How Can I Know That It’s God and Not the Devil Doing the Healing?
There is much talk today about the devil doing lying signs and wonders. Some of the very people being most mightily used of God are considered agents of Satan by some top-selling authors. How can we know?
When God does the healing, He gets the glory. When Jesus healed the sick, God was glorified, not the preacher, even though Jesus was the preacher! If the devil is doing the healing, God will get no glory and man or even the devil is glorified instead.
Does the man preaching say that Jesus was God in the flesh? If not, stay away because 1 John 4:1-4 tells you that an antichrist spirit is at work. If the man does say that Jesus was God in the flesh, he is not being led by an antichrist spirit.
Your mind might not appreciate this answer, but you will know on the inside if something is of God or not. The Holy Spirit will give you an uneasy feeling about things that are not of God and but He will give you peace about things that are of God. The writer of Hebrews talks about having your senses exercised to discern both good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). Experience will build this in you. The anointing abides in you and teaches you the difference (1 John 2:27).
Of course, you need no special discernment if anyone other than Jesus Christ is getting credit for being the source of the power. If anyone else (living or dead) is presented as the one whose power is doing the healing, you don’t need to be “led by the Spirit” to know to stay away! Note, however, that when Jesus worked miracles through people in the Bible, the Bible says that “they” did them. However, “they” were preaching Christ when they did them. (See YOU Can Do Miracles for more on this nuance.)
Plenty of New Age trash out there promises “spiritual healing” through “spiritual” means. Some of it is positive thinking, which is not inherently bad though it’s a poor substitute for faith. A lot of it is doctrines of seducing spirits. If someone says that his spirit guide told him that he got his healing power from an amulet in a prior life, you should have enough sense to recognize his “ministry” as demonic.
If the healing is based on reiki, juju, voodoo, santeria, obia, white witchcraft, etc., you KNOW it is demonic – God has nothing to do with these occult practices, which are all basically synonyms for each other depending on where you are. He does not “use” these practitioners – the devil does. For example, to become a highest-level Reiki person, you must completely sell out your life to Reiki – not to Jesus! Christians should have enough sense to avoid these things like the plague. I knew a Spirit-filled woman who went a for Reiki “treatment” and said that she was so moved that she cried for 3 days after it. I’d probably cry for 3 days too if I had demonic power channeled into me. Satan isn’t wise, but he’s a shrewd enough spiritual businessman to realize that it’s a favorable transaction for him to lift your sickness off for a season if it means that his demons can get access to your body with your ignorant consent.
My wife and I have a large collection of pretty rocks, but I DON’T like the claims that are made at some rock shops that certain ones have certain metaphysical powers. Need to get better at long division? AHA, you should buy a Congolese Tiger Sapphire! Okay, I made that up, but the actual claims in those stores are just about as farfetched. They’ve led some people to carry crystals around like pets. (I suppose they could name them Billy or Gayle.) From a BIBLE perspective, the only time when rocks conferred any kind of supernatural benefit was when they had the Ten Commandments written on them! I don’t need their supposed power because I have the power of THE rock, Jesus Christ! God’s Word IS His power (Romans 1:16), so you should prefer Malachi over Malachite.
Ten criteria for distinguishing real and false ministers are listed in the discussion All About Healing Services. See that topic for further comments.