the faith of those who brought the man as
well as that of the man himself] said unto
the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer;
thy sins be forgiven thee. (Matthew 9:2)
The scribes thought to themselves, "This man [Jesus]
blasphemeth" (verse 3). Jesus met this opposition by
saying,

Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For

whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be
forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But
that ye may know that the Son of man hath
power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith
he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up
thy bed, and go unto thine house.
(Matthew 9:4-6)

The man arose and walked. No hands were laid on

this man. There was no external ministry of any
kind. Jesus commanded; the man was healed.

They brought a man who was dumb [mute],

possessed of a devil. When the devil was cast out, the
man spoke. The people wondered. This also is His
exercise of spiritual authority. (See Matthew 9:32-33.)
When Jesus commanded, the power of God entered
and ejected the demon.

At Capernaum a centurion came saying, "Lord, my

servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented." Jesus said, "I will come and heal him."
The centurion answered, "Not so. 'Speak the word
only, and my servant shall be healed.' That is
enough." And Jesus said, "Go home. It is done." The
record shows the servant was healed. (See Matthew
8:6-8, 13.)

Many have laughed at the idea of man being healed

long distances from the one who ministers in Jesus'
name. But here is a clear case, and the God-anointed
may still command God's power. To the needy,
distance is no barrier.

I now present mass healing. Four times it is recorded

in the Gospels that "He healed multitudes; there went
out a virtue from Him, and He healed them all."
There was no personal touch. (See Matthew
12:15,14:14,15:30,19:2.)

God is not confined to methods. Heaven bows to the

soul with faith anywhere, under any conditions,
"Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life
freely" (Revelation 22:17).

Again, Jesus said, "If two of you shall agree on earth

as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall he
done for them" (Matthew 18:19).

"Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask,

and ye shall receive, that your joy may he full" (John
16:24), said Jesus.

The apostle James gave command that elders of the

church should pray for the sick and anoint them with
oil. Oil is the symbol of the healing Spirit. This is a
command: "Pray for the sick that they may be
healed." (See James 5:14-15.)

Where? Anywhere.

When? Forever. As long as Jesus Christ reigns in

heaven. As long as men on earth have faith in Him.
The voice of Jesus still is heard saying, "Whatsoever
ye shall ask in my name, that will I do" (John 14:13).
"Ask, seek, knock—find Jesus." (See Matthew 7:7-8;
Luke 11:9-10.)

"With God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27), and

"all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark
9:23).

Divine healing through prayer is as old as the race of

man. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, records the
healing of the wives of a heathen king in response to
the prayer of Abraham. (See Genesis 20:17.)

The second book of the Bible, Exodus, gives us the

terms of a distinctive covenant between the nation of
Israel and Jehovah Rophi, "The Lord thy Healer." In
this covenant God not only agreed to heal the people
when sick, but not to permit the sicknesses of Egypt
to touch them. Its terms are:

If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice

of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which
is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his
commandments, and keep all his statutes
[on this condition, Jehovah agrees], I will
 put none of these diseases upon thee, which
I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am
the Lord that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26)

Under this covenant, the twelve-tribed nation lived

without doctors or medicine for 450 years, until the
nation of Israel had an army of 1,100,000, and Judah
an army of 500,000. Figuring on the same basis as the
number of Americans in the army during the world
war, this would give Israel and Judah a combined
population of between 25,000,000 and 30,000,000.

King David of Israel gave the most extraordinary

health report that history records: he said, "There
was not one feeble person among their tribes" (Psalm
105:37).

Such historic data should go far to convince the

world of our day that an absolute trust in God is not
only a safe policy, but a most scientific guarantee of
national health.

In this connection we must examine Israel's national

constitution as it was made the basis of national
health. Firstly, its basic principles were the Ten
Commandments. Secondly, it contained a law in
which Jehovah held perpetual title to the land.
Thirdly, a credit and mortgage statute. Fourthly, a
distribution of surplus wealth statute. Fifthly, the
most extraordinary labor law ever written. Sixthly,
an absolutely equitable tax law by which every
citizen paid one-tenth of his increase. (See
Deuteronomy 5-26.)

