They've Healed My People Slightly

I was ministering in a conference that would last for eight days, Sunday through Sunday. The first night there, my wife and I went to bed about midnight. Around 2 AM, the Lord awakened me. He spoke very clearly and distinctly to my spirit. He said, “They’ve healed my people slightly.” I got up to go into the next room. I didn’t want to disturb Susan, and I wanted to pray and to think on what I had just heard. When I sat down, I heard again, “They’ve healed my people slightly.”

I began to say to myself, “That sounds familiar. I’ve heard or I’ve read that somewhere. Where have I heard that before?” The Spirit of God replied, “It’s in the Word. It’s in My Word.”

Jeremiah 6:14: They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Jeremiah 8:11: For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

It was a sobering moment. There was a presence of care, correction, and concern. When a prophet, pastor, or any minister decrees that all is well when it is not, there should be correction. In that day, they cried peace where there was no peace. In our day, ministers cry out that God will bless you, but the blessing does not come. The minister proclaims that it’s coming, but doesn’t teach how to receive and persevere, and so it never comes into manifestation.

In my prayer at that moment, I asked the Lord for further understanding. I realize that sometimes a Scripture can have more than one meaning and application. I wanted to know, in what way have people been healed slightly today?

The Lord led me to James 3:1, which explains that ministers will receive the greater judgment. He also led me to 1 Peter 5:1-2, which exhorts ministers to feed the flock of God.

I’m quite sure that any healing, whether slight or not, is better than no healing at all. But God has impressed upon me that He wants His people to grow. It has never been His intention that people live their entire Christian lives depending on others to carry them spiritually. Pastors should teach their people to learn the Word of God, how to pray, and how to fight the good fight of faith for themselves. When we genuinely need help, we should get it. However, God wants us to know how to approach Him, and how to receive from Him personally, individually, and intimately. In the natural, we care for babies. They cannot care for themselves. They certainly cannot care for others. Furthermore, in the natural, we expect healthy and normal children to grow to the place where they need less care from others, and actually become mature enough to become caretakers themselves. In the Church, we have Christians who have been saved for many years, but still are unable to care for themselves. In this immature condition, they certainly are in no position to offer spiritual care and support to others who have just been born again. Some refuse to grow, but the fault also lies with some of the leadership. Ministers should not continually encourage Christians to always look to them as the individual source for their spiritual solutions. Too many pastors and ministers perpetuate a Christian’s dependence upon them for a personal prophecy, a word from the Lord, the anointing, and an answer to prayer. After a time, the answer just will not come this way. And so, the people are only healed slightly.

God wants His children to grow in His Word, by hearing the preaching and the teaching provided by the pastors and ministers. As we grow in Christ, we learn for ourselves how to receive God’s tremendous provisions and His abundant blessings. We also learn how to help others. We learn how to pray for others. We learn how to carry the babies and help them also grow. We receive full and complete healings because we have grown strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, with faith in God’s Word and the Name of Jesus Christ.

In a travelling ministry, more than once someone has come to me and said something similar to, “When I first got saved, I’d go to my pastor for healing. He’d pray for me and the anointing would come on me and I’d always get healed. Now, when he prays, nothing happens. He’s lost it.” But no, he didn’t lose it. God wants you to get it. He was supposed to carry you when you were young in the Lord. God knew that. But now God wants you to grow. The answer doesn’t come the same way now. God wants you to use your own faith now. The two of you can agree together according to Matthew 18:19. It’s sad that too many people have been taught to continually go for prayer, to continually ask for prayer, and to continually depend upon others for prayer. But how many people actually observe that the answer doesn’t come the same way as when first born again? The ministers who encourage people to continually look to them for the anointing, words from the Lord, and answers to prayer are only healing people slightly.

There was a healing revival in America in the 1950s. A minister in the forefront of that revival once sent out a survey to those who had come for healing. He wanted to know how many received their healing, and how many were still healed? He asked them to give their church affiliation. I read that approximately 6000 cards were returned. Of that number, the vast majority of those who received healing and kept their healing were denominational Christians, or those who were not even in any church at all. About 70 percent of the denominational Christians got healed, but only about 3 percent of Full Gospel Christians received their healing.

This should not be, and it does not have to be this way. God expects more of those who know more. Someone actively attending a Full Gospel church should be able to receive healing just as well as someone who isn’t in any church at all. Why did only 3 percent of the Full Gospel people receive healing? God expected more of them. In all likelihood, many of them were simply hoping to receive because a man with an anointing was praying for them. They likely were not joining in with their own faith in God’s Word. They likely were still walking by sight and going by what they felt. A new convert doesn’t know how to stand in faith, but a Full Gospel Christian saved for 10 years should be taught to believe something before seeing or feeling it physically. As a result, they were only healed slightly. I’m convinced that God wants us to be healed fully and completely. God wants us to grow. God wants His pastors and ministers to preach and teach His Word so that His children can grow thereby. We should put the emphasis on God’s Word. When we pray, we should do so in line with God’s Word, and in the faith that can only come by hearing His Word.

It concerns me to see Christians who have been saved for many years know so little Scripture. Some are very faithful to attend church. Some are very faithful to serve and to help. They sing in the choir. They drive the church bus. They clean the sanctuary. They certainly will be rewarded for their faithfulness and for their countless hours and efforts for the Lord. But it concerns me that many of these same people fail to receive their healing and other urgent answers to prayer. They’ve wrongly been taught to simply depend on the prayers of others and the anointings of their pastors and visiting speakers. They write personal prophecies down on paper and keep them in the flyleaf of their Bibles, but they actually can only quote a few Scriptures. They put more emphasis on a word from someone, or a prayer from someone, than they do on God’s eternal Word. I believe in prophecy, and I believe in the prayers of others. I believe in the anointings from others that can bless my life. I desire the prayers of others. But when I see people put more emphasis on these things than the knowledge of God’s Word, it concerns me.

In Matthew chapter four and Luke chapter four, when Jesus was tempted of the devil, He quoted Scripture. He said, “It is written.” We should follow that example. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. It doesn’t come any other way. Let’s focus on that.

Some people are lazy. They don’t want to fight. They want someone else to fight for them. The Bible says to fight the good fight of faith. Some people are lazy. They don’t want to persevere in prayer. They want to depend on someone else to do their praying. But the Bible teaches that we’re to stand in faith, to resist in faith, and to pray in faith. That must involve a personal knowledge of the Word of God. That also includes acting on the Word, and living by the Word. Ministers who do not preach a message that feeds the child of God are accountable to God for that omission. Ministers are to feed God’s people the spiritual sustenance whereby they can grow to maturity. Otherwise, we are only healed slightly. Instead, our Heavenly Father, even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, wants us to be filled to overflowing, blessed beyond measure, and to be a blessing to others for His glory.

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