The Healing Ministry

Physicians are called to care for the sick.  Some physicians claim to heal the sick.  John Stott offers some insight and puts into proper perspective the ministry of healing in his daily devotional, Through the Bible, Through the Year.

“The gospel writers describe Jesus’s ministry as threefold: teaching, preaching, and healing.  Teaching and preaching are not hard to grasp or to imitate, but how are we to understand the ministry of healing?

Perhaps the place to begin is to affirm the goodness of God’s creation.  that is to say, disease was no part of God’s original intention for the world, and it will be no part of his ultimate purpose either.   In the new universe there will be neither sickness nor pain nor death nor tears (Rev. 21:4).  Since, then, disease and death are alien intrusions into God’s good world, doctors and nurses are reight to wage war against them.  Moreover, all healing is divine healing, since God has put into the human body remarkable therapeutic processes.  For example, no sooner has an infection appeared then antibodies are created to fight it.  It is this conviction that led Ambroise Pare, the Huguenot physician, to say, “I dressed the wound, but God healed.”  The words are inscribed on a wall of the Ecole de Medicine in Paris.

The Gospels make it plain, however, that the healing ministry of Jesus belonged to a different order.  Like changing water into wine, multiplying loaves and fishes, and walking on water, Jesus’s healings were supernatural demonstrations of the kingdom of God.

In trying to understand them, we will be wise to avoid opposite extremes.  On the one hand, it would be absurd to put the creator in a straightjacket and declare that miracles can’t and don’t happen.  On the other hand, we have no liberty to say (as some do) that performing miracles is the normal Christian life.  for however we define miracles, they certainly belong not to the normal but to the abnormal.  If we claim to be able to heal the sick like Jesus, we need to remember tht he healed without the use of medical or surgical means, without delay, degree, or remission, but immediately, completely, and permanently, and that even hostile eyewitnesses said, “We cannot deny it” (Acts 4:16).”

Healing of the Soul and the Body

Spurgeon was a prolific preacher, who relied on gleaning gems of truth from the Scripture.  His church grew to be one of the largest in the world, all without the entertainment and experience that is passed off as worship in many of our churches today.  In the following commentary he discusses healing of the soul and the body.

It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease.  Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honor is to be given God who gives virtue to medicine, and bestows power to the human frame to cast off disease.  As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the great Physician alone.  He claims it as His prerogative, “I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal.”  One of the LORD’s choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, the LORD that heals us.  “I will heal thee of thy wounds,” is a promise that could not come from the lips of man, but only from the mouth of the eternal God.  On this account the psalmist cried to the LORD,  “O LORD, heal me, for my bones are sore vexed,” and again, “Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.”  For this, also, the godly praise the name of the LORD, saying, “He healeth all our diseases.”  He who made man can restore man.  He who was at first the creator of our nature can create it anew.   What transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily!”  My soul, whatever your disease may be, this great Physician can heal you.  If He be God, there can be no limit to His power.  Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding.  Come with the limping foot of wasted energy.  Come with the maimed hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the ague of shivering despondency.  Come just as you are, for He who is God can certainly restore you.  None shall restrain the healing virtue that proceeds from Jesus our LORD.  Legions of devils have been made to admit the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been baffled.  All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and you will be among them , my friend, if you but rest yourself in Him this night.

Spurgeon on Healing

Spurgeon’s commentary on Psalm 103:3, Who heals all your diseases.

The fact is certain, that we are all more or less suffering under the  disease of sin.  What a comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us!   His cures are very speedy- there is life in a look at Him; His cures are radical- He strikes at hte center of the disease; and hence, His cures are sure and certain.  He never fails, and the disease never returns.  There is no relapse where Christ heals;  no fear that His patients should be merely patched up for a season.  He makes new men of them: He gives them a new heart and He puts within them a right spirit.  He is well skilled in all diseases.  Physicians generally have some specialty.  Although they may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, there is usually one disease they have studied above all others; but Jesus Christ is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of human nature.  He is as much at home with one sinner as with another, and never yet did He meet with an out-of -the-way case that was difficult for Him.  He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal with, but He has known at a glance exactly how to treat the patient.  He is the only universal panacea, healing in every instance.  Whatever our spiritual malady may be; we should apply at once to this Divine Physician.  There is no brokenness of heart which Jesus cannot bind up.  “His blood cleasnses from all sin.”  We have but to think of the myriads who have been delivered from all sorts of diseases through the power and virtue of His touch, and we shall joyfully put ourselves in His hands.  We trust Him and sin dies; we love Him and grace lives;  we wait for Him and grace is strengthened; we see Him as He is, and grace is perfected forever. 

Despair turns to Hope

Weekly I meet with a group of Ukrainian physicians who are believers but need lots of encouragement when working in a very oppressive environment.  In most countries physicians are taught a very man centered view of medicine.  If only we could discover the cure for this disease, man could live for ever.  Christian physicians often behave only as doctors Monday through Saturday and Christians on Sunday.  Of course, this is not always the case, but the medical system does not allow them to express there Christian opinions freely without ridicule.

