Healing Preachers WILL Be Persecuted
While ANYONE who wants to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12), you can expect to have an extra target on your back if you preach divine healing. Satan knows what a powerful witness healing is, so he won’t just sit there and let you glorify God all over town without a fight. While we love the faith stories in the Bible, the very people walking in great faith also experienced great persecution. Jesus preached healing, and the Pharisees wanted him dead because they were jealous of His crowd sizes. While the Bible does not reveal the fate of all the apostles of the Lamb, history tells us that most of them were martyred – and John was exiled to an island. It isn’t all going to be a bed of roses for you either, as Jesus warned:
Matthew 10:25:
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
Since they claimed that Jesus was “of the devil,” people are sure to start saying that you are “of the devil” if you speak in tongues, cast out demons, heal the sick and preach faith and healing.
People are still people and the devil is still the devil. Persecution isn’t a fun part of healing ministry, but it’s an inevitable one.
You’re a Cult!
Preach healing, faith, Holy Spirit baptism and prosperity and you can be sure some denominational people in town will tell everyone who’ll listen that you’re a cult. That’s happened with both our church plants so far. It’s not fun to hear from the town rumor mill that the “strange new church” is actually a cult to be avoided at all costs because it does things that are “of the devil,” but such attacks come with doing Spirit-filled ministry.
What you are doing is a threat to the devil because you’re going about things God’s way and it works. The denominational crowd that goes out and preaches without the power of the Holy Spirit, which is not God’s way, is not much of a threat to the kingdom of darkness. Jesus commanded His followers NOT to go out and preach everywhere until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, but many people will criticize you for obeying Jesus in this area while they don’t obey Him.
A local pastor announced to his congregation that our church was a cult because it taught healing and prosperity. A second church helped spread the “cult” label too. Sadly, the first one was a Spirit-filled church, but obviously not one that believed in healing and prosperity. I said that yes, I did preach healing and prosperity and I offered no apologies for it. But we were always nice to that pastor and before we left the state, we were actually on good terms with him. When pastors (or others) defame you, you don’t respond in kind; you love them and pray for them.
Matthew 5:44:
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Pressure to Back Off
Satan will put pressure on you through people to back off preaching healing, and sadly, some preachers have caved in and retracted their previously correct preaching that we are all healed by Jesus’ stripes. They may say that they are more “balanced” now. That means that they are balancing faith with unbelief.
Satan wins if he can get you to be less bold about preaching healing even if you don’t stop doing it completely. Some have experienced perilous pastoral pushback from someone who lost a loved one and they have backed off on healing to try not to offend that person. Satan doesn’t want you to be bold because Scripture says that a preacher ought to be bold.
Ephesians 6:18-20:
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Illegal “Legal Action”
Satan got local magistrates involved in Bible days and he still tries to work through the local authorities to shut down Christian ministry that threatens him.
A policeman illegally ordered me to stop handing out tracts (that included healing and the plan of salvation, of course) on public sidewalks. I threatened the police department with a U.S. First Amendment lawsuit and they backed down. They said someone had complained, but their complaint did not trump my legal rights to freedom of the press, freedom of religion and freedom of speech, all of which I was engaging in simultaneously.
The policeman’s justification was that I was violating “loitering” ordinances, but “loitering” is being somewhere with no purpose and I had a definite purpose sharing the gospel. It was a grasp at straws, and again, completely illegal.
Then multiple people thought they could bust me for littering because some people threw my tracts on the ground. I told them that we were in agreement that I didn’t want them thrown down either! They said I would be guilty of littering because I provided the litter. Fortunately, the Supreme Court busted that one a long time ago. I asked if they intended to go after McDonald’s next.
Someone else called in a nuisance complaint to the police because they thought handing out Christian literature was a nuisance, while soliciting signatures for gay rights measures was not. Fortunately, the policeman who handled this was a Christian and he refused to pursue it because he knew it would violate the First Amendment.
Others thought that I could be stopped because some people found what I was doing offensive. (I certainly offended the devil and his religious spirits!) The Supreme Court ruled a long time ago that no one has a right to not be offended. In legal terms, there is no “heckler’s veto” on free speech. I even exercised my right to hand out quality original Christian literature on the sidewalk in front of a regional Muslim conference. Muslims need to be saved, and it was a great place to find some! I had every right to do it.
