GIFTS OF HEALINGS

E. C. Burr

1 Corinthians 12: 30, 31; Jeremiah 33: 2–9

The chapter from which we have read in Corinthians gives us some impression of the plenitude of the way in which the Spirit has equipped the assembly, the fulness and variety of what has been set in the assembly and the gifts that have been given by the Spirit, and with power by the same Spirit. In the day of breakdown and weakness in which we are we would be careful as to the degree to which we assume that these things remain. Much has been said in the past in ministry as to the ornamental character of the gifts at the beginning and as to the way in which the public departure of the church from the Lord and from the truth has inhibited the manifestation of what was given to it in its early days. Of course, Corinthians is a little bit on from the pristine condition of the church. The development of the truth in Acts 18 is a good way on from Acts 2, and as the history of Corinth is well known to the brethren, indeed perhaps

better than that of any other local assembly, things publicly there seem not very much different from what they are now. Perhaps the degree to which we draw on Corinthians in relation to the assembly in a place tends to show that in the mind of the Spirit things are not very different now from what they were publicly in the day of Corinth.

We do not, in the mercy of God, have often to confront the kind of sins that existed in Corinth. If such things arose, the brethren would readily rise up to deal with them and they would deal with them in assembly, as Paul taught in this epistle. It is not to be thought that any matter affecting the assembly and affecting fellowship can be rightly dealt with apart from what we speak of as formal assembly action. Persons do not have the right to the initiative in taking themselves away from the assembly. It has been well taught by Mr. Taylor that in every such case there needs to be assembly action in order to establish what has been done on the assembly’s side in relation to any matter that arises, because the Lord has left the assembly here as the entity that has the initiative from Him in relation to every administrative matter. Publicly things around in Corinth were unfavourable to the truth and those things tended to come in to the assembly, but nevertheless to Corinth Paul brings out in this chapter the extensiveness with which the Spirit had equipped the local assembly.

I encourage the brethren to lift up their eyes to the high level of things which is demonstrated to us in the Scripture. It is very easy for us to become occupied with breakdown and failure as if that was all the food that the saints had. That is not so. The food that the saints have relates to the truth on its highest level and ministry among them should proceed on the principle of “Let no one take thy crown”; Revelation 3: 11. Saints should be engaged constantly with the highest truths that are available to them. Otherwise, they find that the crown is slipping away unconsciously. The highest level of the things which are theirs disappears from their minds, and as they disappear they cease to characterise the local assembly. What is to characterise the local assembly, if in any way Philadelphian conditions are to be touched in these last days, is that the crown must be maintained before the saints. You will recall Mr. Stoney’s ministry as to that, that the crown represents the highest truth that you know and saints are to be held in relation to such things.

Now the gifts are presented differently in Ephesians, but the gifts in this chapter are diverse, and Paul at the end of the chapter where we read raises the question, “Have all gifts of healings?”. I have wondered about that, beloved. It provokes in the mind, ‘Have any gifts of healings?’. You might say that in these broken days you can hardly expect the manifestation of gifts of that kind. But then, ‘Have any gifts of healings?’. We are not concerned so much in relation to the healing of the body (although James would teach us that it may be that prayer would be effective in relation to the body), but in relation to what is spiritual. If you would have to say that in this broken day you would not claim as much as is said here, I think—Paul would say, ‘Has the gift gone?’. Has the ability to heal gone? Has what was involved in the gifts of healings which were characteristic of the church in its early days gone? “Have all gifts of healings?”. Well, perhaps not, but is the gift of healings still in the assembly?

The Lord would press this on us, I think, because all the time in assembly history things arise

in which the ministration of healing is needed. Events occur and matters come up and Paul would say, “Have all gifts of healings?”. Where are gifts of healings? You can see the way in which beloved Mr. Taylor applied the activity of Jesus in John 13, saying that in the first epistle to the Corinthians there was the wash-hand basin and in the second epistle the linen towel with which He was girded; that is what is in Paul’s mind in relation to gifts of healings, that there is the ability not only to bring in what belongs to the cleansing order of things, but also the ability in the spirit of gifts of healings to administer the linen towel. Beloved, one wonders how far the actuality of that particular garment of Christ is actively amongst us at the present time. Later on in John there was the body-coat which He had, which was woven from the top; it was one entire thing, one whole. But as you touch that garment in John 13

you will find that you are not exactly having to do with the indivisibility and mystery of His Person, in what that garment woven from the top in one piece speaks to us of, but with the presentation of that garment in the form of a linen towel.

