No Slam Bam

Slam bam, be healed in Jesus name works for unbelievers, because all they need to be healed is burst of God’s power. It does not work for Christians, because it does not deal with the underlying cause of the sickness. Finding out why the person is not able receive what Jesus has freely given may take time, words of knowledge, talking about issues or confession of sins. This is unlikely to happen under television cameras at the front of a meeting.

If their problem is lack of faith, a Christian may get inspired at a healing meeting and have a rise of faith to the point where they are healed. That is great, if it happens. However, lack of faith is only one possible reason for the sickness. Many other issues that can rob people of the healing that Jesus has earned for them cannot be dealt with on the stage at the front of a church. Peace and quiet will be needed to hear the Lord and sort out the problem.

The church has its wires crossed. The big-man, healing-meeting model does not work, because it is using the right method in the wrong place. The healing-meeting methods that should be used in the world for people who have not received the gospel, but we are using it for dealing with sick Christians. The proof that it does not work is the fact that most churches are full of sick people. Many have gone forward at healing meetings again and again, but they are still sick. The fact that so many Christians are sick after fifty years of healing meetings shows that this model is faulty. We have ignored God’s clear teaching and it is costing us.

James 5 is very clear. Sick Christians should go to the elders. It does not say they should go to the doctor. It does not say to go to a healing meeting, the next time an anointed evangelist is at a church in town. It does not say they should go to the church meeting next Sunday. It says that they should go to the elders.

Elders have avoided this issue for a long time. Christians have let them off the hook by ignoring the command and going to doctors and healing meetings. However if we deliberately ignore God’s command, we should not be surprised that numerous Christians are sick.

Paul did not see a church full of sick and dying Christians as something normal. He saw it as a sign that something is wrong.

That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep (1 Cor 11:30).

The word “why” refers to a cause or reason. Paul saw excessive sickness as a sign that something wrong was seriously wrong. One reason that sickness is so pervasive in the modern church is the unbiblical model that we have adopted for the healing ministry.