A whole town made it illegal to hand out tracts, and I had no standing on that one because it was a couple hours away and I had never tried to do it there. I urged Christians who lived there to take the town to court for violating the First Amendment, and sadly, they said, “It’s the law of the land so we have to obey it. That’s what Romans 13 says.” I pointed out to them that the First Amendment is the law of the land that trumps any local laws. Either they didn’t care about evangelism, were cowards who didn’t want to fight for their rights, or both.
Another town passed a “no soliciting on public sidewalks” rule and the locals tried to tell me I was “soliciting” by handing out tracts. However, what I was doing was not legally soliciting because I was giving people something, not asking for something. Of course, I pointed that out to them and kept going. Another anti-free-speech argument bit the dust.
Then the state Governor tried to get his lawmakers to pass emergency legislation to forbid handing out tracts and preaching on sidewalks under certain circumstances. I went to the Capitol and gave an example of “free speech” (an 8-second gospel presentation) that they were trying to ban and threatened to sue the state for violating the First Amendment. They backed down, and National Public Radio aired my 8-second gospel presentation all over the state and part of the next state over – uncut. The devil’s attempt to get fewer people to hear the gospel resulted in more people hearing the gospel!
The town tried to regulate the contents of the marquee in front of our church meeting place because they didn’t like my Christian messages. With the help of a well-known pro-bono legal aid group, I got that shot down. However, they got the building trustees to remove the marquee completely later. No one said that preaching Jesus will make you universally popular.
After I gave a speech against so-called “gay marriage” (which is just an agreement to sin, not real marriage in God’s eyes) in front of about 4,000 “LGBT” people at a civic center as part of a debate, some locals brought up at a town meeting that they needed to find a legal way to run us out of town because we were not “gay friendly.” (I believe in my own version of LGBT; it stands for Let God Be True.) But they couldn’t find a legal way to get rid of us.
I threatened a total of nine lawsuits to protect my legal rights, and in EVERY case, the other side backed down without going to court because they knew they would lose. ONE person can make a difference. I stopped some illegal laws single-handedly. Sadly, other preachers in the area didn’t want to get involved in such matters, either because they wanted to avoid controversy and public ridicule or because they didn’t even know what was going on right under their noses. I knew churches in the first category and lost all respect for them.
The local police chief finally threatened me with arrest at a public meeting for engaging in “hate incidents” (handing out my bold Christian tracts that said things he didn’t like). He informed me that they were going to have the F.B.I. open a file on me because I was a threat to the public’s well-being. I made him clarify what a “hate incident” is. He informed me that it is when you demonstrate hate without breaking any specific laws, as opposed to a “hate crime” where you break a law. Yet he said, “Accumulating enough hate incidents can lead to your arrest.” Of course, that was a completely illegal threat. Imagine being arrested when you haven’t broken any laws! Yet if the devil can intimidate people this way, he wins without a fight. I know of another case more recently where the devil tried exactly the same thing in another state.
Someone else at that meeting was going to try to criminalize “hate speech” in that city. Of course, “hate speech” by his definition was saying anything negative about Bible-condemned behaviors represented by various letters of the alphabet. I told him not to bother because I’d be the first to get such a law overturned on free speech grounds. But we live in a day where college campuses in particular are trying to pass “anti-hate-speech” rules, designate “free speech zones” and so on. Let it be clear that the entire country is a free speech zone, at least in the United States as of this writing, and hate speech is protected by the Constitution. A certain liberal news network has been repeating a lie for years hoping people will accept it: “Remember, hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment.” (These same people talk about “separation of church and state” in a way that is never mentioned in the Constitution. Even some “educated” people believe their lies because they never bother to read the Constitution for themselves.)
If we don’t stand up for our rights, we’ll wake up some morning without any!
I am not looking for fights and I don’t seek ways to threaten lawsuits for publicity. But you don’t have to look for trouble – it will find you if you are really advancing the kingdom of God! When that happens, refuse to let the devil’s crowd steamroll you.
Public Ridicule
One very “liberal” person owned both local newspapers where we were. He wrote articles in which he did things like urge everyone to leave our church (by name), call me (by name) a hater, a bigot, a homophobe, intolerant, and other predictable but uncomplimentary names. When I wrote a letter to respond, he refused to print it. That’s just how the liberal media game is played.
