Just to Be Sure

I’d guess that anyone who’s done healing ministry for very long has encountered what I consider one of the most annoying outcomes.  A person is supernaturally healed of cancer and gets a testimony from his doctor that he is now cancer-free!  The doctor doesn’t know what to make of this “impossible” situation, and then he decides that a further procedure is needed “just to be sure” that the cancer is gone.  Possibly other specialists and the person’s family gang up and insist that the procedure be done.  They go ahead with it, and the procedure itself kills the person, who lamentably, really WAS cancer-free.  Then, skeptics can wave their fingers and say, “You know that fellow whose ‘testimony’ was shared publicly by XYZ Ministries?  He’s DEAD!  I knew you couldn’t believe those faith healers.”  It’s really no fun, but it’s bound to happen to you sooner or later, and you can’t let it discourage you from continuing to be bold when you minister to the sick.

I lost my best friend many years ago to that scenario.  Then, when I started pastoring, I heard a testimony of someone who received complete healing of terminal cancer through our ministry.  He had been bedridden and at death’s door, and he suddenly got out of bed healed and started driving all over the place in his truck, enjoying his healing.  The doctors didn’t know what to make of it, so they wanted to do something “just to be sure” that the cancer was really gone.  The next thing we knew, HE was really gone.  I know that doctors try their best and they aren’t out to kill people, but human medicine is imperfect and it’s practiced through imperfect people.  All surgery involves risk, and you have to consider that when you make your decisions.

So let me implore you – if you have been supernaturally healed of some dread disease and you have medical tests that prove that you don’t have it anymore (as these folks did), beware of any extra procedure or test that is being recommended “just to be sure” you’re healed.  This can be because the doctor doesn’t believe in divine healing and has no idea what to make of your “impossible” recovery, so he’s trying to resort to what he knows.  It’s your life and you’ll have to do what makes you comfortable, but please at least consider that if tests prove you don’t have something, going through risky procedures could be the route with more downside.  You could try to strike a bargain with the doctor that he can keep an eye on you and do a non-risky test in a little while to make sure that you still don’t have the condition rather than embarking on some procedure with known substantial risk.  Or you could just tell him that the sick need a physician (Matthew 9:12, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:31), and you’re not sick anymore, and move on.