Is There a Conflict Between Divine Healing and Medicine? (4 page)

Sometimes, Smith Wigglesworth would pray for a dozen or more before someone received a miracle or healing. The excitement that the miracle caused would overwhelm the fact that most were not receiving healing. This elderly man went on to compliment me and said that he observed that I had a much higher percentage receiving healing than Smith Wigglesworth.

He went on to compare me further with Smith Wigglesworth. He said while the healings and miracles in Smith Wigglesworth's ministry were a lower percentage than in my ministry, Smith Wigglesworth had more dramatic and unusual miracles than I seemed to be having in my ministry.  I asked him how long he had observed Smith Wigglesworth. He said that he had observed him for a decade. Then I asked him how long he had observed me. He laughed and said "Two healing services." 

I then made the point that dramatic miracles did not occur everyday in Smith Wigglesworth's ministry but those that did were very memorable. A decade of observation probably meant that he had a dozen or more stories to tell of dramatic miracles in Smith Wigglesworth's ministry. This elderly man said that this was true. I told him that this was also true in my ministry. I had several dozen stories to tell of very dramatic miracles along with tens of thousands of less dramatic healings. This is probably true of many healing ministries. There is a tendency to focus only on the dramatic and only on success. We then report only that which we think edifies other people. The problem with this is that only revealing the successes of a ministry misleads people and causes them to come to wrong conclusions.

I have been personally involved in healing ministry since
1993 and have closely observed healing ministry since 1972. Despite much hype to the contrary from some ministries, I have never seen a healing ministry get everyone healed that they prayed for. In fact, in recent years I have heard the 100% claim come from several ministries. It would be wonderful if it were true. Unfortunately, I meet unhealed people who have been to these ministries claiming a 100% result.
Whenever you hear a 100% claim, examine it for yourself to see if it is true. If you really want to know the truth, ask the people who came needing healing about their result. Until ministries are actually obtaining a 100% result - reported by the people themselves who have the healing need - Christians have no right to discourage people from seeing a doctor.

Let me offer this guideline for healing ministry that comes from the medical profession. The Latin phrase
"Primum non nocere" is taught to medical students as the first principle of the practice of medicine. It means "first, do no harm".  Here's the application for healing ministry:

If you cannot immediately produce supernatural healing in the persons that you encounter, you ought not do or say anything that could cause harm to them. To discourage them from medical treatment when they are unprepared to receive a supernatural healing could cause harm to them. Beyond being illegal in most places, it is also very unwise.