Over the course of the last 50 years I have been part of, involved with, learned from, or encountered many healing ministries. I also practice healing as taught to us by Jesus Christ, which for his disciples means obeying him.1
And though I am well versed in ministering healing, I will visit other ministries when there is something I have yet to learn, or feel ill equipped to handle. In one case 20 years ago, my then husband, Andre, was in bad shape; He had brough a host of demons with him from his home country, that had gained access through alcohol, horror movies (he claims to have watched 1,000 back in Russia), and childhood traumas.
Finally in 2006 he was dying of cirrhosis of the liver, and threatening to kill himself. I put my own ministry aside, jumped on a plane and visited a man of God in Texas whose ministering prayer totally DELIVERED and HEALED Andre. He’s been well to this day! (We just finished a terrific project together restoring a landmark in our area! :>} )
How we ended up married for a time is actually a story that relates to what I am about to say.. For MINISTRIES.. can be harmful to Christians when they operating without love. In fact, 30 years ago I was egregiously harmed by a minister to where I was brought SO low, that when this charming Russian artist/alcoholic showed up, I closed my ears and married him..2
My original teacher of the Bible (Dr. VP Wierwille) used to say, “Where God builds a Church, satan builds a chapel”. That man is still carrying on as a ‘minister’, though to this day, though he may perform healings, and do other works of ‘faith’, his ministry it is bereft of love, and in the Day coming, he will suffer loss.
Over the years, the Lord has graciously led me to tremendous men and women of God. I think of - Daniel Olukoya, Emily Dotson, Thurmond Scrivner, David Robeson, Norvel Hayes, and Derek Prince, to name a few. And I routinely write about them, that others may benefit from their tremendous walks of faith.
HOW NOT TO TEACH OTHERS…
This year however, I recommended 2 ministries that I am going to back pedal on…
One of them is Torben Sondergaard. I believe his own ministry is legitimate, and that he has worked miracles in the name of Jesus Christ. The problem is his type of training ‘students’ by way of ‘internet videos’.
What’s wrong with that?
If you’re going to lead a man to following Christ’s example, it cannot be done as casually as ‘posting online videos and expecting someone to raise themselves up’. You might as well try raising a child that way.. Making a disciple out of someone is a lengthy, painstaking job. Ask Jesus. It took him 3 years to get 12 up to speed..
In fact, someone that heard about Sondergaard through my Substack visited a group in Canada that Sondergaard ‘trained’ and wound up having a traumatizing encounter. The group had no inkling of being like Jesus.. they were following a formula, not the holy spirit. The man fled the scene..
Dr. Wierwille had something else to say that I believe applies here. He said ‘A ministry is that of a man. You cannot transfer it; or disseminate it’. If the man dies, or goes away, so goes the ministry.”
Men need to stop trying to ‘transfer’ the church, or pass their ‘ministry down to someone when they retire’. It doesn’t work that way.. Even though ‘churches’ do this all the time. A man develops his own ministry based on his knowledge of the Scriptures, and obedience to Christ. He is annointed by the Lord; though it may be men who put the oil, it is the Lord who does the choosing. If you are going to train disciples for Christ, at least do it the way he did, in person, with an investment of time and a LOT of Scripture.
IT’S NOT A NUMBERS GAME
Problems arise when ministers use electronic media in an attempt to expand their reach.. as if they’ll get greater rewards for greater ‘numbers’.
Jesus taught a select number of disciples. He did NOT try to impress GOD by including the multitudes.. He taught 12, and finally had a following of 120 disciples. That’s IT.
BTW - Jesus did NOT just teach the 12 to heal. He had them copy everything he did..
It is not about numbers.
Christ was never about numbers. In his time on earth, Jesus ministered to tens of thousands, yet only authorized .1% of them to carry out his ministry; and duplicate his works.
He told these disciples- “To YOU it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. But to THEM..(The multitudes sitting in churches to this day) it is not given.”
Why did Jesus skip over so many others..? Hmmmm..
Why didn’t he organize leaders who would set up classes, and expand the numbers and impress the world he lived in with his huge church? Hmmm?
WHY do so many ministers today think that somehow THEY will impress God or Christ by having a massive crowd at church?..
