Check out Part 1 of 7 from Chapter 1 of God’s Healthcare Plan detailing Jeff Schmidgall’s journey from not knowing God’s will for physical healing to proclaiming the church’s need to operate in God’s healing power:
A power exists for which man would pay billions to possess, but it is not for sale. It is a power that Jesus used to prove He truly is the Son of God, but most people do not believe in it. It is a power that can empty hospitals, but has rarely had the chance to do so. It is a power that can cure entire nations, but most people do not know about it. It healed the man at the gate called Beautiful, the woman with the issue of blood, and blind Bartimaeus. The Author of this power suffered the cross and, three days later, was raised from the dead. This Author is none other than Jesus Christ – by whose stripes, you have been healed.
My Beginning
As a young boy, I was one of those people who did not know much about God’s healing power. I grew up surrounded by cornfields in the heart of the Heartland; yet, oddly enough, my father wasn’t a farmer. My parents took me to church every Sunday; yet, I never received revelation from God’s Word concerning healing. Whether it was preached or not, I honestly don’t remember. I knew some Bible stories, memorized Scripture verses, and knew enough to go to heaven.
I did, however, have people in my life who knew about the healing power of God. By the time I was 10 years old, I had heard stories of tremendous miracles, proving to me that God’s healing power still works today. These stories kindled a desire inside me to see this healing power in my life. I wanted to lay my hands on the sick and see them recover. I wanted to live in health. Despite my desire, I still lacked a major ingredient of God’s healing power: a firm foundation from God’s Word regarding healing. It turns out that desire was not enough.
As a result, I felt powerless to utilize this healing power I so desperately desired. I didn’t know what to believe. If a pastor said something, I assumed that it was the Truth. If a pastor said, “We cannot know who God wills to heal and who He doesn’t,” I assumed he was correct since he was a leader in the church. If the mentioned the sovereignty of God, a man called Job, or Paul’s thorn in the flesh as justification for sickness, I didn’t really question it. I rarely ventured into searching the Scriptures to find out if what he said was really true. I didn’t know that God’s Word tells us that God wants this healing for everyone, and we, as believers, can actually heal the sick.
Next excerpt: Part 2 of 7 – My Turnaround