Are Questionable or Progressive Miracle-Healings Real?
I have several friends who have shared this video with me. It shows a very convincing partial-healing miracle. I have Facebook friends who have attended this church. They talk about their immediate friends who know the Bishop (in this video) and his wife (who was healed) very well. This apparent healing has been a topic of conversation for many people that I know. I have found myself very concerned by what I see in this video. You will need to see the video (above) to understand what I am discussing here. This video is very moving. You can fast forward though parts if your time is limited.
This is a good opportunity to consider one specific question that we face in ministry today. Are Miraculous healings ever questionable or
progressive? I have heard enough second hand reports to believe that there is nothing fake in this video. The woman in this video is a “Bishop’s wife.” Her name is Delia. She is clearly sincere. The people around her love her and are sincere. It is public knowledge that Delia has been in a wheelchair for 23 years since a car accident. Her degree of mobility before the church service is not disclosed (this is important to remember). Church members claim that Delia has experienced a “progressive” healing. Today, Delia is still using her wheelchair and seeing a physical therapist. This is an “apparent partial-healing.” Church members state that Delia has been healed; but, her ongoing wheelchair use and therapy are helping her with atrophied muscles that were not healed during her “healing.” This video provides a good context for considering “partial healing” or “questionable” healing miracles in the church.
Are Miraculous healings ever questionable or progressive?
I am going to suggest a Biblical paradigm to guide us in these matters. I am not offering an academic treatise. If you have read scripture for a while, I believe you can agree with my two general observations. As I read Scripture, I see two types of “healings” in the NT. The first and most common NT healing discussed is public healing. Public healings act as a testimony to the truth of the Christian message. The Biblical pattern (that I see) for public healings includes “undeniability.” This was the case in all OT Prophetic ministry, all of Jesus’ ministry, and all of the Apostle’s ministry. There is no exception. The NT healings serve as miraculous proof for the message of Jesus Christ. Genuine public healings are miracles that demonstrate the truth of the Gospel.
If we consider this clear Biblical pattern…we can deduce that a public healing which is not clearly “undeniable,” is clearly hype. The Bible demonstrates that genuine miracles are as “undeniable” as the Gospel is “undeniably” true. Miracles do not exist for their own sake. Miracles are never questionable to those present to observe them. They are signs of the Kingdom of God to help us “undeniably” believe.
The Bible demonstrates that genuine miracles are as “undeniable” as the Gospel is “undeniably” true.
The second type of NT healing takes place as part of ongoing pastoral care. James (5:14-16) supplies our primary passage describing healing in the context of ongoing pastoral care. When the church faithfully prays for its own members, as ongoing pastoral care, some will be healed. Some will not be healed. James offers little explanation in his treatment of the subject. James description of prayer for the sick is clearly not dependant on the faith of the person being prayed for…James expects the church to have faith in praying for its sick. James reminds the church that confessing our sins to one another is part of the healing in the pastoral care experience. This type of pastoral care is not a public service.
So, what is normative for the believer? God leaves us in this broken world to show his salvation amidst sickness and despair. Only a Christ follower can find genuine hope in the face of despair. The unbelieving world will want to understand our hope. We proclaim the Gospel in response. Paul was left with an infirmity for his testimony. We will have sickness and physical trials as well. Healings are clearly expected and do occur on the NT. They are not normative. We should pray for them. We should expect them. They will be rare.
In this world, we will have tribulation not escape. But, we can be of good cheer (through our overcoming relationship with God) because He has overcome the world. Overcoming the despair of brokenness is normative! We should expect God’s strength to get us through all and every hardship. We do not get a get out of jail (sickness) free card.
My heart hurts as I watch this video. In this video, church members hold out hope to a wheelchair bound woman. This is a public church service (a public healing). There is no demonstration of “unquestionability.” There may be lots of sincerity. However, I do not see proof of anything beyond hope-filled-hype. Adrenaline and deep belief can do amazing things. If Delia already had the potential for modest mobility…this is extremely cruel!
While I believe that Delia’s own church loves her and would not hurt her on purpose. I am concerned is that she may have been hurt in a movement of peer pressure and religious hope. Did they damage weak muscles? Nerves? Connecting tissue? If this woman came to this healing service with this same level of mobility (and never gains more), will this cause a severe emotional trauma that she and her family will take years to work through?
I do not have definitive answers to these questions. I offer a personal opinion. To me this video looks like a testimony of public healing. This video does not fit the Biblical pattern. I believe that the people in this video are entirely sincere. It is possible to be both sincere and wrong. We have a clear Biblical pattern to guide our faith and practice. This video makes me sad.
It is possible to be both sincere and wrong.
One final comment on a related matter….I believe that Satan has duped the church into adopting an extra Biblical healing language out of misplaced zeal and in spiritual hubris. There is a heretical idea floating around which states that our belief creates or leads to our healing. While there is a relationship between our trust and God’s actions, God’s actions are clearly not exclusively dependent upon our trust. Proclaiming that we have received a miracle before it has been unquestionably demonstrated is credulity (intellectual nonsense). Our “faith” does not create miracles. Our trust in the God of miracles creates faith!
I also think we should lovingly remind each other that the Bible does not teach that believers can “lose their healing.” Neither progressive healing (as it is discussed in churches today) nor lost healings appear anywhere in the Bible or in early church history. The Biblical pattern teaches us that we cannot honestly disbelieve in a miracle. The “sign” nature of a genuine miracle is demonstrated in it’s unquestionability.
