Objection: “Faith Healers” Call Attention to Man and Thus Rob the Lord of Due Glory
This is like saying that every preacher who proclaims the new birth robs the Lord of due glory because people pay attention to him. Of course they pay attention to him! Paul said that they wouldn’t hear without a preacher. Preaching of the Word has always been part of God’s plan. It is the only way men get saved. Angels are not allowed to preach the gospel to the unsaved. The angel who visited Cornelius could not tell him how to be born again. He could only tell him to send for a human preacher who could explain the plan of salvation to him.
A reputable preacher of the healing portion of the gospel will always give out the Word of God so that people can believe on their own rather than depending on him. He does not want people to feel that they must attend his next miracle rally the next time they get sick. He wants them to know how to appropriate healing for themselves without a healing service.
Despite this, there are always some wags out there who feel that it robs the Lord of glory when a man is used as the instrument for transmitting the healing anointing. I suppose that they must be especially mad at Jesus, then. By their standard, He robbed God of glory every chance He could get. He did not simply say, “Believe God!” (although He did teach that), but He also laid hands on the multitudes. At times, the multitudes were the ones laying hands on Him to receive from the anointing that was on Him (Acts 10:38). He definitely got a lot of attention, too.
It amazes me that otherwise sensible Christians are offended at “assembly line healings” at healing rallies and say, “The Lord should be allowed to do the healing.” Again, I suppose that the person who said this would have been very offended at Jesus’ ministry, where it is obvious that rapid-fire healings were occurring. God’s anointing had to be strong enough so that the needs of multitudes could be met in a single evening. Jesus did not just sit back and lead everyone in worship and say, “Well, let’s allow the Lord to do the healing.” There are cases where this can work when the Holy Spirit directs it, but it is not the biblical norm. Paul did not sit back on the island of Melita and wait for the Lord to do the healing.
Furthermore, Jesus told you to actively lay hands on the sick, not wait for the Lord to do the healing! It is tragic that those Christians who are not doing the works commanded by Jesus are the first to criticize those who actually do them!
Of course, the objectors are upset that many of those prayed over do not receive their healing. But surely, more people get healed through such ministers than through those who object to them. If we are still learning and we have not arrived, I would rather see 5% of the people get miraculously healed in one night while we do our best to obey God rather than see 0% of the people healed because we give up in frustration because of those who are not healed.
If you want to mock healing preachers today for their lack of results, trade places with them for a day or so and see how many people you get healed under the same circumstances. You would quickly stop saying, “If he were really anointed, they’d all get healed.”
When it comes to the issue of Jesus getting glory, the objectors would surely say that it was different with Him because He is a member of the Trinity and He should get glory anyway. But Jesus did not minister and live as a member of the Trinity (although He was), He ministered solely according to human limitations. He also said that He did not seek His own glory (John 8:50).
In Matthew 15:30-31, the multitude glorified the God of Israel, not the preacher (Jesus), for all the miracles that were done. People also glorified God in Mark 2:2-12. The man who was healed when Jesus saw his faith and the faith of his friends glorified God, not himself or the preacher (Luke 5:17-26). In Luke 13:11-16, the woman who had been sick for 18 years glorified God, not the preacher, when she got healed. In Luke 17:12-19, a leper who was healed glorified God, not the preacher, with a loud voice. In Luke 18:35-43, a blind man who was healed gave glory to God, not to the preacher, and all the people gave praise to God, not to the preacher.
Jesus’ example therefore proves that it is possible to be used in big healing crusades without seeking your own glory, and thus robbing God of the glory due Him. Jesus did it. So can we.
Peter was not in sin when he said, “Look on us” in Acts 3:1-16. He was calling attention to a man – himself! Peter wanted the man to know that he had something to give him! He did not resort to a religiously humble statement like, “Don’t look at us; only look at Jesus.”
If any healing minister out there does not run his ministry reputably, he may indeed attempt to steal God’s glory. (That is a good way to die young. God will not give His glory to another.) I am not defending all healing ministers out there. Even if one of them blows it and calls excessive attention to himself instead of Jesus, that does not negate that is possible to preach and minister healing without stealing any of God’s glory, as in Jesus’ example.
The truth of the matter is that God is glorified when either laymen or preachers minister healing. According to Jesus’ words in John 15:7-8, God is glorified when you ask what you will and have it done unto you. Far from robbing God of glory, healing gives God glory because it demonstrates both His power and His compassion on the earth today.
Besides, did you know that some of God’s glory belongs to us now as the Church? Jesus said, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them” (John 17:22). Jesus washed us with water by the Word so that He could present a glorious church to Himself (Ephesians 5:25-27). Whom He justified, He also glorified (Romans 8:30). “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The apostles were referred to as “the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 8:23). God has called us to glory and virtue (2 Peter 1:3). I think you get the point. We are not unworthy little worms crawling on the earth. We are the glorious Church! There is a certain glory that we should walk in!
Healings and miracles done in the name of Jesus glorify God. To preach healing and lay hands on the sick does not rob God of glory; it gives Him additional glory in the earth. Let’s give Him all the glory we can!