Facts of Healing
by Francis MacNutt
taken from the January 1990 issue

As you know by now our ministry of healing centers on Jesus’ own principle of discernment: “I do what I see my Father doing.” We learn by comparing what we think ought to happen to what actually happens. We look around with fresh eyes to see what God is actually doing. In the last newsletter we talked about a fascinating book, Healing: Fiction, Fantasy or Fact by social anthropologist David Lewis (published in England by Hodder & Stoughton). Dr. Lewis studies the results of 1,890 questionnaires, returned after a John Wimber conference in Harrogate, England (By the way, the 1,890 returns are a 76,5% response – very high). In the last newsletter we talked about the different ways in which the “word of knowledge” was working at Harrogate – which corresponded to what we, too, see in our ministry.

Now we want to share what they found out about how many people actually received physical healing, inner healing and deliverance. Instead of just giving people two choices (i.e. “healed” or “not healed”), Dr. Lewis wisely allowed for five possibilities:
                1) Total healing
                2) A great deal of healing
                3) A fair amount of healing
                4) A little healing
                5) No apparent healing

PHYSICAL HEALING

Of the 1,890 people, 621 received prayer for 867 instances of physical ailments (some of us are sick in more than one area!).

Of these: 
            279 (32%) received either total or a great deal of healing.
                222 (26%) received a fair amount of healing.
                304 (42%) reported little or no healing.

Lewis did follow-up interviews with 35 of these respondents and found that for 57% the healing was sustained. (By the way, 68 reported total healing.)

The questionnaires revealed several more things:
                a) Young people ask less often but receive more healing than those over 60. Also “words of knowledge” focused more on younger people.
                b) The less educated (the poor of the Gospel) report a higher degree of healing than the better educated, more academic group, even though a large proportion of the conference participants were drawn from the professional academic groups (doctors, teachers and clergy).

INNER HEALING

Here the percentage is higher than for physical healing (we see this, too, at our conferences). Some 748 (40%) received prayer.

Of these: 
            50.5% received either a total healing or a great deal of healing.
            28% received a medium amount.
                21.5% received a little or no improvement.

Moreover, the follow-up interviews of 61 cases indicated that 85% sustained that improvement.

DELIVERANCE (i.e. from evil spirits)

Here the percentage is highest of all. Only 104 (6%) received deliverance ministry.

Of these: 
            68% received a total or great improvement.
            17.5% received moderate improvement.
                14.5% received little or no improvement.

Well, there it is; I thought you would like to see it!