This is the only national constitution given directly

by Jehovah and is the foundation of all national
constitutions.

For keeping this constitution Jehovah guaranteed the

nation against wars, pestilences, poverty, destructive
droughts, and lastly, "I will take sickness away from
the midst of thee." (See Deuteronomy 7:15.)

The broad scope of divine healing in Israel is the

basis of all faith in God for healing and was the
foundation of the ministry of Jesus Christ, Israel's
Redeemer and the world's Savior.

Israel had been kept free of disease for 450 years

through divine healing. Outside of Israel there was
no divine healing. No other religion in the world
possessed healing power. There is not a single
instance of this power in the life of India, Egypt,
China, or Africa.

The Hebrews alone, from Abraham onward,

exhibited the power of healing at this time. Later,
knowledge of Israel's God and His power to heal
disease spread through the nations of the world.

The prophets of Israel were marvelous men of God.

At their word, empires rose and fell. Life and death
obeyed their will. Earth and sky answered their call.
Before their eyes, future history marched with events
of the present. No men of any other nation equaled
them. No bibliotheca of any other nation compared
with their Holy Scriptures.

CHRIST, GOD'S GIFT

Christ came as God's gift to Israel and Israel only. To

Judah, the remnant of Israel, He came. Despite all
that has been imagined and written of miracles in
His childhood, there is not a particle of evidence that
He performed any miracles until, at Cana of Galilee,
He turned water into wine. The Bible states this
miracle was the beginning of miracles by Jesus. (See
John 2:1—11.)

Jesus performed no public ministry until He was

thirty. The law of Moses forbade it. So we read that
when Jesus was about thirty, He came to John the
Baptist and was baptized. (See 1 Chronicles 23:3 and
Luke 3:21-23.)

His baptism was His dedication of Himself to the

heavenly Father. He dedicated body, soul, and spirit.
To John He said, "Into all righteousness." (See
Matthew 3:15.)

He was dedicating Himself to God to reveal the

righteousness of God. Jesus' dedication was wholly
unselfish. But His dedication in itself was not
sufficient to qualify Him to reveal God. His humanity
must be submerged in the Holy Spirit. As He was
baptized in Jordan, this took place.

Now He must be tested. He was led of the Holy Spirit

into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. This was
to find if His dedication was a fact or if He would fail
under the forty-day test.

Three temptations were applied. Firstly, a

psychological temptation to His mind—love of
acclaim. Secondly, a spiritual temptation applied to
His spirit—that He might by a simple
acknowledgment of Satan secure "all the kingdoms of
the world" (Matthew 4:8).

When He conquered, the natural result took place in

Himself. Having overcome, the consciousness of
inherent power was radiant in Him. "And Jesus
returned in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14). (See
Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13.)

Jesus now makes the next advance; He proclaims His

platform. Returning to Nazareth, He boldly declares,
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. (1) He has
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; (2) He
has sent me to heal the brokenhearted; (3) to
proclaim liberty to the captive; (4) recovering of sight
to the blind; (5) to set at liberty them that are bruised;
(6) to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." (See
Luke 4:18-19.)
No more waiting for the release of the year of
Jubilee. Jesus Christ, the Eternal Jubilee, was at hand
to save and heal.

Jesus' ministry of healing and the marvelous faith in

God that He exhibited in miracle working were no
accident. Miracles must be His very breath, for 800
years before His birth the prophet Isaiah had
proclaimed:

He will come and save you. Then the eyes of

the blind shall be opened, and the ears of
the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the
lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of
the dumb sing. (Isaiah 35:4-6)

So to be Savior of the world, He must be forever the

miracle-worker of the ages; the death destroyer; the
finality of revelation of the majesty, power, and
mercy of Jesus!

♦ The very name was a miracle.

