Book Review: Power Healing by John Wimber

 By Joel Repic

Power Healing
by John Wimber
HarperOne, 1991

Power Healing is now nearly two decades old, but I recently read it and thought it deserved a review.

I remember visiting a family in Aliquippa with one of my friends in ministry and contributor to this blog, John Jordan. This family had participated in Aliquippa Impact’s City Camp program for a few years, and we had grown to know the family quite well. Toward the end of our visit, the mother, who was holding her five month old daughter, mentioned to us that her baby had been born with a birth defect in the esophagus. This defect meant that the baby was experiencing chronic pneumonia, and she had been hospitalized five times since her birth. John and I listened to her story, told her we would be praying for her, and said goodbye.

Later on, I could not help but have some questions about the way John and I responded to this obvious physical need of the baby. When we said we would be praying, was it just because we knew it was the nice thing to say or did we actually believe God was capable to heal? Why didn’t we pray for the family then? Did I believe God could heal? If God did heal in this situation, what would that mean for the family’s discipleship? Was I bold enough to actually pray for a family in the community “on the spot”? What if God didn’t heal the child after we prayed – wouldn’t I look ridiculous? Could God actually use someone like me to bring physical healing to someone – wasn’t that just for the Apostles? Is God Healer, or is it just that He was Healer in biblical times? Does He still do that today? How do I know what to pray?

If you’ve ever struggled with some of these questions, then I would like to recommend Power Healing.

Needless to say, the late John Wimber, who founded The Vineyard USA, wrote a fairly controversial book when he wrote Power Healing. Richard Foster mentions in the forward to his book that many will find something to disagree with when they read Wimber’s work. This is certainly the case. Especially for those coming from non-charismatic or non-Pentecostal backgrounds, this book can be very unsettling.

Wimber begins the book with his own story. An evangelical pastor, Wimber firmly did not believe in what are commonly known as the charismatic gifts, much less divine healing. Then, through some radical (and some might think strange) experiences, his beliefs radically changed. Wimber saw in himself a move from modern thought that denies the supernatural to a biblical framework that accepts the reality of a compassionate and loving God who does heal physically.

The book continues on by describing Wimber’s theological framework for divine healing. He explains that healing is rooted in the very nature of God and not in anything else – not even in the feelings of faith men and women might try to conjure up to experience healing. The results, Wimber explains, are entirely up to God. Wimber explains how his church had been totally unsuccessful in healing until God brought them to a place where they simply left the results up to Him. According to Wimber, God is revealed as Healer in Scripture and He alone is the one who can heal – no method, certain type of prayer, or any amount of human fervency is able to accomplish the miraculous. Instead, healing is available only because of the grace of God as expressed through Christ at the cross. In other words, healing was provided for and is now rooted in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Wimber also explains that God sometimes chooses not to heal, and he describes experiences in his own life where God did not heal individuals even though they certainly believed in the possiblity.

Wimber then goes on to explain some of the practicalities of his healing ministry as practiced in the Vineyard Church. Admirably, he emphasizes the practice of praying in teams for healing so as not to draw attention to any one particular praying individual. He clearly does not appreciate individuals who set themselves up as “super-star healers” and draw attention away from Jesus Christ. This sets him apart from some Pentecostal traditions that have practiced healing ministries in historically different (and sometimes damaging) ways.

As I was reading Wimber’s book, I found his theological base for healing to be sound. The concept of divine healing being rooted in Jesus’ atonement is one that my own movement, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, strongly believes in. I also appreciated Wimber’s assertion that there is no real biblical evidence to suggest that God does not heal today. In his book Supernatural, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance A.B. Simpson asserts that if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, than the church should also be operating in the same Spirit of Jesus as the early church did in Acts. I wholeheartedly agree. I was also impressed by some of the practical suggestions Wimber makes in regard to healing (ex. praying in teams) to ensure that Jesus gets all the attention and glory. But, Richard Foster did say that most likely everyone would find something to disagree with in Wimber’s book, so the following is my disagreement.

Wimber spends the last portion of his book describing the various ways in which he has seen divine healing take place. In these sections of the book, he describes people falling unconscious, a sensation of heat being felt in praying hands, and various experiences of visions, dreams, and the like. I want to make it clear here that I do not doubt that God is capable of these things or even that He does work this way sometimes. I just don’t think they should be taught as “methods” for healing ministry.

Let me give you an example. Recently one of our youth in Aliquippa came to faith in Christ in part because of a vivid dream he had that led him to question issues of salvation. I believe that God works in dreams sometimes, and the results were undeniable. Just because God did this, however, does not mean that I will now teach on “dream evangelism,” do seminars on dreams, write about dreams, and tell people to expect dreams. God did work this way, and He can continue to work this way if He chooses. But if I draw attention to the dream, I eventually do two things. First, I place that experience above the written revelation of Scripture, and something is seriously wrong with this picture. Secondly, I draw attention to the dream and away from Christ.

Likewise, when Wimber writes that people involved in healing might expect to feel a sensation of heat in their hands, I believe he is making this very mistake. Wimber states himself that he is not trying to do this, but he is, in fact, doing this very thing. I do not doubt that maybe at times Wimber did feel some heat in his hand and that someone did get healed in connection to that experience. But the working of the Spirit can be so mysterious and hard to understand. God does work in strange ways sometimes, but let’s not teach on it, standardize it, and tell people to expect it. I want to tell people they can expect what God clearly teaches in Scripture because that is unchangeable. Feelings in the hand, visions, dreams, and the like may be genuine, but they are not as reliable as Scripture.

Regardless, Wimber’s book is a thought provoking read. It challenged me to seriously reconsider some of my Western, scientific view of God that does not allow the supernatural. Even though I significantly disagreed with portions of this book, I have to admit that it changed me. Next time I come across a sick individual in Aliquippa while visiting them, I hope I have the faith to act differently than I did last time, but the results will be up to God. That’s ministering holistically to an individual. God might heal; He might not. Either way, I want to take advantage of the opportunity to draw attention to Jesus Christ. As A.B. Simpson once wrote, “Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.”

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