So, did we just watch a church “help” an adrenalin charged hope-to-be-healed handicapped woman leave her wheelchair? Did this church parade her around the room because they wanted to create a miracle “by faith,” a miracle that has not actually happened? Even with the best intentions, this is a heart wrenching thought.
Dr. Russ Rentler, a medical doctor, who works with handicapped patients similar to Delia just commented on this blog (see comments below). He described how this cannot be an example of healing. Are the thousands of Christians posting this video on FB sharing a video of spiritual abuse? This question should be asked. I hope this is not the case.
What do you think?
To read my response to the NEW Bay of The Holy Spirit Revival video of Delia walking unassisted click here.
When Jesus healed folks, it was so clear and so c0nvincing that the Pharisee and Priests could not argue with it. And when Peter & James healed the lame man, everybody else could see it, too, so the powers let them go.
THAT is God at work in miraculous healing.
I don’t think my next headache goes away unless God is involved. After all, He (via Jesus) holds all things together by “the word of His power”. And I have seen people who were healed of something as I prayed over them. It was dramatic (and, to be frank, intimidating), and clear.
I don’t buy the thing that folks like the ones in the video are selling, though, particularly since God tells us we don’t even know how to pray. I would NOT want God to simply answer my prayer for someone’s healing just because I prayed it.
Hi Bob,
I think you hit the nail on the head. How does a sign have power if it is obviously questionable? You raise another good point as well. It would be a problem if God’s children got everything they asked for, when they asked for it. Thanks for the comment.
Roy
The publicity of the event tells enough for me. Jesus not only healed the body, He also healed the spirit.
I have been completely healed on two seperate occasions. Once during praise and worship in my home church standing by myself. Another time at home by myself without even praying or asking either time. I had a need and Jesus met it and got all of the glory. My healings were the ” now you see it … now you don’t” kind. Undeniable healings. I still testify and encourage with these healings to this day years later.
Hi Susan,
That is a Biblical testimony! I love to hear that God still heals today. The radical encouragement that comes from receiving a miracle allows us to believe in deep ways from our own personal experience. You have a great gift to give in your faithful prayer for others.
God bless,
Roy
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the comment. I am with you in remembering the completeness of God’s miracles. The blind who Jesus healed understood what they saw. Real miracles are deep and unquestionably thorough. This is part of a miracle’s testimonial power as a sign of the Kingdom of God.
God bless,
Roy
Maybe the healing was the feeling in the legs. maybe that was all the Lord wanted to give her. isn’t that a blessing for someone without feeling? then everyone wanted more. expected more. even Jesus prayed twice for the same blind man to be healed because he was ‘partially’ healed the first time. if it happened to Jesus, it surely happens to us.
Hi Michelle,
I have thought about that. If Delia had a history of (absolutely) no feeling or responsiveness in her legs, then we do have something to praise God about! Yet, we have no evidence that this is the case. Adrenaline and deep feeling can do amazing things. Seeing believers get excited and pulling the handicapped out of wheel chairs without a clear demonstration of a miracle worries me. It side steps a clear Biblical pattern. It also opens believers to the criticism of hurting or even abusing the handicapped in religious zeal. I would rather see the prayers continue until Delia got up from the wheel chair and walked on her own. Jesus told the ones he healed to get up and walk on their own power. I appreciate your comment. I have had those same thoughts myself.
God bless,
Roy
Maybe, maybe, maybe. I’m not trying to be snarky, but we can “maybe” all day long.
The fact is, the majority of alleged healings in the charismatic church today are nothing like what we see in the Bible. Today, healings are slow. It takes long periods of worship music, hand raising, tongue speaking, claiming the healing, demanding the healing, rebuking Satan, rebuking whatever spirit of infirmity that is supposedly causing the illness, etc, or any combination of the above. The main concern is that today’s healing are almost never instantaneous and complete like those of Jesus and the apostles.
Regarding the blind man, Jesus had a reason for not completely healing him the first time. He was giving his disciples a lesson. Read the context surrounding the story.
I wish I knew your intent when you said “if it happened to Jesus, it surely happens to us.” Did you mean that Jesus was as weak as us? Or that He could not have healed him on the first “try”?
Hi Lucas,
You commented, “The main concern is that today’s healing are almost never instantaneous and complete like those of Jesus and the apostles.”
This is an important observation. Jesus, the Apostles, and the Prophets, across thousands of years of history modeled complete healing in a single ministry event. These were always “unquestionable” miracles. If we do not see an unquestionable miracle, I question whether it is an act of God in the first place. I wonder if it is hype, suggestion, or manipulation? God gave us a pattern to help us discern what is and is not a work of God’s Spirit. The ultimate proof is unquestionablilty. If they are not unquestionable they are clearly NOT God’s work. There are many hurtful practices in healing ministries today. This is why 1 Jn 4:1 tells us to question….
God bless,
Roy
First of all Roy, I really appreciate your pointing out the obvious, i.e. that public healings were done as a testimony ot the truth of the Gospel and were in each instance undeniable. All my life I have met people who insisted they were healed, but the medical evidence is always lacking. The power of suggestion, adrenaline, mind over pain are well demonstrated. My own conversion at 13 was such an event. I had sprained my ankle at tennis that afternoon, couildn’t put weight on it, swollen to the size of a football, but I was able to walk forward in a stadium for an altar call and didn’t realize the ankle was fine until I walked back to the home we were staying in. Went skiing the next day. I sincerely believe I was miraculously healed, but i have zero empirical proof that would stand up in a court of law or scientific evaluation. No doctor’s evaluation before and after, x-rays before and after, etc. And I have never seen anyone else produce empirical proof of a healing. Of course the body is designed to heal itself, so we see healing and remissions of disease as part of the natural order. But miraculous public healings as a testimony to the Gospel don’t appear to have played much part if any in the spread of the Gospel after the apostolic era, and yet conversions occured by the tens of millions anyway. It seems to me the time when such displays of power, signs and wonders were ordained by God to spread the Gospel passed, and the Word of God boldly preached and lovingly shared has proven more than equal to the task of calling the lost without flashy miracles.