I think that that was what was in Paul’s mind when he says, “Have all gifts of healings?”. For as you go on into the second epistle you find Paul’s anxiety that there were not gifts of healings in Corinth and hence, although the matter which had arisen in the first epistle had eventually been dealt with by Paul’s apostolic injunction, and therefore had been dealt with as maintaining what was suitable to Christ in the place, what Paul found when he wrote the second epistle was that there was not the element of the gift of healings in the place.

Therefore he has to write them in order that that gift might come to the surface once more.

Corinth was evidently responsive to what Paul ministered

among them as to the gifts of healings, and the necessity for this arises amongst us constantly.

The Lord has set us together in localities in ways which, as has often been said, we ourselves might never have chosen. Let us retain in our souls the sense of divine sovereignty so to compose the local assemblies. The result is that matters may arise, frictions occur, difficulties come up, and personalities intrude themselves, and all the time what is needed in relation to those things is the principle of the gifts of healings in order that there might be what is for Christ in the place. What is entirely suited to Him is the result of His own ministration—no doubt nowadays through the word—in relation to the linen towel with which He was girded.

I think, beloved, we may need to become increasingly familiar with that linen towel. We may need not merely to admire it as we see the Lord Jesus Himself using it, but to become acquainted with its texture in our own hand. Brethren here know as much about linen as anybody—there is nothing like the feel of a linen towel. You feel its texture, and as you feel the texture of the linen towel with which He was girded, you find that what you are actually having to do with are characteristic features of the Lord Jesus available to be drawn on, and to be ministered, and to be used wherever there may be a need for healing. As we look over the history of Corinth as it is brought out not only in this epistle but in the next one, we find that even though the matter that had arisen was actually settled—and we long that matters might be settled—there was the lack of that receptive spirit in which Paul himself had once been received in Damascus. Paul asks in effect, I think, ‘Where are the gifts of healings in these matters?’—because assembly history is full of occasions in which significant issues have arisen in relation to the

Lord’s interests and the testimony and the maintenance of the truth and the establishment of what rightly pertains to the fellowship of God’s Son, and even when things are got right the relics of the issues live on and on. Yet if there were gifts of healings you would find that the whole thing had been resolved so that all the brethren were fully set together, fully established in the blessedness of relations with one another.

The Lord will instruct us, beloved, in regard of gifts of healings, and in relation to the linen towel with which He was girded, so that we are able to bring into situations which might otherwise become difficult, not the rigidity of the letter, not the insistence on the word, not the insistence on one’s own rightness or righteousness, but one might almost say, the adaptability of Christ in order that as these feelings begin to work the saints are set in comfort because the linen towel with which He was girded has been used. Who then would want to be like Peter and say, “Lord, dost thou wash my feet?”. That necessity may arise in relation to us all and perhaps all concerned in anything that arises have to face the necessity of having Christ wash their feet, the necessity of seeing Him humble Himself in order to serve us. If we will not face the necessity of His serving us, we shall never find the blessedness of the linen towel with which He was girded and the gifts of healings which are characteristic of His operations. Nobody ever tried to apply a linen towel to feet that had not been washed. .What would be the purpose? It would have no effect. The washing is the essential first step and it is something that Jesus Himself does in order that the saints, all the saints, might be set free to have part with Him.

We learn things from Scripture and the way

things are presented in Scripture. If I recall rightly, the first occasion of healing in Scripture relates to Abimelech and his wife (Genesis 20: 17). The circumstances that arose there were wrong. You might say that Abraham was wrong, but Abimelech was wrong as well. God comes into the situation governmentally and says that things will not proceed any further on that line; He closed up the wombs of Abimelech’s house. When the matter was resolved, God healed in relation to that, in relation to what His government had had to do. God Himself came in in healing. We would learn that, beloved. Some of us are inclined when we see God operating governmentally to think that He will go on operating governmentally and that God has in a certain way marked out certain persons as objects of His government. But God will lift His government as the matter which gave rise to His government is resolved; and God healed the house of Abimelech.

