God knows no incurable diseases
By Bishop Dave Chikosi
Anointing the sick with oil is not a new fad. Pentecostals have been anointing their sick with oil since the Azusa St Revival of 1902. This is the Revival that saw the birth of modern Pentecostalism.
Among Catholics this sacrament is known as The Oil of the Infirm or Extreme Unction. There is nothing new here. Both Protestants and Catholics have believed in anointing oil for nearly 2000 years.
Three Biblical Sacraments
The Church of Jesus Christ has three clear Biblical sacraments: Baptism, Communion and Anointing the Sick. Oil is one of the four sacramental elements given to the church for administering the grace of God to believers. The other three elements are water (in Baptism) as well as bread and wine (in Communion or Eucharist).
The modern use of the sacrament of Anointing the Sick goes back to biblical times. When Christ sent His disciples out to preach, we are told that they “cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them” (Mark 6:13).
The Book of James instructs church elders to anoint the sick for healing:
Is any man sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him (James 5:14-15)
It’s very clear from this passage that the oil itself does not heal. It has no intrinsic healing properties. It is not a magic wand. Rather, the oil is both a symbol and a carrier of the anointing that heals. The anointing is indeed transferable – but more of that later.
It’s the anointing in the oil, not the oil in and of itself, which does the healing. You can take the oil to a science lab to investigate its healing properties, but that would only be an exercise in futility. God doesn’t fit in a test tube. No, the oil, in and of itself, does not heal. The anointing plus “the prayer of faith” is what saves the sick man.”
Faith must be involved in the use of the oil. If the sick person uses it without faith, it simply won’t work. Unbelief will render the power of God null and void for the needy one. Jesus proved it. While visiting His hometown of Nazareth one day He suddenly found His miracle-working Hands tied behind His back. His home boys were so full of unbelief and “because of their unbelief, He couldn’t do any miracles among them” (Mark 6:5).
What is true for oil was also true for Paul’s anointed handkerchiefs and aprons.
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them (Acts 19:11).
The Anointing Is Transferable
Every minister who has ever prayed for the sick knows that the” anointing” (or spiritual virtue) is transferable. St Paul knew that. The healing anointing or virtue that was on him was transferred onto handkerchiefs and aprons, which were then taken back home by friends and relatives to sick loved ones. As soon as the anointed cloth touched the sick body, the person was miraculously healed.
The oil works very much the same way. The minister prays for the oil, thereby transferring the anointing into the oil. The sick one smears the oil on his body in the name of the Lord and by faith. As soon as he does that the results are guaranteed. Yes, guaranteed! But not guaranteed by the prophet or preacher, but by the very Word of God itself – “anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up” (James 5:15).
The Foolishness of God
Yes, we Christians are foolish enough to believe such hocus pocus (as some have called it). You know why? Because it comes out of the very eternal Word of God. God uses foolish things to confound the wise, and “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom” (1 Cor 1:25). This is why unless Kingdom principles are received with childlike faith, there is no hope for any of us.
I personally think God uses oil, aprons, handkerchiefs, saliva (spit), mud etc as healing elements just to strip us of our pride. Could Jesus have healed the blind man without spitting in his eyes? Or healed Naaman’s leprosy without having him dip seven times in a nearby sewer?
Of course God could have. He did that for the Roman centurion’s servant who was sick with a palsy at home. All Jesus did was speak the Word and the deed done. The man recovered at the self-same hour even though he was sick in bed in a different town miles away. God can do anything. He is God all by Himself.
But He will have us go through some of these procedures because we are idiots. We are so full of ourselves. We think we’re all that and a bag of chips! What hubris! And so He must use the foolish things to make us know we aren’t all that smart. But sadly some of us are too dense and still don’t get it.
To characterise a sacrament of the church as a “fake cure” (as some are doing) is to insult nearly 2000 years of Protestant and Catholic church tradition. May God have mercy on your soul. But the Bible is not fake, neither is the God of that Bible fake. God healed in the past and He still heals now.
No Incurables in the Divine Economy
When Jesus walked on earth He “healed EVERY KIND of disease and illness” (Mat 4:23). And then before His Ascension, Jesus turned over this healing power to His disciples, whom He gave “authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal EVERY KIND of disease and illness” (Mat 10:1).
And because Jesus is “the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8), the true Church believes that He still heals “every kind of disease” today, including the much dreaded HIV/AIDS. He says: “I am the LORD God of all humanity. Nothing is too hard for me.”
What we do tell people after the oil and prayer is the same thing Jesus told the leper that he had just cleansed: “Go, show yourself to the priest . . . as a testimony” (Luke 5:14). I don’t know of any preacher of any Kingdom significance who tells people to throw away medication after prayer. That is not the preacher’s call. The sick one can do that, and they often do. But that’s them making that call, not the preacher.
The reason why we preachers want you to go to your doctor for a check-up after prayer is because it provides us with added testimony authenticating the miracle. Such authentication is not for the church (the Word of God is self-authenticating), but for the unbelieving world. If they can hear it from one of their trusted, unbiased (hopefully) professionals, then maybe they can be convinced that God still does miracles today.
Christians Are Not Against Medical Science
No, we are not against medical science. Quite the contrary. Both the anointing and medicine are fighting the same evil called disease. Preachers and doctors are on the same side on this one. We just do it differently. Doctors use natural means while preachers use supernatural. But the goal is the same i.e. alleviate human suffering.
God’s perfect will, however, is divine healing. Divine healing is not only non-invasive (no need to cut you open to remove a cancer), it gives the glory for the healing to God, and does that in a very direct, non-roundabout way.
Medical science, on the other hand, represents the achievement of the human intellect ( and there is nothing wrong with that). But the glory for the healing does not redound directly to God. It’s the human professional who gets all the acclaim and accolades. God gets credit, if He gets any at all, in a very roundabout sort of way.
But that is not the most important difference for us in the church. For us Christians the most important difference is this: whereas medical science has no cure for some diseases, God knows no incurable disease. Nothing can stump the Balm of Gilead.
The question is never: “Can God heal any and every disease?” Rather the question is: “Can YOU believe God is able to heal any and every disease?” If you answer yes then this is your day for a miracle. Why? Because Jesus promised: “Anything is possible if a person believes” (Mark 9:23)
Bishop Dave Chikosi can be reached by email [email protected]. His messages can also be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUwUV5nmQvuqsSFkZcqKMX4g&feature=plcp