♦ The angel announced it.
♦ Jesus' birth was a miracle.
♦ His wisdom was a miracle.
♦ His life was a miracle.
♦ His teachings were miraculous.
♦ He lived and walked in the realm of the
 miraculous. He made miracles common.
♦ His death was a miracle.
♦ His resurrection was a miracle.
♦ His appearances after death were miraculous.
♦ His ascension was a staggering miracle.

His pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost

was the outstanding miracle. It was the one event in
which His whole Saviorhood climaxed. Out of heaven
was given to His followers the Spirit of the Eternal, to
do in them all it had done in Him. Sin, sickness, and
death were doomed.

He came as a roaring tempest, as tongues of fire

crowning the one hundred and twenty as the living
eternal Spirit entering into them. He proclaimed His
triumphant entry into man through speaking in
languages they knew not.

His deity had lifted them into His realm,

transfigured, transformed, transmuted.

Jesus bestowed the power to heal upon His disciples:

Then he called his twelve disciples together,

and gave them power and authority over all
devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent
them to preach the kingdom of God, and to
heal the sick....And they departed, and went
through the towns, preaching the gospel,
 and healing every where. (Luke 9:1-2, 6)

He likewise bestowed power to heal upon the

seventy:

After these things the Lord appointed other

seventy also, and sent them two and two
before his face into every city and place,
whither he himself would come... .Heal the
sick that are therein, and say unto them,
The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
(Luke 10:1, 9)

In order to be fully informed on the question of

divine healing, let us study this question as part of
the fully-rounded development and life of Jesus.

In beginning His revelation of the life of God for, and

in, man, Jesus chose the order of nature as the realm
of His first demonstration. (1) Jesus turned the water
into wine. (See John 2:1-10.) (2) He stifled the waves.
(See Luke 8:24.) (3) He walked on water. (See
Matthew 14:25.) These revelations of power over
nature each surpassed the other.

Then Jesus astounded His followers by turning to the

creative life of God. He fed the multitude by an act of
creative power when He created fish and bread to
feed five thousand. (See Matthew 14:15-21.)

This shows the distinction between healings and

miracles. Miracles are creative. Healing is a
restoration of what has been.

Jesus now advances into a new sphere, the order of

sickness. Here He meets the mind of the other that
must be conformed to His. (1) Jesus heals Peter's
wife's mother. This is first degree healing. (See
Matthew 8:14-15.) (2) Jesus meets the blind man and
heals him. This is second degree healing. (See Mark
8:22-26.) (3) The lepers are healed—healing in the
third degree. (See Luke 17:11-19.)

Again, Jesus enters the creative realm and creates

eyes in a man born blind. Blindness from birth is
evidence of an unfinished condition of the eyes. The
creative process was not complete. Jesus stooped,
took dust from the road, spat upon it, and put it on
the man's eyes. In so doing He finished a work of
creation; the man saw. (See John 9:1-7.)

Now, Jesus again advances. This time He chooses the

order of death. (1) He raised the daughter of Jarius,
dead a few minutes. This is the first degree. (See
Mark 5:22-24, 38-42.) (2) Jesus meets a funeral
procession coming out of the city of Nain. He
commands the young man to live, and he sat up. This
man was dead many hours. This is the second
degree. (See Luke 7:11-15.) (3) His friend Lazarus is
dead four days. His body is in a state of
decomposition. Jesus commands Lazarus to come
forth. He who was dead arose. This was the third
degree. (See John 11:1-15.)
Now, Jesus again steps into the creative realm and
announces His coming death. He declares of His life,
"I have power to lay it down, and I have power to
take it again" (John 10:18).

Through this chain of successive abandonment to

God, we discover the soul-steps of Jesus. Every step
was taken with reliance on the Word of God as the
all-sufficient guide.

Jesus took the promises of God in the Scriptures and

permitted them to work out in His soul. Therefore,
His promises to us are not made on His own
speculation, but because of His soul's discovery of the
mind of God. But He did not let it rest there. He took
each discovered promise and worked it out.

He discovered the promise of supply and fed the

multitude. He discovered healing power and made
the blind to see, the deaf to heal, the lame to walk. He
discovered the promise of "man the master" when
anointed of God, and He stilled the waves and turned
the water into wine; of life ever-present, and He
raised Lazarus and the widow's son; of life
everlasting, and He rose Himself from the grave.

