What Does the Bible Say About Healing Prayer?
A Strong Community, Faith and Time Are Required
The Letter of James says: “Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them…The prayer of faith will save the sick…” (Jas 5: 14-15 NRSV). It is important to note that Christian healing is always within the context of a community of fellow-believers, no one is expected to go it alone. Indeed, one can never expect the same results from a lone prayer as from one that is shared with family, neighbors and community.
Individualism Is Not Helpful
A strong community is needed for the sick to keep them from succumbing to fear, depression and doubt, as well as to care for their physical and material needs in time of illness. Loneliness and individualism place additional burdens on sick people, using up energy that could otherwise be released for healing.
The Prayer of Faith
Jesus often told people he healed that: “your faith has made you well” (see, for example: Mt. 8:5-13; Mk. 5:25-34). In most of the healing stories of the Gospels, Jesus asks people to believe that he can heal them. Faith in the ability of God to heal and the reality of the healing received is clearly an important ingredient for anyone wishing to be healed through prayer.
This Christian faith involves the absolute belief that God can and will heal those who call on him for help. It causes the petitioner to thank God for the result of prayer in the same breath as making the plea.
Christians believe that thanksgiving for the results of answered prayer is an important ingredient of any petition, especially related to healing, because it reminds the one praying that pleas to God are answered as soon as they are voiced, even if the results do not become visible at once.
God’s Healing is a Process
Although there are recorded instances of miraculous healing taking place instantly and completely, the more common experience is for healing to take place over a period of time, with faithful prayer continuing to be made both by the sick person and by his or her community.
Experienced prayer counselors advise people to look for small signs of healing each day and raise up thanks for each step along the way. This process of seeing the healing as a long-term event helps to build up faith, and also creates a positive attitude of mind, which contributes to the healing as well.
The Bible teaches that healing, health and wholeness are the will of God for all of creation and that illness is the result of the world’s fall, and is not a part of God’s plan. Christians believe that all human beings can have access to the healing power of God through prayer, especially when that prayer is made in faith that God will respond and in thanksgiving for the expected result of prayer. And that when a community of faith joins together in petitioning for the healing of a sick member God will surely heal, and in God’s good time the response of health and wholeness will be seen by all.
Source:
- Glennon, Jim. Your Healing Is Within You, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1978.
Healing Prayer in the Bible
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