HEROES OF THE FAITH: John G. Lake: A Life Marked by Miracles—From His Own Healing to a Ministry of Power

Some men talk about healing. Others live it. John G. Lake was a man who lived the reality of divine healing, not only in his ministry but in his own body. His journey from suffering to supernatural health was the foundation of his radical faith, and it led him to become one of the most influential healing evangelists of all time.

But before the world knew him as a man of faith and miracles, he was just another person trapped in the cycle of pain, sickness, and loss.

Lake’s early life was filled with suffering. He was one of sixteen children, but eight of his siblings died before reaching adulthood. Disease was a constant presence in his home—doctors, hospitals, and funerals were simply part of life. For over thirty-two years, there was never a time when someone in his family wasn’t sick or dying.

It seemed like an inescapable fate.

The worst of it hit when Lake became an adult. He married, but soon after, his wife developed tuberculosis and a severe heart condition. She would collapse without warning, sometimes unconscious for hours. Her body had grown so weak that even the doctors gave up, telling Lake there was nothing more they could do.

Meanwhile, his brother was dying from a severe blood disease, his sister was dying from five cancerous tumors, and another sister was suffering from an unstoppable hemorrhage.

Lake had done everything he could—every treatment, every doctor, every medication. Nothing worked.

And so, like many, he had resigned himself to the idea that suffering was just part of life. Even his pastor reinforced this belief, telling him to “endure for the glory of God.” The church told him to suffer patiently, to accept sickness as part of God’s mysterious plan.

But something deep in his spirit couldn’t accept that.

He knew the Bible talked about healing. He read stories of Jesus making the sick whole. He saw the promises of God. And he began to wonder:

“If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), then why do we accept sickness as if God changed?”

Then one day, everything shifted.

Lake heard about a healing home in Chicago, led by John Alexander Dowie, where people were being miraculously healed through prayer. He had one last hope—and so, desperate for a breakthrough, he took his dying brother to be prayed for.

What happened next was undeniable.

As hands were laid on him in Jesus’ name, the power of God surged through his brother’s body. The illness instantly left. The bleeding stopped completely. And that same night, the man who had once been bedridden walked four miles home—completely healed.

The shock and joy were overwhelming.

If God could do it for his brother, could He do it again?

Next, Lake took his sister with cancer to receive prayer. She had five cancerous tumors ravaging her body, and after multiple failed surgeries, doctors had told her there was no hope.

But when she was prayed for, something supernatural happened.

The tumors turned black and fell off. The wounds began to close. And within days, her breast completely regenerated.

Then came his other sister with the hemorrhage. She had lost so much blood that she had already slipped into unconsciousness, and death seemed inevitable.

Lake refused to let go. He knelt beside her bed and cried out to God with everything in him. He rebuked the spirit of death in Jesus’ name, and as he prayed, life returned to her body. Her pulse came back. The hemorrhaging stopped. Within five days, she was up and walking.

One by one, sickness was losing its grip on his family.

But there was still one more person who needed a miracle—his wife.

For years, she had suffered from heart failure and tuberculosis, her body slowly wasting away. Doctors had tried everything. There were no more solutions. Ministers told him to accept her death as “God’s will.”

But this time, Lake knew better.

As he wrestled with God, his eyes landed on Acts 10:38:

“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.”

Then came Luke 13:16, where Jesus said:

“Ought not this woman… whom SATAN hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond?”

A fire ignited in Lake’s spirit. Sickness wasn’t from God—it was oppression from the devil!

And if Jesus already paid for healing, then sickness had no right to hold his wife in bondage.

He set a time for prayer and called believers to stand in agreement.

At 9:30 AM, he laid hands on her deathbed and rebuked the sickness in Jesus’ name.

Power surged through her body.

Her paralysis vanished. Her heart returned to normal. The tuberculosis was completely gone.

She sat up in bed and shouted in a strong, clear voice, “Praise God, I am healed!” She threw off the covers, stood up, and began to walk around the room completely well.

The news spread like wildfire. Doctors were stunned. People traveled for miles to see the miracle for themselves.

And then the calls for prayer began.

People showed up at his home, asking him to pray for them. One by one, they were healed.

Lake had no choice but to answer the call.

This was the moment his life changed forever.

Though Lake had seen his family healed, his own body was still plagued by crippling rheumatism. His legs were twisted and deformed, and the church told him to accept it.

“Brother,” they said, “you are glorifying God with your suffering. Be patient. Endure it.”

For a while, he listened.

But then something snapped inside him.

“God doesn’t want a man with crooked legs anymore than He wants a man with a crooked soul,” he later wrote.

Determined, he traveled to Chicago to visit John Alexander Dowie, a well-known healing minister.

At Dowie’s Divine Healing Home, an old grey-haired man laid hands on him, and the power of God surged through his body.

Instantly, his legs straightened. He stood up and walked out completely healed.

From that moment on, he never looked back.

After seeing his family healed, his body restored, and others miraculously touched, John G. Lake dedicated the rest of his life to healing ministry.

He went on to South Africa, where he saw over 100,000 confirmed healings. His Spokane Healing Rooms recorded over 100,000 medically verified miracles in just five years.

And during the bubonic plague outbreak, he famously proved the power of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2)—as germs died on contact with his skin.

John G. Lake’s life was a testimony that healing is not just a doctrine—it is the reality of the Kingdom of God.

And if it worked for him, it will work for you.

Reading John G. Lake’s story was one of the most pivotal moments in my faith.

His unwavering belief in the power of God’s Word and his fearless pursuit of divine healing inspired me to contend for my own healing—and I received it.

His life is a testimony that the miraculous power of God is still available today.

John G. Lake remains one of my greatest heroes of faith, a man who not only talked about healing but demonstrated it with his life. His legacy continues to stir my faith, reminding me that God is just as willing to heal today as He was in Lake’s time.

The church told Lake that the days of miracles were over.

He proved them wrong.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

God is still healing today.

The question is—will you believe it?

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1. John G. Lake, The Collected Works of John G. Lake, edited by Roberts Liardon (Whitaker House, 2005).
2. John G. Lake, Heavenly Authority (public domain writings compiled from various sermons and publications).
3. Liardon, Roberts. John G. Lake: The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings. Whitaker House, 2005.