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The Healing Rooms - A Warning:
September 2011

Founded on spiritual error:
The “International Association of Healing Rooms,” (I.A.H.R), was set up in 1999 by Cal Pierce who believes his organisation is drawing upon the healing anointing of former healing revivalist John G. Lake, (1870 – 1935). Thousands of these “Healing Rooms” have now been set up all over the world, with over 60 in the UK alone and over 2000 in India. Anyone from any denomination can set up an associated Healing Room and then be advertised on Pierces’ website so long as the directors, (managers), of that room submit to his organisation, follow his model for ministering to others and undergo his training program, . However the very foundation of this organisation is spiritually unsound and can open those directors to an alternative New Age/occult anointing. This counterfeit anointing can then be passed on, either by association or by the laying on of hands, to the rest of that Healing Rooms team of volunteers, the church it is based at and to those who go there for prayer. Although Pierce is well intentioned I believe this is a major strategy from the enemy to impart a counterfeit/false anointing into the church and infiltrate the hearts of many believers with another spirit.

Trusting in the location of Lakes Rooms: Pierce intended to locate his first Healing Room at the site of the original “Healing Room” set up by Lake in the belief that this would enable him to tap into Lakes healing power; which clearly isn’t scriptural. We receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit directly from God and cannot bypass this or gain anointing any other way. Although Pierce got the location of Lakes original Rooms wrong the very attitude of attempting to seek healing ability like this will have opened him and his organisation to the occult realm. Looking to man and past ministries in this way, particularly to the deceased, and to locations instead of seeking and trusting in God is also a form of idolatry. This practice and attitude was not seen in the lives of any of New Testament believers. No one in the Old Testament ever sought the anointing of the Holy Spirit in this way either. This is, however, a practice that parallels that engaged in by unbelievers involved in the occult. Peirce has made a serious spiritual error here that will have opened him and his entire network to an occult spirit.

Relying on Lakes Grave: in 1999 Pierce first gathered together 100 intercessors in an attempt to dig what he called Lakes “healing well”. He then continued to visit, and some say lie down on, the site of John G Lake’s grave once a month for over a year. Here is a link to a video where another “Christian” leader, (the increasingly popular John Crowder), believes, similarly, that he is receiving the anointing from the grave of the former healing revivalist Alexander Dowie who was Lakes mentor, (those not familiar with Crowder strange behaviour may believe he is joking here but this how he acts when the spirit that he now receives comes upon him). The Lord, however, gives the anointing of His Holy Spirit to whomever He sees fit. This is dependent on a person’s calling, their relationship with God, and very often on how submitted and sanctified they are. It is dependent on God’s will not the will of man as we see here. There is no method or technique that we can use to acquire the anointing of God in this way. Furthermore should never treat the Holy Spirit as if God Himself were a common occult spirit that can be summoned up by us in this way as people do within New Age/occult/paganism. This is a very serious sin and a spiritual error that is almost bound to open such a person to a deceptive occult anointing. Spiritual phenomena will surely follow this but it will not be coming from Gods Spirit.

Occult power to heal: We know that unbelievers involved in the occult can tap into spiritual power to heal, e.g. in occult Reiki healing which is so popular amongst unbelievers today. We therefore need to test the spirit behind healings just as much as we do prophecies. This is particularly important if we are heading into the end times, when “false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect,” (Matt 24; 24), and when “the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception,” (2 Thess 2: 9), will abound. These and other scriptures inform us that many Christians will be deceived by displays occult power which will surely include the power to heal since this is what people seek after the most. We know from the book of Exodus that Pharaohs magicians were able to replicate many of the great miracles of Moses through occult power, e.g. Ex 7; 22 and today the same powers often counterfeit moves of Gods Spirit to lead undiscerning Christians astray. The devil is more than willing to heal Christians if it results in thousands of other believers following after and receiving a false occult anointing. Such an occult anointing often comes through deceived believers. This is the main way in which Satan can reach a Christian audience with an occult anointing to heal since few Christians will trust unbelievers moving more openly in the occult.

A mixture: So we cannot therefore assume that the healings said to be taking place at the Healing Rooms are necessarily of God. I would expect that the majority aren’t although there could be a mixture with some being from God in answer to people’s genuine faith in Christ. The Healing Rooms is not a good atmosphere to be operating from though and it would be safer to seek healing elsewhere. Also, as with Todd Bentley’s claims in 2008, there does not appear to any verification from doctors backing up the vast healing claims being made by Cal Pierce on his website. There is likely to be a lot of exaggeration and wishful thinking going on as in 2008. I also believe that if a believer is healed through occult power they will pay a heavy price for this in their soul later on. Usually when the lights of publicity have gone and their testimony is of no further use to the devil in promoting a counterfeit ministry the illness will then return or manifest in another way within them. I met someone, for example, who was healed of depression by hypnotherapy but was left in a strange and permanent spaced out state which she said was worse than the original depression.

