The Boring Evangelist

I had the privilege of doing a 12-service healing crusade in a certain country.  Plenty of people showed up for the first service on Sunday morning at the host church.  The Lord led me to just teach the Word about healing.  I didn’t call a healing line; I just let people soak up the Word.

For the evening service, there was a decent crowd, and the Lord led me to continue to teach the Word about healing.  I did not call a healing line because the Lord led me not to do one.

For the next service, there was a much smaller crowd, and the Lord led me to continue to teach the Word about healing.  I still did not call a healing line because I still didn’t sense that the Lord wanted me to have one during that service.

For the next service after that (the fourth service overall), people “stayed away in droves” and attendance was something in the neighborhood of 12 to 14 people!  I learned that night that there were many complaints about my services.  People had complained to the pastor, “We wanted to see an ANOINTED healing evangelist, but all this guy does is get up and preach Bible verses!”  They wanted to see sensational miracles, but they weren’t seeing any.  All that was happening was that people were getting instructed from the Bible about divine healing.

And it so happened, that in that fourth service, at which attendance was miserably small, the Lord led me to just continue teaching from the Word about divine healing.  This part of the world had seen its share of dramatic, flamboyant preachers who flowed in the gifts of the Spirit, but the people had not gotten the kind of teaching that you can read in this book that forms a basis for believing and receiving your healing by faith and keeping it once you get it.  People had mostly depended upon manifestations of the Spirit to be healed.

I thought the services were really good and that I had followed the Lord to the best of my ability, but obviously most of the people did not see things that way.

So I kept teaching away in that fourth service, and something unusual happened.  A man out among the mostly empty seats had the nerve to interrupt my message.  “Wait a minute, preacher!” he yelled.  “If what you’re saying is true, I don’t HAVE to wait for you to call a healing line; I can just believe I receive my healing right now!”  I said, “Yes you can, and don’t let me stop you!”  The man shouted, “I believe I receive my healing RIGHT NOW!”  WHAM, the power of God hit that man, and he was healed on the spot.

Emboldened by that, another intrepid soul who had come to all the meetings to hear the Word cried out, “I believe that I receive MY healing RIGHT NOW, too!”  WHAM, the power of God hit that person and there was another instant healing.

So yet another person cried out, “I believe that I receive MY healing RIGHT NOW!”  WHAM, the power of God hit that person too, and there was another instant healing.

Then a fourth person cried out, “I believe that I receive MY healing RIGHT NOW!” and WHAM, that person also was instantly healed.

I never did call a healing line that night.  There was no need for one.  The people were already healed by believing the Word and acting on it.

Then word got out about some significant healings that had taken place that night, and more people started showing up to “hear and be healed” as the meetings went on.  By the time it was over, they were talking about getting me to stay another week (which I couldn’t) and renting the largest facility in the country to continue the meetings to be able to fit everybody.

There was a young man in the meeting one night who could not use one of his legs; he just dragged that leg behind him.  I thought it would be really encouraging for the people if he would come forward and be healed, but again, I preached the Word.  At the end I asked if people wanted to come up, but the young man turned around and walked out, dragging his bad leg behind him.  I was disappointed.

The next night, I asked if anyone had a testimony to share.  A young man came running down the aisle and wanted to grab the microphone.  I usually don’t part company with the microphone (if you’ve done these kinds of meetings, you know why!), but I just sensed it would be OK in this case, though I didn’t recognize the young man until he started speaking: “You all know that I’ve had to drag my leg behind me when I walk…”  It was the same young man from the night before, and he had just RUN down the aisle!

He continued along these lines (I can’t remember the exact wording): “I was in my bed at 4 o’clock this afternoon thinking about what the preacher here said the night before, and I thought, if that’s true, then I can just receive my healing right now.  And it must be true, because those words were in my Bible written in red because Jesus said them, and He’s the Son of God.  He can’t lie.  So I just said, ‘I believe that I receive my healing NOW’ and I felt this power hit me and I started jumping up and down on my bed with both feet!  I’m healed!”

I was preaching in another country and had felt led to proceed the same way, doing teaching services in the first services.  In the third service, a woman came up who had been born without part of an eardrum.  She had never heard properly out of that ear.  She had heard the Word so much that she was sure that she would receive her healing when she came forward, just as surely as she had received the new birth a long time ago. I had been preaching about the fact that miracles are received exactly the same way as healings (Galatians 3:5-6).  She believed the Word.  She left that place with perfect hearing in that ear!  Also, unlike some “nine out of ten lepers” type people, she came back to all the services and gave her testimony every night.  I’m glad we have the easy part (preaching and believing) and God has the hard part (causing the manifestation of something like that in response to faith).

You can always receive from the Word anything that you can receive through a manifestation of the Spirit, but the Word is guaranteed, while there is no guarantee that the Holy Spirit will move a certain way and heal you aside from your faith.  It is so important to “hear and be healed!”

“He sent His Word and healed them” (Psalm 107:20).