Need we even bring up the diabetics that have walked away from Benny Hinn and ended up in a coma because they stopped taking their insulin? All the faith healers shown to be frauds? And then the the number one question skeptics always asks, “Why does God hate amputees?” The most undeniable of all miraculous healings, the restoration of an amputated leg, arm, hand, no one has seen that. What pastor has not annointed the sick and with the elders of the church prayed for healing of a cancer and yet watched the person die? I certainly have. Doesn’t mean I don’t still do it, but I have come to accept that God is not a curb hop at the Sonic Burger and doesn’t grant prayer requests like a magic genie if we just follow the formula and believe with all our might.
The only prayer we can always be confident of is a prayer for God’s will to be done in these situations, and if the person recovers, praise God, and if they don’t praise God.
Hi Ron,
Awsome comment. I am going to use your statement in the future “Why does God hate amputees?” I added a modest comment on “Word of Faith” language at the end of my blog. I am going to write more about this in the future.
God bless,
Roy
I believe that God can and does heal people. I believe that it happens when we walk in faith. I believe that Jesus said “your faith has made you whole” and a simple child like faith is all it takes to receive healing from our Lord. As a father, there is NOTHING that I would hold back from my child if they truly are in need. My children live in a dark world but that does not stop me from meeting their needs. If I was created in God’s image and this love for my children comes from Him, then how do we not relate that to His love and concern for us?
I believe we have too much sin, distraction, and bottom line –UNBELIEF to be able to understand who we are in Christ, what the power of the resurrection really is, and how His suffering and death on the cross empowers us beyond our feable imagination. How was Smith Wigglesworth different from us? Guess what, he prayed and communed with God for 4 to 8 hours at a time..We just don’t do that..and what a shame..we have become a powerless church at a time when the harvest is most ripe, and people need to see and experience the power of the Holy Spirit and the Love of God.
Hi Sherman,
Thanks for your comment. James 5 has a lot to say about the sin in our lives, pastoral care, and healing. I am with you on the importance of seeing the complete picture. I deeply believe that God does heal today!
God bless,
Roy
Roy,
The following comment you made, which sums up your article is a distortion of the truth (hopefully unintentional), it is “cruel and disturbing”, to borrow two of your words.
“So, did we just watch a church lift a handicapped woman from her wheelchair and parade her around the room because they wanted to create a miracle “by faith,” a miracle that has not actually happened? Even with the best intentions, this is a heart wrenching thought. ”
You evidently did not watch the video as close as you claim, nobody “lifted” her from her wheelchair. She arose from the wheelchair of her own will and strength.
Were you there that night? No! Nobody made her walk! If you are an honest man and I hope you are you will watch the video again, only this time watch as she lifts herself up from the wheelchair and watch how she kicks her knees up as she walks. Come on Roy, the evidence is on the video itself. You need to take back some of the distorting “cruel” words you have spoken and prove yourself an honest man!!!
Please use truth and integrity if you choose to criticize.
Furthermore, according to Gospel accounts
1. Jesus did not heal everybody.
2. Not all healings Jesus performed were instantaneous
Sincerely,
Lloyd Cole
Hi Lloyd,
I watched the video carefully (again). I still do not see the unquestionable quality of the healings in the NT. If God has chosen to do a new thing, in these “latter days,” it should still have an unquestionable Biblical quality.
I am open to any medical reports that are published. I still do not see anything that adrenaline and emotional power could potentially explain. I find good reason to question what I see here. If Delia is in her wheelchair again in a few weeks, the experience will have been very questionable. Time will tell. My prayer for her, after all of her faithfulness in ministry, is that she is walking circles around anyone who had doubted her healing. As you have read, I am sad and concerned….This is either a beautiful thing or very troubling.
Something is certainly happening in this revival. I hope some medical records will be published. If Delia is walking around unassisted, it will be a great reason to praise God (and update my blog!). I changed my language from “lift” to “help.” I think you are right. Delia did a lot of the getting up herself.
To respond to your two final points.
1. Jesus did heal everyone he prayed for…completely and unquestionably (as the Prophets did before him and the Apostles after him). He did not pray for everyone. At times he walked away.
2. Jesus did heal everyone completely and unquestionably when he prayed for healing (as the Prophets did before him and the Apostles after him). Jesus did pray more than once on occasion for teaching purposes. No one ever left Jesus, the Prophets, or the Apostles partially healed.
I appreciate your comment.
God bless,
Roy
Delia up, walking and praying for others for over 25 minutes I was there.
I also hate, despise, detest and cannot stand hype or fraud.
This is the real deal.
Do all recover immediately when prayed for?
These signs will follow them that believe…….they will “recover”
Recovery is not always immediately.
God bless you
Lloyd Cole
Hi Lloyd,
The “jury is still out” for me. I see Delia walking with help and being followed by a person with her wheelchair. Delia still is not walking unaided. God may be healing her. I am going to wait and see. I have not seen medical documentation credibly establishing Delia’s level of mobility before these “miracles.” If Delia continues to improve and dumps the wheelchair altogether, I may believe this is God at work. I want to see some medical documentation. If Delia was unable to move or feel anything for over 20 years, there will be ample medical documentation. The real test for any miracle is its unquestionability. This is still very questionable. I pray that Delia will be running in circles praying for people in a few days. I want to see her, and so many others, well and testifying! Time will tell.
