In Pursuit of Divine Healing

By David Hobbs

Do I believe in divine healing? I have seen many people in the church over the years afflicted with terminal illnesses. While some have died, some have been miraculously healed.

Mark was a lawyer. He and his family were in our home group when he was suddenly afflicted with a brain tumor at the age of about 40. A brain tumor is considered terminal. You can operate and cut it out, but it will grow back. That’s what happened to Mark. The brain tumor was cut out, it grew back, it was cut out again, it came back again….

Now the human body can only withstand so many brain surgeries. When further operations were ruled out, Mark, increasingly desperate, began seeking out alternative treatments, grasping at straws you might say. All the while, of course, the church was praying for him. But death was rapidly approaching.

His life insurance policies had a provision that in the case of a terminal illness, within the last few months of life they would pay the death benefit early to help with medical costs.

His life insurance policies paid off. Then God miraculously intervened and healed him! That was 10-15 years ago and he’s still walking around today, perfectly whole, though without any life insurance.

Then there was Ronnie: “Mr. Tough Guy,” ex-Green Beret. He was not serving God, but God was dealing with him. He came down with lung cancer, throat cancer, and emphysema, rapidly getting worse with no hope of recovery. There came a night in the hospital when they expected him to die before morning. His wife was there, and said the smell of death was in the room.

Then Jesus showed up, appearing to Ronnie in bright light and healing him. After his healing, Ronnie started a ministry to the homeless people living in the river bottoms. His church services now are bigger than most of the regular church services in town.

I hardly knew Ronnie before his healing. He had only started coming to church and was known mainly to our pastor, though we prayed for him in men’s prayer meetings. With Mark, though he was in my home group, I didn’t get actively involved with him either. That was before my personal revival, and to be honest, when I first heard of his brain tumor, I was overwhelmed by the seriousness of it, and whatever faith I had went right out the window. I prayed, but with no conviction he’d be healed. And it was to my shame but secret relief that the Lord moved him out of my home group to be around others with more faith.

But there were two people that I actively contended for and got personally involved in the spiritual battle for their lives. Bill a lovable man, again about 40, got Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). I joined the fight for him for years. They put him in a support group of others with the disease. He outlasted them all. He hung on for 5 years as we desperately prayed and hoped for healing. But then he died: a bitter blow to all of us.

And then there was Julia, a small but feisty, on-fire-for-Jesus gal in her 40s. Julia had a heart of love (sometimes "tough love") and was one of the most selfless people I have ever known.

She got cancer in her internal organs and at first they battled it mostly within the family. After an intense prayer fight it went into remission and we praised God for the victory. But a year later it came back. This time I threw myself into the fight. I was experiencing revival in my life at the time and was eager to see what the Lord would do in answer to our prayers.

Her husband Steve, as good a man as you’ll ever find anywhere, had prayer meetings in his house several times a week. We would pray for Julia, but also praise and worship to elicit the presence of the Lord. Steve even taught himself to play the piano so he’d never lack for a musician in the house. We had wonderful times of worship, the presence and love of Jesus often being so thick you could “cut it with a knife.”

I kept looking for the ultimate position from which to pray for her healing. One way was to claim the promises in the Bible: “By His stripes we are healed;” “He sent His word and healed them;” “[He] forgiveth all thine iniquities; [he] healeth all thy diseases,” etc. Another way was to make faith declarations to her: “Be healed in Jesus’ Name;” “Jesus heals thee; go in peace.” Then there were different variations of fighting the enemy such as cursing the cancer cells, binding the power of cancer and death, and resisting the work of the devil in her life. Then there was proclaiming the destiny of God being fulfilled in her life, and prohibiting anything from interfering in that. There was bringing forth the presence of God and His anointing through our worship, filling the house with the Holy Spirit and then praying Him to hover over and heal her; and also asking the Holy Spirit within her to rise up and throw off the disease and rebuke death on her behalf. We claimed healing, commanded healing, spoke healing, asked for healing, defied the devil…. Each thing we tried seemed a little better than the last, but then there was always something else that came along that looked even surer.

Finally, one evening I was sure I had found the ultimate stance to take; this could not be improved on. “Here I take my stand.” I even told Pastor Dave I thought I had finally found the ultimate prayer position from which to claim her healing. The next morning she died.

The irony of the timing was not lost on me. I was trying to apply human thinking to a spiritual situation and definitely came up short. (His thoughts are not our thoughts and our thoughts are not His thoughts.)

So the two people in whom I invested the most of myself, died; while the two people that I judged way beyond my level of faith were healed. In all cases it seemed like God did what He wanted to do and our prayers—while important , and though He commands us to pray—were not the determining factor whether they were healed or not.

What would I do differently today? I think that one person seeking God for His will and then praying accordingly with total conviction, is more powerful than a church full of people praying without discernment. The default position that the church has used with prayer for so long—if they’re sick pray for healing, if they’re in trouble pray for deliverance, etc.—needs to be re-thought. We need the mind of the Lord!

But yes I believe in divine healing. I’ve seen it too many times not to.