Objection: Christ’s Healings Were Mostly Instantaneous; We Cannot Claim to Be Able to Do His Works When We Have So Few Instantaneous Miracles
Jesus said that if we believe on Him, we will do the works that He did and greater (John 14:12). If we are not doing His works, the problem is not with Jesus or God; it is with us. Our collective failure to do the works of Christ is not God’s fault. This objection must have been written by someone who has not been to any overseas healing crusades in places where they don’t listen to ignorant radio programs that attack healing ministers. Go to some third-world countries and preach healing and you’ll see plenty of instantaneous miracles. I’ve gone and I’ve seen them. So have some of my friends. Perhaps if we are not seeing signs and wonders confirm the gospel, either we are not going anywhere or what we are preaching is not really the whole gospel and God cannot confirm it.
The people who raise objections like this probably never see instantaneous miracles at their own churches. If their teaching consists of objections like this, it is not hard to understand why.
Of course, the works of Jesus were not simply miracles. They also included preaching and teaching. Jesus taught at Nazareth even though He could do no mighty work there (Matthew 13:54-58). Many of us today have to teach at modern-day Nazareths until people drop their traditions of men and believe the truth about healing. A servant is not above his master. You are not going to get Capernaum results in a place where the people have Nazareth faith.
Another problem with this objection is that the New Testament teaches that something you receive by faith now may manifest later. It is not always instant. If it were, there would be no need for patience; faith alone would inherit the promises rather than faith and patience (Hebrews 6:12).
Jesus Himself did not guarantee the instant manifestation of what you receive by faith. In fact, he taught the opposite. Mark 11:23-24 makes it plain that first you believe that you receive and then later you see it. Remember the context of these verses. Jesus cursed a fig tree. It began to wither from the roots immediately, but there was no outward manifestation right away. By the yardstick used in this objection, Jesus Himself was a failure because what He spoke in faith did not fully manifest for a full day. I do not believe that Jesus was a failure because of that.
Do not get all worked up over not seeing an instant healing. There were cases in Jesus’ ministry where the healing was not immediate:
In Mark 8:22-25, a blind man received a partial healing and had to be ministered to again before he received a total healing.
In Luke 17:12-19, ten lepers were healed not instantly but “as they went” in faith to show themselves to the priests so that their healings could be confirmed.
In John 4:46-53, the boy “began to amend” (as opposed to receiving an instantaneous miracle) when Jesus spoke in faith.
In John 9:1-7, the blind man was not healed instantly when Jesus ministered to him, but was healed as he obeyed Jesus’ instructions to go and wash in the pool of Sent (Siloam).
At least this objection admits that some healing miracles do occur. (Unless you live in a cave, you have heard about such miracles, too.) The gripe is that there are not more instant miracles. I submit to you that unbelief has polluted much of the land the way it did at Nazareth. With all the books and broadcasts produced against receiving healing by faith, which teach traditions of men instead of the gospel concerning healing, it is amazing that anyone gets healed in some places! Where there was such unbelief, not even Jesus Himself could do miracles. A servant is not greater than his master. If Jesus could not do miracles in the face of unbelief, we cannot do them either. You can counteract ignorance with teaching, but unbelief is a matter of the heart.
Let’s thank God for the instantaneous and more gradual healings that take place, and let’s work to bring our experience up to the Bible standard, rather than excusing ourselves by lowering the Bible standard. We should be seeing more instant miracles today. If I can have anything to do with it, I would like as many people as possible to find out the truth about divine healing so that they will cease to act like the folks in Nazareth and start acting like the ones in Capernaum.