7th August 2025. I have been remiss! Looking yesterday at a favourite scripture passage, I realised I had failed to add to my three successive posts on ‘Healing Theology’ more than twelve months ago. Luke 4 verse 14 marks the commencement of Jesus’ Teaching ministry in Galilee, for which he was necessarily filled with the Spirit. Intriguingly his teaching was met with praise from his listeners, but this was not to last…
In Nazareth’s synagogue he stood up and read Isaiah 61:1-2, handed the scroll back, sat down; and with the eyes of all the congregation on him, declared “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. His congregation was immediately impressed, as they marvelled that this was the little boy they had known, and had heard of his growing reputation in Capernaum – especially his healing miracles. Aware of their thoughts he gently challenges them with “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things we have heard you did at Capernaum'”. And at this point, rather than wanting to strengthen his popularity with his former neighbours, he confronts them with the reality, that “no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown” and goes on to give a potted history of the Jewish nation’s rejection of its prophets and their messages, while their Gentile neighbours had expressed much more faith! Touching a raw nerve exposes the shallowness of popularity – enraged, they turned on him, chased him out of the synagogue, out of their town, intent on throwing him off a cliff – except that by his sheer force of deity he made his escape.
Politicians present their party manifestos, and for that they usually escape much less rage in their TV interviews or at Hyde Park Corner. What was the core of his ‘Manifesto of the Kingdom of God’? Verse 18 “He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”. This was a truly radical manifesto, and he proceded over the next three years to carry it out to the letter. Read through your four gospels and make note of every part of the statement being fulfilled. Returning sight to the blind was carried out literally, as were other miracles of healing – including social, as Jews and Gentiles were integrated. Release from Sin, and deliverance from demons were all part of the only truly “holistic” gospel ever proclaimed and practised.
Jesus taught the disciples – first the Twelve then the Seventy – to do everything they had watched him do. Before leaving them he instructed them – once they had received Holy Spirit power – to make disciples and teach them to do the same. The early history of the Church, starting in Acts sees this taking off. But somewhere along the line theologians and preachers decided to teach that that the age of miracles and spiritual gifts was over! Receiving the prophetic call that we did in 2018 to heal the sick in Jesus’ name, and some of the healing miracles we have begun to see as a result, has persuaded me that those Cessationist ‘nay-sayers’ have got it badly wrong.
Healing in Jesus' Name 