God bless,
Roy
Roy,
Here is a video update. I uploaded this yesterday.
I don’t think it will be long before we see Delia running!
Rejoice with those who rejoice – Paul
This is intended as simply a statement of fact.
In some 45 years of attending and leading prayer meetings, the tendency toward selective observation among believers is profound, i.e. they fixate on things that went well as signs God is actively observing and intervening while ignoring all the things that they prayed for that didn’t go their way, like the hundreds of sick and crippled people in the back of the hall at a Benny Hinn concert that go away disappointed. More than that, when people start giving “praise reports”, the fact that many see an answer to prayer as a proof of their unique importance to God, their faith, their righteousness, they tend to overblow the apparent responsiveness of God to this or that need of theirs for public consumption, to let everyone in the room know how special God thinks they are. This places great pressure on other participants in the meeting to also proclaim that God is listening to and answering their prayers, even to the point of outright fabrication, false testimony, and even self-deception about their own healing, sometimes of fatal and profound diseases they claim to have had but can never seem to offer proof of the diagnosis, or that their recovery had nothing to do with medical intervention, and you can’t swing a cat in room full of believers and not have someone claim to have personally witnessed what they thought was a miracle. We are looking for miracles all the time and are predisposed to see the miraculous even in the mundane, and to interpret the ordinary as supernatural because this reassures and excites us.
This video occurs in a church full of believers, so this is obviously not occuring to confirm the Gospel, which is the only model we have for a public NT healing. It is also not a complete and undeniable restoration, which is also the only model we have of a public NT healing. All I know for sure about God is in the scripture, so if I’ve missed a passage about partial healings I’d love to be corrected. But in this video we see one person publicly prayed for thatexperienced a partial recovery of feeling and movement at the time. Well, orthopedics see this every day.
Scripture is God’s witness to me concerning how He operates. Everything else is subjective, speculative. A progressive healing is in no sense miraculous as the Bible presents the miraculous. So it’s no surprise that a progressive healing is not mentioned anywhere in scripture as a miracle from God because it is not a miracle! We were designed to heal “progressively.” So I don’t accept this event as a miraculous and supernatural act of God. It’s wonderful that this woman is recovering. People recover every minute of every day. I’ve recovered from a couple of severe back injuries myself, and I’m all about thanking God for my health, but it was slow and painful, and not miraculous, i.e not instantaneous, complete, undeniable and clearly outside the boundaries of the normal, which are the only healings the scripture records. I stand on the scripture, the testimony of God, and not on the fallible trestimony of men, or on my emotional desire to see signs and wonders where they are not. I try diligently not to interpret the natural as supernatural to satisfy my for signs and womders, because I am cognizant of the warnings of scripture regarding counterfeit miracles and their use as confirmation of false teachers and false prophets. I am certainly not implying there is a Simon Magus involved in this event, but I know Benny Hinn and countless others are walking in Simon Magus’ shoes, and the scripture has not one healing involving an apostle calling the sick up on stage at the amphitheatre for a public display of God’s power. In fact the only person in the NT engaging in this kind of public showmanship was Simon Magus. So I am naturally suspicious of the showmanship I see at “revivals.”
Hi Ron,
That is simply a great comment. I love your insight with Simon Magus!
God bless,
Roy
“I still do not see anything that adrenaline and emotional power could potentially explain.”
If adrenaline could heal people and make those that cannot walk begin to walk, then I think every person who wants to walk could drink enough 5 hour Energy drinks and start running. They could drink enough beer and start running…. They could snort enough cocaine and start running.
Because adrenaline, drugs, and alcohol have never gotten anyone out of a wheelchair to stay out a wheelchair. If it were true, 5 hour Energy drinks would be marketing this.
I believe all people should have careers in what they believe in. I think of the show Beverly Hillbillies. Granny believed in her Elixir. She tried to give it to everyone. She believed in it for everything. I think that a car salesman should sell the brand of car they believe in. If they do not drive that car, they should not sell it. I believe a President should be proud of their country and not go around telling other countries they are embarassed by the activities done in their country. I believe mechanics should be able to repair what they are working on – don’t tell me you are a computer repair technician when my computer won’t work after I pay you a fortune!
I think someone that calls themself a Christian should believe Jesus is the Savior, God is the creator of all things, and the Holy Spirit is alive and well. And when someone is healed, I believe the believers in God (which implies believer in healings to me) should leave the doubting to those that don’t even believe in God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
If someone believes in adrenaline, maybe they should sell Granny’s elixir?
If someone is not healed, it will be known. Let those that don’t believe in God point this out.
Hi Teresa,
I appreciate your comment. Please understand that leaders worry when we see experiences in the church that can hurt people. The Apostle Paul modeled questioning the “order” in the administration of spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12). Paul instructed leaders to follow his example. The church has an epidemic of harmful healing practices going on right now (at least in the opinions of many loving leaders). Leaders need to ask questions so that people do not get hurt. To not ask questions and allow people to be hurt is a serious sin.
In scripture, when Jesus is involved in healing a person, the healings are total and complete. They also take place during an immediate ministry event in an unquestionable way. I do not see anywhere in Scripture where healings are not complete within a single ministry experience…literally, as we watch it happen via scripture.
