Healing

10/2004

A Prayer of Jesus

I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will

YOUR QUESTION (No. 52)

When we need God's Healing for
ourselves or others how is this to be done?

You honor me with your requests. I only know to put our Lord's words before us, together with some related comments.

Matt.13
[15] For this people's heart has grown dull,
and their ears are heavy of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should perceive with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart,
and turn for me to heal them.'

I take this to mean that the Father does not heal those who do not perceive, hear, and understand the Word of Truth uttered by our Lord. These must exist if there is to be healing of any people or individual through an individual.

Matt.10
[1] And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity.
[8] Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay.

Our Lord had authority to heal in every way, and the disciples did also after he gave them authority.

Matt.17
[16] And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him."
[17] And Jesus answered, O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.
[18] And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.
[19] Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
[20] He said to them, Because of your little faith.

Faith is of the essence:

Mark.11
[24] Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

You can check out many references such as these for yourself. But I want to point out that all these events and utterances of the Lord took place during his earthly ministry, when the special case required that such gifts be manifest so that his testimony on the earth would not be in vain. People can say anything and may or may not draw others to them, but if one not only speaks but performs miracles of healing, that is sure to get a hearing! So those days are a special case. I find no evidence that our Lord intended even his disciples to have authority to heal after his Ascension, except perhaps in the very early times to strengthen their testimony as it had strengthened his. I say this because, when he came to deliver his Great Commission to them just before he left them, his commission was to preach, witness, and make disciples of all nations. He did not give them general authority to heal, as he did when he sent them out into the cities and villages of Israel..

Matt.28

[19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
[20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.

You see, there is no commission to heal. Mark 16:18 is an exception:

Mark.16
[18] they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

If you can digest the first part of that, then of course the last follows! No, this has been shown to be only a part of the Longer Ending of Mark, that was not part of the original work but was tacked on later. I do not accept it as a word of the Lord. It is wholly inconsistent with our Lord as he speaks to us from the bulk of the gospels.

You may not have noted, above, that I drew a distinction between a special case and the general case. It is my firm belief, based on my personal experience, that the above utterances of the Lord yet apply in some special cases, but not in general.

Let's speak of the general case briefly. If it were the general case that disciples everywhere need only seek and apply the gift of healing as did the early disciples, and if they were doing that and people in general were being healed thereby, would not everyone then rush to become disciples of Jesus so that they can heal and be healed? The doctors would soon be out of business. No need of Medicare. But the gospel would be defeated because it depends wholly on the Great Principle, and this easy healing would undermine any influence of this Principle. People would be believing for the sake of something in this life, not for the sake of a blessed eternal life in the Father' house! Therefore I long ago concluded that the gift of healing, in particular for physical and mental ills, is rarely given in this age and that in only special cases.

Now let us look at the special case. You ask, "how is this to be done?"

It is not done except one be given the authority to heal.

It is not done through prayer, to go by the example of our Lord. If one has been given the authority, then one must use that authority. That means, healing that is performed, in the special case, is done by command in the name of Jesus who gives the authority.

Only once in my life (I am now 78) have I seen or experienced this authority at work, and it is perhaps the pivotal moment in my whole discipleship experience. Nearly forty years ago I was a basket case, mentally and spiritually. I was utterly depressed and suicidal, because I was under attack by a demon. At one of the lowest points, alone in a woods, I found the authority, and the faith, to command Satan to be gone in the name of Jesus and never to return. He was out of there like a rocket, and he has never returned!

But I had tried the physicians and their prescriptions. These were a big help in the physical and mental area, but useless in the case of the spiritual malady.

When I am ill, I seek healing the same as others, through the normal means, which would seem like miracles to the people who gathered around Jesus! To do otherwise would be very presumptuous of me. We who are disciples of Jesus of Nazareth must endure the same ills as others, and we must seek healing in the normal way. Then we thank Him for healing us, for no matter how the healing comes, He does it!

There is, of course, no drug to apply for spiritual healing. Both the malady and the remedy are invisible, so it is difficult to demonstrate. There the case may be more general, that if, as Jesus counseled the Jews, we will perceive, hear, and understand the Word in our hearts, we can be healed at any time. The understanding is not difficult. It's that hearing part that's hard!

Matt.11
[25] At that time Jesus declared, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes;

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