CHAPTER NINE

Gifts of Healings

IT IS CLEAR from Genesis 2:9; 3:22‑24, Ezekiel 47:7‑12, and Revelation 22:2 that bodily sickness is not natural for humanity, which was to be, and again will be, kept in health through eating of the Tree of Life. Had Adam been allowed to continue eating of this Tree he would in spite of his sin have lived for ever. Death and sickness then are not the inevitable results of sin, but spring from the loss of the Tree of Life, which was the necessary food of men. The loss of this Tree has resulted in the slow but steady deterioration of the human body until the present expectation of life is about 70 years, and sickness from time to time is almost universal. Hence the problem of Divine Healing is urgent, since the best efforts of doctors and surgeons are so often fruitless: and the Bible is full of instances of this Divine Healing from Exodus 15:25‑26 to Acts 28:8‑9.

In the actual practice of Divine Healing however many difficulties arise, and much disappointment is met, so that it is fair to say that as a whole our Pentecostal Movement is greatly perplexed to find an explanation for the situation, and it is increasingly normal for us to go to doctors and surgeons when we are ill, simply because our prayers are apparently not answered, and we are forced to do something about it. Before then coming