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"We are not ministering salves to sores; we are ministering love to suffering people. It is Jesus Christ living within us, who has perfected our humanity, who is ministering to suffering people…. This means that all methods are ours. We build hospitals, we train doctors and we train nurses - all in God's image. Yet, we believe in the supernatural. So we pray, and the natural and the supernatural come together. It is not either / or; it is both / and."
Therefore, this is the focus of our Healing Service - the Ministry of love, through prayer and action, to suffering people, who come asking for God's help.
Some people come regularly or irregularly asking for prayer, others may be visiting Auckland for a short period of time and "happening" to see that we have a Healing Service, come in to join us. (In God's plan however, we believe that there is no such thing as a coincidence, and that anyone attending the service, has been brought there by God, for a reason!)
Does the mention of a Healing Service bring to your mind the "American model" (which is the only one to which most of us have had any exposure,) with a larger-than-life TV evangelist? A huge service of thousands of people, with a lot of noise, bustle and razzmatazz, perhaps? If so, then let us assure you right away, that nothing could be further away from that than the Healing Service we hold. Our service is a quiet reflective service. It is a place of loving and prayerful concern for others, where the dignity and privacy of everyone is respected and maintained. It is a place for the healing of the body, mind, soul and spirit. It is a quiet oasis at the beginning of the week. It is a place to have your inner resources renewed and strengthened for the week ahead.
2. Biblical context / Instructions We believe that we have a strong Biblical basis for this Ministry of healing. Primarily, we have of course, the example of Jesus himself who believed that this was an important part of His Ministry as we can see from the many gospel accounts of His healing Ministry. No-one who asked him for healing was ever refused. In many cases, Jesus Himself approached people to heal them, they did not always have to approach Him. In His commission to the 12 and later the 70, disciples, he instructed them to preach the gospel and to heal the sick.
"Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." Luke 9: 1- 2 (NKJV)
"After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them out two by two, …heal the sick there, and say to them The kingdom of God has come near." Luke 10: 1, 9 (NKJV)
After His ascension, not only the 12 or the 70 disciples are recorded as healing people, but we can also see it was an accepted and even expected Ministry of the early church. Jesus' commission is still relevant to us today - which means that we are still under instruction to preach the gospel and to heal the sick. With such clear instructions from Our Lord himself, the question is not "why should any Christian community have a Healing Ministry?" Rather, the question should be "why would any Christian community not have a Healing Ministry?"
The only pattern we have of a Healing Service, comes from the Epistle of St James, who wrote:
"Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." James 5: 13 - 15 (NKJV)
This is the biblical basis for praying for and anointing with oil which forms part of our Healing Service.
3. Healing Service During the service, we pray for people known to us. We also pray for some that may be unknown to us, who have left a request for prayer in our book of intercessions. It does not matter whether any or all of us know the person personally - all are known to God and held in the palm of his hand. We simply lift these people to God in prayer, asking him to bless them, to intervene in their suffering or illness, and we leave the rest to God. Also during the service, is a time where anyone can come forward for prayer or blessing, whether for themselves, or for someone known to them. The ministers prays with and for them, and bless them, while anointing them with oil. This pattern follows the outline laid out in the Epistle of St James. (See section 2 - Biblical context / Instructions)
When we mention people in our intercessions, we do not name their problems. This is for two reasons. Firstly, it maintains confidentiality, and respects the privacy of the person involved. Many people would not want their problems to be "aired in public" - even during a Healing Service. Secondly, it ensures that we are focusing on the person and raising them, rather than their problem, to God.
In her book "The Healing Light", Agnes Sanford found she had difficulty praying for healing for people when she was not in their presence. She records a conversation she had with a lady Minister on this subject:
"I can help them when I'm with them, but my prayers from a distance don't seem to result in healing at all."
"Oh my dear, you're seeing them sick", cried the beautiful old minister.
"What do you mean?", I asked puzzled. "I'm not seeing them at all, I'm just thinking of them. And, of course, they're sick, or I wouldn't be praying for them."
"Yes you are seeing them," she replied patiently. "When you think of someone you always see the person in your mind. If you really believe he's going to be well, you see him well.". "…When you pray for someone, you must learn to see him well."
4. For what can we pray for Healing?When we mention healing, most people will tend to think first of physical healing from illness or disease. However, we also need to remember it is not only our bodies that can be sick or damaged. We can also be ill or damaged in mind, spirit or soul. It may be past memories that feel like an open sore, anger with another person, or unrepented sin that prevents us from coming in to God's presence. Anything that makes us less than whole and complete in any way, is an area in which prayer for healing is appropriate. In her book "Chasing the Dragon" that tells of Jackie Pullinger's missionary Ministry to the Triad gang members in Hong Kong's Walled City, she tells of many people who were healed from their addictions through the power of prayer.
