A challenge from Pastor Les Potter, one of HEART’s Partner Pastors
Who hath believed our report?
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:1,4-5)
This is the question the prophet Isaiah asked of God’s people in around 690BC.
We could certainly ask the Church that same question today! Judging by the huge number of callers to United Christian Broadcasters’ telephone prayer line asking for prayer for physical healing, it is evident that many do not believe God’s report in Isaiah 53:1-5.
Why don’t they believe God’s Word? Mainly because of ignorance as they have not been taught about God’s will on the subject of healing, faith and deliverance.
As a very new convert, I had an experience that settled my view on healing once and for all. Jesus had ‘saved’ me – I had given my life to him and accepted his free offer of forgiveness of sins, salvation and eternal life. I had also been baptised in the Holy Spirit, as we read in the book of Acts.
As far as I could see the only two conditions were that I should believe, and that I should lay my hands on the sick person
Then I read Mark’s gospel, chapter 16:17-18: “These signs shall follow them that believe, and they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.”
As far as I could see the only two conditions were that I should believe, and that I should lay my hands on the sick person.
Not long afterwards, my wife suffered an attack from a physical problem which had afflicted her during our 19 years of married life. Remembering what I had read in the Bible I did as instructed, and guess what? She was healed! Praise the Lord.
Furthermore, she never had another attack. I was so excited that when we arrived at church on Sunday morning I just had to tell somebody. So when the vicar, the curate and the Church Army captain met us at the door, I immediately told them what had happened.
I thought they would be pleased for us, but no, the vicar laid his hand on my shoulder and said: “Now Les, don’t get excited because all healings and miracles stopped when the disciples died.”
Now I did not know much about the Bible at that time, but I knew that Mark 16 was true because my wife was healed. I decided that what they told me was not true, so I made a decision to always believe what the Bible said and do what it says to do.
I knew that Mark 16 was true because my wife was healed
Since that time I have learned that my experience was not uncommon, so I decided to believe God’s report which says: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).
Here are two of the main reasons why so many of God’s people are sick:
1) Because they have never been taught the truth about divine healing, they do not know what God’s will is for them. “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 2).
2) Others reject God’s will by saying: “Well, that was just the apostle John’s greeting to Gaius.” No! That is God’s will for all of his people, but for many years God’s will has met with resistance to the miraculous from the ‘Church’.
Now hear what the great healing evangelist F F Bosworth had to say: “The majority of ministers and church members of today, through their ignorance of and their traditions on the subject of the ministry of healing are opposed to it as it was taught and preached and practised in the early Church. Today, a large part of the members of the Church, through ignorance, are opposing that for which the early Church prevailed in prayer. They have not accepted our Lord’s attitude towards sickness, and have not met the conditions for the healing of the sick which God desires and it is these very hinderers who are pointing out the failures for which they themselves are largely responsible.” (From ‘Christ the Healer’ by F F Bosworth)
God warned of this backsliding through the prophet Jeremiah when he said: “From the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein” (Jeremiah 6:13-14,16).
Fear seeks to control us
God wants his people whole, but we have to face up to the truth and take responsibility for our sins, which is the cause of so much sickness and disease in the body of Christ. Jesus said to the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda, who had been there 38 years: “Wilt thou be made whole?” First there has to be a desire to be made whole regardless of the cost. He had to face the wrath of the religious for taking up his bed on the Sabbath day, but when he obeyed Jesus’ command he was made whole. Jesus then issued a warning to him saying, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:3-15).
The sin that affects the Church today is unbelief, which gives entrance to fear, and fear seeks to control us. We have seen the result of fear in the Church today as they obey all these Covid regulations, observing social distancing, wearing of face masks and meeting online, and no singing in church, when God commands us in Hebrews 10:25: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
When the government tries to take authority over the Church, I leave you with the words of Peter who said, “We ought to obey God rather than man.” Amen.
Les Potter leads The Upper Room Christian Fellowship, Great Yarmouth
FREE BOOKLET ON HEALING
Pastor Les Potter says he hasn’t been to a doctor or dentist for 40 years.
According to Pastor Les, he simply decided to believe the Bible’s promises about healing and the miracles that Jesus and others did.
He and his wife Joan had already been married for 19 years before they became Christians. “I was on the verge of suicide,” he recalls. “I just called out to God – and he rescued me. My wife got saved a few days later.”
Soon Les was given a New Testament and read in Mark 16 that believers should lay hands on the sick. As Joan suffered from painful sinusitis, he simply laid his hands on her head – and within an hour the pain had gone.
With the evidence of a healed wife before him, Les decided he’d believe the Bible. A key book was ‘Christ the Healer’ by
F F Bosworth. Les has written several booklets on healing himself, including ‘Chemotherapy: the truth behind it’.
Les would like to offer his latest 48-page booklet, ‘How to renew your youth and live in health’ free to readers: “I believe that many Christians would find it of great benefit in their lives, especially at this time.”
To order the booklet, send a sae to Pastor Les Potter, 82 Mill Lane, Bradwell, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR31 8HR