Why Don’t Pastors Go To Hospitals And Heal The Sick If God Uses Them To Heal?

One ministry in the Church of Jesus Christ is divine healing of the sick. It is also called faith healing. The gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the book of Acts are replete with instances where Jesus Christ and the earliest apostles healed many sick folks. 

“That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick” (Matthew 8:16).

“And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well” (Mark 6:56).

“And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them” (Acts 19:12).

Now, in our generation too, many church leaders are used to minister divine healing to the sick throughout the world. Most of them are shown on television and on social media to glorify the name of God and to strengthen the faith of the people. 

Unfortunately, however, most critics of the Church, particularly atheists, do not cease  to mock faith healing and blast pastors for stage-managing it. They refuse to separate false ministers who may arrange healing for their personal interest from genuine ministers who are used by God to put smiles on the faces of the afflicted. 

In their public criticisms, these ignorant critics wonder why pastors do not go to the various hospitals and clinics, as they put it, where real sick people are, and heal them if indeed God uses men to heal sick today. 

As already stated, they are bias and communicate out of ignorance. They do not understand how God heals the sick through His servants. Divine healing happens based on the faith of the sick, the will of God and the timing of God. 

Thus, during His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ did not go to hospitals or health centers and begin to pray or touch the sick to heal them. Our Lord always responded to the faith of people who earnestly desired divine healing by the sovereign will of God. Most of them came to Jesus and His apostles full of faith expecting to be healed. 

Someone may argue that there were no hospitals in the days of Jesus. Well, the word “hospital” might not have been coined and used in those days, but there could be a synonymous word used. Understand that there were physicians who attended to the sick in the first-century. For instance, Luke who wrote the gospel of Luke was a physician (Colossians 4:14).

Moreover, Scripture states that before the woman with the issue of blood received instant divine healing after touching the garment of Jesus, she had gone to so many physicians (Luke 8:43-48). Obviously, those physicians had centers where the sick were admitted. 

As already indicated, Jesus did not go to sick people and invite them to be healed. Rather, the sick full of faith in the healing power of God went to Him, desiring to be healed. And Jesus healed them in response to their own faith. So the Lord Jesus would often say, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19).

You see, in the orthodox medicine practice, medical doctors do not normally go to the homes of sick people and treat them. The sick go to the hospitals where doctors are. This is not different from traditional healing practice. 

If sick people are made to go to the shrines of herbalists and fetish priests to be attended to, why should people demand that pastors go to hospitals and heal the sick. Clearly, critics of Christianity, Jesus Christ, the Bible and pastors do not only mock out of ignorance, they are agents of the devil. They hate Christ and His  Church without cause. 

For these reasons, Christians who read this article should not be discouraged when the Church is despised and true servants of Christ are insulted. You should remain resolute, knowing that these mockers are filled with greater hatred to work for the devil. 

By James Quansah