The Healing Games
God does indeed still heal today!! I personally know of instances where the evidence is irrefutable!! Our local AOG minister was recently healed, instantly, of Multiple Sclerosis!!
In contrast to this, there are some people who are pronouncing healing where there is none. A charade develops and everyone seems to be playing let's pretend.
Recently on the Website, Pentecostal Issues, www.pentecostal-issues.org, there was an account by a medical doctor who attended an "Awake America Crusade' with Steve Hill. This physician attended a meeting in Peoples AOG Church in Salem, Oregon. This doctor has been a general surgeon for twenty years and has performed over 5,000 surgeries. He also brought with him, his 81 year old mother and both he and his mother have been "in Pentecost" all their lives.
The doctor states:
"Upon arriving at the sanctuary ... I encountered a very nice gal who used to work for me ... She later explained to me that God had frozen her in place ... What makes her case particularly interesting is the fact that she has some kind of seizure disorder that developed about a week after her return from Brownsville, AOG ... Her first seizure occurred as she was driving her son home from school ... Subsequent medical evaluation did not reveal any basis for the seizures... As a result, she lost her drivers license...
As I recall the sermon was "Offended by God"... The message developed along the lines that God is knocking people over and causing them to shake and if you object to God's methods you wont be used of God ... Steve Hill told the crowd that they needed to run down to the alter once he had bound Satan or else Satan would keep them in his grasp ... they could tell the few seconds that Satan was bound because they would feel a ,release' like someone was letting go of their leg... After all the sinners got saved, then the fun really began. All sorts of people were called down for a special impartation"
The surgeon then relates that he saw 2 people that he had operated for cancer. Both previously had claimed that after being slain in the Spirit they were healed only to require his surgery. Hill explained "unless your shadow was healing the sick, you need to come up and get some 'fresh anointing"'.
Hill and Bob Rodgers, his associate, started to approach people yelling "Fresh Anointing,' 'Fire,' or 'Down'.
Rodgers used a bop on the top of the head and Hill would shake the heads of people till they fell. The doctor then tells of Bob Rodgers announcing that healing was in the atonement. He pointed to the balcony and said someone was being healed of four vessel coronary artery disease. That person was to place his hand over his heart and he would feel a warm feeling over the heart as God healed them. No one responded. The doctor then recalls that just this past year the pastor of the church had died of cancer, at 50 years, refusing medical treatment, after having received prophecy that the illness was 'not unto death.'
The doctor then relates that a missionary from the church, who refused medical treatment and could have been saved by surgery, died of cancer. This missionary had written a book I Am Healed Put Back The Coffin. Ms life ended, nevertheless, but not without some dramatics. The family announced that he was healed and God wanted him to walk around the ICU bed (hospital) 7 times. The ICU nurses finally agreed, after the family signed several release forms. Somewhere on one of the laps he died. The family further endeared themselves to the medical profession by announcing , in the obituary, that he had died of complications following surgery. I will spare you this Doctor's (the doctor who attended the meeting) harsh conclusions, other than to quote, "The River doesn't seem to be flowing with healing water ... the spirit of truth is no where to be seen.,,
When God actually heals, it brings great glory to God and the Gospel of Jesus. When we play the 'healing game' it becomes a charade and we loose simple basic integrity.
About the Author:
Orrel Steinkamp is publisher of The Plumbline newsletter and director of Plumbline Ministries. He has served as a missionary to Viet Nam, Professor and pastor in Australia, as well as America. Most recently he has retired from the pastorate to pursue Plumbline Ministries fall time. (He received his M.Div and Dr. of Ministry degrees from Bethel Seminary).
Dr. Orrel Steinkamp
74425 Co. Rd. 21
Renville, MN 56284
Orrel Steinkamp <onst@tds.net>