I am open to any medical reports that are published. I still do not see anything that adrenaline and emotional power could potentially explain. I find good reason to question what I see here. If Delia is in her wheelchair again in a few weeks, the experience will have been very questionable. Time will tell. My prayer for her, after all of her faithfulness in ministry, is that she is walking circles around anyone who had doubted her healing. As you have read, I am sad and concerned….This is either a beautiful thing or very troubling.
Something is certainly happening in this revival. I hope some medical records will be published. If Delia is walking around unassisted, it will be a great reason to praise God (and update my blog!).
God bless,
Roy
I don’t understand where you are coming from. The woman was paralyzed, and now she LIFTS her own legs by herself. I worked on a ward of paralytics at the Jewish hospital in St. Louis, and paraplegics are not able to do that. I am now a preacher and have seen notable miracles. Jesus said “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Jesus healed “all” which tells us that it is the Father’s WILL that ALL should be healed! The ONLY place in the Gospels where all were NOT healed was in Nazareth, and “He could not do many miracles there BECAUSE OF THEIR UNBELIEF…” You cannot say it wasn’t God’s will to heal them because the scripture tells us it was because of THEIR
Unbelief! To use the old tired argument of Paul’s “thorn” is to read into the text something it does NOT say, namely that it was a sickness! It was a “messenger” sent from Satan to buffet or push him around. The glory of the New Covenant, exceeds that of the Old, and, as one wrote, the miracles should INCREASE under the New, NOT DECREASE, “the WORKS that I do shall ye do ALSO, and GREATER…” To use the argument that miracles are not to be normative, and that God doesn’t choose to heal all, is to use the same argument that the Calvinists use that it isn’t God’s will to save
ALL! The scripture in Isaiah 53 in Hebrew uses the SAME words for the bearing of our sicknesses that it uses for the bearing of our sins! No one can legitimately say that Messiah only bore SOME of our sins and that we must bear the rest, any more than one can say He only bore SOME of our diseases and we must bear the rest! He bore BOTH sin AND disease vicariously that we may be FREE from them all! This is why many aren’t healed in churches today, because they have been trained to believe that it isn’t always God’s will to heal! Faith cometh by hearing, and so does UNBELIEF! People hear from pulpits that God doesn’t always heal, although James said He does!
“The prayer of FAITH SHALL save the SICK and the Lord SHALL raise him up…” People are ONLY saved by FAITH and they are equally ONLY healed by FAITH as well. “without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please” God. “Wherefore LIFT UP the hands that hang down, and CONFIRM the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet LEST THAT WHICH IS LAME be turned out of the way, but LET IT RATHER BE HEALED”!
Hi James,
Did you see Marty’s comment?
We do not know what Delia can or cannot do because of her handicap. With the right environment, deep feelings and adrenaline can do amazing things. Men and women have been known to lift automobiles to save their children after a car accident. I have seen wheel chair bound people get up. This video leaves us with unsettling questions.
The plain sense of scripture suggests that God chooses not to provide questionable public healing experiences as signs of the Gospel. And, if these questionable experiences are not God’s doing, then we have worked ourselves up to create them. It is this empty human experience that I am critical of seeing in the church. We have an epidemic of emotional pseudo healing parading around as miraculous ministry. These pseudo healings cheapen the beauty of the reality that God can and does heal unquestionably! I do not want believers to settle for emotionally shallow questionable experiences. These are poor testimonies. We can do so much better. If we can question a public healing, it has little power to persuade the lost. Jesus, the Apostles, and the Prophets before them never left us questioning what we saw. If what we are doing is questionable, we should keep on praying for something deeper and better!
Thanks for the comment.
God bless,
Roy
This makes me sad, too. After being given a link to this video, I had high expectations. But the whole time I was watching this, I kept thinking how different this was from the sorts of healings we see in Scripture. Yes, there is the two-stage healing of the blind man in Mark 8:22-26, but that is certainly the exception.
This was no “pick up your mat and walk” kind of healing, for certain. She was extremely shaky (unlike the dancing reported of a paralyzed man healed by the apostles, Acts 3:8) and she did not take a single step outside of the firm grip the two men had on her arms. Even those steps were very awkward, coming not from the smooth operations of restored muscles, but from jerky shifts of her center of gravity.
I would love to see clear verification of healing claims that we could set before people and say, “Look, this is what Christ can do,” but this video is not it.
I checked Delia’s website — http://www.deliamusic.com/index.html — and there is nothing about this event on there. If it were so significant for her, I’d expect it to have made an appearance, perhaps in an update to her “Testimony” page that tells of her injury.
She may walk, and I dearly hope she does, but this video does not show her walking. As I see it, this shows her shifting her weight while being held up by some men from the church.
Hi Marty,
I am with you…. If we can question a public healing, it has little power to persuade the lost. Jesus, the Apostles, and the Prophets before them never left us questioning what we saw. If what we are doing is questionable, we should keep on praying for something deeper and better!
God bless,
Roy
Actually, if you checked out the ABOUT US section…they have added comments about her healing….http://www.lwccim.com/bio_pastordelia.html
Hi Sharon,
I took a look at her site. I did not see any comments.
Thanks for the post,
Roy
This is the only information they have added:
“On August 27, 2010, a new verse has been added to her song, as the miraculous and healing power of God manifested itself in her body. Click here to watch the moment of this miracle. To God be ALL the Glory!”
