02/07/2021
The SECRETS to Kathryn Kuhlman's Powerful
Healing Ministry
Kathryn Kuhlman's ministry experienced many
healing miracles. Although many were praying for the sick in the charismatic renewal, perhaps the most prominent advocate for healing was Kathryn Kuhlman(1907-1976).
During this era, she became "one of
the best-known woman revivalists in America."
When Kuhlman initially launched her ministry in the Pacific Northwest, she did not accentuate healing. Although occasionally ministering to the sick, Kuhlman was "chary about the propriety of healing services," write Robert Krapohl and
Charles Lippy. She "determined that she would
not indulge in the sensationalism that was
obvious in most healing revivals."
Her reticence about healing changed in 1946, after
some notable encounters. Kuhlman writes,
according to Allen Spraggett:
"I was preaching in Franklin, Pennsylvania.
One night my sermon was on the Holy Spirit.
I hadn't mentioned healing. But the next
night, before I began to preach, a woman
stood up and said, 'Pardon me Miss
Kuhlman, but I have a testimony to give.
While you were preaching last night I had a
strange sensation in my body, and I knew I
had been healed. I knew it. Today I went to
my doctor, and he confirmed that I was.' As
I recollect, the woman had had a tumor. And
that was the beginning, the first of miracles."
As people "began to claim deliverance from
infirmities," it shifted the trajectory of Kuhlman's
ministry. It wasn't long before "attendance at her services mushroomed, and lines began to form at the close of her services as people sought prayers
for healing," write Robert Krapohl and Charles
Lippy.
Kuhlman's Methodology
As she traveled the United States, Kuhlman
embraced a considerably different approach.
Instead of following the calculating strategies of
her peers, "Kathryn realized that simply by
honoring the Holy Spirit and by being in God's
presence, healing could be released," says Bill
Johnson.
Researcher Candy Gunther Brown writes:
"Kuhlman intentionally distanced herself from
the techniques of contemporary Voice of
Healing evangelists, whom she faulted for
showmanship and for blaming the sick when
they were not cured. Kuhlman avoided the
practices of distributing prayer cards or
forming healing lines, although she
encouraged people to combine their praying
with fasting and to express their faith by
action. She rarely prayed for individuals at
all, instead creating an atmosphere of
worship and faith in which people claimed to
receive healings through the power of Holy
Spirit."
Kuhlman admitted that she had witnessed
outrageous things in Pentecostal meetings. As
one evangelist went through the mass of afflicted
people, "the more seriously ill patients were
steered out of the healing line to the 'invalids'
tent' away from the prying eyes of the public,"
according to Jamie Buckingham. This approach
naturally rubbed her the wrong way.
Kuhlman believed the greatest miracles transpired in worship as the Holy Spirit sovereignly moved through the auditorium. The "circus sideshow"
and tent theatrics were unnecessary. She writes in I Believe in Miracles :
"I understood that night why there was no
need for a healing line; no healing virtue in a
card or a personality; no necessity for wild
exhortations 'to have faith.' That was the
beginning of this healing ministry which God
has given me; strange to some because of
the fact that hundreds have been healed just
sitting quietly in the audience, without any
demonstration whatsoever, and even without
admonition. This is because the presence of
the Holy Spirit has been in such abundance
that by His presence alone, sick bodies are
healed, even as people wait on the outside
of the building for the doors to open."
As she received fresh insight, she adjusted her
meetings to better accommodate the Holy Spirit's
movement. Kuhlman notes, according to Allen
Spraggett:
"When the power of the Spirit is there,
miracles happen. Gradually, I began to
understand The power, how it operates. I
discovered that certain things brought the
presence of the Holy Spirit. Praise, for
instance. Just praising God— not asking for
a single thing but just praising Him— always
brings the power. It's pleasing to the Lord... You do not manipulate the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is a person. He is not an 'it.'
He is God. He is to be reverenced, to be
worshiped. He is not to be presumed upon
by anyone."
Conventional methods for conducting crusades
were cast aside as Kuhlman unhesitantly
advanced in the subtle leadings of the Lord.
Testimonies in Kuhlman's Meetings:
Compelling reports of healings were abundant.
Roberts Liardon suggests that "There were
thousands upon thousands of miracles."
In one exhilarating testimonial, Kathryn writes in
Nothing Is Impossible With God that a woman
who was afflicted with cancer shared the
following:
"Miss Kuhlman was walking back and forth
across the stage. She wasn't screaming or
yelling, as I had thought she would be. She
wasn't even preaching, just talking. She
said, 'I don't want anyone to come up here
on the stage until you have been healed.'
Amazing, I thought to myself. I had pictured
her slapping people on the forehead,
vibrating and shaking, screaming commands
for the Lord to heal some poor wretch. It
wasn't that way, but people started coming
forward, testifying that they had been healed
while they were sitting in their seats."
In the midst of the exuberant testimonies and
worship, something amazing transpired. She
writes:
"Something else happened. I discovered I
couldn't move my arms or legs. More
surprising still, it didn't bother me to sit
there paralyzed. In fact, it was altogether a
very wonderful feeling. Mom later told me
that Miss Kuhlman said someone was being
healed of cancer, but I didn't hear it. As a
matter of fact, I didn't hear much of
anything during this time. When the
wonderful feeling passed, a new feeling, a
conviction, took its place—a deep conviction
that I no longer had cancer."
A short time later, she went to the doctor, and he told her that the biopsy was entirely negative.
They found no malignancy whatsoever. She writes that she questioned the doctor, saying, "I thought the first biopsy showed total malignancy." He
shrugged. "It did, but when you got in there,
everything was fine. I don't think you're going to
have any trouble at all.'"
There were remarkable accounts like this
transpiring every time that Kuhlman held a
crusade. Individuals were getting out wheelchairs,
and lives were being restored. Providing a
fascinating summary, Roberts Liardon writes:
"On one occasion, a five-year-old boy,
crippled from birth, walked to Kathryn's
platform without assistance. On another, a
woman, who had been crippled and confined
to a wheelchair for twelve years walked to
the platform without aid from her husband. A
man from Philadelphia, who had received a
pacemaker eight months earlier, felt intense
pain in his chest after Kathryn laid hands
upon him. Returning home, he found the
scar gone from his chest where the
pacemaker had been implanted, and he
couldn't tell if the pacemaker was
functioning. Later, when the doctor took x-
rays, he discovered the pacemaker was
gone, and the man's heart healed. It was
common for tumors to dissolve, cancers to
fall off, the blind to see and the deaf to hear.
Migraine headaches were healed instantly.
Even teeth were divinely filled. It would be
impossible to list the miracles that the
ministry of Kathryn Kuhlman witnessed! God
alone knows."
Kathryn Kuhlman, arguably became the most
influential figure of the charismatic renewal,
transforming a whole generation's understanding
of healing and crusade evangelism.
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH GOD'S GIFT?
