Objection: If Faith Healers Were Real, They Would Heal People with Birth Defects.  Instead, They Tell Such People Not to Come Up and Instruct the Cameramen Not to Show Sections with Such People.

I don’t know what cave the objector lives in, but people with birth defects ARE being healed today!  I’ve seen it myself, and so have some other healing evangelists whom I know personally.  Crowds of people present at the time can vouch for it.  That is to be expected, because Jesus said that we would do the works that He did and greater, and He healed people with birth defects.  He did not turn such people away or tell people not to pay attention to groups of people who had birth defects.

I saw a baby with no arches and feet at a 90-degree angle to where they should have been healed under a tent after I laid my hands on that baby.  I laid hands on a woman who was unable to hear properly in one ear because she was born without part of her eardrum, and she was completely healed and able to hear normally.  A young man who was born with malformed ears was healed in front of others and stopped using special devices he had needed.  I’d WANT to have some cameramen around to record things like that!  Just because someone else doesn’t want to minister to people with birth defects doesn’t mean that nobody does.  Too many people assume things about ALL healing ministers because of an issue they had with ONE healing minister.

I can’t say for sure if any people with healing ministries actually tell cameramen to avoid sections with people who have birth defects.  Maybe some do and maybe it’s just a potshot at people with healing ministries.  I think it’s a dubious claim because I’ve never seen any instructions at any crusade that tell people with birth defects to all sit in the same Birth Defects Section.  Just because someone might have instructed cameramen to aim away from sections that CONTAIN one or more such people doesn’t mean that everyone does that or that there are no healing ministries seeing success with birth defects.  For that matter, some healing ministries have exposed as total frauds, but that doesn’t mean that there are no real ones.  The anti-healing books always like to find one bad apple, but you can find bad apples in any class of people who don’t represent that class’s beliefs and practices accurately.

I personally know a woman who was born with noticeable defects and was in a service with a famous healing ministry.  (Don’t ask me which one – I don’t name names if I don’t have something good to say.  I’m not out to trash other ministers’ reputations, whether I like how they do things or not.)  People were being encouraged to believe God for healing for all kinds of conditions.  So she started going up to have hands laid on her.  But then the speaker stopped and said that the line was NOT for people who had birth defects, so if you were coming up for a healing of a birth defect, go back and sit down.

She was heartbroken.  First, she was flabbergasted because this ministry was very well-known for healing miracles.  Second, she was crushed that she was not allowed to go up in the healing line just because her condition was something she was born with.  Besides, the whole affair was rather embarrassing for her!  Perhaps that particular ministry has no success with birth defects, but you certainly won’t have any successes if you don’t allow such people to receive ministry!

The Lord has since changed her body and she has bones she never had before, but it wasn’t because of the ministry in question!

So I’m not denying that there are true stories like that.  What is not fair is when someone takes a true story and then tells the world that “all” healing ministries are like that when that simply isn’t the case.

I will say as I do throughout this book – experience does not determine our doctrine.  I’ve seen people “fake it” by shoving people down and I’ve been the shove-ee myself.  But that doesn’t stop me from believing what Jesus said.  You can tell me true accounts of bad healing ministry, but I can tell you true Christ-exalting stories of good healing ministry – the kinds of stories you’ll never read in the anti-healing books.  I don’t get my doctrine from people’s stories; I get it from the Word that tells us that there are ministries of “gifts of healings” and “miracles,” and that we will do the works that Jesus did and greater.

I preached at a church that was founded when a healing evangelist saw an instant healing of a serious birth defect in a meeting in the town’s soccer stadium.  People all over that town were eyewitnesses to what happened, and I enjoyed hearing people share what they saw that day.  It started raining and the evangelist commanded the rain to stop and it stopped just as if someone had shut off a water tap.  The people never forgot that part either.

I know a man who ministered to a grown woman who had the mind of a 2-year-old due to her particular defect.  She was instantly healed in front of a crowd and she immediately started speaking TWO languages and using college-level words!  That exalted Jesus and definitely multiplied the crowd size after that night.

I personally know people who have had children who were supposedly going to be unable to function in society due to their defects – who are now functioning in society even though it was “impossible” after their parents stood in faith for their children.  It’s way too late to tell me that God doesn’t heal birth defects!

The nice thing about the healing of birth defects is that no one can deny that something happened.  If people testify of being healed of migraines or back pain, that’s wonderful, too, but you can’t see migraines or back pain, but everyone can see deformities and everyone can see when they aren’t there anymore!

Perhaps we should pray for more boldness when it comes to people with birth defects so that we won’t shy away thinking that we’ll just be embarrassed – after all, what if nothing happens?  Well, “nothing” is what is SURE to happen if you don’t lay hands on people with birth defects.  What if something DOES happen?