While we were growing as believers, we ignorantly "killed" a brother. We went for vigil in one of our branches and we met this brother writhing in hernia pains. We surrounded him and prayed fervently as he laid on the floor in pains. We spoke in tongues and cried but he died.
Instead of taking him to the hospital while we continue our prayers for him, no one suggested such to us. He became our prayer point that night but we lost him. Any time I see or hear about people who survived hernia, that brother comes to mind and how we foolishly lost a precious soul to untimely death. We thought we were spiritual but were not wise.
I want to attempt giving biblical answers to some questions that bothers on healing and medical science. The very first question is: "Is it biblically right to use medications or visit doctors". We need to dissect this question biblically.
James 5:14-15 says, "Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. [15] Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven"( NLT).
The word "anoint" in the scripture above is the Greek "Aleipho". It means to smear or rub with oil. The question here is, what type of oil and for what purpose? In ancient world, sick people were smeared with oil because of its medicinal value. It was a custom those days that when someone took ill, they rub their bodies with medicinal oil because of its obvious therapeutic value
When James said the sick should be anointed, he wasn't talking about the spiritual anointing. If it were, the Greek word would have been "Chrio". Meaning that James supported or recommended the use of medicine because the oil he recommended in his time was therapeutic.
Based on the text, it is clear that the healing of the sick was a combination of therapeutic oil and prayer of faith. Meaning that faith is not opposed to medicine. It should be noted that faith can work without medicine but when combined with medicine, it doesn't nullify faith.
In 2 Kings 20:7, prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah to apply poultice on his boil. He did and he recovered from the sickness that should have killed him. A poultice was an ointment made from figs. It has therapeutic value. That is medicine.
If the use of medicine was against God's will, the prophet of God wouldn't have recommended it to King Hezekiah. Both of them were under the covenant of Yahweh but they were smart to know when to apply medicine.
Don't die a cheap death. God in his wisdom has made provisions to take care of certain health issues using medicine. Afterall, he created the content of the medicine. Using it does not reduce your faith in any way. God can work through medicine to heal you as much as he can do without it. He decides on how he want things done not you. Be wise.
