Does Faith Healing Work?
You’ve all seen those guys on TV, pressing hands on the faces of those willing to be healed. People are coming up to the stage begging for mercy from whatever ailment they have, kneeling before a televangelist as he summons the power of Jesus to bring healing. And you think in your head “this possibly can’t be real”, yet thousands upon thousands are in the audience, crying, praying to Jesus and thanking him for the faith healing that’s happening to people right before their eyes. But can it be real? Truthfully, it can be.
I’ve experienced faith healing, but not like you think.
Those televangelists say they summon the word of God to perform miracles, but the reality of it all is that many people who want to be helped will be helped if they believe hard enough. Often times the televangelist has had those coming to the stage pre-interviewed by show producers. They pick out the most T.V-worthy and desperate, knowing they’ll sell themselves to whatever Benny Hinn or Peter Popoff has to offer. However, some like Peter Popoff take it a step further- he was busted when a professional skeptic took a radio frequency monitor to his show and picked up Popoff’s wife talking into his ear, giving him specific details on specific “victims” in the audience that were pre-interviewed. So naturally I’ve gone through most of my life not believing in faith healing.
I had been out of the church life for quite some time. I was raised mostly Catholic, going to church because I “had to” and when my mom quit going, I quit going. When my parents got divorced, I really strayed away. I had been in college and surrounded by atheists, doubters, and hypocritical so-called Christians who were having pre-marital sex just like me and doing bad things just like me. I married a great woman who was raised in the church and was looking for one.
We stumbled into a great church in Charleston, South Carolina. The church even had the nerve to not ask for money from visitors during collection. “If you are a visitor to this church, feel free not to give; this service is a gift to you.”
I still had my doubts, but then I looked in front of me and there was a flyer for a small group called “Alpha”. It was for people who had questions about the Bible and needed a fresh, logical start into Christianity. I would definitely count that as a sign.
The Alpha course was very cool. It was started by a former atheist named Nicky Gumbel who wanted to logically explain God and Jesus and attempt to answer some of the tough questions. One of those questions was “why do we pray?”. The answer was that we pray because that’s how God speaks to us. We don’t necessarily get the answers we want because often we pray for the wrong things like “God, please put 200 dollars into my bank account.” But if we pray, and pray in a group of three for something that we truly need, God can heal even the toughest of diseases.
This is when my skeptical eye turned back on because the discussion turned into faith healing. The leader of the group suggested that we all sit quietly and think about things that we need healing from. This leader wasn’t a televangelist in any way. He was a normal, well-educated man in his 50’s that was a good speaker but by no means magnetic. He was just an ordinary guy with a great heart. I decided I was going to participate because he didn’t seem very threatening or ready to scam me out of money.
For the last 10 years, I had a lower back pain that was progressively getting worse, especially in my military career. The doc said I had two small curves and that unless I had a healthy regiments of stretching and some shock therapy it wasn’t going to get much better. It actually went out about 3 times in one year- and I was only 30 years old. I decided that this was what I was going to pray about. If God could really sense pain, that would be it.
After a few minutes of quiet, the leader finally spoke up. Someone’s got a leg problem on this side of the room.” “I sense a heart issue over here.” And then, pointing to my side, he says “definitely a lower back problem.
Skeptic-wise, that could have been anyone on a bad day. But today it was me and two other guys with back issues, all sitting on the same side of the room. The odds of that were rare, but it happened.
We were then told to group together with one of the church leaders who would pray over us. As long as there were three of us, we could pray stronger. Several groups gathered depending on the ailment. I got with all the back people and a very old, southern gentleman who put his hands on me. We all gathered and began to pray.
Now even to this point I was skeptical. I always pray quietly and often found it hard to focus on whatever prayer the pastor was saying. So all I could do was close my eyes and think, “here goes nothing”.
The man prayed. And prayed. And prayed. I was able to focus on his words. “Lord, please heal Him, he works for You.” Suddenly I started praying out loud. “Yes, Lord.” “Heal me, Lord.” “Help me, Lord.” I couldn’t even believe words were coming out of my mouth.
And then it really happened. I felt twinges in my back. Deep, traveling twinges as if my right side was too tight and my left side was loosening it up. They continued as we prayed. They continued after we prayed. The southern gentleman started telling me stuff and giving me instructions about praying over myself at night when it hurt, but I couldn’t concentrate because I was already feeling better.
I had never felt such a relief! The twinges kept happening over and over as I walked back to my table with a huge Cheshire grin on my face. My back actually felt better than it had in years!
Was the pain completely gone? No, it wasn’t. But it never got worse. The deep, relieving twinges lasted for two days. When I prayed at night alone, it wasn’t nearly as effective, but a voice in my head said “keep praying, keep stretching.” I had truly been healed by faith.
That was four years ago. Today my back is probably 80% better than it had been. Now it only hurts if I don’t take care of it, but it has never given out or been in as much pain as I was the day before I was faith healed. I finished the Alpha course and did it again with a much smaller group. I couldn’t wait for the “how do we pray” meeting because I wanted others to experience what I had.
That second meeting was a tough one. A man that had been in our church for awhile but was mostly private with his wife ended up revealing he had cancer. It wasn’t his plan to tell anyone, but the leader sensed a deep, deep disease in someone. “Someone in here is hurting, real bad, and deep in the blood. I have no idea who it is, but let us help you.” A girl at our table felt a pain near her heart. She was 20 years old and soon to be a newlywed. She was athletic and had no health problems. And it turned out it wasn’t her heart that was in real trouble; it was a guy across the room who didn’t say anything until she asked.
To tell you the truth, I doubt cancer was cured and heart conditions disappeared that day. I don’t know what happened to those people afterwards. I think we were learning that another person’s pain is our pain.
But I can share one other miracle that happened. A lady named Sherry had come into our church a few weeks back. She needed a ride somewhere and wanted to use the phone to call her sister. Sherry was hard-of-hearing. She was thankful that our church let her use the phone, so she decided to come back the next Sunday. The third Sunday she found out about Alpha and came to the first meeting, doing her best to talk to us. Luckily one of the other newcomers was an ASL teacher, so she interpreted. Sherry explained she was hard-of-hearing but could read lips so all we had to do was talk directly to her.
Sherry needed another hearing aid because the one she had was 20 years old and had been passed down from a relative that was also hearing-impaired. We took up a collection at Alpha and raised $500. Well, the aid she needed was $2,500. When Sherry and a friend went to a hearing specialist, they explained her story. And if you know doctors, they pay a lot for their school and pay a hefty price for whatever they dish out. Somehow, this doctor sold a brand-new hearing aid to Sherry for the $500 we raised.
It didn’t stop there. He told Sherry it would take 2 weeks for her hearing to improve because it had to get used to the new aid. In the middle of his explaining this as she put it on, Sherry stopped him. “It works just fine right now. You’re too loud!” She gained almost half her hearing back the minute she put the new aid on.
Suffice it to say, I’m no longer a skeptic. I believe in faith healing when it is applied properly. When there is no stage, no lights, no worshipping of other human beings, and just at least three Christian spirits, God can move and heal. I’ve seen it and I’ve felt it myself.