I did make a comment to the City Council about the “homophobe” thing since that was a frequent tag in that city for a Bible-believing Christians. I stood publicly against the idea that boys who think they’re girls should be able to shower with the girls after gym class, as the school was already allowing them to do. (The other side argued that it was the girls who complained who needed to be enlightened that gender is not biological.) I argued that your chromosomes define your gender and that God created us male or female. This was in front of about 100 “woke” advocates who were brought in from other places to stack a meeting that usually only had 2 or 3 observers or speakers. (This is a common tactic, and it worked as planned. The City Council member who had the swing vote and was planning to block a pro-sin proposal decided he had to vote for it because it was “so overwhelmingly the will of the people.”) Almost no local business owners stood up and said anything because the sin advocates threatened a citywide boycott of the business of anyone who wouldn’t display a sign promoting various sins. I was the sole true preacher who went to the meeting. (They had one fake preacher who was a state leader in promoting rights for sexual sinners who gushed over how Jesus would supposedly be a same-sex marriage champion if He were here today, and I actually pointed out before them that because our views were exact opposites, one of us was obviously a ministerial fake, and they needed to figure out which one of us it was.) Anyway, I told the City Council that I could not possibly be a homophobe, which by definition would be a person afraid of homosexuals, because if I were afraid of them, I wouldn’t have stood up in front of 100 of them and said things I knew they didn’t like. I said, “if that’s fear, please tell me what courage is!” I found out later that some prominent people had made private comments to the City Council but wouldn’t go to the meeting for fear of reprisal. That is not the Bible pattern of boldness at all! That offends God to the extreme when one of His people does it.
Proverbs 25:26:
A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring.
Interestingly, they passed a resolution that everyone was to be celebrated in that city regardless of religion, sexual preference, gender expression, immigration status, and so on. I said before them that as a Bible-believing Christian, I did not feel celebrated. The young woman who wrote that resolution said in front of everyone that she didn’t think she could ever bring herself to celebrate me. Isn’t it ironic how unidirectional “tolerance” is?
When we applied to occupy a certain facility, one of the city leaders asked at a public hearing if we intended to bring in strippers. When Christians let Satan have his way, his followers just get more and more brazen in their contempt for Christians. That is a reason we must stand up and be counted.
A fellow born again Christian pastor lit into me about my fiery anti-LGBT-agenda speech in front of the same thousands of people I mentioned above. Your persecution will often come from within the church world. Some people are afraid to rock the boat when the truth is that some boats need to be sunk.
Unfair and Misleading Media Coverage
You can count on liberal media outlets to stand in your way as much as they can. We made the mistake once of letting such a newspaper interview us. They quoted me as saying things that were the opposite of what I actually said and just invented a quote that my wife never said. They butchered another one of my statements to try to make me look like an idiot. These people have an agenda, and it isn’t to promote the kingdom of God.
The same newspaper that devoted half a page and a big photo of a lesbian singing group that was coming to a local house of dead religion (not to be confused with an actual church despite the signage) would give me maybe a couple of lines for event announcements – when they printed them at all. When an ungodly group sent a press release, they’d print it straight. When we sent one, the “news” was that a church had “sent a press release” (well, obviously, but they didn’t say that about anyone else who did) and they made fun of it by saying that each statement was something that we “claimed” was true in the press release, implying that the reader would be stupid to believe that we really had miracles.
I was kicked off a local radio station for daring to make the statement, “It’s not up to God if you get healed; it’s up to you!” They were flooded with calls from angry denominational people who let them know they would boycott the station unless they got rid of me. It’s such “friendly fire” that is the most disappointing; you expect the “woke” sinners to try to discredit you.
I thank God for the godly, faith-filled broadcasts that are now widely available to counter all the worldly crud that is out there.
Let me just say – if it’s in the media, it’s about a preacher, and it’s bad, take it with a grain of salt. Some editors make a point of trying to make Christians look bad. Some internet ads invent “click bait” headlines with what looks like a scandal involving a preacher’s “partner” with whom he lives – who turns out to be his wife! But they get a “click credit” if you try to find out more about the apparent scandal.
