Wilhelm Loehe and Healing

Peder Olsen: Healing Through Prayer
(Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1962), pp.18-19.

Wilhelm Loehe, the well-known pastor and founder and director of the Deaconess Home at Neuendettelsau, had the special gift of healing the sick through the prayer of faith. Many were healed through his prayers, and his parishioners were used to calling him before the physician in case of illness.

 Loehe had the conviction that James 5:14-15 gave a special promise in connection with the prayers of the elders for the sick. The congregation regularly requested this intercession and many were healed. Many of these cases were not well known, for Loehe seldom spoke about them.

 But he often spoke about the matter itself, "In order that the church might carry out its task in the world, the Lord has given it the gifts of the Spirit in the same way as Elijah gave Elisha his mantle. The special gifts of grace were given to the church on Pentecost. Have these gifts ceased to exist? No, it is only unbelief which holds this view. The Spirit is still present, and where the Spirit is there his gifts are also. It is possible to strive for these gifts, especially through prayer."

 It was not only the bodily ill but also those in spiritual conflicts and those with mental disorders and the possessed, who were often healed through Loehe’s prayer. In some few cases he told the evil spirit to go out, and as a rule he treated the possessed and mentally ill through pastoral counsel and care.

 As the reputation of Loehe as a curer of souls spread, people from everywhere came to Neuendettelsau to obtain his help. It has been said that among recent Protestant clergymen there are none who have attained to the stature of Loehe as a curer of souls.