Ken Gorman of Sheffield, England was scheduled for surgery in early July.

According to an article on Assist News, Ken noticed a lump on his face in May 2013 that was starting to cause him pain. At first, doctors prescribed pain medication, but as the lump continued to grow and the pain with it, doctors eventually sent Ken for an MRI at Rotherham General Hospital in South Yorkshire, England.

That test revealed that part of a main nerve in Ken’s face was now encircled by three tumours. The doctors immediately scheduled surgery in July this year.

However, things took a dramatic turn after Ken and his wife Annie heard about a healing rally being held by evangelist Nathan Morris at Hull City Hall in Hull, England. With Ken’s surgery still weeks away and his pain getting worse, they decided to attend the service.

But there was a problem. Because of limited capacity, the meeting required pre-booking to attend and no tickets were available.

Annie decided to drive her husband to the meeting even though they didn’t have tickets. But after asking for help via Twitter, they were able to track down two tickets in the third row of the healing service.

After receiving prayer at the meeting the couple returned home. Within a couple of days they noticed the swelling on Ken’s face was going down. By the tenth day, the swelling and the pain was gone.

But Ken was still scheduled for surgery,

After he phoned the hospital and explained what happened, the hospital postponed the surgery but scheduled an appointment for Ken with the surgeon.

Ken said the surgeon and nurses were speechless when tests showed the three tumours were now gone. Ken was able to testify that Jesus had healed him and had hospital tests to prove it.

It saddens me when I hear of people refusing to go to a doctor because they are believing God for healing.

This past June police charged a Oregon couple in the death of their daughter. Their newly born twin daughter died because they would not take her to hospital after she started having breathing problems shortly after a home birth.

She would eventually die a few hours later. The US News article said the couple attended a church that believed in divine healing and allegedly “shuns traditional medicine.”

I have even had sincere Christians tell me that going to a doctor after prayer shows a lack of faith.

Yet that is exactly what Jesus did when He told one leper to go to that culture’s equivalent of a doctor after prayer for healing:

² And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” ³ Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. ⁴ And Jesus *said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (Matthew 8:2-4 NASV)

In fact, Jesus did this several times. We see references to it in other healings (Luke 5:14; Luke 17:14).

In the Old Testament, the priests functioned as doctors determining if people were healed of skin conditions. People who had leprosy were removed from the camp (a form of quarantine). They were only allowed to return after a priest checked them over to make sure they were cleansed of the disease (Leviticus 14:2-5).

Jesus did not consider it a lack of faith to go and encouraged the lepers to do it as a “testimony” to the priests. We need to pray for the sick. But no where does the Bible tell us to shun medicine as an act of faith while doing it.

Sources:

• Medics stunned by miracle healing: Assist News
• Couple who believe in prayer healing charged in baby’s death: US News