Brett Lindner said that he had seen the sick made healthy. “People come to the platform to be prayed for and they get healed. It’s as simple as that”, he said.

“We pray for people who are sick and God heals them. They walk out pain-free”.

Scientific studies have been done on whether prayer can heal and some have found some evidence, though it’s far from conclusive. Many scientists have criticised the tests and don’t believe prayer is effective against serious disease.

Some Christians don’t believe prayer works in such a direct way or that the Christian God intervenes by being asked - that God does favours on request, as it’s been put.

On the power of prayer in this direct way, the New York Times quoted the Reverend Raymond Lawrence of the Columbia Medical Centre who referred to “an infantile theology that God is out there ready to miraculously defy the laws of nature in answer to a prayer."

Pastor Lindner was asked why devout Christians and even popes suffered from terrible illnesses if prayer offered a way out.

He replied: “Most people don’t believe and that’s why cancer still exists.

“A lot of people have misunderstood. It’s always God’s way to heal if the belief is there.”

But he accepted that he didn’t understand the connection between prayer and healing fully: “I’m feeling my way like we all are.”

“People need to decide if they are going to believe or to be sceptical.”

He said he had seen people who had been cured of arthritis, diabetes, asthma and cancer.

He cited one woman with a cancer who came into a meeting barely able to walk: “We prayed for her and she instantly felt better”, he said.

The meetings are to be held at the Oasis Church on May 18 and 20.