ACTS 8:5-8
5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and PREACHED CHRIST [the gospel] unto them.
6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing THE MIRACLES which he did.
7 For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were HEALED. 8 And there was great joy in that city.
Notice in verse 7 the miracles that followed the preaching of the Word - the gospel. Those healing miracles and deliverances all came about as the result of preaching Christ. The New Testament knows no Christ without Christ the Healer. Physical healing - divine healing - is a part of the gospel. If there is no gospel of healing today, then none of us has a gospel of salvation to preach either because healing is included in the atonement (Isa. 53:4,5).
P. C. Nelson was a great Baptist minister. He said, "Healing is part and parcel of the gospel." During the time Rev. Nelson was pastoring a church in Detroit, Michigan, in 1921, he was run over by an automobile. The doctors said that one of his legs would have to be taken off at the knee. They said that if by some miracle it didn't have to be amputated, at the very least it would be stiff for the rest of his life. But P. C. Nelson related that as he lay there in the hospital, the Lord began to talk with him. The Lord brought to his mind James 5:14 and 15.
JAMES 5:14,15
14 Is any 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: 15 And 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.
Rev. Nelson said that he tried to excuse himself by telling the Lord they didn't practice that in his church. He said that the Lord reminded him of a man and his wife Rev. Nelson knew who believed in the anointing with oil according to this scripture. The Lord told Rev. Nelson that he should call them and have them pray for him. So Rev. Nelson contacted them, and they came to pray for him. They anointed him with oil and prayed, and he was healed. His leg didn't have to be taken off, and his knee wasn't stiff. God's Word is good. The Bible says, .. faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17).
Down in Texas several years ago, a fine denominational minister had a very outstanding ministry. Many of the denominational churches would sponsor him in citywide meetings. In his evangelistic endeavors he became sick. And by his own testimony, within a couple of years, all of his own money was gone. He had had $10,000 in the bank, and that was a lot of money back then. But in two years' time his money was gone. He had to sell his automobile, his home, and most of his books in order to pay his doctor bills. He had been everywhere, including the Mayo Clinic to try to receive help, but was none the better; rather, he grew worse.
Finally he was hospitalized in California. The doctor said that he was going to die. The minister contacted his brother who lived in California to borrow some money so he could go home to Texas where he could die. Their eighty two year old mother lived in Texas and he wanted to see his mother before he died. So his brother sent him the money and he went home. The minister went to live with his mother at the old home place in Texas where he grew up. His mother was so glad to see him. He told his mother that he had come home to die. His dear old mother had a nineteen year old boy who lived there with her who did the chores around the place.
This nineteen year old boy became the sick minister's nurse; the boy had to turn the sick man on his bed and dress him. One day the boy said to him, "Why don't you let the Lord heal you? The Bible says that if there is any sick among you, let them call for the elders of the church, and let them pray for you" (James 5:14,15). Here was a minister who supposedly knew the Bible and yet didn't even know that these scriptures were in the Bible. He had gone to school and studied everything but the Bible! The minister told the boy to get his Bible and find that passage of Scripture, but the boy had never learned how to read.
The man asked him how he knew that passage of Scripture was in the Bible. The boy said that his preacher had told him it was in the Bible. So the denominational minister looked up the scriptures and read them. The boy told the minister that his preacher was having a healing meeting under a brush arbor and invited the minister to come.
Arrangements were made for the minister to come to the meeting; someone brought an old Model T Ford and made a bed in the back of it for the minister. They drove up as close to the brush arbor as they could, and after the service the preacher came out and anointed the sick minister with oil and prayed over him. It was about midnight before the minister and the boy returned home. When the minister got home, he asked his mother to let the boy fire up the wood stove so she could fry him some ham and eggs. He had been eating baby food and soft foods because he couldn't eat any solid food. In fact, he hadn't had anything to eat except baby food in two years. The man told his mother that he was healed. He told her the preacher had anointed him and prayed for him. The mother said later that as her son related this, she thought he had lost his mind. He also wanted his mother to make some old fashioned country biscuits for him to eat too. She thought that since he was going to die anyway, he might as well die happy, so she did what he wanted and made the biscuits and fried ham and eggs. He ate that meal and didn't suffer any ill effects whatsoever; he was completely healed!
This minister then began to write about his healing and send articles in for publication in various magazines. Calls began to come in for him to hold revival meetings. He arranged a citywide meeting for Kansas City. The boy told him that before he went to that meeting, he needed to get filled with the Holy Ghost. The minister said that by that time he was ready to believe anything that nineteen yea old boy told him, so he asked the boy what he should do. The boy explained to him how to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and invited him to another brush arbor meeting. When the invitation was given, the minister went to the altar, and he received the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues.
That minister has long since gone on to glory, but his writings have been a blessing to many of us, including the denomination he was a member of. How did that man get faith for healing? He got it by hearing the Word of God. Mark 5:25 tells us that there was a certain woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years. The Word tells us that she had spent all of her living and had gone to many physicians, but was no better. But then she heard about Jesus.
