Introduction:

In our church, we have a prayer chain, and a list of people for whom we pray monthly. This spring, I have been conscious of the number of people who need prayer for different ailments - for bronchitis, cancer, tendonitis, difficulties in giving birth, and so on.

So I decided that it would be appropriate to review the ways that we pray for healing of our friends, our relatives, and ourselves.

Teaching Points:

1. My Experience of Healing

My slipped disk at age 21 to 25. Praying with friends.

The woman with the arthritic hands.

Bishop Reed, at the Bishop's Conference on the Holy Spirit in London - said a girl came up blind, went back seeing.

Read books, as I took part in healing services here at St. Mary's, with The Order of St. Luke. Can't recount many things that happened - we were and are a quiet bunch.

baby brought to Canon Royle

"Marjorie's" "water on the knee".

Healing - a quiet affair. We would pray for and with our children...Twisted knee from skiing, a cold...

workshop with Bill and Gwen Pritchard. George McMurtry healing of left side paralysis.

2. God wants to make you well

It's God's will to heal.

I am come that you might have life, and that you may have it more abundantly. The enemy comes to steal and destroy.

Illness not from God, and not welcome.

Jesus healed "He had compassion on them."

The friends of the paralytic that was let down through the roof had faith.

On the other hand, he couldn't do many miracles in a town because of their lack of faith.

Say to mountain, "be moved", and not doubt...

3. The Prayer of Faith

We pray in faith for Jesus to enter our lives.

We can pray in faith for the removal of fear.

The prayer of faith will raise the sick (James 5)

When you stand praying, forgive.

Consider the size of our faith - it can be small.

Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It starts small, but grows to a large size...so we look for evidence of healing started.

We thank God for what we can see with our eyes, and thank him in faith for what we see through our faith.

4. Pray the Prayer of Faith

Pray, believing in God Himself - he is there, he wants to heal, he can heal - so trust Him.

How much faith does the person need to have? Just enough to ask for others to pray. It's the church, as represented by the elders, that has the faith for that person.

Pray at intercessions, and after the service.

Introduction

In our church, we have a prayer chain, and a list of people for whom we pray monthly. This spring, I have been conscious of the number of people who need prayer for different ailments - for bronchitis, cancer, tendonitis, difficulties in giving birth, and so on.

So I decided that it would be appropriate to review the ways that we pray for healing of our friends, our relatives, and ourselves.

Teaching Points:

1. My Experience of Healing

When we were new to the faith, four of us sat on the floor in the living room, and decided to ask God for one thing each. We wanted to see if God would and could heal us.

I had a back problem - a slipped disk. It gave me pain on the back of my right leg. At the age of 21, I had to spend three weeks in bed, while studying for my final exams at university. The pain left, but there was always that hint that something was wrong.

We prayed, and I am happy to say that there was never a return of the problem, at least until this spring. Now I notice the pains after sitting for a while, and then getting up. It made me start thinking of healing again. Had I forgotten how to pray?

We learned something about healing in London, Ontario, and continued some of that here at St. Mary's.

Once, in London, we were praying for an older woman with arthritic hands. They were gnarled and twisted in. We prayed, and nothing happened at first. Then a man took her aside and talked with her about anything that she had to forgive. She came back, we prayed, and I saw her hands open right up. She was delighted!

We helped organize a conference, called the Bishop's Conference on the Holy Spirit. Bishop Reed was our speaker, and he waxed eloquent about the missions he ran in small towns near Kingston, Ontario. Someone asked him from the floor if he had seen a significant healing. He said, simply, that a girl came up to the front for prayer, blind, went back seeing.

People have prayed for healing here at St. Mary's, and continue to pray. Things happen, people are touched, but we are a quiet bunch, and we don't always hear about the results.

Once, a woman brought a baby to Canon Royle to ask for prayers for healing. He took the baby in his arms, prayed over him, and gave him back to his mother. Later, she said he was healed.

Once, we prayed for a friend for "water on the knee". Six years later, she was visiting and said that she had been healed shortly after those prayers!

Healing has been a quiet affair for me. We would pray for and with our children. We would pray for colds and bruises when they were younger. When they were older, our daughter had an injured knee heal very quickly after prayer. Our son was on his feet days after tearing an Achilles tendon, thanks to the prayers of many of his friends in Youth With a Mission.

Prayer is part of our life, and I am sure many of you pray for health and wellness.