This is especially true in Ukraine where for the past ninty years science and evolution were promoted as the true basis for the philosophy of medicine.  Not only were Christian ideas ridiculed but there were economic consequences for holding such beliefs as well.  Christians were not promoted.  If you shared your faith with your patients you were removed from your position.  Despite being an independent country with one of the highest levels of religious freedom in the post-Soviet era compared to other countries in the former Soviet bloc, things have not changed much in the medical sphere.  Christian physicians are the overwhelming minority, making up only a small percentage, 1 or 2 %.

In our weekly meeting we have been examining how the Great Physician dealt with patients.  Previously these same physicians have been taught  how to share there faith with there patients in a course called The Saline Solution.   We studied how compassionate Jesus was in caring for His patients, as He proclaimed and revealed the truth of their condition to them.  You could visibly see the anguish on some faces and the joy on others as they wrestled with how they could share their faith with sensitivity, permission, and respect within the time constraints every doctor faces.

We ended our time with prayer for God to work in the hearts of their colleagues and for them to be the most Christ-like physicians towards their patients.  May they make the most of every opportunity to be Christians first, who happen to be doctors, seven days a week.  May God use health care providers to relieve the despair we all felt once, providing an everlasting hope to their patients. 

A Sure Foundation

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ (1Cor 3:10,11).

Every Wednesday evening I meet with a group of Christian physicians to build “A Sure Foundation” for healthcare in Ukraine. The expert builder or author is Dr. Patrick Pulliam.
The center of this study is Jesus Christ, the Great Physician. Despite being from different confessions we grab hold of the truth of Scripture and apply it to the practice of medicine. We become Bereans, searching for what is true about what we believe, being careful how we build placing each brick on a solid foundation.

Christian physicians are definitely in the minority in the medical workplace. They struggle with how to reach their colleagues and their patients in a system that is antagonistic to the Gospel. We pray for those doctors who are in authority in the Ukrainian medical system. May God soften their hearts and make them receptive to the truth that will bring healing to both body and soul, for themselves, their colleagues, their patients and their country.

It is a Small World

How life changes and how small the world has become!  I never would have imagined when I was in medical school I would become an international physician.  Never would I have imagined I would feel like the whole United States would be my consultant base.  It really is just a variation of the “Good Ole Boy” system, only now we are linked by computer.   Today I have been in communication with Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and Kyiv regarding patients I am caring for in Ukraine.  In the not so distant past missionaries were sent to far away places with many never returning home for various reasons.  Communication by what we now call “snail mail” took months.  We receive airmail in 7 to 10 days providing it is not the Christmas season.

Speaking of when I was in medical school, the last thing I would have thought about was being a missionary.  My next to last thoughts would have been about God himself.  God does have a way of grabbing a hold of you, enabling you to do things you neither desired to do or thought were even possible.  I thank Him for the gifts and talents He has given me as well as the opportunities to serve others and share the love He has lavished upon me and tell  of His wondrous deeds with the people of Ukraine, the United States and the rest of the world because of this technology.  The health needs of ordinary people allow me tell of the Great Physician using both word and deed. 

The Drama of Life

Everyday around the world the drama of life is played out.  Doctors more than most are privy to watch these  dramas unfold, indeed the actors are brought to his doorstep for consultation.  When all is said and done whether we have the best technology available or not what hope can we really offer our patients.

During the past two weeks a fellow missionary, George Markey, became ill with acute necrotizing pancreatitis.  He had served for the past 14 years in Kyiv where he successfully planted a church which is now completely run by Ukrainians.  Six months ago he and his wife moved to Kyrgyztan to begin a new work.  We have been following closely the drama and the struggle of this man’s fight for life.  We have been praying along with many others for God to bring healing to his body and wisdom for his doctors.  This illness has only a 10% survival rate.

 God’s providence is truly amazing.  What are the odds George would be admitted to a  hospital where a world reknown surgeon for this condition worked.  He was initially too ill to be transported to a facility in the West.  His children began to fly in from various parts of the world where they serve as missionaries to care for their father.  In this part of the world there is  little of the technology and care we have become acustomed to in the United States.  Typically the families provide all of the extras, such as clean sheets, observation and taking vital signs.  The families must go to a local pharmacy and purchase the recommended medicines and bring them back to the hospital.  Then the nurses, who are generally understaffed, must be tracked down to administer the treatments.  The atmosphere is definitely not the same.

During this struggle the family continued to gaze at and trust in God first,  pleading for mercy and wisdom.  Yet they recognized whether their husband and father lived or died would ultimately be decided by God.  If the outcome was not what they preferred, God would still be God, their God.  This is just like Daniel as he stood before Nebuchadnezzar and was about to be thrown into the fiery furnace.  

Despite great financial obstacles, a few days ago, George was flown by a special medical evacuation airplane to a hospital in Indianopolis where he was admitted directly to the intensive care unit.  The struggle continues but we know that his redeemer lives.  Therefore we can have and give true hope, whether we have the latest medical technology or not.  With blessed assurance we know our savior lives, the first fruit of those who have already fallen asleep.

What an encouragement to witness the faith of this family.  We join with this family in prayer that through the drama of George’s life God will be glorified and that others will come to believe in the Savior that lives and heals eternally.  This is how the Great Physician practices medicine.  He alone has the permanent cure for both body and soul.  Let us continue to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.