The next occasion in which there was healing is in Exodus 15 where, having gone through the Red Sea in the sense that God had triumphed gloriously, they came to the waters of Marah that were bitter. What was brought in in relation to that was the way in which Christ was cut off and had nothing, He who had a right to everything, He who could have insisted that everything He said was absolute law in relation to everything. Jehovah “shewed him wood” and it was cut down and cast into the water, and the waters became sweet. How does that section end? It does not end with God giving them a moral lesson exactly. God says, I will not bring on you the things that I brought on the Egyptians, but what He adds is, “I am Jehovah who healeth thee”. What does He heal?—In relation to His government? No. He heals in relation to the complaints of the people, and a humbled Christ brought in in order to resolve the situation. “I am Jehovah who healeth thee” is in

relation to Christ who had a right to everything and for the time being has nothing, as far as what is public is concerned. He was cut off and had nothing. The result of a humbled Christ being brought into a situation that otherwise was bitter was that God is able to say, “I am Jehovah who healeth thee”. I believe, beloved, that there has never been a situation in which bitterness existed that has been resolved unless the humbling of the Christ is brought into it that persons may find that what otherwise was bitter has become sweet. You learn from that another name of God, “Jehovah who healeth thee”.

The process of healing could easily be traced through the Scriptures. It would make quite an interesting subject for a series of local readings if it was felt to be necessary, because the number of references to healing in the Scriptures is not all that large. One could trace through the Scriptures the way in which there was healing. There are occasions in the gospels where everyone who was ill was gathered together to Jesus and they were all healed. As the old hymn says—

‘Oh, in what divers pains they met!

Oh, with what joy they went away!’

That was as to their physical condition; but it bears more on the spiritual condition. The power of Jesus was there to heal every one. God having come into man’s own condition in Christ in order that souls might experience the reality of “I am Jehovah who healeth thee”. It was presented among them in grace and substantially rejected, but every condition was met by a healing Christ. On the occasion when it says, “the Lord’s power was there to heal them”

(Luke 5: 17), that was not in relation to physical sickness. It was in connection with the contentions and objections of the legal and literalistic Pharisees. You see the Christ who was about to be cut down. Nobody at that point having

been exactly shown wood, the wood was there, and not many chapters later the wood was, as it were, going to be cut down and cast into the water, and the power of the Lord would be present to heal Pharisees, to heal Sadducees; to heal the sick certainly, but to heal those who were like the man who needed no repentance, who said, “Never have I transgressed a commandment of thine”, Luke 15: 29. The power of the Lord was present to heal even persons like that.

So, beloved, one refers to this question that Paul asks here, and one asks it now “Have all gifts of healings?”. You may say it is not a time for distinctive gifts of that quality; but

“desire earnestly the greater gifts”. Have you a desire for gifts of healings? Would you like to be known amongst the brethren as one who brings in healing where you go, one whose ministry has the effect of binding up wounds? If you wish to be like Christ in ministry, that must be one aspect which enters into it. We see the way in which He went about and healed the broken-hearted, and made deaf hear, and blind see, and paralysed walk and operate, as we may infer, in the service of God. The greatest Healer of all was there in Christ, and if any of us wishes in any degree to manifest Christ in our ministry we must have regard to this element, that there is the principle of the gifts of healings. Paul goes on to say, “Yet shew I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence”. What is that? As we well know from the next chapter, it is love operating amongst the saints; not rejoicing at iniquity, but rejoicing with the truth, but a love that does not impute evil. Love that will go not only a second mile, but a third and a fourth if necessary—a way of more surpassing excellence. As a matter of fact, if any of us knew that another mile would heal somebody that was physically sick we would all be ready to go two, and yet where there are cases where persons are spiritually sick, where is the readiness then? Is there the readiness to go another mile, readiness to hold on to the saints as long as they may be held on to, as long as there is not actual transgression of the rights of the Lord (a thing as to which we need to be very careful indeed), not light-hearted, and yet going on as long as we can. Think of the long ministry of beloved Mr. Taylor in these parts, and how difficult it was to get out of fellowship, and yet with what decisiveness he would act if the rights of the Lord were transgressed in any matter.

There is a way of more surpassing excellence that can always do things rightly for Christ, but reflects Him in what is done so that we are able to do things in His Spirit, and the power of the Lord is present to heal, and God is learned as Jehovah who heals thee.

I refer to Jeremiah because of the blessed consequences that are brought out there as a result of healing being brought in. God does not palliate the state of things in Jerusalem. He is quite categoric about the state of things. He does not say, ‘If you look at it this way you will see it differently’. He looks at things one way, and He sees things according to Himself. If you had some impression of the city at this time you would feel that every element in its description that was against it had been fully brought out. But are not the previous chapters about the new covenant? (It is very interesting how long a chapter in Jeremiah God devotes to the new covenant). Yes, you say, in the light of that, why talk about the failure and the breakdown of the city? “Thus saith Jehovah … concerning the houses of this city … which are thrown down because of the mounds and because of the sword”. He goes over the history of what has happened and what it had necessitated in relation to the disciplining of His people to bring

them back to God, but He says, “Behold, I will apply a healing dressing to it and cure”.