So last month I decided to go to a two-morning workshop given by Bill and Gwen Pritchard at a church on the south shore. It was good to hear how people experienced in this ministry are doing. This couple team is based in Ottawa. They told stories of their healing and preaching ministry, in Europe, and across Canada, including the north.

They were especially excited to relate the story of George McMurtry. George came with a group from Bangor, Ireland, to a mission that they were holding in Toronto. George had been hit by a stroke, and his left leg and left arm were paralyzed. They were in an audience of 1500 people, when everyone was asked to place their hands on a part of the body they wanted healed. George dragged his left hand and arm up, using his right hand. Then, wonder of wonders, he got up and went to the front. He was overjoyed! So were the people who came with him. They couldn't believe it! Nor could I - I bought the video to have a look for myself. 1

This talk is a review of some things that we know about healing, and also a confession that there are many things that we don't know.

We don't know, for example, why healing sometimes doesn't happen, in spite of our most earnest prayers. For example, we've prayed for "Simon", who has been confined for years to a wheelchair. He once sang with me in the choir - we were the tenor section. But that particular form of multiple sclerosis has taken its toll on his body, and there he sits valiantly. I know that he and "Joyce" have prayed about this over the years.

But we can be inspired by times when healing actually does happen. About twenty years ago, I spoke with a man who looked a bit wobbly, but he told me that he, too, had been confined to a wheelchair by MS. At a service for healing, he got up and came forward. He was still walking, after two years.

2. God wants to make you well

Perhaps the first principle is that God generally wants to heal us!

It's God's will to heal.

Jesus said, "I am come that you might have life, and that you may have it to the full." (John 10:10b) "Abundantly" it says in the King James Version.

God wants us to enjoy life, especially life with him, and life in community with others. He told us to "remain in his love" (John 15:10), for example, "so that my joy may be in you, and so your joy may be complete."

This notion continued into the church: "Dear friend", writes John. "I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well." (3John 2)

"The thief", on the other hand, said Jesus, "comes only to steal and kill and destroy." (John 10:10a) "Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour". (1Peter 5:8) "The reason the Son of Man appeared was to destroy the devil's work." (1John 3:8)

However you feel about speaking of the devil, illness is not God's wish for us. He is a loving God, who in his time, would love to heal every ill in response to our prayers. Illness is not from God, and it is not welcome. Illness reduces life. God increases life. And he may be increased through the work of his servants in praying for people and combatting illness.

"Who sinned", they asked, pointing to a blind person, "that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." God didn't send the blindness. It happened, that's all - and Jesus used it to give God glory. Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud, put it on the man's eyes, and sent him to wash the mud off. "So the man went and washed, and came home seeing." (John 9:1-7)

A large part of Jesus' ministry was healing. It says in the Gospel of Matthew that he taught in the synagogues, preached about the Kingdom of God, and healed every disease and sickness among the people." (Matthew 4:23).

When Jesus healed, the Gospels frequently say that "He had compassion on them."

A man with leprosy, a dreaded skin disease, came to Jesus. "If you are willing, you can make me clean," he said. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched the man. "I am willing," said Jesus. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was healed. (Mark 1:40-41)

"Do you want me to heal you?", he said in effect. "Of course I do!" "I must do the will of him who sent me." (John 9:4) And He showed us that God our heavenly Father is a most generous father, longing to welcome his children home.

Moreover, he trusted the ministry of healing to his disciples. He sent out seventy-two followers to the towns and villages, to "heal the sick who are there and to tell them, 'The Kingdom of God is near you.'" (Luke 10:9)

One day Peter and John were on their way to church when they were accosted by a lame beggar seeking money. "We don't have money," they said, "but what I have I give you. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." And he helped him up.

There was no wondering if God wanted to heal. It was a natural part of life. God's will, for them and for us, is generally to heal.

There were a few places where Jesus couldn't heal people, however. At his home town of Nazareth, for example, "he could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them." (Mark 6:5). Then it says, "he was amazed at their lack of faith."

So generally healing is connected to faith - certainly, Jesus and the disciples knew he could heal. But Jesus needed to teach the meaning of faith. Once he pointed to a mountain, and said, "if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." And he qualified this - therefore, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:23)

So the prayer of faith consists in believing that God wants to act, and will act. It means saying the words, then expecting that God will respond positively.

Sometimes, we'll end a prayer with, "if it be thy will." That may be a pious gesture, but too often it is an expression of untrust, an escape clause. God's will is generally to heal, as shown by the Gospel narratives. Twenty-six times Jesus is shown healing single persons, and ten times he is pictured as healing groups of people.

