Healing is big business. Sickness is pretty much universal, and therefore the need for healing is universal. Sick people may be in a desperate situation and thus willing to pay any price to be healed. This sets up an inherent conflict of interest where the seller is tempted to maximize their profit while the buyer just wants to get well and may be forced or tricked into spending everything they have and still not be healed (Luke 8:43).

⁴³And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.

This article explains the different business models in the healing industry, offers a theological response to those business models, and gives biblical guidance on how to choose one to heal your injury.

Like any business model, healing can be delivered as a product, a service, or a combination of both. A product implies a one-time transaction, whereas a service implies an ongoing business relationship. Those products and services can range from the completely free to the extremely expensive.

Healing as a Product

Healing products may be consumable (e.g. vitamins) or durable (e.g. exercise equipment), tangible (e.g. drugs) or intangible (e.g. an online training video).

A gift is a product given without remuneration. The source of the gift is the giver, and the destination of the gift is the receiver. Gifts may be beyond price (e.g. salvation), or they may be worthless or even harmful to accept (e.g. false hope). The keyword in deciding whether to accept a gift is suitability—is the gift suitable for the injury you are trying to heal? This question implies that you have to use some kind of diagnostic service before accepting a gift if it is to have any chance of healing your injury. If you skip the diagnostic step, then it is quite likely that the healing product will not heal your injury, regardless of how much it costs.

A commodity is a product that is exchanged for money. The source of the commodity is the seller, and the destination of the commodity is the buyer. Sellers are either motivated to maximize their profits, provide healing to buyers, or both. The two interests conflict with each other, and are resolved differently within each seller depending on their ethics; therefore, deciding whether to buy a healing commodity not only has to pass the suitability test, but also the motive test—do you trust the seller to put your desire to be healed ahead of their desire to maximize their profit?

Products turn into services depending on who administers them. If you self-administer the product, then it becomes a self-service healing model (e.g. meditation). If a volunteer (e.g. a family member) or a professional (e.g. a nurse) administers the product, then the healing model turns into a volunteer or professional service respectively. Therefore, we can see that healing products are really a form of healing as a service. Both the diagnosis and application of products are services; you can buy all the vitamins and supplements you want, but if your body doesn’t need them (i.e. a faulty diagnostic service), or if you do not actually consume them (i.e. a faulty application service), then they are useless.

The danger with healing commodities is that the seller may convince you to purchase their product without diagnosing your root issue (suitability), or convince you to self-diagnose your injury in a way that makes you believe that their product will heal your injury (motive). Gifts avoid the motive problem as no money changes hands, but they compete with commodity sellers in that they reduce demand for those paid commodities; therefore, sellers may try to convince you that their product is more suitable than a gift because it costs more money. That’s not always true, because the suitability of a gift depends on the accuracy of the diagnosis and the appropriateness of the product, not the price of the product. The price may have more to do with the seller’s desired profit margin than whether it is suitable for you.

The solution then of whether you should acquire a healing product is to treat it as part of a larger healing method (see overview) with the healing product acting as the healing tool. Healing methods fail not only due to a deficiency of the healing product, but also due to the lack of diagnostic and application services that surround that product (suitability), as well as the lack of unblocker and stabilizer tools as defined in the Healing Methods Overview.

Healing as a Service

All healing methods delivered as a service have a provider and a consumer.

When they are the same person, then it’s a self-service healing model. This is quite common in the health business model where you self-diagnose your problem using the information available to you, most often provided by the seller, and then self-administer the product. In this information age where the problem is no longer the lack of information, but the overflow of questionable information, the success of a self-service model depends on discernment and perseverance. Human knowledge is both limited in extent (1 Cor 3:18–20)

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” ²⁰and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”

and corrupted by sin (Rom 1:18–22

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools

; Col 2:8),

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

so you cannot rely on your own ability to research and discern truth for yourself (1 Cor 2:14),

¹⁴The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

especially as there is so much misinformation out there from sellers with mixed motives. Instead, biblical discernment relies on God (Prov 1:7

⁷The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

; Prov 3:5–7

⁵Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ⁶In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. ⁷Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.

; Jas 1:5)

⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

to lead you in the right way (Matt 7:24

²⁴“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

; Rom 8:14

¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

; Phil 1:9–10)

⁹And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, ¹⁰so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ

through God’s self-revelation (Isa 40:13

¹³Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel?

; Col 1:15)

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

rather than through your self-study.

How to Choose a Healing Product or Service

In this way, God diagnoses your injury either through direct revelation or through the diagnostic service provider of His choice—just ask Him.

