When visiting England, Andrew Murray was led to consider the question of divine healing in a greater way due to an inability to speak that had lingered for more than two years.
"You may think that surely the prayer of faith is a matter of a moment, just like the laying on of hands or the anointing with oil of which James speaks. Quite true. Yet in most cases, time is needed in order to learn what God’s Word actually promises and to … understand what the cause and purpose of the disease really are, and what are the conditions and the meaning of healing. Remaining in such a home with all its surroundings helps to make this matter plain and to strengthen faith."
After speaking with a Pastor Stockmayer in Switzerland, Murray entered Bethshan, a home operated by William Boardman in London. There he remained for three weeks, as he sought to understand and follow God’s teaching on healing.
Believing his prolonged stayed needed explanation, he wrote the following to his congregation:
“I imagine you may wonder why it was necessary to enter a special place and remain there for so long. You may think that surely the prayer of faith is a matter of a moment, just like the laying on of hands or the anointing with oil of which James speaks. Quite true. Yet in most cases, time is needed in order to learn what God’s Word actually promises and to … understand what the cause and purpose of the disease really are, and what are the conditions and the meaning of healing. Remaining in such a home with all its surroundings helps to make this matter plain and to strengthen faith… Morning by morning sixteen or eighteen of us who sought healing gathered around the Word of God and were instructed as to what still remained in us to prevent us from appropriating the promise. We were taught what there was in Scripture to encourage us to faith and complete surrender. I cannot remember that I ever listened to expositions of the Word of God in which greater simplicity and a more glorious spirit of faith were revealed, combined with heart-searching application of God’s demand to surrender everything to Him.” (Choy, L. Andrew Murray’s authorized biography. Fort Washington: CLC Publications, 2004)
The experience changed Murray’s understanding of prayer for healing. He wrote the following:
“When I arrived my mind was chiefly set on the healing: faith was a secondary consideration, whch was to be employed simply as a means of healing. But I soon discovered that God’s first purpose was to develop faith, and the healing was a secondary question. God’s purpose with us, as with Abraham, is, first of all, to make us true believers. Disease and cure, to His mind, derive their importance from the fact that they can awaken in us a stronger faith. Faith again is of value in His eyes, not merely as a means by which we obtain a blessing, but especially on the pathway to a fuller fellowship wtih Himself and a fuller dependence upon His power.”
Dr. Boardman told him, “Faith healing has a much higher aim than the mere deliverance of the body from certain maladies: it points out the raod of holiness and full consecration which God would have us follow.”
Having spent several weeks seeking to prepare his own heart, God’s transformative power was sought, and Andrew Murray was completely healed. He was never troubled with this problem again. He also believed in the power of prayer, and added a healing ministry to his other efforts.