Denver Seminary

“By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know has been made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.”

It was almost midnight one evening in the late 1970s.The televangelist quietly and reverently invited those in his viewing audience who had chronic pain due to an injury to take a Bible, place it over the body part that was hurt and pray to God for healing. He offered a prayer they could echo that clearly gave God the glory for any healing that might occur. 

My aunt, who had walked on a poorly reset, multiple fractured ankle for years, taking the equivalent of a half a bottle of aspirin in painkillers daily, figured it couldn’t hurt to try. She did what the televangelist suggested. Nothing happened, so she hobbled off to bed. The next morning when she woke up and braced herself for the first bit of pain she would feel when she put her weight on her bad ankle, it was gone. She lived another 15 years and no pain ever returned. As a result, she became more active in her church, with a more vibrant faith than she had had in years.

Many TV healings seem to be more about glorifying the evangelist than God. I wonder how many are real. This one was different. It is the most direct contemporary equivalent I know of to this story in Acts, in which Peter deflects attention from himself to Jesus (v. 12). We cannot demand that God work this way; if He did it often, it would no longer be miraculous. But neither dare we ever doubt that it is possible.