It's generally not God's will that you will be left with a disease.

I say generally, because sometimes you can get a sense that you shouldn't pray anymore, but that you should release someone. That's one of the puzzles in prayer, and it's been known to happen. But it's not a general rule.

3. The Prayer of Faith

Praying in faith is a learned mode of prayer. It takes some thinking to get the concept. By your will, you believe God is willing to act, and will act in some way. You don't know how he will act, and you can't tell when, but you put your trust in his character.

It seems like a truism - often we pray, but how often do we pray expectantly?

Hebrews 11:1 puts it in a pithy way - "faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."

As a rule, someone, somewhere, has to have faith in a situation where prayer is to be effective. Sometimes it is the person who needs the healing. She may ask someone to pray, and that person may or may not have faith that the prayer is effective. But yet God can work through this.

More often, other people have to have faith for the one who is sick. When you are ill, it's often too hard to believe God's promises and his care. That's why we have a church community, so we can support one another in prayer.
"Today, I'll have faith for you; tomorrow, you can have faith for me, when I am weak."

Remember the paralytic that was brought to Jesus for healing - it was the friends of the paralyzed man that had enough faith and perseverance to let him down through the roof of the meeting hall!

Francis MacNutt, in his book called "Healing", tells of a situation in which no one in particular had faith. A priest was leading a group of college students on a retreat. He wanted to show them how to endure low times in their lives, when their faith was low. By way of an imaginative introduction, he imitated a faith healer, preaching on healing by faith, even though he didn't believe in it. Then he gave a fake altar call, and was happy to see about thirty students come forward. He was going to pray for them, and when they weren't healed, he would say, "See! You were fooled! You are looking for miracles. Our faith is not like that - it is an assent to God's truth, simply because he said it."

So he went down the line, aping Oral Roberts, whom he had seen on TV. "In the Name of Jesus, be healed!" he proclaimed in a loud voice. "And do you know what?", he said to Francis MacNutt. "They were all healed! You could explain the healing of headaches by the power of suggestion. But one boy with his arm in a sling went back to his pew waving his arm! It spoiled the whole point of my sermon!"

I think God has a sense of humour! 2 (MacNutt, p. 131)

Now our faith is perhaps more complex than a simple assent to God's revealed truth. We might have to chew it over, and worry about it, before accepting it. We may have to try it and test it in our own experience.

Faith is, for many, the result of trying something and seeing it work.

For example, consider the beginning of one's adult life as a Christian. You consider Jesus, listen to the Bible readings and preaching, observe others, and then say to yourself, "This is for me." With a simple prayer, you ask him into your life, to become your Saviour and Lord. Or you affirm that he is there, since the day you were baptized.

And you believe he has come in the minute you ask Him to. You thank him for his presence, his forgiveness, his love for you. You may feel nothing at first, but later, you sense his forgiveness, his acceptance, his love for you. Looking back, you wonder how you could have gotten along without Him.

The first step was to believe he was there; later, you felt by sight, by intuition, in your spirit, that he is indeed there. I know - it happened to me.

Just as God can touch our spirits, so he can touch our minds and bodies.

For example, our minds. Sometimes we are afraid. Afraid of the future. Afraid of a disease. Anxious. "My peace I leave with you," says the Lord, "My peace I give unto you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid." (John 14:27)

Paul writes to Timothy, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2Timothy 1:7)

"Love casts out fear." (1John 4:18)

And so we pray, "Father, I thank you that I don't have to be afraid. I now believe that by your power, your love is sending my fear out the door. I praise you for the soundness of mind that I am drawing on and will continue to draw on, until old things are passed away and all things have become new." 3 (Glennon, p. 69)

It may be hard for a fearful person to pray this; often, it is up to others to pray it for him.

4. Praying for the Sick

In James 5, we are given instructions as follows:

"Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up."

"If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." (James 5:14-16)

Now "the elders" represent the church community, since they are leaders in that community. The oil is something that we have available, and can be any type of vegetable oil. In our church, it is blessed by the Bishop for this purpose once a year, on Maundy Thursday.

The only faith that the sick person must muster is to call on the elders - to ask for prayers for healing. Others, as represented by the elders, can have faith for him.

Amongst the elders described by James, nothing hinders their prayers - there is forgiveness of sins, and openness between the members of the church. There is righteousness among them -right living, and a sense of living forgiven by both God and man.

