CHAPTER ONE

GOD IS ABLE

Jesus said, “According to your faith will it be done to you” (Mt 9:29) and it seems without doubt that believing faith is the foundation for the healing miracles God has promised in his Word.

During fifty three years of ministry together my husband, Ken, and I have seen many remarkable answers to prayer. However there were other times when we expected a healing to take place but were disappointed. Indeed, over those same years, we observed Christians of world renown, desperately sick, who were earnestly prayed for by many thousands yet were not healed.

Because of these failures in realising the healing promise we finally came to understand that God is Sovereign and for some reason, known only to him, he sometimes withholds the healing or the miracle desired. Here is a mystery we cannot fathom. However, that does not mean we should abandon the healing message. Far from it! In these pages I would like to introduce you to many wonderful healing miracles and to reveal a little of the wonder and the mystery of [1]divine healing, and of the promise of God

Through the years ’63-’69 we experienced a wave of divine healing in our church in Launceston Tasmania. It was a time of great blessing yet there remained for us many mysteries, things we found hard to understand.

Over those years of blessing, healing was preached constantly yet some people for whom we prayed were not healed and some died of their illness. Despite this Ken continued to preach healing even when, especially when, the apparent failures occurred. He maintained that God’s promise that healing was available was still true, even though we did not always see a successful conclusion to our prayers.

Now, many years later, with a greater understanding of the healing promise, we can see some reasons why those prayers, even though prayed with great earnestness, did not always bring us the victory for which we so greatly yearned.

The victories that were achieved were tremendous as the testimonies in this chapter reveal. There were many more healings than we have room to tell here

Surgery Failed – Prayer Succeeded

Fifteen years ago I had a double tooth extraction which left a puncture through my gum and jaw- bone and into the antrum. This perforation was discovered when I rinsed my mouth with water, because the water trickled into my nose. The dentist expected the hole to heal naturally, but it didn’t, and eventually it became infected and painful.

I received various kinds of (unsuccessful) treatment, culminating in an operation to place a plastic flap over the decayed bone. This proved unsatisfactory and another operation was needed to put a drainage hole at the back of my nose. However after twelve months this hole closed, necessitating yet another operation. But this too failed and my mouth remained infected and painful.

Then one Sunday night Pastor Chant (who did not know of my problem) said he felt impressed by the Lord to pray for someone with an infected sore in the roof of the mouth. I indicated that I was probably the person concerned, and the Pastor prayed for me.

Within a short time all trace of the trouble left me, and my dentist has confirmed that the hole has closed and the infection is gone. Praise God for his divine power. (H. J. Harvey)

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in the earth. Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.
(Mat 28:18-20)