He gave His promises as discovered and

demonstrated truth, and He tells us these things shall
be ours as we are lifted by the Spirit into the God
realm, the Christ-conscious realm.
But it is the one real thing among the myriads of life's
illusions and contains in itself man's future hope and
his transcendent glory. Herein is the true dominion
of man.

The Marvelous Experience Of Christ's

"Death Ministry" Produced In His Soul
The Power And Glory Of The Resurrection

We have followed Jesus through the continued

ascents of His earthly career. Jesus has developed in
faith and knowledge and "in favour with God and
man" (Luke 2:52) at every step. If we were to stop at
this point and refuse to follow Him to the throne of
the universe, we would miss the whole purpose of
His life. Divine healing and every other outflow of
His holy soul would be beggared and perverted if we
failed here.

Christianity is not a mere philosophy. It is more. It is

very much more. Christianity is not simply
obedience to beautiful commandments. Christianity
is not only the acceptance of glorious promises.
Christianity is a divine content. Christianity is a
heavenly dynamic. Christianity is the ultimate of all
consciousness of God. Christianity is wholly
supernatural. Christianity comes down from heaven
from the innermost heart of the glorified Christ.
Christianity is in the innermost and uttermost of
man declaring, "I am he that liveth, and was dead;
and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and
have the keys of hell and of death" (Revelation 1:18).
Christianity is the spotless descent of God into man
and the sinless ascent of man into God. The Holy
Spirit is the agent by whom it is accomplished.

The significance of Jesus' death was not in His

sacrifice only, but also in His achievement in the
regions of death He took death captive. He liberated
those who, in death, awaited His coming and
deliverance. Jesus took them in triumph from the
control of the angel of death and transferred them to
His own glory.

David prophesied, "He ascended upon high. He led

captivity captive. He gave gifts unto men, even unto
the rebellious also, that they might know the mercy
of the Lord." (See Psalm 68:18.)

Peter declared, "Christ went and preached unto the

spirits in prison, while once the long-suffering of God
waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being
prepared." (See 1 Peter 3:18-20.)

And lest we fail to comprehend the source of His

ministry in death, Peter says again, "For this cause
was the gospel preached also to them that are dead,
that they might be judged according to men in the
flesh, but live according to God in the spirit" (1 Peter
4:6).

The apocryphal book of Nicodemus relates this:

"Jesus came to the regions of death, released the
captives, and proclaimed liberty." (See The Gospel of
Nicodemus 6:1.)

It was this marvelous experience of Jesus in death

ministry that produced in His soul the glory-power of
the resurrection, not only His personal triumph over
death, but the release of those held in death's chains.

In all the universe there was none with such triumph

in his spirit as Jesus possessed when death's bars
were broken.

With power heretofore unknown, He commanded

His followers, saying, "All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18).

Glorifying in this amazing ascent in consciousness,

He instantly found the eleven and breathed on them,
saying: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20:22). This
was Jesus' endeavor to lift them into the same soul
triumph that He enjoyed.

The ascension was a further advance in triumphant

consciousness, climaxed by His presentation of
Himself at the throne of God, where, Peter says, "He
received from the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit."
(See Acts 2:33.) This was Jesus' divine equipment as
world Savior. From then on, He was empowered to
administer the transcendent glory-power to all who
would receive—divine healing, saving power. The
empowering of the Christian soul from on high is the
pouring forth of the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ, High
Priest of heaven.

That we may realize the uttermost of ultimate

transcendence of the soul of Jesus in glory, hear Him
declare anew:

I am he that liveth and was dead; and,

behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and
have the keys of hell and of death.
(Revelation 1:18)

Who would not rejoice to place himself in the hands

of such a Savior and Physician?

Answering forever the world's questions: "Is He able

to heal? Does He ever heal? Does He always heal?"—
to all we boldly say, "Yes, He is Jesus, triumphant,
eternal, omnipotent."

