One area that is sorely underutilized in the Christian Church and of which augments the preaching of the Gospel, the neglected and badly needed ministry of exercising power over demons; to wit, healing any person suffering from any disease, sickness, or infirmity. This work is left for others in the medical profession, whether surgeons or psychiatrists, to treat or prescribe some kind of clinical therapy by either chemical substances or invasive and sometimes dangerous interventions. The thinking is that all maladies that humans suffer from have some sort of natural cause at the root; but is that always the case?

Perhaps one of the reasons that Christians as well as non-Christians have mixed feelings about this subject is the behavior of some ‘charlatan’ in the past who have misled people by claiming to be some kind of God-inspired "Faith-healer," who as it turns out was nothing more than a self-serving, pseudo-religious snake oil salesman and

‘Flim-Flam-Man.’ On the other side of the coin are the Ecclesiastical Christian Church Fathers and Theologians who believe that these supernatural or supra-natural gifts ceased with the completion of the Biblical Canon or that Jesus, after His resurrection, cleansed the land [‘world’] of demons and unclean spirits.

If ever there was a need for this special ‘unction’ of Divine Grace, it is today. So many people are suffering and in constant pain and even the crimes that are reported on the television news and published in the newspapers are so shocking, depraved, and horrendous that it is hard to believe that a mere human being exercising their freewill without any external [‘subjective’] influence could commit such atrocities. The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 6: 12: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Someone will say that sickness and contracting a virulent or dreaded disease is just the miserable lot in life that one experiences and is part of being ‘human;’ then why did Jesus heal everybody that was sent to Him? Before going into the matter with a lot more detail, it is perhaps prudent first to look at a passage in Luke 13: 10-12, 14a, 15a-16:

Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a ‘spirit of infirmity’ eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way straighten herself. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Himself and said to her, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus healed on the Sabbath. The Lord answered him and said, "Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?" So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound- think of it- for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?"

Matthew 4: 23-24

And Jesus went about in Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout Syria (??); and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.

I John 3: 8b

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy [‘all’] the works of the devil.

NOTE: The ‘works’ of the devil are not just limited to sin and death, but includes physical and mental infirmities [‘diseases’] as well.

Matthew 10: 1

And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power

[Gr. ‘Dunamis’], over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.

Matthew 17: 14-15, 18-19, 20a, 21

And when they had come to the multitudes, a man came to Him and saying, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an ‘epileptic’ and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and the water. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" So Jesus said to them, "However, this kind [‘demon’??] does not go out [from a person??] except by "prayer and fasting."

Jesus says in Mark 16: 17-18:

And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name (1) they shall cast out demons; (2) they will speak with new tongues, (3) they will take up serpents; and (4) if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; (5) they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

Now what does all of these things that happened two millennia ago in the Middle East have to do with modern times; much in every respect. If the Christian Church wants to distinguish itself as the ‘Truth,’ then it will have to manifest something which will authenticate or give witness to the theology. It is not enough merely to revere a sacred book and participate in a variety of liturgical rites or faith practices because that is common in just about all religions. Indeed, I Corinthians 4: 20 says: For the kingdom of God is not in word [‘only’] but in power [Gr. ‘Dunamis’]. And lastly, the Apostle Paul admonished his son in the Gospel about those believers in the body of Christ who appear on the surface to be righteous, but as he mentions in II Timothy 3: 5: Having a [‘outward’??] form of godliness, but denying the power [Gr. ‘Dunamis’] thereof: from such turn away.

Copyright Robert Randle

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