Chapter 12—Prayer for the Miracle of Healing

These particular examples (of which there are many more) illustrate the close link that early believers saw between physical healing and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The propriety of asking God to work a miracle in healing the sick has been kept before us in many messages from Ellen G. White. In 1890 she counseled:CEESDAH 13.5

“As to praying for the sick, it is too important a matter to be handled carelessly. I believe we should take everything to the Lord, and make known to God all our weaknesses, and specify all our perplexities.... If we are under infirmities of body, it is certainly consistent to trust in the Lord, making supplications to our God in our own case, and if we feel inclined to ask others in whom we have confidence to unite with us in prayer to Jesus who is the Mighty Healer, help will surely come if we ask in faith. I think we are altogether too faithless, too cold and lukewarm.

“I understand the text in James is to be carried out when a person is sick upon his bed, if he calls for the elders of the church, and they carry out the directions in James, anointing the sick with oil in the name of the Lord, praying over him the prayer of faith. We read, ‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.’ ...

“Oh, how grateful we should be that Jesus is willing and able to bear all our infirmities and strengthen and heal all our diseases if it will be for our good and for His glory.

“Some died in the days of Christ and in the days of the apostles because the Lord knew just what was best for them.”—Medical Ministry, 16, 17.

And in her popular book The Ministry of Healing, Ellen White devotes an entire chapter to “Prayer for the Sick,” in which she encouragingly wrote:CEESDAH 13.6

“And he saveth them out of their distresses. He sendeth his word, and healeth them, and delivereth them from their destructions” (Psalm 107:19, 20, R.V.).

“God is just as willing to restore the sick to health now as when the Holy Spirit spoke these words through the psalmist. And Christ is the same compassionate physician now that He was during His earthly ministry. In Him there is healing balm for every disease, restoring power for every infirmity.”—Page 226.

Broad counsel included the preparation required by the sick person and those who are to pray, the importance of praying in harmony with God’s will, and the wisdom of using the best remedial agencies at hand. To do so would be no denial of our faith.CEESDAH 13.7

We have been warned that we are not to depend entirely upon miraculous healing when there is sickness. We must do everything that we can for ourselves. We are to study the nature of the disease, find its cause, and deal with it intelligently, using all the facilities at hand. If God were to heal all sickness when requests are made of Him, this would lead to presumption. Very few would change their way of life that had brought on the sickness. For this reason health institutions were to be established among us where people might not only regain their health through proper treatment but also could be taught how to prevent sickness.CEESDAH 13.8