Gift of Healing

[Joysong]

Dear Dominick,

We just need to be careful with the sheep dressed in lambs clothing. I do appreciate all your references and I am not trying to disagree for the sake of disagreeing. To quote Father Corapi, " We are in battle. good against evil" and we pray that we can recognize the enemy.

Your reply does not give us direction about what you are still believing. On one hand, it appears that you think this person is a wolf dressed as a lamb, and that you need to recognize your enemy, per Fr. Corapi’s quoted statement. OTOH, you may have agreed with the many good comments our posters have given you, but not given voice to it.

Just in case you are in the first mode of discerning the wolf, and not hearing any of us, it is good to check one’s own heart to be sure there is no chance of rash judgment, putting your own soul in jeopardy.

It looked as if this was a chance situation in your first post, that you happened to go to a charismatic meeting, and witnessed something very foreign to your understanding. Maybe you have gone on a regular basis and seen this person misuse the command for healing repeatedly. In that case, you need to go to the pastor or someone in authority.

Weigh carefully that many healings take place on a gradual basis, which is merely begun at the prayer service. The person prayed for does not leap up in miracle fashion like the lame beggar St. Paul cured. This would not be at all apparent to you, for you cannot know the end result, and is possibly the reason you were scandalized. I think you need to do some more research about this and obtain information about the many ways the gift is manifested, the spirituality of the person who is gifted by God to pray for healings, and your obligation if you think there is error and/or danger to the faithful.

Carole

 

[dsimo]

Thank you Carole for your (name removed by moderator)ut…you have enlightened me greatly about this issue. I think we need to be careful not to listen to the messenger but to the message as a general rule. I really have examined my conscious not to make a judgment on the person but on the action. I will keep an open mind to healing in the future. I pray that this person is healed through God.

God Bless you
Dominick

 

[johnq]

dsimo :tiphat:

This could be an example of “holy boldness.” Scripture promises God’s children that whatever they ask in My Name will be granted unto them. I believe the prayer leader had this verse in mind when he made the dramatic proclamation. This can be easily abused, but just as easily misunderstood. I think the key is listening to God’s prompting first before making any blanket statement. God requires courage in some instances and humility in others and prayer is the key to unlocking God’s desires in each situation.

Was this an abuse? Did God will such a statement? We do not know.

Here is an example of holy boldness exhibited by David in his epic battle verses Goliath.

1Sam.17

45] Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
46] This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down, and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
47] and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and he will give you into our hand.”

David was able to make a bold proclamation because he believed in God’s promises to Israel.

 

[dsimo]

To whom it may concern,

There has been enough explaining about healing? Let go and Let God.

Dominick

 

[springbreeze]

Dear friend

Most certainly people are healed, most certainly God uses the broken human instrument, but most certainly it is always God acting in the faith of humanity Who heals, it is always God who heals whether a person goes to a healing Mass and/or sees a doctor.

Whatever this person said or their motives, they are right, God will heal everyone, not necessarily of their physical diseases, perhaps more those of the spirit. Recall the Scripture of the man whom Jesus forgave his sins.

Believe, pray and hope.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[Joysong]

People are often helped by examples, and take personal wing from others. To glorify God, I trust that a story of my own witness will edify and inspire others to pray for healing.

My good friend and neighbor suffered from epilepsy. One day, she had a severe attack and fell down a flight of stairs. Her husband came to my door and asked me to go to the hospital and pray for her. She had suffered a concussion, lost her bodily functions (she had a diaper), and could not recognize anyone at all.

We were alone when I arrived, and of course, she was not even aware I was in her room. I simply prayed in silence and just kept vigil. Suddenly, she began to call out, “Jesus, help me — please, Jesus, help me!” She kept repeating this aloud and her desperate cry was deeply moving me in spirit. I had the sense that the Christ in her, was pleading to the Christ in me to do something.

After a few minutes of this, I realized that the Lord’s power within me could touch her and bring her healing, but having never done this before, I was holding back due to fear of offending God through presumption. But I could no longer ignore her cries. I just spoke to God asking Him to empower me for her sake, and quietly under my breath, gave the command to her, “In the name of Jesus Christ, be healed.”

Nothing happened, but she was quiet, so I left and went home. The next day, her husband came over and said she was released from the hospital, fully recovered. What if I had let my fears overrule my inspiration and failed to trust God?