Switcheroo Building Codes and Nasty Taxes
I knew two churches trying to be in the same anti-Christian city that kept arbitrarily making up new building codes for churches. When much money was spent to comply, they’d just invent another new code that cost even more money to follow, citing public safety as a reason the buildings could not be grandfathered. One church gave up on that town after spending $100,000 on this silliness. The other stopped being able to have their own building because of the constant extra expenses.
In the city where we started, the City Council declared brazenly, “Churches are useless! We don’t want them in this city!” To further that end, they announced that they would tax church parking lots, church hallways and bathrooms, church lawns, church driveways, and so on. This had the desired effect of burying one church with so many new taxes and regulations that they could no longer afford to pay their pastor.
There is such a thing as wiping the dust off your feet and leaving a place like that, but God can and does call people to that kind of area because He knows the people need a powerful gospel witness, especially where preachers and churches are met with public contempt. We saw many powerful miracles despite the opposition. It’s a good place for God to show off when people are smugly thinking that they can ice Him out of town.
“Testimonies” from Disgruntled People Who Used to Be with You
I know a couple good ministries that have been attacked by people who think their mission in life is to warn everyone about how awful their former employers supposedly were. One has his own website devoted to that purpose. We had a disgruntled former member going around town doing that. Satan doesn’t play fair, and he exploits the fact that people tend to believe nasty gossip about preachers.
I’m not saying that no ministry is doing anything that should be exposed, but take complaints with a grain of salt. Someone may object to someone actually running a church rather than having it be a democracy where everyone gets his say-so (especially people with money), claiming that the pastor is “controlling.” There’s a negative way to spin just about anything.
Magnifying “Failures” and Ignoring Successes
“So-and-so went to a meeting and wasn’t healed!” This is no more a convincing argument against healing than saying that “So-and-so went to a meeting and wasn’t saved!” is an argument against the new birth. Some people are quick to report someone NOT getting healed while ignoring the wonderful cases where people HAVE BEEN healed.
“Yeah, but the preacher prayed for so-and-so and he DIED!” I have prayed for people who went on to die, and the ones who didn’t are going to die as well if Jesus doesn’t come back in our lifetimes! I have every right to point out many people who DIDN’T DIE (yet, at least) because they were taught the Word and were ministered to in the power of the Holy Spirit. You’ll have to point them out because the healing critics won’t!
Lies
We have been falsely accused of some serious and disgusting things. Jesus had false witnesses against Him, so don’t be shocked if you do. Stephen had false witnesses make accusations that cost him his life. Paul was accused of doing things he didn’t do and saying things he didn’t say.
Matthew 26:59-61:
Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;
But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses,
And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
Acts 6:11-14:
Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him [Stephen] speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Acts 21:27-29:
And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,
Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.
(For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)
Romans 3:8:
And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
We had multiple instances where it was reported around town that we had closed down as well as one case where people believed that my wife had divorced me and left the country. A restaurant server was shocked that we were still together being lovey-dovey. Since Satan is the author of lies, don’t be surprised if his followers spread lies!
John 8:44:
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Physical Threats
I was also threatened physically, but it did not stop me from doing anything. My life is not my own and I reasoned that if I were beaten for preaching the gospel, I wouldn’t have been the first one. But I want to stress that not a single threat was carried out. I doubt that many people really want to risk jail time by injuring someone, especially in public in front of witnesses. Satan plays dirty, and if he can get you out of the public eye with cheap talk, he will. If you back down, he wins the battle without firing a shot, so to speak. The worst I ever dealt with in practice so far is getting spat on. That is far easier to deal with than what a famous preacher in that part of the country dealt with a long time ago when some of his hearers threw rotten eggs and pieces of dead cats at him while he was preaching. I warned a threatener that my speech was protected by the First Amendment but his criminal threatening was not.
Government Bias against Churches
The Internal Revenue Service denied us what is called “501(c)(3) status” that would have recognized us as a valid charity. With the help of a pro-bono Christian organization, we beat them and got it. It pays to fight instead of lie down and endure unfair government decisions. Not fighting just emboldens people who “target” conservative groups.
Lay Off the Destruction Prophecies
It hinders your cause if you pronounce doom over your adversaries. God loves them with a heart of mercy. Stating that your opponents will go out of business as divine judgment does not help your reputation. Having everyone watch your dire threat not come to pass will not help your reputation either.
