Miracle Service

I went to a “Miracle Service” last night in Washington DC. It was amazing, although I did not even stay for the healing part of it! There were people of all ages and walks of life, many with visible maladies and handicaps, and many who were seemingly perfectly healthy.

The evening started out with praise and worship, which is ALWAYS a good start to an event in my opinion. One thing that saddens me is that my church does not really worship with abandon. I appreciate the opportunity to do so, so I tend to seek outside worship services.

Then the speaker got up to preach. He has witnessed and documented the miraculous healings of over 30,000 people all over the world. He had footage of services in Africa, India, and elsewhere of people dancing and singing and praising God after various handicaps, deafness, blindness, etc. He had amazing stories. But one thing really stuck out to me about his sermon.

He was absolutely insistent that the burden and power of the healing is the resurrected Lord! We had to say over and over, Jesus is alive! And it is his power in us that raises the dead, creates and destroys diseases. And he commanded destruction of disease and creation of healing.

I am not a skeptic of supernatural things. But often I don’t have the faith to believe that it will happen to me. In short, I believe that Christ can and does do ALL THINGS. But it is more of a leap to expect it in my own life. I also deal with the difficulty of how people who need healing must feel if they are not healed after various attempts at healing prayer and miracle services such as the one last night.

The priest addressed all of my concerns and more. He said that all the faith we need is the faith of this leper in Matthew 8: “And, there was a leper that came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can heal me (of this disease)... And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be made clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” The leper, like me, believed that the Lord CAN theoretically heal, but wasn’t convinced that God would heal HIM specifically. I think I fall into this trap often. But we need only the faith to believe that the Lord CAN heal. Because in reality, our faith is never enough. We will always fall short of not believing God enough. So our healing is not based on our measure of faith.

And as for the individuals who are disillusioned after many attempts at healing, the preacher cited the man in Acts who had been paralyzed from birth. This man sat at the temple gate day and day, week after week, year after year. He doubtless had attempted many times to be healed by Christ, but was overlooked each time he got his hopes up. But eventually, in Acts 3, Peter and John said to him, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” In commentary, the priest said, “To all of you who feel overlooked like this man did, you need to consider that Jesus did see him, and thought to himself, ‘Not just yet. I am saving you up for the book of Acts.” So, maybe the people were being saved up for last night…or future times. I liked that point.

Also, to the people who had been discouraged or dissuaded from hope by spiritual leaders and pastors, the priest sited the young boy with the five fishes and loaves of bread. In his naivete and innocence, the boy thought his offering was sufficient and wise. Yet it was the DISCIPLES who thought it foolish and unhelpful. They were the ones to nay-said the young boy. And Christ took that sacrifice and offering and made it wholly sufficient! The lesson here was that many individuals seek hope and healing, like the boy with the faith in Christ to multiply his offerings, yet have been shot down by spiritual leaders, to great detriment to their hope and faith. But you mustn’t regard them. The boy’s simple lunch was sufficient.

Those were some remarkable applications of Scripture to the healing service.

Also, the priest said that there are two things that keep people from being healed. The first is sin, and the second is unforgiveness. Repent of both of these things and confess them to God and other believers to be free. Then let healing flow through you through Christ in you, your hope of glory.