John Wimber - The Healing Ministry (1988) - Key Insights and Quotes

Source: YouTube video transcript - John Wimber interview on healing ministry Date: 1988 Context: Pastor John Wimber, founding pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Anaheim, California, discusses his journey into healing ministry and the challenges of faith in practice.

The Breakthrough After Years of Failure

Three Years of Ineffective Prayer

"we had been trying to pray we had been praying for the sick for a year and didn't see anybody get well people got worse when we prayed for them they didn't get better and U I mean it was pitiful uh but all we knew is what the book said and so we were trying to be obedient to what the scriptures said and we would say you know we think God heals a book says he heals and uh you know come on we'll pray for it and honestly uh we buried two of our people during that year uh that died and U uh it was a tough year for us"

The Moment of Desperate Honesty

"I finally found myself I just threw myself on the floor and began sobbing and I and I began yelling at God and I don't do that very often either because I've read the book you know and I I know better you know but I was I was saying when are you going to back up your act you know you told us to pray for this sick and nobody's getting well you know put your money where your mouth is you know if you're not going to do this thing just take me home I don't want to play anymore"

The First Healing

Wimber describes being called to pray for a desperately sick woman:

"I mumbled a pray somebody asked me later on that was at the prayer of faith I said I don't think so I mean I don't think so uh I I just laid hands on her and I I prayed and and I turned around and in same motion began explaining to him why some people don't get well and I'm talking to and I'm talking to him and he's looking at me like you are but all of a sudden I see he's grinning and kind of looking over my shoulder so I spin around and there she is she's up she's got her house coat on she's already brushed her hair and she's making the bed and the swelling's gone in her face the Heat's gone"

The Nature of Biblical Faith vs. Intellectual Belief

The Commission to Heal, Not Just Pray

"it really doesn't say pray for the sick what it says is heal the sick that's exactly what it says and that's a lot different you know I I'm not a Garian but I've checked it out and that's a lot different it doesn't say pray for the sick it says heal the sick"

Faith as Action, Not Just Mental Assent

"as an Evangelical I had been taught that we were to act on the word of God...believing is acting and and if you don't aren't acting then you're not believing you're doing something that's static something that's incomplete"

The Three-Step Cyclical Process

"it's a combination of reading it believing it and acting on it it's a it's a three-step process and it's cyclical you have to continue to read it continue to believe it continue to act on it it's like a stool if you just have two two legs it doesn't work"

The Problem of Unbelief in Believers

The Split Between Head and Heart

"I found a weird thing inside of me I could believe it at this level and not believe it at this level by that I mean at an emotional visceral level I would I would be frightened I'd be insecure I'd be not sure I could I could uh assume sort of a brav sort of a courage sort and say the things and still doubt at the same time"

Seminary Training vs. Biblical Reality

"I had been taught that God quit doing those things uh at the end of the apostolic age and that that it was no longer necessary because um uh the we needed the testimony of signs and wonders in order for uh Jesus to uh be as uh credentialed as it were...but now that that we had the scripture and the cannon was closed we had the full revelation of God and we no longer needed it"

The Spiritual Warfare Context

Kingdom of God as God's Right to Rule

"when Jesus came he introduced the kingdom of God the word kingdom is the translated in New Testament is the Greek word basilia and it means God's right to rule so when Jesus came...all Heaven broke loose on Earth I mean there was nothing but trouble and the demons started screeching"

The Church's Role in Mopping Up

"it's not a war between God and Satan it's a war between Jesus and his people Christians the church and Satan...he defeated the the the enemy and now we are in in in charge of the mop up operation because en been defeated so we have set the captives free open the doors and let them out"

The Problem with Modern Church Training

An Army Without Basic Training

"what if we had an enlisted recruited Army that had never been through basic training that had been given the manual but had never been through basic training now how how well would that Army operate well the first place they wouldn't operate as a unit at all"

The Gap Between Knowledge and Practice

"if tonight we were training people here to be skydivers and I and I I brought out some diagrams and gave you all manuals and we lectured for three hours...at the end I said well can everybody take a test and they can take a test and give all the information back and then I said all right now come forward and we're going to give you diplomas you're skydivers and one of you might say well but when do we get in the plane when do we put on the shoes...when do we jump"

Personal Responsibility and Daily Practice

Individual Commitment to Action

"it's a process that goes on every day every day I got to get up put my pants on and believe God and read the word of God and get out and act on it and if I don't that talk about this commitment they were talking about earlier about a commitment I was saying God I'll make this commitment to you then that commitment implies that you're going to get up and do something about it"

The Universal Call

"the scripture calls every everybody to witness whether you're an evangelist or not calls everybody to pray for the sick whether you're called as a into the ministry of Faith healing or not and so uh everybody has this activity this function this duty to perform whether they're called into the ministry or not"

The Reality of Spiritual Opposition

Expectation of Increased Difficulty

"when we really start coming against the enemy and he recognizes when somebody's really going to allow the Lord work through him we can expect the circumstances of our life to worsen temporarily at least when we start really believing for our healing many many times the Pain's going to get worse"

The Church's Materialism Problem

"most people in the Western World don't believe in the Supernatural we don't believe in anything spiritual we're materialists we're naturalists we look for natural explanations to anything that occurs...we haven't even as Christians we haven't even come to grips with the reality of the enemy"

The Final Challenge

The Church Must Act Like the Church

"my perception there's a real war going on and there's real victims and here they are page after page after page you know we have we we file in and we file out of our buildings week after week and we sing Our anthems and we open up the book and we read it in the meantime the enemies pay get that one and he gets that one and this one Falls to immorality and that one goes down with cancer and this family breaks up"

Key Insight: Wimber's testimony reveals that effective healing ministry requires moving beyond intellectual belief to embodied faith expressed through consistent action, even in the face of initial failure and ongoing spiritual opposition. The church's calling is not merely to pray for the sick, but to heal them as part of advancing God's kingdom on earth.