Seeking healing again (and again, and again, etc.)
Hover over the references to see the Biblical text
If Wigglesworth said this (and I know of no source for this other than the book quoted above), he was wrong. There are numerous examples of people asking Jesus for healing multiple times, and on no occasion does he deny their request on account of unbelief. The very opposite is the pattern we see.
In Matthew 9:27-31, we have the two blind men who followed Jesus, shouting, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” An almost identical scene is recounted in Matthew 20:29-34, and in Mark 10:46-52, we have Blind Bartimaeus doing the same thing.
In Matthew 15:21-28, we have the Mother of the demonized girl. The verse that tells us she was crying out, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed," uses the Greek imperfect tense, which implies an ongoing action (technically called the continuous aspect), not something done in a moment and than past. Furthermore, when Jesus did not answer her, his disciples came and "implored Him, saying, 'Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.'" This time, the present tense is employed, which also has the continuous aspect. The sequence of events (the woman crying out, Jesus not responding, and then the disciples asking Jesus to make her go away) in combination with the repeated use of the continuous aspect make it quite impossible to conclude the woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter only once and then stopped. Rather, she persisted to the point of aggravating the disciples. When Jesus finally engaged with her, the measure of her faith became apparent, and Jesus commended her saying, "Woman, you have great faith!" Clearly then, Jesus did not see asking more than once as a mark of unbelief.
There is, however, an even more noteworthy account to confirm that repeated actions to get healing to happen does not indicate a lack of faith, and in this case our example is Jesus himself: In Mark 8:22-25, Jesus lays hands on the blind man's eyes twice. The first time around, Jesus spat on and then touched the man’s eyes. After asking him if he could now see anything and getting the response, "I see people; they look like trees walking around," Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes for a second time. The man's eyes eyesight was then completely restored. Did Jesus repetition of laying hands on the man betray unbelief? No, of course not!
As well as the narrative examples, we have the parable of the friend at midnight in Luke 11:5-13 and the parable of the widow and an unjust judge in Luke 18:1-7. Far from indicating unbelief, persistence in asking for something is aligned with faith in the Gospels.
"Once, when he was ministering in a city in the United States, on the first night, before he prayed for the sick, Wigglesworth declared, 'I'll only pray for you once; to pray twice is unbelief.' A prominent businessman joined the healing line and Wigglesworth prayed for the man, informing him that he was healed. The second night, the man stepped up to the altar again to receive prayer, against the advice of the pastor of the church who knew Wigglesworth's uncompromising approach to ministry. When the evangelist came to the man, he peered at him closely and enquired, 'Didn't I pray for you last night?' The man affirmed that he had, but explained that he had not been healed. 'You are full of unbelief, get off this platform! ' barked Wigglesworth and shoved the man down the platform steps."
Wigglesworth: The Complete Story: A New Biography of the Apostle of Faith, by Julian Wilson (in Google Books here)
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If Wigglesworth said this (and I know of no source for this other than the book quoted above), he was wrong. There are numerous examples of people asking Jesus for healing multiple times, and on no occasion does he deny their request on account of unbelief. The very opposite is the pattern we see.
In Matthew 9:27-31, we have the two blind men who followed Jesus, shouting, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” An almost identical scene is recounted in Matthew 20:29-34, and in Mark 10:46-52, we have Blind Bartimaeus doing the same thing.
In Matthew 15:21-28, we have the Mother of the demonized girl. The verse that tells us she was crying out, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed," uses the Greek imperfect tense, which implies an ongoing action (technically called the continuous aspect), not something done in a moment and than past. Furthermore, when Jesus did not answer her, his disciples came and "implored Him, saying, 'Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.'" This time, the present tense is employed, which also has the continuous aspect. The sequence of events (the woman crying out, Jesus not responding, and then the disciples asking Jesus to make her go away) in combination with the repeated use of the continuous aspect make it quite impossible to conclude the woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter only once and then stopped. Rather, she persisted to the point of aggravating the disciples. When Jesus finally engaged with her, the measure of her faith became apparent, and Jesus commended her saying, "Woman, you have great faith!" Clearly then, Jesus did not see asking more than once as a mark of unbelief.
There is, however, an even more noteworthy account to confirm that repeated actions to get healing to happen does not indicate a lack of faith, and in this case our example is Jesus himself: In Mark 8:22-25, Jesus lays hands on the blind man's eyes twice. The first time around, Jesus spat on and then touched the man’s eyes. After asking him if he could now see anything and getting the response, "I see people; they look like trees walking around," Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes for a second time. The man's eyes eyesight was then completely restored. Did Jesus repetition of laying hands on the man betray unbelief? No, of course not!
As well as the narrative examples, we have the parable of the friend at midnight in Luke 11:5-13 and the parable of the widow and an unjust judge in Luke 18:1-7. Far from indicating unbelief, persistence in asking for something is aligned with faith in the Gospels.
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