Dear Rev. Shaff,
I know this is only the beginning of the analysis and criticism of what happened here in Mobile last weekend and I’ll probably not respond to any more (and I know Bishop Levy and Delia Knox will not) but since yours is the first I’ve read, I can’t help it. Before Friday night, and if I didn’t know Delia Knox personally, and was not standing 10 feet away from she and Levy when this happened I may have had the same response as you. I have no idea why she has to work out her atrophied muscles to obtain complete unassisted mobility but to me, that is akin to looking at the speck and missing the plank. She had NO previous mobility. Nathan Morris does not command her to stand up, she makes that decision. No one “parades” her around the room. Delia does this on her own and said “no, I want to keep going.” There was no “hype” going on. I think for most people who knew her and her situation, we had very little faith anything was going to happen. Nathan Morris had no idea who she was. This was not “her church” or “her church members” but people from many area churches and denominations. She was actually here at this revival from my and my husband’s invitation and she or we had no idea she would ever be called up for prayer and in all honesty, she probably would not have come if she even knew that was a possibility. Delia Knox already had a powerful ministry and was content where she was (in her wheelchair) but God obviously had other plans. When she stood up out of that chair the first time, it was like a bomb went off. I have never felt the majesty and supremacy and reality of God like that moment. Delia is still walking (with some assistance.) I saw it with my own eyes two nights ago– at “her” church this time. My husband I are educated people– both secular and theological (Univ of South Ala, Auburn University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.) What I am still learning is that we can’t have it all figured out! God cannot be put in a box or run by a formula based on how we think He should accomplish something. All of us in ministry have been guilty of being “armchair quarterbacks,” but Rev. Shaff, unless you were there on the sidelines, watching it all unfold as we were, you just are not in a position to make that kind of call. As a wise person once told me, “One good experience can ruin years of bad theology.” A final thought–at first I believed Delia and her family would probably laugh at the the idea of you being “sad” or “heart sick” at this video. They are overwhelmed and over joyed (still!) But upon reflection, I think they would weep for you– that you just can’t see the tremendous love God is pouring out on them and His people and that you would even feel it is your place to hurt on their behalf.
P.S. In answer to someone’s concern about news coverage, there an article in the Mobile Press Register about it this morning.
Mary,
Thank you for posting this. I have friends on FB who are at her church. I am waiting for some published reports. Something is certainly happening in this revival. I hope some medical records will be published. If Delia is clearly walking around unassisted, the medical records will be a waste of time. The healing will be too evident to question. It will be a great reason to praise God (and update my blog!). I would like nothing better than good unquestionable testimony!
Your description sounds very real and believable. To hear that there was no “hype” stirs up my faith. I had friends in an earlier service with two handicapped children. We have been praying for them for some time. I want to see a miracle for them too. Why God may chose to heal some and not others is a mystery.
If Delia is in her wheelchair again in a few weeks, the experience will have been very questionable. Time will tell. For the sake of my own heart, I want Delia to be well. My prayer for Delia, after all of her faithfulness in ministry, is that she is running circles around everyone. This is either a beautiful thing or very troubling. If this becomes an unquestionable testimony, my theology will grow! I would like that.
My email is RDShaff@aol.com. Will you, please, email me with her testimony or send me a link when she is walking unassisted?
I pray that God blesses you richly for taking the time to post on my blog,
Roy
Dear Rev. Roy:
I appreciated your post very much. I too was very sad and pained as I watch this sincere woman man-handled and paraded around the hall.
I am a geriatrician and internist. I spend my days in a skilled rehab facility with paraplegics, hemiplegics and all manor of sick and infirm. I can tell you from careful analysis of the video that indeed she was not healed. She was manifesting a scissor-like gait which is common in paraplegics and those with severe lower extremity weakness and could only “walk” by being suspended by her arms and clearly bearing little to no weight on her own. It is also obvious that she had some partial movement in the legs prior to the “healing” as she had no evidence of contractures and appeared to have fair amount of muscle girth as best could be determined looking at her legs (thigh portions in particular).
I do believe God can heal when he chooses, but I agree that it would be within the biblical framework of “walking and leaping and praising God” vs “partial or incomplete or progressive healings.”
As a former evangelical/charismatic Christian whose wife died at 35 years of age leaving me with two young children, I re-lived the pain experienced by multiple healing /revival meetings where my dear wife was declared healed despite her lungs being filled with tumors still present on x-rays. We lived in a state of denial, which is not faith, but presumption. We wrongly twisted scripture and ignored the scriptures that talk of uniting our suffering to Christ for the sake of the body as Paul told the Colossians. We didn’t want to hear about suffering, we wanted “victory in Jesus” because ‘By his stripes we are healed” Totally ignoring the fact that the context of that verse was about forgiveness!
Jesus suffered and died not only to redeem us by his suffering but to redeem suffering itself for us. There exists a theology of redemptive suffering that has been part of the ancient church’s treasury of truth that has been ignored and hidden by the modern Churches. Once I discovered this redemptive suffering, I joined the Church that taught it 6 years ago, and have never looked back.
God bless and thanks for your article
Dr. Rentler,
You post has made my day. There is a reason that Scripture provides us with clear guidance about public healings. It is good for us to remind one another about Scripture’s teachings in these matters. Many people are hurt because of the emotional hype at healing services.
May God bless you richly,
Roy
Hi Mary,
A medical doctor who specializes in working with handicapped patients commented below. What do you think of his comment?
