A Personal Note By John Wimber on Healing
Taken from the introduction of John's Book - Power Healing

How do I know that Jesus wants us to pray for the sick? Scripture teaches that we are commissioned to do the will of God on earth, which is illustrated in the life and message of Jesus. Regarding the healing ministry, Jesus “healed many who had various diseases” (Mark 1:34); he gave the Twelve “power and authority…to cure diseases” (Luke 9:1); he commissioned the Seventy-two to “heal the sick … and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you’” (Luke 10:9); and , in a post-resurrection appearance, he said of those who followed him, “They will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:18). So, in obedience to Jesus’ life and message, I both pray for people’s healing and receive prayer for healing.

The apostle John frequently writes that Jesus came to do the Father’s bidding (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 8:26; 9:4; 10:37-38; 12:49-50; 14:31; 15:10; 17:4). Further, Jesus did everything with excellence: “People were overwhelmed with amazement [that he healed a deaf and mute man]. ‘He has done everything well,’ they said” (Mark 7:37). Jesus instructed his disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven …” (Matt. 6:9-10); Jesus wanted them to live as he did. When he gave up his spirit on the cross, Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” indicating he had fulfilled that which the Father sent him to do (John 19:30). In Matthew 28:18-20, the great commission passage, Jesus told the disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” They were to carry out his ministry, which included praying for the sick.

Of course, our goal in praying for the sick is that they are healed and as a result the kingdom of God is advanced. Doug Coombs’s story demonstrates this well. On February 10, 1985, Doug turned in his resignation to the church in Toronto, Ontario, for which he had swerved as pastor for fourteen years. That same day he and his wife, Mary, boarded an airplane for California; they needed a holiday and a time to try and make sense out of their current lives. “I was burned out spiritually and physically, “Doug told me later. “I felt that I had been ministering in my own strength for so many years – I was fifty-four years old – and I didn’t know if I could go on. I was full of anger and bitterness toward God and some people who had disappointed me. When I arrived in Los Angeles, my brother Wayne took one look at me and said, ‘You look like you’re going to die.”

Wayne informed Doug and Mary that he had registered them all at a “Signs and wonders and Church Growth” conference. I was to be the main speaker. They did not want to go, but they felt obligated since they were Wayne’s guests. “I didn’t even know what the conference organizers meant by ‘signs and wonders,’ but I knew I wouldn’t like it,” Doug says. “I had always been taught to be wary of anything supernatural, especially spiritual gifts.
“When I arrived at the conference I was immediately turned off by the ‘praise’ music and many of the folks who sang with their hands outstretched. For the first two days Mary and I were quite uncomfortable. We were observers, not participants. But we were also hurting terribly; we needed something to renew us spiritually and physically.

“Then on Thursday evening something strange happened. To this day I don’t understand exactly how it happened. During the worship time suddenly I found the music a blessing. I felt a peace, even thought I held my clenched fists to my side, determined to stay ‘in control.’ After John Wimber spoke he called all the pastors forward for prayer. [Out of the 3100 people in attendance there were about 1000 pastors from many different denominations.] Much to my surprise, I went forward. I don’t know why; I was drawn up front. Then I heard John quietly pray a simple prayer; ‘Come Holy Spirit and minister to your servants.’

“I was knocked over into the arms of a huge man who, I later learned, was a professional football player with the New York Giants. We had never met before. He said ‘You are a pastor from Canada who has just resigned form your church. The Lord has called you to a new church, he will add many years to your life, and he will give you the gift of evangelism.’ There was no way he could have known that I was a Canadian or that I had just resigned from my church. While he was speaking these things I felt a warmth going throughout my body and for the first time in several years I experienced the joy and peace of God. I was delivered that night of the anger, cynicism, and bitterness that I had allowed to take root deeply in my heart and that were holding me back in my walk with God. Physically I felt like a new man, as though years were added on to my life. All I could do was smile and thank God. I could hardly sleep that night, the joy and healing power of God were so real in my life.

“The only missing element in all this was the need for healing and renewal in my wife, Mary. The next morning, as we were walking into the church, she expressed the desire to experience what I had the previous evening. At that very moment, much to our surprise, up walked the New York Giants football player. He prayed for her, and she too was healed.

“That June I became pastor of Mississauga City Baptist Church, a congregation of about a hundred and twenty families on the outskirts of Toronto. My second day at the church I received a call from a man who, in broken English, asked if I could come to his home and explain how to become a Christian. During all my years of ministry I had never received such a request. When I arrived at what turned out to be a large apartment complex there were five other people, mostly Columbians, also in attendance. I gave a simple presentation of the gospel and the man who had asked me to come and his wife both committed their lives to Christ. The next week he invited me back, only this time we met in the complex recreation room, which was full of people. Since that time there have been very few days in which I do not preach the gospel or pray for the sick.

“In one year the Mississauga City Baptist Church has more than doubled in size to where we have over six hundred people receiving pastoral care. This is all the more remarkable because we are in a multiracial neighborhood, which usually works against church growth. Our congregation is fifty percent white, thirty percent black, and twenty percent Asian.”

This book is about divine healing, and it is best summed up in what has happened to Doug Coombs and to me. Both of us have experienced the healing heart of God: his love and compassion. For Doug that meant life and an expanded ministry. For me it has meant obedience and patience as I see others healed when I pray for them and as I continue to remain full of hope and faith for my own healing. For both of us it has meant reliance on God for the results.

John Wimber