I suppose it would be from this that the Samaritan learned how to equip himself when he went from Jericho to Jerusalem. He would say, ‘If God is going to apply a healing dressing, I had better take a healing dressing with me; I might need it’. I might need a first-aid kit, in my car, in my soul, a healing dressing. Beloved, that would be a good thing for all of us to pack.

When we pack to go away let us pack a healing dressing. Let us pack oil and wine. Let us pack the kind of things that God has in view Himself; God comes down to very homely language, “I will apply a healing dressing to it and cure, and I will heal”. It is a foreshadowing of what God is going to do in eternity when He wipes away every tear from their eyes, when there will be no more sorrow or suffering or death, cry, pain—nothing of those things at all. God, if I may say so, in His simplicity comes down to the actual condition of man. He says a healing dressing will be needed, and “I will apply a healing dressing”.

Sometimes the healing dressing that is needed is oil and wine; sometimes it is a poultice of figs.

A poultice of figs is a very uncomfortable thing to have put on a boil. It is not a thing that you would like done twice. But sometimes God may have to act in that way, which is a very uncomfortable way of having a situation resolved, very hot and very inescapable. It is astonishing how figs can retain heat when applied to a boil, as in the case of Hezekiah.

Sometimes that is the healing dressing. Sometimes, as I say, it is oil and wine. We have to be skilful, we have to learn from Luke to know just what particular medicine is needed for a situation. God says, “I will apply a healing dressing to it and cure, and I will heal them, and will reveal unto them an abundance of peace and truth”. Think of the result of healing. Think of the result of God’s operations even in relation to the nation of Israel as He would give them such an abundance of goodness and truth that people would “fear and tremble for all the good and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it”. Have you ever been so amazed at the bounty that God pours out on His people, such abundance of goodness, that you are astonished and begin to be in the fear of God because of the greatness of His bounty? We have touched it in the past.

I do not know if there is anybody here who has sat under ministry like ‘From Eternity to Eternity’, and other ministry that could be referred to, when the impression of the good and the prosperity would develop in you the fear of God who could bring out such abundance of supply for His people. Think how the fear of God might be developed amongst the saints on account of the fulness of the truth that He is bringing out, like the disciples at the end of the gospels when they had an impression in reality that Jesus was actually out of death. He came amongst them and for the abundance of peace and prosperity that was going to be procured, they did not believe for joy. They would fear and tremble because of the greatness of the blessing that God was about to bring in. God does not bring that in until the healing process has been carried through, until the healing dressing has been applied, until the cure has been applied. It is very easy to be quite a good amateur doctor and to think that one has the solution to every difficulty that may have arisen, but the solutions are with God. It is Jehovah who heals—“The Lord’s power was there to heal” (Luke 5: 17); “I will come and heal”, Matthew 8: 7.

All these things show that the power of healing is with God. But there is the characteristic of the gift of healings still here, I believe, because the Spirit is still here. The Spirit still being here, everything that came in in the Spirit is still here. It may be that the weakness and breakdown in the public position hinder its manifestation. It may be that the unfaithfulness of the saints has hindered the full experience of what still remains in the Spirit, but, beloved, let us have the faith that if we would say that there is what in principle is prophetic, that there is in principle what is evangelical, there is what is in principle shepherding and teaching, that there is in principle still a gift of healings. It is not just for the body; God has given men very great wisdom in regard to the healing of the body, and the cures that men, under God’s hand, work on the body are little short of miraculous. Let us be sure, beloved, that it is to God that we give the glory in these matters. You only need to have been brought very near to death’s door to realise what power God has given to men to raise men up from beds of sickness. Is there not the same power to bring in healing in relation to souls, in relation to what is spiritual, in relation to what is for God, in relation to the Lord’s interests?

“Have all gifts of healings?”, Paul says. I think it would raise the question in Corinth as to whether any had, and, if so, who they were; and I do not suspect that Paul anticipated that the answer to his question would be, ‘No, the gift of healings has utterly gone’. As far as the physical manifestation is concerned it belonged to the pristine condition of the church, although as I said there is what James tells us about the prayer of faith healing the sick; but when we apply it to what is spiritual I believe that the power of healing is undiminished because the same Spirit is here still. I believe the Lord would promote exercise in us as to whether we are ready to take on the healing service which otherwise He would have to do Himself, and which we have faith that He will do. May the Lord just use these remarks to promote exercise with us in regard to this very much needed service, for His name’s sake.

Address at Plainfield, N.J.
26 June 1976