THE PERCEPTION OF GASHUA CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY ON DIVINE HEALING

Abstract

Divine healing is one of the controversial belief systems in Christianity. Several studies have examined the concept of divine healing but neglected the individual perceptions of the Christians in the northern part of Nigeria on the subject matter. This study, therefore investigated the perceptions of Gashua (Yobe State) Christian community on divine healing. The study was anchored on health belief model and theory of care-seeking behaviour and adopted descriptive survey design. Data were collected through quantitative method. This involved questionnaire survey of 102 respondents. The questionnaires were analysed using frequency distribution. Form the analyses of the sampled respondents, 59.80% were male; 40.20% were between the age of 20 years and 29 years; 17.65%  were members of the Evangelical Church of Wining All; 39.22% were Choristers; 34.31% claimed their health were very good and 68.62% engaged in prayer and hospital as means of getting healing-Further analyses show that 67.65% were strongly aware of divine healing; 62.75% said it is healing through prayer; 29.41% strongly agree that sickness brings glory to God and benefit to the sick; 42.16% strongly agree that divine healing should be sought by Christians; 65.68% strongly agree that divine healing is more perfect, 73.53% strongly agree that divine healing is part of salvation plan of God; 41.17% agree that God uses prerogative of mercy in giving divine healing 56.86% strongly agree that sin hinders divine healing and 50.00% strongly agrees that churches have roles to play in divine healing. Practice, teaching and preaching on divine healing as well as re-orientation of Christians on divine healing were recommended in the study.