Question

In a previous email you said that Satan had the power to afflict, therefore he could "fake" a healing by simply removing the affliction.  With that in mind, let me say this: I had a severe problem with my shoulder. The pain was intolerable. I was prayed for and was healed. What you are saying is that Satan caused the pain and Satan took away the tear so that I would be deceived into believing that healing is for today?  My friend had been diagnosed with an enlarged heart. We had the x-rays. My friend attended a Kathryn Kuhlman meeting. I sat next to her in the balcony. Kathryn Kuhlman pointed at my friend and said, "God is healing your heart." My friend didn't feel anything. The next day she went to the doctor and they told her that her heart was normal size. So you're saying that Satan enlarged her heart, then healed her, so that she would be deceived into believing that Kathryn Kuhlman was used by God in the healing?  I didn't know that Satan ever did anything good. I thought all he wanted to do was to destroy.

My husband had crippled knees. He could hardly walk. He believed God for healing. God healed him. He now can do anything; run, jump, etc.  Yet, you are saying that God healed him without the aid of someone praying for him? Why does it bother you to think that God would use someone to pray for him? Why would God only heal on His own without the prayer of another person?

Answer

As I said earlier there are a variety of ways we are healed:

1. Natural healing - simply the body being healed by processes that God designed into the "system".

2. Healing due to medicines and or specific doctor's care, (again the wisdom for this can be traced back to God).

3. Psychosomatic healing, usually associated with an illness or ailment related to a psychosomatic situation.

4. God's miraculous healing, when he wants to (possibly as a result of prayer), and not by someone with the "gift" of healing or claiming some promise, making God perform.

5. Satan's fake healings--he causes the ailment or disease, and then removes it to "fake" the healing. This type of illness was very common during the time of Christ, and always prevalent when Satan and the demons have a lot of influence in a society (like today).

Now, there is an obvious difference in our understanding of what the Scriptures have to say about the Gift of healing. I firmly believe that the "sign gifts" (healings, visions, tongues, and other public miracles) were used as evidences that the word being spoken by God's appointed spokesman, was indeed God's Word. We find in the 1500 year period that the Word of God was given, that there were three major periods when God gave His revelation to man, and each of these periods was accompanied with a manifestation of some of the "sign gifts". However, once the full revelation was given to man, then the need for the "sign gifts" was done away with. Today, when someone says they have truth from God, then we simply compare what they say against the canon of Scripture--the Bible.

To claim that you have had experiences that proves that the Bible is not right, and that the power to command healings, or demand them as a right is still valid is a very dangerous path to go down. To say that if a person has "enough faith" then they can be healed will always be proved wrong in time.

To say that God would "heal" as a result of a ministry of a woman preacher (Kuhlman), when He forbids women preachers in Scripture "women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak," [1 Corinthians 14:34], would be to say that God honors false teaching and doctrine.

Is it possible that your problem with your shoulder, your friend's enlarged heart, and your husband's knee problem was a result of Satan's deceptions--yes it is possible, because the result is that you, your family, and your friend have been deceived by it all, and remain attached to false teachers and doctrines from people like Kathryn Kuhlman.

Again, it could be a result of the other types of healings mentioned above, but used by Satan to continue the deception. 

Question (continued)

If Satan is casting out Satan, or doing works in his own name, he is fighting himself and destroying his own kingdom. Do you think that Satan is going to do anything to destroy his own kingdom?

Answer (continued)

Satan is a deceiver, destroyer, and a liar, so he will do anything to continue the deception. Bringing an illness on someone and then removing it at the ideal time for his deception is not "Satan casting out Satan," but Satan being very sly and wise in his deceptions.

Question (continued

"If I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, than the Kingdom of God has arrived among you?" When people are healed even of a headache their faith and devotion to God is increased. Why is their faith and devotion to God increased?

Answer (continued)

If they believe it is a healing by the "gift of healing" or by their own power of "faith" and thereby earned or guaranteed, then their devotion to God is increased only because God did what they commanded or demanded, rather than just because God is God. What if they are not healed, does that mean that their faith and devotion will never grow? Think of Joni Erickson Tada, couldn't God have healed her if He wanted too? Did she not have enough faith, or the right "faith healer"?  Her love and devotion to God has grown by leaps and bounds.

Question (continued)

Have you read about Maria Woodworth Etter or John G. Lake? The city of Spokane was considered the healthiest city in the world when God was using him in the gift of healing.

Answer (continued)

Experience does not override God's truth.  Here is an excellent sermon on the truth about healing, I pray that you will take the time to read it. If your "will" is set not to believe anything but that God heals through "Healers" and the like, then it probably won't help.  But if your heart is open, then I think that the Holy Spirit can help you with it: (Just click on the link)

--"Does God still Heal? by John MacArthur"

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Tony Capoccia's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986