God is creative—He can use people, angels, circumstances, the Bible, or any other communication medium or agent He chooses. The form of the message and its messenger matter less than your choice to rely on God rather than yourself to get a correct diagnosis. The Bible calls this “walking by faith” (2 Cor 5:7).

⁷for we walk by faith, not by sight.

However, the devil opposes your healing (John 10:10)

¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

and will attempt to deceive you to lead you astray (John 8:44).

⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

So, you need to hear from God and verify that it is His voice to ensure that the diagnosis is from Him rather than yourself or a deceiving voice.

Once you have a diagnosis, you need to choose a healing product or service to heal your injury. Simply ask God which healing method He wants to use—He uses both products (John 9:6)

⁶Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud

and services (Mark 9:25–27).

²⁵And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” ²⁶And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” ²⁷But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

If God says “product”, then ask Him which product you should use and then use it. If He says, “service”, then ask Him which service provider you should use. It could be yourself, a volunteer, a professional, or even God Himself, as God uses “all of the above”. If your root issue is a spiritual one, then you will need someone to intercede for you like a priest or a minister. Usually these spiritual services are free or paid by donation. If your root issue is a physical one, then you usually need to go to a paid professional like a doctor.

In either of these cases, you are dealing with a third party and are therefore no longer using using a self-service healing model by definition. Even if the healing service provider is a professional, you should always check their advice with God as no human is infallible.

The healing service provider will offer one or more treatment plans. Ask God if you should take any of them, and if not, find a second opinion. If He endorses a treatment plan, then persevere in the path He has set for you. Walking by faith may mean taking the easy and conventional path of healing, or it may mean taking an unorthodox path where people ridicule you for your suffering (Job 30:1).

¹“But now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

As long as you know that God has directed your path, persevere until He has completed His purposes in you so that you are “lacking in nothing” (Jas 1:2–4).

²Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

In this way, you have followed God through all the steps of choosing a healing model, and you can rest assured that whatever the outcome, you will have glorified God by walking by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7).

⁷for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Volunteer Versus Professional Healing Services

So we can see that God can use third party healers to heal you, or He might decide to heal you supernaturally, or both. If He directs you to a healing service provider, then you have to decide between accessing a volunteer or a professional. The difference between the two is of course whether you pay for their service. The same concerns about suitability and motive for healing products also apply to healing services, although less so. Healing service providers invest their personal time and expertise to diagnose your injury and/or apply the healing procedure for you, so it is in their interest to ensure the suitability of that procedure. However, professional healers may be tempted to apply a procedure that you do not need due to their profit motive.

Anyone can volunteer to provide or consume healing services, so volunteer healing services follow free market principles, except that the demand for a free service typically far outstrips the supply thereof; thus, the keyword in accessing volunteer services is availability. Availability depends on the willingness of a volunteer to perform healing services for those who cannot or will not pay at the time of the transaction. Instead, they may bear the cost of performing the service themselves, or a third party, called a donor, may provide the resources for the volunteer service provider to stay in business. Typically, donors provide the money for free healing service, while volunteers provide the labor. Consumers of the free healing service may become donors or volunteers as a form of gratitude for receiving the free healing service; however, they are not required to give a return gift, especially before or at the point of the transaction, or else the gift of service becomes a transaction.

Professional services on the other hand, attempt to raise and standardize service quality among its practitioners through educational and licensing requirements in order to solve the suitability problem, and establish ethical standards with a quasi-legal disciplinary process to address the motive problem. All of this is costly to set up and maintain, so they are motivated to protect their brand by disallowing others from using their brand unless they meet their licensing qualifications. For example, it is illegal to call yourself a doctor in most jurisdictions unless you meet those licensing requirements. Professional service providers are thus motivated to follow monopolistic practices such as preventing other professional and volunteer service providers from accessing public funding by failing them against the professional standards that they set up: a type of barrier to entry to protect their market share.

Summary

Healing can be delivered as different types of products and services as summarized by the following diagram:

As you move to the right of the diagram, the healing providers become more and more specialized. Anyone can give a gift, but not everyone can sell a healing product. Similarly, most people can provide self-service healing, but fewer can provide volunteer healing services. Fewer still are qualified to provide professional healing services, and the corresponding cost of accessing such specialized services goes up accordingly. Also, it is best to view these healing models as a continuum rather than discrete categories. For example, the Catholic priesthood is a professional healing service with very high qualifications, but they have taken a vow of poverty and therefore show attributes of a volunteer service. Similarly, many doctors and even whole hospitals offer pro bono services, and so their business model falls somewhere between the volunteer and professional delivery model continuum.