Avoid Publicity Stunts
Some preachers just want publicity, so they deliberately “poke the bear” in an attempt to get press coverage. They push the limits with outlandish but technically legal things to get their faces on TV. This works as far as getting on TV goes, but this kind of thing can make people think that Christians are combative and provocative. Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
I fail to see a single instance in Scripture where the preachers resorted to publicity stunts to draw crowds. The crowds came because of signs and wonders. We should get attention with signs and wonders, not cheap tricks designed to play the media, which may turn those tricks on their heads by obliging to publicize acts that might make people skeptical of churches and preachers.
How to Stay out of Jail
In some street preacher circles, getting arrested is seen as a badge of honor and a validation of your bold ministry. I have a better idea. Do whatever the officer tells you to do at the moment even if he is breaking the law with his demand. Deal with the matter later at the police station. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve prevailed without serving any jail time. If I HAD to, I would “obey God rather than men” and go to jail, but usually there is wiser way to deal with a situation. A rogue policeman who hates your message may not even represent the police department’s official stand. Remember that we preach a message of grace! Rather than be arrested, I told the police later, “I’ll give you a pass this time, but if you ever abridge my free speech rights again, I will call an international news outlet and let them know that you will be on the losing end of a civil rights lawsuit.” That put a stop to the silliness. They had a meeting with all the beat officers and told them to leave me alone from then on.
That city had a history of denying Christians their legal rights. Christians sued them and won, but the next year, the city broke the same law again and forced the Christians back into court. The idea was to tie up the Christians and wear them down, and there was no downside from their perspective because they got away with it. One pastor could have won a third court fight but decided not to pursue it, which I think was unfortunate because it encouraged the city to keep doing what it was doing. Before I left the area, I threatened the people involved with personal lawsuits and punitive damages because of their blatant illegal anti-Christian bias. I wasn’t doing it to be mean; it was just the only language that they understood. You can forgive such people (and you need to) but that doesn’t mean that you let them trample your rights.
We need people like Paul who put the local magistrates on the spot for punishing him without cause.
Acts 16:35-39:
And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.
And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.
But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.
And the serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans.
And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city.
Is It Fair for God to Send You to a Hard Place?
Absolutely. It would be unfair for God to not give everyone a chance to hear the gospel. Even if you aren’t well-received, at least the people there can’t complain that there was no gospel witness to them when they are judged.
Jesus and His followers went to hard places, knowing in advance that there would be such places. Otherwise, Jesus would not have given instructions like this:
Luke 9:5:
And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
And lest you think things are too hard, you have brothers and sisters around the world who have faced persecution that makes anything I described above seem like a walk in the park.
Conclusion
I didn’t share this all to bellyache, but rather to impress upon you that you aren’t just going to breeze in and revive a city without opposition any more than Peter, Paul, Barnabas or Silas did. It’s much more fun to share healing testimonies, but if we aren’t “real” about the opposition you’ll face, you can get discouraged and believe yet another lie from the devil that you’re the only person around who has ever been treated so unfairly while preaching the gospel.
It is WORTH all the hassle to further the kingdom of God!
Postscript
I learned where the hardest place in the world to minister is. It’s wherever you’re preaching, if you listen to the local pastors. There always seems to be some reason why their area is especially hard. But I’ve kept seeing miracles as long as someone listens to the Word and someone is open to the Holy Spirit. God apparently didn’t get the memo that there are places where His Spirit just can’t move. Jesus even got a few sick people healed in a town that tried to kill Him the first time He preached there!
In case you think that all this persecution of Christians by a Christianity-hostile city and state could shut down signs and wonders, it was the opposite! We had so many signs and wonders that a world-famous church with an international broadcast asked me to send a list of miracles we had seen. The pastor read them off during a Sunday morning service in front of the world, and it took him about 15 minutes just to get through them all! This was intended to be encouragement that God can indeed move in a part of the country that was often called “the preachers’ graveyard.” (At the time, the county I was in was the second most unchurched county in the country, second only to an adjacent county.) God can move and be glorified anywhere! If God could do that in a place that mounted the opposition I described, why wouldn’t He be able to move somewhere where gospel preachers are still generally respected?