I would appreciate any thoughts you have…
I am not surprised by the objections I am reading. Of the first type, we have the lie from hell that victimizes victims throughout Christendom by telling the lame and blind that their lack of faith is the cause of their suffering. If you really believe everyone that dies of cancer, or is paralyzed, or blind is simply a victim of their lack of faith, then you are not in fact ever giving God credit for healing anyone. You are asserting that they make themselves well or keep themselves ill by believing real hard, or not believing real hard and God has nothing to do with it. And in a universe where we have the power of a god and God has nothing to do with it, but only our faith matters, we have placed ourselves on the throne of heaven. In reality, the Word of Faith movement has nothing to do with faith and everything to do with works, and not surprisingly the work their leaders always come around to as the key to all power and all miracles is planting the seed of faith, which always means giving cash to their “ministry.”
We also have a second type of objection which urges us not to test, critique, examine or investigate these events, and to leave that to skeptics. This directly contradicts the urging of scripture that we test these signs and wonders to know if they are from God or not. So we can safely ignore this objection.
Of the third type is that when we invoke the standards of the scripture we are “limiting God.” This is the battle cry of every heretic and apostate in the history of the church. This was what I heard at Vineyard as people began barking like dogs, and twitching on the floor and forming Conga lines around the sanctuary, and it only went downhill from there. The Canon of Scripture is the yardstick God has given us against which all things are measured and tested. The fact that I don’t know it all does not give me license to throw my hands up and say nothing at all can be known so I have to be credulous of everything. What a divine healing looks like is not a mystery or a matter of difficult interpretation of an obscure passage. The Bible gives us mulitple clear examples. Therefore, it is not my personal notion of how God heals that I turn to for confirmation, but the God-breathed record of how God operates against which I measure. This is the very purpose for which His word has been faithfully transmitted to us through the ages. I make no apologies for it and cannot be shamed, cajoled or persuaded into abandoning this standard because someone really, really wants to believe they’ve seen a miracle or been the recipient of one.
I didn’t need to be in the church in this video to know that what I was seeing is not in any sense what we see in scriptural accounts of miraculous healing. Sidelines, end zone, cheap seats or skybox, I don’t care what your vantage point is, this is not miraculous healing as scripture presents it. Period. There isn’t anything more to discuss. You want to call me close-minded? You’re darn tootin’! I am 100% convinced that God’s word is more reliable than any person or any 100 persons or any crowd of thousands. Should we praise and thank God for every improvement in anyone’s health? Absolutely! But when those in attendance present this as God’s rewarding Delia for her faithfulness in ministry, which some certainly will and are, you can bet all the lame and halt get the message that they are lame and halt and God ain’t healing them because they haven’t worked hard enough for it. And if Delia remains in her wheel chair, they’ll get the converse message that faithful service to God goes unrewarded, at least in this life. Neither is neccessarily the whole and unvarying truth, but humans don’t handle nuanced thinking very well, which is exactly why God’s miracles are NOT nuanced, NOR progressive, Neither are they debatable. Even those who witnessed Jesus’ miracles and blasphemously attributed them to the power of Beelzebub didn’t deny the healing was miraculous because the results were undeniably miraculous. The event in this video whatever it is, however felicitous it is, it’s not a miracle.
I’ve also found it mildly amusing over the years to see how many folks up there on stage praying for faith healing, etc, are wearing glasses or sporting a toupee.
Hi Bob,
I also have wondered why we do not see amputees healed.
God bless,
Roy
Hi
Great post! I love the comments! Thanks to the doctor for sharing his story.We
are a small assembly and through our regular prayer meetings I have seen how GOD healed our sick members and other requests we layed before HIM.So GOD
is attending to our short and long term needs and some wants
Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Heber,
Thanks for the comment. May God continue to bless your faithful ministry!
Roy
@ James – Boy if I had a nickel for all the confused people who have read James 5 as commonly translated and concluded either the Christian religion is a fraud, the Bible is a fraud, or if anyone gets sick it’s their own fault. I’ll give you a link to a pretty thorough discussion that I think explains what is an apparent contradiction.
First of all, the bedrock principle of interpretation is scripture interprets scripture. Word studies in particular help us get around linguistic and translational difficulties in cases like this. But it is also a great indicator that we have misinterpreted when we act upon what we see in our understanding to a scriptural promise God does not fulfill though every condition seems to be met. When you find yourself in a place where the facts contradict the scripture,and the facts are incontrovertible, yo need to reaxmine how you’ve read the scripture. Have you mistaken allegory for chronology? Have you mistakenimagery for description? Is your understanding contextual and does your interpretation make sense if the scripture was addressd to the audience it was intended for as opposed to reading an interpretationinto that ifts modern times, but not the day of the writing?
Every Christian who has been a Christian any period of time knows people who have not recovered despite that the elders were called, the sick annointed, and everyone was trusting God for a healing in absolute faith. The Word of Faith heretics will blame the elders or the sick person out of one side of their mouth, like Oral Roberts, but then they build hospitals because they know good and well that prayer doesn’t not heal everyone, and they go to the dentist because no matter how many times they say “I do not receive this!” a cavity is still a cavity.
James 5 is primarily dealing with exhaustion, spiritual and physical. You can read a relatively good discussion here: http://www.purposeoflife.org.uk/infirmity.htm
This has brought forth a lot of good thoughts on the subject of healing. Every post is filled with sincerity and an honest desire to see a genuine blessing that is real and I appreciated reading the many comments. I actualy feel asleep watching the video though, yes I was tired, but I kept wondering when the healing or miracle was going to happen, I saw the part where she got up but I really did not know what was going on after that as I watched.
I travelled with several big named ministries that believed that ALL would be healed in their meetings, but they were not. Not 80% not 50% not 25% not 10% and I doubt 1%.
