Did you know that people can be healed today and, in some instances, raised from the dead, like Lazuraus? Healing is a curious topic in the modern era, and it is even seen as a controversial subject by some. I think that some people feel that God no longer rehabilitates people in our modern times. Even with so much evidence, some like to box God in and discount the scripture which says we are to do even greater things than Christ (John 14:12). Modern miracles include the British evangelist Smith Wigglesworth. He is said to have performed tremendous healings and is credited with even raising at least fourteen people from the dead (Cavanna, 2011, April)! Although I don’t know whether Dr. Randy Clark has raised anyone from the dead, I do know he has had a tremendous “career” as a healer, and many have been cured of various ailments through his ministry.
As far as healing goes, I know it is easy to think it doesn’t happen in today’s day and age. So I am giving credit to those with doubts here because I once was one of you, too! I know personally to have had so much doubt at one time in my life because I prayed and prayed for someone to be healed (my mom), only for the opposite to happen. And like me, maybe you remember praying and then the person you prayed for to be healed died. I know how painful that can be, and doubt sets in like concrete on your chest. But it takes faith to experience a miracle. It also takes faith to trust someone’s testimony of being healed.
Dr. Clark’s mission is a reminder that healing is possible in today’s world. Dr. Clark is very insightful on this topic, and he has a lot of interesting things to say about people being restored by God. He discusses the value of combining the belief, or “faith,” that God will heal with prayer. But over prayer, he appears to lean into faith even more than prayer. Dr. Clark’s faith is a deep expectation in the Lord to bring restoration and life to others. As a faith operator, Dr. Clark believes that the more faith he has, the more potential others have to get healed. He trusts that when he mentally sets his mind in that direction, thinking something like, “God will heal,” it happens. Dr. Clark’s also likes to remind people that we too should all carry this belief with us at all times. In fact, we are commanded by Jesus Himself to have faith like a little child (Matthew 18:2–4). The Bible tells us that with faith, we can do great things! Faith, even small faith, is valuable. In the parable of the mustard seed, found in Matthew 13:31–32, a small amount of faith can grow into a giant tree. Something huge from something tiny, I think, is the main point of what God can do with us and through us when we carry a minimal source of faith. For Dr. Clark, his faith has grown into a large, international mission “tree” impacting millions of lives worldwide.
I watched a video of Dr. Clark teaching to refresh my memories of him, and the rest of the ideas in this writing are from a video I watched of Dr. Clark giving a presentation on healing (Global Awakening, 2024, February 26). Dr. Clark uses foundational ideas from the Word of God for the basis of his healing ministry. He appears to use the Biblical account of how Jesus healed 2,000 years ago because it helps listeners understand how Jesus continues to work healing today – using us as instruments of healing. In Dr. Clark’s instruction on healing, he teaches that, as Jesus does in the Bible, we can operate in the grace and love of God and heal others, because the Bible specifically tells us we can do “even greater things.” This promise comes from John 14:12. In this passage, Jesus is speaking to His disciples during the Last Supper, preparing them for the time after He returns to the Father. The verse reads, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” When we are in Christ, we are gifted to do great things, as Christ told us!
In Dr. Clark’s instruction, he spoke about the connection between faith and prayer. He said that a combination of both faith and prayer brings healing. They are inseparably valuable and work together simultaneously as a congruent process. When speaking, Dr. Clark says that the Bible teaches that there is a distinction between the source of healing and its cause. Dr. Clark says that although it was Jesus’s power that brought about the cure, it was typically people’s faith that “activated” that power. He described it with a mechanical analogy that went like this:
- Faith: The key that turns the ignition.
- The Power of God: The starter that turns the engine on, so it actually does the work.
Dr. Clark’s analogy of a key and a car as faith and healing reminds us that the key itself has no power to move the vehicle. Similarly, if we operate outside of faith, we will be limited in our success in healing others or ourselves. Other interesting ideas presented by Dr. Clark include the example in scripture when the woman touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak in Matthew 9:20–22. In this Biblical snapshot, she didn’t just make physical contact; she enacted a spiritual demand on the power residing within Jesus. In the verse, she says to herself, “If only I touch the cloak, I will be healed.” This confirms that healing can be a tangible transfer of energy that is activated only by our belief. So healing is not locked into one or the other. It can exist outside of prayer and outside of someone’s faith. These are just the larger themes Dr. Clark has experienced that he likes to share to help transfer this ability onward.
The Ripple Effect
According to the accounts in Luke 6 and Matthew 9, which demonstrate that as Jesus heals the suffering through both His Spoken Word and the faith-filled touch of people, there is a “ripple effect” of testimony that draws entire crowds to seek Him. For instance, once the news of the woman’s healing spread, the behavior of the crowds changed. People began to follow Jesus in throngs, just to let their sick touch the hem of His cloak.
I want to make an important distinction here about the love of Christ in the scene of the woman touching His garment. In the culture at the time, for any unclean woman to touch the hem of Christ’s garment, as the woman did in Matthew 9, would have typically meant death. That is, of course, if Jesus did not call her daughter. Had He not signified her as His “daughter” in the “old law” at the time, the crowd would have been called to stone her (Sanders, 2024, December 15). This is essential to note, because it provides another testimony of the love of Christ and the deep compassion He has for all people.
