It was one of those weeks. Restless nights when my mind would turn over the same prayer again and again. Coming to the Lord asking for healing for someone. Their situation isn’t life-threatening, but they need relief. They need to see some progress. And as I lay there night after night unable to sleep, I became more and more frustrated at my Lord. “Why aren’t you helping?” “I know you can make things easier.” “I doubt You will heal them. You can. But it doesn’t seem You will.” And therein lies the rub. I struggled with thinking I didn’t have the right to ask for the healing. And I struggled with doubt. I didn’t want to be disappointed. I didn’t really believe that Jesus would answer this prayer.
Before church Sunday morning, after another restless night, I told my husband my frustrations; that I was so tired of praying and it seemed to be falling on deaf ears. That it didn’t even feel like God cared or was listening. Pretty bad coming from a woman who writes a weekly Christian blog.
And then God. Anyone who tells you our God doesn’t have a sense of humor and a flair for the dramatic hasn’t experienced the same God I have. Sunday’s message at church? “Why We Pray for Healing.” Yep. No joke. Our youth minister was preaching, and it was powerful. (I encourage you to take time to watch the message. It starts at the 33-minute mark (https://christcc.online.church/)
Jesus healed in many ways in the Bible. With touch, saliva, spoken word, laying of hands; and several times Jesus healed someone without even being in their proximity. But no matter how He healed, He healed with love and compassion.
In Luke 8:43-48 we read: “Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. Then Jesus asked, ‘Who touched me?’ When all denied it, Peter said, ‘Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you.’ But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.’ When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
This woman’s faith allowed her to receive the healing power of Holy Spirit. But the healing isn’t the whole story. Jesus could have just kept walking, but He didn’t. Jesus knew who touched Him. But He stopped and drew attention to the woman. Why? A woman with her condition would have been shunned by society; labeled an outcast an unclean. Would anyone believe that she was healed? Would she have been accepted back into society? Jesus didn’t just heal her physically, he restored her in every way. He gave her the opportunity to share her healing. And He called her “Daughter.” Jesus publicly declared that she was not just ritually clean, but a fully loved and accepted daughter of God.”
And then there is the story of the leper in Mathew 8. “When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
What is the one thing people would never do to a leper? Touch them. Yet that is the first thing Jesus did. Before He uttered a word, He touched him. The Son of God showed the world that this man was loved and accepted. A man healed by his faith and the power of Jesus.
Oh, how I wanted to have that depth of faith. That absolute trust to be completely vulnerable and pray with abandon and command healing. I was stuck. I hadn’t moved from the intellectual belief in healing to faith in healing. I had lost my awe and wonder of God’s ability to heal ALL things and ALL people. I got stuck in the truth that not every healing prayer is answered as we wish. But that doesn’t mean the power to heal is any less certain.
The same power that lived in Jesus – the Holy Spirit – lives in us. The same power Jesus used to heal; He has given us to heal others. Healings are real. Healings still occur all over the world. Miracles happen every day. But we must believe. We must live Hebrews 11:1: “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
We must come to the throne of healing with childlike wonder and awe. With the deep-seeded knowledge that our God loves to heal and to equip His children to heal in His name. We must let go of unforgiveness and doubt. We must not only embrace the power of the Holy Spirit but harness it for the Glory of God. Holy Spirit isn’t content to live a quiet life inside of us. He is waiting to be dispatched, to be used, to charge into a fallen world and demonstrate the power of God though healings and miracles.
At the end of the service, as we came together in prayer and people gathered at the front of the church, I took my husband’s hand. “Pray for _____ now!” I told him. And as we did, tears rolled down my face; I stifled sobs. Because in that moment, God healed my doubt. He erased my fears of disappointment or inadequacy. He reminded me of the power He placed in this daughter’s heart. I know that healing will come for the person on my heart. I don’t know what that will look like, but I know for certain it will come. And I am thanking God for that healing now. Because that is what faith looks like.
And just for the record, for the first time in weeks, I slept like a baby.
Wow!! Thank you, Rhonda!!
💕