Stan Jantz - The Healing Power of God: A Biblical Embrace of the Supernatural...Today

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

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The Healing Power of God

Copyright 2020 by Stan Jantz

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97408

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jantz, Stan, - author.

Title: The healing power of God / Stan Jantz.

Description: Eugene, Oregon : Harvest House Publishers, 2020. | Summary: The Healing Power of God will introduce you to Accounts of miracles both from biblical and present times The obstacles that can be keep us from taking the miraculous seriously The reason the presence of miracles is essential to your life-both now and in the future How you can experience Gods healing touch and bring heaven to earth You are the child of a supernatural God; yours is a supernatural journey. You dont have to wait for heaven to experience Gods miraculous and wonderous powerProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020012298 (print) | LCCN 2020012299 (ebook) | ISBN 9780736977838 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780736977845 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Miracles. | HealingReligious aspectsChristianity. Classification: LCC BT97.3 .J36 2020 (print) | LCC BT97.3 (ebook) | DDC 231.7/3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012298

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012299

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D o you believe in miracles?

The first time I heard that question wasnt in church or a revival meeting or a healing service. It was in 1980 as I was watching a television broadcast of the Olympic hockey game between the USAs team of amateur college players and the mighty Soviet Union.

In what has become known as the Miracle on Ice, the match featured a young and unknown Al Michaels as the play-by-play announcer. When the final buzzer sounded, it was official. The Americans had pulled off the unexpected, the unlikely, and even the miraculous. As the team of young hockey players celebrated with upraised arms and expressions of amazement, Michaels uttered the question that would cement his place in broadcasting history and forever become the catch phrase for the unexpected, the unlikely, and even the miraculous coming true.

Since that historic night, I have heard the question, Do you believe in miracles? many times, but never in any meaningful context. If anything, the question has become part of the American can-do spirit rather than about our spiritual sensibilities.

I havent heard the question in any church I have attended. No pastor has ever asked me if I believe in miracles, either from the pulpit or in casual conversation. Im not saying the pastors I have known do not believe in miracles. Of course they do! They are Christians, so they must believe. Miracles are a key feature of the faith they espouse and the Bible they teach.

So why dont Christian leaders ask the question?

Should we assume that people who go to church automatically believe in miracles? I suppose you could make a case that the Christian faith and miracles go together like peanut butter and jelly. But do people who believe in God and claim to follow Jesus Christ really believe in miracles? Do they really believe in the healing power of God? And if they say yes to these questions, what kind of miracles and what kind of healing do they believe in?

If were talking about an underdog defeating a champion, then its not a stretch to say we believe in miracles. How about finding a parking space at Trader Joes on a Saturday morning? Plenty of peopleeven those with no church affiliationwould utter the words, Its a miracle upon finding a premium parking spot in front of a busy store like Trader Joes.

But what about a miracle like the ones contained in the Bible? The parting of the Red Sea in front of two million Israelites fleeing the Egyptian army? The prophet Elijah going to heaven in a chariot of fire? Jesus calming the sea with just a word? Lazarus being raised from the dead? Do we believe these aberrations of nature could occur today?

And what about the healings described in the New Testament, especially the ones performed by Jesus? The deaf man who hears, the blind man who sees, the woman who stops bleeding after twelve years, the crippled man who walksall of them healed instantly. These are the kinds of miracles that are almost routine in the life of Christ and the apostles. Do they happen today? Do we believe they could happen?

If youre like me, you hear stories and rumors of people today being healed, but have you witnessed such a miracle with your own eyes? Have you seen a crippled person stand up and walk because someone said, Rise and be healed? Have you watched as a person born blind suddenly has sight because someone uttered the words, In the name of Jesus be healed? I will admit to you that I have never seen such a thing.

Admitting this to you at the beginning of a book on the healing power of God may not be the best strategy, especially if you are deciding whether to keep reading. But I might as well get it out in the open so you can either stop reading because you have concluded I have no credibility or you will continue reading because you can identify with what Im saying.