HEALING IS IMPORTANT - BUT IT ISN’T JUST ABOUT HEALING..
Jesus never had his disciples JUST TEACH (as some churches do) or JUST HEAL (as some focus on) AND HE NEVER PREACHED WEALTH ACQUISITION. HELLO… ‘Joel Olsteen, TD Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Crefro Dollar, et al’..
On the contrary Jesus told the 120 (Luke 10):4) -“Take no purse (their own bank account)… NO SCRIP!” (A scrip is a collection bag!) nor even extra shoes!
I can think of a FEW ministers over time that did exactly this..
George Mueller (NEVER once in SIXTY years went to men for money)..
John Lake (who took his family to the mission field in Africa without the ship fare on him)
These men were marvelously supplied by heaven itself!
Jesus’ ministry was comprehensive;.. teaching/ preaching/ feeding/ healing/ delivering/ and sacrificing. Yet, he was also ‘the master who washed the feet of men.’
And he never STOPPED doing these things, until he was taken up. (This point will be returned to in the next 2 segments of this series.)
Because he LOVED. And this is the crux of the matter…
For Jesus Christ it was all about LOVE. And applying whatever balm to whatever the wound - according to his love for the person in front of him.
LOVE
Let’s talk about Love for a moment..
Did you ever notice that:
LOVE it is the ONLY spiritual attribute that has its own CHAPTER in the Church Epistles? I Corinthians 13!
LOVE is the only spiritual attribute that has its own BOOK in the Bible? The Letter to the Ephesians!
(You may say to me -‘but what about wisdom? The whole book of Proverbs is about Wisdom.’ I would answer.. “Yes, but it was written by King Solomon, for whom even the incredible wisdom he had failed to stop him from falling. Because his love was ‘misapplied’. He loved MANY women.. He just didn’t LOVE God enough to obey Him’.)
Love is everything.
It covers a multitude of sins.
It makes everything else we do to be ‘NOTHING’ by comparison.. even faith, miracles, mountain moving, and hope!!
FACT IS: I just blocked a guy here on Substack who is pretending to be a ‘Christian’ writer. He wrote a post where he claimed that we are ‘UNABLE to please God’ and ‘UNABLE to love as Jesus did’. He also claimed that we are wicked. I answered his post by quoting Hebrews 11:6 which says, in effect, that by FAITH we please God!
By way of reply, he said some unpleasant and unBiblical things., insisting we don’t know how to love as Jesus did.
His answer is in the very FIRST verse in the Church Epistles that speaks of love..
‘FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IS SHED ABROAD IN OUR HEARTS’.. Romans 5:5
Well, then The Scriptures disagree with him. They say we DO have love in us, and it is the LOVE of God!
How about Jesus Christ’s commandment to ‘Love one another’..
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.’ John 13:34, 35
2 Things..
1) Did you notice the Figure of Speech ‘Repetition’ in those 2 verses? THREE TIMES the Lord says we are to ‘love one another’. How significant is that then??
2) Would the Lord command us to do what we cannot?
He perpetually disagreed and asked me if I ever read the Bible..
I finally realized this guy is an antichrist’. It is an antichrist that would have us believe we were wicked, unable to please God, and unable to love each other. (I also have a reasonable suspicion that he is an AI Substack, and not a real person.)
In fact, the word ‘love’ or ‘beloved’ or ‘to love’ is found ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY THREE TIMES in Paul’s Epistles to the saints. I didn’t even count the Gospels.
Whereas the word ‘wicked’ appears just 8 times and always refers to ‘that wicked one’ (satan) or his people..
(Numbers DO MATTER when it is GOD using them..)
So where does that fella get the idea that Christ’s disciples are seen as ‘wicked’? ..Not from the true God anyway.
NEXT - a CRITICAL LOOK AT WILLIAM LAU’S MINISTRY in Part II of this Post.
Thus there are three things that endure: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.
In Love with Christ - always,
With Love in Christ -always,
Victoria
Mark 16:18; Luke 9:1,2: Luke 10:1-9: John 14:12
In fact, what satan meant for harm, God used for good. The man is not only still alive, he is saved, walks in truth and in power, and loves the Lord with all his heart.