Jesus came to bring us healing (and deliverance) on every level of our being – physical, emotional and spiritual – through the power of the Holy Spirit. As Peter summed up Christ’s ministry: “God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil” (Acts 10:38, JB).
This teaching is central to the Gospel; it is not a side issue. But over the centuries a lively belief in healing prayer was taken away, not only by the enemies of Christianity, but, surprisingly, by Christians themselves. We are not dealing with villains here but good, even holy leaders who nearly killed Christian healing; the monks, for instance, fled to the desert (ca. A.D. 400) to escape the sinful cities and then refused, in the name of humility, to pray for the sick.
As a result, by the opening of the twentieth century healing prayer had largely disappeared from the mainline historic Church. This has been a tragic loss: The full expression of Jesus’ main ministry has, by and large, remained lost to the traditional centres of Christianity.
(Francis MacNutt)
This teaching is central to the Gospel; it is not a side issue. But over the centuries a lively belief in healing prayer was taken away, not only by the enemies of Christianity, but, surprisingly, by Christians themselves. We are not dealing with villains here but good, even holy leaders who nearly killed Christian healing; the monks, for instance, fled to the desert (ca. A.D. 400) to escape the sinful cities and then refused, in the name of humility, to pray for the sick.
As a result, by the opening of the twentieth century healing prayer had largely disappeared from the mainline historic Church. This has been a tragic loss: The full expression of Jesus’ main ministry has, by and large, remained lost to the traditional centres of Christianity.
(Francis MacNutt)
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