Walking and leaping and praising God

[Peter] took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong” (Acts 3:7). This is an interesting parallel of the moment when Jesus had lifted up Peter’s mother-in-law and she was healed of a fever (Mark 1:31).

It is also similar to the healing of a lame man by Paul in Lystra in Acts 14:8-10. Interestingly, on that occasion we are specifically told that Paul “perceived” that the man had faith to be healed (verse 9). The lifting up by Peter was an encouragement to the man who may never have stood on the soles of his feet. I feel that the act was the result of yet another revelation that Peter received from God.

Now I’d like you to underline “immediately” or “instantly” in your Bible (verse 7). The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, written by Luke, use this Greek word 17 times out of the 19 times in the New Testament. While it is a different word from that used 17 times in the Gospel of Mark, particularly in the early chapters, there seems to be agreement that here in Acts it is a good translation.

Many of these usages have to do with healing miracles. I can only think of one healing in the gospels that was a two-stage healing, and that is the blind man at Bethesda who, after Jesus touched him, could only “see men, but they look like trees, walking” (Mark 8:24 ESV). On the second touch, he saw “everything clearly.” Some sick people were instructed to obey certain commands, like the ten lepers who were to visit the priest and get official confirmation, or the blind man to whom Jesus put mud in his eyes and told him to go wash them in the pool of Siloam and he would see.

The truth to be observed here is the immediacy at which God works on behalf of the believer. God only inhabits time to look after His children; in spirit everything is immediate, provided it has been stated as God’s will. When future events are revealed in scripture they will happen exactly on time every time. We may think God is late (like the Seventh Day Adventists in the “Great Disappointment” of 1844 and the Jehovah’s Witnesses many predictions), but the problem is with our understanding, not God.

To Isaiah in the Old Testament God said, “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24). There is no nanosecond delay with God. You are right to be amazed at how good a God we have, as were the witnesses of this incident. “And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him” (Acts 3:9-10).

Peter explained that the man was not healed by the apostles’ own power or holiness (verse 12). He was healed by faith in the name of the resurrected Jesus, “faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all” (verse 16). Note the “perfect health,” the only usage of that Greek word in the New Testament.

This was certainly a faith healing, and faith requires an object. The object of a Christian’s faith is always “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Here in this record it is even more specific; it is “faith in his [Jesus’] name” and “faith that is through Jesus.” So this is unquestionably faith in the Name of Jesus, which means faith in the power and authority resident in the Name of Jesus. A quick reading of the gospels will yield statements by Jesus, such as “According to your faith, let it be done to you” and “Your faith has made you whole.”

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,
And looks to that alone;
Laughs at impossibilities,
And cries, “It shall be done!”
(John Wesley, 1742).

We were taught in Bible college that there is a difference between “faith healing” and “divine healing.” The denomination preferred the term “divine healing” to separate their theology from the metaphysical movement. However, there was a strong Christian emphasis in the US from the 1870s until the 1900s and they used the term “faith-cure” and taught divine healing by faith in God. After the Pentecostal outpouring of Azusa Street in 1906 it became more common to use the term “divine healing.”

If you read the history of healing movement in a book such as The Ministry of Healing by A.J. Gordon (online under Articles at peterwade.com), you will discover that while there was a continuous thread of healing from the early church onward to the present day, much of the New Age, Christian Science, and mind religions practised “faith healing” from the mid-1850s onward. So all faith healing is not divine, but all divine healing requires faith.

Peter used the opportunity to preach the good news of the resurrection to the assembled crowd. He mentioned the death of Jesus but put all the emphasis on the resurrection. Gordon Lindsay, a Pentecostal preacher who became William Branham’s campaign manager in the 1940-50s, wrote a book titled World Evangelization Now by Healing and Miracles (1951), and the aftermath of Pentecost is a good example of this principle at work. Lindsay also wrote the book Bible Days Are Here Again (1949). T.L. Osborn proved it in third-world countries (his book Healing the Sick has become a classic), while William Branham, Oral Roberts, Jack Coe, and A.A. Allen were prominent across the U.S.

Another 5,000 men became believers as a result of this miracle and the sermon that followed. So as on the Day of Pentecost, a supernatural event followed by a proclamation of truth produced great results for the early church. However, this healing record is not over yet, as opposition is about to hit.