A Journey Into Healing

By Terry Virgo

After a while I got used to the pain. I couldn’t stand for any length of time without my lower back and sometimes the sciatic nerve in my leg experiencing serious discomfort. I had been to my doctor, who sent me to the hospital. Xrays were taken, which provided no answers.

Next, I visited an osteopath, who explained that my pain was due to my having one leg longer than the other. I have since read in The Times and Readers Digest that 70% of back pain is due to this problem. For a few months, I attended regular sessions for manipulation to try to solve the problem but the pain didn’t stop, so I quit going.

The Pain Completely Disappeared

The glorious day came when a visiting preacher attended my church, clearly described my pain and prayed for me so my shorter leg immediately lengthened and the pain completely disappeared. The following Saturday, I stood for two hours watching Brighton and Hove Albion play football without pain and, as any Brighton fan will tell you, that is a miracle!

Not only was I healed, a number of other people testified to having similar pain and were prayed for. I was encouraged to pray for some who were immediately healed as I had been. From then on, every time I prayed for anyone with a similar problem, they were healed.

Later, I began to have some misgivings, not with my own healing or indeed the healings that were taking place when I prayed, but simply with the rather unusual nature of the healings and also that I rarely prayed for other pains or sicknesses with the same confidence or success. After a while, I dialed down on the subject and hardly prayed for anyone to be healed. Then a series of events released me from my reluctance. A man greeted me when I arrived at Spring Harvest with, ‘You’re Terry Virgo aren’t you? You prayed for my back some years ago. I’ve never had any pain since.’

A few days later, a neighbour told Wendy that her husband was locked up with back pain and could not move. Wendy told her that I would pray for him, which I did. He was immediately healed. The next day he was digging concrete slabs out of his garden.

I felt that God had freshly commissioned me to pray for the sick and, instead of being confused by the rather strange and narrow area of confidence, I should simply press through it. I immediately began to offer to pray for people with back problems at the end of nearly every meeting and witnessed scores of people being healed.

One woman immediately testified that she could now reach to put on her own shoes for the first time in 21 years. A man who was preparing to be fitted with a built up shoe to compensate for his shorter leg no longer needed it.

A Breakthrough

One day I was laying hands on a number of people at the end of a meeting. Many testified to immediate relief. Then a young man asked for prayer for his knees, both of which were damaged. This was a new frontier for me but I laid hands on his knees and he was immediately healed. He started jumping on and off of chairs to celebrate his new-found freedom.

The next guy said, ‘My shoulder blade is broken in three places,’ adding that he had a metal plate in his shoulder and experienced severe pain. I laid my hands on him; the pain immediately disappeared.

This represented such a breakthrough that I have since prayed for numerous different sicknesses and pains and have been thrilled to see many healed from things as diverse as arthritic pain, bed-wetting, severe head pain, and shoulder and arms damaged in car accidents. One woman felt all the pain disappear when I prayed for her arm that was in a sling. She removed the sling there and then. All pain had gone. Another left the meeting carrying over her head the walking stick that she had needed prior to prayer. I was thrilled recently when a couple told me that after years of inability to conceive, they had found that after prayer they were now expecting!

I experienced more healings after a meeting at which Rambabu prayed for impartation of healing gifts to all who responded on that particular evening.

Do All Get Healed?

Do all get healed? That is not my experience. One week a woman was healed from ME and wrote to me that she was thrilled to be back on the daily school run and pushing her shopping trolley around the supermarket. A few weeks later, I prayed with another woman who began to sob after I prayed for her because nothing had happened. What do you do? I told her that I was so sorry. I hate it, but I still feel that I must press on.

Some seem not only to get healed but at the same time have beautiful encounters with the Holy Spirit. I know that when I was healed from my back pain I was also very emotionally moved by the sense of God’s amazing kindness and love in healing me. Many people were enduring far more serious sicknesses and disabilities than I, but I had been freed from my pain. God’s personal tenderness toward me seemed amazing. I have seen several shed tears because of the awareness of God’s intimate love for them. One man recently wrote to me saying that he was so overcome that he cried like a baby when he was healed.

One girl testified that she was baptised in the Holy Spirit at the same time and subsequently found she was speaking in tongues. Another wrote the most magnificent letter describing her personal encounter with the Lord’s love through the whole experience that had transformed her even more than the healing.