One former heroin addict speaking of being healed from his addiction, says:
Our creator God is not limited to just physical healing, we must never forget that He can heal anyone of anything. So, although praying for healing of our physical bodies, is of course important, we should not neglect to pray for the healing of anything that makes us less than whole and complete in any way.
5. Are prayers for healing always answered?We believe that God always hears and answers our prayers, but we know that whatever our prayer, His answer is not always an unconditional "Yes". We know that sometimes God's answer to our prayers is "Yes", but we also know that sometimes his answer is "No", and sometimes it is "Not yet". Prayers for healing are no different in this respect to any other prayer.
We pray believing that God hears and answers all prayers, but we also admit that we do not know what that answer will be. We believe that God can do everything, but for reasons that we may not know, the answer may not be the one we expected or for which we hoped.
Does this mean that we should not pray for healing? No! We are instructed by Jesus himself to pray for one another and to heal the sick. We can only be obedient to that command, and pray. We cannot determine the outcome.
We also know that although some people are healed instantly when we pray for them, for many people healing prayer is more like a course of treatment, taken over time. Continuing and ongoing prayer often results in a gradual healing, which can be seen taking place over time.
What we do believe, is that when we pray for healing and blessing for a person, they do always receive a blessing from God. That may or may not be the healing that they requested - it may be that they receive healing for something completely different! Perhaps they are given the strength to endure the illness. Perhaps the healing prayer was for physical illness, yet the person receives healing for emotional or spiritual problems, sometimes that they have lived with for so long that they have grown accustomed to those hurts. We must always remember to allow God to be God, and to act in the way that He deems best - for until we take our place in eternity with Him, He alone knows the bigger picture. As St. Paul puts it:
If someone is healed after we have prayed for them, then we give the thanks and glory to God. We do not believe that we are in any way responsible, nor attempt to take the credit for the healing that has been received. In the same way, if someone is not healed, we cannot take the "credit" for that either.
Much has been talked and written about a lack of faith being the reason why some people are not healed in response to healing prayer. We can see from the Gospel accounts that Jesus healed people even when they and / or the people requesting the healing had little and sometimes no faith. It is a cruel burden to put on anyone, to tell them that the reason they have not been healed is that they, or those praying for them, did not have enough faith. We need to remember that we are not God. We need to remember that we cannot hope to fathom the mystery of his ways. As the prophet, Isaiah puts it:
We can only pray in obedience to Jesus' command, and leave the rest to Him.
Sometimes, despite prayers for healing, from many believing Christians, over a long period, the person for whom they are praying, dies. A contemporary example of this is, of course, David Watson. He himself had a large healing Ministry. When he was ill hundreds of people worldwide prayed for his recovery. Despite all of their prayers though, David died.
Does this mean that all of those prayers have been ignored by God? Does it mean that that person has not been healed? The answer is an emphatic "No"! In heaven, we will all receive God's perfect healing, as we are made whole and new in a way that is not possible in the mortal realm. The Bible promises that in heaven:
What could be a more glorious answer to prayer than that - perfect health and eternity spent in the presence of God. So, never be tempted to think that prayer for healing is in vain! It is not, ever!
6. Two final points…Sometimes, if we are not careful, we can become like spoiled children in our prayers, always asking for something, or demanding that we get our own way. While prayer for healing is necessarily a petition or a request to God, we must not forget to thank Him for the blessings, help and assistance that are received. This does not mean that we should stop praying for healing if someone has not been healed. It does mean that we should take time to see where God's hand is at work, and to thank Him for His limitless care and concern for us.
We need to remember that Jesus' primary Ministry, while He was here on earth, was to bring in the Kingdom of God, and to bring people into that kingdom- it was not to heal. His healing Ministry was a result of his love and care for all people. Healing, as with all of His miracles, was also intended to be a signpost towards the Kingdom of God, for everyone that witnessed them. Jesus is recorded as saying on many occasions that His miracles were a sign that the Kingdom of God had come near.
In the same way, any Christian Ministry of healing through prayer should point beyond actual healing, to God. It should be a way of lifting people into the presence of God, of making them aware of His limitless love for them.
Our goal, as Christians, should be to reflect some of God's light and love into the life of anyone for whom we pray. We are:
Copyright (c) 2006 Community of Saint Ita and Saint Fillan |
