Acts 8:4-13
We were talking in our Men’s Group recently about healing. I asked/wondered why we saw all these miraculous healings in the 1st century church, but we see fewer miraculous healings today. There followed a lengthy discussion, the most of which I recall as the “miracle of modern medicine”, which did not satisfy me as to my earlier questioning. Today’s reading possibly enlightened me a bit: For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. (v. 7) I began to wonder if these 1st century infirmities were the result of unclean spirits inhabiting peoples’ bodies, and that the miraculous healings were the results of the casting out of these unclean spirits. The text mentions the paralyzed and the lame, but I also wonder if the blind and deaf would be included in those (or later) healings, again all the result of the casting out of unclean spirits. We pray and ask God for healing today. But do we need to engage in more spiritual warfare? To me, that’s a really scary thought.
We’ll read more about Simon the Sorcerer tomorrow, but for today let’s embrace the fact that Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip (v. 13). So let’s list him as a believer today and talk more about him tomorrow.
Slava Bohu!
Hi Fred, these type of healings we saw in Uganda and Kelly says in Bolivia. Deliverance services are an important feature, including in Anglican churches. Ven. Eric Twine and the Shirkeys are involved in this type of spiritual warfare. We have talked often of why it is seen less in the developed western world and it may be that we don’t believe that there is a devil.