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Jim Price | PentecostalTheology.com
Thoughts on healing: For the first ten years of my ministry I focused on the healing aspect of ministry. During those years we studied not only the bible but the writings of a dozen or so of evangelists and pastors who placed emphasis on praying for the sick. In 1957 I was one of the sponsoring pastors of the Oral Roberts campaign in Rockford, Il..
As time went by I began to study physiology and nutrition and to ask questions like; why do so many people get sick and is there some natural way to improve their overall health?
Many of our people worked in ‘ dirty ‘ environments, breathing putrid air and dealing with chemicals without gloves or other protective gear. In addition the fifties was the decade when America’s eating habits changed and of course because of the war and air travel millions were exposed to certain germs for the first time.
Overtime I began to ask for a private session for those who were sick and requesting prayer. Sometimes a Wednesday prayer meeting fit this need just fine. Here we could ask questions and bring up possible causes of why and how they may have become sick.To be sure many did not want to go through this thinking process; they just wanted a quick healing and would often fall right back into the life pattern that caused them to be sick in the first place.
Some begin to see that there was a lot that they could do to stay healthy and to prevent sickness in the first place. Then the nature of the prayers changed, you might hear some pray, Lord help me to understand what I am doing wrong to my temple? Teach me to participate in my own healing. Over the last 40 years I have prayed with hundreds of individuals and couples and taken time to talk about how they live their life, where they work etc. Still mysteries remain; a dear lady, a missionary nurse picked up some mysterious disease in Guatemala. We had prayer for her over many years and got her regular medical treatment as well as nutritional treatment. She hasn’t died but she remains limited in what she can do. My brother had a sister at his church with diabetes, the whole church prayed for her diligently and yet she had to have a leg amputated. It shook my brothers understanding about healing. Would love to hear about your experiences of divine healing and not just of the victorious ones but also of those that leave you scratching your head.
Peter A Vandever [02/18/2016 12:44 PM]
Jesus headed everyone who came to Him in faith.
Jim Price [02/18/2016 1:39 PM]
That’s part of the mystery. It use to be that the burden was on the sick one; did they have private doubts or hidden sins? But then if we believe in justification by faith ( that is just as if we never sinned ) or if we have faith the size of a mustard seed that seems to disallow the weakness of the sick one. Then of course we have infants and toddlers who have serious illness. What about the Zika virus, now so widespread in Brazil? Who will pray the prayer of complete healing for these otherwise doomed infants?
Varnel Watson
Bro. Jim Price we’ve done some work around Rockford Street Preacherz may have as well. Can you give us some background of your pastoring their under the Oral Roberts sponsorship ?
Street Preacherz
Sorry no. There is an inner city men’s home there.
Jim Price
The years were 1956-1957 and I had assumed the pastorate of the Church of God in Rockford. It was a small congregation and I worked at an outside job. It just so happened that in the spring of `57 Roberts planned a meeting and set up the large tent about a mile from the church. Though young I was invited to set on the platform each night and along with the other pastors got to introduce myself each service. Roberts didn’t commingle with the pastors but stayed in an air conditioned room underneath the platform.. I was told that that he changed shirts two to three times per night in between different parts of the service. All in all I was impressed with him, his staff and the results of the meeting.