During my time in the Faith movement in Sweden, I never saw any very definite healing. In some situations I joined in prayer for people who were in pain and, during prayer, the pain disappeared. This may have been caused by a supernatural intervention of God, but it could not categorically be termed a miracle, because it is possible for the same effect to occur because of psychological mechanisms. Medical research actually shows that about 30% of patients feel better when they receive pills that only contain sugar, provided they believe it is effective medicine.
It would be rather difficult to make a similar experiment regarding prayer for healing. Therefore, one ought, for credibility’s sake, to be cautious about claiming that such and such numbers were healed. It might be better to reserve the word ‘miracle’ for cases where ordinary medical healing is impossible.
Plunging headlong into the activities of the movement helped me to stop thinking about my family’s worried faces. I was having fantastic experiences during camps and crusades, and this convinced me that I was on the right track.
In Poland, and later also in India, I saw crowds of people responding to the “altar-calls” to be saved. I also saw a lame woman get up and walk during one service. This appeared to be like a genuine miracle. These were things I had wanted to experience ever since I became a Christian.
The more typical points of the Faith theology were somewhat in the background when preaching to Hindus and Muslims in India. In this setting a more classical Gospel message was being preached about the death and resurrection of Jesus, and there was an emphasis on repentance. Many Hindus and Muslims followed the appeal to believe in Jesus, at least at that point in time.
The ministry there consisted of large public meetings as well as seminars for Christian leaders. The preaching at the public meetings was very similar to traditional Christian preaching. The only clear difference was that physical healing was promised to all. But the seminars for leaders were more influenced by Hagin’s teachings, and his literature was being spread in the local language.
We preached Christ with great confidence to those who were unreached by the Gospel, and we asked God to perform miracles. Actually, I have never seen any Christian work that was more like the work described in the Acts of the Apostles — at least outwardly.
In our group there was a sincere, honest interest in reaching out with the true Gospel about Jesus, and this longing was stronger than anything I had known among other Christians. I lost my restlessness and anxiety more and more, especially when I was active. I wanted to continue in this work and began to be content fitting into this lifestyle.
The minister I had travelled with to India was less hard-line in his commitment to the Faith movement than many others, and through this contact I was even encouraged to resume my medical studies instead of continuing in a part-time job in order to devote myself to the movement.
I moved back to my university town where I was also helping to start a new church. We felt like pioneers who were establishing a stronghold for spreading the Gospel. While relations with people outside our group were poor, they were much better inside it. We were a little clique battling together as well as encouraging one another and having a lot of fun together. We visited one another and met socially as well as being together at public meetings and evangelism, and there was a strong bond of loving and caring for one another.
There were some tensions within the group at times, but we valued fellowship and loyalty very highly. However, the essential condition for this close fellowship was that one was being positive towards the movement. Unless this condition was fulfilled, the fellowship did not function.
Our group was being knitted together by the outside opposition and by our common zeal. We frequently met in each other’s homes for prayer and singing. Now and then, we gathered for witnessing to young people in the centre of town. To the best of our ability, we witnessed about Jesus. On a number of occasions we had some good discussions with local young people.
When people were being saved in our services, it could at times seem a little mechanical, as if they were repeating a formula. Afterwards, I have sometimes wondered whether those people really were saved in the Biblical sense of the word. However, one particular young man’s commitment to Christ touched my heart. He had committed a rather serious crime, young as he was, and had suffered under a terrible burden of guilt and shame. His greatest relief was that his crime had been forgiven by God, and though he did not understand much about the rest of the Faith teachings, he really understood this. Until this day, I cannot see it as anything else but the work of the Holy Spirit, giving this young man an understanding of the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ.
