As a person who is of Wesleyan-Methodist heritage and theology I was curious of what my denomination said on the Charismatic movement since long ago I went to a Charismatic bible college/church for a while and had the Pentecostal-Charismatic experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Found this article that goes into the issue and is open and tolerant of the issue and even talks about how even during the foundation of Methodism, John Wesley himself saw what we could call Pentecostal-Charismatic signs and wonders taking place during the 1st Great Awakening. So my question is, what are people’s opinions of the signs and wonders gifts such as healing by the laying on of hands, speaking in tongues and prophecy for today?
For a couple years my husband and I went to a Vineyard church. I have had migraines since I was a child. One Sunday, I was in church, with a migraine, and a woman I didn’t really know and had not spoken to that day came up to me during the singing time and said, “God told me to come over here and pray for your headache.” She put her hands on my head and prayed for me and it felt like warm electric current all over and my headache was totally gone. I have had many migraines since, so it’s not like it was some life altering event, but it made me believe that some people have a legit gift of healing. That and the fact that the charismatic/pentecostal movement is a major force in Christianity all over the world. I don’t think all the claims are true or that gifts of the Spirit can be manipulated or mandated as some true litmus test of real faith, but the cessationists have an awful lot to explain away.
Not exactly sure what cessationists are but I take it they wouldn’t accept that the woman who prayed for your headache called down the power of God to intercede on your behalf. But one interpretation of what happened might be that the God in her appealed to the God in you to intercede on your behalf. Of course that would raise all kinds of metaphysical questions too. But it is an interesting case. I wonder how you explain it to yourself if you do.
I believe God heals people as a special manifestation of grace sometimes. People can be vehicles of God’s grace, and though I easily accept receiving God’s grace mediated by people in other areas (like encouragement, or forgiveness, for example), healing is more unexpected, probably because it affects “the physical” realm. But I figure that is just my own bias.
There have been occurrences of the charismatic gifts in many denominations not typically viewed as charismatic groups. For example, I understand that there are millions of charismatic Roman Catholics in South America.