Returning once again to the importance of healing, the experience of seeing someone get healed brings the masses to Christ. When they see and experience God, it shifts the gap between “God can” and “God will.” And when a person hears a story about healing, which we call a “testimony,” their own faith increases, making it easier for them to believe.
Modern Miracles: Accounts of Healing in the Modern Era
There have been many contemporary accounts in which the “testimony” has led to more instances of healing among people with various ailments and terminal conditions. These are stories shared by Dr. Clark in the YouTube presentation I cited above, which is from Global Awakening (2024, February 26). The following examples are faith-filled and awesome to hear about, so I will share them here:
- A 28-Year-Old Woman: A woman suffering for 20 years with a foot injury that had a debilitating effect on her body, making it so that she could not move her toes, only heard a story/testimony about a similar injury and how someone was healed. This specific example gave her enough faith to try moving her foot, and she was instantly healed, regaining the ability to curl her toes and run.
- Healed Martial Artist: A man suffering from a knee injury received prayer from a couple. Just after the prayer had concluded, he regained full mobility in his knee. He eventually returned to performing roundhouse kicks, which he previously found to be impossible.
- ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis): A woman named Luticia, diagnosed with ALS, only heard the testimony of another man being healed with the same condition. When she was praying, using the faith of only hearing about the other person’s story, she felt “heat and electricity,” and she was immediately healed from her terminal condition.
- Degenerative Joint Disease: One individual suffered from severe spinal damage due to an automobile accident. During a conference with evangelist Blaine Cook, the individual responded to an “altar call” and felt “the hand of God” move through his body. It resulted in no more pain, and he was given the ability to perform high-impact movements again, like squat thrusts and running.
- A Case of Asthma: An individual with only 50% lung capacity experienced healing in their lungs during prayer. They were so totally restored that they were able to hit the “1,000 mark” on a breathing test. This indicates a total restoration of respiratory functions.
- Brain Damage: After a virus nearly killed a person, they were later healed of brain damage at a prayer meeting. The person felt a full restoration and complete healing, which allowed the person to return to productive, professional work.
- The Blind Man: A Case for Persistent Faith: Dr. Clark told a story about a unique account involving a woman praying for a blind man. Unlike other instant healings, the man was still blind after a 5-hour prayer session. Devastated but still trusting in God, three days later, the man woke up with entirely new pupils and corneas, and the “scar tissue” in his eyes had totally vanished.
Conclusion: God continues to heal today!
In a large gathering like Dr. Clark’s, many people are healed all at once. He has a technique that he teaches, which includes asking those who are “80% or more healed” to stand up and be counted. By using the momentum of those getting healed, it builds the “faith atmosphere” in the room. This process moves the crowd from a state of observation to a state of participation and activates deeper faith in the crowd.
The ministry of Dr. Randy Clark is a powerful example of the Biblical promises. His work challenges the false criticism that the “age of miracles” ended with the apostles. Instead, through his ministry, we can continue to see the same power that flowed through the hem of Jesus’ garment in today’s world. By Dr. Clark’s humble admission that human faith is a simple “engine” of God’s power, Dr. Clark demonstrates that healing is not merely a historical relic from the time of Jesus, but a current, tangible, and continued expression of God’s love. Whether it is the instant restoration of someone’s knee or a healing that takes three days to happen, like the blind man’s eyes, these accounts emphasize that God is not limited by the complexity of a diagnosis or the duration of an ailment.
The “ripple effect” of the testimony of healing cannot be undervalued. As Dr. Clark teaches, when we witness or hear of a miracle, the gap between “God can” and “God will” closes. We gain faith from hearing the testimony of others, and it shifts our belief in Christ and His power from passive to active. We gain, via watching or learning about miracles, the understanding that expectant participation transforms a gathering into a “faith atmosphere.” It reminds us that we are called to be more than just spectators; we are invited to participate as instruments of healing – just as Christ did. Jesus tells us in scripture, in John 14:12:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
The stories of those healed from ALS, brain damage, debilitating injuries, chronic illnesses (and those raised from the dead first by Jesus Christ and later by evangelist Smith Wigglesworth) are not just meant to bring glory to a single moment in time, but to embolden the Church to take up the words of Christ, in John 14:12, and pursue the “greater things” Jesus promised! Dr. Clark’s life proves that when we align our minds with the Word of God and trust in expectancy of prayer, the miraculous happens. Truly, God continues to heal today, proving through the likes of Dr. Randy Clark that Christ’s ongoing compassion for the suffering and lost remains as boundless as ever!
References:
Cavanna, P. (2011, April). The dead are raised! Peter Cavanna: News and Views. https://petercavanna.com/articles/the-dead-are-raised-2/
Global Awakening. (2024, February 26). Full healing message with healing prayer | 2024 | Randy Clark [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8fjg-Bbx8g
Sanders, Y. (2024, December, 15). Teaching by Yana. Hebrew Sisters Conference, Cherry Tree, PA, Indiana County. https://thechetremon.com/