Is Divine Healing Absent In The Present And Present Only In The Past? Sis Ediths’ Testimony

Divine healing in Christendom is a thorny subject that never fails to draw sharp and contrasting reactions. It is the fork in the road of Christian Pilgrimage that sees Christian pilgrims choosing divergent directions.

In a modern, materialistic age where the prevailing culture is rooted in the empiricism of Science and Technology, where the surreal, the metaphysical, the unverifiable, the immeasurable and improvable are treated with contempt and tacked with such dismissive labels as superstition and religious myth and consequently not given any serious contemplation, the faith of Preachers is not the least affected.

As diseases take on ever more nightmarish appearances, a large number of preachers are hushing up about their continued belief in divine healing. Faith is viewed as an obsolete weapon in the battle for life against death. Except for such small afflictions as common colds, headaches, stomach disorders, aches and pains in tired muscles and stiff joints; faith is no longer seen as the choice weapon to go into the make or break battle with diseases.
Theological books are being rewritten or revised. The newest editions pronounce divine healing as absent in the present but present in the past. That God remains the same yesterday, today and forever is seen only in radically different context.

It is reasoned that Science with its awesome breakthroughs and unprecedented insight into the mechanics of diseases that afflict the human body is the gift of God for our times: Therefore it is to be embraced with enthusiastic acceptance, without prejudice.

Brothers Dele and Stanley, two young preachers among those in the forefront of the doctrinal battle turf, whose uncompromising stance on the immutability of God in all spheres of Biblical teaching (divine healing included), are put to test on a trip to a wedding in a like minded assembly in Abidjan. Amidst the euphoria of nuptial celebration, a desperate case, personified by Sis Edith got stretchered in. God’s intervention was needed as a matter of urgency because Medical Science had declared that it was as helpless as she was.

Would God save her? Would He vindicate His word that He remains “the same yesterday, today and forever” or would He in a more convenient way let her tortured body go home to rest? The answers to these questions were unknowns in the mind of the young preachers. When they, alongside other ministers, called on God, their child like faith was being expressed. They encircled Sis Edith and prayed passionately over her. Reminding God that His Word states that He is the one who heals ALL our diseases: not just the smalls but also the biggies.
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To the natural eyes, the situation remained at status quo: no visible change. Sis Edith never ceased groaning. Cancer’s death march advanced unbroken and sure footed.

But it was only a few days after the return of Brothers Dele and Stanley back to Nigeria that they received a call. It was a call from an excited voice. It was about Sis Edith. She was recovering! In an inexplicable way her body had started to gain strength. She had been off her sickbed for days and was busying herself with small household chores.

Perhaps Divine Healing never went anywhere with the Apostles after all. Perhaps all it needed to manifest was the same faith that operated it in the early days of Christianity. God was and still is… but only to them that would believe!

Brother Alfred and Sisters Bola and Blessing marking their birthdays

L-R:
Bro. Godwin, Bro.Dele,Bro.Alfred, Sis. Bola, Sis. Blessing, Bro.Antia,Bro.Dipo, Pastor Niyi


L-R:
Squatting; sis. Unice, Sis. Ruth, Sis. Blessing, Sis. Amaka, Sis.Adeyemi
Standing; Bro. Samuel, Bro.Gbolahan, Bro.Godwin,Bro.Luke, Sis. Ruth, Bro.Tony,Bro.Chinda,Bro.Akinpelu, Bro.Ifeanyi, Bro.Ayoade,Bro.Adeyemi





L-R:
Squatting; Bro.Akin, Bro.Tony, Bro.Eniola
Standing; Bro.Ayoade,Bro.Adeyemi,Bro.Kunle, Bro.Adetola,Bro.Emmanuel, Bro.Alfred, Sis Bola, Sis. Blessing, Bro.Seun, Bro.Francis, Bro.Onah, Bro.Adeyemi,Bro.Chinda




L-R:
Bro.Alfred,Sis. Ruth Luke, Sis. Ruth Bello, Sis.Chidera, Sis. Blessing, Sis. Folake, Sis. Bola, Sis. Uduak, Sis. Unice

Testimony: The Healing Of Sis.Toyin Soname

Sister Toyin Soname recently took ill. Each passing day saw her getting weaker and weaker to the point where she had no more strength for speech. Her condition degenerated so badly till she could take in neither solid foods nor liquids. Her body was simply refusing everything.
Her Husband (Bro. Shola Soname), due to stress arising from a busy job and the sight of his beloved wife pining away from a crumbling health, also succumbed to illness.
Sickness seemed to be spreading like a dark cloud in the family but the Church kept praying and calling on the mercy and power of God. He responded to those prayers and about a week later, sis Toyin became her usual self: regaining all bodily functions and of course, re-occupying her space in church.
God be praised!
For He has confirmed His Word, that says that" By His Stripes, we are healed".
Contributed by Bro. Shola Soname.

THE STILL SMALL VOICE

Once upon a time in Jewish history, the Jews began to resent the voice of their Prophet (The mouthpiece of their God). They complained and demanded that they hear Him directly: lip to ear and no more by a medium. Their murmurs increasingly grew in pitch until the possibility of an outbreak of civil unrest was not so far fetched. Moses, their prophet and spiritual leader, reported back to God their demands. God agreed and scheduled a meeting with them, requiring that they first consecrate themselves till the third day.

