Cures and Mental Health

Here are two examples of people who struggled with the fact that Jesus’ cured the sick, he promised his followers would do greater things than he did, but the church today is not known for curing the sick:

John Wimber was originally a Rock Musician, who in 1977 founded the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in California which now has churches worldwide, including the UK, and a group met in St Andrews for some time. In 1983 he came to the UK to pray for Canon David Watson, who was dying of cancer. Some claimed that he said that David would be healed, but in his book Power Healing he sets out what actually happened, and a year later David died. He had a long journey struggling with the issue of praying for the sick:

“By 1977 I believed God could heal the sick today. Nevertheless, I did not believe the possibility that God could heal meant I had to actually pray for the sick…. On Mother’s Day in May 1977 I preached my first sermon as pastor of what is now called the Vineyard Christian Fellowship (I was still working full-time as a church growth consultant). I spoke from the gospel of Luke, and for the next ten months I continued to teach from Luke…. We experienced the presence of God in our meetings. The key to our spiritual renewal was worship. We would sing and worship God for hours, and his refreshing presence always came.

By August 1977 (four months into the Luke teaching) I was asking God if healing the sick was supposed to be a vital element of church life. I had seen there was a place for healing in the church and Luke was bringing it to the centre of my attention. At that time, the Holy Spirit conceived the healing ministry in my heart. I sensed God saying to me, ‘Yes, Christians are called to heal the sick in the same way as they are called to evangelise.’…. This then raised a second question. ‘Lord,’ I asked, ‘are most people (myself included) afraid to pray for the sick because their understanding of your nature – who you are and how you work – inhibits them?’ Again, I sensed him saying, ‘Yes, most people are hesitant, even fearful, to pray for others healing because they misunderstand my compassion and mercy. They know about me, but they do not always know me.’…

After conception comes gestation, the period of nurturing and developing.The gestation period of divine healing started the next Sunday and went on for some six months. During this time, almost every sermon I preached was about divine healing. Only a few weeks into this period, God spoke to me about having altar calls to pray for the sick after every sermon…. At the first altar call no one was healed. In fact, a few of us who prayed caught the illnesses of the sick! We caught the flu, colds … even headaches! It was a humiliating experience. On the way home from that meeting I prayed, ‘Lord, never again will I humiliate myself like that.’

But the next Sunday he again told me to have altar calls, at both the morning and evening services. I obeyed, more fearful of the consequences of disobedience than of embarrassment. I repeated the altar calls the following Sunday and thereafter for eight or nine weeks – still with not one person healed. During this time, I became hurt and frustrated. Some people left the church; they felt they could not be involved in such foolishness ……But as the barren weeks rolled on, I became despondent… and after ten months of unsuccessful prayer, I had my greatest defeat … ‘It’s not fair!’ I screamed. ‘You tell us to teach what your book says, but you don’t back up our act. Here we are; we’re doing the best we can – and nothing happens.’

The next morning I was awakened by the phone ringing; one of our newest members was on the line. He said, ‘I just got a brand-new job, and I’ve got to go to work today. My wife is sick with fever. I can’t stay at home and look after the kids, and we can’t find a babysitter. Can you come and pray for her?’

When I arrived at the house the husband led me into the bedroom. His wife looked terrible. ‘Oh no,’ I groaned inwardly,’ this looks like a hard one.’ I walked over and laid hands on her and mumbled a faithless prayer, and then I turned around and began explaining to her husband why some people do not get healed – a talk I had perfected during the previous ten months. I was well into my explanation when his eye caught something behind me. Then he started grinning. I turned around to see his wife out of bed, looking like a new person. ‘What’s happened to you?’ I asked.

‘I’m well’, she said. ‘You healed me. Would you like to stay for some coffee or breakfast?’ … I could not believe it … Halfway back to my car, I yelled at the top of my lungs, ‘We got one!’…..

During the ten-month period of ineffectual prayer, I underwent many changes……This period of failure was a learning experience, a time in which

I was purged of my pride and self-sufficiency. I was humiliated and I was humbled. God had first to cleanse a vessel before it was fit to fill with his precious oil of healing. … I realized that I could get no results without God’s anointing. My job was to obey, pray, and rely on his sovereign mercy; his part was to heal.”

Colin Dye is Senior Minister of Kensington Temple, a large multi- ethnic church, and a member of the National Leadership Team of the Elim Pentecostal Churches in the UK. He grew up in Kenya and Australia, and danced professionally for three years with the Royal Ballet Company. In his book The God who Heals he writes about his daughter who died aged 16 following brain damage as a result of post-natal medical negligence. He describes a visit back to Kenya:

“I had flown into Kenya determined to pray for people to be healed. It was my first long trip away from my church in London and I felt free to experiment, to be bold, to make mistakes, to preach and to pray in a way which guaranteed that I would look ridiculous unless God honoured my words. It was September 1987…. From Nakuru, we drove high up the mountains of the Rift Valley for some meetings at a place called Nyota Farm… “

At Nyota Farm, the team held a series of meetings urging the farm workers and their families to follow Jesus, and there were several healings. A group asked Colin to pray for a boy with a withered leg, probably from polio.