Jesus called His twelve disciples and commanded

upon them power and authority to cast out devils
and heal disease.

(See Luke 9:1.) He superseded this by declaring: "If ye

shall ask anything in my name,...it shall be done"
(John 14:14,15:7).

The first was a limited power of attorney; the second,

unlimited. This unlimited power of attorney was
authorized before His crucifixion. It was to become
effective when the Holy Ghost came.
On the day of Pentecost this power of attorney was
made fully operative. The Spirit came. First, legally,
they had His Word. Then, vitally, He sent His Spirit.
Peter and John instantly grasped the significance of
the name. Passing into the temple, they met a beggar-
cripple. He was forty years old and had been
crippled from birth. Peter commanded, "In the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" (Acts
3:6). Heaven's lightning struck the man. He leaped to
his feet, whole.

A multitude rushed up. They demanded, "In what

name, by what power, have ye done this?" Peter and
John replied, "In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom ye slew, whom God raised up." (See
Acts 3:12-16.) Matchless name! The secret of power
was in it. When they used the name, power struck.
The dynamite of heaven exploded.

Peter and John were hustled to jail. The church

prayed for them in "the name." They were released.
They went to the church. The entire church prayed
that signs and wonders might be done. How did they
pray? In "the name." They used it legally. The vital
response was instantaneous. The place was shaken
as by an earthquake. Tremendous name! (See Acts
3:1-16; 4:1-10, 23-31.)

Jesus commanded, "Go ye into all the world" (Mark

16:15). What for? To proclaim the name; to use the
name; to baptize believers. How? In the name.
Amazing name! In it was concentrated the combined
authority resident in the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, almighty name!

The apostles used the name. It worked. The deacons

at Samaria used the name. The fire flashed. Believers
everywhere, forever, were commanded to use it. The
name detonated round the world.

More Bibles are sold today than any other 100 books.
Why? The name is in it. It's finality—"at the name of
Jesus every knee [shall] how..,and every tongue
[shall] confess" (Philippians 2:10-11).

Prayer in this name gets answers. The Moravians

prayed, and the greatest revival till that time hit the
world. Finney prayed, and America rocked with the
power. Hudson Taylor prayed, and China's Inland
Mission was born. Evan Roberts prayed for seven
years, and the Welsh revival resulted.

An old Negro, Seymour of Azusa, prayed five hours a

day for three-and-a-half years. He prayed seven
hours a day for two-and-a-half years more. Heaven's
fire fell over the world, and the most extensive
revival of real religion in this century resulted.

He said unto them, Go ye into all the world,

and preach the gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be
damned. 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. (Mark 16:15-18)

And lest healing should be lost to the church, He

perpetuated it forever as one of the nine gifts of the
Holy Ghost.

To one is given by the Spirit the word of

wisdom; to another the word of knowledge
by the same Spirit; to another faith by the
same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing
by the same Spirit; to another the working
of miracles; to another prophecy; to another
discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds
of tongues; to another the interpretation of
tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)

The church was commanded to practice it.

Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is

any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick
among you? let him call for the elders of the
church; and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the
 sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if
he hath committed sins, they shall be
forgiven him. Confess your faults one to
another, and pray one for another, that ye
may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.
(James 5:13-16)

The unchangeableness of God's eternal purpose is

thereby demonstrated: "Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8),
and "I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6).

God always was the Healer. He is the Healer still and

will ever remain the Healer. Healing is for you. Jesus
healed ail who came to Him. (See, for example,
Matthew 8:36; 9:35; 12:15; Luke 4:40; 6:19.) He never
turned anyone away. He never said, "It is not God's
will to heal you," or that it was better for the
individual to remain sick or that they were being
perfected in character through the sickness. He
healed them all, thereby demonstrating forever God's
unchangeable will concerning sickness and healing.

Have you need of healing? Pray to God in the name

of Jesus Christ to remove the diseases. Command it to
leave, as you would sin. Assert your divine authority
and refuse to have it. Jesus purchased your freedom
from sickness as He purchased your freedom from
sin.