Now, does that mean I have the gift of healing? Of course not. Am I a holy saint? Can I know for sure it was my prayer that helped her? Again, no, but I have stepped out in faith on a few other occasions with resulting healings that are documented. May I say, there is no set pattern to how God will lead us, nor how He will heal — the incidences are mostly different, teaching us not to rely on a “method” but on God!

I believe God often wishes to use a person(s) in whom His Spirit dwells, at special times of severe need, to minister to other helpless souls. We need to trust that it has nothing to do with our “holiness” or that we need to be walking saints. It is God who heals through the Body of Christ.

Some of you may remember the books written by Rev. Francis McNutt a number of years ago. He wrote to inspire the faithful to trust God and begin to offer prayers for others who truly need our help. He advocated that a group of faithful christians united in prolonged prayer for difficult cases, may sometimes prevail in obtaining healing. We ought not to fear stepping out, for God is the same today as 2000 years ago - compassionate toward the sick - but I think He wills to work through the Body of Christ, so that both pray-er and prayed-for may celebrate the goodness of God.



Carole

 

[Joysong]

Part II, from the previous post …

I wrote above to encourage our faithful to begin in small ways to pray for healing, sometimes accompanied by the united strength of the Body of Chirst. This could assume different forms, depending on how you sense that the Holy Spirit is leading you.

And now I hope to encourage those who disbelieve that God is able to heal through ordinary christians through the power of the Holy Spirit. In Mt. 13:58, we see that Jesus did not work many healings in His own native country, because the people did not have faith — faith that they could receive this healing through a seemingly ordinary townsman of theirs. In Lk. 4:27, Jesus remarked about their lack of faith, citing that there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus, yet not one of them was cleansed but only Naaman the Syrian.

I have been present in some situations where I could sense immediately that there was resistance and a block to faith, so I simply offered prayer, knowing nothing would result. I don’t really understand how this works, but Jesus always insisted on faith, and praised it when it was evident – you all know the pertinent scripture stories.

Perhaps we can see the quality of disbelief with some persons being unable to accept Special Ministers of the Eucharist. I have seen them move to the line of the priest to avoid these “unholy” ordinary people, whom they deemed as unfit to give them the Lord Jesus. Same thing in healing. People’s mindsets judge the person as one who is not godly enough, and are therefore incapable of bringing this wonderful gift of God’s love to man.

May all of us encourage these skeptics to realize that our Sovereign God indwells mere mortal men and uses them as channels of His all-powerful gifts. May we be open to Christ who has chosen to inhabit our battered tents of humanity, so that He, with our cooperation, can minister one to the other. This is a message that Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta emphasized most constantly.

Carole

 

[springbreeze]

Dear Carole

Beautiful. Your posts perfectly explains what I tried to say in my previous post and what a wonderful experience of God’s Love working in your faith and prayer.

In each Baptised soul that lives in the grace and love of God also then the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in him/her and that soul full of faith is an unworthy instrument of God, a temple, a living house of God.

My daughter’s name is Elizabeth, it’s meaning is ‘House of God’ I chose this name for her for it’s meaning, so that she will always remember that the Truine God lives in her whilever she remains in love and friendship with Him.

This all calls for faith. Some think faith is only given to some and not to others, but I believe the Lord desires all to live in this relationship with Him here on earth as well as in the afterlife. I believe He gives faith to all and we have the free will to choose when we know about Him, to choose faith. Faith is everything, once we begin to live in faith, we begin to live in Love and when we live in Love all things are possible, yes even God working in human faith curing the uncurable.

God Bless you Carole and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[Joysong]

Hi Teresa,

Beautiful. Your posts perfectly explains what I tried to say in my previous post and what a wonderful experience of God’s Love working in your faith and prayer.

Thank you a lot. I’m so glad you found beauty in them. My pure intention was to bring glory to God and inspire His faithful to deeper trust in this gift, so I was at a loss to understand why there was no feedback. In fact, I prayed for insight as to where I may have failed through not being able to better express this truth.

Your post was the catalyst for my inspiration to share, as I read your words:

You:

Most certainly people are healed, most certainly God uses the broken human instrument, but most certainly it is always God acting in the faith of humanity Who heals.

Truth is truth, and we rejoice whenever we see it echoed in kindred souls. Glory to God!



Carole