Forgiveness seems to be part of the prayer of faith. Right after Jesus taught about the faith to move mountains, he said, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." (Mark 11:25)

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus said the same thing, as part of the Lord's Prayer - "Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive everyone who sins against us." (Luke 11:4)

So to pray effectively for healing, we must stand as a church believing, and as a community in harmony, forgiving and having been forgiven.

If your children have been mean to you, forgive them.
Holding a grudge will not help them, and will definitely hurt you and hinder your prayers.

If your parents have been mean to you, forgive them.
Holding a grudge will not help them, and will definitely hurt you and hinder your prayers.

If your boss, or your pastor, your in-laws or outlaws are getting you down, let it go. It's not worth it.

And then together we'll be able to pray for healing, and see changed lives as a result of our prayers.

God wants us to do this, as a normal part of our lives. He wants us to pray, and stand praying forgiven. He wants us to ask him, so that He may be glorified in our lives, and the Kingdom of God spread through us,and throughout us, His people.

5. Looking for Evidence

There are many reasons why this is a hard command - to forgive, to love, to dare to pray.

Our faith is imperfect, our prayers are dull and formal, often mere words.

But in at least a small way we are asked to believe in prayer, and, on the foundational experience of answered prayer, to grow in faith.

And if the Kingdom of God is among us, it can start as a seed - a grain of mustard seed - and then grow into a mighty tree. In the same way, our seed of faith can grow into a profound conviction that God can and will heal.

And if healing is part of the Kingdom of God, then healing too, can grow. In one story, Jesus described the growth of the Kingdom as a growning blade of wheat - "first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head." (Mark 4:28)

So in praying for healing, with our limited faith, we look for evidence that the healing has started,and give God thanks for what we see by sight, and we also thank him for what we can see only by faith.

Canon Jim Glennon of St. Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, Australia, cites the example of a couple, whom he calls Mark and Dorothy. They have three daughters, and an adopted son, Graeme. They were a happy, united family, but Graeme had developed rounded shoulders. These got worse as he grew older, and a lump appeared in the upper part of his back. A specialist said that this was caused by several collapsed vertebrae, and there was nothing he could do for Graeme.

Mark and Dorothy had read about healing, but they had never encountered a mountain as big as this, and by comparison their faith seemed so small! But they believed what they had read, and said to themselves, "God has promised, and we are calling on him. We are praying the prayer of faith, and if healing does not come right away, it will come gradually."

At first, nothing appeared to be happening in response to their prayers. But they were not discouraged - they just went on believing. After some time, they thought they could see some marginal improvement. 'As small change was added to small change, the improvement became more obvious. So they continued for three whole years, believing for healing and returning thanks to God for the on-going improvement.'

'By the end of that time, their boy had grown completely straight. He subsequently finished his education..., married, and had his own children. Anyone meeting him today would not know that he had once been grossly deformed.' 3 (Glennon, p. 20)

6. Pray the Prayer of Faith

To pray the prayer of faith takes practice. In the end it comes down not to faith in prayer, nor in faith itself, nor in any technique, but faith in God himself. And when we've prayed, having done all we can, we wait to see what will happen.

For example, I mentioned my back. I would pray something like,

"Heavenly Father, I know that you have touched me in the past. I praise and thank you for that. Please forgive me for any lack of trust in you. Forgive me for any discord or resentment that may be in my life, and help me to deal with it. Release me from any fear of back pain or slipped disk. Give me wisdom in my physical exercising. I pray that you touch my back anew, and mend anything that is out of order, especially in my lower back and spine. Thank you for your hand of healing on me, and for my friends who pray with me. I accept your healing presence with my whole heart."

How much faith do you need? Just enough to ask for others to pray. It's the church, it's you and me, who have faith to believe that God is here, and real, and will touch the sick person, and heal them.

- First, we pray, believing that God is really there.
- Then we remember what God has done.
- We ask him to heal the person.
- Then we thank him for answering our prayer.

But maybe before it all, we need to forgive others in our heart, and to ask forgiveness of the hurts that we have dealt to others.

So we'll go on with the service, with prayers and offerings of ourselves, and to the penitential part where we can ask forgiveness. Then we'll say the intercessions, as we usually do, and close the service with more prayers and a hymn.

There will be a moment in the intercessions to say a prayer for a special need.

If anyone would like further prayer, come back into the quiet church after the service, and I'll pray with you.