Free products and services avoid the mixed motive problem, but paid ones may be more suitable and available because they can afford more specialized diagnostic and healing tools. Self-service healing is a viable model if you have the discernment and perseverance to diagnose the root problem and apply a healing product consistently.

Theological Reflection on Whether Healing Should Be Free

All of these healing business models are viable and well-established, and you can find biblical examples of both free (Acts 2:46

⁴⁶And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts

; Acts 3:6–8)

⁶But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” ⁷And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. ⁸And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

and paid (1 Tim 5:18

¹⁸For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

; Col 4:14)

¹⁴Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas.

healing models. Since none of these healing models are sinful in and of themselves, it would seem that it is at least allowable to charge for healing, provided that the seller is not using fraud or deception to take advantage of the buyer (Prov 10:9).

⁹Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.

However, two exceptions come to mind:

The first is when a healing product or service is absolutely necessary for sustaining life, but is priced out of reach to make a larger profit. People are generally OK when a luxury product is available only to the rich, but are less so when that product is a life-saving drug. Can you say that you “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31)

³¹The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

when the reason you let a person die is to maximize your profit? If the price of the product or service is due to the high manufacturing or delivery costs, then a donation model where rich people subsidize the cost of the product would be a biblical act of compassion that mirrors what God has done for us (Isa 30:18

¹⁸Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

; John 3:16),

¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

essentially converting a paid healing model into a free one to save life.

The second exception to charging for healing is when you are using or at least claiming the power of God to heal. Simon the magician offered to pay money for the ability to give others the Holy Spirit and Peter rebuked him for attempting to acquire God’s gift with money (Acts 8:18–20).

¹⁸Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!

To charge for divine healing is to convert the universal gift of salvation into a personal profit-making machine. You take the glory due to God and focus it on selfish purposes. Christian infractions of this principle range from the obvious, “Sow into my ministry and God will bless you” (it’s not OK to sell access to God’s power), to the borderline, “Buy my music and it will heal you” (does the healing power come from the music [OK to sell], or God [not OK to sell]?), to the probably OK, “Pay for your room and board to attend a healing retreat” (you’re paying for lodging, not God’s power). These disputable matters are a matter of conscience (Rom 14:1–4),

¹As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. ²One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ⁴Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

both for the healing provider as well as the healing consumer, as “each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom 14:12).

¹²So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

The operating principle in these matters is to be blameless before God and men (Acts 24:16),

¹⁶So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.

which is unique and contextual to every person and situation, and what may be OK for one person may not be OK for another.

Our Position on Paid Versus Free Healing

As for healingmodels.org, where we have landed in this debate is summed up by our mission statement, “healing for everyone”. We believe, practice, and teach that supernatural healing is available for everyone, and potentially through everyone who believes (Mark 16:16–18)

¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every healing method offered on this site is based on the gospel unless we are reviewing a third-party method. Since we received the gospel for free, we consider it a matter of conscience to also give it away for free, whether it is the free product of knowledge and training offered on this website, or the volunteer counseling services we provide through our personal ministries apart from this website.

Our philosophy governs how we name our healing methods and tools; we use descriptive names rather than branded ones because this policy allows you to integrate and adapt these techniques to your ministry and potentially brand them and sell them as your own. You may do so with our encouragement and blessing; we are here to build up the wider Church and your ministry, not to build up our own.

We pay for all expenses ourselves to be a burden on no one and to be completely blameless in matters of money (1 Thess 2:9–10).

⁹For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. ¹⁰You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.

We do not object to the principle of receiving online donations, but have decided against it for now as God has supplied all our needs (Phil 4:19)

¹⁹And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

and we are content with what we have (Phil 4:11–12).

¹¹Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹²I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

We do not impose this business model on anyone, nor claim that it is superior to others, nor claim that God will never lead us to change it in the future, especially if He eventually leads us to financially support other ministries through this website; however, in our call to provide “healing for everyone”, we believe that our knowledge and training should also be “free for everyone”, and we intend them to remain free for the foreseeable future so that there is no barrier to the preaching of the gospel (1 Cor 9:12).

¹²If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

Take-aways

Further Reading

Every healing model, whether product or service, paid or free, will work only if it follows the principles of the Healing Methods Overview. Choosing which of the many healing models requires biblical discernment, which is to hear from God and verify that it is His voice. You may need to Unblock Your Spiritual Senses first before being able to do that. Who Is Involved in Healing is the follow-on article to this one, analyzing the types of professional healing services in terms of their roles and responsibilities.

How I Cured Myself of Porn is a case study of a successful self-service approach to healing an addiction, while Hurting Too Much to Hear God gives the opposite case where a team of volunteers under the guidance of a professional required years of work to bring the person to full healing.