Blog

How do I approach healing?

A few things to get clear first:

(A) My practice is specifically “…in Jesus’ Name”. “Faith-healing” is far too general a term. I do not consider it as one of many “Alternative Therapies”. I have nothing to do with Acupuncture, Reike, Yoga, which all – along with many other practices – are linked with non-Christian religions or philosophies. Herbalism is similarly linked, but it is apparent to me that, since God created herbs, they may be taken for our good without the attendant spirituality. (One Christian practitioner I have met online recommends the use of herbs but shuns the non-Christian spirituality associated with it). Beware trying these alternative therapies without first reading up on them and their Christian critiques.

(B) I am not anti-medicine. Every day millions of people are kept alive or find their lives more bearable through the administration of drugs and therapies practised by trained, dedicated people all over the world. And, in most cases, such practices are ‘all over the world’ because selfless, God-fearing missionaries founded hospitals and clinics, as they did also schools to promote education. I am against the misuse and over-prescribing of drugs, when eg talking therapies could be more helpful. And I do believe that when Christians seek prayer as a ‘last resort’ when all medicines have failed, they have been poorly taught in their churches. Prayer should be the ‘first resort’. I myself have experienced a heart-attack, a serious bowel haemorrhage and two bouts of Clinical Depression. In each case I experienced life-saving medical intervention, plus the ‘over and above’ ministration of the ‘Great Physician’ Jesus. On the two occasions of physical illness, clinicians expressed surprise at my outcomes, and with my second bout of depression, the practice of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy was strongly aided by my Meditation on Bible promises.

(C) I don’t heal, Jesus does. A young woman approached me after a church service and asked: “Are you healing today?” A friend nearby correctly commented: “Well Jesus certainly is!” I was feeling a bit below par, and hadn’t brought my olive oil with me. But I laid hands on her painful knees (with her permission and in view of other people), prayed in Jesus’ Name, and off she went. Weeks later she called out to me when casting her polling vote where I was one of the poll clerks, saying “By the way, my knees are fine now!”

(D) What role does Faith play? An essential part. Even Jesus struggled in his home town to heal more than a few people, because they did not believe who he said he was. But faith on the part of the seeker is sometimes less important. Jesus healed the man lowered through a hole in the roof on the strength of his friends’ faith. The demonized boy who was brought to Jesus’ disciples by his father was in no condition to believe in Jesus, and the father had so little he cried out “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” The disciples who had proved unable to help the son was roundly scolded by Jesus, because they were the ones who should have been exercising faith. ‘Believing Jesus’ is the faith we need to employ; it does not grow by trying to work it up. When we enlarge our vision of God and test his promises, just a ‘mustard seed’ of belief will move mountains. I wrote my book “A Socially-distanced Healing Ministry” to encourage believers to immerse themselves in the healing miracles and thereby enlarge their vision and expectation of God.

(E) There is more than one way to administer Healing in Jesus’ Name. I have attended divine healing meetings, large and small, watched several practitioners, read a good many books, and studied online articles and videos. This practice has been going on for centuries!

So, what approaches work?

(1) Prayer is the first resort for all needs and crises. In the Gospels people begged Jesus to heal their loved ones, and some clung to him for their own healing. Jesus taught the disciples to…well…pester God till he answers! Prayer is the only way when you are separated from the needy person. When I pray for a person’s healing, it is not a forlorn cry; I first remind God that he sent Jesus to the cross to bear our sins and our sicknesses away, and I also remind him that Jesus promised his disciples would do ‘greater things’.

(2) The ‘Command-control’ approach is so-termed by Francis Macnutt (RC priest). It is best seen in Acts chs 3 and 14, where the apostles bade the crippled men to be healed, or declared them healed by Jesus Christ (Acts ch 9). They spoke as if they themselves were Christ; they didn’t pray to him. They were following what Jesus had sent them out to do in the Gospel narratives, and in the Commission they received from him before he ascended. I tend to use this approach when I am convinced of the sufferer’s strong faith.

(3)The ‘Laying-on-of-hands’ This is the common approach used throughout scripture for commissioning for service and administering gifts and healing. (There was a ‘fad’ some years ago where leaders would ‘hover’ their quivering hands over the person’s head; and it is sometimes asked of congregations to hold out their hands forward when the minister is commissioning a worker). Some practitioners lay a hand on the painful area of a person’s body while praying, sometimes addressing the body part/organ to return to the Creator’s designed function. (Needless to say, this demands permission from the recipient and a righteous motive in the practitioner, especially where sexual feelings can be aroused. And in a place when another responsible person can respond if help is called for).

(4) Anointing. Olive oil was long-believed to have healing properties, but when church leaders are instructed in James’ letter to anoint for healing, it is a type of ‘sacrament’ by which, when received in obedience and faith, imparts spiritual power and grace (similarly as when – in many nonconformist churches – ordinary tap water and ordinary bread and grape juice bring blessing when received in faith and obedience during Baptism and Communion). Since Covid-19 ‘lockdowns I have been leading some groups in ‘guided self-anointing’, with one or two healings being reported. And the Communion Service is a most helpful setting for healing prayers. I attended a seniors’ meeting where a lady asked the leader if he knew of someone who would pray for her healing; the answer came “I know a man who can” and I was called alongside. I arranged a home communion with the elderly lady whose knees were “locked up”. At the close of the brief service I prayed, laying hands on her knees (with her permission). A couple of days later, she telephoned me to say that her knees were unlocked and she was walking freely; and her companion, whom I knew, confirmed it

(5) Falling under the Holy Spirit’s power. This often happens when Healing Evangelists pray with power for healing, and sometimes Deliverance (exorcising demons). The sufferer may lose balance and fall (hopefully into the arms of a strong ‘catcher’), an experience sometimes termed being ‘slain in the Spirit’ (wrongly, in my understanding of the Holy Spirit – who is the Life-Giver not a ‘slayer’!). It is often noticeable that the minister will push the forehead of the sufferer so that he falls from losing his balance (I am not sure what part the Spirit plays in that!)