The false teaching’s of John. G. Lake: Cal Pierce is also dedicated to promoting the teachings John. G. Lake. This is quite serious because after Lake ventured into the area of teaching ministry he started promoting some of the most dangerous types of deception. We haven’t got time to go into this in much detail here but this is quite obviously the case. There were many false teaching promoted by Lake which you will be able to discover online yourself, (link to follow up from). I just want to deal with one of these here; Lakes belief that the dead could minister to believers. This is completely unscriptural and part of spiritualism not biblical Christianity. On one occasion a woman who claimed to have come to Lake for prayer started channelling a spirit through to him, just as mediums do in the occult, (she was possibly a medium sent to deliberately deceive him). This spirit spoke through her and sounded just like Lakes deceased wife which Lake then accepted as her without question. Think of it - Lake believed his deceased wife was speaking to him through the body of a complete stranger. This suggests to me that Lake probably never understood the bibles teaching on such things. There are also indications that Lake didn’t understand the demonic nature of false religions or eastern mysticism. No matter how genuine and powerful Lakes healing ministry may have been, (some dispute even this), his belief in spiritualism was definitely part of the occult. There is no doubt that Lake became a false teacher. This may be one of the reasons why Christian ministers who believe in spiritualism today are so keen to promote Lakes ministry and teachings. By looking back to a well known ministry like Lakes it gives their views an appearance and validity that they cannot gain by looking to scripture. It is very likely, almost inevitable, that Cal Peirce believes in such spiritualism himself and is keen to promote this to the wider body of Christ as part of Lakes teachings.

Passing these ideas onto I.A.H.R’s directors: Since it is one of Cal Pierce’s aims to pass Lake’s teachings on to the rest of the body of Christ we can assume that they must form part of his I.A.H.R’s courses for new directors of Healing Room’s. This is surely reflected in Pierces insistence that these directors all accept Pierces own ministry model. It would be very surprising if this were not the case. Many of these falsehoods must then be getting passed on by these directors to their Healing Rooms voluntary staff, the church where that particular healing Room is based, and to many of those who go there for prayer. We can see from this how insidious this entire movement is in spreading false teaching as well as a counterfeit anointing to the rest of the body of Christ.

The Bill Johnson link: Cal pierce was originally an elder and board member of Bill Johnsons Bethel church which has its own Healing Room linked to Pieces Organisation today. Bill Johnson will also be the leading speaker at the Healing Rooms “Spiritual Hunger Conference,” to be held this September, 2011. These two ministers are clearly linked very closely together and appear to have a shared agenda in promoting these things. Both men look to deceased healing evangelists of the last century in order to acquire an anointing to heal today. In this video interview Johnson claims that “one of the things that the Lord has really made clear to us is that if we will honour those who have walked faithfully before the Lord in the past then in that honour he will give us access to their anointing.” As Johnson is saying this pictures of various deceased healing revivalists are shown on the screen including one of John. G. Lake. This approach to seeking a healing anointing is deceptively New Age and will have opened them to the occult realms. In the another video, (link), Johnson also seems as keen to spread their beliefs and model as Cal Pierce is, and states “lets plant it through the music we write, lets plant it through the conferences we do...our mandate is to... train and release people.” Pierce and Johnson appear to be operating in unity here in an evangelistic fashion to promote these unbiblical teachings and practices.

Part of a “Christian” spiritualism movement: Both of these men have links with other major ministries that are also promoting the same type of unbiblical New Age spirituality. I have looked at these links in an adjoining article entitled Spiritualism in the church”. It appears this is all part of a major movement of spiritualism being sent by the devil to infiltrate parts of the church today, particularly the church of the western world and India.

A Mixture dominated by the occult: As mentioned there is almost always a mixture of deception and the Holy Spirit in any Christian movement. Deception is likely to dominate the “Healing Rooms” Movement however as its very foundation and concept is demonic. I would be very surprised if any genuine healing ministry that joined forces to serve within this organisation didn’t also start coming under the occult influence it contains. If you are interested in setting up some sort of healing room of your own why not do so independently of this Organisation so that there is then no chance of this occult anointing being passed onto you and those you pray for.

A case study of the possible effects: A friend of mine experienced the following even though he went cautiously and prayerfully to a Healing Room having been warned about the dangers beforehand. This Room was based at a fairly reliable Christian Fellowship which is why he thought it would be OK. The first time he went for prayer he didn’t notice any ill effects so he went back again. The second time the director of that Room prayed for him and he is certain that another spirit was then passed onto him. This left him feeling as though a heavy veil had been placed over him, which left him so apathetic and heavy hearted in God that he could hardly motivate himself to pray over the following week. This oppression was so strong and entrenched within him that even though he has experience of deliverance ministry he could not break free of this on his own. After prayer with someone else, this oppression finally lifted. I personally believe that this is the type of effect that the Healing Rooms is passing on to believers as a specific demonic strategy; part of a softening up process toward unwitting believers before a coming great wave of deception invades much of the church of the western world.

Genuine healing ministries: If you want healing don’t take the risk of going to one of Cal Pierces Healing Rooms no matter what church they are based at, or how well intentioned those praying may be. The risk is too great; the odds are stacked against you, and the consequences to ones faith in the longer term potentially disastrous. There is even a danger of being healed by an occult spirit which will then gain influence over you, could reverse the healing effect any time it wished, result in you becoming even more afflicted later on or filled with confusion and unbelief about your faith. Instead why not go for prayer from ministers that are not trained by Cal Pierce’s organisation. If you witness to any of this article please warn others about this danger as many appear to be greatly underestimating this.

S.Dobbs, Sept 2011.
 
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