Page Title

1 Christian healing is reasonable, when seen from the point of view of love:

St John's Gospel begins with these words that has been translated from Greek: "In the beginning was the word" and to the Greek speaking people word would have meant reason, truth, sound logic.

Healing was seen by the Gospel writers as being a sign of the Kingdom of God coming to the earth. Then logically Kingdom of God is where the rules of the Kingdom apply. There are just two gaol setting rules [NIV Mark 12] One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. It must be heavenly to live in a community where everyone around you loves you just as you would like to be loved. As Christians, we know that to get there we must set the way by loving others, even those who are our enemies, as Jesus loved others - fully without exceptions or conditions.

So it is reasonable to pray expressed in everyday language, "Our Father, that exists in heaven, may your Kingdom of love come on earth, just as it is in heaven".

When a Christian - seeking to be in heaven while still on earth - meets someone in need of healing, it is reasonable to assume that compassion is expressed. This expression of compassion could be called Christian healing.

Here are some examples of these expressions:

1.1 A girl has the feeling that no one loves her, and she barely can live in a world where she experiences no love. In this state of fear, her mind gets fixed in short thoughts concentrating on how she can survive this oppressive condition. She keeps expressing this feeling in more and more extreme ways. At last she tells a Christian, who asks her, "Can I pray with you." Having had permission the Christian asks God to show her love. After the event, the girl feels different, and with a relaxed mind set on seeing love around her, does so. In this way, she has been saved from the extremes of self harm and finds love that changes the rest of her life. Thanks be to God for her healing.

When people are living in a state of fear, their mind gets locked into short thoughts about survival. Flight or fight, dominate before being dominated, disengage with all people that don't submit to you and so on. The opposite is to live in a state of love. In this condition the mind set gets freed up. In this condition, we can see options that otherwise were overlooked in the immediacy of demanding satisfaction. We can part-take in "brain storming" where the rule is that no one's ideas are judged as the people sit round looking for fresh options. This being free from criticism gives licence to think "beyond the box". Our

2 Abuses to be avoided in healing offered in the name of an exclusive Christianity:

In the past people have preached the prosperity gospel, indicating that God's blessings are only for those that are not excluded from his love. This exclusiveness came up between the believers who belonged to the Pharisees and the Paul with Barnabus at the Council in Jerusalem. [NIV Acts 15] Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.

. . Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."

In these ways, Christianity has learnt to avoid exclusivity. Please be very cautious if you are asked to do anything that amounts to a condition (not just circumcision) of becoming acceptable to the people who want to offer prayers for you - especially

mind has greater abilities than we might expect to be creative, imaginative, open to relate in love to others and form secure relationships. That prayer invites the girl to get into a new mind set, and her world looks very different.

1.2 A boy knows that others use his mistakes to tell him that he is the sort of boy that will grow up to be in trouble all his life. The boy becomes notorious and uses it to intimidated others. The boy believes what he has been told and gets trapped in this state. He has done things that led many people to seek revenge - want vengeance on him. He lives in fear.

After getting into a particular problem, this tough boy meets a lady that shows she cares about him. He tests her to see if she will absorb his anger, or whether she will retaliate in like manner. If she had reacted, he would have been master in the relationship. But this lady is a Christian and she genuinely cares and in her vulnerability she shows compassion. The boy tells her about his vulnerability. She asks him if she can pray with him. When he has given his permission, she prays to God asking that this boy will be forgiven and be able to start a new life. The boy feels challenged. He goes out and talks to someone in a real way, resisting his normal feelings nor seeking to intimidate. To his amazement he finds he is accepted, no longer excluded. Thanks be to God for his healing.

So it is reasonable to pray for forgiveness. The effect can be enormous for the person and perhaps even more so for the community that the person has lived in.

1.3 A woman achieves a position of managing people. The woman has experiences of other people disliking her dominating them. At school she learnt all about bullying. In this managerial position, she thinks that people under her management are plotting her downfall. She seeks to dominate. She enforces it by attacking and punishing any person that has talents that has the potential to embarrass her. Some get excluded and loose their job.

In time, she finds it necessary to 'up the game' to centre all the attention on her - so that she becomes more confident in her domination. Some of her staff would say that she is self-righteous and bullies those that don't follow her.

Eventually this woman turns to her spiritual advisor. Both are Christians. The woman talks about demonstrations of her great successes. In the end she says that she is left with two options, get promotion or give up. She says, "Where is God leading me?"

The spiritual advisor takes this as the opportunity to pray and asks God to help this women to become a servant to her people. If the woman had accepted the pray, it would have changed her life, but if she doesn't. Nor does she hear the answer from God, so she may feel that the prayer for healing didn't work for her. She had hoped so much, that the disappointment undermined her idea that she should prosper because she is a Christian.

Not all healing prayers deliver the results that's expected. Sometimes the result exceeds the pray request. That's not to be a challenge to the reasonableness of God, but we should accept that God's reasons are sometimes beyond our understanding at the time. One barrier to healing is that the person is locked into resentment and needs first to achieve forgiveness.

for healing.

In the past there have been different exclusiveness, and very sadly it has lead to inter-denominations conflicts. The investigations of the mass genocide in Rwanda between two denominations has shown the religious leaders were complicit in each side of the violence.

If in any doubt, please ask the CMH for guidance.

Jesus did not test people that he came across, before offering to heal them:

[NIV Luke 17] Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."