Arriving at the top of the famous mount Sinai, on the set day, His presence alone made the mountain burn, setting dark plumes of smoke bellowing into the arid sky. His voice, as He spoke, was of such tremendous effect that Mount Sinai trembled and quaked, causing it’s rocks to tumble down from their precarious hangings. Every utterance hit their eardrums like deafening thunder blasts. Then they cried out for Moses’ intervention, who in response, may have smiled knowingly, thinking, “I told you so”

So the Jews learnt a vital lesson about their God’s voice: it was too powerful for all but specially designed human ears to endure.

In our dispensation, many have reported hearing God’s voice but they describe it in ways different from the Jewish experience. The most widely used and accepted description, portrays the voice as “ still and small”.

No doubt, many today, would react with skepticism to hear that God speaks. This is largely because voice is associated with sound. But the Bible also known as the Word, though in printed form, utters speech! The ministers of God sermonizing from the pulpit are God’s voice also! Nature is God’s voice! The Heavens, whereon God displays His signs speak His intentions; consequently making them His voice! God speaks in volumes everyday but we don’t recognize His Voice.

Admittedly, to hear God, who is Spirit, one has to have spiritual ears.

Christ said, “My sheep know my voice…”

Job said, “For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it”.

I, as a believer, have had the privilege of hearing this tender voice at many crucial junctions of my life. It is so radically different from how we hear things. It is a Voice that springs up from within for the briefest possible time, leaving you to wonder if it was merely a figment of your imagination. It comes as a thought penetrating through the fog of your own thoughts. The clearest of whispers, that proffers solution to mind boggling situations, pointing out direction at life’s crossroads.

My experience is that, this “still, small voice” is never verbose; just a few words that are loaded with immense power. It almost always says things that defy what is largely known as “common sense” because it is uncommon and out of this world.

Contributed by faithful scribe.

Church Profile

Bible Way fellowship Tabernacle is a church situated in the heartland of Lagos, on a parcel of land bordering the watery expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

The modest looking building has nothing to speak for it as far as architectural designs go but everything if Truth is the issue under deliberation.

It started out as a house fellowship in 1984 when it’s pastor and his family had the light of the Present Truth (Malachi 4:5-6, Rev 10:7, Luke 17:30) or Message of The Hour (as it is fondly called) flash their way.

The Message was nothing like what they had previously known. It was peculiar, odd, and unusual yet something about it resonated in their hearts.

Their contact with it was the typical “on the road to Damascus experience”. It resulted in the falling off of their religious scales; the casting away of long held church theories and traditions that had no firm root in the Bible.

They saw with great shock and alarm that their cherished faith stood on a shaky ecclesiastical foundation. Suddenly it became apparent that the established churches had forsaken the truth and simplicity of God, while flirting with modernity and civilization.

Their all-consuming desire to acquire wealth and build a network of churches proved not to be so God inspired. Shocking as it may seem, God is not as much interested in quantity of believers as much as He is in their quality.
The installation of women at the pulpit and other positions of leadership where men were present ran headlong against the Bible. There are of course as many of these evils as there are denominations but it is not this writer’s desire to make a catalogue of them here and now.

That Christianity in every Age gets steeped in a mess is historically evident and clear but to each of those mess generated, God responds with a Message!

To be sure, the Bible (the book from which churches derive their doctrines) is a spiritual book, which ought to be read with spiritual eyes. The Message became for them the viewing lens, which helped with focusing: adjusting out the blur in the vision. No longer, for instance, was God seen as an inexplicable three yet one person sandwich. In breathtaking clarity He coalesced into the same oneness in which the old Jewish prophets portrayed Him.

Also the intractable task of reconciling the teachings of the 39 books of the first half of the Bible (Old Testament) and those of the teachings of the 27 books of it’s second half (New Testament) became possible. The seals (symbols) that veiled the meanings of such notoriously difficult books of the Bible as Genesis, Daniel and Revelation got broken and it’s awesome contents fell out in plain view before their wondering eyes.

Full of zeal, they swung into unhesitating action: converting a portion of their small compound to a place for worship. They pooled together meager resources and bought the most basic of church paraphernalia: improvising along the way as they advanced: using crude materials to make music and benches for sitting etc

Overtime, a trickle of people joined the new group. It was a simple Message so it attracted the very simple. Everyone had to relearn the abandoned concepts of humility, equality and oneness. Whatever privileged status you held in the secular world didn’t make you anymore special than the next man without it. All males were simply addressed as “brother” and females “sister”. Leadership meant servitude. The Ministers fed and served the Laity.

The breakthrough of anyone into position and authority was leveraged as a key for opening doors for others. A rich brother’s or sister’s automobile was used as everyone’s transport. It was a one for all and all for one setting: everyone cared and everyone shared. So growth was the only natural progression in this synergistic environment.

Bibleway Fellowship Tabernacle remained a very small group for many years until when the young men and women started intermarrying, thereby widening the size of their families and consequently the church, with the birth of new babies. Some brought in relatives and friends but too often, they saw them draw back, pulled away like Lot by the world’s glamour. So at no time in the church’s history did the assembly burst at its seams with a large crowd.

Historically, Truth has NEVER been a great attractant of crowds! Falsehood has and continues to do so.

The church continues to manifest growth, but not so much in numbers as it is in Revelation. This webpage is just a tool: to record, witness, announce, and declare the living works of a living God in the midst of His Bride for the Hour.

God bless you and shalom!