“We prayed and prayed until we ran out of words and energy … We had failed…. The following morning I felt so low that I could not go out preaching with the team… After they left I tried to be pious and pray. Finally, I stopped pretending and blurted out, “Why didn’t you heal him?” Quick as a flash, God responded, “I have a purpose for that boy just as I have a purpose for you.” The issue was closed. God had nothing more to say… “

“Just then, a messenger dashed up and started speaking rapidly in Kikuyu. I understood them to be saying that someone from the next farm was ill. Immediately I heard the Holy Spirit speak to my heart, “She shall be healed.” I was stunned, but for a moment told myself, “If it turns out to be a man, I’m going straight home!”

“But it was, in fact, a woman. She was five months pregnant and was miscarrying. They needed to borrow our hired van to take her to hospital. I ran across the fields to where I could see men carrying her, and I was convinced that she would be healed. By the time I reached the woman, I knew in my spirit what to do. I laid my hands on her, commanded healing and announced she would be healed. The farm workers ignored me and bundled her into the back of the van, with its broken suspension, and they drove off down the rocky track, bouncing about in a cloud of dust. I learned later that the bleeding and pain stopped ten minutes after we had prayed and that the men were rebuked by the hospital staff for wasting their time with a perfectly healthy woman. They fled from the hospital and, in true African fashion, immediately visited all their friends to tell them what had happened….

“We had planned to show the Jesus film at the farm that evening .. we stopped the film for a moment, and I told those who wanted to be healed to come with us into the hut while the others stayed outside watching the film …of the fifty sick people, all bar one deaf boy were completely healed in the next thirty minutes … the people celebrated through the night … when it was light, we used a nearby lake to baptize those who had given their lives to Jesus. Without any suggestion from us, they all came up out of the water speaking in tongues! It was a taste of revival, the clearest that I had known at that point of my life…. All too soon it was time for us to return to cynical, sceptical London, to comfortable homes and a large, contented church surrounded by millions of hurting people living without hope.”

When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him, and said, ‘Lord have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly … and I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.’ Jesus answered …’Bring him here to me.’ And Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain. “Move from here to there”, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. (Matthew 17:14-20)

1. What would prompt you to ask your Church leaders rather than God for a cure for your aches, pains and illnesses? Should the Church leaders offer a sick person prayer, or wait to be asked? Who in the Church (apart from the leaders) would you ask to pray for you, and why?

2. How important is the faith of the person who wants to be healed? To what teaching of Jesus would you refer in giving your answer? How important is the faith of the person praying for healing? Who is to blame if the sick person is not cured?

3. Francis McNutt, a Roman Catholic, asks for feedback after praying for a sick person. In his experience, 25% are cured, 25% said nothing happened, and 50% said they felt some improvement. He writes “The most important thing I have learned in the past few years about praying for healing is that usually people are not completely healed by prayer, but they are improved. … For many people – probably for most people – a single prayer for healing is not sufficient. What they need is the continued prayer of another person or a group …. Mark 8:22-26 – so if even Jesus had to pray for a person twice, we can certainly expect to have to pray three times or more for the chronic sufferers who come to us for help. This much has become abundantly clear: prayer for healing is often a process. It requires time.” Do you agree?

4. Does a failure by the Church to cure a sick person bring dishonour to God’s name? Is there something a bit dishonest about promoting a ‘Healing’ ministry if the outcomes are far from certain? If the Church decides that in obedience to Jesus there should be a ministry to sick people, how would you advertise it, what expectations would you hold out and how would you word this?

5. Should you refuse to pray for a cure if you have no conviction from the Holy Spirit?

6. Would you ask the ‘Holy’ Spirit (the clue is in the name) to guide you in praying for a cure if you know the sick person is in urgent need of repentance and a change of direction? Would you raise this with the sick person before prayer?

7. The House of Bishops has published Guidelines for Good Practice in the Healing Ministry. How can we ensure that vulnerable people are not hurt by false expectations?

8. How would you explain to a curious non-Christian the references in the Gospels to evil spirits and demons?

9. How would you respond to a friend who is convinced they are sometimes possessed by a demon? In what circumstances would you suggest contacting an experienced exorcist?

10. Should Christians resist taking tablets such as statins and rely on Jesus for good health?

11. ShouldtheChurchpromotePlatonicLifePartnershipsas a means of combating loneliness and depression?

12. Do you think David or Jonathan were gay or bisexual? Why did the apostle John refer to himself as ‘the Beloved Disciple’ and might this say anything about his sexuality? Do you see close same sex friendships as suspicious? Do you wish you had more close friends? Does what other people think (including their partner) make people hold back from close friendships?

13. How far do you think your friends and family keep you in good mental health? What would you say to a Christian friend who admits to feeling depressed?

14. What would you point to in the teaching of Jesus as guidelines for good mental health? Is the concept of a sound mind in a sound body a Christian one? Would you recommend Mindfulness, as currently practiced and advocated, to a Christian friend?

15. God does do amazing things for his children, he does bless in extraordinary ways those who love him and follow him. There is great power in testimony: Mark 5:19 ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ A member of the church has been prayed for, and has shown a miraculous recovery against all the medical odds. What happens next? What do you say and to whom?

16. So in summary, what do you believe your church should be doing about a ‘Healing Ministry’ in the name of Jesus? Who should be doing what, and what outcomes should you expect?

Would you like to talk with someone about this course or give feedback? Contact us via the link below!