Books on Healing
I've added a sidebar of books and other resources on healing and related topics. My purpose is to cover a wide range of theological backgrounds, spanning at least the last hundred years of healing ministry in church history. With varying degrees of acceptance in various time periods, healing has been practiced in some format through many different denominations, and I would like to reflect that. If you have a book on healing which you would like to recommend, please feel free to post a comment.
(If anyone is Episcopalian or knows someone who is, I am looking for a particular book whose title and author I've forgotten, which was recommended to me by an Episcopalian friend years ago. If you have a guess what it might be, let me know.)
Also, I would like to feature various churches (of any denomination) who practice consistent healing ministry, whether in the form of regular opportunity to receive prayer for healing at some point during your worship service, or regularly scheduled, separate meetings for prayer/teaching on healing, or some other format. If your church has any kind of regular healing ministry, or you know of a church that does, please post a comment about that as well. Add as much description as you like.
posted by Beth @ 5:54 AM
5 Comments:
My apologies if you can't see the booklist. Browser issues. I can see it sometimes, sometimes not. Still trying to figure this out :-)
To your initial request, the only books I have read on healing besides the Bible are some books/pamphlets I read several years ago by Ken Hagin. I was at a time of searching in the Charismatic circles back in the 80's and was blessed by some of the experience but for the most part I left much behind I did not find biblical in the fundamental sense.
Does God heal today? I believe he does. Is there a form or substance that we can teach as a surefire way to healing? I don't think so.
Should we leave the primary call of the Church to preach/teach and make disciples in favor of Healing and Spiritual gift services? Again, I don't think so.
I have been in several discussion lately concerning this very thing and as I see it I don't see any accounts in scripture where Jesus or the Apostles held "Healing Services" or "Miracle Sunday's". Did these things occur during their ministries? definitely, the Bible leaves us many accounts of such but they were not the primary focus of the ministry but were natural outpourings of the ministry and signs of the grace of God and his mighty power. To me the primary focus always has been and always will be the Salvation and Lordship of Jesus Christ not only to the unbeliever (evangelism) but also to the Church (maturity). When we get off of this message onto other tangents we lose sight of the primary goal of salvation and the ultimate healing, "Eternal Life in Christ".
Pastor Denny, you are absolutely right, the primary focus is the Salvation and Lordship of Jesus Christ expressed through evangelism and the maturity of the Church. Healing is a tool. Like any power tool, it can help you build your house so you have time and energy left over to walk throughout your neighborhood helping them build their houses. Or it can sit in your garage gathering dust.
Effective builders use tools, they don't worship them.
I appreciate your heart for balance in Biblical teaching. Thanks for your visit to my site and for posting a comment.
Beth- You and Pastor Denny said that Healing is a tool. I see healing as a part of salvation, just as much as the getting out of hell and the new heart of flesh that we get. I see the bible telling us that we are to expect healing as a part of the atonement. I get this from Isa 53.
So is healing a tool or is healing the point? Or at least one of the points?
Healing is a tool, healing is a part of salvation, healing is the dinner bell for the lost, healing is His love-smitten gift to His Bride – paid in blood and often kept in our attics along with other wedding gifts from distant relatives, healing is the children’s bread with at least crumbs available for all, healing is a part of our covenant blessings, healing is an ongoing conversation and communion with the healer, healing is both spiritual and physical as made clear by the use of the word “salvation” – “soter” which is consistently used to speak of both spiritual and physical healings throughout the Bible, and healing helps to keep us alive long enough to finish His Great Commission – because dead Christians just might not Get It Done.
As Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof would say, “And you also are right.” :-)
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