Wearing L-plates

The L-plates are most definitely still on, but some things I’ve learned are:

• Jesus never prayed for a healing. I have thoroughly searched every healing in the gospels. He spoke, touched, announced or commanded but did not pray. The nearest he came to praying was at Lazarus’ grave where he simply thanked his Father that he was always heard. He then commanded Lazarus to come forth.
• Jesus also said, ‘Truly, truly the things I do you shall do also and greater things shall you do because I go to the Father.’ I have found this to be the most powerfully encouraging verse.
• I have been inspired by watching and listening to Rambabu, Lex Loizides, Adrian Holloway and Rob Rufus.
• I have been impressed by the Biblical arguments of John Groves’ excellent study, which I asked him to include as our Leaders’ article in this Magazine (see page 27).
• I have noticed how faith seems to grow among a group of people where healings are happening. As I approached one lady and asked what the problem was, she said, ‘I have back pain but I won’t have it in a moment.’ She was right, she was immediately healed.
• I have noticed a greater intensity of Holy Spirit power on some occasions where it seems to be ‘easier’. One lady testified, ‘It’s OK, I’ve just been healed while you were praying for the others.’
• Some people attend a meeting having already prayed and with an expectation that they will be healed. This seems very effective.
• I am convinced that faith comes from hearing the Word. Paul reminded the Galatians that miracles had been performed among them through hearing with faith (Gal. 3:5). They must have heard things said that inspired faith. Preachers must speak so as to inspire faith. I know that for many years I have spoken with faith to inspire people to receive the Holy Spirit, and also to be free and released to give large sums of money in faith. I want to learn to do that effectively with regard to healing also.
• I have noticed that the English are more cynical than most and that in my experience healings seem to happen more readily, for instance, in the USA.
• Some people testify that the full healing seemed to take place a few days after the laying on of hands and not immediately.
• Two or three people have said that pain has returned after a few days. My counsel has been to tell it to go away again. This seems to work.
• I love to enjoy the presence of the Lord Jesus, who promised that he would not leave us as orphans but would himself come to us. All the time I am laying hands on the sick I am aiming to enjoy his presence and make room for the Holy Spirit’s activity.
• I have noticed that sometimes I experience a surge of compassion for the sick person that seems to supersede my own personal emotions. This seems to bring with it an urgency and energy in laying hands on the sick person and a greater expectation for healing.

Some ask, ‘Is healing in the atonement?’ Surely all mercy, healing and grace flows from the cross, but the accounts of healings in the New Testament don’t include preaching based on that argument. Although Jesus referred to healing as ‘the children’s bread’ (Matt. 15:26) and therefore accessible and to be hoped for, it does not seem that healing should be regarded as inevitable and merely ‘to be claimed’ as your ‘covenant right’.

Personally, I am much more comfortable to regard healing (among other things) as a demonstration of the presence of the advancing kingdom of Christ, which includes some degree of mystery, since the kingdom is ‘now’ and ‘not yet’. It is present but not yet fully manifest. Sometimes it seems more present with power. However, we Brits should not see this as an excuse for our characteristic pessimism and unbelief, anticipating an inevitable ‘not yet’ application.

Not a reward for holiness

Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. His name has power. The man at the temple gate was healed through faith in Jesus’ name, not through any power or holiness in Peter or John (see Acts 3:12). We tend to think that if we can accumulate some more holiness we will experience more power, but that does not seem to be the Bible way. Power is a gift. It flows from the Lord Jesus. Samson was very powerful but not very holy. I don’t say that to encourage carelessness but to discourage our search taking us down the wrong path. Power is evidently not a reward for holiness, nor a proof of theological correctness. It is God’s gift given in Jesus’ name and, correctly channeled, can bring great glory to Jesus.

There seems to be ample proof in Scripture that Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today and for ever, is more than willing and able to heal. Furthermore, we seem to be experiencing more healings than ever before. Given the terrible need of our unsaved contemporaries and their utter failure to glorify the God who made them in His image, let me encourage you to pray, search the Scriptures, believe the promises, obey the Holy Spirit’s promptings, be channels of God’s compassion, break out of your comfort zones, lay hands on the sick and prove the Lord for His great praise and glory.