I like what Roy stated about the unquestionable miracles of Jesus and it makes sense. There are way to many hype driven good intentioned believers meetings which produce mainly vauge and questionable results. I have been to many of them as part of the team. I do believe in the God of Miracles today and know people are being healed, a friend I know who lives in India as a church planter has seen many Miracles without fanfare or hype. The Holy Spirit is still working and healing and I hope to see a genuine and unquestionable demonstration of God’s power, don’t we all? No, I was not at the meeting as Mary was and I know how being right there can have a totaly different view point than a video but I have been to a lot of meetings like it in the past and grieved over the many who were not only not healed but were deeply mired in guilt about why not, thinking it was their fault somehow. I am glad to hear that is not the case with Delia and hope she continues to walk, but if that is a miracle and I was a non believer I would not be to excited about Jesus. Does healing vary, sure healing varies all the time and so do miracles they are not all the same, I have another friend who was in a serious car accident and God miraculously healed her upper body instantly and it was all documented but he did not heal her leg which was also broken, she says it was a blessing that He did not heal her leg because she learned to wait on the Lord a bit and read the scriptures before going to crazy with her testimony.
What makes this most sad is the video tape itself. It was done by a young man that has been a youth pastor for years. Well meaning and I don’t question his motive for shooting the video… but I question the common sense of putting the video on the Internet for the world to see with the caption that she is walking. While she did “walk” … she walked with assistance save a very few wobbly steps during the tail end of things. There was another video put out that shows that.
If in fact it was an adrenaline thing as she was caught up in the moment… then it will be sad in many ways. She will be hurt as will a lot of folks that held out hope for her. As well, thanks to the world wide web… God will ultimately be mocked by people everywhere. The true healing power of God will be questioned across the world… and in the end, like it says in Romans 2 (albeit a different context) “the name of God will be blasphemed because of”… a video taken with right motive mixed with a lack of wisdom in putting it out there for the world to see.
I too hope the dear lady is walking and walking completely whole in very short order. I’m Pentecostal and have been for as long as I remember life. I too am concerned with what I see here. Most of all… I hope that I have to repent for being so blasted jaded in this age of technology that has given me so many examples which have turned me into a man who automatically thinks the worse when I see something like this.
Karen
I am attending a pentecostal church, but I haven’t seen a healing happened here and after the death of the pastor from cancer, people are afraid to pray for healing. They pray for people who are sick, just God to bless them and give them strength in the sickness. Is this God’s desire? Can’t we accept that many times we are failing doing what God wants and it is not his fault or responsibility. God sent His son at the cross and IT IS FINISHED.
Now it is our part, if we walk by sight and reasoning and feeling and men’s teaching or we walk by the Word of God.
Hi Roy!
Thank you so much for sharing your article about this event. I read about it in the Swedish Christian magazine of Dagen. It is a blessing to notice that there are humble and intelligent christians out there
who are using their gifts of teaching. Why did Charisma Magazine post this article before they had all the facts? Could they not wait til she walked by herself?
Best regards/
Kristian
I have a few qeustions without questioning her miracle 1-when was the last time she saw a doctor before this healing?2-was she walking at home and this was planned for them to get videotape?3-in the bible did anyone who Jesus healed go on to heal other people like this?many people get healed but there arent videotape
There is no healing at all other then a Kundalini copy of GOD healing. When GOD heals there is NOTHING PARTIAL when satan heals it is never complete. Worshiping what as it is NOT my GOD for HE does nothing half way look at the human body or the universe nothing is unfinished pr partial. If you believe this then I loose you to your own self as you would have trouble believing GOD.
Enjoy eternity wherever you go.
richard
Great topic and quite emotional for me. I have been in all sorts of meetings where healings apparently happened. One similar to the video, but the following week the individua was back in the wheelchair.
On a personal note, I think what grieves me is that after all the emotion, adrenaline, wonderful music, promises, and sense of being important, it fades away and people can be left scarred and damaged.
I am a recovering christian and have seen too much dishonesty, hierarchy, pursuite of wealth and fame, all in the name of Jesus, and let down by close mentors. Unfortunately, it gives credence to the likes of Richard Dawkins. It seems that the only people who do not really understand what first century christianity and community was like ar Christian’s today.
I am not sure what it will take to allow myself to gonto church again. when u do attend, it is all a little too familiar, irrespective of denominarion, with the differences being aesthetic, music tastes and order of service.
I long for a return to The true heart of christ and His idea of church. I am sold out for this, but washed out in my life experiences of Church.
I truly pray for the reality of Jesus in our midst, but this video shows nothing new from the countless other revivals at other famous christians, possibly with the same eventual damaging effects.
Trust me when I say that no one wants me to be more wrong than me. But once you have travelled the road a few times…
You state that “the Bible does not teach that believers can “lose their healing.”" I agree. I also believe various scriptures identify cause and effect between sin and sickness coming upon a person (Proverbs 14:30, Luke 21:26). I am not saying this is why Delia is in a wheelchair, because I don’t know.
John 5 recounts a story of the man at the pool of Bethesda who was sick for 38 years. Jesus healed him, and at a subsequent meeting gave a warning (verse 14), “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” Imagine what could be worse than being an invalid for 38 years!
I wonder how many more miracles we would see if we were able to identify a pattern of sin in our lives and encourage each other to stop sinning. The original point of healing was to point the human heart to the outrageous love of God and be reconciled to Him.
I don’t pretend to know it all. What I do know is that God is the healer, and will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.
Just some thoughts. Your article starting me to thinking. Thank you for that.